With huge tax cuts projected to create a $1.5tn deficit, cuts to social security and Medicare will surely followSince January, there have been frightening signs that America is becoming an oligarchy overseen by a dictator. From the first, Donald Trump has followed an authoritarian playbook, beginning with his rejection of objective reality. Forced early on to defend the assertion that the crowd at Trump’s inauguration was the biggest ever witnessed, presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Con...
US politics
House set to pass tax bill as Trump awaits first big legislative victory
Bill that would add more than $1tn to deficit, end key element of Obamacare, and open Alaska wildlife reserve to drilling would then head to Senate
House Republicans are poised to pass a major tax bill on Tuesday, which would set the stage for Donald Trump to achieve his first major legislative success in office.
The legislation, finalized in a conference report last week, would lower the top rate on families and individuals to 37% and the top rate on corporations to 21%.
...
Republican moderate Susan Collins undecided on final tax cut vote
- Maine senator who helped sink healthcare repeal voted for Senate tax bill
- Insists ‘4% cut in Medicare that could go into effect will not go into effect’
The Republican Susan Collins, whose support was crucial in passing the Senate tax reform bill earlier this month, said on Sunday she has not yet decided if she will back the final measure negotiated by House and Senate leaders.
The Maine moderate has laid out conditions for her support of a final “conference committee” version of the tax proposal. They include assurances that Medicare payments will not be cut and that Republicans will support two healthcare bills aimed at reducing premium costs.
Continue reading...
White House would ditch attack on Obamacare in order to pass tax bill
Budget director says ‘we’re OK’ with dropping provision of Republican tax reform that would also repeal healthcare mandate, if it becomes roadblock
The White House is willing to sacrifice Republicans’ latest attempt to dismantle Obama’s Affordable Care Act if that’s necessary to pass a series of sweeping tax cuts, Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday.
Republicans’ current tax reform legislation would slash corporate tax rates and benefit wealthy Americans. Last week, after the president tweeted that he wanted legislation to include a repeal of a key healthcare mandate, Senate Republicans announced they would include the healthcare measure in their tax bill.
Continue reading...
Fear over healthcare locks Americans in jobs – and throttles creativity | Jonathan R Goodman
What could and should make America great is the freedom to follow one’s dreams – not stay trapped in a cubicle, paralysed by fear
Millions of Americans are stuck in what some economists call “job-lock” or the inability to leave employment because of the risk of losing health insurance. A 2001 paper from Princeton’s Center for Economic Policy Studies showed, for example, that self-employed people are 25% less likely to have health insurance than office workers.
Uncertainty surr...
Americans show support for Obamacare despite Trump’s repeal attempts
- Increase in healthcare signups on first day of annual enrollment
- Maine votes to expand federal Medicaid scheme for low-income Americans
Millions of Americans remain committed to Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare legislation despite the Trump administration’s attempts to overturn it.
Related: Health experts say Trump's opioid response relies on magical thinking
Continue reading...
The Guardian view on elections in the US: cause for (cautious) celebration | Editorial
Sizable victories for the Democrats in a series of races offer cheer after a year of Donald Trump. But the party should not feel too reassuredIt was the boost they needed. The jubilation of Democrats as they celebrated the results of Tuesday’s elections owed much to the despair of one year before, when they learned that Donald Trump was on his way to the White House, as well as to the extraordinary events since, which have amplified his unfitness for the presidency and the extent of Russia...
The Resistance Now: health bill gains traction and handmaids protest Pence
Eighteen Senate Democrats have pledged support for ‘public’ healthcare option, while the vice-president takes heat from Margaret Atwood fans
As Trump tries to destroy the Affordable Care Act from the right of the political spectrum, those on the progressive side continue to push health reform legislation of their own - undaunted, or even in defiance, of the president.
Continue reading...