May 2, 2018

The Republican Party Is Exposing Its Own Policy-Making Screw-Ups

But the concessions it’s making aren’t quite what you’d think.

MATT LEWIS
05.02.18 5:04 AM ET

Two major Republican figures have now undercut tax reform—the party’s signature legislative achievement of the Trump era.

But the truth former health and human services secretary Tom Price and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) exposed in their respective criticisms is not what many Democrats would like voters to think. The problem, they suggest, is not with the merits of the bill, but with the failure of the Republican Party to level with the public about the tradeoffs involved in getting there.

Let’s start with Price. Not long ago, he was advocating getting rid of the individual mandate. But now that it’s gone—via the overhaul of the tax reform bill—he is warning about the potential for rising health care costs.

“There are many, and I am one of them, who believes that that actually will harm the pool in the exchange market because you’ll likely have individuals who are younger and healthier not participating in that market,” Price said in a speech on Tuesday. “And, consequently, that drives up the cost for other folks in that market.”

This is not exactly a blaring-siren moment. It was always feared that removing the mandate for healthy young people to purchase insurance while keeping the provision requiring insurance companies to cover sick people would lead to “adverse selection.”

more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-republican-party-is-exposing-its-own-policy-making-screw-ups?ref=home

May 2, 2018

South Korea says US troops will stay despite possible peace treaty

Source: BBC



6 hours ago

South Korea's government has said US troops will remain in the country, even if a deal is reached to formally end the Korean War.

About 29,000 US soldiers are based in South Korea, under a security agreement reached after the war ended in 1953.

North Korea has previously made giving up its nuclear weapons conditional on the troops leaving the peninsula.

But a South Korean government spokesman said their presence was "nothing to do with signing peace treaties".

"US troops stationed in South Korea are an issue regarding the alliance between South Korea and the United States," said Kim Eui-kyeom, speaking for President Moon Jae-in.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43971847

May 1, 2018

Lobbyist helped broker Scott Pruitt's $100,000 trip to Morocco

Source: The Washington Post




By Kevin Sullivan, Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis May 1 at 5:22 PM

MARRAKESH, Morocco — A controversial trip to Morocco by Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt last December was partly arranged by a longtime friend and lobbyist, who accompanied Pruitt and his entourage at multiple stops and served as an informal liaison at both official and social events during the visit.

Richard Smotkin, a former Comcast lobbyist who has known the EPA administrator for years, worked for months with Pruitt’s aides to hammer out logistics, according to four individuals familiar with those preparations. In April, Smotkin won a $40,000-a-month contract, retroactive to Jan. 1, with the Moroccan government to promote the kingdom’s cultural and economic interests. He recently registered as a foreign agent representing that government.

The four-day journey has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and the EPA inspector general, who is investigating its high costs and whether it adhered to the agency’s mission to “protect human health and the environment.”

Information obtained by The Washington Post shows the visit’s cost exceeded $100,000, more than twice what has been previously reported — including $16,217 for Pruitt’s Delta airfare and $494 for him to spend one night at a luxury hotel in Paris. He was accompanied by eight staffers and his round-the-clock security detail.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lobbyist-helped-broker-pruitts-100000-trip-to-morocco/2018/05/01/b2e20ee0-4d76-11e8-b725-92c89fe3ca4c_story.html

May 1, 2018

Trump appears to have robbed his doctor's office and violated New York medical law: MSNBC analyst

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/trump-appears-robbed-doctors-office-violated-new-york-medical-law-msnbc-analyst/

May 1, 2018

TMZ journalist slams Kanye West to his face for saying slavery was 'a choice'

‘The absence of thought’: TMZ journalist slams Kanye West to his face for saying slavery was ‘a choice’

BOB BRIGHAM
01 MAY 2018 AT 16:17 ET

Controversial musician Kayne West joined TMZ Newsroom to try and rehabilitate his image after his tweetstorm praising President Donald Trump.

Harvey Levin asked West, who is married to Kim Kardishan, about the message he was trying to send by donning a “Make America Great Again” hat in support of President Trump.

-snip-

West expounded on his support for Trump by suggesting forced slavery is a conspiracy theory and that in practice, it was a choice by blacks.

“When you hear about slavery for 400 years, for 400 years? That sounds like a choice,” West argued. “Like, you was there for 400 years and it’s all of y’all?”

Not everyone was impressed with West continuing to defend Trump.

“I actually don’t think you’re thinking anything,” shouted Van Lathan, from the TMZ newsroom, as he stood up. “I think what you’re doing right now is actually the absence of thought.”

more + video
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/absence-thought-tmz-journalist-slams-kanye-west-face-saying-slavery-choice/

May 1, 2018

Rosenstein On Impeachment Threat: The DOJ 'Is Not Going To Be Extorted'

Source: Talking Points Memo




By Kate Riga | May 1, 2018 3:18 pm

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said that the Department of Justice “is not going to be extorted” and that he has no response to documents that “nobody has the courage to put their name on” in response to inquiries about the articles of impeachment the House Freedom Caucus is drafting to possibly bring against him.

Watch below:

https://twitter.com/Kate_Riga24/status/991394955124969472

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Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rosenstein-says-doj-will-not-be-extorted

May 1, 2018

Sarah Sanders: White House 'raid' on Trump's former doctor is 'standard operating procedure'

Source: RawStory



DAVID EDWARDS
01 MAY 2018 AT 15:24 ET

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday insisted that President Donald Trump’s former bodyguard was following “standard operating procedure” when he reportedly raided the office of the president’s former doctor.

During Tuesday’s White House briefing, Sanders was asked why former White House staffer Keith Schiller forcibly took President Trump’s records from his former physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein.

“As is standard operating procedure, the White House medical unit took possession of the president’s medical records,” Sanders explained, disputing reports that characterized the incident as a “raid.” One reporter noted that some experts had compared the alleged raid to a “burglary.”

“Once again, it would be standard procedure for the president — a newly elected president’s medical records to be in possession of the White House’s medical unit,” Sanders insisted. “That’s what was taking place. Those records were being transferred over to the White House medical unit as requested by the president.”

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Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/sarah-sanders-white-house-raid-trumps-former-doctor-standard-operating-procedure/

May 1, 2018

On Iran and North Korea, Trump prepares to screw everything up

By Paul Waldman May 1 at 1:27 PM

There are some arguments so dumb only President Trump could take them seriously. That’s the only conclusion you could reach after seeing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s faux-dramatic speech on Monday, in which he literally pulled a sheet off a pile of documents, like a magician unveiling a cage full of doves, to demonstrate Iran’s dishonesty about its nuclear program.

The point of the act was to persuade Trump to pull out of the nuclear agreement negotiated in 2015 between the United States, Iran, China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union, and it just might succeed. Which in turn could make a nuclear agreement with North Korea all but impossible.

As you look around at these high-stakes matters of foreign policy and national security, you quickly realize that everyone, no matter which side they’re on, takes it as a given that the president of the United States is an infantile half-wit, and they must adjust their strategies accordingly.

Let’s start with Netanyahu’s speech. Citing a trove of materials Israeli intelligence acquired in a raid on an Iranian facility, he said he would present “conclusive proof of the secret nuclear weapons program that Iran has been hiding for years from the international community in its secret atomic archive.” The documents show that Iran’s regular protestations that it had never sought nuclear weapons were false. Here’s how he concluded:

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/05/01/on-iran-and-north-korea-trump-prepares-to-screw-everything-up/

May 1, 2018

What's the longest war in American history? Fighting for the right to vote

BY ANGA L. SANDERS, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 05/01/18 03:00 PM EDT 0 THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL

Anga L. Sanders was a Democratic precinct chair in Dallas, Texas where she was deputized to register voters and recently assembled and moderated a panel of young Black female voting rights activists. She is a Public Voices Fellow through The OpEd Project.

"No, Gertrude, you can't go. I might not make it back, and somebody has to stay here and raise these girls."

With those words, my grandfather, farmer James DeWitt Rhoden, left his wife and two daughters in the late 1930s and set off for downtown Quitman, Texas to vote.

He knew that his mission could end his life. As he mounted the tall steps of the Wood County courthouse, a crowd of hostile white men closed in behind him.

"DeWitt! Where do you think you're going?" He never turned around.

Perhaps because they knew he wouldn’t go down alone, my grandfather was allowed to cast his vote and return home to his family. Decades later, my mother (his daughter) related this story to me.

History may record that the longest war in the history of the United States was neither the Vietnam War nor the war in Afghanistan, but the ongoing war against disenfranchisement, which is the denial of the right to vote.

more
http://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/385693-whats-the-longest-war-in-american-history-fighting-for-the-right-to-vote

May 1, 2018

MSNBC host compiles list of White House officials who have reportedly insulted Trump

BY MORGAN GSTALTER - 05/01/18 02:34 PM EDT

https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/991340431161135104

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle on Tuesday put together a list of current and former officials in President Trump's administration who have reportedly insulted the president.

White House chief of staff John Kelly called an NBC News report “total BS” on Monday after it claimed that he has called Trump “an idiot” on multiple occasions.

“This is another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes,” Kelly said in a White House statement on Monday. Ruhle stood by her NBC News team’s reporting on Tuesday, saying “this is not a false story.”

To back up her point, Ruhle rounded up other reports of Trump officials insulting the president.

“John Kelly is not the first member of the Trump administration to call the president names,” she said.

https://twitter.com/JesseRodriguez/status/991326640167968769

more
http://thehill.com/homenews/media/385685-msnbc-host-compiles-list-of-trump-staffers-whove-reportedly-insulted-him