American Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmers & Ranchers: Fill & Download for Free

Trump issues new rule replacing Obama-era waterway protectionsBY REBECCA BEITSCH - 01/23/20 12:42 PM ESTJust In...Here's how to fight the skyrocketing use of e-cigarettes by young peopleOPINION — 8M 48S AGOWisconsin governor rolls out proposal for redistricting committeeSTATE WATCH — 11M 30S AGOABC News to add more live programming to streaming serviceTECHNOLOGY — 14M 3S AGOMeet the pastor who wants the poor to pick a presidentCAMPAIGN — 17M 17S AGOVIEW ALLVolume 90%The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a major rollback to protections for streams and other smaller bodies of water on Thursday, saying it would institute a new rule advocated by farmers and other industry groups.The new rule would replace the already-repealed Waters of the United States rule (WOTUS), crafted under President Obama, which expanded the types of waterways protected by federal law.The Obama administration argued smaller bodies of water, even some seasonal ones caused by snowmelt, must be protected in order to stop pollution from reaching larger sources, including those used for drinking water.Critics argue the changes will eviscerate the protections guaranteed by the Clean Water Act, not just reversing Obama-era protections but setting the U.S even further back.“This is not just undoing the clean water rule promulgated by the Obama administration. This is going back to the lowest level of protection we’ve seen in the last 50 years,” Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in a call with reporters. “This is a staggering rollback.”But President Trump touted his plans to roll back the law when speaking over the weekend to a conference of farmers‚ one of the chief adversaries of the previous administration's policy and a key part of Trump’s base.Farmers and other groups have argued that law was too far-reaching, requiring grand efforts to protect relatively small bodies of water that run through their property, ultimately subjecting large swaths of land to federal oversight.Trump’s latest rule, the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, will be implemented in the coming weeks and is likely to increase the amount of pesticides and other industrial chemicals that leach into streams, wetlands and underground water sources, leaving much environmental regulation to state and local authorities.Repealing WOTUS was a campaign promise of Trump’s, who called it “one of the most ridiculous regulations of all” when speaking at the American Farm Bureau Federation annual convention in Austin, Texas, on Sunday.“As long as I’m president, government will never micromanage America’s farmers,” he told the crowd.But the changes announced by the EPA Thursday would dramatically scale back protections, especially for smaller bodies of water that serve as the sources for larger ones.“It’s like saying you want to keep the bloodstream pure, but you’re not going to protect the capillaries. If you’re not going to protect upstream waters, you won’t protect downstream ones,” said Blan Holman, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center.The EPA’s independent Science Advisory Board reviewed the rule when it was first proposed, writing in a draft report that “aspects of the proposed rule are in conflict with established science ... and the objectives of the Clean Water Act.”Betsy Southerland, who was director of the Office of Science and Technology at the EPA’s Office of Water under the Obama administration, called the new rule “scientifically indefensible and socially unjust,” forcing communities to pick up the cost of controlling pollution from miners, oil and gas producers and land developers.The new rule earned immediate condemnation from some of the nation’s largest environmental groups, some of which have already suggested they will sue.“This all-out assault on basic safeguards will send our country back to the days when corporate polluters could dump whatever sludge or slime they wished into the streams and wetlands that often connect to the water we drink,” Earthjustice said in a statement, vowing to use every tool available to defend the Clean Water Act.A diminished federal role would leave a greater share of water supervision to the states, many of which have cut budgets for their environmental regulators over the last decade.“There is no question that President Trump is making millions of Americans vulnerable to polluted water with this action. This rollback was bought and paid for by the mining industry, and it will have significant consequences for states, who will shoulder a huge burden to protect drinking water from pollution,” Ryan Richards, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, said in a statement.But a senior administration official pushed back on the idea that states wouldn’t be reliable water regulations.“This isn't the 1970s and ‘80s. The states have robust environmental programs; they value and cherish their resources. This is not a rule that presumes that if the federal government doesn't regulate, there is no regulation,” the official said in a call with reporters.“This isn't about what is an important water body — all water is important.”Farm and other industry groups have stressed the new rule is needed after the Obama-era policy left confusion over whether ditches, weather-dependent flows and seasonal waters were protected under law.“Farmers and ranchers care about clean water and preserving the land, which are essential to producing healthy food and fiber and ensuring future generations can do the same. That’s why we support the new clean water rule. It provides clarity and certainty, allowing farmers to understand water regulations without having to hire teams of consultants and lawyers,” Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation said in a statement.But the new law is expected to spur legal challenges, just as previous rollbacks have.Thursday’s policy is the administration's second major crack at rethinking water policy. In September the administration scrapped WOTUS, reverting waterway protections back to 1986 standards.A coalition of 14 states sued, arguing that returning the U.S. to the narrower standard ignores studies showing how small bodies of water, even seasonal snowmelt, connect with and impact larger bodies of water more typically targeted for regulation.—Updated at 2:22 p.m.TAGS DONALD TRUMP WATER CLEAN WATER ACT WATERS OF THE U.S. RULE

It is easier for me to answer your question by starting with who would want Jeb Bush as president. (I added an update at the end about what may happen now that Jeb! has left the race). There are two principal types of voters who would like to see George Bush's younger brother (or someone in his mold) elected:(1) A significant number of the wealthiest Americans (roughly the top .01%) and(2) The surprisingly large number of mostly older white (and disproportionately male) citizens who have been manipulated into voting against their own economic interests by the highly effective propaganda paid for by the first group, but who can't go so far as to vote for Trump.That sounds cynical, but the facts bear it out. Let me break it down.The first group wants Jeb or any mainstream Republican (though they are terrified of Trump) for entirely rational, if greedy, reasons. The United States today has the type of extreme concentration of wealth that characterized the Robber Baron-Gilded Age (1890s) and just before the Great Depression (late 1920s). The ultra-rich achieved this ascendancy in large part by controlling the politicians of both parties who make tax policy and who direct government spending. They have directed government policies toward increasing the concentration of wealth, sadly at the expense of the American dream.There have been a number of interesting studies done about how social mobility is now much easier in "old" Europe than in the United States. The SuperPACS funded by extremely wealthy men like the Koch brothers hold enormous sway, leaving non-wealthy individual voters vritually powerless. The extremely rich have effectively bought the government through campaign contributions that translate into votes (see Citizens United, a 5-4 decision where all 5 were Republican appointees).They have won and they want to hold onto their victory.Tax policy is illustrative. Let's start with how roughly 99% of all Americans pay federal taxes:The working poor, the shrinking middle class and even the very comfortable professional class (doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers -- some whose incomes pace them into the 1% -- but not the .01%) live off of their wages and salaries, as opposed to living off of investments or inheritances. They mostly earn "ordinary income," which is taxed progressively at up to 39.6%, on top of other taxes.Truly poor people, whose income falls below the minimum threshold for paying federal income tax, nonetheless pay a federal tax on their income (despite the Fox "news" propaganda that millions pay "no income tax"). It is called the "payroll tax" and it is a substantial part of poorer people's paychecks.If you are tempted to believe the Republican/Fox "news" line about 47% of the country not paying income tax, please research it from objective sources. Here is one good link:Misconceptions and Realities About Who Pays TaxesThe poor and middle class cannot build wealth in these times of outsourced jobs, absurdly low minimum wages, still-high (though improving) unemployment, part-time work, and automation. When good economic times come, the poor and middle are passed by entirely. A rising tide does not lift all boats any longer, but only lifts the mega-yachts. This is a relatively new phenomonen, and corrosive to the economy. Before the "Reagan revolution" and its tax cuts tilted toward the very wealthy, an improving economy did in fact lift people from all income levels, which made for better recoveries for all.Today, fortunate people making $200,000 and more -- and even those well into the top 1% of incomes -- cannot accumulate wealth like the very wealthy .01% can. They are taxed at progressive rates and they spend their income on food, shelter, transportation and at the higher end, expensive private schools (necessitated in their minds by how poorly public schools have fared under the low-tax, low-service model of government that "conservatives" insist on).In contrast, think about how the ultra-rich are taxed. Their income is largely passive: it comes from capital gains, dividends, interest on bonds, and other investment income. It is also "tax managed." The capital gains tax rate is significantly lower than the top income tax brackets. Billionaires pay 20% on their income from capital gains; their accountants pay top rates of 35% or 39.6% (depending onwhich bracket they are in) on their regular income. Interest income on municipal bonds is taxed at zero. Have you heard of "1031 exchanges?" Anyone can sell one piece of real estate and put the gains in different real estate -- and pay zero tax on the gain realized, under Section 1031 of the Tax Code (the tax is "deferred", and can be deferred until extinguished upon death). This is NOT the sale-of-primary-residence exemption that common folks can do once -- this is a special IRS rules that allows tax to be "deferred" on gains made on unlimited sales of real estate. So while a few average folks might do it once in a lifetime and pocket some small-potatoes gains tax free on a rent house or other investment property, a Donald Trump can make $100 million in profit on sale of a casino and pay zero tax on that gain. Then he can do it again -- and again. There is no cap.These are just some of the tax code provisions the ultra-rich use to reduce their tax rates. Look up the hedge fund manager's special tax break called the "carried interest rule" for an especially absurd example of how the very rich own the system. Even Mr. Trump has denounced this one!A Wal-Mart heir (or George Soros or Warren Buffett for that matter) can invest his or her billions entirely in U.S. municipal bonds -- and live utterly tax free, entirely legally, on many millions of dollars in annual income. How can this be fair, in a country where the infrastructure that carries goods to markets, the court system that enforces property rights and the defense complex that protects us from foreign powers or terror -- all paid for by tax dollars -- is what allowed these extremely wealthy people or the ancestors they inherited from to accumulate such fortunes?Apologists for the Republicans cannot factually challenge the fact that the very wealthy, who earn millions a year, pay a far lower tax rate than people earning a few hundred grand a year. Facts are a vexing thing for today's GOP... See global warming, evolution, well the list is long, and off topic.The skewing of the tax code to favor the extremely wealthy is how Mitt Romney paid 13.9% in tax on his fabulous income in the single year he released his tax returns to the public (And does anyone believe it wasn't his highest year? Or maybe the only year he paid any income tax at all?) -- while his staff members, pilots, drivers, and even landscapers paid at higher rates. How can this be fair, or even rational? The parallels to Rome before the fall are irresitable.The IRS code says what it says. Politicians wrote it. Contributions to politicians are unlimited. (see Citizens United) Connect the dots.In short, the system is rigged. The rich have been getting richer and the wealth gap has been increasing since the tax cutting began under Reagan and accelerated under George W. Bush. While Obama was able to raise the top income tax rate back to the level before the Bush tax cuts, he has been unable to do more to address inequality due to obstinate Republican opposition.Republican candidates are required by big donors to sponsor even more tax cuts for the rich and block any attempts at making taxation more fair. Jeb Bush has repeatedly stated that he support his party's stance on taxation. Marco Rubio has embraced it enthusiastically as well, as have Christie and all the even less successful candidates. Ted Cruz, a US senator running as an "outsider" because he has insulted all the "establishment" Republicans, proposes reducing taxes to a "tithe" of 10% -- with a regressive VAT to make up some of the lost trillions in revenue. It is hard to take some of this seriously (after all, are we going to stop having a defense department? Default on military pensions? We have to have some revenues, don't we?). But whether it makes sense or not, the very wealthy dictate what the Republican politicians say.Do you recall what happened when Obama proposed a modest temporary surcharge only on incomes above $1 million (starting at the million and first dollar) to address the deficit caused by the recession? Unanimous Republican opposition blocked it. What percentage of citizens earn over $1 million a year in ordinary income?Look up the current GOP platform on the party's official website and ask yourself who these proposals help. They want to repeal the estate tax entirely -- even though it only applies after the first $5.43 million passes to heirs, tax free. How many estates are worth over $5.43 million?The fact you will never hear from a Republican, or on one of the media outlets that does their bidding, is that 99.8% of all estates pay no estate tax at all. The so-called "death tax" is largely a myth.Ten Facts You Should Know About the Federal Estate TaxAnd no, the estate tax does not threaten "family farms." Here is a quote from a recent news story you can look up:Neil Harl, an Iowa State University economist whose tax advice has made him a household name among Midwest farmers, said he had searched far and wide but had never found a case in which a farm was lost because of estate taxes. ''It's a myth,'' Mr. Harl said. Even one of the leading advocates for repeal of estate taxes, the American Farm Bureau Federation, said it could not cite a single example of a farm lost because of estate taxes.Look into Paul Ryan's much-praised (by the Murdoch-owned press) budget proposals. Their main feature is yet another big tax cut for the rich.All Republicans are bound to this policy of coddling the extremely rich. If any candidate deviates, even slightly, Republican fundraisers suddenly find a more compliant challenger to run against them in their own primary. Anyone who doesn't "stay hitched" to the platform is labeled a RINO, a Republican In Name Only, and is promptly drummed out of office.What happens when Republicans win the presidency? We have a very recent case study: the presidency of George W. Bush. He inherited a budget surplus (the first in decades, and the result of some good luck and compromises with Gingrich) from Bill Clinton in 2001. What did Bush-Cheney do with it? They immediately (well before 9/11) squandered it, putting the nation's budget back into structural deficit with a big tax cut that mainly benefited the very rich. His first treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, a lifelong Republican and former chairman of Alcoa, complained about going back into deficit spending to Cheney and was promptly fired. The book he wrote with co-author Ron Suskind, The Price of Loyalty, is worth reading.Dick Cheney famously said at the time "It's our turn," in talking about the tax cuts -- and "Deficits don't matter" in response to the fact that the tax cuts would turn surpluses into deficits. You won't find these quotes mentioned in the WSJ or on Fox "news," but you can Google them. More inconvenient facts.Tax policy is just one example of the rigged system and how the GOP favors the ultra-rich. Other examples include lax pollution enforcement under Republicans, big breaks that amount to corporate welfare for the oil and gas industry, and of course the ritual repetition of the "all regulation is bad" mantra that justifies letting the biggest financial institutions gamble with taxpayer money. These gigantic financial institutions, whose recklessness magnified the housing bust into the deepest recession since the Great Depression, have only grow larger. Their "Too Big To Fail" status exempts them from the discipline of the marketplace, resulting in socializing their losses, lest they bring down the whole economy with them.Republicans are also reqired by their mega-donors to try to keep the poor from gaining any ground. They oppose any rise in the grossly inadequate minimum wage, claiming it would harm corporate profits. Corporate profits are soaring while workers subsist on minimum wages so low that nobody could live on them without public support. Wal-Mart was at one point handing out forms to its workers about how to get welfare and other forms of public assistance, acknowledging that nobody coud live on what it pays.The wealthiest Americans have become far wealthier since the Reagan Revolution reduced taxes and regulations. Yet real wages for most Americans have stagnated since the 1970s:For most workers, real wages have barely budged for decadesThus the subset of .01% who want a Republican president have a vested interest in electing one of their own, someone who will preserve and add to the preferences and privileges the super-rich enjoy. They prefer Jeb Bush, above all the candidates. He is one of their own. But they will take any mainstream Republican and are furiously trying to derail Donald Trump as the nominee, knowing Trump would be trounced.The ultra-rich who wanted Jeb (but will now take any "mainstream" Republican) have the most fear of Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who see through the rigged system and wants to change it. They are quiet aboutit but far less fearful of the Clintons, Chuck Schumer, and other Democrats who have had a cozy relationship with the Wall Street elite -- just not as cozy as Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio. Interestingly, the Uber-Rich fear one of their own, Donald Trump, far more than they fear Hillary. Hillary can beat them in an election or two, but Trump could ruin the party that has so reliably done their bidding for decades. His nomination could turn the party into a Eurpoean-style anti-immigrant fringe party, like the Le Pen movement in France.Now turn to the second, far more numerous, group who want Jeb Bush or another Republican: the people who have bought the elaborate web of lies spun by the ultra-rich through their media outlets. This propaganda machine includes Fox "News", The Wall Street Journal (both owned by Murdoch), the Limbaugh-Savage-Hannity talk shows, and largely untraceable dark money campaigns funded by the Kochs and Karl Rove's list of contributors.Some of the propaganda is crude and would be laughable -- had it not worked so well in some demographics: Obama's a Kenyan. His birth certificate is a fake. He's not a citizen. He's Muslim. He's a socialist (and he's coming for your guns!) Big Republican money paid for these lies to be spread in places where some ignorant people believe every word. Look up what Ted Cruz's father said about Obama. Read what Donald Trump said about him. Michelle Bachman recently said Obama was going to bring about the biblical rapture and Sara Palin blamed Obama for her son's girlfriend-beating arrest!There have been many overtly racist attacks too -- like saying Obama's a monkey, and far worse.Racially-Charged ‘Witch Doctor Obama’ T-Shirt Popular At South Carolina Tea Party ConventionRacism Is Alive And Well: 35 Incredibly Racist Anti-Obama ImagesThe GOP has embraced racism and anti-immigrant rhetoric in order to pander to a part of the population who respond well to those issues, at the expense of their own very real economic issues. This has been Republican strategy since Nixon's "Southern strategy," and it has worked. Recall Reagan's "welfare Cadillac" remark and Bush Sr's Willie Horton ads. Now the most racist propaganda is handled with untraceable dark money so the candidates can maintain plausible deniability.The GOP has also used and manipulated the religious right. Their dark money ads claim Obama is "ruining the institution of marriage" -- code for he doesn't think it's right to have government discrimination against gay people. Do you really think the Koch brothers or Karl Rove care if a couple of lesbians have a wedding? Of course not! But they will see to it that millions of dollars are spent against Democratic candidates with "dark money" and PAC money that emphasizes attacks on candidates who support "gay marriage."Some Republican-controlled states have passed "religious freedom" laws, making it lawful to discriminate against gay people and in effect turn them away at the door at public places. The Texas attorney general has told county clerks that they do not have to obey the U. S. Supreme Court on granting marriage licenses for gay marriage... They know better. They are doing this to manipulate people through fear and misinformation -- and as part of a plan to tag Democrats as being pro-gay, or anti-marriage. The Big Money people behind these campaigns use gay marriage as a wedge issue to convince religious voters to vote against their own economic interests, to keep politicians in office who will do the bidding of the .01%, many of whom chuckle at the gullibility of the people they are manipulating.Sadly, a large number of Republican voters believe the propaganda, even its most extreme (and ridiculous) points:Poll: 51 percent of GOP primary voters think Obama born abroad - Andy Barr1 In 5 Republicans Still Think Obama The Antichrist: PollThe creators of this Big Lie propaganda machine -- Fox, the radio shows, the "dark money" internet campaigns -- thought they were making the angry white male much easier to manipulate into voting for a Republican "establishment" candidate like Jeb, who would continue to favor the ultra-rich with policy. But they have been hoisted on their own petard. Donald Trump emerged to hijack all the ignorance and anger created by the propaganda -- and now threatens to derail the Rove-Koch-SuperPAC plan to capture the presidency after Obama. Trump (who is probably as liberal as most mainstream Democrates on most issues) has deftly captured the anger and channeled it into his column. The "establishment" Republican donor class, who thought Jeb Buch would take the nomination in a cakewalk, is shocked -- and petrified. They can't control Trump (nobody can) and so they are scrambling to find a way to stop him. They detest Ted Cruz, but may end up having to hold their noses and support him as a way to block Trump's path to the nomination. Cruz has brilliantly played his hand as well, carefully coddling the Trump voter so they will slide into his column of Trump drops out, while tapping into the Religious Right's core issues with his angry message.The extremely wealthy backers of the Republican party have also funded a web of lies designed to ensnare somewhat more sophisticated voters into thinking Republicans will be "fiscal conservatives" who will soundly manage the economy. Often, this propaganda is not-so-subtly mixed with the racial messages, implying that Democrats favor "tax and spend" policies to coddle the "lazy" lower class. They brazenly claim -- against all the objective evidence -- that the GOP is the party of balanced budgets and "small government."But what's the reality? The last Republican president (Jeb's brother) orchestrated a massive swing from budget surplus to deficit (well before any justifications about spending to combat terror), started a needless and poorly conceived war in Iraq that ended up benefitting only Iran and Republican contributors like Halliburton, gave Big Pharma a HUGE new program of direct-pay of our tax dollars to the drug manufacturers under the so-called prescription drug benefits plan, an expansion of Medicare, and coddled the "too big to fail" financial institutions whose imprudent gambling led to the Great Recession -- allowing them to keep their profits, while socializing their losses.The rich got their big tax cut, but millions of jobs were lost, not created.Republicans have in fact been the party of "big government," directing taxpayer dollars to people and corporations who contributed heavily to the GOP. Look up what President Bush did with the bailouts -- $182 billion to AIG alone, the largest seller of the credit default swaps, the toxic insurance-like instruments that multiplied many times the effects of the crash of housing prices. AIG in turn paid it out on claims filed by as required to pay the Too Big To Fail institutions like Goldman Sachs, who had (imprudently) purchased the credit default swaps from AIG as insurance against the collapse of the stinking piles of sub-prime loans these same TBTF institutions packaged up into collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). The TBTF institutions like Goldman Sachs did not bother to inquire whether AIG had the reserves to pay out on these insurance products before buying the swaps. Had they looked, they would have seen that AIG did not have such reserves -- and was not required to by regulators because "all regulation is bad" and the "free market" will regulate businesses. That turned out to be yet another lie -- thus the need for massive bailouts. Even Alan Greenspan has admitted that it was a huge mistake to not regulate these exotic finincial instruments that turned into what he labeled the "contagion" that spread a subprime morgage bust into a massive recession. Yet those who want Jeb or his clones press for even less regulation of Wall Street.Non-wealthy Americans lost their jobs and homes in the Great Recession. The bankers and titans of industry who supported Bush got tax cuts, bonuses and bailouts. They kept their jobs of course.JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs Chiefs to Get a Sweeter Pay PackageFox "news" and the GOP propaganda machine routinely blame Obama for the recession and unemployment -- but the Great Recession of 2008-2011 (caused in large part by the culmination of politicians adopting the conservative manta that "all regulation is bad") happened on Bush's watch. The government bailouts themselves that followed were also put in place under Bush, well before Obama was elected. Obama was elected in time to try to clean up the mess -- only to find that the Republicans in Congress would fight him every step of the way.In the aftermath of the financial collapse, when newly-elected Obama tried to pass real financial reforms to prevent the same thing from happening again (like FDR did in 1933, when Glass-Steagall was passed and the SEC was created), Republicans blocked any meaningful reforms. They watered down Dodd-Frank -- and now want to repeal the few real reforms made. Their slavish devotion to the TBTF banks and Wall Street titans has even angered some of their own party members, though these "tea party" types are quickly shut down when it comes time to state the party's platform and nominate its candidate.Enraged that Obama won despite the huge money poured into demonizing him, the GOP turned purely obstuctionist. It torpedoed the president's plan for infrastructure spending that would have accelerated the recovery by employing millions to rebuild the nation's crumbling roads, bridges, ports, dams and other infrastucture. This was an act of economic treason done in a failed attempt to prolong and even deepen the recession so the Republicans could blame it on the man in office and take over the presidency once more. Mitch McConnell famously said that his number one priority was not jobs or ending the recession -- but was defeating Obama in 2012. He pursued this priority by systematically blocking meansures that could have accelerated the recovery. The GOP lost in 2012 too -- but the damage they did to the economy by trying to make Obama look bad is still being felt.Anyone who doubts that economic treason was official Republican policy should read the letter John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell and others wrote to the Fed to try to stop the Fed from helping the country out of recession. Having blocked any more stimulus spending, they sought to choke off the fledgling recovery completley by also eliminating the Fed's bond-buying program known as QE:Republicans’ Letter to Bernanke Questioning More Fed Action.The Republican leadership wrote that QE would cause runaway inflation and weaken the dollar. Bernanke, a Republican and hardly a liberal, is a master economist whose life work was study of the Great Depression. He refused the GOP entreaty. The Fed went forward and did what it could in the face of the gridlock caused by GOP opposition to stimulus spending. The Fed's steady hand helped the economy crawl out of the deep recession. Bernanke is very much a hero.The Republicans' cry that Fed action would cause "runaway inflation" and kill the dollar proved to be (as Bernanke knew it would be) completely false. The economy was in such bad shape that deflation was a far more serious threat than inflation. Today, several years after the dire warnings by McConnell, Boehner and their fellow travelers, inflation remains extremely low. The dollar is soaring Mortgage interest rates are the lowest in decades. These are unassailable facts that the GOP doesn't like to talk about.It is baffling that President Obama doesn't use his bully pulpit to educate the public as to what the Republicans did and tried to do.Democrats Saved The Economy. Republicans Tried To Kill It.Republicans do not balance budgets; they expand deficits while giving away tax cuts and benefits to their largest financial supporters. That is not an opinion. It is fact.Yet enough people have been manipulated by prejudice, lies and dark-money propaganda to make the Republican party viable. The smart guys who run things at the GOP (like Karl Rove) know they cannot win elections in the long run on these methods alone, so they employ voter suppression and other anti-democratic tactics to stop likely emocratic voters from being able to vote. Thus the "voter ID" laws (again, only in Republican-run states), the long lines to vote in a single voting booth provided to poor precincts -- but short lines with scores of booths in rich precincts, the disenfranchisement of a significant portion of the black population through biased prosecutions, as felons cannot vote, etc. The Republican smart guys know they cannot win fair and square on the issues (given their slavish devotion to the super-rich, their slaps at Hispanics, their alienation of young people and most women), so they hide their intentions, put out propaganda and try to keep poorer people from voting.Who does not want Jeb Bush as president? Two main categories:(1) Angry Donald Trump voters who were stirred up by the very proganda machine put in place to elect a guy like Bush, which is beautiful to me in terms of poetic justice; and(2) Those of us who:(a) think the very fortunate should pay at least as much as their secretaries in taxes (rate wise), to support the system that allowed them or their ancestors to accumulate such massive wealth,(b) want to build up budget surpluses in good economic times, so we have a cushion and can use it on deficit spending to temper the bad times,(c) want good economic times to be shared across the income and wealth spectrum -- not just gobbled up by the top .01%(d) want reasonable people appointed to the Supreme Court instead of more right wing ideologues, hopefully leading to the overturning of Citizens United and allowing Congress to reform the way that big money dictates political results.We do not want Jeb. But believe me, there are powerful people who do.Update: Now that Jeb! has dropped out, The Republican establishment's best chance is a brokered convention, where they can make back room deals and try to steal the nomination from the near-winner. They hate Cruz and cannot really bypass Trump for someone Trump has beat handily in every primary. My bet is that they will try to hand the nomination to unscathed, fresh-faced Paul Ryan. He is a well-spoken figure and completely loyal to the billionaire donors who back the Establishment. Ryan's vaunted budget features more tax cuts for the super rich and unspecified cuts that amount to Flint water for the rest of us. He hasn't been skewered by Trump, lied about by Cruz or lambasted by Christi, so he is relatively undamaged. Watch for him to emerge in coming weeks.Republican establishment types (think Karl Rove) are well acquainted with the kind of shennanigans needed to wrest the nomination from Trump at the last minute. They are experts at stealing elections: by frustrating the right of students and minorities to vote, by limiting the hours polls are open, by creating long, long lines in poor neighborhoods (by providing fewer ballot boxes) while making it easy for people in Republican-leaning precincts to vote in short lines with abundant ballot boxes. Don't get me started on "Voter ID" laws, which were blatantly passed by Republican legislatures to hold down the vote in minority communities.They are experts at stealing elections -- and I think there is a strong chance they will steal the nomination from Donald Trump. If so, he will be enraged and will bolt the party and run anyway. A reverse Nader effect is my hope.

Hello Charlene!You always save your toughest questions for me, don’t you young lady…Let’s dive in, shall we?During his State of the Union address to make the case for his re-election a couple of weeks ago, Trump claimed success in delivering on promises, especially the economy.“Unlike so many who came before me, I keep my promises,” Trump said. Did he??Trump will build a great, great wall on our southern border — and I will have Mexico pay for that wall,” Trump vowed after riding down an escalator into the gilded lobby of Trump Tower, “Mark my words.” NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact 1: The administration said this month it had built 100 miles of border wall, for instance, but virtually all of that construction has replaced barriers that previously existed during the Obama administration. Mexico hasn’t paid anything and Americans are paying for all changes and new work. AP fact check: Trump exaggerates on jobs, border wall in campaign kickoff rallyFact 2: “Immediately terminate President Obama’s two illegal executive amnesties (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). All immigration laws will be enforced — we will triple the number of ICE agents. Anyone who enters the U.S. illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country.” NO! Promise NOT Delivered! Trump's tall order: Hiring 15,000 ICE and border patrol agents2. Trump promised annual economic growth of at least 3% on a sustained basis but dangled the possibility of “4, 5, and maybe even 6%.” NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: This hasn’t happened. Unemployment is at a 50-year low, and the economy has expanded an average 2.5% during the first three years of his term, somewhat faster than the 2.2% post-recession average before he took office. The federal tax cuts he spearheaded, along with government spending increases, juiced growth to 2.9% in 2018 but gains slowed to 2.3% in 2019 and are expected to throttle back to slightly less than 2% this year and in 2021. What ever happened to Trump’s boast of 4%, 5% or even 6% growth?3. Tax cuts — Trump vowed the $1.5 trillion in sweeping tax cuts he spearheaded in 2017 wouldn’t increase the federal deficit because they would pay for themselves through faster economic growth that swells government revenue. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: The tax law is projected to add $1.8 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal budget, but new estimates calculated equal 3.9 trillion will be added to the deficit. What Are the Costs of the Trump Tax Cuts to You?4. Tax cuts — Trump also said the tax cuts would spark a wave of business investment as a result of both lower rates and changes allowing businesses to deduct capital spending more rapidly. NO! Promise NOT Delivered! #PromisesBroken #maga #kag #kag2020Fact: The International Monetary Fund found the legislation did boost investment but by 3.5 percentage points, but that was below the average 5.3 percentage point increase that was forecast. About 80% of the tax savings was channeled into stock buybacks, dividends and other similar activities while just 20% went to capital spending or research and development. Why Stock Buybacks Are Dangerous for the Economy5. “Everybody is getting a tax cut, especially the middle class,” Trump promised when he was a candidate. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: By 2027 every income group below $75,000 would see a tax increase, while only those income ranges above $75,000 would still see a cut, helping the wealthy and hurting working class folk. A Year After the Middle Class Tax Cut, the Rich Are Winning6. Trade — Trump said a “Trade War with China was easy to win.” NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: At 12:01 a.m. on July 6, 2018 in Washington — noon in Beijing — the United States began imposing tariffs on $34 billion on China and it has escalated up until recently when JUST Phase 1 of a new China Trade deal was signed. This is still nto completely resolved, but dairy farmers in New York, to Poultry Farms in Ohio, to Pig Farms in Iowa have been devastated. US-China trade war is 'unresolvable,' strategist says6. Trump embraced daughter Ivanka Trump’s push for paid family leave when he was running for office. At a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, Trump called for six weeks of paid maternity leave as part of a package of childcare initiatives. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: That idea went nowhere in Congress. Dead on Arrival! But some 2.1 million civilian federal workers will be eligible for 12 weeks of paid leave after the birth of a child, adoption or the start of foster care under a deal struck last year. Paid family leave for everyone is “not going to happen this year,” Holtz-Eakin said. “That’s something he’s going to have to promise in a second term.” Where does President Trump stand on his 2016 campaign promises?7. Candidate Trump promised Americans he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, the landmark health care reform law enacted under Obama. “Real change begins with immediately repealing and replacing Obamacare. What a mess,” Trump told a crowd at a political rally in Toledo on Oct. 27, 2016. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: Uhm…. No, that hasn’t happened. 68 times Trump promised to repeal Obamacare8. National security — Failures everywhere. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact 1: His push to oust Venezuela’s president, Nicholas Maduro, has stalled. His negotiations with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un have fizzled. His push for a peace deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan remains out of reach. What’s more, Trump’s recently unveiled Middle East peace plan — years in the making — was dismissed by regional experts as a nonstarter. Trump Releases Mideast Peace Plan That Strongly Favors IsraelFact 2: Instead, Iran has begun to abandon its commitments under the 2015 deal and appears to be inching toward acquiring a nuclear weapon. And while Trump has touted his decision to authorize a deadly strike killing Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian military leader, it is not clear if that will make Americans safer.Fact 3: Ending forever wars. No, this goal is out of reach. Trump promised in last year’s State of the Union address that he would reduce America’s military presence in the Middle East — repeating his oft-cited campaign pledge. “Our brave troops have now been fighting in the Middle East for almost 19 years,” he said. “Great nations do not fight endless wars.” (1 of 2) No! Promise NOT delivered!Fact 4: But Trump has deployed more American troops to the region, particularly in recent months amid escalating tensions with Iran. After Trump authorized a deadly striking killing Iran’s Soleimani, the president sent an additional 3,000 troops to Kuwait amid increased threat levels in the region. According to the Associated Press, 14,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to the Middle East since May. (2 of 2) NO! Promise NOT Delivered! PolitiFact - McGurk right that Trump has sent 14,000 troops to Middle East since May9. “My agenda will be based on a simple core principle: putting America first,” he said. “Whether it’s producing steel, building cars or curing disease, I want the next generation of production and innovation to happen right here, in our great homeland, America — creating wealth and jobs for American workers. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: He has NOT put America first and has actively sought to damage and hurt American’s who don’t agree with him. The loss of the SALT deductions for Blue states was aimed at hurting blue states and dividing Americans forcing their taxes higher.10. Trump has said that he isn’t interested in cutting funding for Medicaid. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: The latest Obamacare repeal-and-replace plan in the Senate does exactly that. Specifically, it cuts Medicaid spending by shifting it to a block grant program and tying annual spending increases to the broadest measure of inflation, rather than healthcare inflation. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 15 million Americans could lose Medicaid coverage by 2026 if this proposal is signed into law by Trump. The CBO says as many as 24 million more Americans could be uninsured under 'Trumpcare'11. Trump said he would supply full funding for Social Security. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: Trumps first budget took aim at Social Security disability benefits, slashing them by $64 billion. These cuts could strike a big blow to seniors because most SSDI recipients are over age 55, and they’ve been deemed totally disabled and unable to work by the Social Security Administration. Trump to Propose Cuts to Safety Net Once Again12. The U.S. debt stands at $18 trillion when Trump took office and reducing debt “fairly quickly” was a Trump campaign promise. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: The US National Debt is 24 trillion. U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time Trump said he would ‘eliminate the federal debt in 8 years.” Not happening.13. Trump said he would “create targeted child care tax credits.” NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: Tax bill doesn’t increase deductions for dependent care expenses | December 21, 2017 The Ins and Outs of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit14. Trump said “We’re going to put our miners back to work” at an August 10, 2016 rally, “They want to be miners, but their jobs have been taken away,” Trump said. Trump also said “we’re going to bring them back, folks.” NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: So far, Trump has brought back 2,000 coal jobs from its high during the Obama Presidency of 90,000 jobs and far from his claim of “bringing back 45,000 new coal mining jobs” falsely claimed in July. Lies. Trump says 'the coal industry is back.' The government's jobs numbers say otherwise15. President Donald Trump promised to revive manufacturing on the campaign trail. “My plan includes a pledge to restore manufacturing in the United States,” Trump said in a campaign rally in Detroit, Mich., on Oct. 31, 2016. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: Three years in, the industry is on the same trajectory as when he took office. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that jobs have been on a slight uptick, but American manufacturing is still waiting. The Coronavirus will take his toll as well. Has Trump fulfilled his promise to revive US manufacturing? | DW | 05.12.201916. “One of the first things I’d do in terms of executive order, if I win, will be to sign a strong, strong statement that would go out to the country, out to the world, that anybody killing a police man, a police woman, a police officer, anybody killing a police officer, the death penalty is going to happen,” NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: In order for Trump to impose a death penalty for cop killers, he would need to overturn the Supreme Court ruling. Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about.17. Trump said “Allow individuals to fully deduct health insurance premium payments from their tax returns under the current tax system.” He also said “Businesses are allowed to take these deductions, so why wouldn’t Congress allow individuals the same exemptions,” NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: At the end of the day, neither tax credits nor deductions made it through. “There have been no changes to the tax treatment of insurance premiums,” said Urban Institute senior fellow Howard Gleckman. Never followed through, but corporations can deduct these from their taxes. Trump-O-Meter: | PolitiFact18. Trump said he would “Allow individuals to use Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Contributions into HSAs should be tax-free and should be allowed to accumulate.” NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: There has been no movement. Not in the recently passed tax overhaul, nor anywhere else.19. Trump said “I’m under a routine audit and it’ll be released, and as soon as the audit is finished it will be released” in a May 4, 2018 (And Prior Mentions) discussion with The Economist. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: We all know by now this NEVER happened, more LIES.20. Trump stated “I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off.” In 2015, Trump told The Hill he would not be the type of president to take time off for vacation. Flash forward one year and Trump has watered down that promise, saying he won’t be big on vacations. NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: Barack Obama took 29 vacations from 2009–2017 equaling 328 days. Nearly a third of the days he’s been president, Trump has visited a Trump-branded property on vacation. Trump is on vacation three out of every 10 days. Slightly more: Of the 1,075 days on which he has been president, he has visited Mar-a-Lago or a Trump Something-or-other on 331 of them, 31 percent of the time. Through the New year in 2020, he will have visited a Trump property on 117 days in 2019, the same number as in 2017. This guy doesn’t work and is lazy AF. Glad the #maga #kag #kag2020 approve of this. Trump Golf Count21. Trump Claims End of ‘American Decline’ While Avoiding Mention of Impeachment in State of the Union. Trump stated at the State of the Union on February 4, 2020 that “In just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American Decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America’s destiny,” NO! Promise NOT Delivered!Fact: This is not true. The country is in 24 trillion dollars of debt, the US has damaged relationship with all its main allies, it has betrayed the trust of other countries we want to build peace with like Palestine, Iran, Cuba, and Iraq, to name a few. The government doesn’t work anymore, its broken, the healthcare system is broken, public education system is broken, the infrastructure all over this country is broken. The country is more divided and factionalized than ever. It is a lie to say the US is not in decline.Trump has only kept 17% of his promises! Trump-O-Meter: Tracking Trump's Campaign Promises He is a complete failure. Promises NOT Delivered! #PromisesBroken What Trump has accomplished is terrible, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and suspending immigration and asylum and we have massive debt and children in cages.Sources: Everyone linked in the text and Donald Trump’s Lies -Promises Broken