The following article by Michael DeBonis was posted on the Washington Post website September 16, 2017:
President Trump pauses during a meeting with congressional leaders and administration officials on tax reform in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Sept. 5, 2017. From left, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas). (Evan Vucci/AP)
As long as there has been a federal income tax, taxpayers have been able to deduct most of the state and local taxes they pay from earnings subject to Uncle Sam’s grasp. But that deduction — especially popular in states rich in Democratic voters — could disappear as soon as next year if President Trump and congressional Republicans succeed in their promised rewrite of the tax code.
The state and local tax deduction, or SALT, has long been a target for tax-policy wonks who see it as an unwise federal subsidy that is mainly claimed by the wealthy. But politics have always intervened: Thanks to the opposition of lawmakers in high-tax states, the deduction has survived every effort to clear out loopholes, including the last federal tax overhaul of similar ambition in 1986.
The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website September 14, 2017:
THE BIG IDEA: West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner’s son was wounded by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan and suffered traumatic brain injury.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri during a meeting yesterday in Sochi. (Michael Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images)
When he finally made it home, the Republican asked his boy to tell him about his toughest day in combat.
“He had been wounded. There was a girl who had a leg blown off. They had to call in F-16s to secure their positions,” Warner recalled in an interview. “I was expecting those kinds of war stories out of him. But he said, ‘Dad, the hardest day for me, without a doubt, was election day in Afghanistan.’ It was 110 degrees. Before they went out, they put tourniquets on each of their arms and legs so, if they got hit, they could still turn the tourniquets. They found five IEDs around the one polling place that his platoon was assigned to defend.” But Afghans came out to vote any way, even at great personal risk to themselves. Continue reading “Bipartisan initiative to thwart election hacking gains steam”
The following article by Niels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website September 12, 2017:
Amendment has support of Schumer, GOP national security leaders
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar wants to make voting security part of the debate on the defense policy bill. Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo
Updated 9:24 p.m. | A bipartisan effort to enhance election security is among the priorities for Senate Democrats as part of the debate on the annual defense authorization measure.
“The consensus of 17 U.S. Intelligence agencies was that Russia, a foreign adversary, interfered in our elections. Make no mistake: Their success in 2016 will encourage them to try again,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Tuesday. “We have state elections in a couple of months and the 2018 election is a little more than a year away. We must improve our defenses now to ensure we’re prepared.”
The New York Democrat was speaking on the floor about a bipartisan effort led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican.
The amendment has the backing of a number of national security experts with Republican backgrounds. On Monday, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former CIA Director James Woolsey, former House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogersand retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer of the London Center for Policy Research wrote to Senate leaders and the Armed Services Committee leadership to push the effort.
“Although election administration is the province of state and local governments, the federal government has a responsibility to support the states and ‘provide for the common defense,’” the former officials wrote. “We do not expect the states to defend themselves against kinetic attacks by hostile foreign powers, nor should we leave them to defend against foreign cyberattacks on their own.”
Among the possible uses of grant funds to states authorized under the amendment would be cyberdefenses for voting systems and postelection audit systems, as well as paper trail technology.
“On other matters of national security, the federal government provides states and municipalities with grants to fund security personnel and first responders on the front lines of addressing threats. Given the longstanding role of the federal government in elections and the seriousness of emerging risks, the issue of voting security should be no different,” the officials wrote in their letter.
Klobuchar’s involvement comes, in part, from her role as the ranking Democrat on the Rules and Administration Committee, which has significant jurisdiction over election matters.
It was not clear as the Senate adjourned Tuesday how many amendments would ultimately be considered to the fiscal 2018 defense bill, despite the efforts of leaders on both sides of the aisle.
But an agreement with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul for a Wednesday morning procedural vote should increase the chances that the election security amendment gets in the queue for a vote.
Klobuchar and Graham will have Schumer’s backing when it comes time to compile a manager’s package of amendments or to get a standalone vote.
Paul had pledged to object to any procedural efforts to truncate debate on the defense policy bill unless he got a vote on an amendment that would roll back the authorizations for use of military force against Iraq and Afghanistan, which date to the early period of the George W. Bush presidency.
“The Graham-Klobuchar amendment would greatly strengthen our defenses, helping prepare states for the inevitable cyberattacks that threaten the integrity of our elections,” Schumer said Tuesday. “We should pass it as part of the NDAA.”
The following article by Steven Rosenfeld was posted on the AlterNet website September 6, 2017:
Six snapshots of who DACA recipients are: strivers, hard-working, responsible, honest, vetted—and more than half are women.
Credit: Gili Getz / Movimiento Cosecha
Within hours of President Trump announcing he would end the DACA program, some right-wingers took to the airwaves saying were fed up with being told to have sympathy for these youths and families that the federal government was poised to break up.
The following article by Jefferson Morley was posted on the AlterNet website September 7, 2017:
The president dumps the GOP for a fling with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
Credit: Business Insider
With the election of Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan made a Faustian bargain. They embraced Trump—an impulsive and ignorant man, filled with racial animus—with the hope they could ride his popularity with conservative voters to enact their agenda of tax cuts and deregulation.
The following article by Abby Baird was posted on the ThinkProgress website August 30, 2017:
New York values, baby.
Republican presidential candidates New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Left, and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, during a break at the Fox Business Network Republican Presidential Debate at the North Carolina Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. Credit: AP Photo, Chuck Burton
The following commentary by Myron Orfield was posted on the Star Tribune website August 29, 2017:
The justice’s record must be evaluated. Specifically, there’s reason for concern over his views on civil-rights precedents.
GLEN STUBBE • Star Tribune Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice David Stras has been nominated for a seat on the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which would be a lifetime appointment.
In his Aug. 25 commentary “Partisan game-playing blocks an outstanding judge,” U.S. Rep. Erik Paulsen criticized U.S. Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar for halting Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras’ appointment to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In my view, Klobuchar and Fran-ken are exhibiting appropriate diligence. My own work focuses on civil rights and school integration, and Stras’ previous statements have left me deeply concerned about the impact of his appointment within these areas. Indeed, there is reason to believe that Stras might frustrate ongoing voluntary school integration in Minnesota. Continue reading “Senators right to take time with Stras appointment”
The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website August 29, 2017:
The Texas senator repeats myths about the funding for Sandy relief, which led him to oppose the 2013 bill. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)
“The problem with that particular bill is it became a $50 billion bill that was filled with unrelated pork. Two-thirds of that bill had nothing to do with Sandy.” — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), interview with NBC’s Katy Tur, Aug. 28, 2017
The following article by Philip Rucker, Sean Sullivan and Mike DeBonis was posted on the Washington Post website August 24, 2017:
The Fix’s Amber Phillips explains the tight deadlines Congress faces this fall, and how President Trump’s shutdown threat over funding his border wall and his criticism of the debt ceiling “mess” threaten their agenda.(Video: Jenny Starrs/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
President Trump is strategically separating himself from Republicans in Congress, an extraordinary move to deflect blame if the GOP agenda continues to flounder.
Trump deepened the fissures in the party on Thursday when he accused the top two leaders on Capitol Hill of mismanaging a looming showdown over the nation’s borrowing authority. Republican lawmakers and aides responded to the president’s hostility with broadsides and warnings of their own. Continue reading “Trump distances himself from GOP lawmakers to avoid blame if agenda stalls”
The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website August 24, 2017:
THE BIG IDEA: Donald Trump is doing more damage to the public image of congressional Republican leaders than any Democratic operative could in their wildest dreams.
