You don't say......reports are seeming to indicate that the White House is in full panic mode right now. They had Flynn dead to rights on charges as serious as attempted kidnapping and espionage. If he was given a deal, he had BIG fish to hand over. Traitors, the whole lot of them. I'll now predict Pence goes down as well. This is finally going to make Watergate look like that "third-rate burglary".
Meanwhile, the GOP will use this traitorous Administration and this story to pass a tax bill no one has read. Let them forever be tarred with this subversion of democracy as well. Did anyone think Trump was trying to protect Flynn from Comey for ANY other reason beyond self-presevation??
Tom Steyer, ultra-wealthy Democrat donor, really needs to quit whipping up impeachment furor. Not only will a Republican-controlled Congress not impeach a sitting President from their own party (without extremely good reasons) but if the House is still controlled by Republicans in 2020 and a Democrat wins the White House they might drum up some flimsy reason to impeach that President as payback. Impeachment should be for proven, serious transgressions rather than because you simply don't like someone.
Ty Cobb, just labeled Flynn as "a former Obama administration official"
I was wondering how the WH was going to spin it. Thanks Obama!
Obama personally warned Trump not to hire Flynn during the transition. He went out of his way to try save him from this. So did Sally Yates after he was already in office:
Tom Steyer, ultra-wealthy Democrat donor, really needs to quit whipping up impeachment furor. Not only will a Republican-controlled Congress not impeach a sitting President from their own party (without extremely good reasons) but if the House is still controlled by Republicans in 2020 and a Democrat wins the White House they might drum up some flimsy reason to impeach that President as payback. Impeachment should be for proven, serious transgressions rather than because you simply don't like someone.
Oh, we'll be getting there at this rate. And I wouldn't call this flimsy anymore. Personally I never did, but nearly everyone else was of that assumption. This is still just the beginning. Flynn has the goods on everyone. Trump, Kushner, Don Jr., Pence.....just watch. It will boggle the mind:
If that last part is true, that means they were directly undermining the lawful Obama Administration while they were still in office, and doing so on purpose, in regards to sanctions. They had no legal authority to be conducting foreign policy as in incoming Administration until Donald Trump took the Oath of Office on January 20th. We have one President at a time.
Can we all agree as a basic principle that a bill of this scope should be, at a bare minimum, LEGIBLE?? If this was a book report, any teacher worth their salt would throw it in the trash and give the student an F for being so sloppy and lazy. Call me a crazy leftist if you like, but maybe, JUST MAYBE, we should be writing bills that don't require a handwriting expert. This is how I sign my receipts at the checkout counter, not how to make decisions about trillions of dollars. We are so far through the looking-glass right now it isn't even funny. The entire government is being run by incompetent sociopaths. And again, this is what John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski consider a "return to regular order". The equivalent of a third-grader scribbling in their notebook. And I don't want to hear about the Obamacare bill. There was TWENTY-FIVE days of Senate debate on the Obamacare bill.
I find it more disturbing that this bill came into existence less than 3 hours before the vote. Three days wouldn't be enough time to properly consider a major tax bill, much less 3 hours. I'd be surprised if 3 weeks was enough time to evaluate all the necessary facts.
I find it more disturbing that this bill came into existence less than 3 hours before the vote. Three days wouldn't be enough time to properly consider a major tax bill, much less 3 hours. I'd be surprised if 3 weeks was enough time to evaluate all the necessary facts.
It might as well be 3 minutes considering what has been going on. As a matter of fact, they might as well not even bother wasting the money on the paper to print it out. Maybe we should conduct the vote by telepathy. There is apparently a late addition to the bill being argued right now that gives a tax break to ONE specific college in Michigan whose biggest donor is the DeVos family. There are literally entire sections of the bill that simply have a big "X" drawn over them with a pen. Democrats just introduced a provision that added permanent middle-class tax cuts to the bill a few minutes ago. It was dismissed out of hand by the Republicans.
Somehow I knew when I heard about Flynn this thread would be on fire. Considering the media's reaction to these things, which is always to beat the drums of dramatic "we got em this time" hype, it's understandable. Yet we're again left with nothing related to the original claims or Mueller's mission, nothing related to election activities, nothing related to "colluding with Russia", a misleading statement or omission. Where are the big charges? There is nothing, and to me this proves it yet again. If there were something here, we'd have it after all this time. ABC initially reported that Trump directed Flynn to contact the Russians while he was a candidate and that actually caused a stir and even affected markets. ABC *now* reports that he did so during the transition, which is a totally normal diplomatic move. Woops. I was promised treasonous collusion with Russia to steal an election, not diplomatic groundwork by an incoming admin. If charges of false or misleading statements and no evidence of the underlying crimes originally supposed to be investigated is all we get, i'm in doubt as to the worth or relevance of it all. An obstruction charge is what you do when you can't get them on something real.
So Republicans are locking out Democrats and working with lobbyists behind closed doors on the tax giveaway. Tax payers had better remember this Friday night massacre in 2018 and vote these clowns out of office. Republicans are selling out everyone to give tax cuts to people who don't need it. Disgusting.
Re: flynn He only got charged with lying to the FBI because he is cooperating with Muellers investigation. Judge Napolitano on Fakes News says he was facing 60 years so he must REALLY be cooperating to only be facing that one charge.
He only got charged with lying to the FBI because he is cooperating with Muellers investigation.
Yep, and I think the lesson here is that you simply don't talk to the feds for any reason. Libertarians may be mocked for their "Am I being detained" meme, but they don't get booked for false statements.
I heard that he faced up to 6 months in prison actually, that is if he goes at all.
He only got charged with lying to the FBI because he is cooperating with Muellers investigation.
Yep, and I think the lesson here is that you simply don't talk to the feds for any reason. Libertarians may be mocked for their "Am I being detained" meme, but they don't get booked for false statements.
I heard that he faced up to 6 months in prison actually, that is if he goes at all.
Sound advice, but it doesn't work for government employees like Flynn. People like Trump, when he operated outside the government, could get away with that and run scam universities and the like but when your job has you required to make statements to the FBI and Congress it's another ball of wax. You can just do your best Jeff Sessions and "I don't recall where I was ten seconds ago" shtick but that can only take you so far. Among other things they had Flynn on tape because they were taping the russians and lo and behold here's flynn on the other line. And then when he goes in front of Congress and the FBI and is like "what Russians? I have no idea!" it doesn't work.
I wonder why Trump hasn't started handing out pardons yet. "Lying to the FBI" is clearly a Federal crime. Perhaps he missed his window of opportunity or he is waiting to see if the other shoe drops. Incidentally, how good is the security detail for Flynn?
@Mathsorcerer you are not going to believe this. The Trump Administration is considering turning over spying and rendition duties to a private company, which is bad enough. But guess what?? The company is located in......Whitefish, Montana:
According to Google Maps, this international house of espionage is located right behind a realty office, and across the street from a Pilates studio and a nail salon. Neither US location has so much as a phone number listed on the website. A Google search for the Fairfax, VA location listed on the site doesn't turn up anything, nor does Google Maps know where it is, because it turns up in the middle of the road. The website itself is strikingly similar in design to the last one, if a bit more fleshed out (but not by much).
Sounds mysterious. They must be really good at spying!
That article scares me.
"CIA Director Mike Pompeo has publicly promised that the agency would become “much more vicious” and aggressive."
The CIA, which has TOPPLED GOVERNMENTS needs to be "more vicious and aggressive"?
Apparently 2 heads of this Amyntor group are a guy who tried to get Saddam Hussein to provoke a war with us, and a guy involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. Great people here, the bestest.
And I didn't know the founder of Blackwater private security is BROTHER to Betsy DeVos.
My, my, my, the ultra-conservatives are a figuratively inbred lot.
I wonder why Trump hasn't started handing out pardons yet. "Lying to the FBI" is clearly a Federal crime. Perhaps he missed his window of opportunity or he is waiting to see if the other shoe drops. Incidentally, how good is the security detail for Flynn?
I believe if he pardons it an admission of guilt and you can't plead the fifth anymore. Plus, then Mueller would put other charges on him that aren't pardoned.
Somehow I knew when I heard about Flynn this thread would be on fire. Considering the media's reaction to these things, which is always to beat the drums of dramatic "we got em this time" hype, it's understandable. Yet we're again left with nothing related to the original claims or Mueller's mission, nothing related to election activities, nothing related to "colluding with Russia", a misleading statement or omission. Where are the big charges? There is nothing, and to me this proves it yet again. If there were something here, we'd have it after all this time. ABC initially reported that Trump directed Flynn to contact the Russians while he was a candidate and that actually caused a stir and even affected markets. ABC *now* reports that he did so during the transition, which is a totally normal diplomatic move. Woops. I was promised treasonous collusion with Russia to steal an election, not diplomatic groundwork by an incoming admin. If charges of false or misleading statements and no evidence of the underlying crimes originally supposed to be investigated is all we get, i'm in doubt as to the worth or relevance of it all. An obstruction charge is what you do when you can't get them on something real.
Trump and Flynn had no authority to conduct any diplomatic negotiations during the transition. Obama was the President of the United States. Once again, the goalposts are moving from stadium to stadium. Instead of people admitting that something is quite obviously going on (since the entire Administration has been lying left and right for the past twelve months) we've now entered the "lying to the FBI isn't that big of a deal" phase of the excuses. Mueller had charges on Flynn that went WELL beyond lying to the FBI. Lying to the FBI is what he gets for cooperating. And if you think the Special Counsel is handing this gift out to Flynn for free, you're going to be sorely mistaken. There are only 4 or 5 fish big enough for Flynn to be providing dirt on: Kushner, Don Jr., Pence and Trump himself.
A foreign policy advisor has plead guilty to lying to the FBI and flipped. Trump's campaign manager has been indicted on money laundering charges. His National Security Advisor has now plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts. Would anyone care to explain why Trump's entire inner-circle has been repeatedly lying to Federal law enforcement for 11 months?? But yeah, as always, it's those of us who have seen this clearly since the beginning that are crazy and reaching. I've been saying Manfort and Flynn were the key to this for the entire year in this thread. One is now indicted, and the other one has made a deal. Dollars to donuts Kushner has also made false statements to the FBI and Flynn is going to provide evidence of such. So sooner than later, you'll be able add the President's son-in-law to the list.
As for why it's taking so long, Watergate took YEARS to unravel. This isn't a movie. Mueller is building an unbreakable case brick by brick, wherever it leads. And now he has the guy who was with Trump 24/7 on the campaign trail in his back pocket. Again, Flynn didn't skate on being an illegal foreign agent for the Turkish government and trying to organize a kidnapping because he told Mueller's team about someone jaywalking. He only gets that deal if he can net another fish.
So, I woke up, checked the news about the tax bill thing. When I'd gone to bed, last I knew, McConnell said it was going to a vote this afternoon and he had the votes.
Now, no votes, cancelled until 11 a.m. tomorrow.
I chuckled that, this was the first two tabs I'd closed this browser session: "Senate prepares to vote on GOP tax bill" "U.S. Senate Suspends Tax Bill Vote [Video]"
So much yes-no-maybe.
Reading about this rewriting in the last few hours before the (cancelled) vote makes me sad. I did this myself this morning.
Except in my case it was a 9 page 4-person group paper of a hypothetical business plan, not a 400+ page 1000+ person paper covering the collection and distribution of trillions of dollars of real money in real life.
Somehow I knew when I heard about Flynn this thread would be on fire. Considering the media's reaction to these things, which is always to beat the drums of dramatic "we got em this time" hype, it's understandable. Yet we're again left with nothing related to the original claims or Mueller's mission, nothing related to election activities, nothing related to "colluding with Russia", a misleading statement or omission. Where are the big charges? There is nothing, and to me this proves it yet again. If there were something here, we'd have it after all this time. ABC initially reported that Trump directed Flynn to contact the Russians while he was a candidate and that actually caused a stir and even affected markets. ABC *now* reports that he did so during the transition, which is a totally normal diplomatic move. Woops. I was promised treasonous collusion with Russia to steal an election, not diplomatic groundwork by an incoming admin. If charges of false or misleading statements and no evidence of the underlying crimes originally supposed to be investigated is all we get, i'm in doubt as to the worth or relevance of it all. An obstruction charge is what you do when you can't get them on something real.
Trump and Flynn had no authority to conduct any diplomatic negotiations during the transition. Obama was the President of the United States. Once again, the goalposts are moving from stadium to stadium. Instead of people admitting that something is quite obviously going on (since the entire Administration has been lying left and right for the past twelve months) we've now entered the "lying to the FBI isn't that big of a deal" phase of the excuses. Mueller had charges on Flynn that went WELL beyond lying to the FBI. Lying to the FBI is what he gets for cooperating. And if you think the Special Counsel is handing this gift out to Flynn for free, you're going to be sorely mistaken. There are only 4 or 5 fish big enough for Flynn to be providing dirt on: Kushner, Don Jr., Pence and Trump himself.
A foreign policy advisor has plead guilty to lying to the FBI and flipped. Trump's campaign manager has been indicted on money laundering charges. His National Security Advisor has now plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts. Would anyone care to explain why Trump's entire inner-circle has been repeatedly lying to Federal law enforcement for 11 months?? But yeah, as always, it's those of us who have seen this clearly since the beginning that are crazy and reaching. I've been saying Manfort and Flynn were the key to this for the entire year in this thread. One is now indicted, and the other one has made a deal. Dollars to donuts Kushner has also made false statements to the FBI and Flynn is going to provide evidence of such. So sooner than later, you'll be able add the President's son-in-law to the list.
As for why it's taking so long, Watergate took YEARS to unravel. This isn't a movie. Mueller is building an unbreakable case brick by brick, wherever it leads. And now he has the guy who was with Trump 24/7 on the campaign trail in his back pocket. Again, Flynn didn't skate on being an illegal foreign agent for the Turkish government and trying to organize a kidnapping because he told Mueller's team about someone jaywalking. He only gets that deal if he can net another fish.
Two guys that are obviously lying are Kushner and Sessions. Sessions is pulling ridiculous stunts like "I didn't do it - until it came out that I did it, so now I remember that but I don't remember anything else about anything." sounds not legit bro. And Kushner has left gigantic things out of his government forms forgetting about vast sums of money and foreign contacts.
Pence is almost definitely lying as well. Claiming he was as ignorant as a jaybird about Flynn and other officials keck deep in Russia collusion is extremely unlikely - Pence was in charge of the transition for a while. Also, I believe he was served paperwork warning him about Flynn.
So probably those guys are next unless they have enough to jump straight to Trump. Maybe if Trump admits his involvement or resigns they'd go easier or overlook those guys. But it seems unlikely for Trump to admit anything, why start now? Further, he's already flip-flopping on his previous apologies for the Access Hollywood tape and has retaken up the birther conspiracy.
GOP passes the tax bill at just after 2 in the morning on a Friday night, with no debate, and nary a chance for any Senator, much less citizen, to see what is in the bill. What looms now is the conference committe with the House.
By contrast, Obamacare was debated publically for over a year, had 60 hours of mark-ups in the Senate Health Committe, the Finance Committe took 130 amendments, the bill was debated for 25 straight days in the Senate. On top of that, Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on the issue, and held two question and answer sessions with GOP legislators. Both sides don't.
To go over this again: within the decade, if you make less than $100,000/year, your taxes are going up. It includes permanent corporate tax cuts at the expense of deductions such as teachers being able to write off school supplies they buy for students who can't afford them (out of their own pocket). Beyond that, it basically also implemented a mini-version of the "skinny repeal" of Obamacare, and estimates are that 13 million people will lose their health coverage, and premiums will go up at least 10% as a result of the bill. Massive cuts to Medicare. On top of that, the party who has sold themselves as fiscal conservatives just blew a 1.5 trillion dollar hole in the deficit (on purpose) so they can come back a year from now and demand FURTHER cuts to Medicare, and then Social Security. It was being rewritten by K Street lobbyists in the margins of the pages in pen up until a couple hours ago.
From what we've seen, the richest 20 percent of households will reap 90 percent of the benefit of the tax cuts over the next decade time, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
As Bernie Sanders says next we'll watch the deficit explode and Republicans will say we have to cut entitlements - Medicare, Medicaid, and other things that might benefit the average Joe. Instead of reinstating the taxes on the rich that led to the deficits.
The US seems to have a rogue government of Republicans in charge beholden not to the people but to the rich.
From what we've seen, the richest 20 percent of households will reap 90 percent of the benefit of the tax cuts over the next decade time, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
As Bernie Sanders says next we'll watch the deficit explode and Republicans will say we have to cut entitlements - Medicare, Medicaid, and other things that might benefit the average Joe. Instead of reinstating the taxes on the rich that led to the deficits.
The US seems to have a rogue government of Republicans in charge beholden not to the people but to the rich.
Up next, the death of the free internet...
We need to retire the phrase "entitlements" for Medicare and Social Security. They have been turned into pejoratives by the right. We need to call them what they actually are, which is "earned benefits." Don't let whores for right-wing oligarchs control the language anymore.
Nothing else to say, disgusted and disappointed in the country that we are letting these guys run over democracy. And Alabama is going to vote a pedophile in as their senator because Christian values over the Constitution or something.
There is a very simple reason this trickle down bullshit won't help the economy. Businesses don't just hire new workers for the hell of it when they have some extra money laying around. The only reason a business hires workers is if the demand for their product requires those workers. This bill is transferring wealth from the 80% of the population that makes up the lower and middle class who would create the demand for those products and giving it to people who are far less likely to spend it, because they already have everything they need (barring a new sports car or yacht). In 8 years, everyone who makes under $100,000 is going to have between $250-1000 less money to spend every year. Then add in a 10% premium spike in health insurance (for those that still have it). Now multiply that by about 200 million people. You are talking about billions of dollars in lost sales. It is far more likely that jobs will be LOST because companies will not need to produce as much, because there won't be enough money circulating among the vast majority of the country who isn't rich to buy what is being made.
We have already tried this multiple times in the past 35 years, and it has never worked. There were two economic downturns in 10 years under Reagan and Bush Sr. We know what happened in '08 with W. Every single recession of the last 30+ years has occured under Republican leadership. And it's easier to figure out why than anyone realizes. It's because there isn't enough money flowing through the hands of normal, working people, who make up the vast majority of society. Unless you think Wal-Mart and Burger King's clientele is made up of Goldman Sachs executives.
Flake, who got on board with this with future DACA (DREAM act) deals. There will be no such deals, such legislation will die in committee or on the floors.
Flake, who got on board with this with future DACA (DREAM act) deals. There will be no such deals, such legislation will die in committee or on the floors.
Of course there won't be. The same can be said of Murkowski and Collins getting "assurances" for their concerns. No such concerns will be addressed. This bill is not going to get better in the House. If it has a single hiccup, Ryan will simply put the Senate bill on the floor as is and vote for it. At this point the only bet is that members of the Freedom Caucus ACTUALLY care about the 1.5 trillion dollar hole in the deficit this bill creates. I wouldn't hold my breath.
There was a provision to expand the child tax credit introduced last night. All it would have required was raising the corporate tax rate from 20% to 20.94%. Voted down. Also, headlines like THIS are why this both-sides nonsense persists among the American public:
No, the Senate did not do anything. The REPUBLICAN Senate did it. Not a single Democrat voted for the bill. I pointed out the same dynamic in the media earlier in the year when the Republicans, on a strict party-line vote, decided to hand our information over to the telcom companies. Most people only see headlines. This headline implies a pox on both houses. This was also a strict party-line vote, minus Bob Corker. If we have to swallow this, we're least going to have an honest debate about who is responsible for what happens. I know this much. If any conservative voter in this country EVER tells you about fiscal responsibility or spending EVER again, you should laugh in their face, call them a fool, and walk away. Because there is no intellectually honest debate to be had with that person. And if they aren't stopped in 2018, they are going to come to deal the death blow to Medicare (the first wound of which was struck last night) and Social Security. The end-game is a complete destruction of the New Deal.
Comments
Ty Cobb, just labeled Flynn as "a former Obama administration official"
I was wondering how the WH was going to spin it. Thanks Obama!
Trump hired him anyway. In spite of his Russian connections or probably because of them.
You don't say......reports are seeming to indicate that the White House is in full panic mode right now. They had Flynn dead to rights on charges as serious as attempted kidnapping and espionage. If he was given a deal, he had BIG fish to hand over. Traitors, the whole lot of them. I'll now predict Pence goes down as well. This is finally going to make Watergate look like that "third-rate burglary".
Wow:
Meanwhile, the GOP will use this traitorous Administration and this story to pass a tax bill no one has read. Let them forever be tarred with this subversion of democracy as well. Did anyone think Trump was trying to protect Flynn from Comey for ANY other reason beyond self-presevation??
If that last part is true, that means they were directly undermining the lawful Obama Administration while they were still in office, and doing so on purpose, in regards to sanctions. They had no legal authority to be conducting foreign policy as in incoming Administration until Donald Trump took the Oath of Office on January 20th. We have one President at a time.
I wonder if Trump has ever met this Kushner character.
Can we all agree as a basic principle that a bill of this scope should be, at a bare minimum, LEGIBLE?? If this was a book report, any teacher worth their salt would throw it in the trash and give the student an F for being so sloppy and lazy. Call me a crazy leftist if you like, but maybe, JUST MAYBE, we should be writing bills that don't require a handwriting expert. This is how I sign my receipts at the checkout counter, not how to make decisions about trillions of dollars. We are so far through the looking-glass right now it isn't even funny. The entire government is being run by incompetent sociopaths. And again, this is what John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski consider a "return to regular order". The equivalent of a third-grader scribbling in their notebook. And I don't want to hear about the Obamacare bill. There was TWENTY-FIVE days of Senate debate on the Obamacare bill.
At that time I would scribble an amendment on one of the pages that negates the whole thing.
Re: flynn
He only got charged with lying to the FBI because he is cooperating with Muellers investigation. Judge Napolitano on Fakes News says he was facing 60 years so he must REALLY be cooperating to only be facing that one charge.
I heard that he faced up to 6 months in prison actually, that is if he goes at all.
I heard that he faced up to 6 months in prison actually, that is if he goes at all.
Sound advice, but it doesn't work for government employees like Flynn. People like Trump, when he operated outside the government, could get away with that and run scam universities and the like but when your job has you required to make statements to the FBI and Congress it's another ball of wax. You can just do your best Jeff Sessions and "I don't recall where I was ten seconds ago" shtick but that can only take you so far. Among other things they had Flynn on tape because they were taping the russians and lo and behold here's flynn on the other line. And then when he goes in front of Congress and the FBI and is like "what Russians? I have no idea!" it doesn't work.
"CIA Director Mike Pompeo has publicly promised that the agency would become “much more vicious” and aggressive."
The CIA, which has TOPPLED GOVERNMENTS needs to be "more vicious and aggressive"?
Apparently 2 heads of this Amyntor group are a guy who tried to get Saddam Hussein to provoke a war with us, and a guy involved in the Iran-Contra scandal. Great people here, the bestest.
And I didn't know the founder of Blackwater private security is BROTHER to Betsy DeVos.
My, my, my, the ultra-conservatives are a figuratively inbred lot.
A foreign policy advisor has plead guilty to lying to the FBI and flipped. Trump's campaign manager has been indicted on money laundering charges. His National Security Advisor has now plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts. Would anyone care to explain why Trump's entire inner-circle has been repeatedly lying to Federal law enforcement for 11 months?? But yeah, as always, it's those of us who have seen this clearly since the beginning that are crazy and reaching. I've been saying Manfort and Flynn were the key to this for the entire year in this thread. One is now indicted, and the other one has made a deal. Dollars to donuts Kushner has also made false statements to the FBI and Flynn is going to provide evidence of such. So sooner than later, you'll be able add the President's son-in-law to the list.
As for why it's taking so long, Watergate took YEARS to unravel. This isn't a movie. Mueller is building an unbreakable case brick by brick, wherever it leads. And now he has the guy who was with Trump 24/7 on the campaign trail in his back pocket. Again, Flynn didn't skate on being an illegal foreign agent for the Turkish government and trying to organize a kidnapping because he told Mueller's team about someone jaywalking. He only gets that deal if he can net another fish.
Now, no votes, cancelled until 11 a.m. tomorrow.
I chuckled that, this was the first two tabs I'd closed this browser session:
"Senate prepares to vote on GOP tax bill"
"U.S. Senate Suspends Tax Bill Vote [Video]"
So much yes-no-maybe.
Reading about this rewriting in the last few hours before the (cancelled) vote makes me sad. I did this myself this morning.
Except in my case it was a 9 page 4-person group paper of a hypothetical business plan, not a 400+ page 1000+ person paper covering the collection and distribution of trillions of dollars of real money in real life.
We deserve better.
Pence is almost definitely lying as well. Claiming he was as ignorant as a jaybird about Flynn and other officials keck deep in Russia collusion is extremely unlikely - Pence was in charge of the transition for a while. Also, I believe he was served paperwork warning him about Flynn.
So probably those guys are next unless they have enough to jump straight to Trump. Maybe if Trump admits his involvement or resigns they'd go easier or overlook those guys. But it seems unlikely for Trump to admit anything, why start now? Further, he's already flip-flopping on his previous apologies for the Access Hollywood tape and has retaken up the birther conspiracy.
By contrast, Obamacare was debated publically for over a year, had 60 hours of mark-ups in the Senate Health Committe, the Finance Committe took 130 amendments, the bill was debated for 25 straight days in the Senate. On top of that, Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on the issue, and held two question and answer sessions with GOP legislators. Both sides don't.
To go over this again: within the decade, if you make less than $100,000/year, your taxes are going up. It includes permanent corporate tax cuts at the expense of deductions such as teachers being able to write off school supplies they buy for students who can't afford them (out of their own pocket). Beyond that, it basically also implemented a mini-version of the "skinny repeal" of Obamacare, and estimates are that 13 million people will lose their health coverage, and premiums will go up at least 10% as a result of the bill. Massive cuts to Medicare. On top of that, the party who has sold themselves as fiscal conservatives just blew a 1.5 trillion dollar hole in the deficit (on purpose) so they can come back a year from now and demand FURTHER cuts to Medicare, and then Social Security. It was being rewritten by K Street lobbyists in the margins of the pages in pen up until a couple hours ago.
But her emails.
As Bernie Sanders says next we'll watch the deficit explode and Republicans will say we have to cut entitlements - Medicare, Medicaid, and other things that might benefit the average Joe. Instead of reinstating the taxes on the rich that led to the deficits.
The US seems to have a rogue government of Republicans in charge beholden not to the people but to the rich.
Up next, the death of the free internet...
We have already tried this multiple times in the past 35 years, and it has never worked. There were two economic downturns in 10 years under Reagan and Bush Sr. We know what happened in '08 with W. Every single recession of the last 30+ years has occured under Republican leadership. And it's easier to figure out why than anyone realizes. It's because there isn't enough money flowing through the hands of normal, working people, who make up the vast majority of society. Unless you think Wal-Mart and Burger King's clientele is made up of Goldman Sachs executives.
Flake, who got on board with this with future DACA (DREAM act) deals. There will be no such deals, such legislation will die in committee or on the floors.
There was a provision to expand the child tax credit introduced last night. All it would have required was raising the corporate tax rate from 20% to 20.94%. Voted down. Also, headlines like THIS are why this both-sides nonsense persists among the American public:
No, the Senate did not do anything. The REPUBLICAN Senate did it. Not a single Democrat voted for the bill. I pointed out the same dynamic in the media earlier in the year when the Republicans, on a strict party-line vote, decided to hand our information over to the telcom companies. Most people only see headlines. This headline implies a pox on both houses. This was also a strict party-line vote, minus Bob Corker. If we have to swallow this, we're least going to have an honest debate about who is responsible for what happens. I know this much. If any conservative voter in this country EVER tells you about fiscal responsibility or spending EVER again, you should laugh in their face, call them a fool, and walk away. Because there is no intellectually honest debate to be had with that person. And if they aren't stopped in 2018, they are going to come to deal the death blow to Medicare (the first wound of which was struck last night) and Social Security. The end-game is a complete destruction of the New Deal.