Common Dreams | Republicans Keep Showing Us Who They Are Common Dreams Amid the mayhem of Trump's first days in office, the Congressional Budget Office's crushing report on the impact of the Republican health-care plan offers a moment of clarity. The Republican plan will deprive millions of health insurance, and raise the ... |
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Republicans Keep Showing Us Who They Are - Common Dreams
Im glad, because it seemed like it was a distraction to what he hopes to accomplish and Congress hopes to accomplish in the policy realm, Trey Grayson said. | AP Photo
By Aidan Quigley
03/15/17 05:22 AM EDT
Prominent Republicans across the country are breathing a sigh of relief that President Donald Trump has so far not aggressively pursued his pledge for a major investigation into his allegations of widespread voter fraud that he claims robbed him the popular vote.
Current and former GOP state party chairs and other officials said in interviews that the unverified allegation was at best a distraction and at worst a damaging statement that could erode confidence in elections. And even as Trump continues to make some outrageous claims including that former President Barack Obama tapped his Trump Tower phones hes now directing much of his attention to replacing Obamacare and juicing up the job market.
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Im glad, because it seemed like it was a distraction to what he hopes to accomplish and Congress hopes to accomplish in the policy realm, Trey Grayson, former Kentucky secretary of state, said. There doesn't seem to be strong evidence to defend the claims.
Trump raised the issue of voter fraud early and often throughout his transition period and his first couple of weeks in office, claiming without evidence that from 3 million to 5 million people voted illicitly in the 2016 election.
While he pledged during his first week in office to ask for a major investigation into voter fraud and the White House said he would sign an executive order formally pursuing one, the effort has quietly dropped from sight.
There is still no sign of the commission Trump later asked Vice President Mike Pence to form to investigate the matter on Feb. 5. Aside from a brief mention during White House press secretary Sean Spicers Feb. 22 briefing, in which he said Pence was starting to gather names and individuals to be a part of it, the administration has been generally mum on the issue.
Staff is continuing to work to put the framework together for this process, Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said. We will let you know when we have additional updates on it.
Leading conservative organizations focusing on voter fraud at the state level likely participants in a commission on the issue led by the administration say they have not been contacted about participating. Neither has Catherine Engelbrecht, the leader of prominent national anti-voter fraud organization True the Vote.
Last week, House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said his panel would not pursue its own investigation into Trumps claim as he has not seen the evidence.
Val DiGiorgio, chairman of the Pennsylvania GOP, said that while voter fraud is a real problem that should be addressed, there are more pressing issues the administration is facing.
Theyre putting their priorities where they belong: jobs, keeping America safe and getting their administration off to a good start, he said.
New Hampshire Republicans, in particular, are expressing relief at the development as Trump specifically mentioned their state, alleging voters bused in from Massachusetts cost him and former Sen. Kelly Ayotte victories in the state.
But some Republicans want the White House to retreat even further.
It would be nice if they would admit they made a bogus claim before moving on, but next to that, the right thing to do is move on, said Fergus Cullen, former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican party.
Tom Rath, the states former attorney general, said the claims have faded from view because they are false.
I dont think it was tactical, as opposed to realistic, he said. If youre going to say something like that, you need to have a second act. They didnt even have the first act.
Cullen offered $1,000 to anyone who could provide evidence any individual from Massachusetts was bused in to vote, and he says no one has come forward with evidence. He said he did not think the declining focus on voter fraud is symbolic of a more focused administration, especially in light of Trump's accusations that Obama had wiretapped him.
Others were more optimistic that the development represented growth within the administration.
Ive been encouraged when I hear the president and his administration focusing on health care, focusing on supplying the military with support they need, focusing on tax reform, Jennifer Horn, former chairwoman on the New Hampshire GOP, said. I think the more the administration focuses on these larger issues facing the nation, the better it will be for the president and our nation.
Matt Strawn, former Iowa GOP chairman, said he was encouraged by the presidents engagement on health care as a sign of the administration's priorities, as Iowans do not see voting fraud as an issue in the state.
The issue isnt one Im hearing is at top of mind for folks in Iowa, he said. Their focus is on jobs and the economy.
State legislatures in a number of states are considering laws that would tighten voting regulations, despite the lack of evidence of in-person voter fraud. Only 31 cases of in-person voter fraud were recorded from 2000 to 2014, according to research from Loyola University law professor Justin Levitt.
John Whitbeck, chairman of the Virginia Republican party, said the issue has not fallen out of the spotlight in his state. Citing a recent Washington Times article, Whitbeck said 9,000 noncitizens were disqualified from jury duty in Loudoun County in Northern Virginia from 2009 to 2014. Since the jury pools come from voter registration lists and driver license applications, Whitbeck said that report was a cause for concern.
When we lose elections to progressives, it concerns Republicans because theres always the question of if the integrity of the ballot was kept, he said. I hope the president takes a look at it.
Whitbeck said investigating voter fraud in New Jersey and Virginia, the two states with statewide elections in 2017, should be a priority. However, he understands why the White House has focused on other issues.
Theyre trying to repeal and replace Obamacare, they have the refugee travel issue, there are a lot of things going on right now," he said. "So its not surprising this isnt the No. 1 issue facing the White House."
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Democratic critics of Trumps White House say they dont buy the argument that its simply other priorities that have pushed a voter fraud investigation onto the back burner.
Jason Kander, the former Missouri secretary of state and Democratic candidate for Senate who is now leading a newly formed voting rights group called Let America Vote, floated the idea that Pence is not enthusiastic about pursuing the probe.
It seems the VP is so embarrassed by this massive absurd lie he doesn't want to talk about it, Kander said. If this was in any way within a country mile of a legitimate claim, [the president] would have asked the DOJ to investigate it instead of a clearly biased political figure.
Discussions of large-scale voter fraud without any evidence makes it more likely laws will be introduced to fight what might be a nonexistent problem, said Ellen Weintraub, a Democratic member of the Federal Election Commission commissioner. These laws may deter bona-fide U.S. citizens from voting," she added.
Grayson said he was unsure whether there was any type of strategy behind the presidents claims, or if Trump was trying to blow off steam, trying to get more respect for his electoral win, or actually thought there was that much voter fraud. Either way, Grayson said, he was glad the administration has zeroed in on other issues.
It undermines the confidence we have in our elections, he said. I dont want the president, governors or senators saying things like that, its harmful.
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Republicans relieved Trump eased up on voter fraud claims - Politico
Photo by: John Dixon/The News-Gazette
Affirmative-action supporters Earnest Lucious, left, and Chris Williams, right, help Illini Republicans member Jonathan Heideman pick up cookies after another affirmative-action supporter threw them off a table on the Quad where the group was hosting its affirmative-action bake sale on Tuesday. 'We can disagree respectively,' Williams said. 'When something like this happens, we always lose,' Lucious said about the incident.
URBANA While their "affirmative-action bake sale" drew a large crowd to their table on the quad Tuesday, the Illini Republicans weren't selling a whole lot of cookies.
"We've sold a few," said member Jakub Balicki, a UI freshman.
The group caused a stir last week when it announced plans for a bake sale with a twist. Prices would be set based on race and ethnicity "in much the same manner as our school manipulates admission requirements," the group said.
On Tuesday, a poster board informed passers-by that cookies cost $2 for Asians, $1.75 for whites, $1.50 for Hispanics/Latinos, $1.25 for blacks, $1.50 for "others" and minus-$0.25 for women.
"Above prices are suggested for discussion purposes," it read. "Ask for details."
"The point of our bake sale is to bring the issue of affirmative action into the light of the student population because we believe that school admissions should be based off a merit-based system," Balicki said. "If there's an African-American student and a white student who come from the same poor neighborhood, through affirmative action, the African-American student would have an advantage because they're seen as a more disadvantaged racial class compared to other races.
"If those two students apply to the same university at the same exact merits, they should be admitted for their merits and not just for the color of their skin."
As expected, the event sparked counter-bake sales in the same area.
The Chicano unity organization MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Azlan) put on a "solidarity bake sale," in which items went for $1 apiece no matter one's skin color or gender.
"We're out here to prove we're not quotas or tokens," said UI sophomore Juan Luna.
Luna and fellow MEChA member Jocelyn Ramirez said the proceeds they collected from Tuesday's sale would go to the C-U Immigration Forum.
"The most important thing we can do as an organization is to promote our own causes like helping C-U Immigration and using those funds to help them out," Ramirez said. "That's one of the causes we support as an organization."
Ramirez said Tuesday's bake sale led to a lot of discussion between the various student organizations participating, though many were left frustrated with the dialogue between the groups and the Illini Republicans.
"I feel like they have the outcome they wanted by having people come by and ask questions," Ramirez said, "but when someone tries to ask them questions, they weren't answering, so I'm not sure how productive it really was.
"'What was your upbringing?' 'What were some of your personal experiences?' Just to get to know them. It came off pretty rude for them to ignore some of those basic questions."
UI sophomore Earnest Lucious, a native of Chicago, was able to have a short conversation with members of the Illini Republicans.
"I felt it was important to combat this view," Lucious said. "They're probably not going to understand it because they built these beliefs over their entire lives, so a 10-minute conversation isn't going to change that."
"I simply came here to block their revenue because they're not going to listen to me anyway."
It was a mostly civil day, though at one point a student tried to confiscate the Republicans' baked goods before his efforts were thwarted by others.
Prior to the bake sale, Dementro Powell, the director of the Office of Registered Organizations, released a statement acknowledging that many students, faculty, staff and community members had taken offense to the nature of the Illini Republicans' sale.
Powell went on to note that the Illini Republicans followed standard procedure and received approval to hold the event on campus.
"The university does not withhold approval for these events based on the proposed purpose, topic or message," Powell wrote.
Staff members from Student Affairs met with the students as part of the process and told them that if the event involved discriminatory pricing based on race or ethnicity it would be a violation of UI policy and would be investigated by the Office of Student Conflict Resolution.
They were also told their pricing practices might violate the Illinois Human Rights Act and could result in a state investigation.
Tuesday's event led to a half-dozen other sales by various organizations, all saying they did so to promote inclusion.
Crescendo was as busy as any student group on the quad, selling cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls and pies.
"We ran out of pumpkin bread, almost out of cinnamon rolls, ran out of banana bread, ran out of a pie earlier, but we got some more donated," said Crescendo president Deborah Waters, a UI sophomore.
Crescendo was accepting cash payments, as well as electronic payments from apps like Venmo. The group said proceeds will benefit its scholarship fund, which helps underrepresented students in performing arts on campus.
"We want to show that every student here is not just meeting a quota, but they're also qualified candidates, and we've exceeded admissions standards," Waters said.
"I actually think it's a good thing to have these kinds of conversations and for people to be vocal about those opinions because people tend to steer away from conversations related to social justice, and they're really important to have."
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Few customers, lots of talk at Illini Republicans' bake sale - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
Seventeen Republican members of Congress from diverse districtsincluding representatives from coastal Southeastern states, Nevada, Utah, upstate New York and Pennsylvaniasubmitted a resolution in the House Wednesday acknowledging that human activities have had an impact on global climate and resolving to create and support economically viable mitigation efforts.
The resolution, sponsored by representatives Elise Stefanik of New York, Carlos Curbelo of Florida and Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania, is being submitted in the midst of an unprecedented effort by the most anti-science administration in recent American history to remove climate science studies and data from federal agencies.
Related: Trump posed to drop climate change from environmental reviews
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On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that President Donald Trump is about to sign an executive order repealing President Barack Obamas Clean Power Plan, and to order a reconsideration of the governments use of the social cost of carbonmetric, which measures potential economic damage related to climate change.
Last week, meanwhile, Trumps Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) director, Scott Pruitt, suggested that carbon emissions have nothing to do with climate change.
Curbelo, whose Miami-area district is already experiencing dramatic effects of rising sea levels, has been spearheading the effort to gather pro-science members on his side of the aisle since last year, when he coaxed 10 Republicans to join a bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, which now has 30 members from 13 states, half of whom are Republican.
The resolution being submitted Wednesday states, That the House of Representatives commits to working constructively, using our tradition of American ingenuity, innovation, and exceptionalism, to create and support economically viableand broadly supported private and public solutions to study and address the causes and effects of measured changes to our global and regional climates, including mitigation efforts and efforts to balance human activities that have been found to have an impact.
During a call with reporters Tuesday, Curbelo said there are many, many more Republicans in the House who are interested in the issue andwant to learn more, and who are considering joining this effort officially by putting their name on it. He said his goal is to move on to solutions that we can all rally around and that we can work on with our Republican and Democratic colleagues. This would include, he said, pressing the administration to add projects to mitigate the effects of climate change, such as seawalls, in its expected infrastructure plan.
While prospects for a swell of GOP political support seem dim, given the presidents stated position that climate change might be a Chinese hoax and his EPA directors open animosity toward the issue, Curbelo said he sees a possible wedge via members of Trumps inner circlepresumably including his daughter Ivanka, who has reportedly lobbied her father on the issue.
We know there are people very close to the president who understand this issue, Curbelo said, without naming anyone. These are people who have already been a very good influence on items such as the Paris Agreement, and we are looking forward to engaging those individuals so that we can take this conversation to a good place.
Curbelo called Pruitts comments on carbon disconcerting and added, What he said was akin to saying the Earth is flat in the year 2017. We must insist on evidence-based and science-based policies. He also chastised Pruitt last week in a statement, saying,Rising carbon emissions have been a contributing factor to climate change for decades. That is a scientific fact and the reality facing communities like my district. The EPA is tasked with the very responsibility of helping to lower the impact of carbon emissions, and for Mr. Pruitt to assert otherwise without scientific evidence is reckless and unacceptable.
One of the resolutions signatories is Representative Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), who represents a section of his state known as the Low Country. Sanford, who grew up on a farm in the area, says he has seen firsthand the effects of rising sea levels, in acreage lost to salt water.
The Low Country makes Miami Beach look like high ground, Sanford said. I just think there is inherent danger in the three-monkey routinesee no evil, hear no evil, speak no evilrelated to climate change. To deny its existence is to deny what our country was founded on. The Founding Fathers designed a reason-based political system, and without reason the system doesnt work.
Curbelos climate caucus co-chairman, Florida Democratic Representative Ted Deutch, released a statement Wednesday morning welcoming the GOP effort. Americans dont see climate change as a partisan issue, and neither should Congress, he said. As the Democratic co-chair of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, I applaud my Republican colleagues for introducing this important resolution on climate change. Were going to need lawmakers from both sides of the aisle working together, engaging in robust debate, following the scienceand finding bipartisan legislative responses to the growing threats of climate change.
Polls have shown that a majority of Americans are concerned about climate change, and those fears among constituents, plus the fact that Republicans now control all branches of government and are thus alast line of defense, might be prompting more Republicans to reject the administrations anti-science position. The polling is very clear, Curbelo said. A clear majority understand this is a challenge we are facing, and among younger voters the numbers are staggering. Over 80 percent of millennials consider this a major issue. The House is the most representative institution in our government. This issue was regrettably politicized 20 years or so ago, and we are trying to take some of the politics out and reducing the noise.
Others who signed the resolution are Representatives Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), John Faso (R-N.Y.), John Katko (R-N.Y.), Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Mia Love (R-Utah), Pat Meehan (R-Pa.), Brian Mast (R-Fla.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla).
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House Republicans Buck Trump, Call for Climate Change Solutions - Newsweek
WASHINGTON Republicans are in position to finally deliver on their long-standing campaign pledges to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but that effort could be derailed by conservatives who oppose the GOP health care bill introduced last week.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the friendly fire from some on the right isnt helping Republicans take action on health care.
Weve been promising for six years we were going to do something about it, Grassley said. Forty Republicans in the House and three or four in the Senate might be putting the whole Republican campaign of the last six years in jeopardy.
The House GOP bill, called the American Health Care Act, enters a pivotal period this week. With a relatively small majority in Congress and little support likely from Democrats, Republican leaders cant afford too many defections from their ranks if they hope to pass the legislation.
While the bill won approval from two key House committees last week, nonpartisan bean counters are poised to release their analysis of just how much the proposal will cost and how many Americans could lose coverage.
At the same time, conservative groups and their allies in Congress have stepped up attacks on the proposal, which they deride as Obamacare 2.0 and Obamacare Lite.
The bill would roll back the Affordable Care Acts expansion of Medicaid, but not as quickly as some conservatives would like.
Critics on the right also want to strip out the bills refundable tax credits to help people buy health insurance, which are intended to take the place of the ACA subsidies.
Grassley rejected the notion that such tax credits are essentially the same as the subsidies in the current law, as conservative opponents contend. He said tax credits have long been a staple of GOP health policy proposals.
The Republican answer to that, all the time, has been tax credits that are refundable tax credits, said Grassley, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, which does much of the heavy lifting on health care policy.
That said, Grassley indicated that he may well push for his own changes to the bill if it gets to the Senate.
The conservative pushback threatens to blunt the bills momentum after it cleared two House committees following marathon sessions.
Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., a member of the Ways and Means Committee, issued a statement hailing that panels approval shortly after 4 a.m. Thursday.
For years, Nebraskans have called on us to provide relief from Obamacares rising premiums and dwindling choices, Smith said. Too many Americans have been hurt by this failing law, and now we finally have the opportunity to reset our health care system.
Smith and Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., have expressed support for the proposal. But other House members from Nebraska and western Iowa have been withholding judgment as have those on the other side of the Capitol.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who made health care his signature issue in his 2014 Senate race, has said only that he remains committed to repeal but is still reviewing the House bill.
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., was asked about the bill during her weekly conference call with reporters and repeatedly said she first wants to see what the House approves. She then reiterated criticisms of the current law.
But is she confident that Republicans will be able to pass something?
I am, as I said, waiting to see what comes to us from the House, and Im going to look at it and assess what impact its going to have on the American people, Fischer responded.
Fischer did note with approval that the House bill preserves the current laws prohibition on denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, and it continues to allow young people to stay on their parents insurance.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, also lauded those provisions.
That should really please a lot of people, she said.
Ernst said shes still studying the bills impact on Iowa, particularly the thousands covered by the states expansion of Medicaid.
She said Democrats talk about the millions covered under current law is misleading, saying that many of those people have deductibles so high that they cant afford to actually access health care. That, she said, renders their insurance cards useless.
Ernst also pointed to counties where theres a dearth of participating insurers.
Thats no choice and thats no option for those who really need the care, she said.
Health care is an emotional issue for people, she said, noting those with children who have chronic conditions such as diabetes.
It is a complicated issue, she said, but we need to do something to make sure that our families are getting the proper care they need.
joe.morton@owh.com, twitter.com/MortonOWH
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Republicans, long united by Obamacare, now divided on its replacement - Omaha World-Herald