US Politics Mega-thread - Page 6867

On February 14 2017 13:55 Plansix wrote:


Scott Detrow of NPR pointing out that the fake news defense has limits. Much like crying wolf.

He covers congress and is a good follow on twitter. Mostly news and talking to other reporters.

On February 14 2017 15:01 LegalLord wrote:
Treasury and VA Secretaries confirmed while we were watching Flynn.

On February 14 2017 14:56 p4NDemik wrote:
Sally Yates should drink for free in any bar she steps in across America.

Warns POTUS about potential liability in his own cabinet, then refuses to defend unconstitutional EO in court. Promptly fired. Vindicated in both instances after just a few weeks.

On February 14 2017 14:17 LegalLord wrote:
Too late, she betrayed her line of duty, she gone. No reputation left to salvage.

On February 14 2017 14:56 p4NDemik wrote:
Sally Yates should drink for free in any bar she steps in across America.

Warns POTUS about potential liability in his own cabinet, then refuses to defend unconstitutional EO in court. Promptly fired. Vindicated in both instances after just a few weeks.

On February 14 2017 18:52 Biff The Understudy wrote:

If anything she proved she was the right person for the job, which means she was not the right person for the job since Trump's little game is to name only incompetent morons and psychos for the top positions of his administration.

House conservatives — anxious that the GOP’s effort to end Obamacare is getting bogged down in the fight over what a replacement should look like — are plotting a major push to repeal the law immediately without simultaneously approving an alternative.

The House Freedom Caucus and a number of Republican Study Committee members this week will urge Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and his lieutenants to forego their plan to add replacement provisions to a repeal bill, dubbed “repeal-plus.” Instead, they want to approve the same standalone repeal bill that Congress sent to President Barack Obama in 2016.

“Instead of continuing to spin our wheels, we need a starting place,” said Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker (R-N.C.) in a brief interview Monday evening. “What the Senate passed in October 2015 is the best starting place… Let’s get that on that on the books, then we can move quickly after that to put in replacement components.”

The stand by several dozen hardliners comes as House GOP leaders were planning to outline the main planks of a replacement blueprint at a series of informational sessions with rank and file member Tuesday and Thursday. The position is at odds with GOP leadership’s latest strategy to load up a spring repeal bill — which could pass both chambers on party lines using a tool called reconciliation — with as many replacement provisions as possible.

The split in the conference s shows that even after six years of demanding repeal — and a month of unified government — Republicans are still struggling to get on the same page on how to do it. Some are urging patience and deliberation, while others are increasingly restless the all-GOP Congress risks blowing an opportunity to kill the health care law if they don’t move quickly. President Donald Trump has sent conflicting signals, initially saying he wants Congress to act immediately but then cautioning the process could take all year.

Conservatives say they’re not necessarily opposed to all of leaderships’ replacement provisions but worry that adding them to the reconciliation bill will drag the process out for weeks and months.

“Functionally, [our idea] eliminates some of the excuses for our Senate colleagues; if they voted on this then, there is no reason they can’t vote on it now,” said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) “I think a lot of people are looking to some of the policy debates to be an excuse not to vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act.”

Conservatives say they could have as many as 50 House Republicans who agree with them and are shopping the idea around this week in an effort to build more support.

It's unclear, however, if they would vote against a leadership-sponsored package that adds replacement provisions to the repeal bill. Two GOP leadership sources said the push from conservatives would not likely change the current strategy to package repeal and replacement provisions together.

The “global gag rule” imposed by Donald Trump, blocking US funds to any organisation involved in abortion advice and care overseas, could impact millions of women and girls, endangering their lives and those of their babies, Bill and Melinda Gates have warned.

The changes are expected to result in funding from the world’s biggest donor to family planning and women’s health programmes in the developing world being slashed. It could, Bill Gates told the Guardian, “create a void that even a foundation like ours can’t fill”.

Gates and his wife spoke out as they published a progress letter to Warren Buffett, the businessman who 10 years ago invested a large part of his fortune in the couple’s foundation which has at its centre the mission to save children’s lives. Empowering women and girls, the couple said, was central to that aim.

Trump signed an executive order reimposing the Mexico City policy, also known as the global gag rule, on his first full day in office. Republican presidents since Ronald Reagan in 1984 have imposed the policy, while their Democrat counterparts have lifted it. The rule strips funds from any organisation that “performs or actively promotes abortion as a method of family planning” overseas.

But Trump’s order goes further, applied to any organisation that receives funding from US Aid , not just those involved in family planning. That expansion, said Melinda Gates, was a surprise.

“We’re concerned that this shift could impact millions of women and girls around the world,” she said. “It’s likely to have a negative effect on a broad range of health programs that provide lifesaving treatment and prevention options to those most in need.

“This includes programmes that prevent and treat HIV, TB and malaria, and provide healthcare to women and children around the world. Enabling women to time and space their pregnancies and providing access to treatment and prevention of infectious diseases is lifesaving work. It saves moms’ lives and it saves babies’ lives, and that has long had wide support in the United States.”

Bill Gates said their foundation would not be able to bridge the potential funding gap. “The US is the No 1 donor in the work that we do. Government aid can’t be replaced by philanthropy. When government leaves an area like that, it can’t be offset, there isn’t a real alternative. This expansion of this policy, depending on how it’s implemented, could create a void that even a foundation like ours can’t fill.”

He had an early phone call with Trump in November and then a meeting in December with the president-elect in New York, he told the Guardian. They talked about the eradication of polio, which Gates hopes could come as early as this year, and the research his foundation is supporting towards an Aids vaccine and ways to protect people from pandemics such as Ebola in west Africa.

“So that was a good discussion – the fact that he was interested in having me talk about the Foundation’s work – I was pleased,” said Gates.

But the philanthropist did not anticipate the scope of the executive order affecting family planning, an issue at the centre of the foundation’s work, that Trump was to sign.

On February 14 2017 22:50 Sermokala wrote:
If Sally Yates didn't want to defend the EO she should have resigned. Instead she decided to go against the duly elected representative and throw the justice department into temporary chaos.

No one will talk about her in a month. Most people stooped talking about her days after she was fired. No ones talking about warren's "censure-ship" over the letter she wanted to read anymore.