Tag: Donald Trump

President Trump touched off a political melee Friday after his administration announced it would “immediately” halt payments to insurers under ObamaCare, with Democrats claiming the move will “break” insurance markets – and the president saying Democrats should come to the negotiating table to “fix” the law if they’re so concerned. However, the administration had been making the payments from month to month, even as Trump threatened to cut them off to force Democrats to negotiate over health care. Trump has privately told at least one lawmaker that the payments may continue if a bipartisan deal is reached on health care, The Wall Street Journal reported. Its likely more will come from other states, as Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, called the decision “sabotage,” and promised a lawsuit. They contend the subsidies to insurers are fully authorized by federal law, and the president's position is reckless. The decision came after Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to make lower-premium health insurance plans more widely available. Trump employed the executive order after the Republican-controlled Congress has been unable to pass a plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare. The president says he still wants Congress repeal and replace the Obama health care law. But he says his order will give people more competition, more choices and lower premiums.

Top House Republicans said Friday that the chamber would take up bipartisan Iran sanctions legislation unrelated to an Obama-era nuclear deal after President Trump decertified the deal and called on Congress to amend a law providing oversight of the accord. In a statement, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.), Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said they would work with Trump to address issues in the Iran deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but emphasized the non-nuclear sanctions legislation. “We’ll take an important step to that end on the House floor by passing bills to increase sanctions unrelated to JCPOA that target Iran’s support for terrorism and its ballistic missile program when Congress returns in the coming weeks," the statement continued. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) separately called the 2015 deal between the U.S., Iran and five other global powers “fatally flawed” and commended Trump for pushing changes to the accord. “I support President Trump’s decision to reevaluate this dangerous deal, and the House will work with his administration to counter Iran’s range of destabilizing activities." He also did not push Congress to reimpose sanctions lifted under the deal, but did ask that they amend the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act (IRANA) to address what he sees as issues in the accord. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) Royce, McCarthy, Thornberry and Cheney said in Friday's statement that U.S.-Iran relations should not be defined only by the nuclear agreement.

Brian Sandoval ripped President Trump's decision to end key payments to insurers selling ObamaCare plans on Friday, calling the move "devastating." The payments help low-income people afford co-pays, deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs associated with health insurance policies. “It’s going to hurt people. It’s going to hurt individuals. It’s going to hurt people with mental health issues. It’s going to hurt everybody,” Sandoval, who has been critical of Trump's attempts to repeal and replace ObamaCare, told The Nevada Independent. “And so this is something that I’ve been very supportive [of] during my administration in terms of expanding health care and making sure that people have access to affordable health care and I’m going to continue on that path," he continued. In light of this analysis, the Government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments," the White House said in a statement. However, Sandoval is not the first Republican to speak out against the move, which is the administration's most aggressive attempt yet to do away with former President Obama's signature health-care law. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has been against each of the last two GOP Senate attempts to repeal and replace ObamaCare, called Trump's decision concerning.

President Trump's latest effort to tackle health care and the Affordable Care Act is to allow consumers to buy short-term health care plans for up to a year, which experts say could destabilize the individual market and drive up costs for many consumers. Short-term insurance plans, which Trump's order allows people to stay on for up to a year, would likely be favored by healthy people in the individual market. These plans aren't governed by the ACA's rules, thus they would be "cheaper" because they cover far less. These plans would also likely have adverse effects for people who choose ACA-compliant plans, experts say. That's because the people who need more comprehensive care—older, sicker—would buy those plans, while healthier, younger people would likely choose the cheaper ones. They can also not only charge people with pre-existing conditions more than healthier people, they can deny coverage outright. The premium is just $30 per month. So you have $30 per month — but if you need any type of care, you'd be on the hook for $10,000, plus the costs for all of the care for your pre-existing conditions, unless you buy a rider at an additional monthly cost. For example, association health plans may be exempt from coverage of certain essential health benefits."

NBC News is defending its report that President Trump wanted a massive expansion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal after Defense Secretary James Mattis pushed back on those claims. NBC reported earlier Wednesday that Trump suggested dramatically expanding the country's nuclear capabilities — from roughly 4,000 to 32,000 warheads — after seeing data that showed the U.S. weapons stockpile decreasing from that level since the 1960s. Defense Secretary James Mattis in a statement hit back at the NBC report, saying Trump never "called for" an increase in the nuclear arsenal. "Recent reports that the President called for an increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are absolutely false. This kind of erroneous reporting is irresponsible,” Mattis said. Trump himself has attacked the network over the report on Twitter. “Fake @NBCNews made up a story that I wanted a ‘tenfold’ increase in our U.S. nuclear arsenal. NBC = CNN!” Trump tweeted.

Donald Trump has challenged his secretary of state to “compare IQ tests”, if Rex Tillerson did call the president a “moron” as reported. Trump said: “I think it’s fake news. What did the president say about you? We’ve designed an interactive quiz. The US is set for a fresh battle over climate change after the Trump administration moved to tear up the country’s primary policy to lower emissions and stave off dangerous global warming. Steve Bannon called Donald Trump’s selection of Mike Pence as his vice-presidential candidate “unfortunate” on the day it was announced, according to leaked emails: “This is the price we pay for cruzbots and #nevertrump movement. GOP Sen. Susan Collins to make an announcement on Friday about whether she'll run for governor of Maine.

Trump told reporters he still has confidence in Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, despite offering to compare IQ scores with Tillerson in a Forbes interview. In a statement, Hillary Clinton said she was “shocked and appalled” by the sexual-harassment allegations against film executive Harvey Weinstein, but did not mention whether she will donate contributions she had received from Weinstein. At least 15 people have been killed as wildfires continue to sweep across Northern California. But Republican senators want no part of the feud. The White House’s proposal includes cuts to legal immigration and the construction of a border wall, among other reforms. What immigration reforms, if any, do you hope to see in exchange for a DACA fix—and why?

It's a rule that U.S. President Donald Trump might learn the hard way if he reneges on the international nuclear deal with Iran. Trump has until Oct. 15 to decide whether to recertify the Iran deal. In February, Mattis called Iran "the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world." If you ask an "insider" what sort of terrorism Iran has supported lately, you'll hear about Middle Eastern activity that has nothing to do with American national security and is typically just an extension of historical squabbling between Iran and its biggest regional foes, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Actions count more than mere words, and Russia has pulled the rug out from under the U.S. in the Middle East, emerging as the primary power broker in the region by making an earnest attempt to eradicate Islamic State terrorism. Sanctions merely prevent the U.S. and European countries from collecting billions of dollars in job-creating revenues. An Iranian representative in search of military drones at this year's Paris Air Show summed it up well as he handed out business cards: "Sanctions are not a problem for us!" Here in France, the rhetoric coming from the Trump administration is producing frustration. Two years after the Iran deal, American and European multinationals have been making billions of dollars in sales deals to the Iranian market, knowing that the U.S. could soon reinstate sanctions.

Hawaii's Sen. Brian Schatz (D) called on the public to heed Sen. Bob Corker’s (R-Tenn.) comment that President Trump could lead the U.S. toward ‘World War III,’ as tensions rise between Washington and North Korea. “There’s a tendency to wonder about the politics of Corker’s interview. Ignore that, and listen to his warnings about an accidental war,” Schatz tweeted on Sunday night. He went on to outline why the public should be concerned about the possibility of a conflict with North Korea, as Trump continues to direct his increasingly antagonistic rhetoric at Pyongyang. “War on Korean Peninsula could shut down trade to and from Asia for months or years,” Schatz tweeted. “War on the Korean Peninsula would cause millions of lives to be lost,” he added.

The White House’s hardline enforcement demands have altered the immigration debate on Capitol Hill, raising real questions about the prospects of a bipartisan deal to protect hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. But the White House also asked for a drastic reduction in legal migration and changes to asylum law that could have would-be asylum seekers returned to their home countries without staking their claim. Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), which House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) has tasked with "taking the lead" on immigration, said the values reflected in the policy document were those of senior White House Advisor Stephen Miller, a hardliner on immigration policy who has long opposed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The proposal puts at risk Democratic cooperation with Trump on any number of issues, including a spending bill due in December. The White House document contains many policies enshrined in Goodlatte's Davis-Oliver act, a sweeping immigration proposal, parts of which have been passed by the House, including Kate's Law and the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act. Schumer and Pelosi made clear they would reject any package that included new funding to expand Trump’s promised border wall. It all points to a hard-fought battle over the future of the DACA population, a fight that will likely accompany December’s debate over must-pass budget legislation. A number of Hispanic Democrats were up in arms last month after Pelosi forged a budget deal with Trump that excluded any help for the DACA population.