Common Dreams | Don't Like Betsy DeVos? Blame the Democrats. Common Dreams Prodded by grassroots activists and what's left of teachers' unions, Democrats went all out to defeat DeVos. George Miller, the former congressman from California, slammed her plan to create a $20 billion school choice program that would underwrite ... |
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Don't Like Betsy DeVos? Blame the Democrats. - Common Dreams
In a letter to President Trump's top budget official Tuesday, 18 Democrats said they will use "all tools available" if the Trump administration doesn't comply with a request by a federal ethics watchdog to submit the waivers.
The letter comes nearly a month after the Office of Government Ethics first asked the White House and federal agencies for the names of anyone who had been granted an exemption from ethics rules.
For example, if an administration official once worked as a lobbyist, an ethics waiver could allow that person to bypass the rules that are meant to prevent them from working on matters related to their lobbying.
Related: White House clashes with ethics office
Last week, Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, asked ethics office director Walter Shaub to stop the inquiry, and questioned his authority to ask for the names of anyone granted an exemption.
Shaub on Monday insisted that the White House turn over the names by the previously stated deadline of June 1.
If the budget office "does not stand down," the Senators wrote in their letter, "we will seek the waivers directly ourselves."
"The Administration cannot dispute that Congress has the right to this information," they wrote.
The letter from lawmakers also mentioned Trump's executive order from January, which prohibits former lobbyists from participating in anything directly related to the businesses of former employers or clients for two years.
Lawmakers said Shaub's request is "necessary for assuring Americans that the Trump administration is taking its own ethics pledge seriously."
Mulvaney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Before Shaub's letter was made public Monday night, the budget office said in a statement that it "stands firmly in support of the highest ethical standards." But it said the request for the waivers had an "expansive scope and breathless timetable."
CNNMoney (New York) First published May 23, 2017: 4:26 PM ET
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Senate Democrats pledge to force release of ethics waivers - CNNMoney
At their weekend convention in Sacramento, California Democrats elected a new chairman, heard updates on the fight in Congress from the key player in the Trump/Russia investigation, and were encouraged to make universal health-care coverage happen in their state.
They still managed to leave the city in a brawl over the chairmanship and the national partys refusal to run on single-payer health care.
The convention, which came after supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders won swaths of delegate slots across the state, demonstrated not just the divisions inside the party but how easily they can be exploited. In California, Democrats have pushed the Republican Party to near-irrelevancy, and pushed through a progressive agenda of social spending paid for by higher taxes.
But progressives showed up with a mission: electing Kimberly Ellis to chair the party after eight years of John Burton, a proudly foul-mouthed operative who had never concealed his distaste for the Sanders primary challenge. According to the Los Angeles Times, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United was the prime mover behind rallies and demonstrations demanding that the party back single payer, and heckling if Democrats were weak-kneed about it.
Theyre going to be telling you how bad Trump is andhow we should all be okay with them because Trumps so bad, said NNUs RoseAnn DeMoro, according to reporter Christine Mai-Duc. You guys are going to want to boo. Theres a lot of good people to boo.
Indeed, coverage of the convention which determined control of the strongest Democratic Party in the country focused acutely on the public shows of division. NNU, which specializes in protests and visibility, made sure that activists were in force demanding single payer; in the crowd, plenty booed corporate Democrats. Republicans had a field day with a clip, recorded by the Sacramento Bee, of Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez trying to give a speech at a reception and being shouted over by the activists.
Hey, shut the f up or go outside, all right? Burton said.
Coverage of that moment, and of the conventions main speeches, demonstrated how much of an appetite there is on the left for stories of Democrats being weak on policy or sidelining policy to discuss the Russia story. A Saturday story in the New York Observer focused on the heckles of Perez and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosis speech.
Pelosi, who also doesnt support single payer health care,focused her speech at the California Democratic Party Convention on Russia as well, wrote reporter Michael Saitano. That version of the story rocketed around Twitter over the weekend.
In fact, Pelosi dealt with the Russia probein around 90 seconds of her speech, saying that Democrats would protect our democracy by demanding the truth about a Trump-Russia connection and that Trump and the Republicans in Congress must stop stonewalling our request for an independent investigation. She spent more than twice as much time on the life and death consequences of defeating the moral monstrosity of Trumpcare.
The Affordable Care Act enables every state to create a public option, Pelosi said. I believe that California must take the lead.
That was less than activists wanted, and in video of the remarks, cries of single payer could be heard rumbling under Pelosis speech. Yet the larger division came with the chairman vote which Ellis lost, and Los Angeles County Chair Eric Bauman won. Instead of leaving the weekend on a note of celebration, Democrats left in a tiff, with Ellis refusing to concede the close race before an audit of the vote was conducted.
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California Democrats choose new chair as divisions break into the open - Washington Post
Roll Call | The more Trump stumbles, the more Democrats see hope in NC House race and beyond Wichita Eagle As President Donald Trump's controversies swirl, Democrats are eyeing districts such as Republican U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger's as their improving prospects to win a majority in the House of Representatives next year. Democrats need a net gain of 24 ... Pittenger Draws Democratic Challenger in North Carolina |
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The more Trump stumbles, the more Democrats see hope in NC House race and beyond - Wichita Eagle
Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE May 23, 2017 05/23/2017 1:05 pm By Ed Kilgore Share California Democratic Chairman John Burton offers a characteristic message to Donald Trump at the state partys raucous convention. Photo: California Democrats
Few political stereotypes are as durable as that of crazy lefty California Democrats and their fads and fights. The idea of the Golden State donkey party being characterized by an irrepressible conflict between the left and the far left may go back to the fractious 1968 presidential primary between Bobby Kennedy and Gene McCarthy, with its violent and tragic aftermath. Or it may owe something to the especially noisy politics practiced in progressive hotbeds from Berkeley to Santa Cruz to Hollywood. But in any event, no one was especially surprised when, at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the last-ditch opposition of some Bernie Sanders supporters to gestures of unity was concentrated in the California delegation, or when activists promoting secession got a big wave of publicity and support immediately after Donald Trumps election. There is even a theory that Trumpian populist nationalism was largely formed in reaction to the peculiar nature of California progressivism, via the experiences of California natives like Stephen Miller and Julia Hahn, and longtime resident Stephen Bannon.
This weekends California Democratic Convention in Sacramento supplied enough craziness to perpetuate stereotypes of internecine warfare and extremism in conservative eyes for years to come. There was a very competitive party chairmanship contest characterized by a challenge to the Establishment candidate by former Bernie Sanders activists, which concluded in a contested defeat for the insurgents and delegates chanting Shame! Shame! The results are still up in the air. There was a loud and visible effort spearheaded by the California Nurses Association to pressure Democratic leaders into a real commitment to enact a single-payer health-care system. And to cap it all off, the infamously foul-mouthed octogenarian who was outgoing chairman of the party, the legendary John Burton, chose as his swan song to lead the delegates in a chant of Fuck Donald Trump as he thrust two middle fingers in the air. (It was totally in character for Burton, who at the 2015 convention introduced Elizabeth Warren as the fucking champion of the American people.).
So anyone wanting to write a Democrats in Disarray take or a Left Coast Democrats Go Crazy piece had plenty of material to exploit.
It was easy to forget when reading these accounts that by most measurements the California Democratic Party is in extraordinarily good shape, holding every statewide office, supermajorities in both state legislative chambers, and a steadily climbing share of the two-party presidential vote in the state (Hillary Clintons 30-point margin over Donald Trump comfortably exceeded Barack Obamas 24-point margin in his landslide 2008 victory). No fewer than six U.S. House Republicans in California have a big bulls-eye on their backs going into next years midterms. And the state GOP itself remains in a state of disarray: In 2016, it could not even get a candidate into the top two general election for the U.S. Senate.
Yes, Democrats will have a crowded and potentially divisive gubernatorial field next year (in Sacramento this weekend, one candidate for governor, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, took a shot at another, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, in a reference to Davos Democrats). And the intraparty fight over single-payer is a very real thing, with outgoing Governor Jerry Brown very likely to oppose a plan in the legislature after an official estimate came in showing it would cost more than the entire existing state budget.
But California Republicans would love to have the problems of California Democrats; theyd probably even be happy with the publicity of a nasty chairmanship fight. Perhaps the crazy left coast donkey isnt suicidally plunging into the blue waters of the Pacific just yet.
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If Trump cared about increasing productivity and growth rather than redistributing wealth upward he would increase social spending, not cut it.
Trump and Duterte also gabbed about the possibility of nuclear war with North Korea.
He used the pleas of a grieving family to obscure his refusal to disavow a story Fox News retracted.
If Lieberman is the next FBI director, Trump hiring Liebermans boss is a huge conflict of interest but perhaps the president doesnt mind.
While meeting with Muslims and a potentially hostile pope, Trump is reacting to a terrorist attack differently than you might expect.
For a president this polarizing, his party had best look beyond his core supporters if they dont want to lose the House.
Lets concede that the White House achieved all of its short-term objectives. But there are some ominous signs too.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed at least 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in a Manchester concert arena.
John Brennan had information that revealed interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign.
Her identification with two adulterous pols whose policies are deplored in the Vatican wont make life easy for Americas new representative.
Forget what Trump does to programs liberals think help poor people. Look at what he does to programs Trump thinks help poor people.
After a confab marked by a disputed chair election, protests, and obscene chants, its easy to overestimate the partys problems.
The draconian spending cuts will never pass Congress. But Trump is preparing excuses in advance for when GOP tax cuts balloon the deficit.
Literally the largest and stupidest arithmetic mistake in the history of the federal budget.
It is a great honor to be here with all my friends so amazing & will never forget!
His reported request to the heads of the DNI and NSA echoes Nixons effort to shut down the Watergate investigation.
Polling shows Democrat Jon Ossoff with a significant lead over Republican Karen Handel in Georgias special election. That defies conventional wisdom.
The singer was unharmed.
In December 2015, Flynn accepted $45,000 from a Kremlin-backed media company. Two months later, he denied receiving any foreign income.
But the administrations actions will mess with the health-care system anyway.
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California Democrats Aren't As Crazy As They Sound - New York Magazine