Tag: Trump abuse of power

Lincoln Project only needed 19 words to show these 4 fatal flaws with Trump’s payroll tax holiday

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump on Saturday signed an executive order creating a payroll tax holiday that he hopes will become permanent.

“President Trump pledged on Saturday to pursue a permanent cut to the payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare if he wins reelection in November, a hard-to-accomplish political gambit that some experts see as a major headache for the future of the country’s entitlement programs,” The Washington Post reports. “Trump unexpectedly promised the policy action as he signed a directive that aims to help cash-starved Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic. The order allows workers to postpone their payroll tax payments into next year but doesn’t absolve their bills outright — though the president said he would seek to waive what people owe if he prevails on Election Day.”

“Major changes to the tax code fall entirely to Congress, so Trump alone cannot waive Americans’ tax debts or enact permanent changes to tax law. Democrats and Republicans alike already had balked at Trump’s push for a payroll tax holiday in negotiations over the next round of coronavirus aid, suggesting a more lasting tax cut may be even tougher to secure if Trump does indeed win reelection,” the newspaper explained. “In doing so, though, Trump would be embarking on a fraught process that could have catastrophic fiscal effects on programs including Social Security, which watchdogs recently have warned is in dire financial straights, expected next year to have costs that exceed its total incomes.  Continue reading.

Trump announces executive actions after stimulus talks break down

Last-ditch negotiations over a new coronavirus relief package failed to yield a deal.

President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he would move forward with multiple executive actions designed to provide relief to millions of financially struggling Americans after talks between his aides and Democratic leaders on a new pandemic relief package broke down this week.

Trump laid out four actions that he said would cut taxes for workers through the end of the year, extend unemployment benefits but at a reduced rate, renew a moratorium on evictions during the pandemic, and defer student loan payments and interest until the end of the year.

But Trump’s moves — one executive order and three presidential memorandum to federal agencies — don’t go as far as some White House officials had suggested they would in recent days. And the failure by the White House and Democratic congressional leaders fails to resolve questions over government support for schools and businesses that hope to reopen to this fall or provide immunity from lawsuits sought by Republicans on Capitol Hill. Continue reading.

Trump just admitted on live television he will ‘terminate’ Social Security and Medicare if he wins reelection

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump on Saturday afternoon openly vowed to permanently “terminate” the funding mechanism for both Social Security and Medicare if reelected in November—an admission that was seized upon by defenders of the popular safety net programs who have been warning for months that the administration’s threat to suspend the payroll tax in the name of economic relief during the Covid-19 pandemic was really a backdoor sabotage effort.

Announcing and then signing a series of legally dubious executive orders, including an effort to slash the emergency federal unemployment boost by $200 from the $600 previously implemented by Democrats, Trump touted his order for a payroll tax “holiday”—which experts noted would later have to be paid back—but said if he won in November that such a cut would become permanent.

The Trump campaign was apparently so satisfied with the public acknowledgement of the president’s promise to make the payroll tax permanent—a move that would inherently bankrupt the Social Security system—that it clipped the portion of the press conference and shared on social media immediately after it concluded. The president’s critics did as well, though they carried a different message: Continue reading.

After a year on job, public lands chief overdue for confirmation hearing, Democrats say

William Perry Pendley is among many Trump Administration appointees acting in posts that require Senate confirmation

More than a year into the job that is officially still temporary, William Perry Pendley, the acting head of the Bureau of Land Management, is doing things that may be permanent, and Senate Democrats are seeking a chance to hold him to account.

President Donald Trump nominated Pendley, a conservative legal activist, on June 30, 11 months after the nominee assumed the post on an acting basis in July 2019. Whether or not he is confirmed, his legacy will include overseeing the move of the bureau’s headquarters to western Colorado.

Pendley’s seat at the helm of the BLM for than 12 months without a confirmation hearing has grated Senate Democrats from Western states, where the BLM does the bulk of its work. Those lawmakers say the delay has allowed Pendley to avoid congressional scrutiny. Continue reading.

More Than Just a Tweet: Trump’s Campaign to Undercut Democracy

New York Times logoFloating the idea of delaying the election was the latest step in the president’s running effort to discredit the election, risking long-term damage to public trust in the system.

Nothing in the Constitution gives President Trump the power to delay the November election, and even fellow Republicans dismissed it out of hand when he broached it on Thursday. But that was not the point. With a possible defeat looming, the point was to tell Americans that they should not trust their own democracy.

The idea of putting off the vote was the culmination of months of discrediting an election that polls suggest Mr. Trump is currently losing by a wide margin. He has repeatedly predicted “RIGGED ELECTIONS” and a “substantially fraudulent” vote and “the most corrupt election in the history of our country,” all based on false, unfounded or exaggerated claims.

It is the kind of language resonant of conspiracy theorists, cranks and defeated candidates, not an incumbent living in the White House. Never before has a sitting president of the United States sought to undermine public faith in the election system the way Mr. Trump has. He has refused to commit to respecting the results and, even after his election-delay trial balloon was panned by Republican allies, he raised the specter on Thursday evening of months of lawsuits challenging the outcome. Continue reading.

Trump says he will ban TikTok from operating in the US

The Hill logoPresident Trump on Friday said he plans to ban the social media platform TikTok from operating in the United States.

“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

The president said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order as early as Saturday to officially ban the Chinese-owned company from the U.S. He signaled he was not supportive of allowing an American company to acquire TikTok. Continue reading.

Fox News Judge: Trump Is Destroying Freedom In Portland

Two weeks ago, this column offered a brief history of the freedom of speech in America. The essence of the column was that all public speech is lawful when there is time for more speech to challenge it and that the remedy for hate speech is not censorship, but more speech.

Last week, this column addressed the unconstitutional behavior of federal agents in Portland, Oregon, most of whom are out among peaceful demonstrators interfering with free speech, travel and assembly.

Also last week, a newspaper in New Jersey, the editors of which might have disagreed with the essence of this column — that the First Amendment requires the government to protect political dissent and prohibits interfering with it — published my column with the two and a half most important paragraphs removed. Continue reading.

Oregon governor announces “phased withdrawal” of federal agents from Portland

Axios logoThe Trump administration has agreed to a “phased withdrawal” of Customs and Border Protection and ICE agents from Portland, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) announced on Wednesday.

Why it matters: The news comes after weeks of violent clashes between protesters and federal law enforcement deployed by the Trump administration to protect Portland’s federal courthouse.

  • Democrats have accused federal law enforcement of escalating violence against civilians and detaining protesters in unmarked vehicles.
  • Attorney General Bill Barr, echoing other Trump top officials, said Tuesday that protesters’ nightly attacks on the courthouse are “an assault on the government of the United States.” Continue reading.

Trump’s Brutal Response To Protest Violence Undermines ‘Law And Order’

Donald Trump, whose 2016 presidential campaign was consciously modeled after Richard Nixon’s 1968 run, seems to think he can win reelection by emulating his predecessor’s appeal to a “silent majority” disgusted by raucous anti-war protests. Trump is offering voters a choice between his firm hand and the pusillanimity of “liberal Democrats” who let “violent anarchists” run wild in the streets.

Notwithstanding Trump’s pose as “your president of law and order,” his heavy-handed reaction to the protests triggered by George Floyd’s death represents neither. In response to largely peaceful demonstrations against police brutality that have been punctuated by criminal behavior, he has deployed his own brand of lawlessness, including arbitrary arrests and the disproportionate, indiscriminate use of force.

Billy Williams, the U.S. attorney for Oregon, is well aware of the crimes committed by some people drawn to the protests Portland has seen every day since May 28. He notes that the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse has been vandalized repeatedly and that federal agents assigned to protect the building “have been subjected to threats; aerial fireworks including mortars; high intensity lasers targeting officers’ eyes; (and) thrown rocks, bottles, and balloons filled with paint.” Continue reading.

A ‘Wall of Vets’ Joins the Front Lines of Portland Protests

New York Times logoMilitary veterans said they banded together to protect the free speech of demonstrators.

PORTLAND, Ore. — A week after federal officers in Portland, Ore., brutally struck a Navy veteran who said he had approached them simply to ask a question, a group of military veterans on Friday joined the front lines of the city’s growing protests.

Duston Obermeyer, a Marine Corps veteran, said he and other veterans were there to make sure federal officers did not infringe on the free speech of protesters, who numbered in the thousands.

“Our veterans are here specifically to support the rights of the protesters to protest,” said Mr. Obermeyer, who said he had deployed three times during a decade in the Marines. Continue reading.