#in faction tasks -> declaring war) as he gets more and more desperate

[realmrooikat]

thinking about how tr!tubbo's suicide/murder at the hands of cpk was a product of him feeling undervalued and that his voice didnt have any weight amongst blue is arguably the domino falling that lead to what could turn out to be a massive war on the server,,,

[xtruss]

Engineering a Race War: Will This Be the American Police State’s Reichstag Fire?

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”— George Santayana

— Davidicke.Com | June 11, 2020 | By John Whitehead

Watch and see: this debate over police brutality and accountability is about to get politicized into an election-year referendum on who should occupy the White House.

Don’t fall for it.

The Deep State, the powers-that-be, want us to turn this into a race war, but this is about so much more than systemic racism. This is the oldest con game in the books, the magician’s sleight of hand that keeps you focused on the shell game in front of you while your wallet is being picked clean by ruffians in your midst.

It’s the Reichstag Fire all over again.

It was February 1933, a month before national elections in Germany, and the Nazis weren’t expected to win. So they engineered a way to win: they began by infiltrating the police and granting police powers to their allies; then Hitler brought in stormtroopers to act as auxiliary police; by the time an arsonist (who claimed to be working for the Communists in the hopes of starting an armed revolt) set fire to the Reichstag, the German parliamentary building, the people were eager for a return to law and order.

That was all it took: Hitler used the attempted “coup” as an excuse to declare martial law and seize absolute power in Germany, establishing himself as a dictator with the support of the German people.

Fast forward to the present day, and what do we have? The nation in turmoil after months of pandemic fear-mongering and regional lockdowns, a national election looming, a president with falling poll numbers, and a police state that wants to stay in power at all costs.

Note the similarities?

It’s entirely possible that Americans have finally reached a tipping point over police brutality after decades of abuse. After all, until recently, the legislatures and the courts have marched in lockstep with the police state, repeatedly rebuffing efforts to hold police accountable for official misconduct.

Then again, it’s also equally possible that the architects of the police state have every intention of manipulating this outrage for their own purposes.

It works the same in every age.

As author Jim Keith explains, “Create violence through economic pressures, the media, mind control, agent provocateurs: thesis. Counter it with totalitarian measures, more mind control, police crackdowns, surveillance, drugging of the population: antithesis. What ensues is Orwell’s vision of 1984, a society of total control: synthesis.”

Here’s what is going to happen: the police state is going to stand down and allow these protests, riots and looting to devolve into a situation where enough of the voting populace is so desperate for a return to law and order that they will gladly relinquish some of their freedoms to achieve it. And that’s how the police state will win, no matter which candidate gets elected to the White House.

You know who will lose? Every last one of us.

Listen, people should be outraged over what happened to George Floyd, but let’s get one thing straight: Floyd didn’t die merely because he was black and the cop who killed him is white. Floyd died because America is being overrun with warrior cops—vigilantes with a badge—who are part of a government-run standing army that is waging war on the American people in the so-called name of law and order.

Not all cops are warrior cops, trained to act as judge, jury and executioner in their interactions with the populace. Unfortunately, the good cops—the ones who take seriously their oath of office to serve and protect their fellow citizens, uphold the Constitution, and maintain the peace—are increasingly being outnumbered by those who believe the lives—and rights—of police should be valued more than citizens.

These warrior cops may get paid by the citizenry, but they don’t work for us and they certainly aren’t operating within the limits of the U.S. Constitution.

This isn’t about racism in America.

This is about profit-driven militarism packaged in the guise of law and order, waged by greedy profiteers who have transformed the American homeland into a battlefield with militarized police, military weapons and tactics better suited to a war zone. This is systemic corruption predicated on the police state’s insatiable appetite for money, power and control.

This is a military coup waiting to happen.

Why do we have more than a million cops on the taxpayer-funded payroll in this country whose jobs do not entail protecting our safety, maintaining the peace in our communities, and upholding our liberties?

I’ll tell you why.

These warrior cops—fitted out in the trappings of war, drilled in the deadly art of combat, and trained to look upon “every individual they interact with as an armed threat and every situation as a deadly force encounter in the making—are the police state’s standing army.

This is the new face of war, and America has become the new battlefield.

Militarized police officers, the end product of the government—federal, local and state—and law enforcement agencies having merged, have become a “standing” or permanent army, composed of full-time professional soldiers who do not disband.

Yet these permanent armies are exactly what those who drafted the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights feared as tools used by despotic governments to wage war against its citizens.

American police forces were never supposed to be a branch of the military, nor were they meant to be private security forces for the reigning political faction. Instead, they were intended to be an aggregation of countless local police units, composed of citizens like you and me that exist for a sole purpose: to serve and protect the citizens of each and every American community.

As a result of the increasing militarization of the police in recent years, however, the police now not only look like the military—with their foreboding uniforms and phalanx of lethal weapons—but they function like them, as well.

Thus, no more do we have a civilian force of peace officers entrusted with serving and protecting the American people. Instead, today’s militarized law enforcement officials have shifted their allegiance from the citizenry to the state, acting preemptively to ward off any possible challenges to the government’s power, unrestrained by the boundaries of the Fourth Amendment.

They don’t work for us. As retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis warned, “Corporate America is using police forces as their mercenaries.”

We were sold a bill of goods.

For years now, we’ve been told that cops need military weapons to wage the government’s wars on drugs, crime and terror. We’ve been told that cops need to be able to crash through doors, search vehicles, carry out roadside strip searches, shoot anyone they perceive to be a threat, and generally disregard the law whenever it suits them because they’re doing it to protect their fellow Americans from danger. We’ve been told that cops need extra legal protections because of the risks they take.

None of that is true.

In fact, a study by a political scientist at Princeton University concludes that militarizing police and SWAT teams “provide no detectable benefits in terms of officer safety or violent crime reduction.” According to researcher Jonathan Mummolo, if police in America are feeling less safe, it’s because the process of transforming them into extensions of the military makes them less safe, less popular and less trust-worthy.

The study, the first systematic analysis on the use and consequences of militarized force, reveals that “police militarization neither reduces rates of violent crime nor changes the number of officers assaulted or killed.”

In other words, warrior cops aren’t making us or themselves any safer.

Militarized police armed with weapons of war who are allowed to operate above the law and break the laws with impunity are definitely not making America any safer or freer.

The problem, as one reporter rightly concluded, is “not that life has gotten that much more dangerous, it’s that authorities have chosen to respond to even innocent situations as if they were in a warzone.” Consequently, Americans are now eight times more likely to die in a police confrontation than they are to be killed by a terrorist.

Militarism within the nation’s police forces is proving to be deadlier than any pandemic.

This battlefield mindset has gone hand in hand with the rise of militarized SWAT (“special weapons and tactics”) teams.

Frequently justified as vital tools necessary to combat terrorism and deal with rare but extremely dangerous criminal situations, such as those involving hostages, SWAT teams have become intrinsic parts of local law enforcement operations, thanks in large part to substantial federal assistance and the Pentagon’s military surplus recycling program, which allows the transfer of military equipment, weapons and training to local police for free or at sharp discounts while increasing the profits of its corporate allies.

Where this becomes a problem of life and death for Americans is when these SWAT teams— outfitted, armed and trained in military tactics—are assigned to carry out relatively routine police tasks, such as serving a search warrant. Nationwide, SWAT teams have been employed to address an astonishingly trivial array of criminal activity or mere community nuisances: angry dogs, domestic disputes, improper paperwork filed by an orchid farmer, and misdemeanor marijuana possession, to give a brief sampling.

Remember, SWAT teams originated as specialized units dedicated to defusing extremely sensitive, dangerous situations. They were never meant to be used for routine police work such as serving a warrant. Unfortunately, the mere presence of SWAT units has actually injected a level of danger and violence into police-citizen interactions that was not present as long as these interactions were handled by traditional civilian officers.

There are few communities without a SWAT team today, and there are more than 80,000 SWAT team raids per year.

Yet the tension inherent in most civilian-police encounter these days can’t be blamed exclusively on law enforcement’s growing reliance on SWAT teams and donated military equipment.

It goes far deeper, to a transformation in the way police view themselves and their line of duty.

Specifically, what we’re dealing with today is a skewed shoot-to-kill mindset in which police, trained to view themselves as warriors or soldiers in a war, whether against drugs, or terror, or crime, must “get” the bad guys—i.e., anyone who is a potential target—before the bad guys get them. The result is a spike in the number of incidents in which police shoot first, and ask questions later.

Making matters worse, when these officers, who have long since ceased to be peace officers, violate their oaths by bullying, beating, tasering, shooting and killing their employers—the taxpayers to whom they owe their allegiance—they are rarely given more than a slap on the hands before resuming their patrols.

This lawlessness on the part of law enforcement, an unmistakable characteristic of a police state, is made possible in large part by police unions which routinely oppose civilian review boards and resist the placement of names and badge numbers on officer uniforms; police agencies that abide by the Blue Code of Silence, the quiet understanding among police that they should not implicate their colleagues for their crimes and misconduct; prosecutors who treat police offenses with greater leniency than civilian offenses; courts that sanction police wrongdoing in the name of security; and legislatures that enhance the power, reach and arsenal of the police, and a citizenry that fails to hold its government accountable to the rule of law.

Indeed, not only are cops protected from most charges of wrongdoing—whether it’s shooting unarmed citizens (including children and old people), raping and abusing young women, falsifying police reports, trafficking drugs, or soliciting sex with minors—but even on the rare occasions when they are fired for misconduct, it’s only a matter of time before they get re-hired again.

Much of the “credit” for shielding these rogue cops goes to influential police unions and laws providing for qualified immunity, police contracts that “provide a shield of protection to officers accused of misdeeds and erect barriers to residents complaining of abuse,” state and federal laws that allow police to walk away without paying a dime for their wrongdoing, and rampant cronyism among government bureaucrats.

It’s happening all across the country.

This is how perverse justice in America has become.

Incredibly, while our own Bill of Rights are torn to shreds, leaving us with few protections against government abuses, a growing number of states are adopting Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights(LEOBoR), which provide cops accused of a crime with special due process rights and privileges not afforded to the average citizen.

This, right here, epitomizes everything that is wrong with America today.

Even when the system appears to work on the side of justice, it’s the American taxpayer who ends up paying the price.

Literally.

Because police officers are more likely to be struck by lightning than be held financially accountable for their actions. As Human Rights Watch explains, taxpayers actually pay three times for officers who repeatedly commit abuses: “once to cover their salaries while they commit abuses; next to pay settlements or civil jury awards against officers; and a third time through payments into police ‘defense’ funds provided by the cities.”

Deep-seated corruption of this kind doesn’t just go away because politicians and corporations suddenly become conscience-stricken in the face of mass protests and start making promises they don’t intend to keep.

As I explain in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we need civic engagement and citizen activism, especially at the local level. However, if it ends at the ballot box without achieving any real reform that holds government officials at all levels accountable to playing by the rules of the Constitution, then shame on us.

[swipestream]

New Release Roundup, 19 May 2018: Fantasy and Adventure

The Man of Bronze, the Wisewolf’s daughter, a Wild West King Arthur, and the Ark of the Covenant feature in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in fantasy and adventure.

Closure (Javin Pierce #3) – Ethan Jones

Covert operative Javin Pierce will avenge his betrayal or die trying . . .

Off the grid, Javin Pierce is struggling to heal from his wounds. Immediately he’s forced into a shaky deal with former enemies not only to secure his partner’s release from a Saudi jail, but also to settle the score with the traitor who double-crossed them.

While his new rogue team crosses Iraq’s treacherous lands, he can barely stay ahead of the deadly threats coming from all sides. As Javin sets his sights, alliances around him crumble. So with no one left to trust, in an ever-changing maze, how will Javin survive the deadliest mission of his life?

Destruction’s Ascent (Dragon Ridden Chronicles #3) – T. A. White

When the past rises, the world burns.

Newly conscripted into the Emperor’s dragon corps, Tate Fisher is still trying to figure out all that her new position entails. Along with an elevation in status comes dangerous enemies. Enemies who would rather see the dragons fall into ruin than remain in their current place of power.

When a dragon goes missing, followed by a child close to her, Tate is forced to confront the hidden agendas of those in the highest seats of authority. Her search for the truth takes her deeper into the maze of tunnels that lie beneath the city. It’s a place where secrets lurk and dangers abound.

There, she’ll uncover a plot whose origins stretch all the way back to the beginning of this world—one that can only end in the destruction of everything she knows and loves. The key to saving her city lies in her uncertain past. If only she could remember what that was.

The Disclosure Protocol (Warner & Lopex #8) – Dean Crawford

In the United States, the CIA is being held to ransom. Perfectly focused images of Unidentified Flying Objects are being sent to Langley with a demand: provide full disclosure of what the government knows about UFOs or these images will go public.

Struggling with the task of identifying the perpetrators of the images, and aware that they must somehow know when and where UFOs will appear, the CIA sends General Scott Mackenzie in search of Ethan Warner and Nicola Lopez, the only known former US agents with the skills to track down the perpetrator. His mission; obtain the technology that is allowing someone to predict when and where UFOs will appear and ensure that nobody else can access it.

But as the investigation unfolds, so Ethan and Nicola learn that the Russians are also seeking the same technology. As a race against time develops to get the upper hand, victims of strange abduction events implore the government for help, including the parents of a seven-year-old girl who is suffering seizures and post-traumatic stress from her experiences.

From the Indian Ocean to the lonely deserts of Utah, Scotland to Nevada, Ethan and Nicola discover the startling truth about alien abductions and UFO sightings, and realise that full disclosure isn’t about UFOs at all: the knowledge the CIA possesses will change the course of human history…

Dispersal (Guns of the Waste Land #3) – Leverett Butts

Guns of the Waste Land recasts the legends of King Arthur as an American Western.

Set in the late 19th century outside the West Texas town of Bretton, this third volume continues the stories of the men and women devoted in their own ways to Sheriff Ardiss Drake: Percy Murratt, still living with Ardiss, is in love. Unfortunately, so is Ardiss’ foster brother, Caleb and with the same woman. Gary Wayne Orkney has recovered as much as possible from the beating he received from Lancaster O’Loch and desperately wants to ride a horse again and continue is service as a deputy. Reverend Merrle Tallison is considering leaving Bretton and finding a life for himself. Finally, Ardiss’ estranged wife, Guernica, continues to seek closure for the events that brought her to the wilds of the Waste Land.

Haunted Ocean (Doc Savage #4) – Laurence Donovan as “Kenneth Robeson”

“Let me strive every moment of my life to make myself better and better, to the best of my ability, that all may profit by it. Let me think of the right and lend all my assistance to those who need it, with no regard for anything but justice. Let me take what comes with a smile, without loss of courage. Let me be considerate of my country, of my fellow citizens and my associates in everything I say and do. Let me do right to all, and wrong no man.”–The Oath of Clark “Doc” Savage, Jr.

An awesome power haunts the sea, paralyzes New York City and brings the most powerful nations of the world to their knees. Deep in the frozen Arctic an astonishing army of naked men and the forces of international greed challenge the invincible Man of Bronze for the strange secret of the so-called Man of Peace!

Honor at Stake (Love at First Bite #1) – Declan Finn

One is a heartless, bloodthirsty killer. The other is a vampire.

College freshman, Amanda Colt knows few people and wants to know fewer still. She enjoys fencing and prefers facing a challenge every once in a while. She is beautiful, smart, and possibly the most interesting person on campus.

Then she finds tall, intense Marco Catalano in her fencing class. With a mind like a computer and manners of a medieval knight, he scares most people – but not Amanda.They both have secrets, for they are both monsters.

As they draw closer, they must find the line between how much they can trust each other, and how much they can care for each other. Each carries a secret that can destroy the other. But they must come to grips with their personal drama soon, because a darkness rises around them. Bodies keep turning up all over New York, and an army of vampires closes in on all sides.

They have only one hope – each other.

On the Shoulders of Titans (Arcane Ascension #2) – Andrew Rowe

Corin Cadence finally has a firm reason to believe his brother, Tristan, is still alive. Unfortunately, finding more information isn’t going to be easy. Tristan appears to be entangled with a clandestine organization that calls themselves Whispers. And Corin’s last brush with the Whispers didn’t exactly end well.

As much as he wants to follow that lead, Corin has more pressing problems to deal with.

Sera is still suffering from a mysterious malady that has stolen her voice and her magic. Corin knows that a portion of that is his fault, and he’s determined to fix it.

Corin still hasn’t finished his first year at Lorian Heights. If he fails his final exams, he’ll be sent off to the military, and lose his chance to investigate his brother’s fate.

And finally, there’s the issue of enemies. He might have made a few of them.

The biggest problem?

He’s not sure if Jin, once one of his closest companions, is one of them.

The Princess in the Tower (Schooled in Magic #15) – Christopher G. Nuttall

Everyone knows that the Tower of Alexis is impregnable…

…But Emily intends to prove them wrong.

The Kingdom of Zangaria has finally started its descent into civil war. King Randor has declared martial law, imprisoned the pregnant Crown Princess Alassa in the Tower of Alexis and started preparations for a first strike against his enemies. The time has come for everyone to choose a side.

Emily has arrived in Alexis with the intention of freeing Alassa before her father can have her executed. But as Emily and her friends are drawn into a maelstrom of rebellious factions and crown loyalists, of commoners trying to escape the chaos and noblemen trying to make it worse, they find themselves faced with an insolvable problem.

If they manage to liberate Alassa – and put her on the throne – will there be anything left of Zangaria for her to rule?

Sacrifices (War Aeturnus #2) – Charles Dean

Desperate to save as many people as he can from a horrible fate in the cruel game of the gods, Lee and his small group of friends abandon the relative safety of Satterfield for the great city of Kirshtein. Tensions within the city have reached a breaking point after the arrival of an enemy Herald, and Lee is soon caught up in the struggle for power.

Captured, imprisoned, and forced to fight for his life on the blood-soaked sands of the Kirshtein arena, Lee has to figure out how to survive long enough to mend the rifts in the broken city before it falls apart completely. Armed with new skills, joined by new allies, and up against his most dangerous enemy yet, Lee’s bid for survival in the War of Eternity takes on even higher stakes as he learns the what true leadership requires. Now, with an ominous new threat looming in the distance and an army on the horizon, Lee has to answer one question: Can he pay the price of victory?

Son of a Liche (The Dark Profit Saga #2) – J. Zachary Pike

A doubly disgraced dwarven hero. A band of accident-prone adventurers. Giving redemption a second shot may have been a grave mistake…

Still bruised and heartbroken from their last calamitous quest, Gorm Ingerson and his band of washed-up heroes try to make amends for the Orcs they accidentally betrayed. But justice is put on hold when an old foe marches to the city gates. Gorm is horrified to discover a liche pitching the frightened city-dwellers on the merits of the undead lifestyle… at the head of a corpse army.

To save the city from high-pressure sales tactics and an inevitable siege, the Dwarf warrior and his misfit band hatch a harebrained scheme that lands them at the top of the king’s kill list. With death and dark magic on his heels, Gorm must craft his own pitch to round up the troops and put the undead snake-oil salesman and his army of pushers permanently out of business.

The Templar Curse (Sean Wyatt #15) – Ernest Dempsey

Throughout the course of human warfare, no weapon has been as feared, as deadly, as the Ark of the Covenant.

Legend claims that this mysterious, supernatural force, first carried into battle by the ancient Israelites, was so powerful that the Ark could lay waste to entire armies, entire cities in moments—thousands of years before the advent of nuclear bombs.

So, when an ancient order of killers reemerges from the shadows after centuries of hiding—convinced that other secret societies took the Ark from Jerusalem to hide it in early America—international treasure hunter Sean Wyatt knows exactly what they seek and why. And that realization terrifies him.

Together with his best friend and sidekick, Tommy Schultz, Sean must track down the Ark before the Order of the Assassin can. Before their order can pervert this heavenly power and wield it to enslave all of humanity.

Where the Cats Will Not Follow – Stephen Stromp

Ayden finds himself held captive by his former friend, Phillip. Phillip believes Ayden holds the key to finding Ginger, his missing girlfriend. This shocking claim forces Ayden to revisit the adolescent world he shared with his older brother, Everett. It is a world where truth is uncertain and dreams and imagination blur with reality. Everett insists Ayden possesses powers of clairvoyance and has the ability to conjure entities from his mind. As Everett pushes Ayden into increasingly darker territories, events turn deadly. Digging into this murky past, Ayden and Phillip awaken old demons they must face as they race to find Ginger.

Where the Cats Will Not Follow is a strange journey into the mind of a troubled young man who may be delusional–or may in fact possess the extraordinary abilities he was believed to once hold.

Wolf & Parchment, Volume #2 – Isuna Hasekura

The young man Col dreams of one day joining the holy clergy and departs on a journey from the bathhouse “The Spice and Wolf Inn,” owned by his savior, Lawrence. The Winfiel Kingdom’s prince has invited him to help correct the sins of the church. But as his travels begin, Col discovers in his luggage a young girl with a wolf’s ears and tail named Myuri who stowed away for the ride!

The young man Col and the daughter of the Wisewolf, Myuri, survived the scripture riots in the port town of Atiph. Col spends intense days being pined for after Myuri tells him about her love.

Meanwhile, Heir Hyland commissions them for another next job. In the coming war with the Church’s forces, control over the strait between the Kingdom of Winfiel and the mainland will play a crucial role. While Myuri is excited for a new adventure, Col cannot hide his unease after hearing about potential heresy among certain pirates for their faith in the “Black-Mother”!

New Release Roundup, 19 May 2018: Fantasy and Adventure published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[pat78701]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[repwincoml4a0a5]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[grgedoors02142]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[exfrenchdorsl4p0a1]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[rtscrndr53704]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a ��one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[porchenclose10019]

Welcome Back! GOP Congress Returns To Resume Kabuki Dance Of Governance

After a two-weeks of being berated by their constituents at raucous town halls—and watching Democrats come close to flipping two solidly red districts in Kansas and Georgia—members of Congress return to DC Monday. With few legislative accomplishments under their belts so far, they now face a government funding deadline, a debt ceiling increase, demands from the White House to take another swing at repealing Obamacare, and the daunting, likely impossible task of overhauling the tax code by August.

Though Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House, deep divisions on all these issues remain, exacerbated by weeks of finger-pointing and inter-party threats in the wake of the health care bill’s embarrassing demise. And the closer it gets to the 2018 midterm elections, the more cautious members in swing districts will become about sticking their neck out to vote for controversial or unpopular bills.

“They have a lot to accomplish, but it’s a big question mark whether they’ll be able to do it,” said Dan Scandling, who worked as a senior staffer for GOP lawmakers for nearly 25 years. “At some point the Republicans have to start delivering, or their base will start showing up at their town halls saying, ‘Hey, you for years said if we gave you a Republican House and Senate you’d get things done. What’s the holdup?'”

Because members face enormous pressure to at least appear that they are making progress on the people’s business, we can expect to see a great deal of stalling, finger-pointing, earnest press conferences, bouts of secret negotiations, and other forms of political theater in the months ahead. For Republicans, the show must go on.

Government shutdown posturing

The government’s funding will expire at midnight on April 28, giving Congress less than a week to pass either a temporary or long-term budget in order to keep the lights on.

Under President Obama, each government funding and debt ceiling deadline offered Republicans a fresh opportunity to engage in brinksmanship and win concessions on red-meat issues like private school vouchers and abortion. This practice peaked in 2013, when Republicans triggered a two-week government shutdown over the implementation of Affordable Care Act.

This time around, despite breathless news reports that some members of both parties and the Trump administration are gunning for a shutdown showdown, Republican leaders acknowledge they have zero incentive to shutter a government under their own unified control. To do so would be a self-own for the ages.

“With a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican administration, we don’t want to stumble into a shutdown,” warned Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee currently drafting the budget.

House Speaker Paul Ryan hammered this point in a conference call with Republicans on Saturday, telling them his top priority was passing a budget to keep the government open.

And with several Republicans publicly declaring they won’t vote for any short-term budget—out of concern it will hurt the military’s ability to plan ahead—GOP leaders know they will need Democratic votes in order to get anything to the president’s desk. This leverage has allowed Democrats to lay down several red lines.

“Our position has been crystal clear,” Matthew Dennis, an aide for the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY), told TPM. “There are several poison pill riders that the President wants, and they are articulating those priorities to Republicans in Congress. But we will not provide any money to fund the border wall. We won’t agree to defunding Planned Parenthood or Sanctuary Cities, or underfunding any critical domestic programs.”

Democrats are also demanding the budget include guaranteed funding for Obamacare’s subsidies to insurers covering high-risk patients.

Dennis said negotiations “in good faith” took place over the congressional recess between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. But the White House  threw a wrench into the process over the weekend by insisting that the budget include billions in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and for hiring more Border Patrol and ICE officers.

“We want wall funding. We want [immigration] agents. Those are our priorities,” OMB Director Mick Mulvaney told the Associated Press. President Trump’s year-long campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the wall—which even top Republicans dismissed as a fantasy—has turned into vague assurances of eventual reimbursement.

Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2017

Trump is also demanding the budget include upwards of $30 billion more for the military and the ability to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities.

Despite this White House bluster, Republicans in Congress do not seem eager to push for these demands if doing so would risk a shutdown on their watch. As Rep. Davis (R-IL) told CNN on Friday when asked about the border wall funding: “I don’t think there’s any appetite for a shutdown.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has previously vowed to block any new funding for what he calls a “pointless wall,” boasted last week that negotiations over recess were “so far, so good” for Democrats.

If Congress can’t come to an agreement in the next four days, however, Dennis predicted they may pass a “one-week patch to buy more time.”

Scandling agreed that a fair amount of stalling is the most likely outcome. “It sounds like they may kick the can down the road,” he told TPM.

Groundhog Day for health care

After the first version of GOP health care bill died a humiliating death in March—pulled from the floor minutes before a vote that would have defeated the legislation—top Republicans vowed to stop setting “arbitrary deadlines” and to be more transparent the next time around.

“One of the lessons we learned from this process is to let it be slow and deliberate and give everyone a chance to try to bring their ideas to the table,” Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee told reporters before recess.

But under pressure from a White House desperate for a tangible victory within the largely meaningless “first 100 days” window, the GOP is gearing up for another rushed vote on a revised bill drafted behind closed doors over the recess.

Though no legislative text has been unveiled and no whip count taken to gauge support, some members made noises last week about a brand new amendment they say can bring the House GOP’s warring factions together and get the struggling health care bill across the finish line.

This latest act in the GOP’s Kabuki health care drama has played out much like the previous amendments and deals they have rolled out—which similarly have done nothing to bridge the fundamental ideological divide between lawmakers who believe the government has no business at all in the health care sector and those who believe the government has a responsibility to care for the sick and the vulnerable.

The question nagging Republicans, Scandling says, is: “For every Freedom Caucus vote they get, how many moderates do they lose?”

Almost immediately after the latest deal was announced, a proposal to allow states to easily opt of Obamacare’s cost protections for people with pre-existing conditions, lawmakers were tamping down expectations—telling TPM that it is not clear the measure could garner the 216 votes necessary to pass the House. Others say even the prospects of a vote on the bill this week are dim.

Republicans in Congress are skeptical about the White House pushing AHCA next week. From a GOP aide close to health care negotiations: http://pic.twitter.com/ig2RkhNfX1

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) April 21, 2017

Still, despite the high likelihood of another embarrassing collapse, the Trump administration is calling for a vote as soon as Wednesday.

“They have to show they’re trying to move the ball forward,” Scandling said. “It’s kind of like a Hail Mary pass in my opinion, but it’s important to the Speaker and President to get a win on the board.”

Tax morass

The drawn out song-and-dance around health care, the budget, the border wall, and sanctuary cities may be a mere opening act to President Trump and Capitol Hill Republicans plans to tackle an overhaul of the U.S. tax code.

For decades, the raison d’etre for the GOP has been cutting taxes, and the Trump administration came into office promising to deliver on this by Congress’ August recess. But after watching a Hill Republicans’ seven-years-long battle cry to repeal Obamacare collapse in a just a few weeks, hopes for meeting the August deadline have faded.

“Tax relief by August is never happening,” Scandling said. “Everyone in Washington knows it’s an unrealistic deadline.”

Again, as with health care, Republicans have not yet addressed some basic hurdles. For one, will Republicans who have for years decried the ballooning federal deficit support the deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that would add an estimated $6.2 trillion dollars to that deficit?

“If you don’t have a savings, it can’t move forward,” Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) told TPM before leaving DC for recess. “In a conference that doesn’t like deficits, you have to have a pay-for. If all you do is cut taxes, there’s the question of the pay-for and our $20 trillion in debt.”

Without a revenue generator, Republicans may only be able to propose a very modest tax cut, though this will do little to inspire lawmakers desperate for a tangible victory to show their constituents ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

“If you only cut the corporate tax rate from 35 to 34 [percent], what have you really accomplished?” Collins said. “We’re looking for dramatic cuts.”

Additionally, any plan that increases the deficit over the next decade can’t pass the Senate with a simple majority vote under the rules of reconciliation, meaning Republicans would need to win over Democratic votes in an atmosphere where fired-up Democrats are in no mood to bail out their colleagues and help President Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin provided a laughable answer to this conundrum last week, assuring lawmakers and the public that the plan to slash corporate taxes will “pay for itself with growth” and generate at least $2 trillion dollars—a promise even conservative economists characterize as fuzzy math and wishful thinking.

What options are left? The one concrete proposal on the table to raise revenue, a border adjustment tax (BAT), has come under fire from those fearing constituent anger over higher prices at grocery stores, Walmarts, and gas stations.

“It’s completely dead in the water in the Senate,” said Scandling bluntly.

And the one proposal aimed at reducing the tax of middle class working Americans, the elimination of the payroll tax, is already drawing the ire of the AARP and other advocacy groups who note that this would imperil the Social Security trust fund.

Congressional and budget experts tell TPM to expect either a modest or temporary tax cut from Congress this year—though not by August—or nothing at all.

“I never thought they’d get tax reform done this year,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked for decades for the Senate Budget Committee. “The only possible solution is something very simple.”

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2olL3NG

[swipestream]

Science Fiction New Release Roundup: 11 November 2017

This collection of the latest new releases in science fiction features a space-based litRPG, future knights clad in mecha armor, a final confrontation against a conquering empire on an alien world, and, in time for Veteran’s Day, a collection of post-apocalyptic animal stories to support the charity Pets for Vets.

*     *     *      *      *

Blood World (Undying Mercenaries #8) – B. V. Larson

A dirty deal was struck. Humanity was allowed to keep three hundred rebellious worlds. In return, we declared war on a powerful enemy from beyond the frontier.

A frantic build-up of forces has begun, but the task is hopeless. Seeking allies, Earth’s legions are sent to BLOOD WORLD. A planet on the fringe of known space, where the people only respect masters of combat.

Earth’s Legions must impress them, but other alien powers have been invited to join the contest. The prize consists of billions of loyal troops—Earth must win.

Fighting and dying and fighting again, the struggle is half-mad—but so is James McGill.

*     *     *      *      *

Bunker: Book 5 –  Jay J. Falconer

One Battle. One Man. One Mission.

The insurgents are dug in and ready for war. To them, it’s about guns, guts, and glory.

For Bunker, the flag and freedom are paramount. He’s prepared to fight, despite their overwhelming firepower.

As the final confrontation nears, Bunker knows death comes with it.

Some will perish so others can live.

But in the end, who will stand atop the rubble to claim victory and will there be anything left worth protecting?

*     *     *      *      *

Chronicle Worlds: Tails of Dystopia (Future Worlds #17) – edited by Samuel Peralta and Chris Pourteau

1984 meets The Incredible Journey in thirteen dystopian tales by some of today’s most accomplished writers of science fiction.

In this title in the acclaimed Future Chronicles series of speculative fiction anthologies created by award-winning author Samuel Peralta, discover tales of dark futures, tragic pasts, and a present that’s run off the rails are presented in landscapes as varied as their authors’ imaginations.

Set in bestselling worlds fully realized by their authors, the stories of Chronicle Worlds: Tails of Dystopia unfold as seen through the eyes of animals — tamed and feral, domestic and savage — as they traverse a world of perdition where often their capacity for nobility and self-sacrifice transcends our own.

Enter these worlds with some of the most inventive authors writing today, including USA Today bestselling authors David Adams and Cheri Lasota, Wall Street Journal bestselling authors Daniel Arthur Smith and Ann Christy, and Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award winner Rysa Walker.

Dystopian deserts, post-apocalyptic mountain ranges, the medieval English countryside, the far reaches of the galaxy – in each of these and more, animals and their human companions discover heart-stopping adventure among the ruins – and you will, too.

Proceeds from this volume of The Future Chronicles help support the charity Pets for Vets, which rescues and re-trains shelter animals and matches them with military veterans in need of a companion animal.

*     *     *      *      *

Cruel Stars (Ark Royal #11) – Christopher Nuttal

The Royal Navy never expected to fight a full-scale interstellar war. Everyone knew the Great Powers would never risk everything on armed conflict, when there was plenty of room for everyone in outer space. But when a hostile alien force stumbles across humanity’s handful of colony worlds, the Great Powers must set aside their differences and fight to preserve humanity from utter destruction.

Desperate for starships and manpower, the Royal Navy embarks upon an ambitious plan of converting freighters into makeshift carriers and recruiting reservists and criminals to fill the ranks. Classed as expendable, the small carriers will be given the most dangerous missions to slow a remorseless alien foe…

…And the pardons their crews have been offered will be meaningless if they die.

*     *     *      *      *

Forged in Fire (Destiny’s Crucible #4) – Olan Thorensen

Joseph Colsco has survived what many would not have—cast naked on an alien planet amidst humans speaking an unknown language and with a different culture and history. Now, known to the people of Caedellium as Yozef Kolsko, he has risen out of despair to prominence and finds himself a central figure in the culmination of a struggle against an imperialist power bent on subjugation.

The clans of the Island of Caedellium must gird themselves for what is to come. If they can’t unite to a degree previously unimaginable, they will fall into the bottomless abyss of lost history. Their strengths are their determination, bravery, potentially new allies, and a single man with a mysterious history. The options are simple: victory, death, enslavement.

Yozef Kolsko may have transformed from who he had been on Earth, but did the trials he has undergone produced a savior some of his adopted people see him as or is he an illusion? The crucible of fate is about to yield a final product, but is the result enough against a formidable enemy?

*     *     *      *      *

Showdown (Rise of Mankind #10) – John Walker

The decades long conflict comes crashing to a dramatic conclusion as the alliance faces off with their age old enemy to determine the fate of the galaxy. As the massive fleet launches for a final battle, The Behemoth and The Crystal Font are tasked with a dangerous mission to destroy a transmission facility which may well be the deciding factor in the outcome of the attack.

They’ve committed everything, heading into a situation which may well spell their end. Pilots, marines and crewmen alike look toward the moment that will make history regardless if they are victorious. A win means peace for the beleaguered alliance, a chance to heal from the wounds of war while a loss could lead to the destruction of their respective cultures if not civilization as they know it.

*     *     *      *      *

Space Knight #2 – Samuel E. Green and Michael-Scott Earle

To protect the crew against betrayal, Captain Cross sends the Stalwart on a training mission to Ecoma, a gas giant populated by evolved humans with dangerous empathic abilities.

The journey was supposed to be easy: Acquire training from the evolved humans, negotiate the use of magical devices that can protect the knights from mind control, and get a bit of R&R.

Of course, nothing is ever easy with the Stalwart, and Squire Nicholas Lyons soon finds himself battling for his life against sensual mind readers, hordes of bloodthirsty Grendels, enemy kingdom warriors, and a berserker knight named Olav.

“Fun and easy to get into. Great action and likable characters. Tons of fighting which is awesome.” – Amazon reader review

*     *     *      *      *

The Complete Circuit Trilogy – Rhett C. Bruno

Earth is a dying planet. To survive, humanity founds the Circuit, a string of colonies across the solar system, dedicated to mining resources vital to preserving what remains of mankind.

The New Earth Tribunal, a powerful religious faction, rises to rule the Circuit. They believe a Spirit within the Earth will one day appear and welcome humanity back home. Following a string of seemingly random attacks, the Tribunal suspects its mortal enemy, the Ceresians, have again rallied to challenge their absolute rule.

Join an unlikely band of would-be saviors–the Tribunal’s best spy, a roguish Ceresian mercenary, a subservient android and a disgraced general–as they are drawn into a conspiracy destined to change the Circuit forever.

A new, sinister threat has arisen–and it plans to bring down the Tribunal once and for all.

This omnibus contains Executor Rising, Progeny of Vale, and Earthfall.

*     *     *      *      *

The True Measure (Terran Armor Corps #3) – Richard Fox

The Ibarra Nation holds Roland prisoner. The armor soldier’s fate lies in the hands of the inhuman Stacey Ibarra.

Roland will face the truth behind the Ibarra rebellion and decide if his loyalties are to Earth, or his ideals.

While the Iron Dragoons recover from their last battle, dark forces are at work. Gideon is called as a witness to New Bastion, where the treaty that opened the stars to humanity may force all-out war with the Ibarras or turn the rest of the galaxy against Earth.

Beyond the edge of known space, an old enemy readies a vendetta that can only be ended with humanity’s extinction.

“This story (and these stories) bring the guts and the glory of the infantry back, with the added tie to the ancient and honored knights. One of the best military series I’ve ever read!”–Amazon Reader Review

Science Fiction New Release Roundup: 11 November 2017 published first on http://ift.tt/2zdiasi