Trump unifying force for Dems
Translating opposition to specific GOP policies ‘biggest challenge’
ATLANTA, April 11, (AP): US President Donald Trump is a unifying force for Democrats, bringing together disparate factions in opposition to nearly every presidential move.
But solidarity — at least for now — doesn’t necessarily add up to a strategy that can help Democrats win more elections after a precipitous slide from power in Congress and around the country.
“We have been right and successful in saying ‘no’ when he wants to drive the Titanic into the iceberg,” said Washington Gov Jay Inslee. Now, Inslee said, “we have to take actions that show we can drive in forward and not in reverse.”
The biggest challenge, several party figures said in recent interviews, is translating their opposition to specific Republican policies — Trump’s immigration restrictions, nixing the Affordable Care Act, a promised tax overhaul and any changes to Social Security and Medicare — into a coherent explanation of what Democrats want to do for voters. The list ranges from anti-Trump protesters to the white working-class voters in the Rust Belt and other presidential battlegrounds.
Betrayed
“Trump has already betrayed a lot of the people who voted for him,” said Rep Tim Ryan, whose northeast Ohio congressional district is a traditionally Democratic enclave of union workers where Trump vastly outperformed recent Republican presidential nominees. “Those should be our people again.”
Losing those kinds of voters helps explain why Republicans hold a 237193 majority House majority (241-194 before five vacancies). Republicans have a 52-48 Senate advantage, with friendly congressional lines and a Senate election slate that will force 10 Democratic senators to face re-election in states Trump won. And the GOP controls almost two-thirds of state legislatures and governor’s offices. “We can’t just expect it to come to us,” Ryan said. “We have to have an affirmative agenda.”
To be clear, many Democrats praise how party leaders, particularly House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, DCalifornia, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, have managed Trump’s opening months. “It’s
ity “really matters” at the court. She urges lawmakers to “lead in restoring harmonious work ways.” (AP)
Circuit to hear travel ban appeal:
The full 15-judge panel of a federal appeals court will examine a challenge to President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban next WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, April 11, (Agencies): Commissioners in a Florida county are so tired of spending money on President Donald Trump’s frequent visits to his Mar-a-Lago resort that some are suggesting a special tax be levied against the property if the federal government doesn’t reimburse its costs.
Palm Beach County spends more than $60,000 a day when the president visits, mostly for law enforcement overtime — almost $2 million since January. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says the county was expected to spend $250,000 during Trump’s recent meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the president’s sixth trip to his Winter White House in the 12 weeks since his inauguration.
County Commissioner Dave Kerner has suggested turning Mara-Lago into a special taxing district and imposing a levy on the resort to pay the president’s security costs. Because Mar-a-Lago is incorporated as a club, it pays lower property taxes than hotels. It also gets a tax break because Trump surrendered development rights after he purchased the property from the estate of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post for $10 million in 1985.
The 500 members pay $14,000 annually in dues. The initiation fee was recently doubled to $200,000.
inherently reactive” when Republicans set the agenda, noted Mark Longabaugh, a top adviser for Sen Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
The conservative Club for Growth is launching TV spots pressuring moderate Republican lawmakers to support the party’s languishing healthcare overhaul drive, officials of the group said Monday in the latest salvo in the GOP civil war
month.
The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case on May 8.
Appeals are typically heard first by a three-judge panel before they are possibly examined by all 15 judges. But the Richmond, Virginia-based court said Monday that Trump’s case will go straight to the full court. Forbes Magazine estimates the club is now worth $150 million.
“We’re very honored to have the president here, but at the same time, his travel here is such high frequency he’s not visiting Palm Beach County — he’s governing from it,” Kerner told Money magazine recently. “Whatever our priorities are, the taxpayers didn’t pay this money to us to protect the president.”
Kerner did not return numerous calls from The Associated Press to his office. The sheriff believes the federal government will eventually reimburse the county, but can’t be certain.
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that derailed the House measure.
The ads press moderates to back a revised version of the measure that the Trump administration offered last week in talks with conservative legislators. Under the changes, states could seek federal waivers from requirements under president Barack Obama’s healthcare law that insurers charge healthy and seriously ill consumers the same premiums, and that they cover specified medical services like mental health counseling.
The Trump administration is appealing a ruling in Maryland that blocked the ban’s prohibition on new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries.
A federal judge in Hawaii has also blocked the revised executive order. The president’s lawyers have appealed that ruling to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco. (AP)
Tax coalition targets lawmakers:
Opponents of a proposal to create a US border tax on imported goods are targeting lawmakers in their home states for the next two weeks while Congress is in recess, according to organizers of the lobbying effort.
The anti-border tax coalition, known as Americans for Affordable Products, includes large corporations that require imports like automakers and retail giants like Target , Best Buy and Walmart. The tax opponents will target 40 members of Congress in 11 states, said coalition spokesman Joshua Baca.
“We’re talking to businesses, local associations, having a frank conversation with them about how dumb this idea is,” Baca said. His group argues the proposal will raise consumer prices. As part of a total overhaul of the US tax code, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has proposed lowering the corporate income tax to 20 percent from 35 percent, imposing a 20 percent tax on imports and excluding export revenue from taxable income.
The proposal has some strong corporate backers who say it will boost American jobs and not raise prices, including companies that do considerable amount of exporting, such as Boeing, Caterpillar and Pfizer. (RTRS)