Slashing Medicaid and opening door to other limits


President Trump’s first major budget proposal on Tuesday will include massive cuts to Medicaid and call for changes to anti-poverty programs that would give states new power to limit a range of benefits, people familiar with the planning said, despite growing unease in Congress about cutting the safety net.

For Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health care to low-income Americans, Trump’s budget plan would follow through on a bill passed by House Republicans to cut more than $800 billion over 10 years. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that this could cut off Medicaid benefits for about 10 million people over the next decade.

The White House also will call for giving states more flexibility to impose work requirements for people in different kinds of anti-poverty programs, people familiar with the budget plan said, potentially leading to a flood of changes in states led by conservative governors. Many anti-poverty programs have elements that are run by both the states and federal government, and a federal order allowing states to stiffen work requirements could have a broad impact in terms of limiting who can access anti-poverty payments — and for how long.

Numerous social-welfare programs grew after the financial crisis, leading to complaints from many Republicans that more should be done to shift people out of these programs and back into the workforce. Shortly after he was sworn in, Trump said, “We want to get our people off welfare and back to work. . . . It’s out of control.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-to-propose-big-cuts-to-safety-net-in-new-budget-this-week/2017/05/21/62c01f44-3e34-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?pushid=5921fb7f8a38f24c00000006&tid=notifi_push_breaking-news&utm_term=.69d7c492133e

"You have to put your head down and fight, fight, fight,'' he told the cadets. "Never, ever, ever give up. Things will work out just fine. Look at the way I've been treated lately – especially by the media. No politician in history – and I say this with great surety – has been treated worse or more unfairly. You can't let them get you down.''

http://www.courant.com/politics/hc-trump-coast-guard-commencement-20170516-story.html

After an astonishing week of revelations, Donald Trump’s presidency appears to be on the verge of collapse.

Consider what has happened just in the last 10 days: a string of damaging stories about a president unprecedented since at least the Nixon administration.

---

This drip-drip of legal changes hints at why Trump faces a different challenge in recovering from his present situation than he did from bouncing back on the campaign, or during his famously up-and-down business career. As a businessman, Trump could cut bait or declare bankruptcy and start over again. As a candidate, he could simply change the subject, or wait for Hillary Clinton to hand him a gift. As president, however, there is no bankruptcy and no way to walk away. Legal investigations are slow and methodical, but they are also harder to distract than voter attention. If anyone can survive the present crisis, it must be Trump. But he seems increasingly frustrated and hard-pressed for ideas that don’t make his situation worse.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/all-the-kings-men/526980/

Don’t Impeach: The Liberal Case for Not Removing Trump

Democrats are excited. They are beginning to sense that they have Donald Trump right where they want him.

And they do. Trump is doing more damage to himself and his party every day. Every new stupid statement, every new blunder, and every new scandal make it more and more likely that Democrats will win big in 2018 and 2020.

-----

Even if it were possible—and I still maintain, with 24 House Republicans and 19 Republican Senators needed, that it is highly unlikely—the absolute stupidest, most self-defeating thing Democrats can push for right now is the impeachment and removal of President Trump.

No. Keep him in office. Politically, Trump is the goose that’s laying a treasure trove of golden eggs. Let him spend four years making such a toxic wreck of the Republican Party that disgusted voters won’t want to get anywhere near the GOP for a decade. Let him finish the job that George W. Bush started and turn the party into a smoldering ruin at last.

http://observer.com/2017/05/why-democrats-should-not-wish-for-trump-impeachment/

So Donald Trump fired James Comey because the FBI director mistreated Hillary Clinton last summer over her use of private emails.

Stop laughing.

Trump takes us for chumps. The Republic is nothing to him but a crap game. And he loads the dice.

In this case, he signs the letter dismissing Comey and hands it to his personal bodyguard to take over to the FBI office. But Comey isn’t there. He’s in Los Angeles, where he will hear on television that he has been dumped — and at first think it’s a practical joke. We are not making this up.

http://billmoyers.com/story/must-have-special-prosecutor-comey-trump/#.WRNDKuF7HSA.twitter

FBI director James Comey generated national headlines last week with his dramatic testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, explaining his “incredibly painful” decision to go public about the Hillary Clinton emails found on Anthony Weiner’s laptop.

Perhaps Comey’s most surprising revelation was that Huma Abedin — Weiner’s wife and a top Clinton deputy — had made “a regular practice” of forwarding “hundreds and thousands” of Clinton messages to her husband, “some of which contain classified information.” Comey testified that Abedin had done this so that the disgraced former congressman could print them out for her boss. (Weiner’s laptop was seized after he came under criminal investigation for sex crimes, following a media report about his online relationship with a teenager.)

-------

The problem: Much of what Comey said about this was inaccurate. Now the FBI is trying to figure out what to do about it.

FBI officials have privately acknowledged that Comey misstated what Abedin did and what the FBI investigators found. On Monday, the FBI was said to be preparing to correct the record by sending a letter to Congress later this week. But that plan now appears on hold, with the bureau undecided about what to do.

https://www.propublica.org/article/comeys-testimony-on-huma-abedin-forwarding-emails-was-inaccurate?utm_campaign=sprout&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=1494298184