Congress

Donald Trump has been slamming the Democrats and President Barack Obama’s healthcare law while calling for a bipartisan effort in Congress to come up with a better alternative. Via twitter, Trump lashed out at  Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer and his fellow political party members, who have vowed to preserve the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, even as Republicans move ahead with their long-sought bid to dismantle it.   Press TV reports: “The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in.

Submitted by Ryan McMaken via The Mises Institute,

In the final days of his administration, President Obama has decided that with the stroke of pen, he shall further consolidate direct federal control over lands within Western states. Specifically, Obama created the Bear Ears National Monument and the Gold Butte National Monument in Utah and Nevada, respectively. The Obama Administration claims that Obama's unilateral edict was necessary because Congress had not passed any legislation on the matter.

Having been pursued, unsuccessfully, many times by his father in previous years, today Senator Rand Paul, together with Rep. Thomas Massie re-introduced legislation to “Audit the Fed", after a similar effort stalled in the last Congress.

House Republicans abruptly voted on Monday night to eliminate the independence of the Office of Congressional Ethics, the chamber’s nonpartisan ethics board which investigates lawmakers' alleged misconduct, largely stripping it of its power, leading to pushback from Democrats and government watchdog groups. House Republicans, meeting as a group Monday night, approved an
amendment from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte that would place the office under the oversight of the lawmaker-run
House Ethics Committee.

As promised (or threatened), the Obama administration has unveiled - via the US Treasury - new sanctions against Russia over election hacking allegations (that as yet have not been supported by any actual evidence). Despite president-elect Trump's comments that "we ought to get on with our lives," the sanctions apply to five entities and six individuals, and also including the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and closing two Russian compounds in New York and Maryland in response to a campaign of harassment against American diplomats in Moscow, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.