Hamilton said Congress should focus on clawing back Trump’s tariffs and ending the war with Iran.

Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, who flipped deep-red Kansas for Democrats, said Sunday that he hopes to prioritize lowering costs for his constituents in the next Congress and that he would be “deeply disappointed” to spend two years investigating members of the Trump administration.

“The bigger priority for me, and I think for most people in America, especially people living paycheck to paycheck, is ‘please help us with the cost of living,’” Hamilton told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

Specifically, he said the new Congress should immediately focus on ending the war in Iran and “claw[ing] back tariffs policies.”

“If I spent the next two years — my first two years in the Senate — in investigations, I’d be deeply disappointed. I want to get to work helping the people in my state and helping the people across the country,” Hamilton said.

  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 hour ago

    It doesn’t have to be either/or. They’ve employed the “flood the zone” technique with their corruption, let’s do the same thing in reverse, but with investigations AND legislation. Keep these MAGAs busy reacting to one thing or another.

    It’s OUR country now, and WE set the agenda and the message, and MAGA will have to go along with it. This guy sounds like he’s just one of those old school cowardly loser Democrats who is still afraid of MAGA confrontation. He can sit on the sidelines and wait until we need him for a vote.

  • mcv@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    3 hours ago

    It doesn’t have to take two years. Don’t investigate everything, because that will take forever. Investigate the worst stuff and impeach him as quickly as possible.

    • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      24 minutes ago

      No, investigate everything. Hire a teams of good lawyers to deal with each investigation while different teams of experts work on legislation to solve other issues. Every time a team completes there solution, bring it to a vote and move to the next one.

      The federal fucking government can afford to hire lots of teams to each laser focus on individual jobs. Each one of them is critically important. Just keep the corpo-lobbyists out of it.

  • HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    9 hours ago

    I can kinda see where he’s coming from (assuming he’s being sincere).

    However, congress can focus on 2 things at once. They can and should do both.

  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    11 hours ago

    The thing to remember is that Congressional investigations in both houses take place in committee, not on the floor, and that committee assignments are often long-term commitments, fought over and worked toward over multiple terms, with the most powerful ones being given to people who have worked on them longest.

    What this guy is asserting doesn’t matter and won’t change anything. It’s hot air. He’s a new senator who will not get especially powerful committee assignments, and after this he sure as fuck won’t get anywhere near investigations.

    But I will add, this guy is a reminder of why Schumer and Jeffries need to go: if you can’t achieve, you can often block. This guy can’t block shit, especially if he gets assigned to something like the committee on office trash collection. But Schumer and Jeffries can, especially Schumer. They need to go.

    If you’re interested, the REAL committee to watch is House Oversight – the one already working the Epstein files investigation in spite of ongoing Republican efforts to shut it down and protect the perps – and the rep who will now be chair, Robert Garcia of California, is one of the reps who was telling Republicans on election night, “Lawyer up.” He’s already announced the investigations he will be prioritizing and has been working on all along as the ranking (minority) member: he’s hitting the ground running. And unlike the chair now, he’s not afraid of applying actual consequences. I suspect we might even get to see some action out of the Sergeant at Arms.

    We can, and will, do many things at once. It’s not that hard. Bad actors just made it seem that way.

  • MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    12 hours ago

    Huh, I would have thought the 1st priority would be shutting down ICE, releasing everyone and closing the concentration camps. Then the 2nd priority would be getting the people back who were sent to random countries they’ve never visited before.

  • DupaCycki@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    13 hours ago

    It’s been just a week, and already 3 democrats are publicly opposing any accountability for republicans, one of which is fucking Kamala Harris.

    It’s almost as if… No, it can’t be. It can’t, right?

    • MBech@feddit.dk
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      6 hours ago

      If it walks like an enemy of the people, and quacks like an enemy of the people…

    • Blibly@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      27
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      16 hours ago

      Seriously! Stop presenting this as either/or. It’s BOTH. No more excuses!

    • masterspace@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      11
      ·
      15 hours ago

      Fuck off with this naiive bullshit.

      They need to focus on cost of living and improving the lives of the average American first and foremost.

      Literally everything else is secondary and only possible if they do the first. This naiive we can do it all bullshit is why Democrats have repeatedly lost over the past several decades. It’s so fucking frustrating to watch people on the left learn literally zero lessons and keep pursuing secondary bullshit as if it’s a primary concern for anyone but themselves.

      • vagrancyand@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        41 minutes ago

        So fun fact, it would cost more money than the totality of all assets privately and publicly owned in the US to switch away from diesel overnight.

        Also a fun fact, without export tariffs on domestic production of oil (which would cut off the US from the international oil trade) there is no possible way to lower the cost of living for the average American without removing Trump or completely neutering his ability to wage war. The Latter is much harder than the former.

        Also a fun fact, unless the Iran war is stopped, there is no possible way to secure enough fertilizer to lower the cost of food in the US. Period. At all. There are no other sources of global fertilizer that could be secured.

        Also a fun fact, without an executive branch that is willing to carry out the will of congress, nothing congress can do will ever have any effect. Meaning we need Trump and Trump related sycophants out of office before anything can be done for the cost of living or improving the lives of the average American.

      • notfromhere@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        14 hours ago

        When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. When you’re bleeding out, stop the bleeding. Only then can you focus on healing. If you try to heal the damage done without stopping the cause of the damage you won’t get very far, chasing mess after mess.

  • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    15 hours ago

    Trump somehow manages to have like 10 different obscenities and acts of corruption running simultaneously, but 54 senators can figure out how to pursue two goals at once amongst them.

  • cruseo@piefed.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    102
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    19 hours ago

    If Democrats have any hope of winning the 2028 election, they need to learn how to walk and chew gum at the same time

    • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      45
      ·
      17 hours ago

      Instead of loudly investigating and quietly going about normal business, they should quietly investigate and loudly go about the business of unwinding trunos fuck ups.

      There needs to be accountability, but there also needs to be a change. If they can’t do both, the same will happen again.

      • NekoKoneko@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        17 hours ago

        It’s really strange, we pay these people to act as our representatives full time, drafting and proposing and voting on legislation. So why don’t we see more action?

        I understand that when the GOP controls congress, nothing is going to come up for a vote unless they’re certain they want it to. But Democrats could still be introducing bills and spending time trying to force public awareness. And for a Democratic controlled congress even if they can’t control the presidential veto, like we’re about to see, why on earth shouldn’t they be passing major bills every week or two? Even if the president vetoes them, that is how you keep voters’ imagination and loyalty from drifting to the GOP, so I really hope that’s what we see.

        Yet somehow I suspect we’re going to get into the driver’s seat and hear about maybe two or three bills a year, all attempted to be “bipartisan.” That’s why I’m so anxious to get Jeffries and Schumer out - they can’t imagine Congress acting any other way.

        • masterspace@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          15 hours ago

          Because the American politics system with four fucking elected bodies, is dumb as shit and literally intentionally designed to make government ineffective.

          An elected Senate and an elected House makes zero fucking sense. You just roadblock yourself constantly. The president being elected separately from either also makes no fucking sense.

          And then the fact that your judiciary is like half elected is the most nonsense fucking bullshit on the planet.

          Your system of government is not built or designed to be effective.

        • OBJECTION!@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          14 hours ago

          It’s really strange, we pay these people to act as our representatives full time

          The amount you pay them in taxes is pocket change compared to what they get from the ruling class to not do that.

    • masterspace@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      12
      ·
      16 hours ago

      Shut the fuck up with this meaningless platitude.

      Because, no, no they do not.

      This kind of idealistic meaningless bullshit is why Republicans win elections and Democrats don’t.

      If they want to win the 2028 election, they need to walk, i.e. continue to drive down cost of living for the average American. Full stop. That’s all they need to do.

      Anything else they do, whether that’s chew gum or whatever inane metaphor you want to use, can only come after they walk.

      • MBech@feddit.dk
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        13
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        14 hours ago

        Imagine if people could do 2 things at once. What a world we would live in, if that was true.

        • danc4498@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          8 hours ago

          Yeah, but this is 54-56 senators and 250+ representatives. They can’t possibly do 2 things different things amongst all of them.

        • masterspace@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          6 hours ago

          Does the American public have the attention to pay attention to two things at once? No.

          Do you not remember that Trump was impeached and didn’t move the voting needle one iota? The American public does not care about anything other than their pocket book.

          • cruseo@piefed.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            5 hours ago

            Didn’t move the voting needle, one iota, did it? Because as I recall, he lost the next election.

                • masterspace@lemmy.ca
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  5
                  ·
                  4 hours ago

                  Lol, no it’s not.

                  You interpreted my comment as focusing exclusively on the single next presidential election, while I always meant the bigger picture.

                  The right wing and swing voters in America by and large did not care about impeachment. They voted in maga republicans after maga republican, and not only returned him to power, but also elected a majority Republican Senate and House that loudly and enthusiastically endorsed him.

  • daannii@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    16 hours ago

    I don’t see why they can’t do multiple things at the same time.

    For fucks sake. They get paid quite a lot and have exceptionally good benefits compared to the rest of us.

    Plus all the stocks, bribes, and so on.

    Lazy bastards.