GOP touts lower premiums, but other insurance costs to rise In this May 16, 2017 file photo, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republicans are touting lower premiums under their health care legislation, but that reflects insurance that would cover a smaller share of the cost of medical bills. Republicans are touting lower premiums under their health care legislation, but that reflects insurance that would cover a smaller share of the cost of medical bills Another caveat: Not everybody would see lower premiums Jun. 28, 2017 https://www.apnews.com/d297ed4758b44f1b81988e4cdbbdc191/GOP-touts-lower-premiums,-but-other-insurance-costs-to-rise
New CBO Report Finds Even Deeper Medicaid Cuts in GOP Bill Jun 29 2017 WASHINGTON — The Senate health care bill’s Medicaid cuts would grow even deeper after a decade, according to a new report Thursday by the nonpartisan Congressional budget Office, leaving more people without coverage under the government program. The new report [ https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/115th-congress-2017-2018/reports/52859-medicaid.pdf ] complements the CBO’s main analysis of the Senate bill, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act, which found Medicaid would spend 26 percent less and cover 15 million fewer people in 2026 if the bill passed. The Senate bill caps Medicaid spending and, starting in 2025, grows it at a rate of inflation that’s expected to be less generous than either current law or the House bill, which included major cuts as well. While the CBO warns that projecting beyond the first decade is difficult, the new report estimates that the slower growth rate would drive relative spending down even further in the second decade. By 2036, the government would spend 35 percent less on Medicaid than it would under current law. If states couldn’t find ways to administer the program more efficiently, they would be forced to raise taxes, cut benefits, heighten eligibility requirements, or reduce payments to doctors and hospitals to make up the decline. According to CBO, the reduce spending would likely mean states would cover fewer people. The report predicted “enrollment in Medicaid would continue to fall relative to what would happen under the extended baseline.” [...] http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/new-cbo-report-finds-deep-medicaid-cuts-gop-bill-n778306 [with embedded video]
Fox News Poll: 27 percent favor Senate GOP health care plan, as vote gets delayed June 28, 2017 By two-to-one, American voters oppose the Senate health care bill to replace the Affordable Care Act -- even as a majority wants to repeal at least some of the existing law. That’s according to the latest Fox News Poll [ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2017/06/28/fox-news-poll-june-28-2017.html ], conducted Sunday through Tuesday evenings. Among Republicans, 51 percent favor the Senate bill. That’s in contrast to 75 percent support for the House bill last month. Overall, 27 percent of voters favor the Senate proposal, 54 percent oppose it, and 18 percent are unsure. For comparison, in polling conducted after the House health care bill passed, 40 percent favored it and 54 percent were opposed (May 2017). That’s the plan President Trump has called “mean.” “It seems likely that voters are increasingly anxious about another significant change to their health insurance,” says Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News Poll along with Democrat Chris Anderson. “I doubt they know much about the substantive differences between the House and Senate bills.” [...] Meanwhile, a record number of voters, 52 percent, view the Affordable Care Act positively. That’s up from 50 percent in March, and 41 percent in August 2015. Forty-six percent currently view ObamaCare negatively. Lower-income voters (55 percent), women (58 percent), urban voters (63 percent), non-whites (77 percent), and Democrats (89 percent) give ObamaCare some of its highest favorable ratings. [...] http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/28/fox-news-poll-27-percent-favor-senate-gop-health-care-plan-as-vote-gets-delayed.html [with embedded video, and comments]
U.S. Voters Reject GOP Health Plan More Than 3-1, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Voters Support Gun Background Checks 94 - 5 Percent June 28, 2017 Despite its new name and some tweaks, American voters disapprove 58 - 16 percent of the Republican health care plan to replace Obamacare, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. [...] https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2470
Who’s afraid of Trump? Not enough Republicans — at least for now. President Trump meets with Republican senators about health care. Seated with him at the White House are, from left, Sens. Dean Heller (Nev.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Orrin Hatch (Utah). June 27, 2017 Scrambling to line up support for the Republican health-care bill, President Trump got on the phone Monday with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and urged him to back the measure. The president’s personal plea was not enough. On Tuesday, Lee said he would vote against the bill. Senate GOP leaders later postponed the planned health-care vote because too many other Republican senators also opposed — for now, at least — legislation that would deliver on Trump’s campaign promise to scale back the law known as Obamacare. Trump had hoped for a swift and easy win on health care this week. Instead he got a delay and a return to the negotiating table — the latest reminder of the limits of his power to shape outcomes at the opposite end of Pennsylvania Avenue. History suggests that presidents who have governed successfully have been both revered and feared. But Republican fixtures in Washington are beginning to conclude that Trump may be neither, despite his mix of bravado, threats and efforts to schmooze with GOP lawmakers. The president is the leader of his party, yet Trump has struggled to get Republican lawmakers moving in lockstep on health care and other major issues, leaving no signature legislation in his first five months in office. The confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch is his most-cited achievement to date. “This president is the first president in our history who has neither political nor military experience, and thus it has been a challenge to him to learn how to interact with Congress and learn how to push his agenda better,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who opposes the current health-care bill. The Senate could pass a revised version of the bill once lawmakers return from their July 4 recess and pick up deliberations. Still, some Republicans are willing to defy their president’s wishes — a dynamic that can be attributed in part to Trump’s singular status as a disrupter within his party. “The president remains an entity in and of itself, not a part of the traditional Republican Party,” said Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), a moderate who represents a district Trump lost by 16 percentage points. “I handle the Trump administration the same way I handled the Obama administration. When I agree, I work with them. When I oppose, I don’t.” In private conversations on Capitol Hill, Trump is often not taken seriously. Some Republican lawmakers consider some of his promises — such as making Mexico pay for a new border wall — fantastical. They are exhausted and at times exasperated by his hopscotching from one subject to the next, chronicled in his pithy and provocative tweets. They are quick to point out how little command he demonstrates of policy. And they have come to regard some of his threats as empty, concluding that crossing the president poses little danger. “The House health-care vote shows he does have juice, particularly with people on the right,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said. “The Senate health-care vote shows that people feel that health care is a defining issue and that it’d be pretty hard for any politician to push a senator into taking a vote that’s going to have consequences for the rest of their life.” Asked if he personally fears Trump, Graham chuckled before saying, “No.” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who has distanced himself from Trump on various issues, said few members of Congress fear permanent retaliation from the president. “He comes from the private sector, where your business partner today isn’t always your business partner tomorrow,” Issa said. “Just because you’re one way today doesn’t mean you’re written off. That’s the ‘Art of the Deal’ side.” One senior Republican close to both the White House and many senators called Trump and his political operation “a paper tiger,” noting how many GOP lawmakers feel free “to go their own way.” “Members are political entrepreneurs, and they react to what they see in the political marketplace,” said the Republican, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid alienating the White House. John Weaver, a GOP consultant and frequent Trump critic, was blunter in explaining why Trump has been unable to rule with a hammer. “When you have a 35 percent approval rating and you’re under FBI investigation, you don’t have a hammer,” he said, referring to the probe of possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. Trump’s approval rating in Gallup’s daily tracking poll [ http://www.gallup.com/poll/201617/gallup-daily-trump-job-approval.aspx ] stood Tuesday at 39 percent, with 57 percent of Americans disapproving of his performance. But a significant portion of those supporters, particularly in red states and districts, still strongly back Trump. White House officials contest the suggestion that Trump does not instill fear among fellow Republicans in Congress, though argue that their strategy is not one of fear. “Our legislative strategy isn’t to scare people into passing bills,” principal deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in an email. “That doesn’t work for any president. We helped negotiate and facilitate the major breakthroughs on health care in the House and are doing the same in the Senate.” The president’s political shop, meanwhile, is laboring to force more Republicans to bend to his wishes. America First Policies, a Trump-allied super PAC staffed by former aides, launched a negative advertising effort against Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) after he spoke out against the bill Friday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) complained about the ads to White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, and the super PAC said Tuesday that it would pull the spots after Heller said he was open to further negotiations, according to two people familiar with the decision. America First Policies has been mulling similar ads against other Republicans who have broken ranks, hoping to make lawmakers believe they will pay a price for betraying Trump and imperiling his agenda. The super PAC also is considering grass-roots campaigns across the country to mobilize Trump supporters in key states during the July 4 recess, as a way to ratchet up pressure on wavering lawmakers. Trump allies have encouraged major GOP donors to reach out to senators who oppose the bill. Las Vegas casino moguls Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn have both spoken by phone with Heller to prod him along, according to people familiar with the discussions. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whos-afraid-of-trump-not-enough-republicans--at-least-for-now/2017/06/27/cee56720-5b57-11e7-9b7d-14576dc0f39d_story.html [with embedded video, and comments]
On Senate Health Bill, Trump Falters in the Closer’s Role President Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday. JUNE 27, 2017 WASHINGTON — President Trump began his all-hands meeting with Republican senators at the White House on Tuesday by saying they were “very close” to passing a health care bill, just as efforts to fast-track a vote this week collapsed [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/us/politics/republicans-struggle-to-marshal-votes-for-health-care-bill.html ]. If Republicans do manage to broker a deal — as Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, pledged to do during a lively East Room back-and-forth with the president — it is not likely to be because of Mr. Trump’s involvement. Until Tuesday afternoon, the president was largely on the sidelines as the fate of one of his most important campaign pledges played out. Mr. McConnell, who kept the president at a polite arm’s length while he oversaw negotiations over the bill, asked Mr. Trump to arrange the meeting with all 52 Republican senators during a morning phone call, in part to show senators the White House was in fact fully engaged, according to two people with knowledge of the call. When asked by reporters clustered on the blacktop outside the West Wing if Mr. Trump had command of the details of the negotiations, Mr. McConnell ignored the question and smiled blandly. Mr. Trump and his staff played a critical role in persuading House Republicans to pass health care legislation [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/us/politics/health-care-bill-vote.html ] in May, with the president personally calling dozens of wavering House members. But the Trump team’s heavy-handed tactics have been ineffective in the Senate, and White House officials determined that deploying Vice President Mike Pence, a former congressman with deep ties to many in the Senate, was a better bet than unleashing Mr. Trump on the half-dozen Republicans who will determine the fate of the Senate bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Trump, who is fond of telling friends he is a “closer,” became more involved over the past few days, reaching out to a few reluctant conservatives like Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who emerged from an Oval Office meeting on Monday saying he was more optimistic about getting to a yes. “The White House has been very involved in these discussions,” Mr. McConnell said in announcing that a vote on the bill was postponed until after the Fourth of July recess. “They’re very anxious to help.” Yet over the past few weeks, the Senate Republican leadership has made it known that it would much rather negotiate with Mr. Pence than a president whose candidacy many did not even take seriously during the 2016 primaries. And some of the White House’s efforts have clearly been counterproductive. Over the weekend, Mr. McConnell made clear his unhappiness to the White House after a “super PAC [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/campaign_finance/index.html ]” aligned with Mr. Trump started an ad campaign against Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, after he said last week that he opposed the health care bill [ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/us/politics/health-care-bill-senate.html ]. The majority leader — already rankled by Mr. Trump’s tweets goading him to change Senate rules to scuttle Democratic filibusters [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/filibusters_and_debate_curbs/index.html ] — called the White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, to complain that the attacks were “beyond stupid,” according to two Republicans with knowledge of the tense exchange. Mr. McConnell, who has been toiling for weeks, mostly in private, to put together a measure that would satisfy hard-liners and moderates, told Mr. Priebus in his call that the assault by the group, America First, not only jeopardized the bill’s prospects but also imperiled Mr. Heller’s already difficult path to re-election. Mr. McConnell and “several other” Republican senators expressed their irritation about the anti-Heller campaign during the White House meeting, according to two people, one of them a senator, who were present. The move against Mr. Heller had the blessing of the White House, according to an official with America First, because Mr. Trump’s allies were furious that the senator would side with Nevada’s governor, Brian Sandoval, a Republican who accepted the Medicaid [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicaid/index.html ] expansion under the health law and opposes the Republican overhaul, in criticizing the bill. [...] Until Tuesday’s meeting at the White House, Mr. Trump had spoken with only a few members of the Senate, according to an administration official. The pace was nothing like the dozens of calls he made to help pass the House’s health bill, aides said. A senator who supports the bill left the meeting at the White House with a sense that the president did not have a grasp of some basic elements of the Senate plan — and seemed especially confused when a moderate Republican complained that opponents of the bill would cast it as a massive tax break for the wealthy, according to an aide who received a detailed readout of the exchange. Mr. Trump said he planned to tackle tax reform later, ignoring the repeal’s tax implications, the staff member added. After the meeting, Mr. Trump played the role of cheerleader on Twitter, encouraging his weary Republican allies to keep working. “I just finished a great meeting with the Republican Senators concerning HealthCare,” he wrote [ https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/879828637733793793 ]. “They really want to get it right, unlike OCare!” https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/us/health-care-bill-trump-pence.html [with embedded video]
Trump to Senate Republicans: kill Obamacare now, replace later U.S. President Donald Trump looks down while speaking to reporters about healthcare during an energy policy discussion with leaders of American Indian tribes and U.S. governors at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 28, 2017. Jun 30, 2017 U.S. President Donald Trump urged Republican senators in a tweet on Friday to repeal Obamacare immediately if they cannot agree on a new plan to replace it, muddying the waters as congressional leaders struggle for consensus on healthcare legislation. Senate Republican leaders had set Friday as the target for rewriting legislation for a simultaneous repeal and replacement of extensive parts of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the law dubbed Obamacare that expanded health insurance coverage to 20 million people. The deadline seemed unlikely to be met given that most senators had left Washington ahead of next week's recess, without agreement on a clear direction for the healthcare bill, and Trump's tweet did not appear to gain political traction. [...] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-healthcare-idUSKBN19L1F6
Republicans increasingly anxious about heading home without a health-care plan Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), left, and Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) speak with the media after they and other Senate Republicans met with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday. June 30, 2017 The dispute within the Republican Party over health care widened further Friday, as President Trump joined with a handful of conservative senators in calling for an outright repeal of the Affordable Care Act if the party fails to agree on an alternative plan by the end of the July Fourth recess. The reemergence of what has for much of the year been a fringe idea within the GOP revealed not only the party’s philosophical divide over Obamacare, but also senators’ growing anxiety that they’re now headed home to see their constituents with little to show for it. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has said he cannot yet support the current draft of the Senate bill because of the impact its cuts in Medicaid funding would have on his state, received a blistering reception at a Baton Rouge town hall Friday. Even as he sought to discuss flooding issues, an attendee interrupted to mention Medicaid, prompting others to chant, “Health care, Health care.” “If you wish to chant and stop others from being able to speak or be heard, that is not civil,” Cassidy retorted, asking the audience to “respect the right of others to speak and be heard.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) continued to work on forging a compromise that could garner sufficient support once his colleagues return to Washington on July 10. But his cause was not helped by Trump’s suggestion that Republican senators switch gears and immediately try to repeal the ACA if the impasse for the new health-care plan cannot be broken. The early-morning tweet [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/06/30/trumps-latest-idea-senate-could-repeal-obamacare-now-and-replace-it-later/ ] was Trump’s first public statement since taking office in favor of bringing down Obamacare with no replacement system in place — a move that could send the U.S. health-care system into deep turmoil. “If Republican Senators are unable to pass what they are working on now, they should immediately REPEAL, and then REPLACE at a later date!” Trump tweeted. Two GOP senators who have espoused this approach in the past, Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ben Sasse (Neb.), welcomed the idea. But some of the high-ranking Republicans who have been working on the legislation rejected it as impractical, noting it might force them to fashion a substitute with Democrats. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/republicans-push-for-outright-repeal-of-obamcare-if-gop-cant-agree-on-health-care-bill/2017/06/30/89dbd004-5d98-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html [with embedded video, and comments]
Donald Trump Offers to Help Charlie Gard Chris Gard and Connie Yates, the parents of Charlie Gard, sought to take their infant to the United States for treatment after doctors in the U.K. advised he should be taken off of life support. The president of the United States stepped in to defend a British infant whose life support will be removed after European courts sided with doctors against his parents. Jul 3, 2017 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/donald-trump-offers-to-help-charlie-gard/532551/ [with comments]
Full Show - CNN Admits They Fabricated Russian Narrative To Boost Ratings - 06/27/2017
Published on Jun 27, 2017 by Ron Gibson
Tuesday, June 27th 2017: CNN Admits They're Fake News - A new video released by Project Veritas revealed the network pushes Trump-Russia hysteria despite knowing the whole story is a witch-hunt. The EU has fined Google 2.7 billion dollars for favoring its own comparison-shopping service. Also, John Kiriakou and Joseph Hickman will discuss the C.I.A.'s use of techniques and more.
White House Press Briefing with Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Rick Perry | NBC News
Streamed live on Jun 27, 2017 by NBC News
Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers an on-camera briefing to the press corps. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry also speaks.
In the recent video footage obtained by Project Veritas, John Bonifield a Sr. Producer at CNN, admits to several beliefs that are in direct conflict with the official CNN narrative that Trump has colluded with Russia, and that Russia has interfered with the 2016 election. Bonifield expresses clear doubts that there is a fire behind the Russia smoke, stating, “I haven’t seen any good enough evidence to show that the President committed a crime.” He also confirms suspicions that CNN staff is ideologically biased against Trump, stating, “I know a lot of people don’t like him and they’d like to see him get kicked out of office…”
Bonifield even further confirms CNN’s bias against the President, stating, “I think the President is probably right to say, like, look you are witch hunting me...you have no real proof.”
Bonifield exposes that Russia has been great for CNN’s ratings, and that orders from CEO Jeff Zucker himself have directed CNN to pursue Russia leads at the expense of other stories. Bonifield states “And the CEO of CNN said in our internal meeting, he said ‘good job everybody covering the Climate Accords, but we’re done with it let’s get back to Russia.’”
He further comments on Russia, “it’s mostly bullshit right now. Like, we don’t have any giant proof...if it was something really good, it’d leak.”
Van Jones: Russia is “Nothing burger”– American Pravda: CNN Part 2
Published on Jun 28, 2017 by veritasvisuals
Project Veritas’ American Pravda: CNN continues today with a video of left-leaning political commentator Van Jones caught on camera plainly stating that “the Russia thing is just a big nothing burger.”
Much ado about nothing (burger)
Van Jones says the ambush video of him done by notorious provocateur James O'Keefe is a hoax Jones says he thinks it's unlikely Trump will be forced from office over the Russia investigation but that doesn't mean he thinks there's nothing there By Van Jones June 29, 2017 http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/29/opinions/much-ado-about-nothing-burger-van-jones/index.html [with embedded video, and comments], https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JUMSBEvQho [for the moment at least, an available unofficial YouTube of the embedded video; with comment]
CNN Producer: Voters "Stupid as Sh*t"– American Pravda: CNN Part 3
Published on Jun 30, 2017 by veritasvisuals
Project Veritas' newest video from the American Pravda: CNN series exposes Jimmy Carr, the Associate Producer for CNN's New Day attacking President Donald Trump and admitting that CNN has a left-leaning bias.
When asked by an undercover journalist if CNN is impartial, Carr plainly responded, "In theory."
Here’s What Trump’s Latest Failure Tells Us About His Business Empire
AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Toronto Star-Michael Stuparyk
A once-promising Trump deal left a trail of angry investors and a struggling hotel.
By Russ Choma Jun. 27, 2017 4:52 PM
Toronto has had enough of Donald Trump. After more than a decade of drama, Trump’s name is being stripped from a 65-story hotel and condo building in downtown Toronto, following years of financial failure and lawsuits. In the end, the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Toronto has become yet another symbol of the flaws of the Trump business empire: construction setbacks, strange financing, angry investors, and empty hotel rooms.
Trump first made his move into Canada at the height of his Apprentice deal-making fame, inking an agreement to attach his name—and reputation—to a shiny new Toronto tower, in which he had no ownership interest. When the building opened five years ago, Trump kicked off the project with a bit of promotion that looks a lot like the PR strategy he would employ as a candidate and as president: a tweet with a dramatic video of his plane landing and a black motorcade of SUVs rolling into the hotel’s entrance, where an adoring crowd waited.
In the 2012 video—after a montage of the future commander-in-chief examining bathrooms and piles of merchandise set to jazzy trumpet music—Trump took the podium and declared, “About eight years ago I began this voyage, and it turned out to be a beautiful voyage, because the end result is this spectacular building.”
Trump spent years promoting the property as a total success and an extension of his brand. His original partners in the project were two Russian-Canadian businessmen, neither of whom had any experience with building a skyscraper. As the building went up, construction delays and other problems—including pieces of the building falling off [ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/glass-falls-from-trump-tower/article5306888/ ]—set the project back.
The building was to be financed through a scheme—used in other Trump projects, such as the Trump Soho in New York City—in which investors bought individual units and signed an agreement allowing them to be rented out through the Trump-managed hotel. In return for providing money upfront for the construction, these owners would enjoy a slice of the profits when their rooms were filled by hotel customers.
The majority of the Toronto building’s units remained unsold. (Some investors who had bought units prior to construction later backed out after the 2008 economic crisis.) Trump’s partners then turned to another source of financing. One of those partners, Alexander Shnaider, owned a stake in a Ukrainian steel mill; he sold it in 2010 and used some of the estimated $850 million in proceeds to prop up the Trump Toronto project. The buyer at the other end of the Ukrainian steel mill deal? A Russian state-owned bank known to have close ties to Vladimir Putin and now on the list of financial institutions under sanction by the US government. (In May, the Wall Street Journal reported [ https://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-state-run-bank-financed-deal-involving-trump-hotel-partner-1495031708 ] that this deal has become a subject of interest for US investigators probing Trump’s potential connections with Russia.)
The extra financing, though, wasn’t enough, and the building remained troubled. This past November, shortly after the US election, Trump’s Canadian partners lost control of the building [ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-26/trump-hotel-in-toronto-nears-auction-after-default-by-developer ]. It was the new owner, JCF Capital, that announced Tuesday that it was cutting ties with the Trump Organization. Given the building’s checkered history and the hotel’s struggle to succeed under Trump management, such a move made sense. Since Trump’s election, protesters in Toronto have homed in on the property as the target of their ire. Recent searches of hotel booking websites show rooms there being offered at steep discounts.
According to Bloomberg, JCF Capital may have paid as much as $6 million [ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-27/trump-hotel-owner-in-toronto-reaches-deal-to-remove-trump-brand ] to ditch the Trump name. But Trump will lose a valuable revenue stream. According to the three personal financial disclosures he has filed since first announcing his candidacy, Trump has earned more than half a million dollars per year for the last three years in management fees, though he reported that his fees had fallen in the past year. (Trump’s adult sons have assumed daily control of the Trump Organization, but Trump still retains near complete ownership of the business and almost all its assets.)
Last week, Mother Jones reported [ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/06/trump-condos-price-cuts/ ] that Trump condo sales seem to be slumping, with large cuts in the listing prices for several prominent Trump-owned units in New York City. The removal of his name from the troubled hotel in Toronto is another sign that his new job—while certainly creating new business opportunities for him and his family—has posed its own set of complications.
GOP lawmaker loses nearly $17 million after pharma stock tanks 92% Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y. Innate Immunotherapeutics 5-day performance. • Shares of Innate Immunotherapeutics tanked 92 percent to 5 Australian cents on Tuesday, after it reported a midstage trial for a multiple sclerosis drug failed. • GOP congressman Chris Collins, a member of a subcommittee overseeing health policy, is its biggest shareholder and suffered a paper loss of $16.7 million. • The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating Collins' role as an Innate investor and his impact in attracting investors, according to the Buffalo News. 27 Jun 2017 http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/27/gop-rep-chris-collins-loses-17-million-after-pharma-stock-tanks-92-percent.html
Rep. Collins loses $17 million in biotech stock 06/27/2017 Updated 06/27/2017 The stock value of the Australian biotech firm Rep. Chris Collins championed to fellow lawmakers plummeted on Tuesday, costing the New York Republican $17 million as investigators continue probing his relationship with the firm. Innate Immunotherapeutic shares dropped more than 90 percent on Tuesday to 5 cents when markets closed in Australia. The tumultuous fall of the company's stock followed an announcement that the firm's star pharmaceutical drug for multiple sclerosis failed to pass clinical trials. Collins’ relationship with the company has raised eyebrows in recent months. And the Office of Congressional Ethics is currently investigating [ http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/16/chris-collins-ethics-investments-238462 ] whether Collins engaged in insider trading. The longtime President Donald Trump supporter allegedly tipped off a number of lawmakers and Buffalo-area leaders to invest in the company, which sold Collins' political acquaintances discounted shares that soared after their investments. Collins, who is the company’s largest shareholder and sits on the firm’s board, had also helped craft legislation to speed clinical trials, which would theoretically benefit Innate. The Collins stock controversy almost sank ex-Rep. Tom Price’s nomination to lead the Health and Human Services Department after it was reported that the Georgia Republican and former Budget chairman had invested in Innate as well. Price sold his shares earlier this year for $250,000, after an initial $94,000 investment. Collins in a statement Tuesday said that he was disappointed in the news but “hopeful that someday we can find a treatment for this the terrible disease of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.” “After 14 years of hard work, substantial investment and dramatic progress, it is obvious that we have more to do,” he said. “For those that invested in Innate including me, we all were sophisticated investors who were aware of the inherent risk.” [...] According to financial disclosure forms, Collins is worth upwards of $40 million — or at least he was before the Innate stock plummeted. It is unclear how much lawmakers who invested in the company have lost overall. Collins had recruited Reps. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Billy Long (R-Mo.), Mike Conaway (R-Texas) and Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) to invest money in the company. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/27/chris-collins-innate-immunotherapeutic-stock-loss-240013 [with comments]
House Republicans backed this biotech — and lost big. Its stock is now worth 4 cents a share Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican, talked up the promise of Innate Immunotherapeutics at every turn. https://www.statnews.com/2017/06/27/innate-chris-collins/ [no comments yet]
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Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort files as foreign agent for Ukraine work Then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort listens to Ivanka Trump speak at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 21, 2016. June 27, 2017 A consulting firm led by Paul Manafort, who chaired Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for several months last year, retroactively filed forms Tuesday showing that his firm received $17.1 million over two years from a political party that dominated Ukraine before its leader fled to Russia in 2014. Manafort disclosed the total payments his firm received between 2012 and 2014 in a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing late Tuesday that was submitted to the U.S. Justice Department. The report makes Manafort the second former senior Trump adviser to acknowledge the need to disclose work for foreign interests. Manafort is one of a number of Trump associates whose campaign activities are being scrutinized by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of a probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller’s team has been consolidating inquiries into matters unrelated to the election. Michael Flynn, the former White House national security adviser, filed a disclosure in March saying he had provided assistance during 2016 to Turkish businessman active in that country’s politics. Manafort and a former associate in his consulting business, Richard Gates, who also worked for the Trump campaign, disclosed their lobbying campaign on behalf of Ukraine’s Party of Regions in an 87-page document which described the gross receipts the firm received and some details of efforts undertaken to influence U.S. policy toward Ukraine. The filing shows the firm spent nearly $4 million to advance the party’s interests through polling and local salaries in Ukraine, activity that does not ordinarily require U.S. disclosure. The filing does not show how much Manafort made personally in Ukraine or how much his firm netted after expenses. As part of the filing, Manafort disclosed he met in 2013 with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, an outspoken California Republican known for advocating closer ties between the U.S. and the Kremlin. Disclosure is required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) from anyone advocating in the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government or political party. The rules were part of legislation passed in 1938 to counter German propagandists operating in the United States before the start of World War II. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-trump-campaign-chairman-paul-manafort-files-as-foreign-agent-for-ukraine-work/2017/06/27/8322b6ac-5b7b-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html [with embedded video, and comments]
Manafort registers as foreign agent 06/27/2017 The firm headed by Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, made more than $17 million working as a foreign agent of a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party, according to newly filed disclosure reports. Trump forced Manafort to step down from his campaign last year after The Associated Press reported [ https://apnews.com/c01989a47ee5421593ba1b301ec07813/ap-sources-manafort-tied-undisclosed-foreign-lobbying ] that Manafort and another Trump campaign official, Rick Gates, had secretly helped the Ukrainian Party of Regions steer money to two Washington lobbying firms through a nonprofit. [...] http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/27/manafort-foreign-agent-ukraine-240027 [with comments]
Trump Campaign Chief’s Firm Got $17 Million From Pro-Russia Party Paul Manafort on the stage at the Republican National Convention in 2016. JUNE 27, 2017 Paul Manafort, who was forced out as President Trump’s campaign chairman last summer after five months of infighting and criticism about his business dealings with pro-Russian interests, disclosed Tuesday that his consulting firm had received more than $17 million over two years from a Ukrainian political party with links to the Kremlin. The filing serves as a retroactive admission that Mr. Manafort performed work in the United States on behalf of a foreign power — Ukraine’s Party of Regions — without disclosing it at the time, as required by law. The Party of Regions is the political base of former President Viktor F. Yanukovych, who fled to Russia during a popular uprising in 2014. The disclosure hints at the vast fortunes available to top American political consultants plying their trade in other countries. It was not immediately clear if Mr. Manafort would be required to pay any fines for the late filing. He has maintained that a majority of his work for Mr. Yanukovych was political consulting in Ukraine, where his firm, Davis Manafort International, operated an office at the time. The Party of Regions employed Mr. Manafort to help rebrand Mr. Yanukovych and his party, which was long known as tilting toward Russia, as modernizers favoring closer ties to the European Union. All the work disclosed by Mr. Manafort on Tuesday predated Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. Mr. Manafort’s filing indicates that he was retained by the Party of Regions to help elect national and regional candidates in Ukraine and to liaise with American diplomats in Kiev, the capital, who were monitoring elections there. “Paul’s primary focus was always directed at domestic Ukrainian political campaign work, and that is reflected in today’s filing,” said Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Mr. Manafort. But the documents acknowledge that part of his firm’s job was to advise Ukrainian officials in their dealings with American government officials in the United States. The work also included counseling the European Center for a Modern Ukraine, a nonprofit group that once included members of Mr. Yanukovych’s party. Mr. Manafort’s deputy, Richard Gates, reportedly also oversaw a lobbying campaign in Washington to burnish Ukraine’s image there. But Mr. Manafort has denied that he or Mr. Gates had any formal role in the lobbying campaign, which a spokesman said was managed and paid for by the European Center for a Modern Ukraine. Tuesday’s filing acknowledges one contact with an American official in the United States: a March 2013 meeting with Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, who is known for his pro-Russian views. The filing also contains details about various contractors, both from the United States and from Ukraine, whom Mr. Manafort employed for the Party of Regions. Mr. Manafort paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a firm co-owned by a Republican pollster, Tony Fabrizio, who would later work on Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. Over a two-year period, the firm billed the Party of Regions for more than $2 million in travel and living expenses. Additionally, the documents show regular payments by Mr. Manafort’s firm to Konstantin V. Kilimnik, who served as the manager of its Kiev office. The filings do not cover the entire period Mr. Manafort worked in Ukraine. Last summer, The New York Times reported [ https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/us/politics/paul-manafort-ukraine-donald-trump.html ] that handwritten ledgers kept by the Party of Regions showed $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Mr. Manafort’s firm from 2007 to 2012. [...] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/us/politics/trump-campaign-chiefs-firm-got-17-million-from-pro-russia-party.html [with comments]
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Massive Ransomware Attack Hits Ukraine; Experts Say It's Spreading Globally A message demanding money is seen on a terminal monitor at a branch of Ukraine's state-owned Oschadbank after Ukrainian institutions were hit by a wave of cyberattacks earlier Tuesday in Kiev, Ukraine. June 27, 2017 Updated June 27, 2017 Ransomware hit at least six countries Tuesday, including Ukraine, where it was blamed for a large and coordinated attack on key parts of the nation's infrastructure, from government agencies and electric grids to stores and banks. The malware has been called "Petya" — but there is debate in the security community over whether the ransomware is new or a variant that has been enhanced to make it harder to stop. In either case, it appears to be spreading globally, raising fears it might rival another widespread attack — the WannaCry outbreak [ http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/15/528451534/wannacry-ransomware-what-we-know-monday ] that struck in May. The Maersk shipping company [ https://twitter.com/Maersk/status/879689865184636928 ], based in Denmark, confirmed that its "IT systems are down across multiple sites and business units due to a cyber attack." And pharmaceutical giant Merck tweeted [ https://twitter.com/Merck/status/879716775021170689 ] that its "computer network was compromised today as part of global hack." In the U.S., Department of Homeland Security spokesman Scott McConnell says the agency is "monitoring reports of cyber attacks affecting multiple global entities and is coordinating with our international and domestic cyber partners." Any requests for help from DHS are confidential, McConnell says. Interpol says it is also "closely monitoring [ https://twitter.com/INTERPOL_HQ/status/879762608290746370 ]" the suspected attack. Computers hit by the malware display a locked screen that demands a payment to retrieve files. The malware promises to provide a specialized key to users who pay a ransom of $300 in bitcoins — the same ploy used by the WannaCry ransomware [ http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/15/528451534/wannacry-ransomware-what-we-know-monday ], which affected computers in more than 150 countries. WannaCry was based on exploits stolen from the National Security Agency — including a program called EternalBlue, which exploited a Microsoft vulnerability. Petya reportedly shares some of WannaCry's traits — but while computers that had gotten a security patch were safe from WannaCry, Petya can also infect patched machines. Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, says Petya uses other exploits [ https://twitter.com/mikko/status/879742221326721028 ] to spread in internal systems. "That's why patched systems can get hit." Signs that this is a new strain led Kaspersky Lab malware analyst Vyacheslav Zakorzhevsky [ https://threatpost.com/second-global-ransomware-outbreak-under-way/126549/ ] to say the outbreak comes from a "new ransomware we haven't seen before." For this reason, Kaspersky announced in a statement [ https://twitter.com/kaspersky/status/879799576730972160 ] it would be coining a new name for the ransomware: "ExPetr." "The company's telemetry data indicates around 2,000 attacked users so far," its statement continued, noting Ukraine and Russia appear to be the most affected. But "we have also registered hits in Poland, Italy, the UK, Germany, France, the US and several other countries." Kaspersky is an NPR funder. [...] Ukraine's security experts are working to fix the problem, according to the government portal. Until the issue is resolved, the government said, Ukrainians should simply turn off their computers. While the malware's most concentrated effects were reported in Ukraine, several companies and at least one utility in Russia were also reportedly affected. From Moscow, NPR's Lucian Kim reports, "Ukraine has blamed Russia for cyberattacks in the past, a charge Moscow denies. A number of Russian companies, including the state oil giant Rosneft, have also reported suffering cyberattacks today." The attack struck at 2 p.m. local time, Ukraine's government says. The country's National Bank was among the first to report a problem. In Russia, the malware hit companies such as Mars, Nivea and Mondelez International, according to the Tass news agency [ http://tass.com/world/953528 ]. Anton Gerashchenko, a lawmaker and adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, says he believes that despite its appearance as a ransomware hack, the attack is actually the work of Russian agents waging a type of hybrid warfare to try to destabilize Ukraine. The malware was delivered in emails that had been created to resemble business correspondence, Gerashchenko said on his Facebook page [ https://www.facebook.com/anton.gerashchenko.7/posts/1415938421826334 ]. He added that the attack took days and likely weeks to stage before being activated. http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/27/534560169/large-cyberattack-hits-ukraine-snarling-electric-grids-and-airports
Bill Would Bar Pentagon From Business With Russian Cyber Firm Kaspersky [original title "FBI Interviews Employees of Russia-Linked Cyber Security Firm Kaspersky Lab"] An employee walks behind a glass wall at Kaspersky headquarters in Moscow, October 2016. Jun 28 2017 A provision in a Senate spending bill that is likely to become law would bar the Defense Department from doing business with Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber-security company whose employees were interviewed at their homes this week by FBI agents. The Congressional action comes amid mounting concerns about the Moscow-based company, which sells anti-virus software across the world to consumers, businesses and government agencies, including some elements of the U.S. government. In recent months, U.S. intelligence officials have expressed concerns that the company is a security risk, without specifying the basis of those concerns. Last month, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked the chiefs of the NSA, Central Intelligence Agency, FBI and three other intelligence agencies during a hearing whether they would be comfortable using Kaspersky products. Each said no. "The ties between Kaspersky Lab and the Kremlin are very alarming," said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who authored the provision in the defense spending bill. "This has led to a consensus in Congress and among administration officials that Kaspersky Lab cannot be trusted to protect critical infrastructure, particularly computer systems vital to our nation’s security." FBI agents on Tuesday paid visits to at least a dozen employees of Kaspersky, asking questions about the company’s operations as part of a counter-intelligence inquiry, multiple sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. In a classic FBI investigative tactic, agents visited the homes of the employees at the end of the work day at multiple locations on both the east and west coasts, the sources said. There is no indication at this time that the inquiry is part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion. Kaspersky has long been of interest to the U.S. government. Its cyber-security software is widely used in the United States, and its billionaire owner, Eugene Kaspersky, has close ties to some Russian intelligence figures, according to U.S. officials. He graduated in 1987 [ https://www.wired.com/2012/07/ff_kaspersky/ ] from the Soviet KGB-backed Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications, and Computer Science. Kaspersky Lab paid former national security adviser Michael Flynn $11,250 in 2015 for cyber-security consulting, according to public documents, but that was not a focus of the FBI questioning, multiple sources said. FBI agents told employees they were not in trouble, and that the bureau was merely gathering facts about how Kaspersky works, including to what extent the U.S. operations ultimately report to Moscow. Kaspersky sells cyber-security software to businesses and the government in the U.S., although intelligence officials have warned for years that the company has ties to Russia. Kaspersky Lab has sought to raise its American profile with corporate sponsorships, including of National Public Radio. "I wouldn't put their stuff on my computer if you paid me," said a former senior U.S. intelligence official. [...] http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-interviews-employees-russia-linked-cyber-security-firm-kaspersky-lab-n777571
Roger Stone set to testify next month in House Russia probe Roger Stone predicted last summer on Twitter that there would be an October surprise that would disrupt Hillary Clinton’s campaign. [ http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/27/politics/roger-stone-house-intelligence-committee-testimony/ ] 06/27/2017 Updated 06/28/2017 Longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone is set to appear July 24 before the House Intelligence Committee, which is examining contacts between Russia and the Trump presidential campaign, according to Stone’s attorney. The hearing will be closed, said Stone’s lawyer, Robert Buschel. He said his client had asked for a public hearing on Capitol Hill to address his communications last year with Moscow-linked hackers and WikiLeaks, which published personal emails stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. “We tried really hard,” Buschel said, adding that he was told by the GOP-led House panel, “They’re done with public.” Podesta testified Tuesday before the committee. As he left his interview, Podesta was asked if the Obama administration had done enough to counter Russia’s election interference. “I think they were trying to make the best judgments they could on behalf of the American people,” he said. [...] http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/27/roger-stone-russia-probe-240022 [with comments]
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Infowars Nightly News LIVE - CNN Caught Lying To The People
Streamed live on Jun 27, 2017 by The Alex Jones Channel
Chris Murphy: Senate health care bill was a 'dumpster fire'
All In with Chris Hayes 6/27/17
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy also called the Republican health care bill 'like a rotting fish' following the news that the vote would be delayed. Duration: 4:17
Fake Trump Time Magazine cover hangs at Mar-a-Lago
All In with Chris Hayes 6/27/17
In five of President Donald Trump's fancy clubs around the country, there hangs a framed Time Magazine cover from 2009 featuring Trump. It's a photoshopped fake. Duration: 1:16
Despite cries of fake news by the Trump administration, the Russia investigation is not going away. Congressman Eric Swalwell of the House Intelligence Committee weighs in. Duration: 4:37
Thing 1/Thing 2: Republican Congressman Chris Collins reportedly took a nearly $17 million hit as the stock for Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian pharmaceutical company he sits on the board of and is the largest investor in, bottomed out. Duration: 2:25
Rachel Maddow relays reports that former Donald Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort has filed retroactively as an agent of a foreign government, the second top Trump aide to do so. Duration: 13:55
Deutsche Bank adds lawyer with financial crime background
The Rachel Maddow Show 6/27/17
Rachel Maddow reports that Deutsche Bank, at the center of a lot of questions about its business practices and loans made to both Donald Trump and Jared Kushner, has hired a new lawyer with a background in tax crimes and money laundering. Duration: 6:15
Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, talks with Rachel Maddow about progress in the Trump Russia investigation and the path forward, including processing 2000 pages of financial evidence with more on the way. Duration: 11:34
Victorious activists stay vigilant for next GOP health bill
The Rachel Maddow Show 6/27/17
Senator Cory Booker talks with Rachel Maddow about the public activism that contributed to the Republican failure to pass their health/tax plan and why it's too soon for opponents of the Republican bill to celebrate. Duration: 9:08
Rachel Maddow looks at continued activism against Republican dismantling of health benefits even as Senate Republicans have failed in their first effort to bring a bill of their own. Duration: 2:32
Sen. McConnell delayed a vote on the Senate GOP health care bill after 9 senators come out against it. But Lawrence O'Donnell explains the real reason Sen. McConnell pulled the bill: that the real number against the bill was probably higher – a lot higher. Duration: 11:02
George Will: GOP asked to walk the plank with health care bill
The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell 6/27/17
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will explains how Republicans will always lose the health care fight in the post-Obamacare world. Now, Will argues, the country expects health care as a right – and Republicans have been forced to work in the framework. Duration: 5:51
Republicans retreat on health care delaying Senate vote
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 6/27/17
Pres. Trump brought Senate Republicans to the White House for a meeting after those lawmakers killed their planned vote on health care before the July 4th holiday. Robert Costa, Philip Rucker, and Erica Werner discuss. Duration: 12:47
Reporter who blasted White House's 'fake news' attacks sounds off
The 11th Hour with Brian Williams 6/27/17
Reporter Brian Karem who took on Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the White House briefing room, joins along with reporter Anita Kumar to talk The Trump White House's relationship with the press. Duration: 8:28
this is part 11 of a 17-part post which proceeds (point arising on the given) day by (point arising on the given) day from June 17, 2017 through July 3, 2017 -- the preceding part is the post to which this is a reply; the next part is a reply to this post -- the following 'see also (linked in)' listing, updated for intervening posts along the way, is common to all 17 parts
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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (any future other) following, see also (linked in):
Rollback of Clean Power Plan rule by EPA Administrator Pruitt won't happen overnight
"E.P.A. Official Pressured Scientist on Congressional Testimony, Emails Show"
Ledyard King, USATODAY Published 4:09 p.m. ET Oct. 9, 2017
VIDEO Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt said Monday he'll sign a proposed rule to withdraw the Clean Power Plan. Video provided by Newsy Newslook
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration's move to start dismantling the Clean Power Plan rule intended to curb carbon emissions that contribute to global warming will not be a quick process.
Proposing a rule to undo a regulation takes the same time-consuming, pain-staking, research-based, legally-defensible process used to adopt the very rule targeted for elimination.
"Today’s proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan just begins the battle," David Doniger, a climate change expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council, wrote in a blog .. https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-doniger/trumps-dirty-power-plan-another-repeal-replace-scam .. Monday. "Pruitt’s EPA must hold hearings and take public comment, and issue a final repeal — with or without a possible replacement. He must respond to all legal, scientific, and economic objections raised, including the issues we lay out here."
And then, Doniger said, "we will take Pruitt and his Dirty Power Plan to court."
Rolling back the rule was a major plank of President Trump's campaign last year.
He told friendly crowds in coal-producing states that lifting carbon restrictions would not only keep energy costs affordable but also help revitalize the coal industry and the communities economically ravaged by environmental regulations.
- "When you think about the clean power plan it wasn't about regulating to make things regular. It was truly about regulating to pick winners and losers and they interpreted the best system of emission reduction is generating electricity not using fossil fuels. Rule of law matters. Because rule of law is something that allows you to know what is expected of you. When you have a regulation passed inconsistent with the statute (it) creates uncertainty. That's what happened with the past administration. We're getting back to the basics of focusing on rule of law and acting on the authority that Congress has given us." -
Aimed squarely at coal-fired power plants, the regulation requires existing power plants to cut harmful emissions compared to 2005 levels. By 2030, the reduction would be 32% for carbon, 90% for sulfur dioxide and 72% for nitrogen oxides.
The rule was developed over years to cut “significant amounts of power plant carbon pollution and the pollutants that cause the soot and smog that harm health, while advancing clean energy innovation, development and deployment, and laying the foundation for the long-term strategy needed to tackle the threat of climate change," according to an explanation from Obama's EPA Web site.
Obama officials also touted the rule as key to protecting public health “because carbon pollution comes packaged with other dangerous air pollutants.” Having the rule in place, it says, would prevent 3,600 premature deaths, 1,700 heart attacks, 90,000 asthma attacks and 300,000 missed work days and school days each year.
“This is a reckless retreat that will hurt our children and grandchildren," said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, echoing environmental activists and public health advocates.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt plans file a proposed rule Tuesday to undo the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. (Photo: Susan Walsh, AP)
Obama officials depicted the rule as one that gives states and utilities “ample flexibility and the time needed to achieve these pollution cuts ... while expanding the capacity for zero- and low-emitting power sources.”
But opponents do not see it that way.
States are suing because they contend Washington does not have the authority to enact such a sweeping measure that they said would lead to higher electricity costs and reduced reliability of the nation’s power grid.
When the rule was implemented in 2015, New Jersey Commissioner of Environmental Protection Bob Martin called the rule “unprecedented regulatory overreach (that was) uncommonly cumbersome, difficult and costly to implement, could undermine reliability, and would yield insufficient results.”
Paul Bailey, president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, applauded the president earlier this year when he signed an executive order directing the EPA to begin the process of reviewing and rescinding the controversial rule.
“The Clean Power Plan is the poster child for regulations that are unnecessarily expensive and would have no meaningful environmental benefit," Bailey said. "We look forward to working with EPA Administrator Pruitt to develop sensible policies that protect the environment without shutting down more coal-fueled power plants, one of our most resilient and affordable sources of electricity.”
Environmentalists have vowed to do what they can to block Pruitt's rollback.
- We must continue to make the case for lowering carbon pollution from power plants and accelerating the transition to clean energy, and put Pruitt’s EPA through the wringer for abandoning this key tool. At the same time, we must push for actions by states, cities, businesses, and others to accelerate the transition to clean energy, regardless of what EPA ultimately does. And finally, one hopes that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which still has jurisdiction over this case, sees through this gambit and does its job—decide this legal dispute once and for all, the sooner, the better. -
EPA officials say the proposed repeal will be conducted in a "robust, open, and transparent way, presenting a wide range of analysis scenarios to the public."
Liz Bowman, a spokeswoman for the agency, said any rule the administration proposes "will be done carefully and properly within the confines of the law.”
Harvey, Irma and global warming. We have to talk. The Editorial Board, USA TODAY Published 6:42 p.m. ET Sept. 13, 2017 | Updated 5:04 p.m. ET Sept. 14, 2017 [...] This is no time to discuss climate change and deadly hurricanes, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt argued to CNN last week. Such a conversation would be "insensitive" to hurricane victims, he explained.
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