MSNBC | A Republican megadonor and the 'perfect little puppet' MSNBC Seated behind Trump were members of Congress, members of the new president's family, former presidents, and one Republican Party megadonor: billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. It was the first time in recent memory a new president ... |
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A Republican megadonor and the 'perfect little puppet' - MSNBC
Just three weeks into Donald Trumpspresidency, Republican lawmakers are getting a taste of how hispolicies are going over with voters at home.
On Thursday night, a town hall outside Salt Lake City by Congressman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, boiled over into a raucous display of grassroots rage, largely in opposition to Trump and Republican leaders attempts to dismantle Barack Obamas legacy.
As many as 1,000angry constituents packed into a high school auditorium to chant Do your job! Do your job! at Chaffetz. This was in reference to Chaffetzs position on the House Oversight Committee and refusal to investigate Trump for his alleged conflicts of interest. Chaffetz struggledto respond to the swelling of rage and strained to make himself heard over the microphone.
Youre not going to like this part, Chaffetz said to loud boos. The president, under the law, is exempt from conflict of interest laws. That did not go over well with the crowd.
At other points throughout the evening, protesters yelled Your last term and Shame! at the congressman.
Come on, come on, youre better than this, Chaffetz tried to say over the din.
No were not! a voice shouted back in return.
The event was remarkable, considering town halls are usually quiet civic events where the local PTA ask their elected representatives polite questions. In this case, people made emotional pleas to Chaffetz not to take away their healthcare orgut Planned Parenthood, and to hold the new administration to account for possible ethics violations.
At one point a young girl asked Chaffetz, Do you believe in science? Because I do.
I dont pretend to have all the answers, he responded. There are good people on both sides of the aisle, he said, nearly drowned out by boos.
The scene was reminiscent of the fledgling tea party movement during the summer of 2009, when angry conservative voters descended onto their representatives town halls. Many credit that tactic with getting the wave of conservative Republicans into office during the 2010 midterm elections.
Chaffetz tried to stay cheerful and nonchalant, even while protests outside the high school auditorium swelled to even greater crowds and the din inside grew so loud he joked it was like the Price Is Right here.
The protesters were largely organized by progressive activist organizations, including Indivisible and Town Hall Project, which is working to mobilize Democrats to fight Trump and Republicans. According to a CNN reporter, many of the people who were at the Utah event had never been to a town hall before.
Many of the questions yelled at Chaffetz were about Kellyanne Conway, a senior Trump adviser, who recently promoted Ivanka Trumps fashion brand during an appearance on Fox News. Chaffetz said yesterday he would refer Conway to his committee for an ethics investigation and that her statement was clearly over the line and unacceptable.
The protest in Utah wasnt the only emotional town hall on Thursday. In Tennessee, around a 100 protesters descended on Republican Rep. Diane Blacks Ask Your Rep event with a similar angry message, including one woman who made an impassioned plea for preserving the core tenets of the Affordable Care Act.
As a Christian, my whole philosophy in life is pull up the unfortunate, one young woman, visibly shaken, said toBlack. The individual mandate, thats what it does: The healthy people pull up the sick.
Follow Olivia Becker on Twitter: @oliviaLbecker
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Angry protesters took over a Republican town hall in Utah - VICE News
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 20, 2016. Hensarling is chairman of the Financial Services Committee.Photograph by Tom WilliamsCQ-Roll Call/Getty Images
The Republican chairman of a key House of Representatives committee has laid out his plan to roll back Wall Street rules and consumer protections conceived after the 2008 financial crisis, a step that will largely define the financial deregulation debate in the Trump era.
Jeb Hensarling, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, outlined his legislation to clear away many rules bankers say have hobbled investment and economic growth in a staff memo seen by Reuters on Thursday.
The plan comes after President Donald Trump on Friday signed a largely symbolic executive order that outlined an intention to ease banking rules, which he and other critics of the Dodd-Frank reform law passed after the financial crisis say hinder lending.
Under Hensarling's plan, the largest U.S. banks would face less oversightthough not as little as they had been hoping forwhile startups would have easier access to investors.
The plan would significantly dilute the powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created to help guard individuals from fraud in mortgages, student loans and other financial products but has drawn the wrath of Republicans. Hensarling has called it a "rogue" agency.
Hensarling's legislation, called the Financial Choice Act, is likely to clear his own committee within a few weeks and ultimately be passed by the full House. But it would require 60 votes in the Senate, where Republicans hold 52 seats and Democrats defend the CFPB and many of the provisions House Republicans would weaken.
On Thursday, the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Sherrod Brown, said he would fight the Hensarling plan, saying it betrays "candidate Trump's campaign promises to hold Wall Street accountable and help working Americans."
Banking industry officials generally reacted positively, though they conceded it was still early days in the process.
"It's very aggressive and a very good starting point to rolling back a lot of the rules and regulations," said Paul Merski of the Independent Community Bankers of America.
"If this were a football game we'd be in the first quarter," James Ballentine of the American Bankers Association told Reuters.
Not the Whole Big Bank Wish List
Hensarling's primary approach is unchanged from the bill he introduced last year. It would allow large banks to avoid some oversight if they boost their capital reserves, or "leverage ratio," to 10% or better, which is seen as helping them weather financial shocks.
Large banks have said the 10% level is too costly and they would likely opt for existing rules.
Still, the Hensarling bill gives large banks some things they would like. The stress tests banks undergo to prove to regulators that they can withstand economic difficulties, now performed annually, would only occur every other year.
The bill would also allow the president to remove the CFPB director at will. Currently, the CFPB director is independent of the president and is appointed to a fixed term.
Congressional Republicans including Hensarling have indicated they would separately try to use the federal budget process to starve the CFPB of funds, a strategy that would only need 51 votes in the Senate.
Hensarling's original bill would have erased the Volcker rule, which limits bank's ability to make some speculative investments. The recent memo leaves that language unchanged.
Hensarling's Choice Act envisions more hurdles for the Securities and Exchange Commission and its enforcement work.
The bill would also ease rules that govern public companies, including some accounting and investment controls. Credit rating agencies would also get some regulatory relief.
Initial public offerings might be easier under Hensarling's bill. More companies, including the largest privately held ones, could avoid tough disclosure requirements and be able to "test the waters" with potential investors in advance of an offering.
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Here's the Republican Masterplan for Wall Street Deregulation - Fortune
Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE /the national interest February 9, 2017 02/09/2017 9:09 a.m. By Jonathan Chait
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Republican opposition to the Affordable Care Act has always been premised on comparing an actual law, with its compromises and trade-offs, to an imaginary alternative. A Republican ad promises, Health insurance that provides more choices and better care at lower costs, provides peace of mind to people with preexisting conditions House Republicans have a plan to get there, without disrupting existing coverage.
The end of the ad directs viewers to learn more at https://abetterhealthcareplan.com/. But when you visit the site, its just a big video of the same ad that directed you to the site, along with two brief sentences of text. (There is a plan to get there. The House Republican Healthcare Plan lowers costs, provides more control and more choices to pick a plan that meets our needs, not a plan that Washington mandates.) The Republican plan turns out to consist of an assurance that there is indeed a plan.
The Republican Party, faced with the catastrophic real-world consequences of repealing the Affordable Care Act, is divided over how to proceed. Some nervous Republicans want to figure out what they want to put in place of Obamacare. Senator Mike Lee insists that Republicans repeal Obamacare first, before they decide on an alternative. And his reason is straightforward: If people saw the Republican alternative, they might not like it! There is a lot less agreement about what comes next, he tells Julie Rovner. If we load down the repeal bill with what comes next, its harder to get both of them passed.
That is very true. If people see what Republicans would put in place of Obamacare, they would probably rather keep the status quo. Lee is right that the best way to eliminate Obamacare is to remain vague about the alternative. Its a little odd for him to come out and admit this, though.
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Republican opposition to the Affordable Care Act has always been premised on comparing an actual law, with its compromises and trade-offs, to an imaginary alternative. A Republican ad promises, Health insurance that provides more choices and better care at lower costs, provides peace of mind to people with preexisting conditions House Republicans have a plan to get there, without disrupting existing coverage.
The end of the ad directs viewers to learn more at https://abetterhealthcareplan.com/. But when you visit the site, its just a big video of the same ad that directed you to the site, along with two brief sentences of text. (There is a plan to get there. The House Republican Healthcare Plan lowers costs, provides more control and more choices to pick a plan that meets our needs, not a plan that Washington mandates.) The Republican plan turns out to consist of an assurance that there is indeed a plan.
The Republican Party, faced with the catastrophic real-world consequences of repealing the Affordable Care Act, is divided over how to proceed. Some nervous Republicans want to figure out what they want to put in place of Obamacare. Senator Mike Lee insists that Republicans repeal Obamacare first, before they decide on an alternative. And his reason is straightforward: If people saw the Republican alternative, they might not like it! There is a lot less agreement about what comes next, he tells Julie Rovner. If we load down the repeal bill with what comes next, its harder to get both of them passed.
That is very true. If people see what Republicans would put in place of Obamacare, they would probably rather keep the status quo. Lee is right that the best way to eliminate Obamacare is to remain vague about the alternative. Its a little odd for him to come out and admit this, though.
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The judge made the comments in a meeting with Senator Richard Blumenthal.
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A business that doesnt want to carry the Trump brand is attacking the president, insists the White House.
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A weather forecast of extremes, with 60-degree temperatures followed by perhaps the biggest snowfall of the season.
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Republican Senator Admits GOP Health-Care Plan Has to Remain Secret Because It Will Be Unpopular - New York Magazine
By Lawrence H. Summers By Lawrence H. Summers February 9 at 10:40 AM
Ideas should be judged by their quality, not their pedigree. I am not usually a fan of Republican tax policy proposals or environmental initiatives. But I strongly support the proposal put forward Wednesdayby Republicans George Shultz, James Baker, Martin Feldstein, Hank Paulson, Greg Mankiw and others for a substantial carbon tax in the United States to address global climate change. Their proposal that the carbon tax be coupled with a mechanism for rebates to consumers, a rollback of command-and-control regulation, and a border adjustment mechanism is also sound.
The United States has a moral and a prudential obligation to lead on global climate change. There would be no clearer sign of our commitment than the introduction of a substantial carbon tax. Our adoption of a carbon tax would encourage others to follow. The border adjustment mechanism would be a further inducement since foreign countries would presumably prefer their carbon emitters pay them than pay us. And because a carbon tax is easy to change it would enable us to be responsive to new developments in the science of global climate change.
Some of my friends may not completely agree, but I think the replacement of command-and-control regulation with a carbon tax is a positive step. It will reduce uncertainty and thereby encourage investment. Raising carbon prices has the virtue of discouraging all types of carbon use, be it from power production or transportation, from changing fuels or reducing energy use. It is therefore likely an efficient way to reduce emissions. Of course the devil is in the details and, as the authors point out, the tax has to be set high enough to reduce emissions at least as much as any repealed regulations.
I also think that the proposal for a lump sum rebate that gives an equal amount to all citizens is a very sound one. Since a person with a $2 million income gets no more than a person with a $20,000 income, it is highly progressive. It reminds me of Alaskas approach of sharing oil revenue equally with all citizens. I think that the approach of not adjusting the income tax but instead declaring a social dividend also will operate to give people a stake in environmental protection because whenever the carbon tax is raised, people will get a larger and highly visible rebate.
It is hard to know how the Trump administration, which has flirted with climate denialism and has been less than embracing of traditional Republicans, will react to todays proposal. I do know that they could change the way they are perceived in many parts of the world and by many well-intentioned Americans if they tried to run with it. It is also hard to know how Democrats will react. I hope they will seize on prominent Republican endorsement to take the largest steps on global climate change in our history and at the same time to achieve the most universal social benefit.
Lawrence H. Summers, the Charles W. Eliot university professor atHarvard, is a former treasurysecretary and director of the National Economic Council in the White House. He writesoccasional postson Wonkblogabout issues of national and international economics and policymaking.
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Larry Summers: Why we should all embrace a fantastic Republican proposal to save the planet - Washington Post