Tag: Trump wants to be a dictator

ICYMI – Trump admits he’s blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA – Yesterday, President Donald Trump said the quiet part loud when he admitted to sabotaging the United States Postal Service in order to stop more Americans from safely and securely casting their ballots by mail, like Trump himself just signed up to do. 

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Associated Press: Trump admits he’s blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes

By Deb Riechmann and Anthony Izaguirre. 8/13/20

President Donald Trump frankly acknowledged Thursday that he’s starving the U.S. Postal Service of money in order to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots, which he worries could cost him the election.

In an interview on Fox Business Network, Trump explicitly noted two funding provisions that Democrats are seeking in a relief package that has stalled on Capitol Hill. Without the additional money, he said, the Postal Service won’t have the resources to handle a flood of ballots from voters who are seeking to avoid polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.

Continue reading “ICYMI – Trump admits he’s blocking postal cash to stop mail-in votes”

Experts Warn Trump Plan Hinders Crucial Reporting Of Coronavirus Data

In a memo sent by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on July 10, hospitals in the United States were ordered to start reporting COVID-19 patient information to a new centralized database set up by President Donald Trump’s administration. And now, according to the New York Times, 34 current and former members of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee are warning that the requirement is burdensome for hospitals and will have “serious consequences on data integrity.”

The Times reports that members expressed their concerns in a previously unpublished July 31 letter that reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg has obtained. In the letter, Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee members fear that the change had hospitals “scrambling to determine how to meet daily reporting requirements.”

They explained:

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Advisers Consider Whether Trump Can Cut Taxes Without Congress

New York Times logo

Trump’s lawyers and economic advisers have studied how far they could stretch executive authority to set tax policy, though the legality of any cuts is dubious.

WASHINGTON — White House officials have explored whether President Trump has the power to sidestep Congress and unilaterally cut a broad swath of taxes as the president looks for ways to inject fuel into a slumping economy, according to a senior administration official.

While such a move is not imminent, Mr. Trump’s advisers have sought legal guidance from White House lawyers about whether the president has the authority to eliminate certain taxes, including income and business taxes, without the approval of Congress.

The discussions about how much power the president can wield over tax policy come as Mr. Trump prepares to delay payroll taxesfor some workers until the end of the year. But unlike that move, which simply defers what workers owe until some point in the future, the White House is discussing whether the president can actually eliminate taxes owed by businesses, workers and investors. Continue reading.

Mail sorting equipment being ‘removed’ from post offices, leaving mail to ‘pile up’: union leader

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Mail sorting equipment is being removed from U.S. Postal Service (USPS) offices amid a slew of operational changes implemented by new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, according to the head of the Iowa Postal Workers Union.

Numerous reports have detailed how changes made by DeJoy, a top donor to President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, have cut overtime and changed policies, which have slowed down mail delivery across the country. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said last week that DeJoy had “confirmed that contrary to prior denials and statements minimizing these changes, the Postal Service recently instituted operational changes” shortly after he assumed office.

“We believe these changes, made during the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, now threaten the timely delivery of mail — including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers, and absentee ballots for voters — that is essential to millions of Americans,” they wrote in a letter to DeJoy, calling the cost-cutting measures “counterproductive and unacceptable.” Continue reading.

Trump’s re-election plan is straight out of the dictator’s playbook

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The single most consistent defining characteristic of an emerging dictatorship in a country that started as a democracy is that the dictator regularly holds elections and always wins, because he uses the instruments of government to make sure he wins.

Trump has now done this with the Justice Department, the Post Office, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Reserve, and our intelligence agencies.

Over at Justice, Attorney General Bill Barr has already said that he intends to investigate Joe Biden and his son’s activities in Ukraine and may report on that just before the election. Continue reading.

Here’s what is actually in Trump’s four executive orders

Washington Post logoThe details on payroll taxes, unemployment and evictions are not as generous as he made them sound.

President Trump took the unusual — and highly controversial — step Saturday of attempting to provide additional economic relief to millions of Americans on his own, without the approval of Congress.

At his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., Trump announced he was postponing payroll taxes through the end of the year, extending the unemployment “bonus” at $400 a week (down from $600), helping people “stay in their homes” and waiving student debt payments through the end of 2020. The details, however, are not as generous as he made them sound.

He is ordering a payroll tax deferral, not a cut, meaning the taxes won’t be collected for a while but they will still be due at a later date. On housing, he instructs key officials to “consider” whether there should be a ban on evictions. He also insists that state governments pick up the tab for some of the unemployment aid. Continue reading.

Trump walks off in a huff after reporter confronts him over lie he’s told more than 150 times

AlterNet logoI don’t know why this hasn’t been happening for five years now, but thank you, thank you, thank you Paula Reid.

I’m sure you’ve heard the one about Donald Trump passing the Veterans Choice Act, which no other president could do for 50 years except, it turns out, Barack Obama, who actually signed it in 2014. And not only that, the law — which gives veterans the option of seeking care outside the VA system — was championed by Trump’s two favorite people, Crazy Bernie Sanders and Loser John McCain.

Well, a tough, intelligent woman reporter — the kind Donald Trump likes the mostest! — just called him out on this fairy tale, which, as CNN notes, Trump has told some version of more than 150 times. And, as usual, he acted like a diaper rash with a baby attached to it. Continue reading.

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.

Lacking rallies, Trump takes White House work on the road

The Hill logoPresident Trump has long blurred the lines between campaigning and governing, but he is taking that fusion to new levels as the coronavirus pandemic precludes his signature large-scale rallies.

Trump has used official White House travel to visit swing states in recent weeks and give de facto campaign speeches in front of friendly audiences. He spoke from behind the presidential seal at airports in Florida and Ohio to supporters who gathered on the tarmac to greet him, and an event at a Whirlpool factory on Thursday ostensibly meant to highlight the nation’s economic recovery during the pandemic veered sharply into reelection territory.

Political scientists and advisers to the president argue he has little choice but to try and get on the road in some form to generate enthusiasm and boost his reelection changes. Continue reading.