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
New York Times | Stipend Scandal Fuels Divide Among New York's Democratic State Senators New York Times The chamber was split, 31-31, between Democrats and Republicans, until this Harlem seat the tiebreaker was captured on Tuesday by a Democrat, Brian Benjamin, a 40-year-old affordable housing developer. But because of a coalition between ... |
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Stipend Scandal Fuels Divide Among New York's Democratic State Senators - New York Times
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