Gov. Chris Christie appears to have given up on his ‘fairness formula,’ though not the broader goal of revamping how New Jersey distributes school aid. Christie has called since last June to equalize per-pupil school aid across all districts, rather than give additional aid to districts with higher levels of poverty and homes where English isn’t the main language.
Category: Social Security
Trump throws down a huge challenge to the tea party
President Trump has thrown down a major challenge for the tea party and its congressional bloc, known as the Freedom Caucus. He is proposing to Congress a massive budget-busting plan that increases military spending by a whopping $54 billion, slashes domestic programs, and leaves Social Security and Medicare intact.
Trump looks to reset his presidency, again, with speech to Congress
Donald Trump will use his first prime-time address to Congress Tuesday to refocus his presidency on series of policy priorities, including the economy and health care, and away from the infighting and allegations of corruption that have plagued his young administration. In the speech whose theme is dubbed the “renewal of the American spirit,” Trump will tout his campaign promises and offer a vision for the country in a more optimistic tone than he did at his inaugural address , after weeks of taking credit, often without merit, for the surge in the stock market and creating jobs, his aides say.
Paul Ryan: ‘We are hosed’ if we don’t tackle entitlements like Medicare
President Donald Trump ran on a vow to not cut benefits for Medicare, but House Speaker Paul Ryan said he thinks that is still an “open question.” “From all my conversations with the President, he says ‘I don’t want to change Medicare benefits for people in or near retirement,’ and we agree with that,” the Wisconsin Republican told reporters in his Capitol suite Tuesday morning.
Trump on Hook to Clarify Policies With Speech to Congress
Lawmakers, investors and the American public want President Donald Trump to provide some much-desired clarity on his policy agenda with his first address to Congress on Tuesday. Six weeks into his presidency, Trump is under increasing pressure to answer core questions about how he’ll deliver on his promises to bring fundamental change to U.S. health-care policy, the tax system, defense spending and immigration.
AP sources: Trump to propose boosting defense spending
The White House will propose boosting defense spending and slashing funding for longtime Republican targets like the Environmental Protection Agency in a set of marching orders to agencies as it prepares its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. President Donald Trump’s proposal for the 2018 budget year, which will be sent to agencies Monday, won’t make significant changes to Social Security or Medicare, according to an administration official.
AP Sources: White House To Propose Boosting Defense Spending
The White House will propose boosting defense spending and slashing funding for longtime Republican targets like the Environmental Protection Agency in a set of marching orders to agencies as it prepares its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. President Donald Trump’s proposal for the 2018 budget year, which will be sent to agencies Monday, won’t make significant changes to Social Security or Medicare, according to an administration official.
TERRELL: The need for strong immigration laws
The system is broken regardless of your side of the equation. The United States is a sovereign nation and has an obligation first to its lawful citizenry.
AARP seeks to protect Medicare
AARP has launched a campaign to protect Medicare in the face of proposals by some in Congress that would hurt West Virginians who have paid into the program their entire working lives, AARP officials said in a news release. Congressional proposals to change Medicare into a voucher system would dramatically increase health care costs and risks for current and future retirees, AARP said.
Phoenix woman deported, activists arrested blocking ICE van
With other immigrant rights activists, Walt Emrys Staton , director of pastoral care and justice ministries at the UU Congregation in Phoenix, blocks an ICE van holding Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos. She was deported; Staton and six other activists were arrested.
The Left Needs to Assess the Implications of the Flynn Scandal
Many so-called progressives are stoked that Trump’s National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, resigned charges surrounding his discussions with a Russian ambassador while Trump was president-elect. Congressional Democrats want to use this to go after Trump.
Congress quietly working to undo Obama-era regulations Updated at
While President Donald Trump’s daily activities continue to consume much of the nation’s attention, Congress has quietly launched a legislating spree at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Bernie Sanders: Trump is a ‘fraud’ for cozying up to Wall Street
Sen. Bernie Sanders blasted President Trump as a “fraud” for embracing Wall Street insiders and chiseling away at post-financial crisis protections. “It is hard not to laugh to see President Trump alongside these Wall Street guys,” Sanders told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday .”
Nation-Now 33 mins ago 11:54 a.m.New documents show Pres. Trump retains direct tie to businesses
New documents confirm that President Donald Trump retains a direct tie to his business interests through a revocable trust now being overseen by one of his adult sons and a longtime executive of the Trump Organization. Trump is the sole beneficiary of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which is tied to his Social Security number as the taxpayer identification number, according to documents published online by the investigative nonprofit ProPublica.
Congress scraps Obama rules on coal mining, guns
The Republican-controlled Congress on Thursday scrapped Obama-era rules on the environment and guns, counting on a new ally in the White House to help reverse years of what the GOP calls excessive regulation. The Senate gave final approval to a measure eliminating a rule to prevent coal mining debris from being dumped into nearby streams, while the House backed a separate resolution doing away with extended background checks for gun purchases by some Social Security recipients with mental disabilities.
House Rolls Back Rule Restricting Gun Sales to Severely Mentally Ill
The Republican-led House voted Thursday to repeal an Obama-era Social Security Administration regulation to keep people with severe mental illnesses from buying guns. “The Social Security Administration not only overstepped its mission with this regulation, it discriminated against certain Americans with disabilities who receive Social Security benefits.
House GOP aims to scrap Obama rule on gun background checks
The Republican-controlled House on Thursday took its first steps toward strengthening gun ownership under President Donald Trump, moving to scrap a regulation that provides background checks for disabled Social Security recipients mentally incapable of managing their own affairs. The regulation, issued in the final months of President Barack Obama’s term, is one of a handful congressional Republicans are rolling back, knowing they have a new ally in the White House.
81 Years of Social Security’s Maximum Taxable Earnings in 1 Chart
Social Security income is vital to the financial well-being of a majority of seniors during retirement. Data from the Social Security Administration shows that better than three in five retired workers rely on their Social Security benefits for at least half of their monthly income during retirement.
Veronique de Rugy: The Greatest Debt Producer That God Ever Created?
Libertarians and conservatives are skeptical of the government’s ability to do anything well. But there’s one thing the government excels at producing: debt.
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The assertion that Trump lost the popular vote because of alleged illegal voting appears to be part of a developing pattern for the new administration in which falsehoods overshadow outreach efforts. President Donald Trump holds the most powerful office in the world.
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Rep. Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s staunchly conservative choice to lead the White House budget office, is headed before a Senate panel whose members will probe for clues on the new administration’s plans… Rep. Mick Mulvaney, President Donald Trump’s staunchly conservative choice to lead the White House budget office, says Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid need significant changes to be preserved for future generations The assertion that Trump lost the popular vote because of alleged illegal voting appears to be part of a developing pattern for the new administration in which falsehoods overshadow outreach efforts.
Trump to inherit $559B deficit, stable economy
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump has inherited a stable economy and a government that is on track to run a $559 billion budget deficit for the year, congressional analysts said Tuesday. The estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office say the economy will hold relatively steady, with economic growth rising slightly to 2.3 percent this year and unemployment averaging less than 5 percent for the duration of Trump’s term.
Bernie Sanders Said America Is Not a Compassionate Country. The Numbers Say He’s Right.
“No we are not a compassionate society,” Sen. Sanders interjected during Tom Price’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday as he pointed to the rate of child poverty and to the fact that so many “older workers have nothing set aside for retirement.” On Wednesday, Bernie Sanders had his chance to question Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
National View: Economic brinkmanship
On March 4, 1933, at the bottom of the worst financial and economic crisis to afflict the United States since the Civil War, Franklin D. Roosevelt took office as president. Two days later, Roosevelt acted to stanch the collapse by suspending gold payments, imposing a four-day “bank holiday” and arranging emergency assistance for banks when they reopened.
Thoughts on the Affordable Care Act: To repeal or not to repeal (f
In this March 23, 2010. file photo, President Barack Obama signs the health care bill in the East Room of the White House in Washington.
FBI Release Information In Suspect In 1999 Child Abduction, Molestation
Federal authorities say a man charged in the 1999 abduction and sexual assault of a Seymour girl assumed the identity of a car crash victim as he avoided arrest until this week in Oregon. He had been living under the name of an Indiana boy who had been killed in a car accident in 1975.
Welcome to Psychopathocracy
We are now on the brink of a new form of government, undreamed of by Aristotle, who spoke of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. We are headed to a psychopathocracy, which has something in common with the degraded form of classical regime types that Aristotle warned against .
Vern Buchanan to head Ways and Means investigative subcommittee
The watchdog panel has investigative authority over issues like health care, the IRS, taxes, Social Security and Medicare, which all fall under the full committee’s jurisdiction. “I look forward to chairing this important watchdog panel that will monitor government’s largest federal agencies and programs,” Buchanan said in a statement.
Bernie Sanders enlists extra-large Trump tweet for senate fight – CNET
Donald Trump ‘s tweeting was a big topic over the past year, especially since he became the president elect. Now, his tweets have literally entered the political arena.
Bernie Sanders Holds Donald Trump Accountable For His Health Care…
On Wednesday, Bernie Sanders pulled an amazing move when he presented the senate floor with a massive printout of a 2015 tweet Donald sent promising not to cut funding for medicare and medicaid. In case you weren’t following, the Senate is currently in the process of debating whether or not to repeal Obamacare, so the savage exposA couldn’t come at a better time.
Loebsack Statement on Being Sworn in at the Beginning of the 115th Congress
Congressman Dave Loebsack released the following statement today on the gaveling in of the new 115th Congress. Loebsack also comments on the House Republicans’ efforts to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics in their first act of the new Congress.
Republicans primed for push to dismantle Obama’s policies
Members of the 115th Congress will be sworn in at noon Tuesday, setting off an aggressive campaign by Republicans who control the House and Senate to dismantle eight years of President Barack Obama’s Democratic policies. The first and biggest target is Obama’s signature health care law, which Republicans have long sought to gut and blamed as a primary cause for a economic recovery.
Republicans primed for push to dismantle Obama’s policies WASHINGTON…
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Tangled in fraud probe, 100s face loss of disability checks
Donna Dye saw the coal truck come barreling over the horizon. Her head started spinning with that familiar, desperate urge to end it all.
Tangled in fraud probe, 100s face loss of disability checks
Donna Dye saw the coal truck come barreling over the horizon. Her head started spinning with that familiar, desperate urge to end it all.
Column: Populism, real and phony
Authoritarians with an animus against ethnic minorities are on the march across the Western world. They control governments in Hungary and Poland, and will soon take power in the United States.
What the U.S. can learn from Norway about retirement
During his first TV debate with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders remarked: “We should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.” Clinton didn’t buy it.
Lest We Forget, Clinton Wanted to Privatize Social Security
The collapse of the liberal media into a miasma of identity politics and guilt trips is fascinating to watch. After having been laid for a killer trip for how my support for Jill Stein is going to bring about the return of back-alley abortion, I think I have a bit of a right to just point out yet again that Hillary Clinton, if elected, wanted to put my parents in the poorhouse by privatizing their Social Security.
Trump names Rep. Mick Mulvaney, a fiscal hawk, to head budget office
President-elect Donald Trump has named Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., as his director of the Office of Management and Budget, signaling his intent to slash spending and address the deficit as president. Mulvaney, 49, was elected to Congress in 2010 in the wave that brought a cohort of younger, staunchly conservative members into the House.
Congress ushers in new era of all-Republican rule
Congress ushers in a new era of all-Republican rule. On Tuesday at noon, with plenty of pomp and pageantry, members of the 115th Congress will be sworn in, with an emboldened GOP intent on unraveling eight years of President Barack Obama’s Democratic agenda and targeting massive legacy programs from Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson such as Social Security and Medicare.