BBC News | Democrats say Dodd-Frank repeal is 'wrong choice' BBC News Democrats are slamming a Republican bid to dismantle financial rules put in place after the 2008 crisis as the "wrong choice" for the country. House Republicans approved a sweeping measure on Thursday that would ease rules on banks, weaken consumer ... |
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Democrats say Dodd-Frank repeal is 'wrong choice' - BBC News
Sacramento Bee | Universal health care is the new litmus test for Democrats Sacramento Bee With Obamacare imperiled, the California Senate's decision to embrace Medicare for All cements this state's leadership in the resistance to President Donald Trump. Following California's lead, Democrats nationally are embracing plans to expand Medicare ... |
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Universal health care is the new litmus test for Democrats - Sacramento Bee
Congressional Democrats claim their Republican colleagues are blocking them out of talks about how to proceed with the House-passed healthcare reform bill through reconciliation, a legislative process that allows passage of a budget bill and prevents it being filibustered in the Senate.
"To accomplish this 'Robin Hood in reverse' approach without bipartisan support, Republicans are using an arcane process known as reconciliation. That's not a term that's likely to come up at coffee shops around the country, but it's important," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in the party's weekly address. "Reconciliation amounts to 'my-way-or-the-highway,' not both parties working together to solve the nation's problem as Americans expect them to."
Wyden complained the current version of the bill, which would repeal and replace Obamacare, was "deeply unpopular" in the House, partially because it contains the "basic architecture that takes from middle-class Americans to give large tax breaks to the well-to-do."
Other Democrats have taken issue with Republicans for not holding a hearing on the Senate version of the American Health Care Act. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., called out Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, when he said Democrats were welcome to offer ideas and suggestions for the legislation. "When you are saying that you inviting us, for what? We don't even know. We have no idea what is being proposed," McCaskill replied.
Republicans are looking to use a procedural tactic to fast-track the healthcare legislation through the Senate, which would allow the GOP to continue closed-door meetings to hash out the details that they can agree on to obtain to 51 votes needed to pass it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., indicated this week that a vote on the healthcare legislation would happen "in the near future." Republican senators have been meeting to discuss the legislation, and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters that he expects a vote on the healthcare legislation by the end of July.
Wyden railed over the bill's Medicaid restructuring plan, which includes language to cut spending on the government program by more than $800 billion.
"Bottom line, without Medicaid, America moves a giant step backwards to the days when healthcare was reserved for the healthy and the wealthy," Wyden added.
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Democrats slam GOP senators' efforts to fast-track healthcare bill - Washington Examiner
WASHINGTON Rep. Trey Gowdy is known as a dogged investigator of Hillary Clinton. Now Democrats wonder whether the South Carolina Republican will pursue President Donald Trump with the same vigor he used in going after the Democratic presidential candidate.
Later this month, Gowdy, 52, is set to become chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where he will lead official scrutiny of the Trump administration, including a budding investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump's campaign.
Gowdy led a two-year investigation into the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, focusing heavily on Clinton's role as secretary of state. It was the committee's probe that revealed Clinton used a private email server for government work, prompting an FBI investigation that proved to be an albatross in her campaign.
House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans say the four-term lawmaker and former federal prosecutor is the right man for the job. Democrats are not convinced.
"When push gets to shove, I think Trey's a reliable partisan and that's why Ryan picked him," said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va.
In 2014, House Speaker John Boehner selected Gowdy "as a very junior member to head up the Benghazi panel to go after Hillary Clinton. That was not an accident," Connolly said. "Having done his duty well, Paul Ryan has now tapped him to head oversight, where your job obviously is to protect the man in the White House. So vigorous oversight is not on the agenda."
The House Republican Steering Committee on Thursday recommended Gowdy for the chairmanship, replacing Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who is leaving Congress on June 30. Gowdy beat out Oklahoma Rep. Steve Russell. The full House Republican conference is expected to confirm the choice next week.
Rep. Mark Sanford, another South Carolina Republican who briefly considered running for the oversight post, said Gowdy has "a steady prosecutorial mind" and a keen understanding of issues facing the committee.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., a close friend and former colleague of Gowdy in the House, said "no one works harder and is more committed to the truth and the rule of law than Trey."
Connolly, a member of the oversight panel, stressed that he likes Gowdy personally and praised his skills as a former prosecutor and lawmaker. But he said Gowdy knows his role in the GOP leadership.
"I don't think Paul Ryan is worried about that streak of independence showing itself any time soon and certainly not in the context of Donald Trump and the Russia thing," he said.
Ryan, in a statement, said Gowdy "possesses the experience and deep commitment to transparency and accountability" needed as oversight chairman. "He has proven that he will always look out for taxpayers and seek answers from the bureaucracy. Trey has my absolute confidence, and I know he will do an outstanding job," Ryan said.
Gowdy led the Benghazi inquiry from May 2014 through last July. The committee's 800-page report accused the Obama administration of lethal mistakes, but it produced no "smoking gun" pointing to wrongdoing by Clinton, even as Gowdy threatened to seek a federal investigation into whether she lied to the committee under oath in 2015.
In the end, Gowdy did not sign a perjury complaint against Clinton filed by House Republicans. The July 2016 complaint to the Justice Department was made by Chaffetz and House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
Gowdy said in a statement Thursday he was "grateful" for "this opportunity to serve." The statement focused on the committee's institutional responsibilities and made no mention of specific lines of inquiry.
Sanford, a Trump critic, said some constituents have expressed concerns about the partisan focus of the Benghazi investigation.
"I try to convince them my experience with Trey has been most even-handed, and it's my hope and expectation that he has the same approach to the committee at large," he said.
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the senior Democrat on Oversight, served with Gowdy on the Benghazi panel, where Cummings also was the top Democrat. While the men initially pledged to work together, their relationship descended into partisan bickering by the time the investigation ended last summer.
Still, Cummings congratulated Gowdy in a statement and promised to "support his efforts whenever we can."
Gowdy takes over the oversight panel just as it is poised to investigate Trump's firing of James Comey as FBI director amid the FBI's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible connections between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Gowdy is already familiar with the questions over Trump's Russia ties due to his seat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which has conducted a probe of its own since allegations of Russian efforts to influence the presidential election surfaced late last year.
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Democrats: Will new GOP oversight chairman pursue Trump? - Fox News
Democrats and progressives see lessons in the unexpected success of Britains Labour Party in this weeks snap election, and plan to use some of the winning strategies to make similar gains in the United States.
The Conservative Party of British Prime Minister Theresa May lost 12 seats in the election, while Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party gained at least 31 seats a surprise, given Corbyns unpopularity even in his own party.Democrats said that the British election shows a wave turning against the populism of Europes far-right, and that their party could win in the U.S. by running unabashedly on progressive positions.
Corbyn promised a range of progressive policies, including new taxes to pay for college tuition, ahigher minimum wage, and nationalization of mail, energy and railways. His success shows that U.S. Democrats should run on what they actually believe, said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Policy and Economic Research.
The conclusion from the U.K. election that I think is most obvious is that ...1990s politics of error-avoidance and poll-testing each and every increment of communication strategy or policy is just over, Hauser said in an interview. The argument for sincerety-driven politics is really strong. I think you see that in Bernie (Sanders), you see that in Corbyn, you see that in the con from Trump, where his affect gave people the idea that he was saying whatever was in his heart.
Argue for what you actually believe, Hauser continued.
Neera Tanden, president of the progressive Center for American Progress, tweeted that British voters had sent a referendum to May based on her proximity to Trump.
Tanden said in an email she was kind of kidding about Trump in her tweet, but believed the U.K. election showed nationalism in decline.
I think the Tories limits and Labours gains are both a reaction to Trumpism Brexit in the U.K.; Trump in America and as importantly, a sign that progressive forces are gaining strength in the world, Tanden said. Brexit just passed a year ago with Labour in opposition to it and May lost seats yesterday. So I think it is both a reaction domestically to the xenophobic nationalism of the Brexiters ... as well as gaining strength for bold progressive alternatives.
Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and chair of the Democratic National Committee, predicted a backlash to President Donald Trump reaction in the near future, similar to Britons Brexit misgivings.
I dont think this is a referendum on Trump, but I do think this is a referendum on Trump-type approaches to things, Dean said. I certainly think Trump helped drag Mrs. May down. It does look like the campaign that were gonna mount, except that were getting started a lot earlier.
Dean predicted Democrats would take control of both the House and Senate in 2018 an opinion he conceded is not widely shared in Washington for the same reason conservatives in Britain didnt do well. Democrats would win, he said, because there would be a reaction against the sort of extreme positions that Trump has taken.
But Our Revolution, a Bernie Sanders-backed group, said the lefts success in the British election was more about embracing progressive policies than about Trump.
Those lessons could have urgent significance to Democrats, still regrouping after losing the presidential election last year, even though there have been some encouraging signs in local contests.
If Brexit was a preview of Trumps rise, last night should show Democrats the roadmap they must follow, Dan Cantor, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement. The only way to beat phony right-wing racialized populism is with a bold anti-corporate inclusive progressive populism.
That visionary program, Cantor argued, inspired young voters and persuaded many anti-establishment voters that Corbyn had a plan to deliver change and he meant it.
Running against Trump and for an ambitious progressive policy agenda arent mutually exclusive,Joe Dinkin, a spokesman for the Working Families Party, said in an email. In fact, theyre complementary.
Trump has people energized to push for more and bolder, Dinkin said. People have a hunger for a transformative vision. And were also seeing that a bolder populism works as well.
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Democrats Look For Lessons After Labour's Unexpected Success In Britain - HuffPost