Tag: GOP

GOP Reaction to Trump Tariffs is Fast, Furious and Negative

The following article by Joe Williams and Niels Lesniewski was posted on the Roll Call website March 1, 2018:

Republicans fret about retaliatory action, effect on agricultural trade

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, among the president’s strongest allies in the Senate, warned that imposing tariffs was akin to a tax hike. Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo

Senate Republicans are calling for changes to the seldom-employed section of U.S. trade law that the Trump administration used to unilaterally impose steep new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

The conversations are in the preliminary stages, but build upon discussions GOP members have had for weeks regarding concerns over the White House’s trade policy.

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that next week his administration would impose a new 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports and 25 percent tariff on steel imports. The move was met with a swift rebuke from congressional Republicans. Continue reading “GOP Reaction to Trump Tariffs is Fast, Furious and Negative”

The End of the GOP

The following article by Kenneth T. Walsh was posted on the U.S. News and World Report website February 16, 2018:

The Republican Party as Americans have known it is vanishing under President Trump.

WEEK AFTER DRAMATIC week, it’s becoming increasingly clear that, under President Donald Trump, the Republican Party as Americans came to know it for 40 years is vanishing.

Trump is redefining conservatism in his own erratic image, and most Republican members of Congress are going along with him even though the long-time pillars of their belief system are crumbling. Trump is not a true conservative. He is taking some pages from the right’s agenda but abandoning others, and GOP stalwarts are in a stew over it. Yet there is no Republican rebellion and precious little pushback. Continue reading “The End of the GOP”

Steve Wynn has stepped down from his hotel company, but the RNC will keep his money for now

The following article by A.P. Joyce was posted on the mic.com website February 7, 2018:

© McMullan Co/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock

Steve Wynn is stepping down from his job as chairman and chief executive of his company Wynn Resorts, amid allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, it was reported late Tuesday. The move comes about a week after the casino magnate was forced to resign as finance chair of the Republican National Committee.

In a story first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Wynn has been accused of having created a hostile environment for women at his casinos for decades and of pressuring employees to perform sex acts for him. Continue reading “Steve Wynn has stepped down from his hotel company, but the RNC will keep his money for now”

The GOP has a major millennial issue, new poll shows

The following article by Stacey Leasca was posted on the mic.com website January 30, 2018:

Olivier Douliery/Pool/EPA

The Republican Party could be in serious trouble when it comes to attracting younger voters, according to a new in-depth NBC News/GenForward survey.

The survey of “racially and ethnically diverse young adults” found that not only do 63% of millennials think the country under the Trump administration is on the wrong track, but they also believe Republicans don’t care about them or issues they see as relevant. Continue reading “The GOP has a major millennial issue, new poll shows”

As Trump Appeals to Farmers, Some of His Policies Don’t

The following article by Ana Swanson and Jim Tankersley was posted on the New York Times website January 7, 2018:

Tim Hully harvests corn at Walnut Grove Farm in Adairville, Ky., in 2016. Credit Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump will head to Tennessee on Monday to appeal to farmers, a key demographic that helped elect him, as he promotes his tax law and previews a new White House strategy to help rural America.

But back in Washington, some of the economic policies his administration is pursuing are at odds with what many in the farm industry say is needed, from a potentially drastic shift in trade policies that have long supported agriculture to some little-noticed tax increases in the $1.5 trillion tax law. Continue reading “As Trump Appeals to Farmers, Some of His Policies Don’t”

The GOP Just Can’t Quit the Clintons

The following article by Susan Milligan was posted on the U.S. News and World Report December 29, 2017:

Democrats have broken up with the Clintons, but Republicans won’t let go.

Credit: Molly Riley/AFP/Getty Images

For Democrats, the breakup was a long time coming, a political romance with the Clintons that started with a heady, upstart 1992 campaign, was tested during Bill Clinton’s impeachment, and finally ended when the couple’s home state senator said the former president should have resigned over sexual misconduct allegations.

But President Donald Trump and the GOP just can’t seem to quit the out-of-power Clintons. Trump tweets frequently (and accusingly) about the woman he beat out for the White House in 2016, while Capitol Hill Republicans are mounting their own Clinton investigations and demanding that the Department of Justice do the same. In October, House and Senate Republicans announced formal inquiries into two matters involving the former first couple: an Obama-era uranium deal involving Russia that accusers charge was tied to support for the Clinton Foundation, and a separate investigation of how the FBI handled then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton‘s private email server. Continue reading “The GOP Just Can’t Quit the Clintons”

Flake: Trump rallies reflect ‘spasms of a dying party’

The following article by Brett Samuels was posted on the Hill website December 24, 2017:

Retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) on Sunday said the crowds at rallies for President Trump and other Republicans reflect “spasms of a dying party,” adding that the GOP will have to formulate a governing agenda to reach more voters.

“When you look at some of the audiences cheering for Republicans, sometimes, you look out there and you say, ‘those are the spasms of a dying party,’ ” Flake said on ABC’s “This Week.” Continue reading “Flake: Trump rallies reflect ‘spasms of a dying party’”

Republicans plan mega marketing push to sell unpopular tax plan

The following article by Kevin Robillard, Nancy Cook and Cristiano Lima was posted on the Politico website December 21, 2017:

‘When [voters] start to see what happens to their paychecks,’ said one conservative, ‘they will change their minds.’

“We have a job that’s not that hard. We have to make sure people understand the benefits they’re going to receive from this legislation,” said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity. | Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

Conservative groups are planning a multimillion-dollar effort to sell the GOP’s tax cut law, hoping the American electorate can learn to love the party’s signature — but massively unpopular — legislative achievement.

“We have a public that distrusts anything coming out of Washington, especially anything from the majority party,” said Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, the grass-roots organizing arm of the powerful Koch brothers network of conservative groups. “We have a job that’s not that hard. We have to make sure people understand the benefits they’re going to receive from this legislation.” Continue reading “Republicans plan mega marketing push to sell unpopular tax plan”

Newtonian physics will crush the GOP

The following commentary by Joe Scarborough was posted on the Washington Post  website December 14, 2017:

Doug Jones waves to supporters before speaking during an election-night watch party. (John Bazemore/Associated Press)

“Oh, Alabama, the devil fools with the best-laid plan.”

— Neil Young

Alabama has come full circle. After waging a bloody battle over civil rights throughout the 1960s, George Wallace’s home became a target of contempt for the outside world. But with Democrat Doug Jones’s shocking Senate victory in the bright-red state this week, Neil Young’s words of warning seem more relevant to President Trump’s failed plan to remake the Republican Party in his own reactionary image. Continue reading “Newtonian physics will crush the GOP”

Has Support for Moore Stained Evangelicals? Some Are Worried

The following article by Laurie Goodstein was posted on the New York Times website December 14, 2017:

Some evangelicals have expressed concern about their movement being publicly associated with politicians like Roy Moore who have been dogged by scandal. Credit Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times

The editor in chief of Christianity Today did not have to wait for the votes to be counted to publish his essay on Tuesday bemoaning what the Alabama Senate race had wrought.

Whoever wins, “there is already one loser: Christian faith,” wrote Mark Galli, whose publication, the flagship of American evangelicalism, was founded 61 years ago by the Rev. Billy Graham. “No one will believe a word we say, perhaps for a generation. Christianity’s integrity is severely tarnished.”

The sight of white evangelical voters in Alabama giving their overwhelming support to Roy S. Moore, the Republican candidate, despite accusations of racial and religious bigotry, misogyny and assaults on teenage girls, has deeply troubled many conservative Christians, who fear that association with the likes of Mr. Moore is giving their faith a bad name. The angst has grown so deep, Mr. Galli said, that he knows of “many card-carrying evangelicals” who are ready to disavow the label.

The evangelical brand “is definitely tarnished” by politicization from whatever side, Mr. Galli said on Wednesday. “No question about it.”

He said that his readers seemed to agree with the thrust of his essay. The main criticism he received, he said, was one he agreed with: that he should have made it clearer that he was referring not to all Christians, but to evangelicals in particular.

The bloc that has marched under the banner of the “Moral Majority” and “values voters” has now been tagged as the most reliable base of support for both Mr. Moore and President Trump, two politicians who are known for fanning racial and religious prejudices and who stand accused of sexual harassment by numerous women — accusations that each man denies. White evangelicals across the country delivered 81 percent of their votes to Mr. Trump last year, according to exit poll data, and backed Mr. Moore in Alabama by the same proportion on Tuesday.

Continue reading “Has Support for Moore Stained Evangelicals? Some Are Worried”