Tag: Trump healthcare

Trump Opens Door to Cuts to Medicare and Other Entitlement Programs

New York Times logoThe president signaled a willingness to scale back Medicare, a shift from his 2016 platform of protecting entitlement programs.

WASHINGTON — President Trump suggested on Wednesday that he would be willing to consider cuts to social safety-net programs like Medicare to reduce the federal deficit if he wins a second term, an apparent shift from his 2016 campaign promise to protect funding for such entitlements.

The president made the comments on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Despite promises to reduce the federal budget deficit, it has ballooned under Mr. Trump’s watch as a result of sweeping tax cuts and additional government spending.

Asked in an interview with CNBC if cuts to entitlements would ever be on his plate, Mr. Trump answered yes. Continue reading.

NOTE:  We noted back with the passage of the Trump/GOP tax cut for the rich, that we’d be seeing this happen “because of the national debt” which has ballooned due to less taxes on corporations (many pay nothing) and the richest of the rich.

Two-Thirds of Americans Say Trump Has Not Helped Them Financially

Trump promised to put more money in people’s pocket. Instead, nearly two-thirds of Americans say they’re not better off financially. Meanwhile, manufacturing is in decline and the unemployment rate continues to increase in key states.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they’re not better off financially than they were when Trump was elected.

Financial Times: “Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they are not better off financially than they were when Donald Trump was elected, casting doubt on whether economic expansion and a record bull market will boost the president’s re-election campaign in 2020. According to a poll of likely voters conducted by the Financial Times and the Peter G Peterson Foundation, 31 percent of Americans say they are now worse off financially than they were at the start of Mr Trump’s presidency. Another 33 per cent say there has been no change in their financial position since Mr Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, while 35 per cent say they are better off.” Continue reading “Two-Thirds of Americans Say Trump Has Not Helped Them Financially”

Falling investment revives attacks against Trump’s tax cuts

The Hill logoThe GOP tax law passed in 2017 was supposed to super charge the economy, but the lack of major impact is spurring critics to renew their attacks against the signature measure from President Trump.

Republicans said the tax law would help the economy through several avenues, including by sending business investment soaring. But just 15 months after it took effect, business investment has actually been contracting, falling 1 percent and 3 percent in the past two quarters.

Republicans who supported the tax law are blaming Trump’s trade war with China as the reason why it failed to have the intended impact.

View the complete November 10 article by Niv Elis on The Hill website here.

Company insiders are selling stock during buyback programs and making additional profits when stock prices jump. And it’s legal.

Washington Post logoIn February 2017, the company behind the hit games Candy Crush and Call of Duty signaled optimism in its future and announced a $1 billion program to buy back its own shares — and investors responded by buying heavily.

But few of them could know that as they were buying, insiders at the mobile gaming titan Activision Blizzard were selling, and taking home additional profits as the stock price jumped.

On Feb. 10, a day after the company announced the buyback plan, Bobby Kotick, Activision’s chief executive, sold nearly 4 million shares for $180.8 million. The average share price of his sales was 15 percent higher than he would have gotten before the stock rose on the news.

View the complete November 6 article by Gary Putka on The Washington Post website here.

‘GOP Tax Scam 2.0’: Warnings as Trump pushes another round of tax cuts ahead of presidential election

AlterNet logoSparking warnings that the Republican Party is preparing another massive gift for the rich and corporations, the Washington Post reported Thursday that President Donald Trump is “agitating to announce a new tax cut proposal heading into the 2020 election.”

According to the Post, the tax cut discussions are being led by National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, a “Wall Street cheerleader” and fervent believer in the discredited idea of trickle-down economics.

“The early-stage discussions reflect Trump’s desire to refocus the economic narrative amid some signs of a slowing economy,” the Post reported.

View the complete November 1 article by Jake Johnson from Common Dreams on the AlterNet website here.

How a Trump Tax Break to Help Poor Communities Became a Windfall for the Rich

New York Times logoNEW ORLEANS — President Trump has portrayed America’s cities as wastelands, ravaged by crime and homelessness, infested by rats.

But the Trump administration’s signature plan to lift them — a multibillion-dollar tax break that is supposed to help low-income areas — has fueled a wave of developments financed by and built for the wealthiest Americans.

Among the early beneficiaries of the tax incentive are billionaire financiers like Leon Cooperman and business magnates like Sidney Kohl — and Mr. Trump’s family members and advisers.

View the complete August 31 article by Jesse Drucker and Eric Lipton on The New York Times website here.

‘Trumponomics has utterly failed’: Paul Krugman details why the GOP’s economic worldview has collapsed

AlterNet logoIt’s often taken for granted that, whatever else you might say about President Donald Trump, he has at least been good for the U.S. economy. That, many argue, is the fact that may lead to his re-election in 2020.

Except this uncritically accepted pearl of conventional wisdom is quite dubious, as many experts in economics would tell you.

One of those experts, Trump-appointed Fed Chair Jerome Powell, even announced a cut to interest rates this week in light of weak business investment in the economy and the uncertainty caused by the president’s trade wars.

Another expert is economist Paul Krugman, who wrote in a new piece for the New York Times Thursday: “Obviously Powell couldn’t say in so many words that Trumponomics has been a big flop, but that was the subtext of his remarks. And Trump’s frantic efforts to bully the Fed into bigger cuts are an implicit admission of the same thing.”

View the complete August 2 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

DFL Statement on the Anniversary of the GOP’s Senate Health Care Vote

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – Two years ago today, the Senate rejected Trump’s health care bill that would have spiked costs and jeopardized coverage for Minnesotans with preexisting conditions. Ken Martin, Chairman of the Minnesota DFL, issued the following statement:

“Donald Trump’s relentless effort to strip Minnesotans of their health care and spike their costs is not only irresponsible, it’s cruel. Their efforts haven’t stopped either: after failing to get their way in Congress, Trump and his allies are trying to use the courts to continue their sabotage of our health care system.

“Democrats are working to defend and expand Americans’ access to health care. We know that it’s unacceptable for families to be forced to choose between food on the table and having access to the health care they need. The contrast between the parties on this issue is crystal clear and voters will hold Trump and the GOP accountable in 2020.”