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New York Times columnist Paul Krugman asserted on Monday that Donald Trumps presidency has shown that the Republican Party is completely unprepared and unable to enact the policies it has promised voters for years.

In his Monday column, Krugman notes that the Republican Partys failure to pass legislation like the repeal and replacement of President Barack Obamas signature health care reform law has little to do with the temper tantrums and antics of President Donald Trump.

But the broader Republican quagmire the partys failure so far to make significant progress toward any of its policy promises isnt just about Mr. Trumps inadequacies, Krugman writes. The whole party, it turns out, has been faking it for years. Its leaders rhetoric was empty; they have no idea how to turn their slogans into actual legislation, because theyve never bothered to understand how anything important works.

According to the Times columnist, Republicans who promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act and reform the tax code seem utterly shocked to find themselves facing reality.

At this point, then, major Republican initiatives are bogged down for reasons that have nothing to do with the personality flaws of the tweeter in chief, and everything to do with the broader, more fundamental fecklessness of his party.

Faced with the difficulties of making substantive reforms, Krugman predicts that Republicans may just throw a few trillion dollars at rich people instead.

But whatever the eventual outcome, what were witnessing is what happens when a party that gave up hard thinking in favor of empty sloganeering ends up in charge of actual policy, he concludes. And its not a pretty sight.

Read Paul Krugmans entire column here.

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Paul Krugman says Trump exposes GOP dirty secret: The Republican Party 'has been faking it for years' - Raw Story

March 6, 2017, 8:15 a.m.

After weeks of Republican members of Congress catching an earful during their hometown town hall meetings, Rep. David Valadao(R-Hanford) in Californias Central Valley is taking a safer route.

The congressman and dairy farmer plans to hold a huddle with constituents in his district which means hell be camped out in his Hanford district office and will meet with constituents for first come, first served one-on-one meetings. Valadao has vowed to meet with all comers for a maximum of 10 minutes, and will talk with everyone no matter how long that takes.

While my constituents and I communicate with each other in many forms, one-on-one meetings are extremely beneficial as I am able to discuss and address their specific concerns and hear their story firsthand, Valadao said in a statement.

Valadao'sevent comes after he has been targeted by protestors who have criticized him for not holding an open town hall meeting in his districtas other members of Congress across the county have done. Those highly charged meetings have attractedgroups of residents upset about GOP plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Actand about the Trump administration's immigration policies.

Only those who live in Valadaos 21stCongressional District will be allowed to meet with the congressman.

Valadao, who represents a Democratic-leaning district, has been targeted by the Democratic Party since he was first elected in 2012. He has won three straight elections. He won handily in November, even though Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton trounced Republican Donald Trump in that congressional district.

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Central Valley Republican congressman invites his constituents to sit down for one-on-one meetings - Los Angeles Times

Saturday Night Live just ran a nearly two-minute liberal's dream sequence disguised as a movie trailer.

The trailer which promises a Republican patriot who will put country over party features a notable omission: a title character.The point is that no Republican has really stood up to President Trump. You get it.

I'll confess that when the trailer began, I wondered if the big reveal would show the Republican to be Ben Sasse and then proceed to make fun of the still-little-known first-term senator from Nebraska. Or possibly it would be Arizona's Sen. John McCain, who has spoken out against Trump in pretty tough terms but who supported him during the campaign even after Trump questioned whether McCain was a war hero and attacked him for getting captured as a prisoner of war.

Neither of these shows of opposition has been sufficientin the eyes of the left.

The truth is that most every Republican is thoroughly gun-shy about going against Trump. Many of them tried to during the campaign when they were convinced, repeatedly, that Trump had gone too far. They were wrong each time.

So when Trump does something beyond the pale now like, say, accusing his predecessor of wiretapping him while offering no evidence their first inclination is to hope it blows over. And that's not exactly blockbuster material.

After Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any ongoing investigations of the Trump administration's relationship with Russia, late-night hosts Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert and others chimed in. (The Washington Post)

Originally posted here:
SNL has a blockbuster in search of a hero: The Republican who stands up to Trump - Washington Post

To give you just a taste of the chaos that is enveloping the White House today, in the wake of Trumps new unsourced theory that the prior United States president was personally spying on him: Trumps team is running freelance on this one. Not only can they not decide on how to respond to Trumps claim, they cant even decide whether or not theyll be responding to it at all.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are paddling the same waters. While Sen. Marco Rubio allowed on Meet the Press that there was no evidence to support Trumps latest Twitter rant, Sen. Tom Cotton puffed that well, merely because Donald Trump appears to have pulled the theory not even from a Breitbart conspiracy article but entirely out of his own behind doesnt mean that none of these things have happened, just means I havent seen them yet.

This is indeed the problem at hand. What is the proper Republicanresponse to a sitting president making up conspiracy theories against him and announcing them to his followers out of nowhere? If Donald Trump next tweets that Barack Obama put a snake in his golf bag, despite no evidence of said snake, will Tom Cotton again go on television and defend it as a thing that could have theoretically happened, even if theres no actual evidence, because reasons?

Thats where we are. Florida Man, having left his advisers behind for another weekend of golf and ketchup steaks, is inventing conspiracies against him and the entire collected apparatusesof both the White House and the Republican Party are attempting, on the fly, to justify why this isnt evidence of a man untethered to reality and incapable of governance.

Its been what, five weeks?

Read more here:
White House, Republican leaders struggle to respond to Trump's latest untethered pronouncements - Daily Kos

March 4, 2017, 1:16 p.m.

Rep. Steve Knight (R-Lancaster) got an earful from his constituents at anearly morning town hall meeting in Palmdaleon Saturday that drew an at-capacity crowd of nearly 300 with dozens more protesting outside.

Though Knight ultimately wasescorted to his car by severalLos AngelesCounty sheriffs deputies as protesters booed him, the question-and-answer session remained relatively civil, if a bit raucous.

Knight drewa mixed reaction from the crowd.Local Democratic clubs from Simi Valley, Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley were at the event, and many in the crowd sportedpink caps andso-called " pussyhats " made popular during the Women's March earlier this year.

Some in the crowd carried signs supporting the Affordable Care Act,a popular topic during the meeting. Knight saidparts of the act were working and praised California's healthcaremarketplace, Covered California,calling it one of the better run exchanges in the nation.

He was jeeredwhen he said that Obamacare'sban on lifetime spending caps on medical coverage could be done away with.

"Some lifetime caps might stay in place but most would not," he said to loud boos.

Knight, who represents a potential swing district and has been targeted by national Democrats, also tried to differentiate himself from President Trump's administration, withmixed results.

He earned his loudest cheers when he said thatTrump should release his tax returns, something Democrats demanded during the election.

When asked about what intelligent agencies have said wasRussian interferencein the election, Knight again drew applause when he said that Trump's administration should not be involved in an FBI investigation.

But he was booed when he said he would look at transcripts of comments made by U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing when Sessionssaid that he did not have communications with "the Russians"so Knight could understand "in context" what Sessions said. Sessions came under fire from members of Congress last week after reports that he had failed to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

Knight's office required the town hall attendees to show identification to prove they lived in his district, something that riled some Democrats.

Shari Freedman, a purchasing agent for a print manufacturer in Simi Valley, wore a piece of paper with her ZIP code around her neck in protest of the ID requirement. She was also upset the town hall was held at 8:30 a.m. in Palmdale, a 60 mile drive from where she lives.

"We are constituents, not paid protesters," she said.

Knight's district is almost evenly split between registered Democrats and Republicans, while about a fifth of voters list themselves as "no party preference." National Democrats have targeted Knight's seat as one they want to flip blue in 2018.

Outside the town hall, protesters chanted "last term" as Knight walked to his car.

Shawnee Badger, a 23-year-old actress from Valencia, was among those protesting.

"He is an extreme conservative," she said. "He doesn't represent our district's values."

Knight did bring out some supporters including Donna Basail of Agua Dulce. She said she appreciated that Knight came out and took questions from the crowd even if many were protesting.

"He is our representative, he needs to listen to the people regardless of what they say," she said.

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Republican Rep. Steve Knight met with protesters and boos during raucous town hall in Palmdale - Los Angeles Times