Here’s your dose of “What the Fuck Is Going On” News (Extended Edition: March 11th - March 13th 2017)
The Congressional Budget Office has released their estimates of how much the American Health Care Act (aka Trumpcare/GOPcare) will affect insurance coverage. According to the findings 14 million people will become uninsured by next year, and another 24 million by 2026. (Here’s a full breakdown of other findings from this report, including links)
Health secretary Tom Price spoke out in favor of the GOP plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) saying that “nobody will be worse off financially.” (source) After the CBO report came out and disproved his statement he responded that the report is not believable and he disagrees with their findings. (source)
Congress had to send Trump a warning about deleting his tweets, which may be violating federal law. This is due to Trump’s habit of misspelling and then deleting tweets which, if the tweets are not archived, may pose a violation to the Presidential Records Act. (source)
A jobs reports showed that there is continued growth in the economy, which Trump and other GOPers praised themselves over. However, Trump has made comments in the past that these job reports are phony so naturally a reporter asked about this flip-flopping opinion of jobs reports. Press secretary Sean Spicer told the press “they may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.” Annoyingly, the press laughed at his comments and didn’t question the response. (source)
The U.S. government’s official ethics watchdog is expressing their anger in the lack of disciplinary action taken on Kellyanne Conway for promoting Ivanka Trump’s brand. They are stating that the lack of action undermines the ethics programs and there great concern when the White House says they are exempt from ethics violations. (source)
This ethics violation clearly worked because Ivanka’s brand saw a 332% jump in online sales in February. One website even showed a 219% increase in sales for Ivanka’s brand the day after Kellyanne Conway told the public to buy her brand. (source)
The U.S. has begun deploying attack drones to South Korea as tensions with North Korea remain high over their persistence in its missile and nuclear program. (source)
Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked 46 attorneys appointed by Obama to submit their resignation. Officials were reported to be angry over their dismissals, since they were not formally notified or warned before the Department of Justice made a public statement.
More states have joined the lawsuit to challenge Trump revised travel ban. California and Maryland has now joined Washington, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York and Oregon. (source)
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was found to have taken payment to lobby for Turkey while being a part of Trump’s campaign. This occurred while he was attending top-level intelligence briefings, however he stopped the lobbying once Trump officially took office. This news comes after Flynn was found to have been working as a foreign agent without disclosing that information. (source)
While discussing the health care repeal and replace plans, a Republican lawmaker, Mike Doyle, complained that he didn’t think it was fair to the men that health care plans cover pregnancy care. (source)
So far Trump and his administration has hired significantly more men than women, women making up only 27% of the appointed roles that need to be filled. This means that Trump hires three more men for every one woman hired. (source) (Here’s a gender gap breakdown by department)
An analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation showed that repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) would greatly benefit America’s wealthiest. Households with incomes of more than $1 million will get tax cuts that, over the next decade, would add up to roughly $157 billion. An analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that the richest 400 families in America would get an average tax cut of $7 million per year. (source)
Rep. Steve King tweeted praising a white nationalist’s writings and suggested that immigrants and non-white Americans don’t belong in America. He stated that “culture and demographics are our destiny. We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.” This was in response to a piece specifically about Muslims ruining European society. King went on the news and refused to apologize and said that he “meant exactly what I said.” This just continues his usual racist bullshit, in the past he’s stated that white people have contributed most to civilization. And how he’s expressed concerns in the past that U.S demographics are changing due to Muslims and immigrants. His comments are being praised by former KKK grand wizard, David Duke. (source) (source)