AUL is one of a number of anti-choice groups, including the Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women for America, the Family Research Council, Priests for Life, the clinic protest group Pro-Life Action League and David Daleiden’s attorneys at Life Legal Defense Foundation, who have launched a website targeting Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, urging them to continue to stall Garland’s nomination.
Forsythe writes, under the subject line “You Have the Power to Help Roll Back Roe v. Wade”:
Dear Friend,
Do you believe Roe v. Wade can be rolled back? At Americans United for Life, we know that the answer is YES … with the right Supreme Court.
For more than 40 years, we pro-life Americans have been working to overturn the destructiveness of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the twin cases that brought incredible devastation to mothers and their unborn children, making both vulnerable to the profiteering of a greedy abortion industry. With the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court hangs in the balance today, making it vital that NO appointment to the high court occur until after the voters weigh in on Election Day. You can help make that happen.
Please click here to contact your U.S. Senators, telling them to wait until after the election to deal with the opening on the Supreme Court.
All that AUL has been working for since 1971 is at stake in President Obama’s attempt to put a fifth pro-abortion justice on the Supreme Court. Don’t let them crush democracy on the abortion issue for another two or three decades. No president has been more firmly committed to the abortion industry than Barack Obama, making his pick for the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland, the wrong choice to be added to the fragile balance in a fractured court.
Please click here to contact your U.S. Senators now.
Judge Garland is President Obama’s pro-abortion pick to tempt some Republicans to act now to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. But it’s important to remember that President Obama, Vice President Biden and even Sen. Chuck Schumer, all urged the Senate to hold the line against Supreme Court picks late in a president’s term. The only reason abortion advocates are pushing this nomination is to roll back the pro-life gains in courts and legislatures across the country.
Please contact your Senators today, asking them to let Americans have a voice in deciding the future of the Supreme Court, through their choice of leadership. Click here to contact them now, and please forward this to friends and family so that we all can have a voice in whether all people are welcomed in life and protected in law.
With so many Justices on the Supreme Court nearing retirement, the time is now to let your Senators know that it matters to you who sits on the nation’s Supreme Court.
Thank you for standing with Americans United for Life at this important time. We can make a difference.
Sincerely,
Clarke Forsythe,
Acting President & Senior Counsel
Americans United for Life
Oh, and by the way, they may be right. It seems unlikely that they will ever roll back Roe vs Wade, but all that has to happen is a 5-4 conservative majority and a case they can pretend demonstrates that society has changed its mind on the issue. Don’t think they will be afraid to hypocritically evoke the “living constitution” for their own purposes.
In case anyone’s getting excited that Donald Trump’s unusual decency in saying that he’s against the North Carolina trans-discrimination law signals some kind of shift to the center on social issues, get a load of this:
Donald Trump said Thursday that he thinks putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill and moving Andrew Jackson to the back of the bill is “pure political correctness.”
“Andrew Jackson had a great history,” Trump told Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today. “I think it’s very rough when you take somebody off the bill. Andrew Jackson had a history of tremendous success for the country.”
He added that while Tubman is “fantastic,” he’d like to see her on “another denomination” — maybe the $2 bill, or maybe a new bill altogether — and leave Andrew Jackson where he is.
“Yes, I think it’s pure political correctness,” Trump said. “Been on the bill for many, many years and really represented — somebody that was really very important to this country. I would love to see another denomination, and that could take place. I think it would be more appropriate.”
Maybe we should create a denomination of $800 for Tubman. That’s the average price paid for a slave in the confederacy.
I’m going to guess that Trump’s position on the trans-discrimination law is based upon his need to win California where the Evangelical community isn’t as powerful and tends to take a more tolerant attitude. He’s contrasting himself with Cruz’s fire and brimstone condemnation of transgender equality. And frankly, I’d guess he really doesn’t care. He’s a big city cosmopolitan.
But he has real issues with African Americans. Always has.
Dearly beloved
We are gathered her today
To get through this thing called life
Electric word life
It means forever and that’s a mighty long time
But I’m here to tell you
There’s something else
The after world
A world of never ending happiness
You can always see the sun, day or night
So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills
You know the one, Dr. Everything’ll Be Alright
Instead of asking him how much of your time is left
Ask him how much of your mind, baby
‘Cause in this life
Things are much harder than in the after world
In this life
You’re on your own— Prince, “Let’s Go Crazy”
He was arguably the most influential musician of the past 35 years. Miles Davis called him a genius and he wasn’t the only one. He crossed all genres and broke all boundaries. (His song “Darling Nikki” inspired Tipper Gore to start her crusade against naughty lyrics.)
His importance to modern music can’t be overstated. The loss is monumental.
Here he is winning the Oscar for Purple Rain:
Here he is on Arsenio Hall. He zealously guarded his copyright so there’s not much on Youtube but he tears it up live on this show:
Prince, with the Muppets, doing Starfish & Coffee. One of the most joyous things you’ll see today. https://t.co/qX2HinyGp1
Update: I just wanted to add that Prince did something important for women’s rights and gay rights. Artists like Bowie and The New York Dolls had played with gender roles, but Prince was the guy who featured gay women in high profile musical roles in his band. His own androgyny was organic and sincere not camp (not that there’s anything wrong with camp.) It mattered a lot at the time.
The media continued its bizarre insistence that the GOP primary has been rest after the completely expected Donald Trump rout in New York on Tuesday and were seemingly convinced this non-existent reset had something to do with Trump makeover that is likewise non-existent. Since his victory speech didn’t include any crude epithets or mentions of his manly member, they seemed to be under the impression that he’s a restrained and dignified statesman worthy of the presidency. Chris Cilizza at the Washington Post’s “The Fix” even said that this transformation should alarm the party establishment because he is now so respectable that any #nevertrump illusions are now up in smoke:
[I]t’s clear, at least for now, that Trump is listening to his new political advisers — chief among them convention manager Paul Manafort and national field director Rick Wiley. Trump’s change in tone on Tuesday night was absolutely unmistakeable to anyone who has paid even passing attention to his campaign to date. The man who had built his frontrunning campaign on a willingness to always and without fail take the race to its lowest common denominator — was suddenly full of respect for the men he beat and full of facts about the state of the race…
Trump has shown — both on Tuesday night and over the past week or so — an ability to reign himself in that suggests he understands that this new and improved version of himself is the one that can actually win the Republican presidential nomination. Be scared, anti-Trump forces. Be very scared.
They can come out from under the bed now. The big rally in Indiana yesterday showed no changes in Trump’s usual meandering lunacy punctuated by cries of “build that wall” and “get ’em out!” He was back to “Lyin’ Ted and “Crooked Hillary” and rambling bizarrely about General Patton getting rid of ISIS in three days. At times he was completely unhinged, going on about how he “loves” waterboarding and wants to kill oil truck drivers in Iraq. Everyone can rest easy.
The only slightly new additions to his standard talking points are a few disjointed local references which frankly, didn’t seem to thrill his Hoosier crowd as much as his calls to make our military stronger, bigger and more powerful that it’s ever been before and his promise to build a wall better than the Great Wall of China. In other words, Trump is still Trump.
But this desire to turn right wingers into statesmen based upon very little evidence is a common phenomenon among media observers. Perhaps it’s because they can’t believe the ego-driven ineptitude and/or ideological extremism could possibly be as bad as it seems so they look for any small sign of competence and run with it in the vain hope that they’ll awaken from this nightmare and the Republican party will be normal again. If so, no Washington figure has benefited from this phenomenon more than House Speaker Paul Ryan.
For years he has been the up and coming “it boy” of the Republican caucus, leader of the young guns, the captain of the “deep bench” of new leadership that was going to lead the Party to the promised land. He’d been on the radar for a while but first burst onto the national scene with a draconian budget proposal that ended up being the template for the disastrous budget battles of the Obama administration’s first term. That many of the painful budget cuts he proposed were enacted had little to do with the merits and everything to do with the toxic brand of politics the GOP adopted after President Obama was elected. Yet, no amount of Randian dogma or hardcore rightwing ideology could shake the beltway’s belief that Ryan was a nice sensible centrist. His reputation among the cognoscenti remained sterling that no one was surprised when Mitt Romney chose him for his running mate. Who else could it have been?
When that endeavor also fell flat Paul Krugman memorably tried to remind everyone that Ryan had always been less than meets the eye:
The fact is that Ryan is and always was a fraud. His plan never added up; it was never, contrary to what people who should know better asserted, “scored” by the CBO. What he actually offered was a plan to hurt the poor and reward the rich, actually increasing the deficit along the way, plus magic asterisks that supposedly reduced the debt by means unspecified.
His genius, if you can all it that, was in realizing that there was a role — as I said, that of Honest, Serious Conservative — that self-proclaimed centrists desperately wanted to see filled, so that they could demonstrate their bipartisanship by lavishing praise on the holder of that position. So Ryan did his best to impersonate a budget wonk. It wasn’t a very good impersonation — in fact, he’s pretty bad at budget math. But the “centrists” saw what they wanted to see. Ryan can’t be ignored, since his party does retain blocking power, and he chairs an important committee. But if he must be dealt with, it should be with no illusions
The White House certainly no longer had any illusions but the budget battles continued. And then, once again demonstrating that no amount of losses and failure could tarnish his prestige, the party drafted him for Speaker and the entire Washington establishment fell into an ecstatic fugue state. The innumerate budget wonk and losing VP candidate was now the most powerful Republican in the government. And now they can’t stop talking about him as political messiah who will sweep in, win the presidential nomination by acclamation and save the country from all those disreputable people who are currently running.
Stephen Colbert did a perfect impression of the beltway pundits in this interview with Ryan earlier in the week. They won’t take no for an answer.
A House bill to address the Puerto Rico crisis is bogged down in committee after some Republicans cried “bailout,” despite Ryan’s insistence the measure is no such thing. The GOP-drafted budget has been stalled for weeks because of objections from conservatives still upset over last year’s spending deal with President Barack Obama and Democrats. That’s led to a delay taking up the dozen annual appropriations bills until mid-May.
[…]
Indeed, 2016, which always figured to be light on legislative accomplishments, is proving to be a virtual wasteland on the House side.
Only 40 legislative days remain before the House adjourns for the national conventions, and nothing substantive is expected to happen until a projected lame-duck session in November. House Republicans won’t shut down the government in September, but they’re not going to do much else.
This is not all Ryan’s fault. The House GOP is as crazy as ever. Everyone assumes that he’s being hamstrung by the Freedom Caucus extremists who are still angry about the omnibus bill passed last fall. It’s possible he’s just holding his fire until the campaign is over in the hopes that it drains some of the poison out of the party so he can then enact his new phony compassion agenda unobstructed. But his history suggests that he’s just winging it as usual. He’s never shown that he’s particularly adept at either policy or political leadership despite his position as the designated savior of the Republican Party.
But then he doesn’t really have to deliver anything, does he? The Republican party doesn’t believe in government action and rewards people who get nothing done. And it doesn’t matter to the beltway media. In their eyes, Paul Ryan can do no wrong. Repeatedly failing is the secret to Paul Ryan’s success. If it ain’t broke why fix it?
Why yes, we really do mean to drown the government in the bathtub.
Thanks to Congress slowly drowning the U.S. Postal Service in the metaphorical bathtub, the form I put in the mail to my doctor last week traveled 90 miles south and across a state line for sorting before delivery to his office four miles away. Slow death by mandated prefunding of its retiree health benefits means USPS closed the local mail processing facility last year to save costs, worsen service, and keep government from competing with private firms in the delivery business. Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 be damned. The Market demands human sacrifice. (Strange, but its name appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution, unlike the Post Office. Must remember to look for The Market in the colonial apocrypha.)
It appears The Market now has turned its attention to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, with a “utility-like mandate to keep credit flowing in the housing markets.” Matt Taibbi examines why the Obama administration is invoking executive privilege to keep secret 11,000 communications covering federal conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The administration claims the release would harm financial markets. The federal judge that ordered last week’s release says the government simply doesn’t want to be embarrassed.
Taibb reminds readers Fannie and Freddie did not cause (but contributed to) the financial crisis. In fact, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson advocated using them to get bad mortgages off the big banks’ books:
Even after the state took over the companies in September of 2008, Fannie and Freddie continued to buy as much as $40 billion in bad assets per month from the private sector. Fannie and Freddie weren’t just bailed out, they were themselves a bailout, used to sponge up the sins of private firms.
The original takeover mechanism was a $110 billion bailout, followed by a move to place Fannie and Freddie in conservatorship. In exchange, the state received an 80 percent stake and the promise of a future dividend. All told, the government ended up pumping about $187 billion into the companies.
But now here’s the strange part. Within a few years after the crash, the housing markets improved significantly, to the point where Fannie and Freddie started to make money again. Lots of money. The GSEs became cash cows again, and in 2012 the government unilaterally changed the terms of the bailout.
The government would get a 100 percent dividend, not just the money Fannie and Freddie owed. This permanently delayed paying back shareholders who wondered when they would ever see their money again. They filed lawsuits. All the while, Treasury insisted publicly that Fannie and Freddie were “in a death spiral.” But they were lying, says Taibbi. Documents unsealed as part of the lawsuits hint at why:
Without getting too deeply into the weeds of this even more complicated tale, government officials have been working with Wall Street lobbyists for years on a plan to have a consortium of private banking interests step into the shoes of Fannie and Freddie.
If this concept actually goes through, it would be the unlikeliest of coups for Wall Street. Having nearly triggered a global depression eight years ago, the usual-suspect, too-big-to-fail banks would essentially be put in control of the same housing markets they all but wrecked last time around.
This would be a nonstarter politically, the ultimate public-relations disaster, were it not for the fact that Fannie and Freddie are about the only companies on earth less popular than the Wall Street banks. Still, replacing the one with the other would be madness by any objective standard.
And if I read this correctly, it would complete the drowning, converting the once government-chartered, secondary market organizations turned GSE cash cows into privately controlled ones. Because The Market wants what The Market wants.
The Fix: The new Donald Trump should scare the hell out of the GOP establishment
Gone was “Lyin’ Ted.” In its place was “Senator Cruz.” Gone was the long-winded speech that went nowhere. In its place was a succinct recitation of states and delegates won. Gone was the two-day vacation as a reward for winning. In its place was an early morning trip to Indiana followed by another planned stop in Maryland.
Donald Trump 2.0 made his official debut Tuesday night following his sweeping victory in New York, a win that looks to net him 90 delegates and reestablishes him as the man to beat in the Republican presidential race.
But, Trump has shown — both on Tuesday night and over the past week or so — an ability to reign himself in that suggests he understands that this new and improved version of himself is the one that can actually win the Republican presidential nomination. Be scared, anti-Trump forces. Be very scared
Yeah, get a load of his rally in Indianapolis today. He’s very presidential.Very statesman like.
Some highlights of his very presidential stump speech today. He seems to have forgotten that he’s supposed to change his approach:
“When our country continues to go forward even when it has massive problems, massive deficits .. our country is being taking advantage of and eventually our country is going to be in such trouble and I’m not going to use because I would never use the word, that our country is going to die. It’s going to be a much different place if we don’t get smart very, very quickly on trade, on defense.
(Applause)
We have to build our military strong, we have to build it big, strong — powerful!! So that we’re not messed with. Look at what Putin’s doing in Russia with nukes! You look at what Putin is doing in Russia with his military! It’s modernized. They’re building all over, wherever they feel they need they put! We don’t do that! We’re getting smaller, smaller, weaker, weaker. WE HAVE TO BUILD UP OUR MILITARY. WE HAVE TO MAKE IT STRONG![ WILD APPLAUSE.]
We’re gonna build the wall. [Audience chants “Build that wall! Build that wall!”]
He’s going to charge a 35% tariffs on goods coming from American companies who relocate overseas.
He bragged about his win in New York for many tedious minutes. Can’t stop talking about the jobs lost in New York. Apparently forgets momentarily that he’s in Indiana.
“The police forces of this nation have to be given far more credit than they’re given.” [Audience screams!!!!]
Promises to “bring steel back to Indiana BIG TIME!”
Says Ted Cruz supports Chinese currency cheating. [Audience boos as if they have a clue what he’s talking about.]
He’s going to stop the drug problem. And “you know where the problem is emanating from” [Exico-may…]
Then he talks about his Post Office project in Washington. Ivanka is doing a great job. He went from linoleum to marble.
“We’re gonna bring our country back folks. Our incompetent leaders don’t know about currency cheating, devaluation of our currencies that are eating us alive. I’m a free trader, we’ve got to be smart. We don’t have smart leaders.” Blah, blah,blah ….
“Get ’em out! Get ’em out!” [talking about protesters]
He has the safest rallies of anywhere in the country. “We never want anyone hurt, right?, No? What are you talking about?”
The media are the worst, the most dishonest people, they are terrible, and they know it. “Do we hate the media???” [Audience: Yes!!!!]
Then there was a long, long whine about the Republican party system being rigged. Then more stuff about his big New York win. It’s a movement. He’s on the cover of Time magazine. He’s not bought because he has more money than anyone and could more easily buy the election than anyone.
Why do we have such deficits when we shouldn’t. Why are we taking such good care of other countries? We are losing out shirts on every single thing we do and we’re gonna stop it!!!
He says that when companies want to relocate to another country they go to see the politicians like Cruz and crooked Hillary and they say “go ahead”. And he’s going to put a stop to that. He won’t let them do it.
“We spend more money on the military than anyone else in the world! Why? Because we’re defending Germany! We’re defending Japan. We’re defending South Korea. We’re defending Saudi Arabia! We’re defending many places. Then we take care of NATO! It’s an obsolete deal. I don’t mean get rid of NATO I mean modernize it. Because we have a new enemy and it’s called radical Islamic terrorism and we have to do something about it.”
These countries don’t pay. “Either pay or it’s bye bye, enjoy defending yourself. Enjoy yourself. I’ll be firm, I’ll be fair and we’ll have better relationships with our allies believe me.”
More China bashing. They’re destroyed us. They have everything and we have nothing, NOTHING!
Those countries that we help so much have no respect for us.
In the South China Sea they are building a military fortress and they’re not supposed to be doing that. All of that stuff ends “when Donald Trump becomes president. “
More China bashing. But says he’ll get along with them great. Because he likes them.
Then brags about his vast wealth. We need that kind of thinking because “our country is going to hell.” Then he said we’re sending all our coal to China who’s burning it and isn’t cleaning it.
“It’s takes guts to run for president, it takes GUTS!”
Iran deal bashing. “We took our prisoners back simultaneously with the checks going. “t was a disgrace.” And then “they roughed up our sailors mentally and psychologically. Folks when I’m running things that stuff’s not happening. And they’ll respect us again!”
“Putin says Donald Trump is a genius. Isn’t that nice? Those guys on the debate stage wanted me to disavaow that and I said not in a million years. We’ll get along with Russia. And what’s wrong with getting along with Russia and what’s wrong with getting along with other countries and what wrong if Russia wants to drop million dollar bombs on ISIS? I say, good, good, good. Our military geniuses they say, “oh we don’t want to do it, we want to do it ourselves. Believe me, believe me, we will get rid of ISIS so fast that your head will spin, ok? So fast.
You know, for years and years, I’d read about medieval times, I love history. And in medieval times they chopped off heads. Now we’re living in medieval times. We’re weak! We’re ineffective! During one of the debates they asked Lyin’ Ted about waterboarding. And he didn’t want to answer because it was a question, what do you think about waterboarding? And he didn’t want to get involved because he was afraid it wasn’t politically correct. And he gave a nothing answer, a weak, pathetic answer like they always give. They asked me, what do you think about waterboarding Mr Trump, I said ‘I love it!’ I love it. I think it’s great. An I said, the only thing is we should make it much tougher than waterboarding and if you don’t think it works folks, you’re wrong.”
Then he said something about how we have to change those stupid laws so we can be tougher. And then he lied about his objection to the Iraq invasion. He says “we’re into them for 5 trillion now” and promises that “we’re gonna knock the hell out of them and then we’re gonna come back and rebuild our country.”
More border patrol and Sheriff Joe Arpaio endorsement garbage. “Do we love the wall??” [audience Yes!!!] More stuff about how Vicente Fox used that very bad word the “f” bomb and nobody reported it.
“The United States has to be taken care of. It’s called America First folks!!!” [crowd chants, “USA USA!!!”]
But he loves the Mexicans and Latinos in Nevada love him.
More on the debates: he was “center stage in every one!!!”
Protesters are all phony. Banking systems are ripping us off, he’s going to straighten everything out and you’re all going to be proud.
He’s going to call up Carrier air conditioning from the Oval Office and tell them that if they leave, every single time they make an air-conditioner until they’re going to have a major tax to pay when they try to sell it in this country. In 24 hours they’ll call him up and say they’ll stay.
As a business man all his life he “takes. Take take take.” Now he’s going to take for the country.
It’ll be a real wall, a serious wall and if they ever get to the top of it they’ll look down and say “boy it’s going to hurt to go down.”
“You’re going to pay an damn tax if you leave this country!!If I were in office right now Carrier would not be leaving that I can tell you, that I can tell you.”
He says O’Reilly said the Trump movemen is the “single most important thing that’s happened in his lifetime after the killing of JFK”
More stuff about being taken advantage of.
“Here’s the story folks: our country doesn’t win anymore, We don’t win on trade, we can’t even beat ISIS. Can you imagine if you gave the word to General Douglas MacArthur to knock out ISIS? iIt would take him three days. General George Patton who was not a politically correct person so he could probably never be a general as colonel probably couldn’t even be a sergeant or a corporal. General George Patton. You say, General? Knock out ISIS. Yes sir! Three days later, “where’s ISIS they’re gone…”
Oh, and “we should have kept the damn oil. ” Then he says we’re going to kill oil truck drivers.
And be sure to make America great again.
That’s the new restrained Trump. The same as the old demagogue Trump. if anything he seemed like he was high from his big win and more arrogant than ever. Sure, he slipped in a few talking points aimed at Indiana specifically. But not much. The rest of it was his standard sociopathic fascism.
I wonder how long it will take for the media to realize that his little NY victory speech was a one-off and that he has no intention of changing his style. Because he doesn’t. Why would anyone think he would?
If the Republican base voters remain as nihilistic as they currently are — not giving a damn about actual governance and just wanting to send their usual “message” of crazy — John McCain may actually lose his seat:
At the same time, Arizona’s Senior Senator John McCain, who will turn 80 this summer
and who has been in the Senate since 1986, is now in a tight contest with Democrat Ann
Kirkpatrick (42% to 42%). As recently as 2005, Senator McCain enjoyed favorable job ratings
from 73 percent of Arizonans but his current ratings are down to 32 percent favorable with 25
percent saying he is doing a “poor” job in Washington.
McCain’s positive job ratings have totaled under 40 percent since 2010 and while he has
always proven himself to be a formidable campaigner in past elections, the negative mood in the
nation and perhaps in Arizona as well toward “the establishment” may turn 2016 into a major
challenge for the storied Senator.
What seems most unusual about the Senior Senator’s job ratings is that they have become
largely non-partisan. While Independents are the most favorable toward the Senator, Democrats
and Republicans hold amazingly similar views. Thus 25 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of
Republicans applaud his performance in Washington… but 32 percent of Democrats and 30
percent of Republicans rate his performance as “poor.”
He’s recently said h’s not going to the convention apparently hoping that distance from the circus will somehow save him. And maybe the wacko birds will come around by November and help him out once again. But he’s got a unique problem. They love mavericks but he’s the wrong kind — he’s a RINO maverick who bucks his own party to work with the other side once in a blue moon. Let’s just say that isn’t a winning message among the party faithful these days. Trump can get away with sort of saying it but that’s just because he speaks in gibberish and nobody really knows what the hell he’s saying.
Just build a wall with yuuuuge mosquito net on top
by digby
Somebody ought to tell the Republicans that a terrible person named Zika wants to take away their semi-automatic weapons so they’ll agree to appropriate funds to combat the zika virus. That’s the only “emergency” they seem to think is worth paying attention to. Luckily, they appear to be slowly coming to the realization that a virus passed by mosquitoes which causes horrendous birth defects might be worth doing something about. Up until now they’ve been saying that the administration should take some money from other efforts to combat deadly diseases. We don’t have money for every deadly disease out there you know! There are priorities, people!
Something seems to have shifted a bit at least in the Senate, thank God:
Senate Republicans are preparing to relent on a major portion of President Barack Obama’s emergency request to respond to the Zika virus.
Republicans are drafting a more than $1 billion emergency plan, according to a Republican familiar with the matter, which could be attached to another appropriations bill in a committee as soon as Thursday. The person expects the package to have Democratic support.
A senior Republican aide, however, said the administration’s revised request, which was issued Monday, is still being examined and no final determination has been made about what will be included and where it will move.
The White House, which has requested $1.9 billion in additional spending, has stepped up its campaign to secure the funding, warning that additional emergency efforts are needed to prevent a larger outbreak of the virus.
“Republicans in Congress have done little to nothing to address this issue for the last two months,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday. “And the opportunity to get ahead of this potentially serious situation is washing away.”
House Republicans have been reluctant to approve any emergency spending, with some arguing the needs can be met by tapping unused funding for the Ebola virus and that additional money can be provided through the regular spending bill process.
Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Tuesday “there is a sense of urgency” to act, but he blamed the White House for not answering all of the questions lawmakers have about the request.
“When we get sufficient answers to those questions, then we’ll take sufficient action,” Ryan said.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that funds the U.S. Agency for International Development, separately said he would be backing that portion of the supplemental spending request from the administration as part of an overall supplemental measure “soon.”
“I’m going to work with the committee to do an emergency supplemental” for USAID, Graham said.
“They’ve already got some money from the Ebola account so we’re not going to pay twice, but I think we’ll meet their needs.”
Graham said he supports other pieces of the Zika spending request as well, although maybe not the full amount.
“I believe it’s a real problem and I’d like to address it,” he said.
Big of Graham to call it a real problem, but really there’s no hurry. If we play our cards right, and Trump’s elected, between banning mosquitoes from entering the country and building a really, really high wall, we can protect Americans from this foreign invasion, amirite?
Ryan is still being held hostage by his freedom caucus people who simply don’t want to do anything the president requests, even if it means that thousands of babies will be born with hideous birth defects. And even the Senate seems to think it’s no biggie. Why spend money on prevention when we don’t know for sure how many babies are going to be born with extremely small heads? Besides, we need to concentrate on what’s important. Like tax cuts for millionaires.
Check out this typically unctuous fund-raising letter from Ted Cruz:
Sad, sad, sad. The man who has been planning a presidential run since he was in high school now begs for money because he’s losing sleep and family time.
Here’s Elizabeth Warren’s rejoinder:
Ted Cruz is like a dizzy gazelle trotting across her sight line without a care in the world.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will today announce that Harriet Tubman, the slave-turned-Civil War abolitionist, will feature on a new design of the $20 note, a department official told BuzzFeed News.
President Andrew Jackson, a controversial figure due to his harsh treatment of Native Americans, will move to the back of the bill.
Lew will also announce changes to the $5 and $10 bills, BuzzFeed News confirmed.
Calls from activists to include a woman on the nation’s currency prompted Lew to announced last June that the $10 bill would be redesigned to remove the nation’s first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, in order to include a woman.
Perhaps Hamilton needs to thank Broadway showman Lin-Manuel Miranda for elevating him to pop culture relevance through his Pultizer Prize-winning musical, but Lew is also expected to announce that Hamilton will remain on the $10 note, according to the New York Times.
When Miranda, who wrote and stars in Hamilton, met with Lew in Washington, D.C., in March he signaled his character would remain the $10 Founding Father.
Politico reported that although Hamilton will remain on the new $10 bill, it will also feature “leaders of the movement to give women the right to vote on the back.”
The $5 bill will also be redesigned to include civil rights icons, Politico reported.
I actually remember asking my mother back in the dark ages why there were no women on the money and she shrugged and said it was because men were the country’s leaders. I don’t think she meant that’s the way it should be, but rather an acceptance that that’s the way it was. And it was. She was born before women even had the right to vote.
Replacing the slave-owning Jackson with Harriet Tubman is a wonderful choice, and putting some other feminists and civil rights icons on the notes is meaningful too. Good for the Obama administration for taking this step. It will surely make the right wingers mad, but so what? Everything makes them mad.
