New York Magazine | House Republicans to Trump: Steal All You Want New York Magazine Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted this week not to compel the release of President Trump's tax returns. And Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who claimed before the election that he had years of ... |
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House Republicans to Trump: Steal All You Want - New York Magazine
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Here are two things you can bet money on: There will always be an interpretation of a Bible verse to justify just about anything, and that interpretation will most times be found by a white, male Republican. The latest biblical verse being used to justify cuts to SNAP, aka food stamps, is Thessalonians 3-10.
[T]he Scripture tells us ... for even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: If a man will not work, he shall not eat, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said during a House of Representatives hearing on nutrition, according to the Washington Posts Wonkblog. Arrington continued: And then he goes on to say, We hear that some among you are idle. I think that every American, Republican or Democrat, wants to help the neediest among us. And I think its a reasonable expectation that we have work requirements. I think ... that gives more credibility, quite frankly, to SNAP.
Arrington isnt even original, as Wonkblog points out. Hes the third Republican to use the hot biblical verse to justify gutting the public assistance program. Of course, many Republicans believe the myth that the majority of people on public assistance are merely freeloaders just trying to take the system for a ride. The Post points out that many people on SNAP cant work, either because they dont have job skills, theyre mentally ill or disabled, or theyre children who have recently aged out of foster care. But when have Republicans ever let facts stop them?
No one is suggesting that people who dont want to work should get benefits,Josh Protas, the vice president of public policy at MAZON, told Wonkblog. There are stereotypes about SNAP recipients and myths about the program that are very harmful to people in need who could take advantage of it.
The Post also notes that the unemployed make up a small percentage of those who actually use SNAP: According to the Department of Agriculture [pdf], nearly two-thirds of SNAP recipients are children, seniors and people with disabilities. Of the remaining third, the vast majority are employed. According to the USDA, only 14 percent of all SNAP participants work less than 30 hours per week.
And as USA Today reports, recipients get between a lousy $1.40 and $1.90 per meal.
But yes, lets all band together and take that from them because the Biblewhich also promotes kindness, generosity, love; you know, all the basic tenets of being a nondeplorablesupposedly says so.
Read more at Wonkblog and USA Today.
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The Hot Bible Verse That Republicans Use to Justify Drastic Cuts to Food Stamps - The Root
Will Republicans learn the limits of oppositional politics? - BBC News BBC News Is the Republican healthcare bill a single failure or the symptom of a party that's turned itself into a protest movement? |
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Will Republicans learn the limits of oppositional politics? - BBC News - BBC News
Reeling from the defeat of their health care proposal last week, Republicans in Congress are regrouping and planning for the coming months. There are budget deadlines to meet and policy issues to tackle, ranging from tax reform to infrastructure .
But prospects for achieving major victories in the coming months looks dim. Many lawmakers are concerned that divisions in its ranks between conservatives and moderates will make it difficult to notch any major achievements in the coming months.
Things that you assumed could happen automatically, youd better now spend a lot more time on and make sure they occur, said Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma.
Many have advocated looking beyond the partys own ranks and finding common ground with Democrats.
Weve got a lot of work to do, said Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. One of the things we need to do and its going to be harder now, because we just failed is theres got to be bipartisanship.
Here are the five issues Republicans will have to work out.
How to defund Planned Parenthood
The government is set to partially shut down on April 28 unless Congress approves a spending package first. Republicans are deciding how many of their policy priorities to squeeze into the proposal without risking a government shutdown.
Planned Parenthood is one measure many Republicans want to see in the spending package due by the end of April. But Democrats could filibuster the government funding bill in the Senate, thereby forcing Republicans to decide whether they want to shut down the government.
That has made House Speaker Paul Ryan wary about defunding it through the April spending package, leading him to suggest defunding the womens health organization through a budget reconciliation measure instead.
The budget reconciliation will head off the risk of Senate filibuster from Democrats, as it only requires a simple majority to pass the upper chamber.
We think reconciliation is the tool, because that gets it into law, Ryan told reporters, responding to a question about Planned Parenthood funding. Reconciliation is the way to go."
If conservatives in the Republican conference object to Ryans delay, however, there could be a fight on the partys hands.
Whether to pay for a border wall
Another measure that some want to see in the government funding bill next month is funding for President Trumps proposed wall on the border with Mexico. It is a major campaign promise by the president, and one that galvanized many voters in Republican Congressional districts.
Does that need to be a presidential priority? Well hes made it one, said Randy Weber, Republican from Texas. Is there support for getting it in there? Unequivocally yes. Can they get it in? I dont know, well have to see.
Democrats have firmly objected, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying border wall funding would be a poison pill that would lead to a filibuster.
Whether to pursue the border adjustment tax
Tax reform is the next big item on the Republicans agenda. But rewriting the tax code is notoriously difficult, and there are strong divisions among Republicans about what would work best.
Republican leaders in the House have insisted that the best method would be through a 20% border adjustment which would tax goods consumed in the United States and slash the corporate tax rate. Its a revolutionary plan that would likely help domestic manufacturers like Boeing and hurt importers like Walmart , but it has enough skeptics in the Senate that it might be a pipe dream.
The conflict is setting up the GOP for another fight.
Whether to end the filibuster on the Supreme Court
It is looking increasingly likely that Democrats will have the votes needed to block the confirmation vote for Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, with Democratic senators from across the political spectrum saying they will oppose President Trump's nominee. That will force Senate Republicans to either back down, or trigger the so-called nuclear option , which would abolish the filibuster on Supreme Court nominees, and force Gorsuch through.
It is a difficult choice for Republicans. Many longtime senators are traditionalists and do not want to change the rules of the Senate. Abolishing the filibuster requires a majority in the Senate, so just two Republicans would need to get cold feet for the effort to fail, and thus sink Gorsuch's confirmation.
Still, even moderate Republicans with a longstanding respect for the Senate's rules are adamant that Gorsuch will get confirmed one way or another. "He will be confirmed," said McCain.
"We will confirm him. So whatever it takes, were going to have to do," Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah told National Journal .
Whether to try repealing Obamacare again
Republicans are not done with their effort to repeal Obamacare. After Fridays defeat, the House Republicans held a rousing conference meeting, where members committed again to finding a way to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a law that repeals certain regulations and reduces federal expenditures.
What shape that law will take is hard to know, and Republicans have not started drafting new ideas. The old, deep divisions in the party have not disappeared, and the hard-right members of the Freedom Caucus will still want a plan that looks very different from what moderates want.
Still, despite the difficulty of health care and all the other pressing matters President Trump promised to address, many members want to repeal Obamacare first .
If we just sit up here and play diddly-winks, itll hurt us, said Republican Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia. I think you need to do health care first.
The fact that we did not pass a bill next week doesnt mean we are not going to pass a billId love to see it pass next weekbut if its not next week, then its next month, said Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia.
Until we decide what were doing with health care, everything is going to be a stumbling block, Republican Rep. Dennis Ross of Florida.
The rest is here:
5 Big Decisions Republicans in Congress Have to Make Soon - TIME
NEW YORK Republicans mostly blame the U.S. Congress, and not President Donald Trump or party leaders, for failing to pass their party's healthcare overhaul, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Wednesday.
The March 25-28 poll asked who should take responsibility for the failure of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), which Republican leaders pulled from consideration last week without a vote.
Besides Trump, who backed the bill, and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who was expected to shepherd it through Congress, the poll asked if people blamed House Republicans, House Democrats or the media.
Republicans were most likely to blame Congress. Some 26 percent said House Democrats were most responsible and 23 percent blamed House Republicans. Another 13 percent blamed Trump and 10 percent blamed Ryan. Only 8 percent blamed the media. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2nhOmjI PDF link: tmsnrt.rs/2nhtM30)
Their assessment appeared to align with Trump's criticism of Democratic leaders and the conservative Freedom Caucus, whom he blamed for the bill's failure.
Overall, nearly one in four Americans, including Democrats and independents, blamed Trump. Ryan, Congress and the media received less criticism.
The Republican reform was widely criticized after estimates by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office showed 24 million people could lose their health insurance over the next 10 years.
Trump said on Tuesday he still thinks healthcare reform can happen "very quickly" in Washington, but he did not offer any specifics on how it could get done, or what would be changed from the previous bill.
Nearly half of all Americans said they would like to see that happen, though the response was split along party lines. Some 80 percent of Republicans said they would like to see their party take another swing at a bill, compared with only 25 percent of Democrats.
In a separate poll conducted between Jan.7-23, 46 percent of Americans wanted to keep Obamacare, the popular name for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, while fixing problem areas, and another 8 percent wanted to keep it exactly as it is.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online in English in all 50 states. The March 25-28 poll included 1,332 people, including 456 Republicans and 558 Democrats. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 3 percentage points for the entire group and 5 percentage points for Democrats and Republicans.
(Reporting by Chris Kahn, editing by Ross Colvin)
WASHINGTON Ivanka Trump said on Wednesday she would work in the White House in an unpaid, informal advisory role to the president as she sought to allay ethics concerns about working there.
WASHINGTON The U.S. Interior Department said on Wednesday that it would form a new committee to review royalty rates collected from oil and gas drilling and coal mining on federal lands to ensure taxpayers receive their full value.
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Exclusive: Republicans mostly blame Congress for healthcare reform failure - Reuters/Ipsos poll - Reuters