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Litt tells CNBC that communication becomes messy and ineffective when the person writing or speaking doesn't have a clear sense of what he or she wants the result to be.

"Sometimes where you can lose the thread a little bit is when you don't quite know what the point is, when you don't know what you want the other person to do with the information you're about to give them," he says.

"That is the challenge that all of us face when you're trying to communicate, whether it's something very big or something very focused and small.

"We've all gotten e-mails that are too long or they don't really have a point and you don't know what someone wants from you," says Litt, who stepped down as Senior Presidential Speechwriter, to become head writer and producer for comedy website Funny or Die in January 2016. A memoir of his years coming of age in the White House, "Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years," is due out in September.

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Former Obama speechwriter: This is the one question you have to ask to be an effective communicator - CNBC

President Donald Trump reacted to a Facebook post by former President Barack Obama, who took aim at Republicans health care bill.

Former President Barack Obama has maintained a low profile since leaving the White House, but recently he took to Facebook to blast a Senate health care bill that threatens to dismantle much of the Affordable Care Act, his signature legislative achievement.

The Senate bill "hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else," Obama wrote in a Facebook post.

We decided to look into the former presidents claim about the budgetary effects of the Senate Republican plan that repeals or reworks much of the ACA, also known as Obamacare.

Tax cuts on wealthy Americans and industry

Obama is right that the Senate bill contains a tax cut for wealthy Americans and medical-related businesses.

The Congressional Budget Office has yet to put a number on the Senate bills tax cut. But the amount will likely be in the same ballpark as its scoring of the House bill, which cut taxes by about $1 trillion over 10 years, with high-income households and the health care industry gaining most of those benefits, according to the Tax Policy Center.

The Senate bill repeals Affordable Care Act taxes that levy a 3.8 percent fee on investment income, as well as a tax on individuals making $200,000 or more ($250,000 for couples).

The bill also eliminates ACA taxes that target health insurers, and makers of prescription drugs and medical devices.

We should also note that middle- and lower-income consumers would likely see benefits from tax cuts in the form of lower prices and reduced fees on health savings accounts, as we pointed out inan earlier check of a House version of the bill.

Tax cuts paid for by cutting health care

Obama is correct that tax cuts would be offset by cutting spending on health care.

But its a stretch to say everybodys health care would suffer, when whats on the chopping block is federal funding for lower-income Americans.

In the individual market, the Senate bill changes the formula for calculating how much help the federal government gives lower-income Americans to buy insurance.

Compared withthe Obamacare formula, the Senate GOP version would amount to a 15 percent across-the-board cut in premium subsidies, and result in low-income people paying higher premiums for bigger deductibles, according to Larry Levitt,senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care think tank.

Starting in 2020, the Senate bill also repeals Obamacares cost-sharing subsidies that help lower-income Americans defray the cost of deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses.

But the biggest cut in federal spending comes out of Medicaid, by changing the share carried by the federal government, relative to states.

The Senate bill converts federal Medicaid funding to a per capita cap starting in 2020, placing a ceiling on the amount of funding a state gets per enrollee. Alternatively, states could opt for a block grant, a fixed amount of federal funds. Under either approach, the federal government would provide less to states than under Obamacare.

Separately, starting in 2021, the Senate bill begins a three-year phase out of enhanced funding given to the 31 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare. As we noted in a previous check of the House bill, reducing this funding would likely cause states to end expansion.

This graphic from the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a side-by-side illustration of Obamas claim that Republicans are rewarding wealthy Americans through a health care cut.

The yellow bar shows $33 billion going to the top 400 highest-income households as a result of repealing the Obamacare tax cuts.

The red bar shows how removing $33 billion in revenue translates to cutting off funding for Medicaid expansion population of four statesAlaska, Arkansas, West Virginia and Nevada. (Note: This graphic is based on the CBOs earlier score of the House version, which will likely differ from its score of the Senate).

Our ruling

Obama said thatthe Senate bill "hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else."

The Senate bill does give a tax cut to wealthy Americans and medical-related industry. Assuming a budget analysis of the Senate bill is similar to that of the House version, the tax cut will be to the tune of $1 trillion.

Its a bit hyperbolic to say everybodys health care would be cut to finance the tax cut; its mostly lower-income people who lose out as a direct result of the bill. Hes right that the Senate bill would deliver a tax cut as it reduces the amount of federal funding lower-income Americans would get to help buy insurance. The bill would also repeal funding to defray deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for those eligible. It also lessens the share of Medicaid funding carried by the federal government, relative to states.

We rate Obamas statement Mostly True.

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The Senate bill "hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else."

Barack Obama

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Thursday, June 22, 2017

2017-06-22

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Obama blasts GOP Senate bill as tax cut for the rich at health care's expense - PolitiFact

President Trump unleashed a series of tweets Monday in which he appeared to place the blame for Russian meddling in U.S. politics onto former President Obama.

Trump, who has a long history of deflecting criticism from himself to others, seemed to be trying to redefine what it means to collude or obstruct as he pushed back against an investigation into whether Trump's own team colluded with Russian officials during the campaign and transition.

Everything President Trump has tweeted about the Clintons>>

Wayne Fields, a Washington University professor who has studied political rhetoric, said Trump appeared to be co-opting terms like "collusion" and "obstruction" as part of a larger strategy to "invalidate" some of the arguments made against him.

"You take words and you do everything you can to make them meaningless," Fields said. "You take any kind of precision out of public discourse so it can't be used against you."

Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who has written about public corruption, said Trump appeared to be taking the term "obstruction," which means impeding an investigation, and applying it to a decision by his predecessor not to pursue an investigation as vigorously as possible.

"Inaction is not an obstruction, but of course it has some potency as a political attack," Henning said.

Everything President Trump has tweeted about Obama>>

Asked about the comments, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters there were "some serious questions" about what the Obama administration "did or did not do in terms of acting" after evidence of Russian meddling surfaced during the campaign.

"Obviously, I don't have all the understanding of what they knew or when they knew it, but there does seem to be a bit of hypocrisy in terms of what they didn't clearly do if they truly believe all of this was happening," Spicer said. "If they did know all this, then they clearly do know that there wasn't a collusion."

Trump resumed the attack Monday night in a tweet that cited Fox News.

Trump appeared to refer to a report that airedMonday night on Fox News' "The Five" under the banner, "Bombshell: In 2016, Obama dismissed idea that anyone could rig an American election."

The segmentrecapped the Washington Post article and aired comments from Democrats critical ofthe Obama administration's reported response to Russia's meddling.

The episode then showed a clip of Obama speaking in October at a Rose Garden news conference, where he rebuked then-candidate Trump for sowing suspicion about the integrity of America's presidential vote.

"There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America's elections, in part because they're so decentralized and the number of votes involved," Obama said then. "There's no evidence that that has happened in the past or that there are instances in which that will happen this time, and so I would invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and go try to make his case to get votes."

Trump's last tweet came less than an hour after the White House issued a stern warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad, as it claimed to have identified "potential" evidence that Syria was preparing for another chemical weapons attack.

Read the original here:
In tweets on Russian meddling, Trump defends himself, attacks Obama and seeks to redefine 'obstruction' - Los Angeles Times

President Donald Trump on Monday celebrated a victory for his oft-criticized travel ban, blasted President Barack Obamas handling of Russian election interference and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

CLEAR VICTORY AT SUPREME COURT FOR TRAVEL BAN

The president rejoiced at a Supreme Court decision that will temporarily reinstate his travel ban targeting people from six Muslim-majority countries. Todays unanimous Supreme Court decision is a clear victory for our national security. It allows the travel suspension for the six terror-prone countries and the refugee suspension to become largely effective, he said in a statement.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the ban in October. In the meantime, those subject to the ban who have some bona fide connection to the U.S. such as a relative in the country or an offer of admission to a U.S. university can still enter.

Read: Supreme Court reinstates most of Trump travel ban before hearing case

OBAMA DID NOTHING ON RUSSIA, TRUMP SAYS

In a series of tweets, Trump criticized Obama for not responding to Russian interference in the U.S. election.

Trump did not identify any measure that he has taken since becoming president to thwart Russian interference.

He also criticized Democrats for not helping with his health-care revamp. At a press briefing, White House press secretary Sean Spicer was unable to answer whether the president has reached out to any Democrats. The Senate bill could come up for a vote as early as this week.

Read: Anthem says new GOP bill will help stabilize the individual market

TRUMP MEETS INDIAS PRIME MINISTER

Trump met for the first time with Indias Modi. Though defense ties are strong, the White House has yet to nominate an ambassador to the worlds largest democracy, and the countries have divergent views on issues ranging from Iran to climate change.

Opinion: Who will fill Americas shoes?

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Trump Today: President celebrates travel-ban win, blasts Obama over Russia hack - MarketWatch

"So far the Senate leadership is not negotiating with our office," Paul said in an interview on CNN's "Newsroom." "I'm trying to negotiate with the President, but really the President is going to have to tell leadership it's going to have to negotiate with some of us who don't see this bill as being good for the country."

Three more Republican senators -- Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio and Mike Rounds of South Dakota -- have expressed concerns about the bill; and four others -- Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia -- have made specific demands for changes.

To pass the bill, the GOP can lose only two senators.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did not immediately respond to request for comment.

"I think it's a lot to digest in one week, not only to read the bill, but we don't even have the CBO score until this afternoon," Paul said.

Paul said he thought the bill would keep too many provisions of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature health care law, in place.

"We keep 10 or 12 of the Obamacare regulations," Paul said. "I'm concerned that the death spiral of Obamacare may get even worse in the Republican version."

The Kentucky senator told CNN in a separate interview that he would not support the bill until he is convinced it would actually lower premiums.

"He keeps a close watch on his fellow senators and makes observances about what they need," Holmes said.

When asked Monday what he thinks of a potential vote Tuesday on a motion to proceed to the bill, Johnson expressed skepticism.

"If leader McConnell says failure is not an option, don't set yourself up for failure," he said.

CNN's Lauren Fox contributed to this reporting.

See more here:
Sen. Rand Paul: 'Senate leadership is not negotiating with our office' - CNN