Trump Declares War On The Poor — And Republicans Cheer
This move comes as outgoing House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said in interviews that it is the social services network that has made a trillion-dollar federal debt “inevitable.” Ryan said, “These deficit trillion-dollar projections have been out there for a long, long time. Why? Because of mandatory spending which we call entitlements,” he told NBC’s Chuck Todd.
Fake Deficit Hawk Paul Ryan Will Leave US With $1 Trillion Deficit
Retiring Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will leave two distinct legacies: a weak Trump enabler, and a policy fraud. Ryan simply lacked the moral and political courage to stand up to Trump and his reckless, dangerous, hateful ways. Scared of offending Trump supporters, Ryan submitted and let Trump run wild, completely unchecked by the Republican Party or by the Congress Ryan runs.
Behind The Wave Of Red-State Teacher Walkouts
An official strike date hasn’t been set, but the teachers, following the playbooks from West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky, have staged multiple protests in individual districts and at the state capitol in Phoenix for the last five weeks, using the #RedforEd hashtag on Twitter to announce and document their protests.
Is Trump Plotting Unconstitutional Line-Item Veto?
In mere days, Trump’s ridiculous and unconstitutional demand for a line-item veto has morphed into a secret project to subvert our founding documents. On Friday, during a press event to sign an omnibus spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown, Trump said, “To prevent the omnibus situation from ever happening again, I’m calling on Congress to give me a line-item veto for all government spending bills.”
Austerity’s Ghost: How Pete Peterson Will Keep Haunting Out Future
Peter G. “Pete” Peterson, the billionaire businessman and anti-government crusader, died last week at the age of 91. He leaves behind family and friends who will miss him, and a vast coterie of consultants and politicians who may miss his checks even more. They can take comfort from the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley: “He doth not sleep/he hath awakened from the dream of life …”
Conservatives Are Angry Trump Didn’t Veto Spending Bill
The legislation avoids a government shutdown and keeps the government running until September, but deficit hawks attacked the president for signing one of the largest increases in federal spending in years. Conservatives also attacked the president for signing a bill that failed to fully fund a wall on the southern border.
Trump Signs Budget Bill That Leaves Americans Seething
Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle turned up empty-handed when Trump reluctantly signed an omnibus spending bill that didn’t include sufficient funds for his border wall, doesn’t defund “sanctuary cities,” nor provide any solution on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
New Spending Bill Denies Funding To Trump’s Border Wall
Congress is rushing to pass a massive omnibus spending bill by the end of the week to avoid a government shutdown. One thing that the bill, which will keep the government open through September, won’t fund is Trump’s long-promised border wall.
Congress Races To Pass Spending Bill
“The president had a discussion with [House] Speaker [Paul] Ryan and [Senate Majority] Leader [Mitch] McConnell, where they talked about their shared priorities secured in the omnibus spending bill,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.
Trump’s Cronies Protect You By Wasting Your Money
It is difficult to catalog the ways in which President Donald J. Trump and his minions are damaging the fabric of American civic life simply because there are so many, large and small. He and his crew have normalized behaviors that have been judged out of bounds throughout our history, so that we no longer even notice some outrages that would have dominated headlines just a year or two ago.
Kellyanne Conway Took Expensive Private Jets, Too
Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway took private flights with former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price last year at the cost of thousands of dollars to taxpayers, according to a letter sent by a high-ranking Democrat Tuesday. He also accused the White House of denying the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested documentation of Conway’s trips.
Taxpayers—Not Big Pharma—Have Funded The Research Behind Every New Drug Since 2010
Trump’s original spending proposal for fiscal year 2019, released last month, included major cuts to not just to the NIH, but the National Science Foundation as well. It is those two publicly funded entities—not Big Pharma—that support the bulk of the country’s basic research into diseases and pathways to new treatments.
5 Other Outrageous Spenders In Trump’s Cabinet Besides Ben Carson
There are especially bad times for a government agency to spend $31,561 on a table and chairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development learned after The New York Times reported on Tuesday that it spent as much on a dining room set for Secretary Ben Carson’s office in late 2017.
Paul Krugman: The Bad Faith Of Republicans Is Endless
Earlier this week, the Trump administration released a $4.4 trillion budget proposal that calls for a massive increase in military spending along with cuts to programs for food stamps and basic school safety, among other essential social services. The proposal would also blow up the federal deficit over the next decade, but of course Republicans have never been the fiscal hawks they claim to be.
Trump’s Military Parade Could Cost Up To $30 Million
President Donald Trump’s proposal to hold a large-scale military parade in Washington, with marching soldiers and rows of tanks and armored vehicles, could cost as much as $30 million, according to Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.
Trump’s Wacky Right-Wing ‘Blue Apron’ Scheme
The Trump White House’s newly proposed budget is (like all White House budget proposals) more of a political document than anything else. It has no actual bearing on how the government will spend its money, and Congress will almost certainly ignore it.
Skewed Priorities, Massive Deficits In Trump Budget
The $7.1 trillion added to the deficit over the next decade by this budget proposal assumes an ambitious rate of growth of at least 3 percent each year. If the economy is less strong before 2029, that number could get a lot higher. One estimate shows that the national debt could grow to $30 trillion in a decade if the plan is enacted as is.
Trump’s Pick To Head IRS Is An Expert At Tax Avoidance
You might think that a former IRS executive or a prosecutor with experience in tax cases or a state tax administrator or another person whose job is to look out for the interests of the taxpayers generally, not individual taxpayers, would be a logical choice. Not in Trumpland.
The Trump ‘Faithful’ Get the Budget Cuts They Voted For
As for blue-collar whites who voted for Trump and are now having second thoughts, it’s not quite correct that they were “scammed,” as many Trump foes argue. Those who bought into his assurances — “I’m taking care of my people” — willingly ignored the piled-high evidence. This is a man who makes a sport of lying.
Trump’s Budget Endangers Those It Claims To Help The Most
The entire function of the CSB, which Mulvaney claims Americans want abolished, is worker and public safety. It investigates catastrophic incidents and recommends changes to prevent recurrence. It doesn’t fine corporations or revoke licenses. It advocates for safety. Its annual budget is $11 million. Not billion, $11 million.
Federal Funding For NPR Threatened Under Trump’s Budget
In President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for 2018, which was released Thursday, the president was looking to shave off money from the federal budget to make room for a $54 billion increase in defense funding. And one potential item on the chopping block was the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which provides federal funding to NPR.
Trump Budget Calls For Slashing Biomedical And Science Research Funding
Funding for the NIH has been a bipartisan priority for years; one of Trump’s key advisers, former Representative Newt Gingrich, has long championed that cause. It was just two years ago, in fact, that Gingrich called for doubling the NIH budget, calling health spending both a moral and a financial imperative. “It’s irresponsible and shortsighted, not prudent, to let financing for basic research dwindle,” Gingrich wrote then.
Trump’s Contentious ‘Skinny Budget’ Is Unlikely To Pass Congress
Get out your calendars and mark a circle around March 16. That’s the date when Congress expects President Donald Trump to present his “skinny budget” outline for the upcoming fiscal year.
White House, Govt Agencies To Talk On Plans In Case Of Shutdown
The White House budget office was slated to hold a call with U.S. government agencies on Friday to plan for a government shutdown in case the U.S. Congress fails to pass a short-term funding bill by a deadline next week.
We Urgently Need To Mend Our Broken Infrastructure
A significant portion of our nation’s public transit vehicles have outlived their “maximum useful life,” as determined by the federal government, including 31 percent of commuter rail cars and 33 percent of subway cars.