Amid talks of a historic deal with North Korea and a possible Noble Peace Prize for President Donald Trump (chiefly among his GOP supporters, his aides, and, well, himself), North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems to be slamming the brakes on the negotiations.
While White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration is “still hopeful that the meeting will take place,” signalling that the president is ready for “tough negotiations,” it&...
politics
A remapped Pennsylvania spells serious trouble for Keith Rothfus
WEXFORD, PENNSYLVANIA — In the days following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, western Pennsylvania resident Linda Bishop was scouring Facebook to find progressives, like herself, who felt lost and were eager to take action.
“I didn’t know what to do after the election. So I just started going to all kinds of [progressive] meetings … I just was trying to find a home,” said Bishop.
Bishop recalled attending a meeting organized by a group of progressives from Frank...
Trump blames “global freeloading” for costly US drugs. That’s not the problem
Introducing his plan to reduce prescription drug prices in America today, Donald Trump said his government would focus on “tougher negotiation, more competition, and much lower prices.”
The president criticized drug makers and insurance companies for failing to put...
Trump breaks key populist campaign promise to negotiate Medicare drug prices
On the campaign trail, candidate Trump promised to save hundreds of billions of dollars standing up to the pharmaceutical industry, and said he’d “negotiate like crazy” to bring down Medicare prescription drug prices.
Allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies for better prices has long been a goal for progressives, and when voters heard Trump stray from the Republican party orthodoxy, railing against Big Pharma as he asked for their support, many ...
Health Department secretary open to national Medicaid work requirements
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told a Senate panel Thursday that he’s willing to work with Congress on legislation that would require people to work a designated amount of hours or lose Medicaid.
States that want to implement Medicaid work requirements have so far sought federal permission to do so, by waiver, but now, Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-LA) is aiming to go further by proposing that the federal government impose work requirements across the board in ever...
Pharmaceutical giant paid Michael Cohen over $1 million — for work he was ‘unable’ to complete
The drug giant Novartis paid Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney and longtime “fixer,” more than $1 million for health care policy consulting work — and then continued to pay him even after the company quickly realized Cohen couldn’t help them.
Cohen signed a one-year contract with Novartis in February 2017, at the cost of $100,000 a month, allegedly to advise the company on “how the Trump administration might approach certai...
Trump reportedly won’t sign farm bill unless it includes work requirements for poor people
President Donald Trump is expected to tell lawmakers Wednesday that he intends to veto the farm bill unless it includes tighter work requirements for individuals receiving food stamps, two people familiar with the deliberations told the Wall Street Journal.
Work requirements for food stamps, known officially as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), are the most controversial portion of the farm bill, which provides funding for SNAP and must be re-authorized by the ...
Trump tries to fix deficit caused by tax cuts by cutting billions from children’s health care
The Trump administration is set to ask Congress to claw back $15 billion in federal spending. If passed, it would be the largest “rescission” package passed in American history.
Nearly half of the cuts — roughly $7 billion — would come from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a program many low-income families depend on for coverage. The White House claims the cuts will not have an impact on the program, which currently has an enrollment of about 9 mill...
Trump administration stops short of approving the most restrictive Medicaid policy yet
The Trump administration just denied Kansas’ request to create an unprecedented “lifetime limit” on Medicaid, a federal insurance largely for the poor and disabled.
“We seek to create a pathway out of poverty, but we also understand that people’s circumstances change, and we must ensure that our programs are sustainable and available to them when they need and qualify for them,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma ...
Meet Noel Francisco: The man who will supervise Mueller if Trump fires Rosenstein
Even before he became Donald Trump’s top Supreme Court advocate, Solicitor General Noel Francisco was a magnet for Trumpian causes. Francisco was one of the tobacco industry‘s top appellate advocates. And he represented the coal company at the heart of a deadly mining disaster — a coal company owned by Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
In the Supreme Court, Francisco convinced the justices to effectively strip President Obama of the recess appointments ...