#trump is also not an unifier. we can tell trump welcomes division

[amisbro]

Alright let’s talk about it again

So on twitter recently I saw someone talking about how UtaPri became “divided” as it were.  This is funny to me because of the fact that I literally made a post about this on here not that long ago and so I thought we would have this discussion again “Is the fandom actually divided?” I mean to a degree...yeah you can say that and I don’t like writing that but its something which is an unavoidable truth. The biggest reason for this is well...because HEAVENS has become a fixture in the series and I can guarantee you that if they hadn’t the fandom would have been a lot closer and more unified because you wouldn’t have the camps that want to see HEAVENS more involved in the franchise and those that have been pretty much indifferent to them as is.  This has caused a bigger clash than it should have because...a lot of the time now when things get announced you will more than likely start to see people go “Where’s HEAVENS?” And I mean look...I get why people get annoyed with this because you just want to enjoy the content without hearing this a lot.  I respect that actually but we still need to understand this: As long as HEAVENS is included in the series there will be people that want them included in more media beit an Anime season ,their own Stage , A VN etc etc etc so if you are sick of hearing it I do apologize but you have to understand that not REALLY getting the content that say a QN or a STARISH gets is pretty annoying.  I’m genuinely shocked that Broccoli included them in the Prince Cats line and more surprised that Int’l fans didn’t pitch a fit because of the fact that they are included on the announcement in the UtaPri twitter instead of...you know...on their OWN twitter?! Now if you think this is harsh cool...I get it but the thing is that ,when it comes to Shining Live, there are projects or songs that have had HEAVENS in them and then KLab doesn’t include (at the very least) the songs which is weird!  It’s almost like SL tries to write this Canon where HEAVENS doesn’t exist even though they have to promote a CD project that might have had songs for them IN IT! The PERFECT example is this: So we had the songs “SUPER STAR” “This Is...” and “GENESIS” (not the band but HEAVENS’ song) released and of course the big thing they did WAS...release the first two but...not include the third What happened? Well of course apparently people got irritated because of the fact that (I guess) people wanted the HEAVENS song to be included and the fans from the STARISH/QN contingent got annoyed with it.  I get it trust me and I respect that people got annoyed but what we need to also remember is that was literally a song included on ONE DISC!  It’s not like the song was a separate song (Like GIRA SEVEN and Secret Shangri-La were) but it was a song on one disc.  The song doesn’t get used and I guess that people were irritated. Now the argument that is always heard is “Well its called Shining Live” It is...and I wonder if we have started to see a drop off because of that branding? Like okay look..,we get that people will say that HEAVENS is “too new” or “They don’t have enough songs” but I would like to remind people that HEAVENS as a whole has been around since about 2013.  The original Incarnation debuted on 6/6/2013 so that is what we go by there.  Now if we go with the argument of “They don’t have enough songs” Well really who’s fault is that?  It’s clear that Broccoli spends a lot of time getting Agematsu to write songs and so forth for STARISH and QN so of course they have a lot more songs...when you literally have only one CD a year (Group CD kids) its harder to build up a catalog of songs for HEAVENS. But this goes into the whole thing about the fandom being “divided” YES the fandom has this problem and it won’t be going away anytime soon I’m afraid.  Literally it will go away when one of two things happens 1.  The series ends 2.  HEAVENS gets closer to proper representation in the franchise...if I am honest the former seems more likely It is also fascinating to see that its been...6 years since we had a proper VN for the franchise and if we remember the inclusion of HEAVENS in Dolce Vita was announced back in 2017 and if I remember the hype for their inclusions was about that of the “explosion” in the Omega/Moxley Barbed Wire match...in simpler terms it was basically sparklers!  Trust and believe though if that had been an announcement of a new STARISH VN there would have been hype for weeks about it! The problem here is that the fandom on the whole (Japanese and International) seems “Okay” with the concept of the two “Main groups” getting all the content while HEAVENS fans gets scraps.  Literally the frustration that has to be bottled up because fans of HEAVENS are basically told to “be quiet” is like the worst part of it.  It would be NICE if instead of that happening the fandom tried to get “close to equal treatment” for all three groups and then maybe this “division” I read about in a tweet would go away.  The problem is every time it feels like it could some drama starter has to take a blog post from here and remind people about the “NEXT DOOR Mess” (which I have moved past for the most part btw) and instead of moving the hell on and trying to welcome HEAVENS fans into the fold...that part doesn’t happen (or at the very least) not on the Int’l side.  It would be nice to not have to have drama and just have people enjoy the series and not have to have group chats on twitter that are basically “HEAVENS fans group chats”.  It would be nice instead to have GC where we can all chat about the series and things we are looking forward to (I ,for one, am looking forward to the next step of the “Road to 7th Stage” myself) but we have to get rid of the division.  Trust me when I tell you I don’t want to be talking about this again this time NEXT YEAR! Somehow we have to become a “Family” (or the closest thing to it) again and do I know how we are going to do that?  NOPE but I am open to suggestions. Here is something I feel I need to clear up Do I have my bias in the UtaPri series?  Yes and we know who it is Do I hate either of the other two groups?  No and if you honestly think that then that is a YOU problem! Do I still enjoy the series for what it is?  Yes of course but again I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have my group and I want the best for them.  Some might argue that is what is detracting for it and you know what?  You might be onto something but I am stubborn to a fault...I’m a Gemini so that is basically a given sadly. Let me end on this Am I excited for the next “Project” for UtaPri?  I’m more curious to understand what the hell it actually is! Am I excited for 7th stage?  I mean yeah since its been 4 years plus since we had one!  Like no joke the last time we had one TRUMP was in office!  Ponder that for a second.  Trump was in office and Brexit happened in the same year (I remember that too.  Watched it on facebook when they had the Leave/Remain vote). Am I excited to see the next “Pure HEAVENS” project down the line?  We shall see.  I’d prefer an actual Anime project but if they get something like whatever STARISH and QN will get then fine.  I just need to understand what the hell it is! You know what I am most excited for?  The day when we can stop being basically the “Shining Agency” camp and the “Raging Entertainment” (HEAVENS) camp and just be a family again...let’s try to get there and see what happens no? take it easy

[professionalsuethor]

So, this is a really sensitive topic and if you're easily offended I ask that you scroll past this post. For those who wanna know what I read for? Hit the Read More tab and delve right on in with me. Okay, so, like, I asked Tarot: "What can we do to clean up the mess/shit hole we've made of America so far?" This question was inspired by a post my friend made a few days ago on Facebook. I used three different decks for this question: The Rider-Waite-Smith deck, The Hermetic Tarot deck, and the Queen of the Moon Oracle deck. These were used for specific energies of the answers I needed. The RWS deck(for the Celtic Cross spread) was used to glean typical information. The Hermetic Tarot was used for clear-cut, no bullshit, straight to the point without the frills, kind of answer. The Oracle deck was used just to glean/enhance the energy of the answer of the whole thing. So, here's the reading: First off, the topic of the reading is the X(Ten) of Swords(reversed). This is willful ignorance to the injury caused by what inspired the question. When will we get our heads out of our asses and see what the truth actually is? Instead of being separated by stupid shit like pro life vs. pro choice, gun ban vs. constitutional rights regarding guns, welcoming alien residents vs. keeping foreigners out, my religion is better vs. your religion, ect., we're taking on willful ignorance of what/who is really fucking us. Which, even without reading to the end, should be an obvious answer: those who lie to us about how we should be scared of each other instead of uniting for the common and highest good of all, regardless of differences. Because that's what it is to be an American. The card that crosses the topic and that is the main struggle of the reading, is XI Justice. Justice for these people are being blocked and the perpetrator(s) are getting off the hook because they can use the willful ignorance and emotions they struck up between these two groups(the different "parties" we have here in America which have the biggest influence over smaller parties trying to evoke change) to stay in power and to revoke responsibility for the illegal activities they're up to. The goal of the American people is II The High Priestess. We want to be unified once more. The need for the power to be returned to the people is strong because The Priestess teaches us that we don't need a head or authority to tell us what to think, what to do, and what to be, because the power was within us the entire time. We want to disagree but we want to do so lovingly as to not have it a blood bath as the X of Swords(R) implies. As for the deeper history of the Americas: Because of the perversion of II The High Priestess, the V of Cups tells us we put all our hope into individuals who are HUMAN and are as fallible as the rest of us, thus leading to great disappointment. And those who saw that pain wanted to manipulate it cause a divide and break us down, each minority, so they can gain complete control. As a result of this division we ended up with The King of Pentacles(Reversed), Donald Trump, who can easily forego all responsibility for anything he does or says and therefore has a free-for-all because of his money(but moreso because of the influence of monetary power). As far as the near future is concerned, we have the II of Swords, meaning that we're going to be forced to reunite together even though we won't fully know what the far future will bring, but we will be united in love. Because we value our friendships, our relationships, and to know what is more important than what a head-of-state, or mayors, or politicians, say is. This is because we looked inside of ourselves again, realizing that the heart of our goal is the same: To live together in love, even if we disagree, because that's how family works - and families fight a lot. It's a matter of our choices of how we treat each other through these disagreements. We realize that compassion, in the right situation, is more important than correctness. We learn to love again. In Perfect Love and Perfect Trust. What we don't know about this is that everyone has something to offer no matter how big or small on a scale. That we need to switch back to paper voting and humans counting votes so that we won't have an incident of outside governments influencing the vote by hacking our systems. That there should be a law, or amendment to the Constitution that should protect it. Our environment at the moment is XIV Temperance(reversed). Meaning, there is such a split that we're all "bleeding" from the injury and are unsure of who to trust. The fear and concern of the Nation is the Page of Cups(reversed). We're afraid of being lied to again. How do we know whether to believe in what a politician tells us to be afraid of, or of how to love better? You can answer that one. The likely End Result of all of this is VIII Strength(reversed). Just because it's upside down doesn't always mean that it's negative. What it *does* mean, though, is that in the end we're going to be careful of who we trust - and because we're still suffering from our past choices, or the hurt someone else has inflicted on us, we will be more careful. Grief takes time but it is not forever. We can heal and grow; the choice is yours: Will you heal in love or will you harden in fear? And now to the black and white cards: The Hermetic Tarot. "How can America kick themselves into gear and make positive shit happen??" Well, keep on reading, my hard, rockin' amigo! We have The Queen of Wands, The Six of Wands, and The Eight of Pentacles. Here it says that when we trust ourselves and gain confidence in our choices once again(rather than be run by doubt and fear injected to us by our political parties about the people in other parties), we will find good fruit and therefore be victorious. This isn't to say that evil isn't in the world. We should definitely fight evil and atrocities and all the other horrible things that plague humanity. What I'm trying to say is, we should fight the result of evil, not attack or believe another person's core is inherently evil because we prefer abortion or we prefer carrying babies full-term...(Just an example). People are fickle things. We all fuck up. It's just life. But are we going to identify as being fucked up? Are you going to point and blame everyone else for why things are fucked up? No. You accept that it's fucked up and choose to either be better and heal or bitter and hate. Those who teach you how to hate are not your allies. They want something out of you and you are definitely not going to benefit from their empty promises because you hate your black neighbor Fredrick or your immigrant neighbor Juan. Or your transgender neighbor Maxwell. I can go on and on with the examples... But it all boils down to the same thing. As far as the energy card of the reading from the colorful Queen of the Moon Oracle: We get Self-Reflection. This also ties into II The High Priestess. Are we going to be honest and clear about who we are and what we need/want - or are we going to blame others because that's what we're told to do? So yeah, there's my little speck of Tarot from across the internet. Love ya'll. ~Ashley A.

[lastsonlost]

The whole ordeal was spotted by those who keep tabs on Social Justice Warrior movements within the social media space, and they alerted Meyer about it so that he could do a video about it… and he did.

So the gist of it is that Meyer posted up a video to his Diversity & Comics channel making fun of the writer for Iceman, Sina Grace. He made the video shortly after the news broke that Marvel was canceling some of its SJW comic books.

The content in question can be viewed below where you can listen to Meyer’s comments about Sina Grace at the 7:40 mark.

After making the video, Kieran Shiach decided to come to Sina Grace’s aid by rallying the troops to take down Richard C. Meyer’s Patreon account in hopes of getting the Diversity & Comics channel shut down for good.

In a series of tweets on December 26th, 2017, instead of enjoying Christmas Shiach explained to his followers and drive-by Twitter readers why they need kick Meyer out of the comic book community…

“[Meyer] is someone publicly saying that the death of gay men would make society a better place.

“I know people might tell me to let Meyer have his own rot-infested corner of comics but I refuse to let it go unchallenged. This is the person that Rich Johnston and Bleeding Cool is legitimising by placing him on a Top 100 Power List with labels like “divisive.”

“Richard C. Meyer is a bigot with a small but devoted following. We can’t just ignore it, we need to stand against it.”

Schiach’s impassioned speech continued on, where he cited the furry community as an example of a community handling bigotry correctly by excommunicated and excising anyone who doesn’t adopt their worldview, writing…

“When we talk about punching Nazis, it isn’t about hurting them — although that is a plus — it’s about letting them know that no matter where they go their shit isn’t going to be tolerated.

“It applies just as much in online communities as well.

I’m sure @spacetwinks knows more than I do about this, but the furry community seems to be a genuinely great example of a community that took a unified stand against bigots and said “Not here. Never.”

”We need to make these bigots know they are not welcome. Not at our cons and not in our community. We need to get all of their favorite creators to speak out against them. Drive them back to their Bronze Age back-issues.”

As a final act of giving the Social Justice Warriors ammo, he directs them toward Richard C. Meyer’s Patreon account for Diversity & Comics.

Shiach compares the Diversity & Comics community to Trump supporters, saying they “deny things you can hear them say”.

That was enough motivation to get some of the SJWs following Shiach to quickly file reports against Meyer’s channel.

Some of the people in thread attempted to ask why exactly they would want to shut down Meyer’s channels and income? A few more called out Shiach for completely misrepresenting Meyer’s comments. Others defended Meyer, including the administrator of D&C’s Facebook group, who stated that he was gay and friends with Meyer. However, SJWs gaysplained to the D&C admin about throwing other gays under the bus.

Shiach’s antics is nothing new. As pointed out in the Diversity & Comics video at the top of the article by Meyer, the Social Justice Warriors working at DC, Marvel and the media circles have had it out for him and his channel. Previously, the SJWs conspired to harass Meyer at the New York Comic-Con, and they also colluded with Marvel editor Heather Antos to find ways to demonetize his efforts by doxing him and attempting to shut down his Patreon account.

Critical Blast also did an article being critical of the SJWs attempting to start controversy over the comments Meyer made in the Diversity & Comics video.

It’s amazing that these Social Justice Warriors are supposed to be fighting for social justice, but have instead become villains in the story of their own lives.

I attempted to reach out to Kieran Shiach but he has me blocked on Twitter.

[day0one]

Gregg Popovich unleashes fiery statement on Trump: 'What we have is a fool in place of a president'  2 hrs ago

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich doesn’t pull his punches. You may not like what he has to say, but he’ll always tell you exactly what’s on his mind. And after nationwide protests against racial injustice and police brutality over the weekend, he had quite a lot on his mind.

Popovich spoke to The Nation’s Dave Zirin on Sunday, and he touched on several topics that are currently in the news. He began by talking about racism and police violence in response to the death of George Floyd in police custody, and how things continue to stay the same.

“The thing that strikes me is that we all see this police violence and racism and we’ve seen it all before but nothing changes. That’s why these protests have been so explosive. But without leadership and an understanding of what the problem is, there will never be change. And white Americans have avoided reckoning with this problem forever because it’s been our privilege to be able to avoid it. That also has to change.”

Then he moved on to leadership, lamenting the current resident of the White House, President Donald Trump.

“It’s unbelievable. If Trump had a brain, even if it was 99 percent cynical, he would come out and say something to unify people. But he doesn’t care about bringing people together. Even now. That’s how deranged he is. It’s all about him. It’s all about what benefits him personally. It’s never about the greater good. And that’s all he’s ever been.”

Popovich has spoken about Trump before, but given everything that’s happened over the past week, this time he really went in.

“It’s so clear what needs to be done. We need a president to come out and say simply that ‘Black Lives Matter.’ Just say those three words. But he won’t and he can’t. He can’t because it’s more important to him to mollify the small group of followers who validate his insanity. But it’s more than just Trump. The system has to change. I’ll do whatever I can do to help because that’s what leaders do. But he can’t do anything to put us on a positive path because he’s not a leader.

“It’s like what Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz used to say when they had the courage to say it: He’s unfit. But they have chosen instead to be invisible and obsequious in the face of this carnage. In the end what we have is a fool in place of a president, while the person who really runs the country, Senator Mitch McConnell, destroys the United States for generations to come. McConnell has destroyed and degraded our judicial system. He has tried to destroy heath care. He’s destroyed the environment. He’s the master and Trump’s the stooge, and what’s funny is that Trump doesn’t even know it. Trump’s always wanted to be part of the in-group, but McConnell is an in-group of one and Trump plays the fool.

“He’s not just divisive. He’s a destroyer. To be in his presence makes you die. He will eat you alive for his own purposes. I’m appalled that we have a leader who can’t say ‘Black Lives Matter.’ That’s why he hides in the White House basement. He is a coward. He creates a situation and runs away like a grade-schooler. Actually, I think it’s best to ignore him. There is nothing he can do to make this better because of who he is: a deranged idiot.”

As far as the protests that have sprung up across the country (and the world) since the death of George Floyd in police custody, Popovich let up on the gas pedal a little. He gave the protesters advice that he hopes will help them.

“[The protests] are very necessary, but they need to be organized better. It’s frustrating. When Dr. King did a protest, you knew when to show, when to come back the next day. But if you’re just organizing protests and everyone is coming and going in every direction, it doesn’t work that way. If it was nonviolent, they knew to be nonviolent, but this is muddled. More leadership would be very welcome so these incredible mass demonstrations can’t be used by people for other means. We can limit the bad, but only if things are organized better.”

Popovich has never shied away from making political statements and standing up for what he believes in. It’s comforting that even though the NBA is currently suspended due to COVID-19, Popovich hasn’t changed one bit.

[thisdaynews]

Trump could stay ‘out of the political fray’ for only so long

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/trump-could-stay-out-of-the-political-fray-for-only-so-long/

Trump could stay ‘out of the political fray’ for only so long

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive at El Paso International Airport to meet with people affected by the El Paso mass shooting. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo

White House

For most of the day, the president was largely out of sight. But aboard Air Force One, he bashed the Democrats he had just seen.

President Donald Trump struggled on Wednesday to keep his hands off Twitter while visiting first responders and victims of the recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio — despite declaring earlier in the day that he would “stay out of the political fray.”

For most of the day, the president remained largely out of sight from reporters. He first made his way around Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio, where nine people were killed overnight on Sunday by a 24-year-old gunman with an AR-15-style firearm. Even as protests materialized nearby, Trump refrained from venting to members of the news media, who were left to rely on sporadic updates from White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham’s Twitter feed.

Story Continued Below

“While at the hospital, [Trump] says, ‘You had God watching. I want you to know we’re with you all the way,’” Grisham tweeted while Trump and the first lady met with the injured.

As soon as the president reboarded Air Force One, however, he returned to his usual routine — calling out political opponents on Twitter while attempting to distort their words.

First came Trump’s tweet about former Vice President Joe Biden.

Shortly after taking off for El Paso, Texas, where 22 people were shot and killed in a crowded Walmart on Saturday in a heavily Hispanic area, Trump mocked Biden for delivering a “boring” speech about the president’s response to both mass shootings.

“Watching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech,” Trump tweeted from aboard the presidential aircraft. “The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks with this guy. It will be over for them, not to mention the fact that our Country will do poorly with him.”

During his speech in Iowa on Wednesday, Biden, who leads the 2020 Democratic presidential field, accused Trump of inciting violence and propping up white supremacy in a blistering critique of the president’s words and actions during a campaign stop.

Trump “offers no moral leadership, no interest in unifying the nation, no evidence the presidency has awakened his conscience in the least,” Biden said.

The president then trained his ire on two more Democratic politicians: Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. Just minutes after his broadside against Biden, Trump posted a pair of tweets suggesting he had tuned in to a joint news conference that Brown and Whaley held after joining Trump at Miami Valley Hospital.

In part of his remarks, Brown said the president received a warm welcome from the patients.

“They were hurting. He was comforting. He did the right things, Melania did the right things. And it’s his job, in part, to comfort people,” Brown, who said he “wrestled” with how to handle Trump’s visit to Dayton, told reporters.

The two Democrats called for swift action by the president and Congress to enact stricter gun laws, even as Whaley said she remained skeptical that concrete action would be taken.

“Do I think that we’re going to see another mass shooting tomorrow or Friday? Probably, because Washington will not move,” she said, standing beside Brown.

It was unclear which comments set off Trump. But he swiftly accused Whaley and Brown on Twitter of “totally misrepresenting what took place inside the hospital.”

“Their news conference after I left for El Paso was a fraud,” he wrote, describing Brown as a “failed Presidential candidate.” (The Ohio Democrat considered a 2020 bid earlier this year, but decided against formally launching a campaign.)

Their news conference, Trump continued, “bore no resemblance to what took place with those incredible people that I was so lucky to meet and spend time with. They were all amazing!”

A few hours later, Trump doubled down to reporters.

“I turn on the television and there they are saying, ‘I don’t know if it was appropriate for the president to be here,’” he said. “Et cetera, et cetera, the same old line. They’re very dishonest people.”

Members of the president’s reelection campaign, along with White House staff, also criticized the Democrats for, as Trump’s social media adviser Dan Scavino put it, “doing nothing but politicizing a mass shooting.”

“They are disgraceful politicians,” Scavino wrote in a tweet about Brown and Whaley. “The President was treated like a Rock Star inside the hospital, which was all caught on video.”

“They all loved seeing their great President!” he continued, claiming in a separate tweet that “Trump Hating Dems” were attempting to shield voters from the “enthusiasm and love” Trump encountered during his visit.

The outburst left both Democratic figures baffled. When an aide first informed Whaley of the president’s comments, she appeared surprised by his criticism.

“I’m really confused. We said he was treated very well. I don’t know what they’re talking about misrepresenting,” she said in a moment that was captured on video.

“Oh, well,” she added. “You know he lives in his world of Twitter.”

The result was more fodder for Trump critics who have long said he’s prone to inflammatory language in moments of tragedy.

The president dismissed those complaints earlier Wednesday, telling reporters outside the White House that his rhetoric “brings people together,” before scolding undocumented immigrants in another sentence for “pouring in to this country.”

In previous trips to meet with victims following mass shootings, Trump was similarly accused of stoking division and mixing politics with tragedy.

On his way to meet with the survivors of the shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue last October, the president told reporters that the outcome likely would have been different “if there was an armed guard inside the temple.” Local leaders panned the president’s suggestion as unrealistic and insensitive.

“Where do we stop with arming our entire society and feeling as if we can’t be safe anywhere? I just don’t see the answer,” Erica Strassburger, a Pittsburgh City Council member, told ABC News at the time.

More broadly, Wednesday’s reversal — from claiming to be uninterested in delving into “the political fray” to targeting Biden, Brown and Whaley on Twitter — has become a common pattern for Trump. He regularly vacillated over how strongly to defend his remarks that there were “good people” on “both sides” following a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. And more recently, the president reversed course after disavowing attendees who chanted “send her back” about Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), calling them “incredible patriots” only a day later.

Trump’s Wednesday trip comes as the president also discusses potential legislation to expand background checks for gun purchasers. He has claimed to have been in touch with lawmakers reluctant to take up the issue. Representatives from major tech companies have also been invited to the White House on Friday for a discussion on how to better identify and eliminate violent threats or behavior online.

“I think we can do something on background checks like we’ve never done before,” Trump said Wednesday.

Read More

[bountyofbeads]

Teleprompter Trump meets Twitter Trump as the president responds to mass slayings

https://wapo.st/2OH4SNc

Teleprompter Trump meets Twitter Trump as the president responds to mass slayings

By Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker and Josh Dawsey | Published August 05 at 8:10 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted August 6, 2019 |

Teleprompter Trump repudiated Twitter Trump in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Monday.

Speaking in the wake of two mass shootings in less than 24 hours that left at least 31 dead over the weekend, President Trump spoke of “the inherent worth and dignity of every human life” and the scourge of “destructive partisanship.”

“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,” the president said, reading from a script that scrolled on a teleprompter in front of him. He added, “Now is the time to set destructive partisanship aside — so destructive — and find the courage to answer hatred with unity, devotion and love.”

That unifying message stood in stark contrast to more than 2½ years of name-calling, demonizing minorities and inflaming racial animus, much of it carried out on Twitter. Just two hours before his White House speech, Trump tweeted an attack on the “Fake News” media for contributing to a culture of “anger and rage.” And in another set of tweets, the president suggested pairing “strong background checks” with “desperately needed immigration reform” — then dropped the matter entirely during his speech.

Such is the picture of a divisive leader trying to act as a healer, particularly in the aftermath of Saturday’s anti-immigrant attack in El Paso, where officials are still investigating but believe the alleged gunman posted a manifesto that echoed Trump’s harsh rhetoric on immigrants, including describing his attack as “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” Trump, in tweets and in rallies, has repeatedly decried the “invasion” of undocumented immigrants across the nation’s southern border.

The episode and its immediate aftermath illustrate the limits on Trump's ability to speak to the whole nation in a time of tragedy, given both his rhetoric and his focus on appealing primarily to the part of the electorate that voted for him in 2016 and still supports him now. 

As White House officials privately scrambled to plan a visit for Trump later this week to El Paso and Dayton, Ohio — where another gunman killed at least nine and injured at least 27 early Sunday morning — the president found himself unwelcome in the grieving Texas border city.

Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Tex.), whose district includes the El Paso Walmart involved in the massacre, urged the president and his team “to consider the fact that his words and his actions have played a role in this.”

“From my perspective, he is not welcome here,” Escobar said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday. “He should not come here while we are in mourning.”

Former president Barack Obama issued a forceful call Monday for the nation to “soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred or normalizes racist sentiments.”

In a statement posted to his Twitter and Facebook accounts, Obama warned that such language has been at the root of most human tragedy, from slavery to the Holocaust to Rwandan genocide.

Although Obama never mentioned Trump by name, the statement amounted to a tacit rebuke of the president by a predecessor who has largely kept himself out of the public eye since leaving the White House.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, defended Trump’s handling of the El Paso and Dayton shootings and praised him for condemning racism, white supremacy and bigotry.

“He was unequivocal and specific, and I think equal parts grief-stricken, angry and resolved to take action,” Conway told reporters in the driveway of the White House.

Conway also praised her boss for restraining himself from attacking the Democratic presidential candidates who blamed Trump for the shooting.

“They spent most of the weekend on TV screaming and preening, lying in many ways, and I thought expressing some condolence but also just taking potshots at the president and some of his closest advisers, calling them names,” Conway said. “There’s a difference between those who want to be president and try to politicize things and he who is the president and did not respond in-kind today in his remarks.”

Other White House officials pointed to what they described as over-the-top language from Democrats — some of whom called Trump a racist and implied his rhetoric made him at least partially culpable. 

As the shootings unfolded, Trump spent the weekend secluded at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey. Key advisers — including Conway, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, national security adviser John Bolton — were not at the club. 

Senior policy adviser Stephen Miller led the effort to write Monday’s response, with four or five people pitching in, according to two people familiar with the efforts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal private discussions. The group consulted previous speeches the president had given following tragedies, including after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville left one dead and after a 2017 mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas, one of the people said.

Trump spent part of the weekend complaining to allies and club members about media coverage that seemed to blame him for the shootings, two people familiar with his comments said. But, these people added, Trump was not visibly upset or at what they would describe as a “nuclear level.”

The president also offered significant input to the speech, two White House officials said. But according to photographs and videos posted on Instagram, Trump also found time for leisure as he milled about his private property. He was spotted wearing his golf attire and posing for photos with guests, including with a couple holding their wedding reception at Bedminster.

White House aides wanted Trump’s 10 a.m. Monday speech to be the decisive message on the shootings, and on Sunday night and Monday morning talked to him about what he would say and how the tone would be “presidential,” a White House official said.

There had been no internal discussion about linking immigration legislation to background checks — as the president tweeted Monday — because there was no plan to mention that in the speech, White House officials said.

The policy outlines mentioned by the president were scattershot at best — many of them unlikely, poorly defined or marginal in impact. “Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun,” Trump said.

Tom Bossert, a former Homeland Security adviser, said the White House should seize the moment to push bold policy changes. “The country is really galvanized on this right now,” he said. “The president and the people around him should not be worried about the politics and should be trying to figure out how to tie together records of mental health problems and records of gun ownership and everything that goes into keeping them accurate and updated.” 

But for critics of Trump, his teleprompter remarks felt perfunctory and even disingenuous. 

“If you laid that speech next to videos of his rallies, it’s mind-boggling,” said David Axelrod, a senior adviser Obama. “He said what you’d want the president to say. The problem is that in real life, he’s a provocateur, not a healer, and his whole political project depends on those provocations. And so how long will it be before he returns to ‘Twitter Trump’ stirring the pot? How long before the next rally when he uses the dehumanizing language that he decried in his remarks today?”

Indeed, the president has a history of walking back his more conciliatory comments and retreating into the incendiary language he believes his base prefers. After Charlottesville, for example, Trump faced a storm of criticism for condemning “violence on many sides,” prompting him to deliver teleprompter remarks admonishing white supremacists — only to backtrack again by saying there were “very fine people” on both sides.

Current and former administration officials said Trump can be persuaded to strike a more unifying tone, but will quickly revert if he faces criticism from the news media or Democrats.

Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion, said that “Twitter is the closest to Donald Trump’s core that you’re going to get publicly.”

When he reads from a teleprompter, O’Brien added, Trump has little “tells” — those moments when he goes off script. The president did so at the end of his remarks Monday, when he accidentally blessed the memory of “those who perished in Toledo” — even though the shootings were in Dayton and El Paso. (When the White House sent out an official transcript of his speech, they had simply crossed out “in Toledo” from the text).

The message that sends, O’Brien said, is “that he just doesn’t care enough, that he isn’t steeped in the details, that he wasn’t checking in over the weekend with his people, that he wasn’t making plans to go there, that he wasn’t in touch with the governor of Ohio and the mayor of Dayton.”

On Monday morning, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democrat, said she had not received a call from the president but had heard he was planning a visit for Wednesday.

“And, you know,” she added, “he might be going to Toledo.” 

Trump says white supremacy and sinister ideologies ‘must be defeated.’ Will he lead the way?

By Dan Balz | Published August 05 at 5:31 PM ET | Washington Post | Posted August 6, 2019 |

On Monday, President Trump spoke. He decried the weekend slaughters in El Paso and Dayton that left 31 people dead and dozens more wounded. He warned against a culture of hate. He even spoke about the rising threat of white nationalism. His words were scripted for a president. But did he believe what he said?

With the nation in shock and so many Americans feeling a sense of despair and helplessness, the president’s language was prepared to fit the moment. He has been given appropriate words at other times in his presidency, which he has read from a teleprompter, often with only minimal emotion. It is what presidents are expected to do. What this president does before and after those moments is the real issue.

Absent from the president’s remarks Monday was any note of self-reflection. He did not acknowledge even in the slightest that presidential language and presidential leadership help to set a tone, for good or ill. In decrying white supremacy, he did not suggest that, in any way, he has given aid and comfort to those who preach hatred or even violence against immigrants or people of color.

That is why there can be no sense of confidence that the weekend rampages of gun violence will cause a change in the president’s behavior. In fact, everything suggests there will be no change at all. His default position as a politician is to divide and incite, not to unite and inspire. In nearly three years as president, he has yet to make any consistent effort to speak beyond the constituency that elected him. That is what makes him different from other presidents.

When he has been required to play the role of healer-in-chief, as all presidents have, he has soon after reverted to form. Everyone does, which is why each moment of terror from random gunshots in a public place produces a temporary call for action that is ignored. But politicians, especially presidents, carry an extra burden. One pattern of the Trump presidency has been to overcorrect, to undo the good words by later lashing out at perceived opponents or critics when he has not gotten the praise he expects.

The mix of racism, madness and political impotence has created a toxic combination that has infected the politics of the country. No one expects a magical answer to the multiple causes of mass shootings, but the absence even of real efforts to address the conditions and causes has led to the outrage and numbness felt so widely at a moment like now.

“Do something!” a citizen in Dayton shouted at Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on Sunday. The audience quickly joined in, chanting in unison for action, not words. This was a cry of anguish and frustration from a citizenry that has lost faith in its political leaders, political leaders who have mastered the art of offering comfort but little more, as the carnage from gun violence continues to spread.

The president spent much of Monday on Twitter, pledging that the victims of the shootings and their loved ones would not be forgotten, highlighting his call for the death penalty for those convicted of mass murder or of hate crimes and holding the media responsible for contributing to a culture of violence, claiming that “Fake News” is the cause of it.

That he would start down the road of finger-pointing before he had even made his public comments highlights the conflict between the need to rise to the moment presidentially and continuing to carry on the fights and grievances that animate him and his followers.

More telling in the coming weeks and months will be how he conducts himself at his campaign rallies. Will he stoke the audiences as he has in the past? Will he stand by as those audiences issue chants of “lock her up” or “send her back”? Politics as practiced today can be a harsh and unforgiving profession and the campaign ahead likely will be brutally fought. Will the president inflame or will he, as a result of this moment, make some turn in the other direction?

The president is not directly responsible for the weekend shootings. The shooters are. It would be fruitless to make this all about the president, however easy that would be for some. Something bigger has caused this epidemic of gun violence, something deeply rooted in society. America has been a gun-loving nation for centuries.

But the shooters also have enablers, indirectly or directly. Something has brought the anger closer to the surface of late, something that has allowed those with hatred in their hearts, and no doubt some mental problems as well, to take deadly action against innocent people.

The president hinted Monday at a political trade with Democrats as a path to action — tougher background checks for gun purchases coupled with changes in immigration. But in his address from the White House, he made no mention of new gun legislation.

As outlined in his tweet, the proposed deal is a nonstarter. The shooters were both homegrown and one seemed to share the president’s views on immigration. Over many months, Trump has warned of an “invasion” of migrants across the southern border. In a screed posted just before the shootings in El Paso — which officials believe belonged to the alleged killer, though they are continuing to investigate — the attack was described as a response to “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Even if the president were prepared to push hard for new gun legislation, there is no guarantee of success. Former president Barack Obama tried to do so after 26 people, including 20 children, were massacred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012, but didn’t succeed. Nor did the killings of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in February 2018 lead to action.

If those innocent lost lives, along with all the others on the roster of the other recent and horrific mass shootings, were not enough to spur action, the likelihood of something different happening this time is limited.

What might be possible, however, is something that would push back against the rise of white supremacy that is evident and that law enforcement and domestic security experts have identified as a growing threat.

The president called for exactly that on Monday morning.

“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,” he said. “These sinister ideologies must be defeated.”

He has now set a marker for himself and the duration of his presidency, a standard he has yet to meet in office.

[investmart007]

PALM BEACH, Fla | Trump welcomes Abe, gives 'blessing' to Koreas peace talks

New Post has been published on https://goo.gl/y2qTMc

PALM BEACH, Fla | Trump welcomes Abe, gives 'blessing' to Koreas peace talks

PALM BEACH, Fla | April 17, 2018 (AP)(STL.News) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave his blessing for North and South Korea to discuss ending their decadeslong war and said that without his help, the two countries “wouldn’t be discussing anything.”

At Mar-a-Lago with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump confirmed that the two Koreas are negotiating an end to hostilities ahead of a meeting between the North’s Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in next week. The meeting will be the third inter-Korean summit since the Koreas’ 1945 division.

“They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war,” said Trump, who welcomed Abe to his Florida resort on Tuesday.

The White House has said Abe’s visit will give the leaders an opportunity to discuss Trump’s own upcoming summit with Kim, which the president is looking to hold in the next two months. Trump said the U.S. and Japan are “very unified” on the subject of North Korea, though privately Abe is expected to raise Japan’s concerns about the potential summit.

Trump said five locations are under consideration for the summit but offered no further details.

Trump took credit for the inter-Korean talks, saying, “Without us and without me, in particular, I guess you would have to say, they wouldn’t be discussing anything.”

The Abe summit will also serve as a test of whether the fond personal relationship the two leaders have forged on the golf course and over meetings and phone calls has chilled following Trump’s recent moves, including his decision not to exempt Japan from new steel and aluminum tariffs.

White House officials suggested that Trump was open to acceding to Abe’s hopes to obtain a waiver to the protectionist measure, which went into effect last month. Most other key U.S. allies, including Australia, Canada, the European Union, and Mexico, have been granted exemptions.

Issuing Japan the waiver to the Trump-ordered sanctions or opening negotiations on a new trade agreement with Japan are “all on the table,” Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said Tuesday. “That’s why this is such an important meeting.”

The official visit began Tuesday afternoon as an honor cordon of uniformed service-members lined the palm-fringed drive to the club. Trump greeted Abe at the red-carpeted door of the mansion as the pair posed for photos ahead of a planned one-on-one meeting. It will be followed by a small group discussion with top national security officials focused on the Kim summit. The president and first lady Melania Trump will also have dinner with Abe and his wife.

Trump welcomed the two days of meetings at his Mar-a-Lago club. “It’s an honor to have you in Florida with us,” Trump said.

On Wednesday, the agenda will broaden to include other issues affecting the Indo-Pacific region, including trade and energy, and Trump said he and Abe would “sneak out” to play a round of golf.

Trump and Abe will also hold a news conference before the president and first lady host the Japanese delegations for dinner. Abe will return to Japan on Thursday morning.

The first time Trump hosted Abe at Mar-a-Lago shortly after the inauguration, North Korea conducted its first missile test of Trump’s administration, and the two delivered a joint statement denouncing the launch.

This time, Abe’s visit comes weeks after Trump took him — and the region — by surprise by announcing he had accepted an invitation to sit down with Kim following months of increasingly heated rhetoric over the North’s nuclear weapons program.

Abe will be seeking reassurance from Trump that security threats to Japan won’t be overlooked in the U.S.-North Korea summit, slated for May or early June. The Japanese premier has voiced fears that short- and medium-range missiles that pose a threat to Japan might not be part of the U.S. negotiations. “I don’t think that Prime Minister Abe will leave Mar-a-Lago with anything other than a high degree of confidence in the health of the alliance, including as we go into the summit with the North Koreans,” Pottinger said.

Japan is also expected to express support for a U.S. return to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Trump abandoned upon taking office. Trump opened the possibility of rejoining last week amid a trade dispute with China.

But Kudlow suggested that the U.S. rejoining the pact is far from certain, telling reporters Tuesday that “it’s more of a thought than a policy, that’s for sure.” Kudlow added that Trump does not share the view of many U.S. Pacific allies that the trade agreement can serve as an economic bulwark to contain a rising China. “The president regards them as two different issues,” he said.

Both sides insist that Trump and Abe remain close. U.S. officials stressed that Trump has met with Abe more than any other world leader and say they’ve been in “constant contact” since Trump accepted Kim’s invitation.

Abe is also expected to push the issue of Japanese abductees, one of his top policy priorities. Pyongyang has acknowledging abducting 13 Japanese, while Tokyo maintains North Korea abducted 17. Five have been returned to Japan. North Korea says eight others died and denies the remaining four entered its territory. Japan has demanded further investigation.

Shimada said Abe would make the case to Trump that releasing the abductees could help North Korea prove they can be trusted to negotiate in good faith.

The U.S. itself is pushing for the release of three Americans.

After five years in office, Abe is one of Japan’s longest-serving, post-World War II prime ministers but has suffered plummeting poll ratings over allegations that a school linked to his wife received preferential government treatment in a land sale.

By JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER by  Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (U.S)

[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.”

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[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

[investmart007]

PALM BEACH, Fla | Trump welcomes Abe, gives 'blessing' to Koreas peace talks

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PALM BEACH, Fla | Trump welcomes Abe, gives 'blessing' to Koreas peace talks

PALM BEACH, Fla | April 17, 2018 (AP)(STL.News) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave his blessing for North and South Korea to discuss ending their decadeslong war and said that without his help, the two countries “wouldn’t be discussing anything.”

At Mar-a-Lago with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump confirmed that the two Koreas are negotiating an end to hostilities ahead of a meeting between the North’s Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in next week. The meeting will be the third inter-Korean summit since the Koreas’ 1945 division.

“They do have my blessing to discuss the end of the war,” said Trump, who welcomed Abe to his Florida resort on Tuesday.

The White House has said Abe’s visit will give the leaders an opportunity to discuss Trump’s own upcoming summit with Kim, which the president is looking to hold in the next two months. Trump said the U.S. and Japan are “very unified” on the subject of North Korea, though privately Abe is expected to raise Japan’s concerns about the potential summit.

Trump said five locations are under consideration for the summit but offered no further details.

Trump took credit for the inter-Korean talks, saying, “Without us and without me, in particular, I guess you would have to say, they wouldn’t be discussing anything.”

The Abe summit will also serve as a test of whether the fond personal relationship the two leaders have forged on the golf course and over meetings and phone calls has chilled following Trump’s recent moves, including his decision not to exempt Japan from new steel and aluminum tariffs.

White House officials suggested that Trump was open to acceding to Abe’s hopes to obtain a waiver to the protectionist measure, which went into effect last month. Most other key U.S. allies, including Australia, Canada, the European Union, and Mexico, have been granted exemptions.

Issuing Japan the waiver to the Trump-ordered sanctions or opening negotiations on a new trade agreement with Japan are “all on the table,” Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council, said Tuesday. “That’s why this is such an important meeting.”

The official visit began Tuesday afternoon as an honor cordon of uniformed service-members lined the palm-fringed drive to the club. Trump greeted Abe at the red-carpeted door of the mansion as the pair posed for photos ahead of a planned one-on-one meeting. It will be followed by a small group discussion with top national security officials focused on the Kim summit. The president and first lady Melania Trump will also have dinner with Abe and his wife.

Trump welcomed the two days of meetings at his Mar-a-Lago club. “It’s an honor to have you in Florida with us,” Trump said.

On Wednesday, the agenda will broaden to include other issues affecting the Indo-Pacific region, including trade and energy, and Trump said he and Abe would “sneak out” to play a round of golf.

Trump and Abe will also hold a news conference before the president and first lady host the Japanese delegations for dinner. Abe will return to Japan on Thursday morning.

The first time Trump hosted Abe at Mar-a-Lago shortly after the inauguration, North Korea conducted its first missile test of Trump’s administration, and the two delivered a joint statement denouncing the launch.

This time, Abe’s visit comes weeks after Trump took him — and the region — by surprise by announcing he had accepted an invitation to sit down with Kim following months of increasingly heated rhetoric over the North’s nuclear weapons program.

Abe will be seeking reassurance from Trump that security threats to Japan won’t be overlooked in the U.S.-North Korea summit, slated for May or early June. The Japanese premier has voiced fears that short- and medium-range missiles that pose a threat to Japan might not be part of the U.S. negotiations. “I don’t think that Prime Minister Abe will leave Mar-a-Lago with anything other than a high degree of confidence in the health of the alliance, including as we go into the summit with the North Koreans,” Pottinger said.

Japan is also expected to express support for a U.S. return to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Trump abandoned upon taking office. Trump opened the possibility of rejoining last week amid a trade dispute with China.

But Kudlow suggested that the U.S. rejoining the pact is far from certain, telling reporters Tuesday that “it’s more of a thought than a policy, that’s for sure.” Kudlow added that Trump does not share the view of many U.S. Pacific allies that the trade agreement can serve as an economic bulwark to contain a rising China. “The president regards them as two different issues,” he said.

Both sides insist that Trump and Abe remain close. U.S. officials stressed that Trump has met with Abe more than any other world leader and say they’ve been in “constant contact” since Trump accepted Kim’s invitation.

Abe is also expected to push the issue of Japanese abductees, one of his top policy priorities. Pyongyang has acknowledging abducting 13 Japanese, while Tokyo maintains North Korea abducted 17. Five have been returned to Japan. North Korea says eight others died and denies the remaining four entered its territory. Japan has demanded further investigation.

Shimada said Abe would make the case to Trump that releasing the abductees could help North Korea prove they can be trusted to negotiate in good faith.

The U.S. itself is pushing for the release of three Americans.

After five years in office, Abe is one of Japan’s longest-serving, post-World War II prime ministers but has suffered plummeting poll ratings over allegations that a school linked to his wife received preferential government treatment in a land sale.

By JILL COLVIN and ZEKE MILLER by  Associated Press – published on STL.News by St. Louis Media, LLC (U.S)