Tag: criticism
U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA).

Senators Roast Trump's FDA Chief Over Fired Scientists

The Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary, came under strong criticism for his inconsistent remarks before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee after the accuracy of his claims related to terminated scientists and others was called into question by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA).

"You were asked on April 17th whether any of the personnel reductions had included personnel responsible for food safety or infant formula safety," Ossoff told Makary. "You said, quote, 'There were no cuts to scientists or reviewers or inspectors—absolutely none'. You were asked on April 23rd on CNN, and said, quote, 'Again, there were no cuts to scientists or inspectors'."

"But then just two days later, an HHS spokesperson confirmed that in fact, scientists had been fired, and that you were scrambling to rehire them," Ossoff continued. "Did you, in fact, say on April 23d, there were no cuts to scientists or inspectors? Just before we get into the details, is that an accurate quote?"

"No scientific reviewer was cut as part of the reduction in force," replied Makary.

"You said there were no cuts to scientists or inspectors. Didn't you say that?" Ossoff pressed.

"My understanding," Makary replied, "was that there were no cuts to the scientific staff, but specifically the scientific reviewers is what I was referring to."

"But you said there were," Ossoff responded.

A similar back and forth continued for several minutes, then Ossoff asked, "Had, in fact, scientists who study outbreaks of food related illnesses and the safety of infant formula been fired?"

"The reason it's not accurate, Senator, is that people were not fired, they were scheduled for the reduction in force, and when that was before I got there. When I got there, we did an assessment, and so some of those individuals out of the 19,000 were restored," Makary replied.

"Have all scientists responsible for food safety and infant formula safety, been rehired or reinstated?" Ossoff asked.

"Look, we have not reduced in force the scientific review staff. I know where you're going with this," Makary replied.

"You said there were no cuts to scientists, and then the HHS spokesperson said, actually, there were cuts to scientists, and now we're trying to rehire them. I mean, so it gives the impression you're not sure about the personnel actions ongoing in your own agency," said Ossoff.

After more back-and-forth, Ossoff wrapped it up: "You were very specific. You said there were no cuts to scientists. And then five days later, there were cuts to scientists. Those are your direct quotes. There were no cuts to scientists, but there were cuts to scientists."

Again, more back-and-forth and then Makary appeared to grow frustrated.

"I mean, this is the problem in government. Somebody has a fancy sounding name like, 'Infant Formula Safety,' and no one can ever touch them, even if they're not doing their job."

During his testimony, Makary also declared to another Senator, "By the way, America doesn't want COVID boosters."

And a third chastised him, saying: "You're prepared for a question that I didn't ask ... I'm asking you what are you doing about bird flu! Just answer that. Please. Don't give me a runaround about other stuff."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Democratic Leaders 'Frustrated' Over Criticism Of Weak Response To Trump

Democratic Leaders 'Frustrated' Over Criticism Of Weak Response To Trump

House Democratic lawmakers reportedly used a closed-door meeting earlier this week to vent their frustrations with progressive advocacy groups that have been driving constituent calls and pressuring the party to act like a genuine opposition force in the face of the Trump administration's authoritarian assault on federal agencies and key programs.

Citing unnamed sources, including a senior House Democrat, Axios reported Tuesday that the private meeting "included a gripe-fest" directed at "groups like MoveOn and Indivisible," which have "facilitated thousands of phone calls to members' offices" and pressured the party to use its considerable power to disrupt business as usual in Congress, including by opposing all unanimous consent requests from the Republican majority.

The unnamed senior House Democrat told Axios that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is "very frustrated" with the progressive organizations, which have urged people across the country to contact their Democratic representatives and pressure them to fight harder against the Trump administration and their Republican allies.

Britt Jacovich, a spokesperson for MoveOn, told Axios that "our member energy is high and this won't be the last any office hears from everyday Americans who want us to fight harder to push back."

Reports of internal Democratic frustrations with grassroots progressives come days after Jeffries questioned the leverage his caucus has to stop the Trump administration and unelected billionaire Elon Musk from imposing their will on the federal government.

"They control the House, the Senate, and the presidency," Jeffries told reporters late last week. "It's their government."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, has said Democrats are "not going to go after every single issue" in the fight against President Donald Trump.

"We are picking the most important fights and lying down on the train tracks on those fights," Schumer toldThe New York Times earlier this month.

That's not the kind of all-out confrontational approach that rank-and-file Democrats clearly want from their elected representatives. According to a CBS News/YouGov survey released earlier this week, 65% of Democratic voters want the party to "'oppose Trump as much as possible," up from 46% in January.

The poll also found that just 16% of Democratic voters have "a lot" of confidence that congressional Democrats "can oppose Trump effectively."

"Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are architects of the crisis that allowed Trump's fascism to arise and succeed," progressive organizer Aaron Regunberg wrote Tuesday. "They have zero credibility to be leading the fights we face today—not in their record, their competency, or their recent performance. Quite simply, they have to go."

"Forcing recorded votes is possible. Frequent quorum calls are possible. A wide variety of dilatory motions are possible. In short, harassing the majority is possible. If they think it's a bad idea, say so. If they say it's not possible, they're lying."

Andy Craig, director of election policy at the Rainey Center, urged Americans to keep up the calls to Democratic lawmakers, noting that progressive demands "are 100% doable."

"Objecting to unanimous consents is possible," Craig wrote early Wednesday. "Forcing recorded votes is possible. Frequent quorum calls are possible. A wide variety of dilatory motions are possible. In short, harassing the majority is possible. If they think it's a bad idea, say so. If they say it's not possible, they're lying."

Times editorial board member Mara Gay noted in a column earlier this week that both Schumer and Jeffries "have struggled to shed the familiar rhythms of business as usual" even amid Trump's lawless onslaught, which experts say has sparked a full-blown constitutional crisis.

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats did not object to a GOP unanimous consent request to advance the confirmation process for Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick to serve as Director of National Intelligence.

"Holy s---- Schumer and the Senate Democrats couldn't object to a basic UC (unanimous consent) time agreement to slow down a nominee like Gabbard?" progressive strategist Murshed Zaheed asked late Tuesday. "Disgraceful and humiliating surrender from these Democrats as they continue to hit your inboxes and messages begging (spamming) for money."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Federal Judge Angrily Orders Trump To Restore Health Agency Websites

Federal Judge Angrily Orders Trump To Restore Health Agency Websites

A federal judge has directed harsh criticism at the Trump administration for removing countless public health web pages and websites, ordering them restored by midnight, and suggesting their deletion may have risked violating federal law.

U.S. District Judge John Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, “ordered federal health agencies Tuesday to restore pages they removed from their websites last month to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order on ‘gender ideology and extremism,’ saying the decision to pull them down could be detrimental to public health,” Politico reported. The order extends to the CDC, HHS, and the FDA.

“In his opinion,” Politico added, “Bates said the agencies’ decisions to take down certain webpages ‘likely’ constitute an ‘order’ that’s reviewable under federal administrative law.”

The Trump administration’s claims that the removal was necessary to review their contents and amounted to mere “maintenance” were not arguments the judge appeared willing to accept. Judge Bates instead denounced the “widespread disruption that defendants’ abrupt removal of these critical healthcare materials has caused.”

Bates blasted the Trump administration, writing, “it bears emphasizing who ultimately bears the harm of defendants’ actions: everyday Americans, and most acutely, underprivileged Americans, seeking healthcare. These individuals rely on the care of doctors… If those doctors cannot provide these individuals the care they need (and deserve) within the scheduled and often limited time frame, there is a chance that some individuals will not receive treatment, including for severe, life-threatening conditions. The public thus has a strong interest in avoiding these serious injuries to the public health.”

In his opinion granting Doctors for America a temporary stay, Bates offered several examples of “irreparable harm” the government’s actions have already caused.

Doctors for America “has shown its members are already suffering such harm. To start, [one doctor] serves the students of ‘one of the most underserved high schools in Chicago.'”

“In this work, she ‘regularly’ relies on CDC’s resources on sexually transmitted diseases (‘STDs’)… The harm she has suffered since CDC removed those pages is neither hypothetical nor far off. The high school ‘recently had an outbreak of Chlamydia,’ and now that she is ‘[w]ithout t[he] crucial CDC resources,’ she is ‘not able to do [her] job to help address this urgent situation.'”

Bates also cited a statement from a leading physicians’ group, and wrote that “the lost materials are more than ‘academic references—they are vital for real-time clinical decision-making in hospitals, clinics and emergency departments across the country.'”

“Without them, health care providers and researchers are left ‘without up-to-date recommendations on managing infectious diseases, public health threats, essential preventive care and chronic conditions.'”

Politico reports Doctors for America had sued “the Office of Personnel Management, the CDC, the FDA and HHS last week, claiming the missing information ‘deprives’ doctors and researchers of ready access to data that’s critical to treating patients and addressing public health emergencies.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Tom Homan

'They're Building Our Houses': Contractors Warn Against Trump's Mass Deportation

One key plank of former President Donald Trump's second-term agenda is mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. That policy proposal is now getting heavy criticism from construction industry leaders.

According to NBC News, homebuilders in particular are coming out against the ex-president's call to deport millions of immigrants. this includes builders in Republican-dominated states like Florida and Texas. Construction business leaders are worried that an already shallow labor pool could dry up even further if Trump followed through on his signature campaign initiative.

"They don’t think it’s going to happen,” Stan Marek, CEO of the Texas-based Marek Family of Companies, said of his colleagues in the construction industry. “You’d lose so many people that you couldn’t put a crew together to frame a house.”

“We need them. They’re building our houses — have been for 30 years,” Marek added. “Losing the workers would devastate our companies, our industry and our economy.”

Tampa, Florida homebuilder Brent Taylor, who runs a five-person construction business, said building is already a "very, very difficult industry," and is only "getting worse." He told NBC that Trump's proposed deportations would have a particularly adverse impact on both his company and his clients.

Taylor said that he often subcontracts labor, and that those who provide him with workers typically don't check workers' immigration status before sending them out to construction sites. He added that Trump's deportations would mean that he hypothetically "can only do 10 jobs a year instead of 20." He then noted: “Either I make half as much money or I up my prices. And who ultimately pays for that? The homeowner.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are roughly 370,000 open construction jobs, and that figure would likely climb even higher if migrants are rounded up and deported en masse. And according to the National Immigration Forum, roughly 30 percent of construction workers in the United States are immigrants. That share of non-native born Americans working in construction climbs up to 40 percent in larger states like California and Texas.

Trump has said he would deport as many as 20 million immigrants if he were elected to a second term. That figure is noticeably higher than the number of undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S., which is currently estimated to be around 11 million. The former president has suggested he would revoke the Temporary Protected Status granted to migrants from unstable nations reeling from political violence and war like Afghanistan, Haiti, Honduras, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen, among others.

The logistics of rounding up, detaining and deporting that many people would be a massive endeavor. During the National Conservatism conference in July, Tom Homan — the former director of the Trump administration's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — hinted that ICE would kick its operations into high gear if Trump wins the November election.

"Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen,” Homan said. “They ain’t seen s— yet. Wait until 2025.”

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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