“Here’s how the proposed Republican American Health Care Act—along with various amendments to the bill—compares to the 2010 Affordable Care Act.” More.
Executive Branch
The executive branch personnel (White House) including the president, the cabinet and advisors.
Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps and Unemployment on the GOP Chopping Block
“The House Budget Committee is considering instructing Congress to pursue the cuts to a rarely-touched slice of the budget that totaled $2.4 trillion in 2016 and which includes spending on safety-net programs like Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits and food stamps.” More.
Thoughts From a Hospital Bed
“And what it means to be healthy, or unhealthy, in the United States of 2017.” More …
Republicans’ Trumpcare Bill Takes $600 Billion Out of Health Care to Cut Taxes for the Rich
Trumpcare eliminates $600 billion in taxes. “When you take all that money out of the system, something has to give. And in the case of the various iterations of Affordable Care Act repeal, the thing that gives is the quality of health insurance provided to Americans with below-average incomes or above-average health needs.
- It eliminates a 3.8 percent tax that applied to capital gains, dividend, and interest income for families with $250,000 or more in income ($125,000 for singles).
- It eliminates a 0.9 percent tax on wage income in excess of $250,000 a year ($200,000 for unmarried people).
- It eliminates taxes on health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and medical device manufacturers.” More.
These Are All the People the Republican Trumpcare Bill Will Hurt
“The Congressional Budget Office estimated in March that 24 million people would lose health insurance if the AHCA were to pass, and the changes made to the bill in the ensuing two months have only made it less generous and more likely to jeopardize coverage. And because the bill substantially weakens regulations for both individual and employer plans, millions of people who still get insurance will see the extent of their coverage shrink, and see themselves forced to pay out of pocket for expensive procedures that would otherwise be covered.” More …
Blackwater Founder Held Seychelles Meeting to Establish Trump-Russia Back Channel: Report
“Blackwater founder Erik Prince, brother of Betsy DeVos, met with a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin in early January in what The Washington Post reports was an apparent effort to create a back channel line of communications between Moscow and the incoming Trump administration. The meeting, on the Seychelles islands, reportedly occurred less than two weeks before President Trump’s inauguration.” More.
Workers Endured Long Hours, Low Pay at Chinese Factory Used by Ivanka Trump’s Clothing-Maker
“Workers at a factory in China used by the company that makes clothing for Ivanka Trump’s fashion line and other brands worked nearly 60 hours a week to earn wages of little more than $62 a week, according to a factory audit released Monday.” More.
Trump Is Slashing Programs Linking Climate Change to U.S. National Security
“President Donald Trump, with nearly all the government’s climate change work in his crosshairs, is poised to dramatically scale back environmental security programs — perhaps eliminating many entirely — through dramatic budget cuts. Many of these programs help cities cope with water emergencies. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, one microbiologist interviewed by ABC News sampled floodwaters in New Orleans and found bacteria linked to sewage at 45,000 times the level considered safe for swimming. Seven years later, Hurricane Sandy inundated East Coast water treatment plants to the point of overflow, releasing a total of 10.9 billion gallons of sewage into waterways and streets along the mid-Atlantic coast. In places like Camden, New Jersey, an economically depressed, mostly black and Latino community with an outdated sewer system, the risk of contaminated water is more routine: Sewage flows into the streets amid hard rains.” More.
Evaluating Trump’s First 100 Days — On His Own Terms
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Specter of Illegitimacy Haunts Trump’s First 100 Days
“Donald Trump narrowly won his party’s nomination despite the clear misgivings of his party’s professional class, which viewed him as erratic, uninformed, and dangerous. He won the presidency despite losing by an unprecedented three million votes nationwide, with the benefit of extraordinary interventions by the FBI director and Russian intelligence to help criminalize and discredit his opponent. All these things add up to a crisis of legitimacy. And yet, rather than confronting the crisis of legitimacy hovering over them, all the actions Trump and his governing partners have taken over their first 100 days have deepened it.” More.