Rare.us | Rand Paul unveils his Obamacare Replacement Act Rare.us Earlier this month, Sen. Rand Paul was one of the first Republican leaders to say that while Obamacare should be repealed his party must also present an alternative plan. If Congress fails to vote on a replacement at the same time as repeal, the ... |
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Rand Paul unveils his Obamacare Replacement Act - Rare.us
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Kellanne Conway appears to be dabbling with alternative facts again.
In an interview with MSNBCs Chris Matthews that aired on Thursday night,Donald Trumps former campaign manager and now an adviser in his administration, referenced the Bowling Green massacre when justifying the presidents controversial executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries and suspending the United States Syrian refugee resettlement program.
I bet its brand new information to people that President Obama had a 6-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre. It didnt get covered.
While Matthews did not press Conway on her Bowling Green massacre claim in the interview, so much of her statement is untrue that essentially the only accurate part is that there were no media reports fitting her description.
First of all, Obama didnt stopthe Iraqi refugee program.
The Obama administration imposed additional background checks on Iraqi refugees in 2011 but did not stop or ban Iraqi refugees from resettling in the U.S.
As for Conways complaints that the Bowling Green massacre didnt get covered, it didnt get covered because it didnt happen.
Conway may havebeen referring totwo Iraqi men livingin Bowling Green, Kentuckywho were indicted in 2011forusing improvised explosive devices against U.S. soldiers in Iraq and also for attempting to send weapons and money to Al-Qaeda in Iraq for the purposeof killing U.S. soldiers. Both are serving life sentences. Neither the money nor the weapons ever reached foreign shores, the Associated Press reported, because they were intercepted by an FBI investigation into the two mens activities. As Vox notes:
During the investigation, the FBI found something worrying: fingerprints from Alwan on a roadside bomb in Iraq. This suggested there was a very specific flaw in Americas refugee screening process: Databases of fingerprints from Iraqi militants were not well-integrated into the broader State Departmentrun refugee admissions process. As a result, the Obama administration initiated a new review of all roughly 57,000 Iraqi refugees who had been recently admitted into the United States.
Neither man was linked to attacks or planned attacks within the United States.
Those incidents received a fair amount of media coverage, but public interest was limited since there was never even a plot to massacre people in Kentucky.The local newspaper the Bowling Green Daily News noted that the case received extensive coverage.
But despite the best reporting efforts of his local paper, even one of Kentuckys Republican senators echoed Conways wholly inaccurate account.In a separate interview with MSNBC, Paul referred to the attempted bombing in Bowling Green, where I live.
Contrary to what both the senator and Conway appear to be pushing by spreading the myth of a terror attack in Bowling Green, attempted or a massacre, analysis by the Cato Institute of terrorist attacks on US soil between 1975 and 2015 found that foreign nationals from the seven countries targeted by Trumps travel ban Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia have killed no Americans.
Conways conspicuous massacre comment comes less than two weeks after she defended false assertions about the size of Trumps inauguration crowd as alternative facts.
Youre saying its a falsehood. And theyre giving Sean Spicer, our press secretary gave alternative facts, Conway told NBCs Chuck Todd while discussing Spicers claim that the Jan. 20 crowd was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration.
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Bowling Green massacre: Kellyanne Conway, Rand Paul fabricate attack to defend Muslim ban - Salon
Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced Wednesday that they would not be voting for the billionaire philanthropist. Elizabeth Keatinge (@elizkeatinge) has more. Buzz60
Ky. Sen. Rand Paul speaks during the Republican event at the Galt House in downtown Louisville on election night. Nov. 8, 2016(Photo: Alton Strupp/The CJ)Buy Photo
As the federal vote on Education secretarynominee Betsy DeVos looms, Louisville resident Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons wanted his representative, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, to know where he stands.
But Graves-Fitzsimmons hasn't been able to reach Paul's staffdespite repeatedly calling the senator's offices this week. He got the chance to leave a voicemail once.
"I admire Sen. Paul's independence from the Republican Party ... so I actually believed he would listen to his constituents," he said. "He just isn't picking up the phone, I guess."
Graves-Fitzsimmons isn't the only one having trouble reaching Paul and his staff. Kelsey Cooper, Paul's state communications director, said the office hashad an influx of calls lately, many of which are from out of state.
"I know that plenty of other Senate offices are having issues with a high volume of calls coming in right now," Cooper said. "We are picking up as many of the phone calls as we can."
People have called about a mix of topics, including DeVos, said Cooper, who has helped answer calls. Staffers have seen an uptick in citizen emails, too.
"That's kind of the beauty of democracy that people want to call their representatives and voice their concerns," she said.
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But the deluge of calls can be time-consuming, leaving staffers with less time to address personal concerns Kentuckians want help with, such as problems with veterans' benefits, Cooper said.
Several of President Donald Trump's cabinet nominees have been contentious, perhaps none more so than DeVos, a major Republican donor. The Michigan billionaire's lack of experience in public education and fervent support of alternatives like charter schoolshave sparked grassroots efforts to derail her nomination for Education secretary.
Two Republican senators announced Wednesday that they will not vote for DeVos when her nomination reaches the Senate floor. With the chamber's Democrats apparently united against DeVos, Wednesday's announcement sparked a barrage of social media posts encouraging people to urge other conservative senatorsto ditch DeVos too.
This week, Paulconfirmed his support for DeVos in an emailed statement from a spokeswoman.
"Sen. Paul believes every child in Kentucky and America deserves a chance to get a quality education. Increasing the choices parents and students have and getting Washington out of the way are the most important things the federal government can do to improve the education opportunities available to our children," the statement said. "Ms. DeVos is committed to those principlesand Sen. Paul supports her nomination."
Graves-Fitzsimmons didn't reachout to Kentucky's other senator, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, about DeVos because he said he knows McConnell will back Trump's pick. But with Paul who recently voted against another Trump nominee, newly minted CIA Director Mike Pompeo Graves-Fitzsimmons saw someone willing to consider his concerns.
He said he wished Paul's team had taken his call before backing DeVos.
People have had trouble reaching McConnell too. Indivisible KY, an anti-Trump organization, rallied Tuesday outside the senator's Louisville office. People held phones up as a sign of their inability to get in touch with McConnell, whose spokesman issued a statement that said Kentuckians have had a hard time reaching their senator "thanks to a coordinated effort by liberal activists across the country."
Dawn Cooley, co-founder of Indivisible KY, said that both Kentucky senators' decisions affect people outside their home state. McConnell and Paulneed to make improvements, such as bigger voicemail boxes that store more messages, she said.
"How are they supposed to be able to know what their constituents want if they are not able to hear them?" Cooley asked."It's not the constituents who need to change. It's the system that is not sufficient to handle our feedback."
Despite the phone trouble, Cooley said her group isgrateful for Paul's willingness to "part from the pack." Members of Paul's staffeven contactedIndivisible KY's leaders to schedule a meeting after the organization held a rally near his office.
Contact reporter Morgan Watkins at 502-875-5136 or mwatkins@courier-journal.com.
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Sen. Rand Paul backs Betsy DeVos for Education secretary - The Courier-Journal
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GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Pauls proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare appears to be gaining traction with House conservatives.
Paul met with members of the House Freedom Caucus Wednesday to discussthe details of his health care blueprint,which was largely met with praise from the powerful conservative group.
You know I think that we had a great meeting I dont want to characterize the Freedom Caucus but I do think that there is a lot of consensus among conservatives that we need a replacement bill, and it needs to be a market oriented replacement bill, not another big government federal plan, Paul told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
HFC Chairman Mark Meadows told TheDCNF there were elements of the plan he found encouraging, adding he believes Congress needs to move quickly on health-care reform.
South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford said hes considering introducing a companion bill in the House, noting he still needs to have discussions with HFC members about co-sponsoring the legislation.
I think he has a great bill, I think its important to lay out conservative principles early on in the health-care debate, and the debate about what follows repeal, he told TheDCNF. I think its important to do as he has suggested in as much as possible coupling the repeal with replace if you think about something as important as peoples health care, they dont want to have a void, they dont want to be uncertain about what comes next.
Sanford said it will take timefor insurance companies in the commercial marketplace to create products that fit with the replacement plan, suggesting that Pauls legislation eliminates the potential for a large gap during the transition.
Paul, who spoke with the White House about his plan in January, has been adamant that repeal and replacement should occur simultaneously. With President Donald Trump stressing the urgency of health care reform, Paul said its likely lawmakers will act on a plan in coming weeks.
We want more people to be able to afford insurance, Obamacare made the prices higher, we want to free up the ability to sell more insurance plans that are less expensive and I think thats what this conservative replacement plan will do, he said. I think the next few weeks it could be three weeks, it could be six weeks, but I think youll see something in the next two months that will be a repeal and replacement.
Virginia Rep. Dave Brat said that Sen. Pauls blueprint is themost conservative of the plans that have been laid out, addinghe believes its critical they assure the plan is right since it could have a strong impact on solvency of a number of entitlement programs.
All the elements of Rands plan are moving us in the right direction toward patient-centered health-care, lower costs, bigger pools to insure everyone and cover preexisting conditions and I think that many members will look favorably on it, Brat told TheDCNF. From what Ive seen so far this is the most free-market approach to health care that will truly bend down the cost curve.
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EXCLUSIVE: Rand Paul's Obamacare Replacement Gains Traction With House Conservatives - Daily Caller
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Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., offered a logical alternative Tuesday to the protests greeting President Donald Trumps executive order barring residents of seven countries with high incidents of terrorism from entering the U.S.
People ought to step back and see if we can agree that theres a problem in order to decide whether we like the solution, Paul said on MSNBCs Morning Joe.
Paul said Europe has provided a lesson in what can happen when the system fails.
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.@RandPaul: 40% of people who come to visit our country on a visa overstay their visa https://t.co/vOgUi8OMVR
Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) January 31, 2017
In Europe,a million people went into Germany, some of them presented with one name and no papers, Paul said So if you call back to Syria and say, my name is so-and-so and you ask for the agency to check this person with one name, there is no agency. Its chaos over there so vetting these people is very, very difficult. And I think we need to do more vetting of people coming with one name from various countries in the Middle East.
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Although Paul was among those battling Trump for the Republican presidential nomination and has been quick to criticize him when the views of the two diverge, he said Trump is addressing a problem, which is exactly what Trump said he would do.
I was told about 400 times over a year and a half that he was going to do this, so I guess Im not surprised in the roll out. I was not specifically consulted and obviously there are some things that didnt go perfectly, Paul said.
However, Americans need to look past the glitches of the past weekend, he said.
And the problem is pretty clear that about 40 percent of people who come visit our country on a visa overstay their visa, and we have no idea where they are, he said.
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Paul said stopping the flow of travelers while the system is assessed and overhauled makes sense.
I think you have to pause the system from areas of high risk for terrorism, until you can improve the system, he said.
Overall, do I believe exchange with other cultures is good, people going back and forth is good, trade is good? Yes, he said. All of these things are good, but I think you have to make sure the system is working.
What do you think? Scroll down to comment below.
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Rand Paul: Problem With Immigration Deeper Than Trump's Order - Western Journalism