News Headlines on Trump speech to Congress

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CBS News

Politics

Viewers stunned by Trump address to Congress

CBS News 7 hours ago 

Markets are soaring after Trump’s speech, which is no surprise

Myles Udland

Yahoo FinanceMarch 1, 2017

WashingtonTimes

Politics

Voters to Democrats: Cooperate with Trump

Published March 1, 2017

By Jennifer Harper - The Washington Times - Tuesday, February 28, 2017

The “i word” — impeachment — has already surfaced in the Democratic dialogue as the party rails against PresidentTrump, its noisy message amplified by the mainstream media. In the words of Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, everybody is “fired up.”

Perhaps they are under the impression that the nation will stand back in awe and admiration of their combative tone and vigorous outreach. That may not be the case, however. Many voters are weary of political gridlock and discord.

“Most voters agree that it’s bad for America and bad for the Democratic Party if Democrats continue to flat out oppose everything President Trump does. Even Democrats are conflicted about their party’s scorched earth policy,” says a new Rasmussen Reports poll.

According to the poll, 63 percent of all likely voters say it’s better for the country if Democrats try to work with the president instead, while 29 percent think it’s better for the country if Democrats “oppose the president in every way possible.”

Naturally, 90 percent of voters who support Mr. Trump say the Democrats should be more cooperative. But a surprising 46 percent of the Democrats themselves agree with this, a sentiment that is on the rise. A similar poll conducted shortly after the November election found that 32 percent of Democrats favored cooperation.

Perhaps the party itself could use a little quiet time. The survey also found that 63 percent of all voters say the Democratic Party will be “better off” if they cooperate with the opposition; a surprising 45 percent of Democrats also agree.

Fox News

I'm a Democrat and It's Time for Our Party to Apologize to America

Published March 1, 2017

By Bryan Dean Wright 

Published March 1, 2017  FoxNews.com

Now that President Trump has delivered his State of the Union-style address, my fellow Democrats are settling in for a long fight. Our new DNC Chairman Tom Perez is leading the charge, promising to be a “nightmare” for the president and his fellow Republicans.

The reason is clear: Mr. Perez tastes political blood in the water. Trump’s approval rating is at historic lows, hammered by allegations of Russian collusion, a contentious immigration ban, and emotional Twitter outbursts.

Yet smart Democrats know that our position with the American people is just as weak. We hold the fewest number of state legislatures, governorships, and federal offices than at any point since the 1920s. And it’s a trend that started well before the 2016 election.

In short, America isn’t buying what Democrats are selling.

The reasons for this are numerous, and they include efforts by Republicans to suppress voters in North Carolina and gerrymander Congressional districts in Wisconsin.

But finger pointing at GOP operatives hides a much more painful truth.

Six weeks ago, the U.S. Senate considered an amendment that would have allowed Americans to import cheap prescription drugs from Canada. This common sense solution would have saved families thousands of dollars – and lives. Not surprisingly, 72 percent of voters supported the proposal.

Yet the amendment failed, with 14 Democratic Senators rejecting it.

What could explain their vote? Cynics highlight the fact that many of these officials collect large sums of campaign cash from pharmaceutical giants. Top collectors of drug money include Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), all of whom voted against the bill. 

Read the full story in the Opinion section on FoxNews.com→

The Federalist

Politics

Rebuttal To Trump's Speech Is Everything Wrong With Democratic Party

The Federalist 8 hours ago 

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Demon Pass and Reconciliation - Total Health Care Chaos in Congress - Who is the Fool?

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Okay, yesterday Nancy Pelosi finally posted the Obama health care demon pass rule or whatever the heck it is since it is not a bill that was approved by congress. It is a rather odd demon pass rule in the House that no two people in Washington explain in the same way, and it is also a reconciliation procedure in the Senate yet somehow it morphs into a bill.

The report from the Congressional Budget Office is in and they claim if we spend about a trillion dollars the first ten years we will reduce the deficit by around $134 billion. Then after ten more years we will save another $1.2 trillion. Strange math I think.



If you look at the fine print in the CBO instructions it may very well say the savings are not savings at all but a reduction in future increases, a technique congress has used often to confuse the public. Well a reduction in future increases is no savings and I don't care what school of economics you attended.

Now the financing of the first trillion dollars comes from increased taxes, a $500 billion reduction in Medicaid, taxes on a whole bunch of health expenses like wheel chairs, and who knows what else. I don't remember Obama promising to do any of those things during the campaign and debate over the bill.



Some of the bill does not even start until 2014 so don't expect overnight results. And those promised reductions in health care premiums, don't count on them either. As for punishing the insurance industry, don't you find it odd that with all their billions of dollars there is no evidence of lobbying against the bill or running commercials opposing the bill by those insurers? Wouldn't you think they would be fighting it tooth and nail if they were going to be disemboweled by it as Obama claims?

Fact is as the final action neared those devils on Wall Street, the ones who finance those bad insurance companies while taking million dollar bonuses, have not been driving down the stock market prices but have actually had eight straight days of driving up the market. Yet another sign the big, bad, rich guys are for the bill, not opposed. There is even an internal method to poll Wall Street which shows according to MSNBC the bet on Wall Street is 80% believe it will be approved.



So Wall Street, Obama and Pelosi agree it is best for America. Now we find out if the Democrats in the House first, and Senate second, agree. We know the Republicans oppose it and it seems as if the public is split or a majority oppose it.

Sunday just after 2 pm the House, under Pelosi, will take up the demon pass rule in order to avoid voting on the Senate bill which somehow they think will protect Democrats from being defeated in the elections this fall. Of course demon pass has never been used for this purpose. Then there will be a vote on the changes that Obama and the House want to the Senate bill which has not been approved by the House yet.



Nor will it ever be thanks to the Pelosi and Steny Hoyer rules that will be applied. So 216 votes are needed and it could be a cliffhanger. If they get them the bill thing then goes to the Senate because the House has now changed the Senate bill without voting on it and the Senate must agree to the changes to their bill that wasn't voted on. Still following me?

Now here is one thing the media, president and Pelosi are not talking about. You see, under the reconciliation procedure being used by good old Harry Reid and Obama in the Senate, every single proposal in the House bill must be directly related to the federal deficit or budget process. A Senate parliamentarian must rule on each section. There is no guarantee every section will meet the budget rule and if the Senate refuses to agree with any part of the bill, whoops, it goes back to the House for another round.



No matter what the White House and Democratic leaders say, there have never been votes on such broad bills like the health care reform bill using either the House demon pass rule or the Senate reconciliation procedure. That means it could also be subject to a Constitutional challenge. Add another year to the process for the courts to act.

The House will act on Sunday, but if the bill slips through don't start celebrating yet. It could take a week or more for the Senate to act. If they disagree on any part of it add a few more months. If they agree then we still have the court challenges. And even if we don't have court challenges remember much of the bill does not start until 2014.



Now if you understood everything I just said you should be running for president or moving to South America. If you could explain it, and remember, each thing I said is contested by either the Democrats or Republicans, then you are a better communicator than our president, congress and media.

So in summary, take every step the rest of the way with a grain of salt. No one really knows if it will add to our deficit or reduce it. Based on past government projections and promises, don't count on it reducing the national debt, reducing your health insurance premiums or get you better, if any, health care.



If the timing works out, the Senate could be voting about the same night NCAA March Madness ends with the National Championship game on April 5. Let's hope it doesn't end on April 1, April Fool's Day, because of the chaos node we are in we will have no idea who got fooled. Is it the president, congress, the Democrats, the Republicans, the public, the media or Wall Street who will be the biggest fool?

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Obama's Health Care - Check or Checkmate?

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The President threw down the gauntlet and now seems intent on forcing Congress into submission. It is quite a role reversal from his year of allowing Congress to decide what would be done and it is bound to upset those who still believe in the separation of government functions, the executive and legislative branches, and the legislative procedures of the House and Senate.



Obama and the White House gang are desperate and believe this is the only thing they can get done before the fall elections that might stop the Democrats self-destruction and potential loss of leadership of the House and Senate. In truth it could do a lot more harm than good.

For one, he is counting on his somewhat tarnished vision that people can be strongly influenced by the president of the USA whether they be moderate Democrats, Republicans, Iran, North Korea or the Olympic site selection committee. So far his track record of being heard is dismal at best. The long year Congress has been debating the health care bill just adds to the frustration.



Now his two week timetable to get this done before, well I guess Armageddon, seems a bit ambitious but Obama, if nothing else, has demonstrated that his inexperience in leading has been his greatest fault. Now that the Republicans are out of the picture, and in truth Obama's problem has never been the Republicans but his own party since the Democrats have decisively controlled the House and the Senate, we shall see if he can lead his own party if not the nation.

Which leads us to the second part of the puzzle, the legislative process. What Obama has done is circumvent the legislative process. He had the House pass a health care bill. Then he had the Senate pass an entirely different health care bill. Now he has presented his own bill containing some elements of the House and Senate bill and other things.



Normally a Conference between the House and Senate would be held to work out the differences between bills and present it back to the House and Senate for final approval. Obama has eliminated that step by saying, after a year of legislative hassle, he doesn't want either bill but now wants his own. To give it to him means the Democrats must do the following.



1. The House must pass the Senate bill as is.
2. The House must pass a new bill clarifying changes they want made to the Senate bill they just approved.
3. The Senate must pass the new House bill under Reconciliation which is supposed to be used for only budget and deficit issues.
4. Then the president must sign both bills setting up the health care reform and then changing the health care reform before it is even started.



Of course not all the things the Democrats will want to change can be included under Reconciliation. For example any restrictions on Abortion, and there are some in the House bill but none in the Senate bill, are a matter of policy and not budget so should be excluded from reconciliation. That means Obama will lose the support of all the House Democrats who are Right to Life, all of whom supported the House bill the first time. Not good for the President.

The House and Senate do not even agree what should be in the final bill or two as the House also wants the public option, Andy Stern and the unions want control of all health care workers in America, Goldman Sachs wants nothing that might hurt the stock value of companies they represent on Wall Street, and Obama will take anything so he can say he did accomplish one thing his first two years as president.



Then, of course, there are the deals that will have to be made to get the House to agree to the old Senate bill and the Senate to agree to the new House bill. We already saw how far both the House and Senate went to cut deals for the first bills. The second will be much harder and closer thus opening the door to pork barrel, favoritism, legal bribes and ferocious lobbying to an extent never seen before.



Don't be surprised if wheel barrows full of money are moved into the political campaign funds of those Democrats sitting on the fence. Self-survival seems to be the greatest motivator of our Washington establishment.



With all this confusion, Congress and the president will be operating in a fog, both to keep each other confused as well as the voter and taxpayer who will pay for this mess. Media analysts on both sides of every issue will no doubt expand their standard fare of hyperbole and exaggeration to outright lies and deception as no one, from the president to the Secretary of Health to the leaders of both the Democrats and Republicans and including every person hired by the media to give us the facts has ever let truth get in the way of making a point.

If Obama brings about a checkmate and no health care bill gets through, every person in America worried about the economy, out of work, or having trouble making ends meet should wonder how they can support any longer a president whose own ego and arrogance keep him demanding a win in health care while our economy keeps seeking into the abyss. His failure to address the economy, the Wall Street debacle, the foreign policy crisis and everything else he failed to do the last year will prove he is too inexperienced to be trusted as president.



When the people standing behind him are Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and they all contributed to the obsession with health care and ignorance of the economic problems we face then we should realize there is only one way out of the mess, to change the balance of power by giving the Republicans control of the House and Senate so someone can keep him from destroying the country and it certainly is not the Joe, Nancy and Harry show currently leading the Democrats.

Right now the nation stands at check with the failure of the President and Congress to complete work on a health care bill after a year of nonsense. Checkmate stands about two weeks away when Obama tries to force the House and Senate Democrats to do his will while ignoring the will of the public. Just who are the pawns in this classic chess match? Stay tuned.

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