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Republicans on the House Budget Committee are talking about increasing defense spending beyond President Trumps proposed $54 billion boost, which has led to an impasse between defense hawks and deficit hawks.

The fight has forced the committee to postpone the rollout of its 2018 budget resolution, a key element in moving Trumps legislative agenda forward.

The House GOP may have the opportunity to settle on a strategy when it meets for its weekly policy discussion this Wednesday, a meeting that will focus on budget and appropriations.

In his budget proposal, Trump cut $54 billion from from nondefense discretionary spending to pay for the new defense spending.

Defense hawks such as Sen. John McCainJohn McCainOvernight Cybersecurity: Armed Services panel looks to tighten cyber oversight | Election hack hearing Wednesday | Dem wants answers on contractor security McCain: No American has seen healthcare bill, but I'm sure Russia has McCain threatens to block Trump's deputy Defense nominee MORE (R-Ariz.) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) want to go further. They have called for $640 billion in defense spending.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a House Budget Committee member close to GOP leadership, thinks theres a good chance the number will be bigger than Trump's request.

I think the defense number could easily be more, because we have a lot of folks that think we could go further, he said.

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, however, bristle at the idea of spending an additional $37 billion on defense and potential increases to non-defense spending without finding additional cuts elsewhere.

Conservatives are willing to entertain the idea of voting for higher spending levels on discretionary spending if we can get the right kind of reconciliation instructions, said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a Freedom Caucus member.

The reconciliation instructions in question would mandate that congressional committees achieve certain spending cuts, a vehicle to push for deeper reforms.

Those reforms, Jordan said, would be enough of an achievementto persuade Freedom Caucus members to swallow increases on both defense and nondefense discretionary spending, even if they increase the deficit in the short run.

"Either that, or leadership can do what theyve done the last six years, which is wait until Sept. 30 at 11:59 p.m. and negotiate a bad deal, he said.

During his campaign, Trump promised not to allow cuts to Medicare or Social Security, entitlement programs that congressional Republicans see as major sources of potential savings.Tax hikes would violate a pledge signed by almost every House Republican not to create new taxes.

The remaining sources of spending, welfare programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, were already slashed in Trumps proposal, making more savings painful and difficult to find.

The Budget Committee had set its sights on unveiling the resolution this week, but may now delay it until next week or even after the Fourth of July recess, which could gum up the tight legislative agenda.

Without a budget resolution in place, appropriators cannot go about the business of doling out spending authority to the government. Congress must pass its spending bills by the end of September if they want to avoid a government shutdown.

Alternatively, Congress could pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funded at 2017 levels, but that would preclude any defense increases, as well as spending authority for Trumps other priorities, such as building a border wall.

On top of all that, without a budget resolution conferenced between the House and Senate, Republicans will not be able to put in place a special procedure that circumvents the Senate filibuster, which they will need in order to pass tax reform.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slammed her Republicans colleagues for failing to produce a budget resolution

Almost five months into the Trump administration, House Republicans still havent met their most basic responsibility to pass a budget, Pelosi said.

The House GOP is now months behind the statutory budget deadline, deeply divided but unwilling to abandon their budget giveaways to the richest few."

Updated at 7:32 p.m.

Read more from the original source:
GOP defense spending battle delays Republican budget - The Hill

Some senators, John McCain most prominently, have been traveling around the world to try to undo some of the damage from President Trumps undiplomatic statements and to reassure allies from Australia to Germany that the U.S. still stands with them. Senators have just voted unanimously to affirm Americas commitment to NATOs Article 5 mutual defense provisionsomething that Trump has been reluctant to enunciate. And by a vote of 97-2, the Senate voted last week to ratchet up sanctions on Russia.

The Russia bill is particularly significant. Not only does it increase sanctions on Russias energy sector and imposes sanctions on any entity or individual doing business with Russias intelligence or defense agencies, it also prevents the president from using his executive authority to lift existing sanctions on Russia. Congress would have to approve any move to relax pressure on Moscow.

This is a very unusual rebuke for a president. Congress normally designs sanctions legislation with lots of wiggle room for the executive. Little wonder that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signaled that the administration does not support the bill as written; he is pressing the House to water down the measure to restore more of the presidents discretion. It will be interesting to see how Speaker Paul Ryan and the House leadership react to these entreaties; senators of both parties were unswayed.

And little wonder, given that Trump has shown no interest in punishing the Russians for their election-interference. Indeed, he has shown no interest in even uncovering their machinations. With the passage of the Russia sanctions bill, the Senate has delivered a resounding and bipartisan vote of no confidence in the presidents Russia policy, such as it is.

The question is how much further the assertion of Congressional authority might go. There is a precedent here, namely the 1970s and early 1980s, when Congress reacted to the perceived abuses of the imperial presidency under Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon by passing, as a 1987 Commentary article noted, the War Powers Resolution (1973), the Hughes-Ryan Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act (1974), the Clark Amendment to the International Security Assistance and Arms Export Control Act (1976), the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (1978), and, of course, the five Boland Amendments to a variety of Defense Appropriation and Intelligence Authorization Acts (1982-5). All of this legislation was designed to circumscribe the presidents discretion in foreign affairsto make impossible another Vietnam War or another Watergate.

An early test case of whether there is a new attempt underway to limit the presidencys powers will come when Congress must reauthorize Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. Section 702 grants the National Security Agency expansive authority for warrantless surveillance of foreign communications which pass through U.S.-based data networks.

Civil liberties advocates, who already curtailed the Patriot Act in 2015, are pushing to limit the NSAs ability to gather without a warrant information on Americans who are in contact with foreign targets. The nations law enforcement and intelligence agencies oppose any change; they believe the authorities are needed to keep track of terrorist plots. But the privacy advocates may have gotten an unlikely assist from President Trump, who has leveled unfounded charges that the Obama administration illegally wiretapped him. There is, in fact, zero evidence that the Obama administration politicized surveillance, but the mere accusation, repeated often enough, may lead Trump and libertarian Republicans to join with liberal Democrats to curtail NSA surveillance authorities anyway.

Of course, there are sharp limits on how far this trend to rein in the chief executive is likely to go. The president still retains vast inherent power as commander-in-chief to use military force without a declaration of war. And on some of the issues where Trump is likely to do the most damagefor example, by killing free-trade agreements and imposing trade barriersall too many members of Congress share his protectionist instincts. So dont expect Congress to resurrect the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Trump exited in January.

But its still quite possible that Trumps presidency will lead, inadvertently, to lasting limitations on the presidencys powers. Whether you think this is good or bad depends on how important you believe expansive executive authority to be. Normally, both Republicans and Democrats dislike executive authority only when wielded by a president of the other party. Hence Republicans, who only recently were decrying Obamas executive orders as a blow to liberty, are now applauding Trumps executive orders as a bulwark of liberty. But if, like Alexander Hamilton, you believe that Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government, then you have cause to be concerned about the long-term impact of Trumps presidency.

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The Republican Breaking Point - Commentary Magazine

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas took Capitol View host Jessi Turnure on a tour of the party's new headquarters, which is currently under renovation.

The party moved into its homestead on 6th Street right down the road from the state capitol in 1996, when Gov. AsaHutchinson served as chairman.

The renovated complex, the Rockefeller Republican Center, will include a brand new building in his honor, the Gov.Asa Hutchinson Historium. The facility merges two buildings built in the late 40sthat currently serve has the RPAheadquarters.

Chairman Doyle Webb said the historium will include busts of state elected officials, multimedia galleries and a custom-made light fixture symbolic of Arkansas history, including 75 stars for its 75 counties and a diamond for the state flag.

The current administrative office building, soon to be the Gov. MikeHuckabeeExecutive Wing, sits on the left of the historium with the reception hall, John PaulHammerschmidt Hall, on the right.

A new outdoor patio and kitchen, Diversity Plaza, is located behind the complex.

Webb said the RPA will move into its new headquarters in late summer and dedicate the facility Sept. 17, which is the230th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution.

You can see the full tour in the embedded video above.

Capitol View airs Sunday mornings at 8:30 on KARK.

Original post:
Web Extra: Tour of New Republican Party Headquarters - KARK

The Clarion-Ledger 5:54 p.m. CT June 18, 2017

President Donald Trump's lawyer said Sunday that the President is not under investigation for possible obstruction of justice despite Trump seemingly confirming that he was in a tweet earlier in the week. Time

Rich Lowry(Photo: Special to The Clarion-Ledger)

Donald Trump, the erstwhile Democrat, independent and member of the Reform Party, finally has a fixed partisan identity.

The president may be besieged, unpopular and prone to lashing out self-destructively, but all of this cements his bond to his party rather than erodes it. Commentators who ask wishfully and plaintively, When will Republicans dump Trump and save themselves? are missing the point: Trumps weakness makes him more Republican than ever before.

It was possible to imagine Trump, with a head of steam after his upset victory in November, cowing swamp-dwelling Republicans and wooing infrastructure-loving, anti-trade Democrats into supporting a populist congressional agenda. Maybe this was always a pipe dream given the instantaneous rise of the #resistance against him. But this scenario would have required a strong, focused president marshaling his popularity and driving Congress.

Weve seen close to the opposite. And, of course, theres the so-called Russia investigation. Russia is a misnomer. The controversy is now shifting from being about supposed Trump-campaign collusion to alleged obstruction of justice and whatever else special counsel Robert Mueller dredges up in what will probably be a free-ranging, yearslong investigation.

So, whatever Trumps true ideological predilections, theres no place for him to go. Make deals with the Democrats? At this point, Democrats are more likely to cooperate with Sergey Kislyak on an infrastructure package than with Donald Trump.

Dump or triangulate away from Republicans? Well, then who would do scandal defense, besides a handful of White House aides and outside media loyalists? Imagine what the Comey or Sessions hearings would have looked like if Republicans had joined Democrats in the pile-on.

The need for support on Capitol Hill could well get more urgent if things go badly the next year and a half. If Democrats take the House, Trump will rely on Republicans for an impeachment defense and, if it comes to that, for the votes in the Senate to block removal.

In one sense, this suits Trump. He may have a questionable partisan pedigree, but he is a natural partisan smash-mouth, heedless of process and norms, willing to make whatever argument suits him at any particular time. There have been many Republicans who have opposed Chuck Schumer before; it took Trump to call him a clown.

As for congressional Republicans, they, too, dont have much choice. Like it or not, whatever they tell reporters privately about their true feelings about Trump, his fate is their fate.

First, a presidents approval rating heavily influences midterm elections. The outcome in the campaign for the House will presumably be much different depending on whether Trump is at 35 or 45 percent. Republicans dumping Trump wouldnt make him any more popular.

Second, such a distancing is not really politically practicable. If Republicans try to skitter away from Trump, their base will roast them. Theres no reason to think that at this point the dynamic would be any different than after the release of the Access Hollywood tape, when Republicans dumping Trump were quickly forced to pick him right back up again.

Third, Republicans want to get some things done legislatively. A poisonous split with the White House wouldnt help. Trump may be a mercurial and frustrating partner, but he is a partner all the same.

Finally, most Republicans quite legitimately think the Russian controversy is a media-driven travesty. If there were a smoking gun, this posture would probably change (obviously, in that circumstance, it shouldchange). But Democrats are in no position to lecture Republicans on cutting loose a president of their own party when they twisted themselves in knots to defend Bill Clinton after he lied under oath over an affair that violated every feminist principle the party professed to hold.

If Trump and Republicans had their druthers, neither would be in quite this position. But this is the reality for everyone. For now, theres no way out, only through, and through it together.

Email Rich Lowry at comments.lowry@nationalreview.com.

Read or Share this story: http://www.clarionledger.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/06/18/trump-really-republican-now/407457001/

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Trump really a Republican now - Jackson Clarion Ledger

The man who shot House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and others at a congressional baseball practice earlier this week had with him a piece of paper with doodles and the names of three lawmakers, according to a person familiar with the case.

The person told the Associated Press on Saturday that investigators weren't sure of the significance of the names and didn't know whether it was a list of people he was targeting. This person was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The person did not disclose the names, but said those listed had been briefed.

Scalise's trauma surgeon said Friday that the GOP whip can hope to make an excellent recovery even though he arrived at the hospital Wednesday at risk of imminent death.

Dr. Jack Sava of MedStar Washington Hospital Center said there was a good possibility that the Louisiana Republican will be able to return to work in his full capacity.

Sava declined to put a timeline on when that might happen or when Scalise, 51, will be able to leave the hospital. The doctor described how a bullet from an assault rifle entered Scalise's hip and traversed his pelvis, shattering blood vessels, bones and internal organs along the way.

For now, Scalise remains in critical condition in the hospital's intensive care unit.

Scalise, the No. 3 House Republican, arrived at the hospital via helicopter in shock, with intense internal bleeding, Sava said.

Since then, the lawmaker has undergone multiple surgeries and procedures to stop the bleeding and repair bone. He has been brought out of sedation periodically and been able to recognize and communicate with his family, Sava said.

Scalise was wounded when a gunman opened fire at a GOP lawmaker baseball practice Wednesday morning.

Several other people were also injured in Wednesday's shooting before Scalise's security detail and other police officers gunned down the assailant, who later died. The shooter was an Illinois man, James T. Hodgkinson, who had lashed out against President Trump and Republicans over social media.

Sava said Friday that there were still hundreds of bullet fragments in Scalise's body, but that doctors have no intention to try and remove all the bullet fragments at this point.

Nonetheless, said Sava, We fully expect him to be able to walk and hopefully run.

Sava said that after being released from the hospital, Scalise will require a period of healing and rehabilitation.

I feel a lot more confident and a lot more optimistic than I did two, three days ago, Sava said. I think that his risk of death right now is substantially lower than when he came in; he was as critical as you can be when he came in.

Sava said he told Scalise's family: I am not declaring victory until he's playing ball in his backyard with his family.

Also suffering relatively minor injuries were two Capitol Police officers, David Bailey and Crystal Griner, and House GOP aide Zachary Barth. Griner remains hospitalized at MedStar Hospital after getting shot in the ankle, and Sava described her in good condition.

Bailey was spotted Friday in the Capitol, on crutches and out of uniform, accepting congratulations from fellow officers.

Lobbyist Matt Mika, who was also shot multiple times and critically wounded, has undergone additional surgery and doctors expect a full recovery, his family said Saturday.

In a statement, Mika's family said he would remain in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital at least through the weekend. They said he was able to communicate through notes and signed the game ball from Friday's congressional baseball game.

Mika is a lobbyist for Tyson Foods and a former aide to Michigan Republican Rep. Tim Walberg.

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Gunman went to Republican baseball practice with a list of names - Los Angeles Times