Tag: GOP congress

Worst-case scenario for House GOP is 70-seat wipeout

The following article by Reid Wilson was posted on the Hill website August 17, 2018:

Democratic enthusiasm and a GOP malaise surrounding President Trumphave set the stage for a potentially devastating midterm election for the House Republican majority.

In a series of special elections mostly in reliably GOP districts, Democratic candidates have routinely outperformed Hillary Clinton’s share of the vote from 2016.

At the same time, Republican candidates have underperformed President Trump’s vote share in all but two special elections.

View the complete article here.

How Medicaid Cuts Could Threaten Public School Students and Teachers in Every State

The following article by Heidi Schultheis, Eliza Schultz and Rachel West was posted on the Center for American Progress website August 14, 2018:

Teachers rally at the state capitol in Oklahoma City to demand lawmakers increase funding for public schools, April 2018. Credit: J. Pat Carter/AFP via Getty

President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have repeatedly attempted to undermine the U.S. health care system, including with provisions in their unpopular tax bill that undercut the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) individual mandate and drove up premium prices. Recent reports indicate that congressional Republicans will almost surely repeat their campaign to repeal the ACA and slash the Medicaid program. If they succeed, there could be dire consequences not only for Americans’ health but for state budgets as well. Federal Medicaid payments comprise an average of 17.7 percent of states’ total expenditures, which means that deep cuts to the federal government’s Medicaid payments would squeeze other essential services in the state budget such as education. Continue reading “How Medicaid Cuts Could Threaten Public School Students and Teachers in Every State”

Trump Won’t Follow Congressional Directives on Russia and Crimea

The following article by Niels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website August 14, 2018:

Defense authorization signing statement effectively discards restrictions on recognizing Crimea as Russian

Alexander Zemlianichenko, File, AP

President Donald Trump objects to an effort by Congress to prevent his administration from recognizing Crimea as part of Russia.

Crimea is a region in Ukraine that has been occupied by Russia for several years, with the Russian Federation having claimed to have annexed the region in March 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed the territorial matter is settled, but many in Washington disagree.

Language in the fiscal 2019 defense authorization, which Trump signed into law Monday during a ceremony at Fort Drum in upstate New York, purported to impose a funding blockade on the Pentagon acting on recognition of Crimea as part of Russia.

View the complete article here.

FBI fires Strzok after anti-Trump texts

The following article by Olivia Beavers was posted on the Hill website August 13, 2018:

Peter Strzok Credit: Jack Gruber, USA Today Network

The FBI has fired Peter Strzok, the counterintelligence agent who came under fire for sending disparaging text messages about President Trump and other political figures during the 2016 election.

Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, confirmed the firing, which took place on Friday. He blasted the decision in a statement, saying the “Deputy Director of the FBI overruled the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and departed from established precedent by firing 21-year FBI veteran Peter Strzok.”

“The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical Bureau practice, but also contradicts Director [Christopher] Wray’s testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters,” Goelman continued in the statement.

View the complete article here.

Trump’s Agenda: CEO Pay Jumped To $19 Million And Real Wages For Workers Declined

Under Trump’s agenda, the gap between CEO and workers’ pay has increased to its highest point in about a decade. Average CEO compensation skyrocketed to $19 million last year, and thanks to Trump’s corporate tax breaks, CEOs and wealthy shareholders collected billions more in profits. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released numbers showing real wages for workers have declined over the past year.

Last year, the average annual compensation for CEOs jumped to $19 million. The pay gap between CEOs and workers became the largest it’s been in a decade.

Washington Post: “Top executives of America’s biggest companies saw their average annual pay surge to $18.9 million in 2017, according to a report released Thursday, fueling concerns about the gulf between the nation’s richest and everyone else.  The dramatic 18 percent jump in chief executive pay came as wages for American workers remained essentially flat, pushing the gap between executive compensation and employee pay to its highest point in about a decade.” Continue reading “Trump’s Agenda: CEO Pay Jumped To $19 Million And Real Wages For Workers Declined”

DNC official: We all need to get serious about election security. You too, Republicans.

The following commentary by Bob Lord was posted on the USA Today website August 14, 2018:

From candidates to voters, we’re vulnerable to cyber attacks. Here are ways you can make it harder for foreign adversaries to disrupt US elections.

Cybersecurity is on everyone’s mind as we approach the 2018 midterm elections. We’re reading articles about everything from the challenges of securing voter machines, to new phrases like “computational propaganda” and “influence operations,” to Trump not doing enough to hold Russia accountable and Republicansrefusing to provide necessary election security funding.

Here at Democratic Party headquarters, we know firsthand the damage wreaked by a cyber intrusion. We strongly believe our democracy will not be protected from the threat of foreign adversaries until Republicans join Democrats to take action.

Still, the DNC is not waiting for the cavalry to show up. We are doing everything we can right now to ensure our elections are safe and secure. We’re trying to better understand these issues and find solutions to not only protect ourselves, but to help campaigns and state parties do the same. The DNC is partnering with experts to help shape our thinking across the spectrum of security-related topics. We’ve also offered better resources and guidance to our own staffers and opened up lines of communication with candidates, state parties, and the rest of the Democratic infrastructure.

View the complete post here.

Workers’ Wages Remain Stagnant Despite Gains to Top Earners

The following article by Daniella Zessoules and Michael Madowitz was posted on the Center for American Progress website August 9, 2018:

The state of the U.S. economy recently has become an increasingly partisan topic, but there are basic facts on which everyone can agree. The continued positive job growth and latest gross domestic product (GDP) growth numbers have brought about some excitement in the last few months. While these measures of progress are important, they reveal less about the health of the day-to-day economy that most workers experience. Real wages have been flat for most of the last decade—particularly since President Donald Trump took office.

To understand the health of the economy as workers see it, policymakers should look more closely at earnings—an indicator that shows the true progress, or lack thereof, facing many workers.

Figure 1 shows that a wage-centered perspective is especially important, because real wage growth is how middle-class workers typically benefit from economic growth. Soaring corporate profits, on the other hand, provide little to no gains to virtually all workers. With the slow growth in earnings; the rise in credit card, mortgage, and higher education debts; and the costs of child care, health care, and other salient needs continue to grow, it’s understandable that many workers feel their economic position is precarious.

View the complete article here.

Real Wages Continue To Fall Under Trump

Workers are not benefiting from the Trump economy. While Trump continues to lie about wage growth, new data from his own Labor Department shows that real wages have actually decreased over the past year as costs of living – including rents and gas prices – rise.

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Consumer Prices Rose 0.2% in July

By Josh Mitchell and Sarah Chaney

Inflation picked up modestly in July, eating up Americans’ wage gains.

The consumer-price index—a broad measure of Americans’ living expenses, from groceries to dental care—rose 0.2% from a month earlier, the Labor Department said Friday. Excluding food and energy components, so-called core prices rose 0.2% as well.

The increases fell in line with economists’ expectations. Continue reading “Real Wages Continue To Fall Under Trump”

Instead of tax cuts, GOP candidates motivate with anxiety

The following article by Steve Peoples and Bill Barrow was posted on the Associated Press website August 8, 2018:

WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s a border crisis in Pennsylvania. The radical left is surging in New Jersey. And Nancy Pelosi is a threat to New York.

Republican candidates in the nation’s premier midterm battlegrounds have embraced a central message in their fight to maintain the House majority this fall — and it has little to do with the surging economy or the sweeping tax cuts that the GOP celebrated as a once-in-a-generation achievement just eight months ago.

Instead, as Republicans enter the final month of the primary season, they’re looking ahead to a general-election strategy of embracing anxiety as a tool to motivate voters. That was clear this week as the GOP’s closing message in an Ohio special election questioned Democrat Danny O’Connor’s connection to Pelosi, the House Democratic leader and preferred super villain for Republicans.

View the complete article here.