“I guess I should say, at long last, Mr. President, here is your Emmy.”
— AlecBaldwin, quoting by CNN, while accepting his Emmy award for his portrayal of Donald Trump.
Daily Archives
September 17, 2017
16 posts · Sunday
Trump Advised to Shrink National Monuments
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke “has recommended that President Trump modify 10 national monuments created by his immediate predecessors, including shrinking the boundaries of at least four western sites,” according to a copy of the report obtained by the Washington Post.
“The secretary’s set of recommendations also would change the way all 10 targeted monuments are managed. It emphasizes the need to adjust the proclamations to address concerns of local officials or affected industries, saying the administration should permit ‘traditional uses’ now restricted within the monuments’ boundaries, such as grazing, logging, coal mining and commercial fishing.“
Bonus Quote of the Day
“He believes that television producers, especially of highly rated shows, understand what the public is interested in — what it fears, what it wants, what it loves. And so TV programming in some ways is a more accurate reflection of the public mood than polling. That’s his view, he said it to me. And that’s one of the reasons he watches a lot of television.”
— Tucker Carlson, quoted by the Daily Caller, recounting a conversation with President Trump.
Key Trump Adviser Will Testify to Senate
“Michael Cohen, one of President Trump’s closest business advisers, said on Sunday he would testify on Tuesday to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, as the panel investigates alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election,” Reuters reports.
CNN: “Cohen is not expected to be under oath during the appearance, but all witnesses appearing before congressional committees are required to tell the truth or potentially face criminal charges.”
TV Station Forced to Run Pro-Trump Programs
“The company that owns WJAR-TV is mandating the broadcast of multiple programs favorable to President Trump on the state’s most-watched television station,” the Providence Journal reports.
“Sinclair Broadcast Group, a rapidly growing media company that bought Channel 10 in 2014, produces ‘must-run’ segments and distributes them to its local stations nationwide. They must air during daily news programming.”
How Rex Tillerson Has Alienated Almost Everyone
“The most challenging task in Washington, these days, is finding somebody who’ll enthusiastically endorse Rex Tillerson. In just nine months, the Secretary of State has managed to alienate nearly every constituency that matters,” Jonathan Swan reports.
Said a former top Bush administration official: “He’s got no support from the left on management and no support from the right on policy.”
“Tillerson alienated his natural constituency — moderates who view him as a restraining influence on Trump — by what he’s done, or failed to do, managerially at the State Department. He’s surrounded himself by a tiny circle and hasn’t sought much advice from outsiders. And he’s got no ideological constituency on the right because he doesn’t embrace the forward-leaning posture on human rights, or the aggressive stance on Russia, that Republicans typically expect of their top diplomats.”
Senate GOP Tries Again to Repeal Obamacare
Politico: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his leadership team are seriously considering voting on a bill that would scale back the federal government’s role in the health care system and instead provide block grants to states. It would be a last-ditch attempt to repeal Obamacare before the GOP’s power to pass health care legislation through a party-line vote in the Senate expires on Sept. 30.”
“No final decision has been made, but the GOP leader has told his caucus that if the bill written by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) has the support of at least 50 of the 52 GOP senators, he will bring it to the floor.”
Ernst Wants to Cut Perks of Former Presidents
“Being a former U.S. president brings the ability to pull down millions in speaking fees and book deals. And yet American taxpayers are still on the hook for providing those individuals with an annual pension, as well as picking up the tab for office furniture, travel expenses, staff salaries and communications costs,” the Omaha World Herald reports.
Said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) wants to end the payments: “They can make in an hour what our taxpayers are generously subsidizing them, so that’s completely unnecessary.
“Ernst’s bill does not curtail the Secret Service protection and security for former presidents. It would set their annual pension at $200,000 and cap the currently unlimited allowances for office space, staff, cellphones, etc., at a total of $500,000. That cap would be reduced over time, to $250,000.”
Quote of the Day
“The current model of the Democratic Party obviously is not working. Republicans control the House, the Senate. They control the White House. They control two-thirds of the Governors’ offices throughout this country… What we need to do is reach out to Independents.”
— Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), in an interview on Meet the Press.
Dueling Quotes of the Day
“That’s a false report. The president decided to pull out of the Paris accord because it’s a bad deal for the American people and it’s a bad deal for the environment.”
— National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, quoted by the Washington Post, denying the Trump administration would stay in the Paris climate deal.
“I think under the right conditions, the president said he’s open to finding those conditions where we can remain engaged with others on what we all agree is still a challenging issue.”
— Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, quoted by The Hill, saying Trump could stay in the Paris climate deal under the right conditions.
3 Reasons Trump Is ‘Extra Crazy’ on Twitter Today
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Why Tax Reform Won’t Be Quick
Stan Collender: “There’s just one thing you really need to know about whether tax reform will happen by the end of this year: It’s about to take a very small group of senior policymakers more than six months to agree on the broadest of principles for what a tax reform plan should do…and the broad principles will be the easy part.”
“In spite of the nuanced optimism you hear from The Gang of Six, it’s very likely to take much longer than it did for those six people — only four of which actually have votes — to agree on the generalities.”
“Every one of the 535 members of Congress has individual and corporate taxpayers in his or her district or state and the nitty gritty, deep-in-the-weeds details will be extremely important to each representative and senator. At the very least they will all want to appear to have had an impact on the final product so there will be multiple time-consuming amendments offered both in committee and on the House and Senate floors.”
Grimm Will Run for His Old Seat
NY1 has learned that former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-NY) “will run for his old seat, less than 16 months after he was released from federal prison.”
Sources said Grimm will hold a rally Oct. 1 where he is expected to announce his candidacy for next year’s Republican primary against current Rep. Dan Donovan.
GOP Establishment Fights to Win Back Control of Party
“Deep-pocketed supporters of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and other GOP leaders have resolved to fight a protracted battle over the next year for the soul of the party in congressional primaries,” the Washington Post reports.
“But the task will not be easy. Strategists from both sides of the party’s divide say recent focus groups and polling have shown that the frustration within the Republican base has only grown since the 2016 election, stoked by an inability to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s health-care law. President Trump, meanwhile, has continued to cast his presidency in opposition to the current ways of Washington, which could encourage primary voters to buck the system in a way that endangers House and Senate incumbents.”
Trump Will Hold Rally for Strange
President Trump announced on Twitter that he will hold a rally in Alabama to boost Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL) against his anti-establishment challenger Roy Moore.
Jonathan Swan: “If Moore wins, Trump will look like a fool. It’d suggest to members of Congress — whom Trump must occasionally intimidate in legislative fights — that he’s a weakened force in Alabama, a state he carried by nearly 30 points in the 2016 election.”
“If Strange, wins, Trump can do a victory lap. But by supporting him he’s boosting the establishment candidate, backed by Mitch McConnell (with whom Trump is currently at war.) Trump loses points with the most hardcore elements of the Republican base by supporting Strange, and he’s now setting up a direct clash with Breitbart, which has been campaigning hard for Moore.”
The RealClearPolitics average shows Strange trailing Moore by 11 points.
Republicans Eye Cutting Blue-State Tax Break
Washington Post: “The state and local tax deduction, or SALT, has long been a target for tax-policy wonks who see it as an unwise federal subsidy that is mainly claimed by the wealthy. But politics have always intervened: Thanks to the opposition of lawmakers in high-tax states, the deduction has survived every effort to clear out loopholes, including the last federal tax overhaul of similar ambition in 1986.”
“Now, Republican leaders have made clear the SALT deduction is on the table, and it has shaken up a number of blue-state GOP legislators who are warning that it could derail the ambitious tax plan Trump is now pushing.”
