Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
President Donald Trump on Friday urged Republican senators on the fence about voting for the Graham-Cassidy healthcare legislation to not be the "Republican who saved Obamacare," zeroing in on Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. "Rand Paul, or whoever votes against Hcare Bill, will forever be known as 'the Republican who saved ObamaCare,'" Trump tweeted.
Republicans in Congress have not given up on altering our health care system, and the White House is prepared to go along for the ride. Unfortunately, the new bill, led by Reps.
The squeeze is on Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trump's campaign who has become a major target of special counsel Robert Mueller's aggressive investigation. The latest details from the Washington Post describe email evidence that Manafort offered "private briefings" about the Trump campaign to a Kremlin-backed billionaire.
Time growing short, President Donald Trump and Republican Senate leaders dove into a frantic hunt for votes Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to repeal and replace "Obamacare." The pressure was intense, the outcome uncertain in a Capitol newly engulfed in drama over health care.
But in a startling reversal of fortune over the last week, Republicans lawmakers have resuscitated a new effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. The bill in question, Graham-Cassidy, named for its co-sponsors Sen. Lindsey Graham and Rep. Bill Cassidy, has earned the White House's backing, and received tacit support on Tuesday from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday praised the revived Republican effort to uproot former President Barack Obama's health care law, giving a public boost to a proposal that's given new life to a drive that seemed all but dead weeks ago. McConnell, R-Ky., said the bill would let states "implement better health care ideas by taking more decision-making power out of Washington" and letting local officials decide what "works better in their own particular states."
The last time anyone paid much attention to the Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act was when it was failing on the Senate floor in late July. That was the end of the end, we were told.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday praised the revived Republican effort to uproot former President Barack Obama's health care law, giving a public boost to a proposal that's given new life to a drive that seemed all but dead earlier this summer. McConnell, R-Ky., said the bill would let states "implement better health care ideas by taking more decision-making power out of Washington."
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he wants to ban states from setting up a government-run healthcare system in a GOP bill to overhaul Obamacare that would allow states to set up their healthcare systems. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he wants to ban states from setting up a government-run healthcare system in a GOP bill to overhaul Obamacare that would allow states to set up their healthcare systems.
In this July 13, 2017, file photo, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., left, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., right, talk while walking to a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington. Senate Republicans are planning a final, uphill push to erase President Barack Obama's health care law.
In recent weeks I read more about the high heels that Melania Trump wore on a trip to Texas than I did about the positive developments in a war that was at the center of the foreign-policy debate in last year's presidential election. In that debate, you may recall, Donald Trump went against most of the candidates from his own party in welcoming the Russian military into the war against ISIS as an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Republicans spooked world markets in their ardor to cut spending when Democrat Barack Obama occupied the White House. Now, with a GOP president pressing for politically popular tax cuts and billions more for the military, few in the GOP are complaining about the nation's soaring debt.
Republicans have been searching for eight months now to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. That effort effectively died on the floor of the Senate in July when the party couldn't get 51 votes do little more than punt the serious health care policy questions to a conference committee.
After threatening to scuttle all amendments on a massive defense policy bill, Sen. Rand Paul is likely to secure a vote on ending the war authorizations the US military uses to fight terrorism across the globe. Paul's office announced he would get a vote Wednesday on the Kentucky Republican's amendment that would repeal the 2001 and 2002 war authorizations after six months, giving Congress time to pass a new Authorization for Use of Military Force for the wars against Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban.
As the Senate on Thursday easily approved $15.25 billion to bolster the federal disaster response to Hurricane Harvey, GOP lawmakers gritted their teeth over provisions added to the bill with the blessing of President Donald Trump which would extend the federal debt limit for three months, and provide for the funding of government operations until December 8. "It's unfortunate, they ought to be separate votes," said Rep. Joe Barton , who predicted he would not be the only Texan on Friday to oppose the Harvey aid bill in the House, all because of the deal that President Trump struck with Democrats, and forced on GOP leaders.
Senate Republicans have almost doubled the size of the disaster relief package for Harvey to more than $15 billion, a first installment to help communities in Texas rebuild from the storm - and stock reserves for looming damage from Hurricane Irma. The must-do legislation, paired with a short-term increase in the government's borrowing authority and a temporary government funding bill, is on track to pass the Senate as early as Thursday.
One of the more curious trends of the 2016 election campaign was the tendency among many young libertarians to jump onto the Donald Trump bandwagon. As Salon's Heather Digby Parton recently discussed , some more conscientious libertarians have begun to confront this problem directly.
To the casual observer, it certainly seems like the Republican Party is in an identity crisis. After years of consensus and sweeping the 2016 national elections on the promise of repeal and replace of Obamacare, Republicans in a stunning 11th-hour failure failed to pass even the so-called "skinny" repeal.
A leader of the GOP's non-interventionist wing says it's a "terrible idea" to send any more American troops to Afghanistan. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky issued a statement ahead of a prime-time address by President Donald Trump to unveil his updated Afghanistan policy.