Mediaboss Marketing

An influential House committee chairman will press his case on Monday for a $705 billion defense budget in 2018, more military spending than at any point during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a level even a number of his Republican colleagues don't support.

Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, who heads the Armed Services Committee, argues the sharp increase is badly needed to repair a military that's been at almost continuous combat for a decade and a half. He'll unveil a blueprint that proposes $37 billion above the $603 billion than President Donald Trump requested for core Pentagon operations along with another $65 billion for warfighting missions.

But Thornberry is at odds with fellow Republicans over how much the Pentagon should get in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Conservatives who dominate the Budget Committee agreed last week on a budget outline that promises $620 billion for the core military budget that pays for weapons, training and troop salaries. That's $20 billion less than Thornberry wants.

The two committees, along with senior GOP members of the appropriations panel, have been meeting behind closed doors in hopes of breaking the impasse. Thornberry said he's willing to accept a lower number, but only if he's assured the Pentagon will no longer be hamstrung by a herky-jerky budgeting process that leaves the armed services unsure of how much they'll get each year and when the money will arrive.

Squarely in the sights of Thornberry and other defense hawks on Capitol Hill is a 2011 law that strictly limits defense spending. If the budget caps mandated by the Budget Control Act are breached, automatic spending reductions known as sequestration are triggered. They've been pushing for the law to be repealed, but that won't happen without help from Democrats who want limits on domestic spending erased.

"If we can get to a point where we don't have these draconian cuts hanging over our head there is value to that," says Thornberry, whose committee will craft the sweeping defense authorization bill this week.

Thornberry criticized Trump's maiden Pentagon's budget as inadequate, but he refused to blame the president for the shortcomings. The defense budget sent to Congress last month was essentially what former President Barack Obama would have proposed, he said.

"There wasn't anybody at DOD to write a Trump budget request," according to Thornberry. "I have no doubt that our president wants to repair and rebuild our military."

Yet the Trump administration is almost entirely responsible for the skeleton crew at the Pentagon. There are dozens of top-level jobs that require Senate confirmation before they can be filled, but Trump, in office since late January, has nominated just 20 so far. Six have been confirmed, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, while a dozen or so others await approval, according to figures maintained by the Senate.

Thornberry's blueprint recommends an increase of just over 18,000 active-duty troops for the Army, Air Force and Navy. The Army, with 10,000 new service members, would be the largest beneficiary of the boost. Overall, the plan envisions a full-time fighting force of 1.3 million.

The plan provides a 2.4 percent pay raise for the troops, which is slightly higher than the wage hike the Pentagon had proposed. Mattis defended the lower amount during a committee hearing earlier this month, telling lawmakers that the salaries of U.S. service members are competitive with the private sector.

"We probably have a better benefits package than most places," Mattis added.

But Thornberry told reporters last week that U.S. troops are entitled to a "full" pay increase. He also had grappled with the Obama White House over pay levels. The Obama administration had maintained that boosting troop salaries even a half-percentage point would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and upset the balance between fair pay and the ability to provide cutting-edge equipment and training.

The plan aims to reverse the $340 million cut made in the Trump budget to missile defense programs. Thornberry said he was "astonished" by the proposed reduction, citing the potential threat the U.S. faces of a missile strike by North Korea or Iran. He's seeking more money for interceptors that can bring down incoming missiles and money for investment in missile defense research.

Thornberry's committee rejects Mattis' bid to begin a new round of base closings in 2021, a move the Pentagon chief said would save $10 billion over five years. The Obama administration had sought to shutter excess bases too, but also was rebuffed by Capitol Hill. Military installations are prized possessions in congressional districts.

Lawmakers have questioned the data and the analysis the Pentagon has used to make its arguments for fewer facilities. They're also skeptical of the alleged savings, noting that there are substantial up-front costs required to close bases down.

Contact Richard Lardner on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rplardner

Read the rest here:
Top Republican to press for $705 billion defense budget - ABC News

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellMitch McConnellDoctors can do messaging on Republican healthcare reform OPINION: Trump's right GOP health bill is mean, mean, mean Conway: ObamaCare 'robbed people of choices' MORE (R-Ky.) has said a vote will take place this week on the Senates newly proposed healthcare legislation.

Its a risky strategy. If he fails to get the votes it will demonstrate that after seven years of complaining about ObamaCare, the GOP cant pass a replacement. If it does pass, theres no guarantee the House will support it.

The biggest risk is the political one. If President Trump signs a new health law, the Republicans will own the healthcare space. They can reap the benefits, but the Democrats will, no doubt, pick apart and blame the GOP for anything that could otherwise be blamed on ObamaCare.

Republicans may face the same fate as Democrats in 2010 on Election Day next year if they cant deliver this week, and then show that their policy can do better by patients, small business owners and doctors.

Ultimately the final legislation must deliver on four major problems patients and employers face: costs, access, choice and quality. This is difficult but not impossible as long as the GOP members find compromise that will allow them to show voters they can at least make progress toward these issues.

Most importantly for doctors, the committee bill must address the increasing presence of insurance companies and government entities that have created an ever-growing wedge between the doctor and patient -- the relationship that nearlythree-quartersof doctors say is the most satisfying part of their job.

While agreeing on an exact policy is difficult, messaging from the 30,000 foot view is not. This is good because most voters respond to 30,000 foot messaging, not intricate policy debates -- as long as it is carried by the right messengers: doctors.

Consider: Polls show that just17 percentof the public supports the House proposal. Does anyone believe that more than a few percent of the population has even read the bill? Of course not. People are forming their opinions based on 30,000 foot messaging even if that messaging is fully false. Even before the House voted, seemingly every major media outlet predicted calamity.

This is the message that Democrats want average voters to hear to turn the focus away from the massive failures of ObamaCare.

Doctors can help. As someone who has organized doctors for the past three election cycles and has witnessed the humanity, the professionalism, and the deep understanding of the doctor-patient relationship of these healthcare professionals, I know there is no doubt doctors are ready to help message a better healthcare alternative.

While they may not agree on every single thread that tries to untie the healthcare Gordian knot,doctors will supporta patient-focused reform that returns medical decisions to them and their patients.

Given their high public esteem --a recent Gallup pollshows healthcare professionals are the most trusted people in the country, with two-thirds of respondents rating doctors ethical standards as very high or high doctors support could make the difference in generating the public support necessary for the final bill to pass.

The White House and congressional Republicans should enlist those trained, organized, and caring doctors who are willing to help. Their authority on the issue can cut through the misinformation, sensationalism and faux outrage that define much of todays media.

In short, President Trump and congressional reformers dont need to spend too much time crafting the message or finding the messengers. Doctors are here and ready to help. Focus on policy; get it done. As long as that plan includes more choice and more protection for the doctor-patient relationship while protecting the neediest, doctors will have reformers backs. And that might just save their political necks.

Joel L. Strom DDS MS is a Fellow at the Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California.

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

View post:
Doctors can do messaging on Republican healthcare reform - The Hill (blog)

THE PURPOSE OF tax reform is to raise revenue more efficiently with fewer loopholes and special breaks that distort economic incentives and necessitate higher marginal rates. In discussing tax reform since President Trumps election, Republicans have promised to do just that: pass a bill with lower rates for both individuals and businesses, applied to an income base broadened by the elimination of deductions and credits.

If you listen very closely to what GOP leaders have been saying lately, however, especially in remarks last week by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Vice President Pence, what youll hear is the carefully chosen words of people planning something thats not real tax reform at all.

Speaking to the National Association of Manufacturers Tuesday, Mr. Ryan pledged to take on defenders of the status quo and then proceeded to defend many of the status quos worst aspects. He pledged to get rid of special-interest carve-outs except for those that make the most sense such as the deduction for mortgage interest. Actually, this distortion of the real estate market is one of the tax codes least sensible features, but it is politically sacrosanct due to the power of the real estate lobby. The only major individual tax break Mr. Ryan seemed to leave on the chopping block was the deduction for state and local taxes, which disproportionately favors states that send Democrats to Congress. Any GOP tax plan would eliminate the estate tax, Mr. Ryan insisted thus entrenching the concentration of wealth in the United States.

Somewhat more plausibly, Mr. Ryan advocated a new corporate tax system, with a lower top rate, so as to discourage shifting production abroad. However, he gave few specifics and seemed to soft-pedal the means of paying for the plan he and his House colleagues had previously offered a so-called border adjustment that would raise tens of billions of dollars per year, essentially by taxing the U.S. trade deficit. He referred to a new, lower tax, specifically for small businesses, which could translate into a costly new benefit for pass-through entities, such as sole proprietorships and S corporations.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pence repeated the Trump administrations promise that the end result of any tax rewrite will be tax cuts, implicitly endorsing the dubious notion that the U.S. economy lags due to an excessive tax burden. And not just any tax cut, Mr.Pence said, but the largest tax cut since the days of Ronald Reagan, meaning even bigger than those enacted by President George W. Bush. So much for the idea that tax reform ought to be revenue-neutral. Given that Mr. Trump and Congress cannot and should not cut spending enough to offset such large revenue losses, what may be in the offing is tax reform that ratchets up federal debt.

Mr. Ryan, too, alluded to the need for tax cuts. That made the weeks GOP messaging unanimous and reinforced suspicions that, for all their talk of reform, slashing taxes, mainly for the wealthy and corporations, is the one policy that Republicans agree on and therefore the only policy they are actually going to enact.

Follow this link:
The Republican tax-reform plan isn't reform at all - Washington Post

The Republican health care bill is continuing to receive harsh criticism, especially after they released a 142 page draft that proposed cutting almost a trillion dollars from Medicaid and to end federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The day the draft was revealed, protesters in wheelchairs were arrested for protesting outside of Mitch McConnell's office, and photos circulated the internet showing those individuals being removed from their wheelchairs and arrested.

Highlighting the cruelty of the healthcare bill, in perhaps one of the most heartbreaking ways possible, Ali Chandra wrote a Twitter thread explaining the costs and complications involved in her young son Ethan's rare medical condition, called Heterotaxy, a birth defect that affects the heart and other vital organs.

"I was immediately shocked at how cruel it was," wrote Chandra, in a comment to The FADER, speaking about the recently released draft. "And how it seems to reduce our children's lives to lines in a budget."

"I would tell [Republican lawmakers] that politics are always personal," wrote Chandra. "That the laws they write will have real, tangible consequences for living, breathing humans. I would ask them whether they would be able to vote yes for this bill if it were their own child's life or their own financial security [were] on the line. Honestly, I just want them to look me in the eyes and explain how they can justify creating and passing a bill that would say to my son that his life is too expensive to save."

You can read Chandra's full Twitter thread below. With the vote on the bill most likely coming this week, activists and everyday citizens are organizing to fight against the passing of such a harmful piece of legislation. For ways to contact your senator to tell them that you don't support the passing of the health care bill look to The FADER's guide to stop the Senate from taking away healthcare from 23 million people.

Continued here:
This Twitter Thread Shows Just How Bad The Republican Health Care Bill Could Be - The FADER

President Trump whipped out an afternoon tweetstorm Saturday, railing against the Obama administration and boosting Senate Republicans for their healthcare reform efforts.

Since the Obama Administration was told way before the 2016 Election that the Russians were meddling, why no action? Trump asked at 4:28 pm. Focus on them, not T!

Almost 20 minutes later, he posted, Obama Administration official said they choked when it came to acting on Russian meddling of election. They didnt want to hurt Hillary?

The tweets seemed to refer to a Washington Post story about the Obama administrations knowledge of Russian interference during the 2016 election campaign and its passive reaction that failed to stop it.

At 4:50, Trump took up a new theme.

I cannot imagine that these very fine Republican Senators would allow the American people to suffer a broken ObamaCare any longer! he wrote.

Five GOP senators have voiced opposition to the Senates Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. Passing the bill will require all but two of them to vote in its favor.

Finally, he wrapped up with his signature line MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! at 5:23.

Read more from the original source:
Trump rails on Obama admin and republican senate opposition - New York Post