Mediaboss Marketing

'); //-->

WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, R-Clarence, came under fire Friday as Democrats and health groups charted out their next moves to protect the Affordable Care Act and turn up the pressure on Republicans, who are defending their health-care overhaul legislation they barely managed to heave across the finish line in the House on Thursday.

Collins, one of the first lawmakers to back Trump, voted for the bill, which narrowly passed without a single vote from any of the Democrats in the House.

He told the Washington Post that he wasnt worried about voting for the bill before it had been rated by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Were still comfortable were saving billions and billions of dollars, Collins said.

Yet the GOP health-care bill, which now heads over to the Senate, is likely to be a big political hot potato in next years election, as it could disrupt health insurance for millions of Americans by dismantling big parts of the Affordable Care Act.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called the Trump health care bill atrocious and said it must be defeated in the Senate.

Health care shouldnt be about politics it is about people and this bill would harm people, Gillibrand said in a statement. The only beneficiaries of this bill are big insurance companies and the wealthiest among us, with the price tag being paid by everyone else through higher premiums, less coverage, and millions of vulnerable Americans losing their insurance.

Gillibrand cited an age tax that would let insurance companies charge higher premiums to those aged 50 to 64 years old and warned that up to 24 million Americans with insurance could lose that coverage and that individuals with pre-existing conditions could lose their protections against premium discrimination granted under Obamacare.

Democratic political groups are poised and ready to attack moderate Republicans who supported it and could be vulnerable in 2018.

After Collins told CNN that he hadnt read the entire text of the legislation, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was quick to blast the Republican from New York, saying he doesnt respect or care about his constituents.

This disturbing admission makes it clear that Collins doesnt respect or care about the people who sent him to Washington, said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Evan Lukaske. Instead of reading pharmaceutical stock financial statements, Collins should actually read the legislation that would take away health care from thousands of his constituents.

When the Buffalo News asked about Collins comments, his spokesman, Michael McAdams, noted that Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., also said he had not read the entire health bill.

Congressman Collins has been intimately involved in the creation of this legislation from its inception ... He understands the impact it would have on Western New Yorkers, McAdams said in the Buffalo News. To infer Congressman Collins doesnt understand the disastrous impact Obamacare has had on our region and our nation is absolutely shameful.

Gillibrand acknowledged that Obamacare isnt perfect and that health insurance remains too costly for many Americans.

Congress should fix that, Gillibrand said. There are two ways to do that. Subsidize insurance companies further with taxpayer dollars or create a not-for-profit public option that cuts insurance companies and their profits out of the equation to lower premiums, drug prices, and out-of-pocket costs for everyone. I believe we should fight for that public option but until then, I will work as hard as I can to defeat this misguided and purely political effort that will hurt New York families.

New York State officials were also critical of the healthcare bills passage.

The Republican health care bill is reckless and damaging for our nation and for New York, Comptroller Thomas D. DiNapoli said in a statement. The bill means far fewer New Yorkers would have insurance, penalizes those who suffer from pre-existing conditions and potentially punches a big hole in our state budget. Members voted for this disastrous bill without knowing its true cost and impact, leaving millions of Americans behind with no options. New Yorkers deserve better from Washington.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo described the bill as an unconscionable piece of legislation and said the bill would cost New York nearly $7 billion.

Sadly, some representatives in New York have sold their vote and turned their backs on the very constituents they represent, Cuomo said in a statement. This bill is a targeted assault against our values, punishing New Yorkers because we support womens reproductive rights and including the Collins/Faso amendment which would devastate the states health care industry, put millions of New Yorkers at risk, and increase the total cost of this bill on New York to $6.9 billion.

Despite the vocal opposition of the American people, radical conservative ideologues are still advancing a disastrous bill, Cuomo said. I urge all Americans to call their Senators and tell them to stand with the people they represent by voting no on this reprehensible legislation.

Go here to see the original:
Democrats blast Collins over health bill - The Livingston County News

On Wednesday night, eight freshman Democrats in the Vermont House played a key role in the most dramatic act of the 2017 legislative session.

Along with eight other Democratic representatives, they broke ranks with their party leaders to support Republican Gov. Phil Scotts proposal to negotiate a statewide teachers health insurance contract.

The reason we were in the position we were in was because of the freshmen Democrats, said Rep. Heidi Scheuermann (R-Stowe).

Most wayward freshmen class of all time, said Rep. Sam Young (D-Glover), sounding somewhat exasperated.

The GOP coup was short-lived. As Republicans were about to triumph by a 74-73 margin, House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) cast a rare vote,resulting in a tie that killed the proposal.Still, all anyone could talk about Thursday was the Democratic defections. Under former House speaker Shap Smith, Democrats were a disciplined unit and the outcome of votes was almost always preordained: If a bill made it to the floor, Smith had made sure it had the votes to pass.

Johnson has either lost control of her caucus or deliberately given lawmakers a longer leash, depending on whom you ask. Intentional or not, it created an awfully close call.

I probably have just a more collaborative style than people are used to here, Johnson said Thursday. I dont want to make them choose their loyalties.

I dont get pressure from them, said Rep. Linda Joy Sullivan (D-Dorset), a first-year legislator who voted for Scotts proposal because, she said, it was fiscally responsible. Rep. Jessica Brumsted (D-Shelburne), also a newcomer, said she wasnt pushed to vote with the Democrats either.

More seasoned lawmakers, including Rep. Maureen Dakin (D-Colchester) and Rep. Kathy Keenan (D-St. Albans), agreed that Democratic leaders had given them free rein. They knew what I was doing, said Keenan. Our caucus allows individuality.

EvenRep. Matt Trieber (D-Rockingham), who isclose friends with both Johnson and House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington), felt comfortable voting against the majority. He said he texted Krowinski over the weekend to tell her he where he stood, and she thanked him and told him shed be in touch Monday, but they never ended up talking.

Not everyone, however, felt so liberated. In at least one case, the Democratic leaderships efforts at persuasion backfired. They didnt take no for an answer, said Rep. Jay Hooper (D-Brookfield). It pissed me off, to be frank.

He said he voted for Scotts proposal because it would address his constituents concerns about property taxes. I think that my party, the left, hasnt done enough to embrace the most important issue to all voters, even liberal Democrats: affordability, said Hooper, who, at age 23, is the second youngest lawmaker in the building. His seat mate, Ben Jickling (I-Brookfield), is the youngest, at age 22. The latter also voted with the Republicans.

As Hooper spoke, seated on a couch outside the governors statehouse office, Rep. Jim Harrison (R-Chittenden) walked by and gave the young rep a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

Im paying for it dearly, Hooper said. I can tell that there are certain individuals of authority in this building who are really not happy with me right now, he explained. And I am slowly becoming more OK with that because I dont believe in this process being so scripted.

Scheuermannis among the many Republicans encouraged by that sentiment.Ive been here 11 years and last night gave me a fresh perspective. For the first time in a long time, I felt we were having an open debate and honest debate that was not in the back rooms, she said.

View post:
Freshmen Revolt: Why did 16 Democrats Break With Their Party? - Seven Days

Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE May 5, 2017 05/05/2017 4:38 pm By Ed Kilgore Share Young voters dont like Donald Trump, his party, or his policies. But they also dont like voting in non-presidential elections. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The darkest cloud threatening what should be a sunny Democratic Election Day in 2018 is the donkey partys recent dependence on elements of the electorate minorities and millennials who tend to be a smaller share of the electorate in non-presidential elections. Democrats midterm falloff problem is sometimes misdiagnosed as an enthusiasm issue: While enthusiasm can matter significantly on the margins, the bigger problem is simply that younger and minority voters have never participated in midterms as much as their older and whiter counterparts, and they now play a bigger role in the Democratic coalition than ever. This heavy dependence on falloff voters is pretty recent in its intensity: Last time Democrats won back the House from Republicans, in 2006, they carried the senior vote. That is almost certainly not going to happen in 2018.

So as Ron Brownstein explains, one part of the 2018 puzzle for Democrats is taking advantage of millennial antipathy to Donald Trump to get these most falloff-prone of voters to show up at the polls:

Polls have also found that over three-fourths of Millennials oppose both Trumps Mexico border wall and his push to repeal Obamas climate-change agenda. Eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood, cutting taxes for top earners, barring Syrian refugeeseach Trump prioritiesall face preponderant Millennial opposition in surveys.

More to the point, early congressional generic balloting shows millennials demonstrating the kind of Democratic preference the party needs, assuming they can get these voters to the polls:

Eventually, the overall growth of the millennial population will make this demographic category dominant no matter how much it does or doesnt turn out. But for 2018, something more is needed.

One answer Democrats are offering is to recruit millennial candidates:

But there is a surprisingly underwhelming estimate of millennial turnout from a high-profile election this year featuring a millennial candidate and all the money and enthusiasm in the world: the special election in the sixth district of Georgia. Nate Cohn ran the numbers the day after the first-round election on April 18:

Democrats did turn out a higher percentage of their millennial voters for Jon Ossoff than Republicans turned out for their candidates. But his strong performance owed more to a higher share of older white voters than to any triumph over the midterm falloff.

So the challenge persists heading toward 2018. In the end a vote is a vote, and Democrats can claw back a lot of congressional seats through a combination of relatively small improvements among 2016 Trump voters, 2016 congressional Republican voters, and stay-at-home-prone Democratic millennials and minorities. But figuring out what makes millennials vote in proportionate numbers would be priceless.

Museum Donors Are Pissed Celebs Were Smoking in the Met Gala Bathrooms

In Trumps America, Being Sexually Assaulted Could Make Your Health Insurance More Expensive

Ranking All 373 Rolling Stones Songs

Exclusive! Sebastian Gorka Leaves a Note for His McDonalds Server

Whats New on Netflix: May 2017

This Is What a Modern-Day Witch Hunt Looks Like

Star Wars Superfan Adam Scott Quivers With Panic and Joy After Being Surprised by Mark Hamill

Dont Call Me a Millennial Im an Old Millennial

The Lesbian Chinese Billionaires Everyone Is Sharing Is Actually K-pop Fanfiction

Republican Blurts Out That Sick People Dont Deserve Affordable Care

Most Popular Video On Daily Intelligencer

Advocates for HBCUs arent sure what to make of Trumps first signing statement, which may be signaling that the White House will block the funding.

The private funeral for 15-year-old Jordan Edwards was held on Saturday.

Some security experts believe the attack came from the same Russia-linked hackers who sought to disrupt the U.S. election.

In the new issue of its magazine, the terror group implores would-be jihadists to take advantage of Americas lax gun laws.

In rough justice for GOP candidate and voting-rights pariah Karen Handel, a judge has extended registration for her runoff contest with Jon Ossoff.

Oh gosh I dont think any individual has read the whole bill.

The Senate Intelligence Committee finally appears to be getting to work.

In 2018 Democrats can take advantage of millennial antipathy toward Donald Trump. But first they must address millennial antipathy toward voting.

Heres why House moderates voted for a more unpopular, right-wing version of a bill that was too unpopular and right-wing for them just weeks ago.

White House: The president didnt mean he loves socialized medicine. Trump: Yes, I really meant it.

Who needs the truth?

A new survey highlights the lack of good empirical evidence to suggest that college students are the free-speech enemies many suppose them to be.

Thats Sebastian Gorka, Ph.D.

While House passage of Trumpcare was essential for GOP plans, Senate concerns and procedures will make the next stage of the debate very different.

The position is not political and firings are extremely rare.

Murders are down about 13 percent compared to this time last year.

Whatever else it means, passage of Trumpcare spells trouble for the House Republicans especially Californians in tough districts who voted for it.

Despite the big bump in hiring, wages remained stagnant.

The presidents Twitter engagement has been on a steady decline since the inauguration.

North Korea accuses America of a lot of things. But this allegation is unusually detailed.

Read more from the original source:
Will Millennials Save Democrats in 2018? - New York Magazine

Senator Ron Johnson (Republican, Wisconsin).

For the last century or more, immigration policy has been dominated by the federal government. Thats an inversion of what most of the Founding Fathers expected. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, among many others, objected to the Alien Acts of 1798 in large part because the original meaning of the Constitution did not give Congress any general power to restrict immigration, but rather largely left the issue to the states.

We are unlikely to fully restore the original meaning of the Constitution. But earlier this week, Republican Senator Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), and Representative Ken Buck (Republican, Colorado), put forward a proposal under which states would exercise considerably greater power over migration. The proposal would allow each state to admit guest-workers from abroad for a period of up to three years, that could then be renewed by the state. The visas in question would still be issued by the federal government, but largely at the discretion of the states. Senator Johnsons version of the bill would enable each state to issue visas admitting up to 5,000 workers. There would be an additional pool of 250,000 visas from which states could draw, allocated based on the states population as a percentage of the total US population. In the House version of the bill, the numbers are smaller (2500 per state, plus an additional pool of 125,000). The numbers could potentially go up over time, depending on various factors, such as GDP growth. The cap for an individual state would increase by 10 percent in any year in which 97 percent of the guest-workers sponsored by that state complied with the terms of their visas and did not enter the black market. It would decrease by 50 percent in any year in which the state missed that target. After four years in which they missed the target, the state would be suspended from the visa program for five years.

Participating workers would be barred from virtually all federal welfare and health care benefits, including those available under the Affordable Care Act, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and other progams. The state visas also would not give participants either citizenship or permanent residence status, though Congress could potentially grant either in the future.

Unlike with the current federal H1B visa, Johnson-Buck state visas would not be tied to a particular employer. Workers would be free to change jobs, if they wish. That is extremely important, both because it deters mistreatment of workers by employers and because it enables workers to seek out new positions where they would be more productive, and thereby contribute more to the economy. However, workers would not be allowed to take jobs in a state other than the one that issued them the visa. If they do so, they would lose their legal status, and be subject to deportation. Given the enormous advantages of legal status, that is a significant deterrent to seeking out of state jobs. The proposal does allow participating states to form compacts under which guest workers admitted by one could also seek out jobs in the other, and vice versa.

If the bill passes, the guest workers admitted by the states would be among the biggest beneficiaries. Many thousands would get freedom and economic opportunity, and escape having to languish in poverty and oppression. That is important to consider, because it is unjust to make immigration policy without reference to the rights and interests of potential immigrants themselves. But American citizens also stand to gain, because immigrant workers make major contributions to the American economy. By channeling immigrants into legal employment, this program could also diminish deportations, which come at a high cost to taxpayers.

Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley and Cato Institute immigration policy expert David Bier have further commentary on the proposal, outlining several of its advantages. They point out that a state-based visa program would enable to states to make adjustments based on different local economic needs. As with political decentralization on other issues, it could also help mitigate the poisonous partisan conflict created by federal control, where a single, one-size-fits all approach is imposed the entire country. Regional visa programs have worked well in Canada and Australia, two diverse federal democracies with histories and political traditions similar to our own.

The key political question about this bill is whether it can get through Congress. Donald Trump has made clear that he wants to drastically cut legal immigration, as well as illegal. And some of his strongest allies among congressional Republicans feel the same way. By creating a system of state-issued visas without cutting any of those available under current law, the Johnson-Buck proposal would likely result in a substantial increase in legal migration, relative to the status quo. It is thereby a challenge to Trumps restrictionist agenda.

How many congressional Republicans will support the challenge remains to be seen. But it is significant that the proposal has been advanced by two influential conservative Republicans. Johnson is also notable for being Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which has jurisdiction over many immigration-related issues.

Another key political question is whether the bill will attract Democratic support. In recent years, Democrats have been increasingly favorable to immigration. But, historically, some elements of the far left have been hostile to it, especially when it comes to guest-worker programs. Senator Bernie Sanders, the rising star of the left, has a long history of hostility to increasing immigration and guest-worker programs (until making a partial reversal during the 2016 Democratic primaries). He once even described open borders as a Koch brothers plot against American labor. Hopefully, progressive Democrats growing sympathy for immigrants and understanding of their contributions to the economy will win out over the zero-sum thinking represented by Sanders and Donald Trump. This is one area where the two of them are eerily similar.

Ultimately, decentralization of immigration policy to the state level is not as good as the even more complete decentralization that would occur if these decisions were made by individual workers and employers. Among other things, the latter are in an even better position to judge relevant economic needs than state officials are. But a state-based worker visa program would still be a major improvement over the status quo. It would boost the economy, provide greater freedom and opportunity for many thousands of people, and save taxpayer money. As always, the best should not be the enemy of the good.

Read the rest here:
A federalist approach to immigration reform - The Washington Post - Washington Post

Markets are among mankinds most powerful inventions. Although they have existed in some form for several millennia, it is only in the past few centuries that we have used them to organize entire economic systems. Once we turned them loose, we unleashed a period of global growth unlike anything that had come before. They are not perfect, but they are truly remarkable and, like most economists, I am a big fan.

Prices are set and resources are allocated based on supply and demand. Innovation is encouraged and rewarded through the potential for profits on goods and services people want or need. Efficiency is mandated by the presence of or threat of entry by other producers. Competition leads to greater consumer choice and better pricing. Markets dont do everything, and there are certainly times when some type of intervention is helpful or necessary, but in general, market forces optimize resources to the benefit of all. Simply stated, markets see problems and solve problems!

What a lot of people have evidently forgotten amid all of the rhetoric of the day is that the increasing levels of immigration in recent years are simply an example of this process at work. Lets step away from all of the controversy for a moment, and look at the big picture.

As the baby boomer generation began to age, it became apparent that a labor shortage was looming. Markets go about the business of solving the problem in multiple ways after all, thats what markets do. There were massive investments in technology that substituted capital for labor or made existing labor more productive. Accommodations to keep people in the workforce also developed. Options such as flex time, job sharing and working at home are now common, and many workplaces offer day care and even parent care on site. Retirees have also been rehired on a part-time or consulting basis. In addition, companies are seeking and hiring workers from elsewhere through immigration skilled and unskilled documented and undocumented.

Immigrants are a vital part of the U.S. economy. The foreign-born population reached 43.2 million in 2015 (according to the Pew Research Center), and immigrants account for 13.4 percent of the U.S. population. That level is almost triple the share in 1970, and is only slightly below the all-time-high level of 14.8 percent immigrant which was way back in 1890. About 11 million of these immigrants are unauthorized.

The Pew Research Center estimates that in 2014, about 27 million immigrants were working in the United States, which is about 17 percent of the total workforce. Most of them are working legally, but about 8 million were undocumented. Lawful immigrants are most likely to be employed in professional, management, business or service jobs. Undocumented workers are most likely to be working in service or construction jobs.

Immigration fluctuates with the economy, particularly within the undocumented segment. During the 1990s and early 2000s when the U.S. economy was expanding, the unauthorized immigrant population was also rising. However, during the Great Recession, more people were leaving than entering, and the undocumented population decreased. Since that time, it has remained fairly stable. The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. labor force has been in the range of eight million or so for several years, which is about 5 percent of the total workforce (they make up about 10 percent of the Texas workforce).

Given that most economists feel that the United States is currently at full employment, it would clearly be difficult to maintain current growth patterns without immigrants. In the future, immigrants and their children are likely to be an increasingly crucial aspect of the workforce as the U.S. population ages and baby boomers continue to retire.

Immigrants and, in particular, the undocumented population function as a flexible part of workforce, rising and falling with economic conditions. However, the process is riddled with inefficiencies, risks, and other problems because we dont recognize it for what it is: an essential way for U.S. companies to get the workers they need. It is no different than new technology or various workplace enhancements it is the refection of the market solving a problem.

Given this phenomenon, it makes perfect sense to enact reforms that allow the market to work better, thus allowing workers to enter and exit the country as needed. The risk to all parties could be eliminated, as well as much of the social cost. The artificial barriers that are now in place do nothing but drag down our economic potential. The market saw a problem. The market found a solution. If we would allow the market to do its work better, efficiency would be optimized, with greater prosperity as a result.

Continue reading here:
PERRYMAN: Common-sense approach to immigration reform - Odessa American