NPR | House Set To Vote On Republican Health Care Bill NPR A vote on the Republican health care plan in the House is scheduled for Thursday. Some very conservative Republicans say they'll vote against it. Facebook; Twitter. Google+. Email. Get The Stories That Grabbed Us This Week. Delivered to your inbox ... |
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House Set To Vote On Republican Health Care Bill - NPR
New York Times | How the Rich Gain and the Poor Lose Under the Republican Health Care Plan New York Times An average family making more than $200,000 a year would gain $5,640 while a family making less than $10,000 a year would lose $1,420 if Congress passes the health care plan proposed by House Republicans, according to a new analysis. |
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How the Rich Gain and the Poor Lose Under the Republican Health Care Plan - New York Times
House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the lawmaker overseeing one of the main investigations of the Trump-Russia scandal, went rogue on Wednesday when he told reporters that a source had provided him information that indicates that the US intelligence community collected intelligence on Trump associatespossibly Donald Trump himselfin the course of authorized surveillance aimed at other targets. Nunes, who chairs the House intelligence committee, said this happened during the transition period and was unrelated Russia's meddling in the 2016 campaign or to Trump associates' connections to Russia. Without revealing any real evidence of wrongdoing, Nunes suggested that something amiss had occurred when the identity of these Trump-related people were noted in reports disseminated in intelligence channels.
Nunes' theatrical press conferencesnot one but two!indicated he was perhaps more concerned about politics than national security and the protection of civil liberties. At his first presser, held in the Capitol, Nunes described the materials he had been given as "normal incidental collection" and "all legally collected foreign intelligence." Nonetheless, he said, he was "alarmed" by the fact that some of the Trump associates had been "unmasked" in the reports. ("Incidental collection" refers to Americans whose communications are monitored not because they are the target of the surveillance, but because the person they are communicating with is the target. The identities of these non-targeted Americans generally are supposed to remain hidden in intelligence reports, but there are rules that allow their identities to be unmasked in such reports when that provides needed context.)
"The job of the committee is to do oversight of the executive branch, not to bring them into their investigation or tip them off to things they may be looking at. I've got to believe that other members of the committee are horrified at what they just witnessed."
Still, Nunes said he was rushing to the White Housewithout even having spoken to the Democratic members of his committee about thisto brief Trump immediately. "They need to see it," Nunes told reporters before he dashed off to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
But when asked whether Trump was specifically and intentionally targeteda sensational claim that would bolster Trump's widely debunked March 4 tweets accusing former President Barack Obama of "wire tapping"Nunes said he wasn't sure. In fact, nothing Nunes said would back up Trump's tweets. He was referring to legally authorized surveillance conducted under a court order that targeted a foreign intelligence source but that happened to also pick up Americansnot an uncommon occurrence.
At his White House press conferencefollowing his meeting with Trumpa reporter asked, "But just to clarify, this is not intentional spying on Donald Trump?"
"I have no idea," Nunes replied. "We won't know that until we get to the bottom of: Did people ask for the unmasking of additional names within the president-elect's transition team?"
This was a disingenuous response. Nunes had earlier acknowledged he was only referring to officially authorized surveillance, which could not be ordered by a president. (There's a whole process through which the FBI and other intelligence agencies go to a special court to receive permission to conduct surveillance.) Yet here was Nunes slyly hinting that well, just maybe, this would back up Trump's fact-free charge. This was the tell. If he were only concerned with the unmasking of Americans caught up in incidental collection, Nunes could have instructed his committee staff to examine the matter and worked with Democrats on the committee on how best to handle the matter. Instead, he ran to the White House to share his information with the fellow who is the subject of an investigation Nunes is overseeing. Nunes was pulling a political stunt to provide Trump some cover.
And Trump took the cover. After Nunes' briefing, the president told reporters that he felt "somewhat" vindicated by what Nunes reported to the public on Wednesday. "I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found." The revelations, though, don't vindicate Trump at all; he accused President Obama of directing the phones in Trump Tower to be tapped in October. Nunes' new information refers to incidental collection after the election. Trump compared the situation to "Nixon/Watergate," and called Obama a "Bad (or sick) guy!" Nunes made clear the surveillance was legal. Trump suggested Obama had somehow broken the law.
Adding to the political nature of what Nunes did is the fact that he didn't consult with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House committee, before he briefed Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, reporters (twice), and the White House.
"I'm going to be meeting with Mr. Schiff at some point to talk about where we go with this investigation," Nunes told reporters when the issue came up after he briefed the president. "I had to brief the speaker first, then I had to talk to the CIA director, the NSA director, and I'm waiting to talk to the FBI directorThen I went and talked to all of youand then I voted, and then I said I was coming here to brief the president, and then I'll be glad to talk to others later."
Schiff issued a statement Wednesday afternoon slamming Nunes' actions.
"This information should have been shared with members of the committee, but it has not been," Schiff said. "Indeed it appears that committee members only learned about this when [Nunes] discussed the matter this afternoon with the press. [Nunes] also shared this information with the White House before providing it to the committee, another profound irregularity, given that the matter is currently under investigation. I have expressed my grave concerns with [Nunes] that a credible investigation cannot be conducted this way."
Schiff added that Nunes told him that most of the names within the intelligence reports were, in fact, masked, "but that he could still figure out the probable identity of the parties." This means that the intelligence agencies followed the law, Schiff said, and "moreover, the unmasking of a US Person's name is fully appropriate when it is necessary to understand the context of collected foreign intelligence information."
Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.), accused Nunes of leaking classified information.
Jeremy Bash, who formerly served as chief counsel for the Democrats on the committee, said Wednesday that what Nunes did was unprecedented and very concerning.
"I don't think in the 40 years of the committee's existence, since the post-Watergate-era reforms, with the Church and Pike committees that emerged from those scandals, I have never heard of a chairman of an oversight committee going to brief the president of the United States about concerns he has about things he's read in intelligence reports," Bash told MSNBC Wednesday afternoon. "The job of the committee is to do oversight of the executive branch, not to bring them into their investigation or tip them off to things they may be looking at. I've got to believe that other members of the committee are horrified at what they just witnessed."
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The Republican in Charge of the Trump-Russia Probe Just Pulled a Crazy Political Stunt - Mother Jones
Seeking and winning the presidency has been a magical voyage of discovery for Donald Trump.
Tuesday night, he divulged a most remarkable finding: Abraham Lincoln was are you sitting down for this? a Republican.
Most people dont even know he was a Republican, Trump told a group of Republicans. Right? Does anyone know? A lot of people dont know that.
Its possible that somebody doesnt know that Lincoln, the first Republican president, was a member of the Republican Party, also known as the Party of Lincoln. But it has not been for lack of effort on Trumps part. He has repeatedly tried to educate the populace on this little-known fact.
August 2016: Most people dont know this. The Republican Party is ... the party of Abraham Lincoln.
September 2016: A lot of people dont realize that Abraham Lincoln, the great Abraham Lincoln, was a Republican.
October 2016: A lot of people dont know that its the party of Abraham Lincoln.
Beyond this Lincoln revelation, Trump has happened upon many other things that people didnt know. Such as the complexity of health care: Nobody knew health care could be so complicated, he said recently. And the existence of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who died in 1895: Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody whos done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.
Later, touring the new African American history museum in Washington, Trump discovered that slavery was bad. Spying a stone auction block, Trump said, according to Alveda King, a part of his entourage: Boy, that is just not good. That is not good. King also told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that upon seeing shackles for children, Trump remarked: That is really bad. That is really bad.
Who knew?
Trumps discoveries of seemingly obvious things raise two possibilities: 1) He thinks people are awfully stupid, or 2) he is discovering for himself things the rest of us already knew. Which is true? Nobody knows. But we do know that there are many other things Trump thinks people dont know about.
Sunday school: I talk about Sunday school and people dont even know what Im talking about anymore. Its true.
That Bill Clinton signed NAFTA: A lot of people dont know that.
What a value-added tax is: A lot of people dont know what that means.
That we have a trade deficit with Mexico: People dont know that.
That Iraq has large oil reserves: People dont know this about Iraq.
That war is expensive: People dont realize it is a very, very expensive process.
That the country is divided: People dont realize we are an unbelievably divided country.
Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Trump, in his bid to educate the public about things he has learned, takes on a professorial tone. Talking about the Johnson Amendment on church-state separation, Professor Trump told an audience that its something people dont know in the kind of detail and depth that I have explained it to you today. Trump had just explained to them the Johnson Amendments provenance: This was Lyndon Johnson in the 1970s.
The Johnson Amendment was passed in 1954. Johnson retired in 1969 and died in 1973.
Trump claims that a lot of people dont know that U.S. taxes are the worlds highest and that nobody knows the U.S. murder rate is the highest in 45 years. For good reason: Those things arent true. Conversely, just about everybody knows that Russia was behind the election hacking, but Trump long asserted that nobody knows if its Russia.
While Trump has said nobody knows everything, he claims to come pretty close. In his own words:
Nobody knows health care better than Donald Trump.
Nobody knows the tax code better than I do.
Nobody knows politics better than I do.
Nobody knows the politicians better than me.
Nobody knows the system better than me.
Nobody knows more about debt. Im like the king.
By contrast, Trumps list of things other people dont know about is extensive: the heroin problem in New Hampshire, Ben Carsons performance in the primaries, President Obamas record on deportations, the number injured in the Paris terrorist attacks, the hikes in Obamacare premiums, eminent domain, the existence of two Air Force One planes, Afghanistans mineral deposits, Hillary Clinton flunking a bar exam and the authenticity of Trumps hair.
Trump may be correct when he says most people dont know how much hes worth and dont know that hes a nice person. But hes surely wrong when he says people dont know how bad things are.
A lot of people dont know it, but our countrys in trouble, he has said.
If we didnt know it before, we do now.
Twitter: @Milbank
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Lincoln was a Republican, slavery is bad and more discoveries ... - Washington Post
The Latest: Republican eyes continued care for incurably ill Kansas City Star A Republican state legislator wants to ensure Nevadans with chronic conditions such as his own experience no gaps in treatment. Assemblyman Keith Pickard of Carson City introduced a bill Monday that would outlaw insurance companies from dropping ... |
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The Latest: Republican eyes continued care for incurably ill - Kansas City Star