Steve Schmidt speaks to Lawrence O’Donnell about Donald Trump and reports that Russia paid bounties to Taliban members to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Aired on 7/2/2020.
Putin paid a bounty to kill American soldiers. Russian spy traitor Donald Trump knew about
it but did nothing. How can Trump lead America when he can't even defend
it?
The New York Times reported that Russian President Putin offered to pay
Afghan militants to kill US soldiers. Trump reportedly was briefed about
this months ago yet has said and apparently done nothing about it.
Trump's disturbingly cozy and subservient relationship with Putin is a
danger to our country, our military men and women and all of our
citizens.
WASHINGTON,
June 26 (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence has concluded that the Russian
military offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants in Afghanistan to
kill American troops and other coalition forces, the New York Times
reported on Friday.
Citing officials briefed on the matter, the
Times said the United States determined months ago that a Russian
military intelligence unit linked to assassination attempts in Europe
had offered rewards for successful attacks last year.
Islamist
militants, or armed criminal elements closely associated with them, are
believed to have collected some bounty money, the newspaper said.
So much for "we must respect our flag" as Donald Trump openly chooses loyalty for men who dishonored our flag and chose to fight in a war against America for the Confederacy.
Jesse Dollemore draws on his experience as a United States Marine to answer Drew Bree's dumb concerns about what is and what is not disrespect for the flag, the anthem, and the troops.
Hollywood legend and liberal activist Rob Reiner puts out new video with
military veterans against Trump. Reiner and U.S. Army veteran Robert
Pearson join The Beat.
Jesse Dollemore talks about how after over SEVEN HUNDRED DAYS in office Donald
Trump decided to FINALLY visit troops who are serving in the thick of
it.
In the process of desperately trying to make everything about him
and his Twitter feed, he exposed the identities and location of members
of Navy SEAL Team 5 as well as told insane lies in a speech to the
troops about the paychecks!
Jesse Dollemore talks about Veterans Day and the United States Marine Corps
birthday which coincided with Donald Trump's trip to France where he
disrespected WWI Marines in a cowardly act!
I got a couple of robo calls yesterday, and tracked them back, thanks to
their lame phone number spoofing. The organization that called me is
the American Veterans Honor Fund. It's new, and based in Virginia.
They're just getting started in scamming people out of their hard-earned
money.
Here's what they're up to: The organization claims to be funding
veterans who are candidates for public office. Their website offers
little information, but has a two-post blog on it. One of those
candidates, who may well be behind the scam, is a right-wing militia
leader from Ohio. He was thrown out of the only office he has held, but
he's back in the race again. To his credit, he admits that he has never
served in any branch of the military of the United States, after naming
all of his medals and honors from his militia group.
They don't say their name when they call. My guy said, "Hi! I'm Mark
with the veterans." I hung up and back called him and got the
organizations name and then Googled it.
As it turns out, there are
secret masters of the government, pulling the strings without the
benefit of an election, nomination, or appointment. As a Propublica investigation has discovered,
Donald Trump handed off control of the Department of Veterans Affairs
to three members of his Mar-a-Lago golf resort. These three have been
issuing orders to the people who are supposed to be running the
department forming a “previously unknown triumvirate that hovered over
public servants without any transparency, accountability or oversight.”
Known within the VA as “the Mar-a-Lago Crowd,” the three were Marvel Entertainment chair Ike
Perlmutter, New York attorney Marc Sherman, and Bruce Moskowitz a
“concierge” doctor who runs a service catering to the Palm Beach elite.
What reporter Isaac Arnsdorf discovered, through
interviews and thousands of documents obtained through Freedom of
Information Act requests, is that these three have been ordering members
of the VA around for over a year. At the beginning of the year, Trump’s
appointment of Ronny Jackson, the doctor
who had proclaimed that Trump has “great genes,” as the VA secretary
ran into issues when reports of both abuse and incompetence surfaced
around Jackson. After leaving the position vacant for months, Trump finally nominated acting director Robert Wilkie in
May. But as it turns out, little of that maneuvering matters. Because
when Trump wants to talk to the man in charge, he calls Perlmutter.
The documents turned up by Pro Publica don’t just show Perlmutter
issuing orders to VA, but reviewing policy, and making personnel
selections. VA officials, at taxpayer expense, traveled to Mar-a-Lago to
“consult” with Perlmutter and get his approval.
“Everyone has to go down and kiss the ring,” a former administration official said.
If the idea that the chairman of Marvel Entertainment is running the
VA makes it sound that there at least might be an injection of
creativity into the agency, that’s not this guy. Perlmutter mounted a
series of hostile takeovers—Revco, Coleco, Remington—and gained control
of Marvel during a series of buyouts and bankruptcies. He was paid $800
million by Disney when that company bought out Marvel, mostly to go
away. The company was specifically split in half so that Perlmutter had
nothing to do with the films—because he’s famously abusive and bigoted.
Perlmutter also has a history of behavior that’s distinctly odd. That
includes turning a fight with a neighbor over the condition of a
private tennis court—surely one of those issues that affects all
Americans—into a hate mail campaign in which Perlmutter accused the
neighbor of, among other things “illegally harvesting his DNA.” As the Hollywood Reporter explains, Perlmutter
sent out unsigned mailings around the exclusive community attacking his
neighbor, then turned his attention to the man’s workplace, where he
accused the neighbor of being a Nazi and covering up sexual assault. And
then … Perlmutter really did show some creativity.
One series of mailings allegedly went out to more than a thousand
inmates in prisons across Florida and Ontario, Canada, in [neighbor Harold] Peerenboom’s name,
with provoking statements like, "While your [sic] in jail, I am writing
to your mom, telling her exactly what kind of scumbag you are."
The guy who tried to get his neighbor killed by sending provocative
notes to over 1,000 inmates … that’s the guy Trump has secretly put in
charge of the VA.
It was Perlmutter who put together the “troika” now running the VA. Of the other two, at least Moskowitz
is a doctor, and while his specialty of finding pricey experts to pay
house calls on nervous Palm Beach millionaires may be miles away from
providing service for millions of veterans, at least it’s health care
adjacent. Sherman is a lawyer who specializes in white
collar crime. As in, defending those accused of it. That’s likely
endeared him to both Perlmutter and Trump, but none of his background
indicates any knowledge of health care, veterans, or running a large
organization.
The troika has been in place from the beginning of Trump’s time in office. With former VA chief David Shulkin forced to fly down to Mar-a-Lago
for his ring-kissing in February of 2017.
Moscowitz then nicely
informed Shulkin that he didn’t have to make a monthly appearance before
the three actual heads of his agency. Instead, they would “set up phone
conference calls at a convenient time.”
All those stories about how Shulkin was resisting implementing
Trump’s policies, really boil down to his growing reluctance to take
orders from the secret masters of his agency, who were ruling on the
lives of wounded and ailing veterans between tee times. And they didn’t hesitate to bypass Shulkin.
The Mar-a-Lago Crowd bombarded VA officials with demands, many of
them inapt or unhelpful. On phone calls with VA officials, Perlmutter
would bark at them to move faster, having no patience for bureaucratic
explanations about why something has to be done a certain way or take a
certain amount of time, former officials said.
Much of what the troika kicked off seemed to be generated by hearsay,
antecedents picked up from TV, and cases mentioned by friends. That
included one example Perlmutter was particularly keen on that originated
with ... the woman in charge of the disputed tennis court.
At the moment, he doesn’t appear to have written to thousands of
inmates attempting to get them to murder David Shulkin. But at least
that was some out of the box thinking. If sanity is a box.
In a tweet, ABC News called Trump’s child concentration camps “shelters.”When did you first realize that the Republican Party jumped the shark
and began falling into a deep dark abyss of hostility to facts, reason,
and empathy?
Was it when Nixon sent the National Guard to Kent State which
resulted in that horrific massacre of anti-war protesters? Maybe for
some it was Nixon and Watergate? Well, I get it. It would be fairly understandable to believe those were just aberrations.
But why wasn’t it enough to come to that understanding when Reagan
decided to launch his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi the
city where some of the most brutal civil rights killings took place, but
not to memorialize the dead and and send a warning to the future, but
to embrace concepts like “reverse racism,” which was clearly a dog
whistle to the “I will tell you who the REAL racists are”?
OK, maybe coincidence? What about his nomination of a deeply racist
man in Jeff Sessions to a federal judgeship? Or the nomination of an
equally racist man in Judge Bork to the Supreme Court who also called
the Ninth amendment to the constitution an “irrelevant inkblot.”
No?
What about Reagan’s press secretary cracking jokes about gay men dying of AIDS during an official White House press conference?
What about Reagan’s cynical invention of the racist “welfare queen” stereotype of poor black women?
What about what remains one of the most hateful political conventions in history in the 1992 Republican Convention?
No? Just a few bad apples?
What about Bob Dole’s return of donations to the Log Cabin
Republicans as to avoid offending his right wing base because he did not
want to be seen as affiliating himself with LGBT who agreed with the
Republican Party’s platform on all but one measure?
What about the subliminal confession of an absence of compassion for
the suffering of others among the Republican faithful when George W Bush
felt a need to coin the term “compassionate conservatism.”
No? What about when the Republican majority on Supreme Court decided
to take the unprecedented step of reviewing state election law to
shutdown attempts to have a proper recount in Florida?
No? Not then either?
What about when the Bush administration fabricated an excuse to go
into a preemptive war in Iraq? What about Colin Powell’s fake vial of
anthrax at the UN? What about Condi Rice’s mushroom cloud scare tactics
to grow support for that illegal war? And it was an illegal war.
What about Abu Ghraib? Guantanamo? Water boarding? “Enhanced interrogation? No?
What about the cult of personality surrounding Sarah Palin who ran
a smear campaign against Obama so awful that her own running mate had to
refute her claims?
What about the threat of martial law in the USA if Congress did not give $800 billion to the big banks?
What about lies about “death panels?” What about “do not ask what
good you could do?”
What about tea party activists waving guns at
protests outside of events featuring Obama?
When did you figure it out? Was it when Republicans booed Rick Perry
from uttering that very politically incorrect term “compassion” at a
Republican debate? Did you figure it out then? Did you figure it out
when mass shooting after mass shooting Republicans refused to act to
protect the citizenry for the sake of the gun industry that lined their
pockets?
What about the enthusiasm for Trump’s overt racism, xenophobia, islamaphobia?
If you just figured out the Republican Party is deep into an abyss of
darkness, lies, mendacity, racism, and bigotry when they got to ripping
babies from their mother’s arms, and refusing to give those children
back to the mothers after immigration proceedings were over, you figured
it out too late.
Memorial Day was the holiday meant to honor fallen soldiers, but
somewhere along the line it has become a day that also honors all
veterans. Regardless of whether the holiday is Memorial Day or Armistice
Day, resident Donald Trump is likely to mark the day claiming that he
honors veterans who fought for America. It’s an interesting tactic given
his history disparaging veterans, attacking Gold Star families, mocking
prisoners of war, getting into a public battle with the family of a
soldier that had just been killed.
Then there are the broken promises for the Veterans Administration. That alone could make for an even longer list.
However, as the resident celebrates fallen soldiers Monday, here are 10 of the times he did the opposite:
1. The John McCain attacks
“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured, OK?” Trump said at a 2016 campaign event.
A few days later Trump even doubled down on his remarks.
2. Trump goes after the Khan family for speaking out in support of Hillary Clinton at the Democratic convention.
“Go look at the graves of brave patriots who died defending the
United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders, and
ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing — and no one,” Khizr Khan said.
In the days that followed the statement, Trump went into full attack
mode. He did everything from claim Khan’s wife wasn’t allowed to speak
because she is a Muslim wife. He claimed he made sacrifices because he
“created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs,
built great structures.” He even began spreading a conspiracy theory
that came from some right-wing fever dream that Khan was secretly a
“Muslim Brotherhood agent.”
It’s been almost two years and Trump has never apologized.
3. “My personal Vietnam”
Trump got five draft deferments while Vietnam raged for nearly 20
years. Trump had bone spurs, though. While we’ve heard about his
medication list, height, weight and other factors, but the president’s
physician, and former nominee to chair the Veterans Administration,
never gave a status update on the spurs that kept him out of serving his
duty.
He didn’t miss out, however. Trump said that his sex life was like his own personal Vietnam.
“I was dating lots and lots of women,” he said in 2004.
“I just had a great time. They were great years, but that was pre-AIDS,
and you could do things in those days that today you’re at risk doing.
AIDS has changed a lot.”
“It is a dangerous world out there — it’s scary, like Vietnam,” he
continued. “It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very
brave soldier.”
4. Promise the moon but give them pennies.
Twice, Trump promised that he would be donating to veteran causes.
The reality, however, was another story. While campaigning in 2016,
Trump indicated that he has sent nearly $6 million to different veterans
groups nationwide, but when Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold
called every veterans advocacy organizations to uncover who got what
and how much, the donation was a little closer to nothing.
Despite making the claim for months, the money miraculously appeared
to various organizations in the days that followed Fahrenthold’s report
and questions for Trump.
5. The Niger widows.
The families that lost their husbands or sons in the Niger ambush
didn’t get a call from the resident for nearly two weeks. When the call
finally came it was only after the resident was blasted publicly in
the press.
Except, when he called one family, he completely flubbed the call.
Instead of taking the high road, Trump moved on to blast the family and a
local Congresswoman and friend of the family who mentored the Sgt. La
David Johnson.
If that isn’t bad enough, when Trump was blasted for his behavior, he
swore that he had done more for Gold Star families than anyone. He even
went so far as to claim that former President Barack Obama never called
the families. Not only was the claim false, families who had received
that heartbreaking call stepped up to call out the lie.
6. The $25,000 promise.
Chris Baldridge’s son was killed in June 2017 by an Afghan police
officer. Over the phone, the resident told Army Sgt. Dillon Baldridge’s
family how sorry he was. The father lamented how hard the family has
struggled financially.
“He said, ‘I’m going to write you a check out of my personal account for $25,000,’ and I was just floored,” Baldridge told the Washington Postin an interview.
“I could not believe he was saying that, and I wish I had it recorded
because the man did say this. He said, ‘No other resident has ever done
something like this,’ but he said, ‘I’m going to do it.'”
The interview took place five months after the promise. The check
hadn’t arrived. After publicly outcry at another Trump lie, the White
House told The Post “The check has been sent.” Better late than never.
6. Trump’s lie he fixed VA wait times.
Everything was supposed to change. Finally, the White House would
have an advocate for the veterans, Trump claimed in 2016. But, his
promises haven’t proved much in terms of action.
One thing Trump said he would change are the wait times at the VA. During at least two events in 2017, Trump swore he’d fixed it.
“I used to go around and talk about the veterans and they’d stand on
line for nine days, seven days, four days… 15 days. People that could
have been given a prescription and been better right away end up dying
waiting on line,” he said during a July speech. “That’s not happening
anymore.”
It was.
“Now [veterans] go right outside, they go to a doctor in the area, we
pay the bill, and it’s the least expensive thing we can do and we save
everybody’s life and everybody’s happy,” the resident claimed.
Except, they still wait. The Government Accountability Office quotes says that they still wait on average 81 days.
7. The backlog in veteran disability claims
Trump signed the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act
of 2017 in August, saying that they were working to streamline
disability compensation appeal claims for veterans.
It’s great for new vets applying for disability. For those who were
stuck in the system, the wait continues as the legislation did nothing
to reduce or address the current backlog or address appeals after
denials. There are over 470,000 veterans stuck in the backlog. Former VA
Secretary David Shulkin said that it would take $800 million and 10
years to clear the backlog of appeals.
They wait still.
8. VA’s Veterans Choice Program emergency funding ran out before it was supposed to.
Someone didn’t do their math correctly. When Congress passed and
Trump signed the $2.1 billion in emergency funding for the VA’s Veterans
Choice Program, it was supposed to keep the program afloat until
February 2018. It ran out two months early.
9. Trump’s hiring freeze
Like many Republicans, Trump wanted to stop government from hiring
new people, so he placed a freeze on any agencies bringing in new staff.
For veterans looking for jobs at the Pentagon, in the social services
or anywhere in government, they were locked out. While many might think it’s a small number, in 2015 The Hill reported that one-third of those applying for federal government jobs were veterans.
10. Trump’s budget hurts veterans.
The Trump White House lacks a basic understanding for the daily life
of those coming home from war and being discharged face. When Republicans sought to cut food stamps,
they seemed to forget 1.5 million veterans use food stamps. Data on
active-duty soldiers isn’t available because the Pentagon doesn’t share
it. In 2013, however, 23,000 active-duty troops use food stamps.
Trump’s budget would gut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), by $17 billion for the 2019 budget.
So, if the resident touts his “many successes” that show how he has
“done more for veterans than any president in the history of the world,”
Americans can remind him what he has really done.
Sen. John McCain was talking about the Vietnam War on C-SPAN 3’s
American History TV when he got the ultimate dig in on Trump by calling
out rich kids who avoided the draft with issues like bone spurs.
Sen. McCain (R-AZ) said, “One aspect of the conflict by the way that I
will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest income level
of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say
that they had a bone spur. That is wrong. That is wrong. If we are going
to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.”
Donald Trump has been insulting and threatening Sen. McCain even
after his brain cancer diagnosis, but McCain has been through way worse
than anything Trump can dish out on Twitter. Sen. McCain was right on
one critical point. Trump is a man who wrapped himself in the flag but
used his family’s wealth to avoid serving his country. A resident who
is under federal investigation for collaborating with a hostile foreign
power to undermine democracy and win a presidential election is no
patriot.
The prognosis may not be good for John McCain, but if he is in the
final act of his life, he is using it to defend his country against the
threat that is Donald Trump.
Donald Trump’s handling of the aftermath of the Niger tragedy, which
claimed the lives of four American servicemen, has caused considerable
outrage and raised troubling questions. But what it didn’t do, was
reveal anything about Trump that we didn’t already know. Contrarily, it
only reinforced perceptions that were previously witnessed, but somehow
ignored by his voters. For twelve days Donald Trump publicly ignored the
deaths of four men who he claims to hold so dearly.
Twelve days of
silence proved him yet again, to be a malignant political fraud.
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly showed a
disgusting lack of empathy and respect for members of the military. He
derided Gold Star parents and proclaimed himself more astute in military
strategy than battle tested generals. He accepted a veterans Purple
Heart medal, famously declaring that “was much easier” than serving in
combat. He held a fundraiser for veterans but didn’t disperse the funds
until he was prodded by the media about monies raised. He also dodged
the draft with five deferments, including one instance in which he
claimed to suffer from bone spurs in his foot. But when questioned,
Trump couldn’t remember which of his feet were afflicted. Later his
campaign released a statement, which said both of his feet suffered from
the condition. He insulted the record of former P.O.W. John McCain.
Does any of this sound like a man who has the utmost respect for our
armed forces?
Four American lives were lost in Niger on October 4th. Donald Trump,
self-proclaimed patriot, didn’t bother to mention their deaths until
October 16th. Twelve days passed before Donald Trump, resident of the
United States and supposed champion of our great military, bothered to
mention their names. He only did so after being questioned by a
reporter. It’s been reported that the attack was carried out by members
of ISIS, the same terrorist group that Trump has claimed victory
against, without any proof whatsoever. If this is true, then Trump
allowed his hubris to impede good judgment and protocol. What transpired
next, can only be described as normal within an administration wrought
with incompetence and stupidity.
Donald Trump made a mockery of a call of condolence to the family of
fallen soldier La David Johnson, lied about it and his deplorable
minions covered for him with more lies. For a self-professed patriot,
this was an unforgivable sin. Trump lied about the content of his call,
lied about calling the families of other slain servicemen and doubled
down, impugning the reputations of past presidents and stating that they
didn’t do as much as him in this regard.
The controversy over his call could have easily been diffused, with
real compassion and common sense, neither of which Donald Trump has.
Trump could’ve apologized for any misunderstanding and redoubled efforts
to show proper respect with a heartfelt display of empathy. However,
it’s not in his nature. His is the nature of a rebellious child, who’s
been told to stand in the corner and draws on the wall. Ego and
ignorance led Trump to lie, and cowardice led his enablers to empower
his lies and stupidity.
In the ensuing twelve days between the time of the demise of our
fallen soldiers and his public acknowledgment, Trump continued his
attack on the NFL calling their patriotism in question. What must be
understood is that his position has nothing to do with his fraudulent
love of the flag. His attack is fueled by greed and bigotry.
Trump
attempted to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014 and was denied entrance into
the exclusive boys club. This is after famously making a fool of
himself, while simultaneously bankrupting the league when he led the
now-defunct USFL, into a court battle against the NFL and was summarily
crushed.
The USFL was a fairly successful venture until the idiocy of
Donald Trump came into play.
The other stunningly obvious reason for his war on football is his
unmitigated bigotry and that of his supporters. Trump is playing the
race card by inflaming the emotions of his bigoted base, who are wholly
threatened by the concept of wealthy men of color fighting for change.
Trump went as far to initiate a fake protest by his despicable
underling, Mike Pence. He cost taxpayers over $250,000 for a hoax
designed to further divide the nation. For twelve days Trump also
continued golfing and his dimwitted use of social media.
Trump’s narcissism is being enabled by everyone around him. His con
game is moved forward by his sad sack administration. Once respected,
John Kelly, has proven that he is not in the White House to keep Trump
in line, but rather to fall in line with the Trump vision. Kelly forever
tarnished his legacy by committing classic Trumpisms of dishonesty and
distortions. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has repeatedly
proven there was never a lie or fabrication that she wouldn’t bestow
upon American citizens. The entire White House staff colluded in Trump’s
deception when they scrambled to form a list of soldiers killed in
action, so Trump could contact them, after saying he had already done
so. Where exactly is his profound patriotism in any of this? You won’t
find it because it doesn’t exist.
Donald Trump is a shameless liar, a conniving con artist, an
emotional wreck who is intellectually deficient and historically
incompetent. But make no mistake. Donald Trump is not now or ever was a
patriot. #RESIST…
House Republicans just voted to slash hundreds of billions of dollars
in health care for the poor as part of their Obamacare replacement.
Now, they’re weighing a plan to take the scalpel to programs that
provide meals to needy kids and housing and education assistance for
low-income families.
Donald Trump’s refusal to overhaul Social Security and
Medicare — and his pricey wish-list for infrastructure, a border wall
and tax cuts — is sending House budget writers scouring for pennies in
politically sensitive places: safety-net programs for the most
vulnerable.
Under enormous internal pressure to quickly balance the budget,
Republicans are considering slashing more than $400 billion in spending
through a process to evade Democratic filibusters in the Senate,
multiple sources told POLITICO.
The proposal, which would be part of the House Budget Committee's
fiscal 2018 budget, won't specify which programs would get the ax;
instead it will instruct committees to figure out what to cut to reach
the savings. But among the programs most likely on the chopping block,
the sources say, are food stamps, welfare, income assistance for the
disabled and perhaps even veterans benefits.
If enacted, such a plan to curb safety-net programs — all while
juicing the Pentagon’s budget and slicing corporate tax rates — would
amount to the biggest shift in federal spending priorities in decades.
Atop that, GOP budget writers will also likely include Speaker Paul
Ryan’s (R-Wis.) proposal to essentially privatize Medicare in their
fiscal 2018 budget, despite Trump’s unwavering rejection of the idea.
While that proposal is more symbolic and won’t become law under this
budget, it’s just another thorny issue that will have Democrats again
accusing Republicans of “pushing Granny off the cliff.”
“The Budget Committee is trying to force the entire conference and
committees of jurisdiction to focus on ways to bring down this deficit,”
said senior budget panel member Rep. Tom Cole.
Republicans have long
sought to tackle the nearly $20 trillion debt, but Trump has tied their
hands by ruling out cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
The Oklahoma Republican, however, acknowledged that mandatory
spending reductions could become “very tough issues” — though he
declined to name which programs would see major cuts:
“These are hard
for anybody, no matter where you’re at on the political spectrum.”
While budget writers are well aware of the sensitive nature of their
proposal, they feel they have no choice if they want to balance the
budget in a decade, which they’ve proposed for years, and give Trump
what he wants.
Enraged by Democrats claiming victory after last month’s government
funding agreement, White House officials in recent weeks have pressed
Hill Republicans to include more Trump priorities in the fiscal 2018
blueprint.
House Budget Republicans hope to incorporate those wishes and are
expected, for example, to budget for Trump’s infrastructure plan. Tax
reform instructions will also be included in the budget, paving the way
for both chambers to use the powerful budget reconciliation process to
push a partisan tax bill through Congress on simple majority votes, as
well as the $400 billion in mandatory cuts.
“The critique last time was that we didn’t embed enough Trump agenda
items into our budget,” said Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), a budget panel
member. Trump has "made it clear it will be embedded in this budget. …
And so people will see a process much more aligned with President
Trump’s agenda in this forthcoming budget.”
New spending, however, makes already tough math even trickier for a
party whose mantra is “balance the budget in 10 years.” Lawmakers need
to cut roughly $8 trillion to meet that goal, budget experts say. And
while a quarter of their savings in previous budgets came from repealing
Obamacare and slicing $1 trillion from Medicaid, Republicans cannot
count on those savings anymore because their health care bill sucked up
all but $150 billion of that stash — relatively speaking, mere pocket
change to play with.
Republicans’ first reflex would be to turn to entitlement reform to
find savings. Medicare and Social Security, after all, account for the
lion’s share of government spending and more than 70 percent of all
mandatory spending.
But while former Freedom Caucus conservative-turned-White House
budget director Mick Mulvaney has tried to convince the president of the
merits of such reforms, Trump has refused to back down on his campaign
pledge to leave Medicare and Social Security alone. (He’s reversed
himself on a vow not to touch Medicaid, which would see $880 billion in
cuts under the Obamacare repeal bill passed by the House.)
Mulvaney, sources say, has been huddling on a weekly basis with House
Budget Chairwoman Diane Black (R-Tenn.) and Senate Budget Chairman Mike
Enzi (R-Wyo.) to plot a path forward. There appears to be some common
ground to consider cuts to other smaller entitlement programs:While
the Office of Management and Budget would not respond to a request for
comment, CQ reported Tuesday that the White House was also considering
hundreds of billions in cuts to the same programs being eyed by House
budget writers.
“I’ve already started to socialize the discussion around here in the
West Wing about how important the mandatory spending is to the drivers
of our debt,” Mulvaney told radio host Hugh Hewitt in March. “There are
ways that we cannot only allow the president to keep his promise, but to
help him keep his promise by fixing some of these mandatory programs.”
Final details of the GOP’s budget plan aren’t expected until June,
and specific language mandating the mandatory cuts still hasn’t been
written, according to one aide familiar with the process.
Committees
would then have several months to put together the
department-by-department details on what exactly to cut, proposals that
probably won’t land until the fall at the earliest, given the
legislative calendar.
The idea could run into problems: It is unclear whether such cuts
would be acceptable in the more moderate Senate. In order for the
proposal to actually move, Senate Republicans would need to include the
same instructions in their own budget.
In the House, Republican leaders hope the moves toward deficit
reduction will buy them some good will with conservatives going into
September, when the party’s right flank will have to swallow difficult
votes to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government.
Cole argued the deficit-trimming push will appeal to the House
Freedom Caucus, which blocked the House GOP’s budget on the floor last
year in protest of spending levels its members considered too high.
But pleasing conservatives this time around will fuel anxiety on the
other end of the conference. Endorsing cuts to programs for the poor
will certainly make centrist House Republicans — many of whom were
uncomfortable voting to slice Medicaid just weeks ago in the Obamacare
repeal bill — very uncomfortable.
Rep. Charlie Dent, a centrist and senior Appropriations Committee
member, said budget reconciliation instructions should center solely on
tax reform, which “is complex enough on its own,” he said.
“All I can say is: Tax reform by itself is very complex and
controversial,” Dent (R-Pa.) said. “Adding some of these other changes
will only make the tax reform more difficult.”
Asked about mandatory programs that might be cut, he added: “This
will create challenges, no question about it. When so many of the
entitlement programs are taken off the table for discussion … that
limits our ability to fund the non-defense discretionary programs and
other mandatory programs that affect a lot of people.”
GOP backers of the idea will argue in the coming weeks and months
that moderates have voted for GOP budgets that included similar cuts in
the past — so they should be able to support them again.
But if House GOP leadership has learned anything from the Obamacare
repeal debacle, it should be that voting for something that has no
chance of becoming law and makes for great campaign fodder is much
easier than backing a bill that could be enacted.
U.S. Rep.
Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, has penned a letter to Donald Trump calling
the Republican presidential candidate a racist.
Vela also told Trump “you can take your border wall and shove it up your ass.”
The congressman said he is tired of Trump’s
rhetoric which he says has been bad all along but, he said Trump took it
to another level on the latest racist attack on U.S. District Court
Judge Gonzalo Curiel.
“I had to do it in language that only Donald Trump could understand,” Vela said about the tone of his letter.
The congressman was referring to remarks that
Trump referred to Curiel as a Mexican although the judge is a U.S.
citizen born in Indiana.
“I think it is very disgraceful. I couldn’t think any other way to respond than to fight fire with fire,” Vela said.
Vela said he is also standing up for the 55 million Hispanics living in the U.S.
“This last week when I was home I run into
constituents on the streets and Trump’s rhetoric is making them really
upset that they are looking for someone to speak out for them,” Vela
said.
Here is the full text of the letter:
June 6, 2016
Donald Trump
725 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Dear Mr. Trump,
As the United States Representative for the 34th
Congressional District of Texas, I do not disagree with everything you
say. I agree that the United States Government has largely failed our
veterans, and those of us who represent the people in Congress have the
obligation to rectify the Veterans Administration’s deficiencies. I also
believe that the Mexican government and our own State Department must
be much more aggressive in addressing cartel violence and corruption in
Mexico, especially in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas. And
clearly, criminal felons who are here illegally should be immediately
deported. There might even be a few other things on which we can agree.
However, your ignorant anti-immigrant opinions,
your border wall rhetoric, and your recent bigoted attack on an American
jurist are just plain despicable.
Your position with respect to the millions of
undocumented Mexican workers who now live in this country is hateful,
dehumanizing, and frankly shameful. The vast number of these individuals
work in hotels, restaurants, construction sites, and agricultural
fields across the United States. If I had to guess, your own business
enterprises either directly or indirectly employ more of these workers
than most other businesses in our country. Thousands of our businesses
would come to a grinding halt if we invoked a policy that would require
"mass deportation" as you and many of your supporters would suggest.
That is precisely why the Republican-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce
agrees that these workers deserve a national immigration policy that
would give them a pathway to citizenship.
While you would build more and bigger walls on
the U.S.-Mexico border, I would tear the existing wall to pieces. No
doubt Mexico has its problems, but it is also our third-largest trading
partner. U.S. Chamber of Commerce has documented that this trade
relationship is responsible for six million jobs in the United States.
In 2015, the U.S. imported $296 billion in goods from Mexico while
exporting $235 billion in products manufactured in this country to
Mexico. The Great Wall of China is historically obsolete, and President
Ronald Reagan famously declared, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall … "
while urging the Soviet Union to destroy the barrier that divided West
and East Berlin. Why any modern-thinking person would ever believe that
building a wall along the border of a neighboring country, which is both
our ally and one of our largest trading partners, is frankly astounding
and asinine.
I should also point out that thousands of
Americans of Mexican descent that you mistakenly refer to as “Mexicans”
have valiantly served the United States in every conflict since the
Civil War. While too numerous to list, let me educate you about a few of
these brave Medal of Honor recipients:
Master Sergeant Jose Lopez, from my own hometown
of Brownsville, Texas, fought in World War II.
Lopez was awarded the
United States’ highest military decoration for valor in combat - the
Medal of Honor - for his heroic actions during the Battle of the Bulge,
in which he single handedly repulsed a German infantry attack, killing
at least 100 enemy troops. If you ever run into Kris Kristofferson, ask
him about Jose Lopez because as a young man Mr. Kristofferson recalls
the 1945 parade honoring Sergeant Lopez as an event he will never
forget.
In 1981, President Reagan presented Master
Sergeant Roy Benavides with the Medal of Honor for fighting in what has
been described as “6 hours in hell.” In Vietnam, Sergeant Benavides
suffered 37 separate bullet, bayonet and shrapnel wounds to his face,
leg, head and stomach while saving the lives of eight men. In fact, when
awarding the honor to Benavides, President Reagan, turned to the media
and said, “if the story of his heroism were a movie script, you would
not believe it.”
You have now descended to a new low in your
racist attack of an American jurist, U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo
Curiel, by calling him a “Mexican” simply because he ruled against you
in a case in which you are being accused of fraud, among other
accusations. Judge Curiel is one of 124 Americans of Hispanic descent
who have served this country with honor and distinction as federal
district judges. In fact, the first Hispanic American ever named to the
federal bench in the United States, Judge Reynaldo G. Garza, was also
from Brownsville, Texas, and was appointed by President John F. Kennedy
in 1961.
Before you dismiss me as just another “Mexican,”
let me point out that my great-great grandfather came to this country in
1857, well before your own grandfather. His grandchildren (my
grandfather and his brothers) all served our country in World War I and
World War II. His great-grandson, my father, served in the U.S. Army
and, coincidentally, was one of the first “Mexican” federal judges ever
appointed to the federal bench.
I would like to end this letter in a more
diplomatic fashion, but I think that you, of all people, understand why I
cannot. I will not presume to speak on behalf of every American of
Mexican descent, for every undocumented worker born in Mexico who is
contributing to our country every day or, for that matter, every decent
citizen in Mexico.
But, I am sure that many of these individuals would
agree with me when I say: ‘Mr. Trump, you’re a racist and you can take
your border wall and shove it up your ass.’
