Tag: GOP congress

Top GOP congressman admits Ivanka may have broken the law

Republicans in Congress tried to sweep it under the rug a year ago, but now the scandal over Ivanka’s emails has gotten too big to ignore.

Credit: CBS

As Shareblue reported Tuesday, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), the outgoing chairman of the House Oversight Committee, stonewalled an investigation into Ivanka Trump’s potentially improper email use a year before it became a public scandal.

But now that he can’t avoid it anymore, Gowdy is finally admitting Ivanka may have broken the law when she used a private email account to conduct government business.

“Ms. Trump’s use of a personal email account for official communications may implicate the Presidential Records Act and other security and recordkeeping requirements,” Gowdy wrote in a letter to the White House requesting a briefing on the email issue.

View the complete November 21 article by Oliver Willis on the ShareBlue.com website here.

6 Ways Trump Sabotaged ACA Open Enrollment

Today is the beginning of the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment period.  Open enrollment runs through December 15 and you can sign up at www.healthcare.gov.

Democrats want everyone to know about open enrollment so all Americans know they have the opportunity to buy insurance and remain insured. Trump doesn’t want anyone to find out about open enrollment, because he doesn’t want the ACA to succeed.

Here are 6 of the worst ways Trump has worked to sabotage ACA open enrollment

  1. The Trump administration again scheduled downtime for the healthcare.gov website weekly throughout the open enrollment period.

  1. The open enrollment period is now half as long as it used to be before the Trump administration’s sabotage.

  1. The Trump administration is promoting junk insurance plans that undermine the ACA marketplace and may not provide the level of coverage people need.

  1. The Trump administration slashed millions of dollars from outreach programs and advertising aimed at enrolling people in Obamacare plans.

  1. The Trump administration limited and even abandoned state and community partnerships that have played a key role in enrolling harder-to-reach demographics.

  1. Trump’s HHS spent taxpayer resources to produce anti-ACA videos and scrubbed its website of useful consumer guidance on the ACA.

Poll: Majority Of Americans Disagree With Republican Plan To Cut Social Security & Medicare

A new poll shows that a majority of Americans disagree with Republicans’ plan to cut Social Security and Medicare to pay for their massive tax cuts for the rich and big corporations.

Americans disagree with the Republicans’ plan to cut Social Security and Medicare.

  • Only 21% of Americans — and 32% of Republicans —  say we should cut Medicare and Social Security to reduce the federal budget deficit.

  • Instead, 60% of Americans — and 43% of Republicans — say we should reverse the Trump tax cuts to reduce the federal budget deficit.

Trump Tax Law Has Not Benefited Workers And Business Investment Is Slowing

The Trump tax law is not doing what Trump said it would. Trump and his White House said it would increase business investment and spending, but new data shows that’s not the case. They also said it would raise wages, but most Americans have not seen an increase in take-home pay. The only ones benefiting are the rich and big corporations.

WHITE HOUSE: The White House cited business investment and spending on factories as evidence their tax cut was working.

Kudlow: “Business investment is booming.”

Hassett: “Because what’s happened is that the capital spending boom that we promised would happen if we passed the tax cuts is underway.”

REALITY: Business investment and spending on factories was extremely weak in the third quarter of 2018.

Wall Street Journal: “Investment by companies was weak. Nonresidential fixed investment-reflecting spending on commercial construction, equipment and intellectual property products such as software-rose only 0.8% in the third quarter after rising at a 8.7% rate in the second quarter and 11.5% in the first. The third-quarter rate of business investment was the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2016. Spending on structures fell at a 7.9% rate in the third quarter.” Continue reading “Trump Tax Law Has Not Benefited Workers And Business Investment Is Slowing”

Health Care Premiums Increased 16% From Trump & Republican Sabotage

Trump and Republicans are lying to voters about their health care sabotage. According to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, their sabotage of the Affordable Care Act has caused health care premiums for silver benchmark marketplace plans to be 16 percent higher than they would be otherwise.

Health care premiums for silver benchmark marketplace plans are 16% higher than they would have been without Trump and Republicans’ health care sabotage.

Kaiser Family Foundation: “Combined with estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, our analysis suggests the elimination of the cost-sharing subsidy and individual mandate penalty, as well as expansion of more loosely regulated plans, has caused on-exchange silver premiums to be 16% higher than would otherwise be the case.”

As many as 130 million Americans have a pre-existing condition and could lose their coverage if Trump and Republicans end the ACA’s protections.

Wall Street Journal: “About 130 million non-elderly people in the U.S. suffer from an existing medical condition, and a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 75% of voters consider it ‘very important’ that the ACA’s provision guaranteeing such coverage remains law.” Continue reading “Health Care Premiums Increased 16% From Trump & Republican Sabotage”

DNC on Trump’s Open Enrollment Sabotage

In response to the Trump administration again scheduling downtime for the healthcare.gov website weekly throughout the open enrollment period, DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement:

“Trump continues his relentless health care sabotage. First, the Trump administration drastically cut the length of the ACA open enrollment period. And now, they plan to cut the enrollment period even more by frequently shutting down the ACA website for hours at a time. It is clear that Trump is determined to make it as difficult as possible for people to obtain the care they need.”

These representatives voted to keep Trump’s sketchy tax practices hidden from the public

NOTE:  Rep. Erik Paulsen sits on the House Ways and Means Committee and is one of the representatives who voted to keep Trump’s taxes private — more than once.

21 House Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee blocked disclosure of Donald Trump’s tax returns last month.

The New York Times published a lengthy investigative report on Tuesday accusing President Donald Trump of participating in “dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud.” Despite his many 2016 campaign promises to eventually release his tax returns, he refuses to do so, and the public is still in the dark about his personal finances. Now, thanks to a vote last month by the 21 Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee, those tax returns are unlikely to come to light in the foreseeable future. Those Republicans voted to keep the president’s tax returns hidden.

Relying on a “vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records,” the Times determined that Trump “helped his parents dodge taxes,” established with his siblings a “sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents,” assisted their father in taking “improper tax deductions worth millions more,” and formulated a “strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.”

A Trump lawyer claimed these “allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory,” but the president didn’t deny them. In a tweet, he repeated his standard and false claim that the paper is “failing” and described their story as “a very old, boring and often told hit piece.”

View the complete October 3 article by Josh Israel on the ThinkProgress website here.

REAL STORIES: Trump Lies About Protecting Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions

Trump says he is protecting people with pre-existing conditions, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, Trump and Republicans are trying to end the ACA’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Republicans are paying the price with voters who overwhelmingly want to keep these vital protections in place.

Trump is lying to the American people about protecting people with  pre-existing conditions. The truth is he wants to get rid of the ACA’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

Associated Press: “President Donald Trump isn’t playing it straight when it comes to his campaign pledge not to undercut health coverage for people with pre-existing medical conditions.”

FactCheck.org: “Trump’s comments contradict the Justice Department’s actions, which Trump approved, according to a June letter from the Justice Department to Congress on this lawsuit.” Continue reading “REAL STORIES: Trump Lies About Protecting Americans With Pre-Existing Conditions”

New Poll: Opposition To Kavanaugh Has Grown Every Day Since His Hearing

Opposition to Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation has increased every day since last week’s hearing. Kavanaugh’s approval rating is now underwater, with 41 percent opposed and only 33 percent in support of his confirmation.

Reuters/Ipsos poll: Opposition to Kavanaugh grows after Senate hearing

Opposition among Americans to Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, has increased in the wake of his testimony last week before a U.S. Senate committee in which he defiantly denied sexual misconduct allegations, Reuters/Ipsos polling data showed on Wednesday.

In the latest seven-day average in a survey of U.S. adults, 41 percent of respondents opposed Kavanaugh, 33 percent supported the conservative federal appeals court judge and 26 percent said they did not know.

Opposition to Kavanaugh grew 4 percentage points after the Sept. 27 Judiciary Committee hearing in which university professor Christine Blasey Ford detailed a sexual assault allegation against Kavanaugh and he denied it, portraying himself as the victim of a “political hit.”

View the complete October 3 article by Lawrence Hurley and Chris Kahn here.

Want to Know More About: The Kavanaugh Confirmation

Major Garrett: “President Trump Openly Mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Who Has Accused Brett Kavanaugh Of Sexually Assaulting Her In High School.” GARRETT: “For the first time president trump openly mocked Dr. Christine Blasey Ford who has accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school. The president who previously described Ford’s testimony as credible and compelling ridiculed her story’s missing details.” [This Morning, CBS, 10/3/18; VIDEO]

John Berman: “Politically Now What You Are Getting From Republicans Is A Much More Direct Attack.” BERMAN: “When Lindsay graham was shouting he was talking about process, but he has to be talking about professor’s Ford credibility. Now you have the president saying she’s not credible, and you had chuck grassley with the letter questioning the veracity of some of the things professor Ford says. It seems politically now what you are getting from Republicans is a much more direct attack in these waning days before the vote about just what professor Ford is saying in saying she’s not credible.” [New Day, CNN, 10/3/18; VIDEO]

Josh Campbell: “Why Is A Federal Judge Sitting In Front Of The United States Senate Making Statements That Other People Are Saying Are Not Consistent With The Facts. That Is The Issue.” CAMPBELL: “It’s not about drinking or what somebody has done in their past when it comes to alcohol, but why is a federal judge sitting in front of the United States senate making statements that other people are saying are not consistent with the facts. That is the issue. Why is a judge, somebody who is supposed to be fair, honest and truthful being called into question? That’s something we need to get to the bottom of.” [New Day, CNN, 10/3/18; VIDEO] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: The Kavanaugh Confirmation”