On Thursday, the House narrowly passed the American Health Care Act, 217-213. Every Democrat voted against the GOP health-care bill, as did 20 Republicans. 217 Republicans voted in favor. The bill passed after a lengthy struggle by Republican leadership to win over moderates who were concerned the bill threatened coverage for people with pre-existing conditions,…
A bipartisan $1.1 trillion spending bill that will keep the federal government running through September was approved Wednesday by the House. The bill does not include any funding for President Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, secures funding for Planned Parenthood, and adds $15 billion to the military’s budget. The National Endowment…
A little-noticed amendment to the Obamacare repeal effort now before the House would let U.S. employers gut health coverage, The Wall Street Journal reported. Such a provision would affect about half the country, and the amendment lets states obtain waivers from certain Affordable Care Act regulations, freeing insurers from a mandate stipulating that they cover…
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said a shutdown of the U.S. government would be necessary in order to fix the “mess” in Congress. “The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there!” Trump tweeted. “We either elect more Republican Senators…
President Trump has admitted that running the country is not quite as easy as he thought it would be. In an interview with Reuters published Thursday, Trump opened up about his impressions from his first 100 days in the White House, saying he feels like he’s in his “own little cocoon” and misses driving. “I…
Democrat Jon Ossoff fell just short of the 50 percent mark in Tuesday’s special election for a House seat in Georgia’s 6th congressional district, an affluent and reliably conservative area in Atlanta’s northern suburbs that has sent Republicans to Congress since electing Newt Gingrich in 1978. Ossoff won roughly 48 percent of the vote in…
Last summer, the FBI applied for and was granted a secret court order allowing agents to monitor the communications of Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to candidate Donald Trump, “after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power,…
The U.S. Senate confirmed Neil M. Gorsuch to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, capping more than a year of bitter partisan bickering over the ideological balance of the nation’s highest court. Senators voted to confirm Gorsuch, 49, a Denver-based judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, who will become the…
On Tuesday night, as the Senate began debate on the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Politico reported that in a 2006 book and earlier academic articles, Gorsuch had “copied the structure and language used by several authors and failed to cite source material,” throwing a last-minute charge of plagiarism into the bitter partisan…
Two Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota — said Thursday that they would vote to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. Manchin, who frequently crosses the aisle to side with the GOP, said he found Gorsuch to be “an honest and thoughtful man,” and that…
Republican lawmakers in North Carolina announced late Wednesday that they have reached an agreement to repeal a state law prohibiting transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond to their gender identities. The deal, reached with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, an outspoken opponent of the controversial law, came as the state was on the verge of…
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Friday accused House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) of running a “dead-of-night excursion” for documents on alleged NSA surveillance of Trump associates, keeping the rest of his committee members “in the dark.” Schiff, the ranking member of the intelligence committee, held a press conference an hour after Nunes, and…
A lawyer for Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, reached out to the House Intelligence Committee to volunteer his testimony before the panel, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said during a Friday press conference. Manafort has offered to be “voluntarily interviewed” by the committee, but whether it will happen in either open or closed session…
President Trump has urged a vote on the American Health Care Act on Friday after the vote was postponed Thursday due to a lack of sufficient support to pass it. According to The Washington Post, Trump delivered an ultimatum: Pass the bill or he will move on from the repeal-and-replace cause. House Speaker Paul Ryan…
Republicans say they still plan to put the American Health Care Act up for a vote on Thursday, even as the White House and House Republican leaders continue to work to whip up enough votes to ensure passage. Late Wednesday, the White House and the conservative House Freedom Caucus reportedly reached a deal to strike…
FBI Director James Comey confirmed investigation into potential collusion between Russia & Trump camp #ComeyHearing James Comey, the Director of the FBI, has confirmed that the agency is investigating any possible links between people associated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia. Mr Comey, appearing before the House intelligence committee, took the usual step of…
Democrats in Congress have long argued that the ongoing intelligence committee investigations into Russia’s interference in the presidential election and the Trump campaign’s ties to the Kremlin are unlikely to get to the bottom of the issue. Now a group of “Never Trump” Republicans are planning to pressure GOP leaders to establish a bipartisan select…
President Donald Trump will allegedly donate his presidential salary to an undetermined charity at the end of the year, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters during a Monday press briefing. In November, Trump promised to forgo the $400,000 salary, telling 60 Minutes that “I’m not going to the take the salary.” However, federal…
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Monday released its cost estimate for the American Health Care Act, the Republican proposal to replace ObamaCare. The CBO’s report says that the GOP plan would reduce the federal deficit by $337 billion by 2026, with the most savings coming from “reductions in outlays for Medicaid and from the…
John Oliver ripped apart the latest healthcare reform, referring to it as “shitty Obamacare”. He then proceed to exposes the American Health Care Act, championed by the House speaker, Paul Ryan, saying: “You may not have wanted it, it looks awful, but it’s here anyway” which he likened to “Pirates of the Caribbean 5: The…
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) on Monday morning refused to say that Muslim Americans are equal to German Americans in their usefulness to society—effectively quadrupling-down on his previous comments that white people have made greater contributions to Western civilization than other “sub-groups.” King appeared on CNN specifically to discuss his Sunday afternoon tweet about a far-right…
The FBI’s counterintelligence team is still looking into the potential ties between a Russian bank and the Trump Organization—despite a wide public dismissal of the possible connection several months ago, CNN reports. The same team that is looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election is conducting the inquiry on the Trump company and an…
GOPer Rep. Jason Chaffetz said to CNN on Tuesday that some Americans regarding to their healthcare choice may come down to buying a new iPhone or paying for medical coverage. “You know what, Americans have choices. And they’ve got to make a choice,” said Chaffet. “And so maybe, rather than getting that new iPhone that…
A new bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate—the crux of President Obama’s signature health-care law—and replace it was released on Monday. The legislation would offer individual tax credits to purchase health insurance and would reportedly keep the ACA’s protections for those with pre-existing conditions; but would allow insurers to raise premiums for…
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said he was acting in his capacity as a U.S. senator when he met with the Russian ambassador at the Republican National Convention, but The Wall Street Journal reports that he paid for related expenses with his political funds and that he spoke about President Trump’s campaign at the event.…
Michael T. Flynn, then Donald J. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, had a previously undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador in December to “establish a line of communication” between the new administration and the Russian government, the White House said on Thursday. Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and now a senior adviser, also participated in…
President Trump admitted in a statement Thursday night that Attorney General Jeff Sessions could have responded to a question posed during his confirmation hearing “more accurately,” but blamed Democrats for bringing attention to the fact that Sessions said he never interacted with Russian officials during the campaign when he actually met the Russian ambassador to…
House Republicans voted en masse to block a resolution that would have forced Trump to turn his tax returns over to Congress on Monday night. The measure was introduced by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Under a 1924 law, the Ways and Means Committee is empowered to…
President Donald Trump addressed both houses of Congress Tuesday night. You can read his speech as provided by the White House below: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States, and Citizens of America: Tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of Black History Month, we…
The Democratic National Committee met in Atlanta on Saturday and chose former Labor Secretary Tom Perez as the new DNC chair, an important step of self-definition for a party seeking new direction after its unexpected loss of the White House in November. Seven candidates were in contention for the position, but Perez, the preferred candidate…
