Senate Democrats’ delaying tactics on President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees are fueled by nothing more than rancor over losing the election, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell charged Tuesday. The Kentucky Republican’s blast came in response to Democrats’ boycott of committee votes Tuesday on Treasury Secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin and Health and Human Services Secretary nominee, Georgia Rep. Tom Price – as well as filibustering over Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions’s nomination as attorney general, The Hill reported .
Category: Tom Price
Democrats boycott markup of key Trump picks
Senate Democrats on Tuesday boycotted a critical markup of President Donald Trump’s nominations to lead the Treasury and Health and Human Services departments, leaving a senior GOP leader aghast and saying there is “no excuse” for “this type of crap.” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican, and fellow GOP members said it was unprecedented and “shocking” for Democrats to skip the planned roll calls on Steve Mnuchin for Treasury and Rep. Tom Price at HHS.
GOP pushing Price, Sessions, DeVos a step toward Senate OK
Republicans are muscling more of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees to the cusp of Senate confirmation over Democratic objections, with committees poised to advance his picks to head agencies in the thick of partisan battles over health care, legal protections, education and the economy. Senate panels were expected Tuesday to advance Trump’s picks of Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to be health secretary; Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., to be attorney general; wealthy conservative activist Betsy DeVos to head the Education Department and Steve Mnuchin to lead Treasury.
Obamacare final open enrollment period closing
Obamacare entered its final hours of open enrollment – perhaps its last ever – under a cloud of uncertainty this week, as President Trump did little to prop up the program he’s now tasked with administering. His administration yanked $5 million in radio and television ads meant to entice last-minute enrollees just ahead of the Tuesday deadline to sign up for coverage on the health exchanges in 2017.
Sunday Toons of the Orwellian Moment
Scientists warn of nukes, climate change and Trump. So do we. Also: Bannon tells press to ‘keep its mouth shut’ and still more dangerous ‘voter fraud’ bufoonery from the Liar-in-Chief… It begins: Trump re-launches controversial pipelines, imposes lock downs on science- based federal agencies; PLUS: New US Amb.
Codger column: Marching orders
Yet there he was last Saturday, stepping along toward Trump Tower with 500,000 like-minded citizens including his wife, Crone, and their pals from North Cartwright Road, Valerie and Marty Levenstein. Since the new president had already been inaugurated the day before, this was about reminding him, his appointees and other elected officials that there were issues we were concerned about and for which we would hold them accountable.
Senate confirms Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the UN
In this Jan. 18, 2017 file photo, UN Ambassador-designate, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has overwhelmingly approved Haley’s nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
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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.
Senate panel approves Ben Carson for HUD job
Health and Human Services Secretary-designate, Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., left, arrives with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, center, and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday before the start of his confirmation hearing before the committee. The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee has unanimously approved President Donald Trump’s nominee for housing secretary, Ben Carson.
Senate committee raises more red flags on Tom Price
Tom Price, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, can’t seem to shake off ethics questions. On the eve of Price’s second confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, Senate Finance Committee staff released a bipartisan memo to lawmakers disclosing several red flags that were raised in the course of reviewing the congressman’s tax returns and financial disclosure statements.
Nikki Haley Easily Confirmed as UN Ambassador
The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Nikki Haley as ambassador to the United Nations, making her the fourth member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to be approved even as Republicans and Democrats battle angrily over the pace of confirmations. Republicans are upset at what they complain is a deliberate effort by Democrats to slow walk approval of Trump’s top government executives and argue the GOP was much more cooperative when President Barack Obama got seven Cabinet members confirmed on the day he was sworn in back in 2009.
Rep. Collins: Trump Setting Tone With Executive Orders
LEGISLATIVE BODIES WORK IN A DIFFERENT PACE SO I’M SO HAPPY TO SEE OUR PRESIDENT DOING WHAT HE CAN DO ON EXECUTIVE ORDERS RIGHT NOW. WE CAN CATCH UP.
Trump Adviser Kellyanne Conway Says Obamacare – Penalty’ Will End
Kellyanne Conway, a key adviser to President Donald Trump, said the new administration plans to end the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most people have health insurance, a step that could destabilize the law’s markets. Conway, in an interview airing Sunday on NBC News’ “Sunday Today With Willie Geist,” appeared to indicate that the law’s requirement that most employers offer coverage to their full-time workers would also end.
President Trump’s ACA executive order appears to target Obamacare mandate
President Trump’s sweeping order against Obamacare late Friday appears to give the new administration enough leeway to target the most unpopular aspect of his predecessor’s law – a mandate requiring Americans to get covered or pay a fine, policy analysts said. The executive order, issued hours after Mr. Trump was sworn into office, also sets the stage for selling insurance across state lines and eyes “greater flexibility to states” in implementing health programs, which are key tenets for Republicans looking to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act alongside Mr. Trump.
Our Opinion: Different paths to poor choices
Federal cabinet positions are really no place for amateurs and/or those whose special interests may be counter to the best interests of the country at large. The Donald Trump cabinet contains examples of both, and the effort of friendly Republican congressmen to hasten them through hearings last week couldn’t disguise this.
Company that HHS pick invested in faced criminal penalty
A medical device company in which Rep. Tom Price purchased stock last year has faced years of legal problems and agreed this month to a $17 million Justice Department criminal penalty in a foreign bribery case. Democrats this week challenged the Georgia Republican, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for health secretary, on his investments and potential conflict of interest.
Doctors for Patient Freedom to Confer Ed Annis Award on Jane Orient, M.D.
Doctors for Patient Freedom will be recognizing the achievements of Dr. Jane Orient at the upcoming meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, Jan 27, 2017. “Congressman Tom Price, M.D., and Ben Carson, M.D., have previously received the Ed Annis Medical Freedom Award, which recognizes leaders who have fought for medical freedom,” states David McKalip, M.D., founder of Doctors for Patient Freedom.
Company that Trump HHS pick invested in faced criminal fine
A medical device company in which Rep. Tom Price purchased stock last year has faced years of legal problems and agreed in December to a $17 million Justice Department criminal penalty in a foreign bribery case. Democrats this week challenged the Georgia Republican, who is President-elect Donald Trump ‘s pick for health secretary, on his investments and potential conflict of interest.
Planned Parenthood could be first casualty of Obamacare repeal efforts
A fierce battle over the future of reproductive rights is now underway in Washington as congressional Republicans made the first move last week to slash funding for Planned Parenthood. In starting to roll back the Affordable Care Act, the GOP is also planning to target the country’s largest women’s health-care provider.
Pointed questions await Trumpa s pick for health secretary
By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press WASHINGTON – With coverage for millions of people at stake, Rep. Tom Price is facing pointed questions about President-elect Donald Trump’s health policies – and his own investments in health care companies – from senators considering his selection as health secretary.
Seth Meyers shreds Trump on Obamacare: ‘He talks about policy like…
Meyers mocked Trump’s interview with The Washington Post , in which he said the plan is “very much formulated down to the final strokes.” But he refuses to release the plan until the Senate confirms Tom Price, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services .
Trump promises his Obamacare replacement plan will cover all, report says
President-elect Donald Trump is putting the finishing touches on an Obamacare replacement plan that aims to provide “insurance for all,” he told The Washington Post. Also, he will demand that drug companies negotiate directly with Medicare and Medicaid and lower their prices, saying they will no longer be “politically protected.”
Jobs White People Won’t do:
It’s been a rough day for Donald Trump’s appointees. Earlier on Monday, Monica Crowley said she will not take a communications job at the National Security Council amid a plagiarism scandal.
Trump lays down marker to judge his health care plan: Coverage ‘for everybody’
President-elect Donald Trump said, “I don’t want single-payer. What I do want is to be able to take care of people.”
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Attorneys generals from six states, including New York’s Eric Schneiderman, have sent a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general. Attorneys generals from six states, including New York’s Eric Schneiderman, have sent a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general.
Cancer survivor who once opposed federal health law challenges Ryan on its repeal
The distance between healthpolicy ideology and life-or-death health care narrowed to a few feet at a nationally televised town hall meeting this week when a small-business man from Arizona stood up and faced House Speaker Paul Ryan. “Just like you, I was a Republican,” Jeff Jeans began.
‘This experiment has failed’: House charts course to repeal health law
The House cleared the way Friday for speedy action to repeal the Affordable Care Act, putting Congress on track to undo the most significant health care law in a half-century. With a near party-line vote of 227-198, the House overcame the opposition of Democrats and the anxieties of some Republicans to approve a budget blueprint that allows Republicans to end major provisions of President Barack Obama’s health care law without the threat of a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.
Obamacare drama at Senate vote-a-rama
Senate Republicans are poised to take the first step to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law by approving a budget blueprint that they’ve dubbed the Obamacare “repeal resolution.” The largely symbolic exercise — set to begin Wednesday evening and possibly stretching into the wee hours of Thursday — is ripe for theater.
GOP concerns about deficits, debt disappear in Trump era
” For decades, congressional Republicans have pushed to slash the budget and reduce the size of the federal government, especially during the eight years Democratic President Barack Obama was in office. Now that Republican President-elect Donald Trump is poised to take charge, deficits and debt just don’t seem to matter to the GOP.
Trump’s HHS pick faces calls for probe of stock trades
” President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the nation’s top health official is facing calls for investigation of whether his stock picks were guided by insider knowledge as a senior member of Congress. Georgia Republican congressman Tom Price was chosen by Trump partly for of his plan to repeal “Obamacare.”
GOP Should – Show Their Cards’ on Obamacare Redo, Obama Says
U.S. President Barack Obama holds a year-end press conference in the White House in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 16, 2016. Republicans should “show their cards” with a better Obamacare replacement before taking steps to repeal the law, President Barack Obama said in an interview on his signature health program.
No. 2 Senate Republican: Obamacare won’t be replaced all at once
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said Thursday Republicans won’t offer a comprehensive bill to replace Obamacare, saying instead that the GOP will try to enact individual health care measures. So instead, top Republicans are looking at a mix of smaller bills that could attract bipartisan support in Congress and executive actions that could be pursued by President-elect Donald Trump and Rep. Tom Price if he’s confirmed as Health and Humans Services secretary.
Dems want probe of Trump Cabinet pick over stock sales
Top Senate Democrats said Thursday that the House ethics office should investigate whether stock sales by a congressman who is now one of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks broke any laws. The Democrats cited a Wall Street Journal report last month that Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., had traded over $300,000 worth of shares in health care companies over the past four years while pushing legislation that might affect those stocks’ values.
GOP Senator outlines Obamacare provisions on chopping block
With Republicans looking to make immediate progress on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act this month — and Democrats rallying on Capitol Hill Wednesday to try to preserve it — Sen. Bill Cassidy said American voters who favor repeal of the law have particular provisions in mind, and aren’t necessarily talking about the whole law. “Really we have to, if you will, differentiate between Obamacare — the penalties, the mandates, you gotta do this or the federal government is coming after you — and the other things that were in the bill that were put in there because it was a vehicle,” Cassidy said during the debut of CBSN’s new daily political show “Red and Blue.”
Democrats target eight Cabinet nominees, threaten to drag out process
Senate Democrats are vowing to stall action on eight of Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees tasked with carrying out his economic, law enforcement and regulatory agenda, a senior Democratic aide told CNN Monday. Those targeted include secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson, attorney general pick Jeff Sessions and health and human services secretary hopeful Tom Price.
Democrats Will Target 8 of Trump’s Cabinet Picks
Washington Post : “Incoming Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer has told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that Democrats will home in especially on Rex Tillerson, Trump’s choice for secretary of state; Sen. Jeff Sessions , his pick for attorney general; Rep. Mick Mulvaney , tapped to lead the Office of Management and Budget; and Betsy DeVos, selected to serve as education secretary.” “There’s also Rep. Tom Price , Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and oversee changes to Obamacare, who is expected to be attacked by Democrats for his support for privatizing Medicare.
2017 to be year of massive change in Washington
Washington is bracing for a year of breakneck change as President-elect Trump and a new Congress take office with a jam-packed agenda ahead. “Look, I can tell you what I got out of Donald Trump today is, this is a man of action,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan after a post-election meeting.
With Trump’s victory, GOP hopes to overhaul Medicaid
In this Jan. 13, 2015 file photo, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., left, joined by Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., heads to a meeting of House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington. When President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, Republicans will have the opportunity to do something they have desired for years – overhaul Medicaid, the program that provides health care to millions of lower-income and disabled Americans.
Analysis: GOP vexed by factions on replacing health law
Republicans are united on repealing President Barack Obama ‘s health care law, but ideologically and practically speaking, they’re in different camps over replacing it. Getting the factions together won’t be easy.