Society The Donald J. Trump Show - 4 more years editions

Welcome to our Community
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Feel free to Sign Up today.
Sign up
Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,589
McConnell to Trump: We're not repealing and replacing ObamaCare
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told President Trump in a conversation Monday that the Senate will not be moving comprehensive health care legislation before the 2020 election, despite the president asking Senate Republicans to do that in a meeting last week.

McConnell said he made clear to the president that Senate Republicans will work on bills to keep down the cost of health care, but that they will not work on a comprehensive package to replace the Affordable Care Act, which the Trump administration is trying to strike down in court.

ADVERTISEMENT
“We had a good conversation yesterday afternoon and I pointed out to him the Senate Republicans’ view on dealing with comprehensive health care reform with a Democratic House of Representatives,” McConnell told reporters Tuesday, describing his conversation with Trump.

“I was fine with Sen. Alexander and Sen. Grassley working on prescription drug pricing and other issues that are not a comprehensive effort to revisit the issue that we had the opportunity to address in the last Congress and were unable to do so,” he said, referring to Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and the failed GOP effort in 2017 to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

“I made clear to him that we were not going to be doing that in the Senate,” McConnell said he told the president. “He did say, as he later tweeted, that he accepted that and he would be developing a plan that he would take to the American people during the 2020 campaign.”

After getting the message from McConnell, Trump tweeted Monday night that he no longer expected Congress to pass legislation to replace ObamaCare and still protect people with pre-existing medical conditions, the herculean task he laid before Senate Republicans at a lunch meeting last week.

“The Republicans are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare," Trump wrote Monday night in a series of tweets after speaking to McConnell. "In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House.”

Trump blindsided GOP senators when he told them at last week's lunch meeting that he wanted Republicans to craft legislation to replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

The only heads-up they got was a tweet from Trump shortly before the meeting, saying, “The Republican Party will become ‘The Party of Healthcare!'”

The declaration drew swift pushback from Republicans like Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), who said the administration’s efforts to invalidate the entire law were “a mistake.”

Other Republicans, including Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), said they wanted to first see a health care plan from the White House.

Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) on Tuesday said the chances of getting comprehensive legislation passed while Democrats control the House are very slim.

“It’s going to be a really heavy lift to get anything through Congress this year given the political dynamics that we’re dealing with in the House and the Senate,” he said. “The best-laid plans and best of intentions with regard to an overhaul of the health care system in this country run into the wall of reality that it’s going to be very hard to get a Democrat House and a Republican Senate to agree on something."
Click to expand...
Trump Retreats on Health Care After McConnell Warns It Won’t Happen
President Trump backed off plans to introduce a Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act after Senator Mitch McConnell privately warned him that the Senate would not revisit health care in a comprehensive way before the November 2020 elections.

Reversing himself in the face of Republican consternation, Mr. Trump said his party would not produce a health care plan of its own, as he had promised, until after the elections, meaning he will only try to fulfill his first-term promise to repeal and replace his predecessor’s signature program if he wins a second term.

The president’s abrupt about-face, announced on Twitter on Monday night after talking with Mr. McConnell, all but ensured that health care will take a central place in next year’s campaign, elevating an issue Democrats consider one of their strengths. But it may take the legislative heat off Republicans exasperated by Mr. Trump’s unexpected push to devise a wholesale replacement for President Barack Obama’s health law in the coming months.

“I made it clear to him that we were not going to be doing that in the Senate,” Mr. McConnell, the majority leader from Kentucky, said on Tuesday. “He did say, as he later tweeted, that he accepted that and that he would be developing a plan that he would take to the American people during the 2020 campaign.”

The president’s last attempt to replace Mr. Obama’s health care program blew up in 2017 when his party controlled both houses of Congress. Democrats seized the House in last year’s midterm elections in part on a promise to defend the most popular parts of the Affordable Care Act, so when Mr. Trump revived the issue last week, it distressed Republicans who consider it a political liability.

Mr. Trump had surprised allies by ordering his administration to ask a federal court to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act and then promised a Republican replacement. Democrats, consumer groups, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies have said that 20 million people could lose health coverage if courts accept the administration’s argument.

Mr. McConnell said he spoke with Mr. Trump on Monday afternoon to explain that the Senate would not return to the issue in a broad way before the next election. “I pointed out to him the Senate Republicans’ view on dealing with comprehensive health care reform with a Democratic House of Representatives,” Mr. McConnell said.

But if that warning was meant to quiet the president, it did not work. Hours later, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, “The Republicans are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare.”

“In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare,” he said in a string of three tweets posted Monday night. “Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House.”


At 71, She’s Never Felt Pain or Anxiety. Now Scientists Know Why.

It’s Possible Leggings Are the Future. Deal With It.

The Startlingly Flavorful Dressing That Will Boost More Than Just Your Salads
Democrats jumped at the opening.

“Last night the president tweeted that they will come up with their plan in 2021,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said at a rally in front of the Supreme Court. “Translation: they have no health care plan. It’s the same old song they’ve been singing. They’re for repeal. They have no replace.”

Mr. Trump appeared to be gambling that he could turn the tables on an issue that has long favored Democrats by portraying them as increasingly extreme. Even as party liberals, including some presidential candidates, embrace the idea of “Medicare for all,” Republicans have used it to accuse Democrats of favoring a socialist, government-run health care system that would close down all private insurers.

“I see what the Democrats are doing; it’s a disaster what they’re planning and everyone knows it,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday at the White House. “You’re going to lose 180 million people under their private insurance.”

Wary of such attacks, the Democratic congressional leadership has played down a single-payer system run by the government and advanced incremental measures to shore up the health care law and lower prescription drug prices.

Many Republicans in Congress were happy to assail Medicare for all but not enthusiastic about ditching Mr. Obama’s program without a ready replacement. No plan of their own could pass the House, but it would invariably require policy choices that Democrats could attack.
Click to expand...
 
Freeloading Rusty

Freeloading Rusty

Here comes Rover, sniffin’ at your ass
Jan 11, 2016
26,916
26,589
A Chinese Woman Carrying Four Cell Phones And Malware Was Arrested At Trump's Mar-A-Lago Resort
The woman, identified as Yujing Zhang, was charged with unlawfully gaining access to Trump's Palm Beach resort and lying to federal agents.


A Chinese woman carrying four cell phones and a thumb drive containing malware was arrested and charged with unlawfully entering President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and lying to federal agents, according to a complaint filed Monday.

Yujing Zhang was permitted onto the Palm Beach resort grounds Saturday, March 30, passing through multiple checkpoints, restricted access warning signs, and federal law enforcement officials after telling a US Secret Service agent that she was going to the swimming pool.

ADVERTISEMENT

During the incident, a protective zone around the resort grounds had been established for Trump's weekend visit. The president was at the estate at the time of the incident.

According to the complaint, Zhang, who is in her 30s, arrived at the first checkpoint in a parking lot across the street from Mar-a-Lago around 12:15 p.m. and presented the agent with two People's Republic of China passports with her name and photograph, according to the charging documents and the Secret Service.

The agent then provided Zhang's information to the resort security to verify whether she was listed on the club's access list, according to the complaint. When Mar-a-Lago security was unable to locate Zhang's name on the list, they called the beach club manager who informed them that Zhang was the last name of a member at the club.

Zhang was asked whether the member, referred to in the documents as "HZ," was her father, "but she did not give a definitive answer," according to the documents.

ADVERTISEMENT

"Due to a potential language barrier issue, Mar-a-Lago believed her to be the relative of member Zhang and allowed her access onto the property," a Secret Service agent said in an affidavit.


Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump host Caribbean leaders at the Mar-a-Lago estate.

Zhang was then allowed to pass by additional Secret Service agents and another checkpoint, according to the documents. She eventually was transported by a resort valet driver to the main lobby area where she informed a receptionist that she was there for "a United Nations Chinese American Association event."

No such event was listed on the schedule, so the receptionist checked whether Zhang was listed on any of the resort's access lists and confirmed that she was not authorized to be on the property.

Secret Service agents then detained Zhang for further questioning. During their investigation, officials located a total of four cell phones, one laptop computer, one external hard drive, and one thumb drive with malicious software in Zhang's possession, according to the complaint.

Zhang told federal agents that her Chinese friend "Charles" told her to travel from Shanghai to Mar-a-Lago to attempt to speak with a member of the Trump family about Chinese and American foreign economic relations. Agents were unable to identify "Charles," who Zhang claimed to only be in contact with on the Chinese-based messaging app WeChat.



"Had Zhang not falsely portrayed herself as a club member seeking to visit the pool, and instead advised she was there to attend the non-existent ‘United Nations Friendship Event’ between China and the United States, her access would have declined by U.S. Secret Service at the preliminary inspection point," the affidavit read. No swimming apparel was found in Zhang’s possession, it said.

In a statement Tuesday evening, the Secret Service said Mar-a-Lago — not the Secret Service — determines who is invited or welcome at the resort.

"This access does not afford an individual proximity to the President or other Secret Service protectees," the statement said.

The law enforcement agency said that agents took "immediate action" to arrest Zhang after reception staff determined she should not have been authorized access to the resort grounds.

The unlawful entry by Zhang is the latest in a string of security issues that have arisen at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort since he took office.

Despite the added security at the Palm Beach club, law enforcement officials have responded to several reports of people trespassing and arriving at the resort wanting to meet with the president.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom