Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett’s “Carhartt Christmas Party” in his Capitol Hill office has become one of the most anticipated events in Washington for the eclectic crowd it attracts. The fourth annual bash attracted guests ranging from Democrat Congressmen to a local homeless man running for dictator. And in 15 minutes, it was all over. The “Carhartt” theme comes from Burchett’s Carhartt overcoat, which he often wears in the colder months. Burchett explained the party’s brevity in a post to X before the party. “Last year it went to 16 [minutes], but we thought it dragged on too much,” Burchett said.  “The reason it’s 15 minutes is you go to a dadgum Christmas party and what happens? You get cornered by somebody who’s half lit and they got wine breath and they’re cornering you in the corner over there for 15 minutes and that’s about all you can take. So I’m thinking 15 minutes is all you need for a Christmas party to say your piece and go on about it.” 10 minutes out from @timburchett’s 15 minute Christmas party, a line down the hall.@RepJimBaird is in line pic.twitter.com/F6juVcoTkn— George Caldwell (@GCaldwell_news) December 11, 2025 For food, the East Tennessean offered “charcuterie” in the form of Ritz crackers and spray cheese, as well as a do-it-yourself peanut butter and jelly sandwich bar. Dozens of guests crammed themselves into his office in the Longworth House office building, including Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.; Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas; and Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind. Another special guest was Rick Hohensee, a Washington, D.C. homeless man whom Burchett invited in to enjoy a snack.  Hohensee is often spotted around Capitol Hill with a sign reading “Rick for dictator,” and runs a website that reads, “Rick Hohensee for executive/legislature of the USA for two years by Constitutional Amendment.” Rick, a homlesss man who runs the website “https://t.co/Pe99xXXAyk” joins @timburchett for “charcuterie” and plays Christmas songs at Christmas party.@DailySignal pic.twitter.com/tFZWVx3uIc— George Caldwell (@GCaldwell_news) December 11, 2025 Hohensee proceeded to take out his harmonica and play classic Christmas songs alongside Gary Chapman, a singer-songwriter Burchett invited to play guitar. Washington homeless man Rick, who runs https://t.co/Pe99xXXAyk, plays the harp at @timburchett’s 15 minute Christmas party pic.twitter.com/Q2Xmw2aO6m— George Caldwell (@GCaldwell_news) December 11, 2025 There were also some constituents from Burchett’s Knoxville-area Congressional district. Randy Dalton from Blaine, Tennessee came with his family and told The Daily Signal, “I know him pretty well. I’ve spent a little time with him. I know he’s a great guy.” Randy Dalton, a native of East Tennessee, was at @timburchett’s 15 minute Christmas party in the Capitol.“I know he’s a great guy.” pic.twitter.com/iJzitZa2jO— George Caldwell (@GCaldwell_news) December 11, 2025 Dalton told The Daily Signal he appreciated the office’s communication with constituents, saying, “They’re very open. You can call any time. Yeah, I’ve called a few times and they’re very easy and all his people, staffers, everyone, they’re just nice people.” After the party concluded, Burchett went outside, where he provided cheese whiz and crackers to those passing through the hallway. .@SenFettermanPA joins @timburchett’s 15 minute Christmas party pic.twitter.com/PASXrcZvGx— George Caldwell (@GCaldwell_news) December 11, 2025 Burchett has long held public friendships with a diverse group of people, as he is on a first-name basis with Capitol employees, and has also been known to be friendly with Democrat Reps. such as Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York and Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.  However, he did not come to Washington to go along to get along, often showing willingness to buck the party line. Burchett was one of the Republicans who voted to oust then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy in 2023.  A/C and Year-Round Sessions: Burchett Slams Capitol Culture, Says Real Work Happens Back HomeThe worst thing that has ever happened to the Capitol Building? “Air conditioning,” says Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn.@RepTimBurchett joined “The Signal Sitdown” with @bradleydevlin at… pic.twitter.com/WYRo5owFyv— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) December 11, 2025 On Wednesday, he voted against the Republican-backed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), saying it was the work of “war pimps” while criticizing its $900 billion price tag, aid to Ukraine, and non-defense related provisions. The post Cheez Whiz and PB&J: Inside the Best Christmas Party in Washington DC appeared first on The Daily Signal.

With the “temporary” Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, Republicans in Congress have floated several plans to make health care more affordable. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., joined the Tony Kinnett Cast on Thursday to discuss his idea to tamp down on health care costs while helping families with their medical bills. The legislation would expand health savings accounts funded by the government. Scott said that Americans generally want everyone to get health care and have a safety net for those who need it. The senator said that his personal experience helped him understand what it’s like when a family has uncertainty about health care coverage. “Why it’s important to me is I grew up in a family that struggled,” he said. “My mom struggled to put food on the table. When my brother had a significant disease, she couldn’t find a doctor or hospital to take care of him in her hometown. We had to go four hours away to a charity hospital. So this hits home to me, right?” But Scott said that the Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, has been an “absolute disaster” that turned out to be based on “complete lies.” “Oh, you’re going to keep your doctor. That was a complete lie. Oh, you get to keep your plan. Lie,” he said. “Oh, you’re going to save $2,500 per family. Lie. And so, what’s frustrating is it’s been sold on a lie.” What’s happened since the passage of Obamacare is that “costs have skyrocketed,” Scott said. He explained that a high-deductible plan has risen in price from around $3,000 to “$6,500, $10,000, $15,000.” The Florida senator said that his plan, which was cosponsored by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, is aimed at addressing the “root problem” behind health care costs. He compared his plan to food stamps, where people are given money to buy food themselves rather than giving grocery stores money directly and having them decide what groceries a family needs. “In health care, we do the opposite. We give you an insurance card, but we say we’re going to let government decide what insurance, what health care you get or let the insurance company,” he said, noting that his plan was aimed at giving money to individuals who would have the ability to choose and pay for their own health care. Kinnett asked Scott about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and how his health care law would prevent the kind of fraud that has become “rampant” in that system. “Number one is they have to pay a portion of [their] health insurance,” Scott said, which was a feature of the original Obamacare subsidies. “Number two is you’ve got to verify who people are, and you got to verify their dependents,” he said, noting that he aggressively did this when he was the governor of Florida, “but the federal government, they’re OK with the fraud so far.” Scott said that the current COVID-19 era subsidies Democrats are trying to extend are going to some people “making $250,000 a year that could be worth a million dollars” and that this “ought to stop.” Then we need to “go back to the old the original Obamacare, which had requirements that you had to pay a portion of your premiums,” Scott said. The Senate voted on Scott’s plan Thursday afternoon with a count of 51 to 48 in favor, so it failed to get the 60 votes needed to pass. Democrats unanimously voted against it. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted against it and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont. Didn’t vote. The post Obamacare Was Built on ‘Lies’ Sen. Scott Says While Touting His Alternative Health Care Plan appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A Democrat member’s effort to impeach President Donald Trump failed on Thursday, but Democrats’ votes shed light on who exactly is willing to assist in putting Trump on trial again. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, introduced the resolution—which is not his first of the Congress, accusing Trump of “calling for the execution of six Democratic lawmakers.” Republicans set up a vote on a motion to table the resolution to scrap Green’s bill in June, which succeeded by an 237-140 margin, with 47 members voting “present” and nine not voting. In total, 140 Democrats voted against the motion to table, 23 Democrats voted in favor alongside Republicans, and three did not vote. But Democrat support for having a Trump impeachment vote has nearly doubled since the last time the House voted on a measure like this. A previous attempt from Green to impeach Trump was tabled by a 344-79 vote in June. It appears House Democrats are growing warmer to the idea of impeachment now that America is less than a year out from the midterm elections. Firebrand Democrat Reps. such as Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Sarah McBride of Delaware, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez  voted against tabling the motion. There were also multiple long-time Democrat Reps. who voted against tabling, such as Debbie Dingell of Michigan, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts. Top-ranking Democrat leaders, such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, House Democratic Caucus chair Pete Aguilar of California, and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, voted “present,” as did former Speaker Nancy Pelosi from California. There were also some swing district Democrat Reps. who joined with Republicans to table the impeachment effort. Republicans were practically unanimous in tabling the bill, with 214 voting yea and six not voting. This group included Don Davis of North Carolina, Tom Suozzi of New York, Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez of Washington, Jared Golden of Maine, and Henry Cuellar of Texas.  In total, 23 Democrats voted in favor of the motion to table. The impeachment attempt comes as Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., has also introduced an impeachment resolution against Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Mich., has done the same against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The post The Number of Democrats Backing Trump Impeachment Vote Has Nearly Doubled appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Indiana State Senate, which has a GOP super majority, has voted against a redistricting bill that would have likely given Republicans two additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Control of the House in next year’s midterms is critical for Republicans, who fear that a Democrat majority would try to impeach Trump. The final tally was 19 to 31. Republicans have a 40 to 10 advantage over Democrats in the upper chamber, but 21 Republicans joined the 10 Democrats in voting no. The state senate vote was the culmination of weeks of lobbying by members of the Trump administration and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., who had taken to calling Indiana state lawmakers this week in an effort to swing votes. The current congressional delegation from the Hoosier state is composed of seven Republicans and two Democrats in the U.S. House. The new map would have given Republicans a 9-0 sweep. Protesters outside are cheering “We did it!” As Indiana Senators vote down redistricting. (On this pic, Young will be a yes. That’s only 19 yeses.) pic.twitter.com/Sfblu0ItNM— Kayla Dwyer (@kayla_dwyer17) December 11, 2025 Trump Threatens to Primary President Donald Trump has promised to primary the Republican state senators who voted against the redistricting bill, writing on Truth Social yesterday, “I will do everything within my power to make sure that they will not hurt the Republican Party, and our Country, again.” Despite his preemptive condemnation and primary threat of some Indiana lawmakers, the president has been enthusiastically supported by a crop of younger legislators looking toward the future of the party. This week The Daily Signal spoke with Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith and state Rep. Andrew Ireland. Both expressed support for the redistricting effort, but explained why Indiana’s Senate voted against the map. Beckwith described the older generation in the state senate as “embod[ing] the spirit of Neville Chamberlain, like we can make peace with evil.” Ireland, who at age 30 is one of the youngest lawmakers in the country, emphasized that the electoral map would have real consequences. “I mean, the difference between two votes, if you look at the journey right now, is the difference between the ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ passing and not, for example. And for all the frustrations that I and I’m sure others have with what happens in Washington and Republicans in Congress letting us down, I think we’ve also seen the consequences of having Democrats in the majority,” the state lawmaker explained. Vice President JD Vance, who has personally whipped for the map in recent weeks, took aim at Indiana Senate Republican leader Rodric Bray in a post on X. “Rod Bray, the Senate leader in Indiana, has consistently told us he wouldn’t fight redistricting while simultaneously whipping his members against it,” the vice president wrote. “That level of dishonesty cannot be rewarded, and the Indiana GOP needs to choose a side.” Rod Bray, the Senate leader in Indiana, has consistently told us he wouldn't fight redistricting while simultaneously whipping his members against it. That level of dishonesty cannot be rewarded, and the Indiana GOP needs to choose a side. https://t.co/63Vg7qkpDg— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 11, 2025 Bray voted no on the map and has been repeatedly criticized for his handling of the redistricting effort. Mike Johnson Looks to the Midterms In the U.S. House, Johnson currently faces a thin margin, and Republican House member retirement or resignation announcements are expected to continue prior to the midterm primary season. The Indiana redistricting effort would have helped Republicans in the ongoing redistricting wars. Several states across the country are currently contemplating or in the process of redistricting, including Texas, California, and Missouri. Historically, the party in power in the White House faces headwinds during a midterm election season, although time will tell if voters come out in support of an agenda that has delivered tax cuts, a secure border, mass deportations of illegal aliens, and several peace deals, among other accomplishments. The post BREAKING: Indiana Senate Votes Against Congressional Map That Could Help Trump Avoid Impeachment appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The White House has released a new National Security Strategy whose central purpose is unambiguous: to ensure the United States remains the preeminent global power. At its core is a new and pragmatic China strategy.  The document opens with a blunt indictment of the past three decades of American policy, especially on China. Successive administrations—Republican and Democratic alike—embraced the delusion that flooding China with capital, technology, and market access would liberalize the Chinese Communist Party and peacefully integrate it into an America-led rules-based world order.   Instead, we financed and armed our most dangerous rival. The result is a near-peer competitor that now menaces American security, prosperity, and the free world itself.  The new National Security Strategy discards that fantasy. It is grounded in a cold-eyed recognition that the United States must compete—relentlessly and across various regions—while buying the time required to rebuild the industrial, technological, and military foundations that previous generations allowed to atrophy.  In the Western Hemisphere, the administration is reasserting the Monroe Doctrine. China’s creeping penetration of Latin America—$2.5 billion into Panama alone, second-place usage of the canal we built, Xi Jinping’s pledge to wire 33 regional nations into Beijing’s orbit—has been met with swift counteraction by the Trump administration.   Earlier this year, the Trump administration successfully urged Panama to withdraw from an China-funded infrastructure initiative. Soon after, Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison announced the sale of its controlling stake in two Panama ports to a group of investors led by American investment firm BlackRock.   In April, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reiterated the commitment to counter “malign Chinese influence” in the Western Hemisphere.   The new security strategy declares, without apology, that the United States will remain the dominant power in the Western Hemisphere and that non-hemispheric actors—China foremost among them—will be denied military footholds and strategic resources in America’s backyard.  The document delves more deeply into America’s China policy in its section on Asia. The Trump administration recognizes that the Indo-Pacific region accounts for nearly half the world’s GDP by purchasing-power parity. Free and open Indo-Pacific is vital to our national interest.  On the economic front, the administration seeks to a balanced trade relationship with China based on “reciprocity and fairness” to regain American economic independence.  The goal is clear: “If America remains on a growth path—and can sustain that while maintaining a genuinely mutually advantageous economic relationship with Beijing—we should be headed from our present $30 trillion economy in 2025 to $40 trillion in the 2030s, putting our country in an enviable position to maintain our status as the world’s leading economy.”   Some China hawks recoil at any language of “mutually advantageous” relations, hearing in it the echo of past naïveté. They are not wrong to be skeptical. Beijing’s definition of “win-win” has always meant China wins twice.   Yet, total decoupling immediately is not feasible. The United States requires time to rebuild its manufacturing capabilities and secure its supply chains. However, a measured tone does not suggest that the administration will shy away from robust competition with China or neglect the essential interests of the United States and its allies.  For instance, the National Security Strategy clearly commits to cooperating with allies and strengthening military capacity that can counter aggression in the First Island Chain near China, especially to protect Taiwan due to its strategic location in the South China Sea.   This area is critically important for the U.S. and its allies, with one-third of global shipping passing through it annually. The Trump administration vows to establish “strong deterrence necessary to keep these shipping lanes open and free from arbitrary closures by any single nation.”  Critics of Trump have sought to paint him as someone willing to compromise Taiwan’s security for trade concessions with China. However, the security strategy directly counters these speculations, offering much-needed reassurance to both Taiwan and Japan. This clarification is particularly welcome given the increasing pressure from China on Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who has stated that Japan would mobilize its defense forces in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.  Xi, who regards the reunification as a “core interest,” is bound to feel disappointed by the strategy’s approach, as it clearly indicates that the Trump administration firmly rejects any unilateral changes to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.   Moreover, the U.S. actively encourages allies like Japan to enhance their defense expenditures and collaborate with the U.S. to maintain the South China Sea as a free and open area.  The Trump administration has clearly learned from past policy mistakes. The National Security Strategy rejects the platitudes of the past, accepting the hard truth that great-power competition has returned—and that the United States intends to win it by bolstering its economic, technological, and military leadership, while resolutely defending its interests, security, and prosperity against China’s aggressive actions, particularly the Western Hemisphere and the Indo-Pacific.  If executed with discipline and sustained by the American people, America will remain a leading global power for many years to come.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Trump’s National Security Strategy Lays Out a Pragmatic China Strategy appeared first on The Daily Signal.