Tag: Trump Administration

Kansas Tried a Tax Plan Similar to Trump’s. It Failed.

The following article by Jim Tankersley was posted on the New York Times website October 10, 2017:

Gov. Sam Brownback, center, signed the tax bill into law in May 2012. The law cut individual income taxes and eliminated state income taxes entirely for pass-through entities in an attempt to attract investment and create jobs. Credit Thad Allton/Topeka Capital-Journal, via Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. — In December 2014, the University of Kansas agreed to pay David Beaty $800,000 a year, plus incentives, to be the football program’s head coach, but with an interesting structure: More than two-thirds of that pay would be channeled to an organization called DB Sports L.L.C.

DB Sports is what accountants call a pass-through entity, and it pays all of its profits directly to Mr. Beaty. As a result of a tax law that Kansas lawmakers passed in 2012, ostensibly to benefit beleaguered small businesses in the state, that contract structure allowed Mr. Beaty to avoid paying about $37,000 a year in state income taxes, nearly enough to fund a first-year teacher’s salary in the Wichita school district. Continue reading “Kansas Tried a Tax Plan Similar to Trump’s. It Failed.”

Pence’s trip to Colts game cost more than $200,000: report

The following article by Jacqueline Thomsen was posted on the Hill website October 9, 2017:

Vice President Pence’s travel to and from the Indianapolis Colts game he walked out of Sunday is estimated to have cost taxpayers more than $200,000, CNN reported Monday.

Pence flew from Las Vegas to the game in Indianapolis Sunday, before flying to California later Sunday afternoon.

According to the report, the aircraft Pence used to travel, the C-32, costs about $30,000 an hour to operate. His flight to Indianapolis took about 3 hours and 20 minutes, and his flight to Los Angeles was about 4 hours and 45 minutes. Continue reading “Pence’s trip to Colts game cost more than $200,000: report”

Trump and the White House don’t acknowledge Native Americans in push not to ‘erase’ Columbus’s legacy

The following article by Eugene Scott was posted on the Washington Post website October 9, 2017:

A member of the Dakota Nation (Sioux) tribe arrives at the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples outside the United Nations in Manhattan in 2013. (Adrees Latifs/Reuters)

A growing number of Americans are rethinking how they should talk about Italian explorer Christopher Columbus on the October day designated to honor his voyage. But the Trump campaign is not joining them.

Instead, the campaign is doubling down on honoring the colonizer who is increasingly being scrutinized for his mistreatment of Native Americans and African slaves.

The president’s reelection campaign is having a Columbus Day sale to allow customers supportive of the navigator’s voyage (which did not make it to what is now the United States of America) to purchase the “Make America Great Again” merchandise of their choice for a discounted price. Continue reading “Trump and the White House don’t acknowledge Native Americans in push not to ‘erase’ Columbus’s legacy”

A ‘pressure cooker’: Trump’s frustration and fury rupture alliances, threaten agenda

The following article by Robert Costa, Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post website October 9, 2017:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) called the White House “an adult day care center,” but he isn’t the only senator who has questioned President Trump’s temperament. (Video: Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Frustrated by his Cabinet and angry that he has not received enough credit for his handling of three successive hurricanes, President Trump is now lashing out, rupturing alliances and imperiling his legislative agenda, numerous White House officials and outside advisers said Monday.

In a matter of days, Trump has torched bridges all around him, nearly imploded an informal deal with Democrats to protect young undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, and plunged himself into the culture wars on issues ranging from birth control to the national anthem. Continue reading “A ‘pressure cooker’: Trump’s frustration and fury rupture alliances, threaten agenda”

Trump administration releases hard-line immigration principles, threatening deal on ‘dreamers’

The following article by David Nakamura was posted on the Washington Post website October 8, 2017:

The Trump administration released a list of hard-line immigration principles Oct. 8, which could threaten to derail a deal in Congress to protect “dreamers” from deportation. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

The Trump administration released a list of hard-line immigration principles late Sunday that threaten to derail a deal in Congress to allow hundreds of thousands of younger undocumented immigrants to remain in the country legally.

The administration’s wish list includes the funding of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a crackdown on the influx of Central American minors and curbs on federal grants to “sanctuary cities,” according to a document distributed to Congress and obtained by The Washington Post. Continue reading “Trump administration releases hard-line immigration principles, threatening deal on ‘dreamers’”

Ken Starr predicts indictments in Russia probe

The following article by Brandon Carter was posted on the Hill website October 7, 2017:

Ken Starr, the former independent counsel in the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals during Bill Clinton’s presidency, predicted Saturday that there would likely be indictments in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russia’s election meddling.

“Given what we do know, especially given what happened this summer with respect to the FBI’s intrusion into Paul Manafort’s condominium, in light of the revelations that we’ve seen about General Flynn, I have a sense that there will in fact be indictments,” Starr said on CNN’s “Smerconish,” referring to President Trump’s former campaign chairman and his first national security adviser, respectively. Continue reading “Ken Starr predicts indictments in Russia probe”

Trump’s tax plan gives Wall Street everything it wants — and that’s bad news for them

The following post by Matt O’Brien was posted on the Washington Post website October 6, 2017:

Credit: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

President Trump is trying to give Wall Street what it’s always wanted: tax cuts. But doing that might take away what it’s always had: the Republican Party.

That, you see, is a pretty good description of Trump’s tax plan. It would bestow almost all of its benefits on the Republican donors at the very top of the income ladder, and it would pay for some of this largesse by actually raising taxes on the Republican voters a couple of rungs below that. Indeed, by 2027, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that the top 1 percent would be receiving 79.7 percent of all the Trump tax cuts, while the 80th to 95th percentile of households would be getting negative 5 percent. Marxists might call this “heightening the contradictions” — making things worse for people so they’ll join the revolution. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) describes it as a plan whose “purpose” is to “help the middle class.” You say tomayto, I say tomahto. Continue reading “Trump’s tax plan gives Wall Street everything it wants — and that’s bad news for them”

Courts Thwart Administration’s Effort to Rescind Obama-Era Environmental Regulations

The following article by Eric Lipton was posted on the New York Times website October 6, 2017:

Flaring is a technique oil and gas companies use to burn off leaking methane but is blamed for its contributions to climate change. Credit Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The rapid-fire push by the Trump administration to wipe out significant chunks of the Obama environmental legacy is running into a not-so-minor complication: Judges keep ruling that the Trump team is violating federal law.

The latest such ruling came late Wednesday, when a federal magistrate judge in Northern California vacated a move by the Department of Interior to delay compliance with rules curbing so-called flaring, a technique oil and gas companies use to burn off leaking methane. Flaring is blamed for contributing to climate change as well as lost tax revenues because the drilling is being done on federal land. Continue reading “Courts Thwart Administration’s Effort to Rescind Obama-Era Environmental Regulations”

Trump administration narrows Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate

The following article by Amy Goldstein, Juliet Eilperin and WIlliam Wan was posted on the Washington Post website October 6, 2017:

The Trump administration is limiting the Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage mandate. Here’s what you need to know. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)

The Trump administration issued rules Friday that immediately carve broad exceptions to the Affordable Care Act’s promise of no-cost contraceptive coverage, touching off fresh lawsuits and renewed debate about the proper scope of religious liberty.

The rules significantly widen the range of employers and insurers that can invoke religious or moral beliefs to avoid the ACA requirement that birth control pills and other contraceptives be covered by insurance as part of preventive care. Administration officials and their allies on the right downplayed the impact of the change on American women, while women’s rights and civil liberties groups portrayed it as a massive, discriminatory act. Continue reading “Trump administration narrows Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate”

For Tillerson, Diplomatic Breakthrough With Trump Proves Elusive

The following article by Peter Baker was posted on the New York Times website October 5, 2017:

Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson held a hastily called news conference on Wednesday to deny that he was thinking of resigning. Credit Cliff Owen/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — When Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson traveled to Saudi Arabia with President Trump last spring, he impressed hosts and visitors alike by swaying along with the traditional men’s dancers swathed in white robes and brandishing swords. “Not my first sword dance,” Mr. Tillerson deadpanned afterward.

Indeed, the calculation behind Mr. Tillerson’s appointment was that he could parlay decades of experience as an oil executive brokering deals in the Middle East and elsewhere into success in the nation’s top diplomatic post. But as Mr. Tillerson has discovered, the most important target of any secretary of state’s diplomacy is the president he serves. Continue reading “For Tillerson, Diplomatic Breakthrough With Trump Proves Elusive”