Bridge Project responds to Trump Administration again siding with Wall Street lobbyists over American consumers

This morning, the Trump Administration’s Treasury Department issued a paper echoing deceptive talking points regularly used by Wall Street lobbyists and the banking industry in attacking common-sense efforts by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to protect Americans abused by big banks.  The CFPB is trying to the end the practice of “forced arbitration,” which denies millions of hardworking Americans access to their full legal rights after being defrauded.

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates responded with the following statement:

“Nothing undermines ‘draining the swamp’ more than Donald Trump’s Treasury Department — run by a former Goldman Sachs executive — joining forces with Wall Street’s top lobbyists to fight the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new effort to protect Americans from corrupt practices.  Just ask the 3.5 million Americans defrauded by Wells Fargo. Like Trump’s tax plan, this is about rigging the U.S. economy in favor of powerful interest groups and the wealthy against the American middle class. Trump is selling-out the […]

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Editorial Roundup: Trump Knew What He Was Getting Into Edition

This past week Trump reignited feuds both old and new. While Puerto Rico continued its recovery with more than 80 percent of its citizens still without power and California continued its struggle to contain wildfires, Trump attacked Gold Star families and stepped up his sabotage of the Affordable Care Act.

Here’s what Americans read this week in their local newspapers:

 

10/13

Chicago Sun Times: A Reckless Trump Invites A New Iran Crisis

Applying his usual bluster to complex negotiations, Trump has ripped the Iran pact as the worst deal ever. But he has no better idea for preventing a nuclear-armed Iran and a Mideast arms race. Instead, he naively believes he can dictate how other nations behave.

Tampa Bay Times: Trump’s Step Backward On Iran Nuclear Pact

President Donald Trump’s announcement Friday that he would not recertify the Iran nuclear deal was a sop to his nationalistic […]

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As ​Donald Trump Sabotages ​the ACA​, Uninsured Rate Has Increased ​

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after the latest Gallup and Sharecare survey determined that the number of Americans without insurance has sharply increased during 2017. This took place as Donald Trump acted to sabotage the Affordable Care Act (ACA) after taking office:

“At the end of last year, a record amount of the American people had health coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Now, after Donald Trump’s attempts to ‘blow up’ the health insurance marketplaces with behind-the-back, politically-motivated sabotage of the ACA, Americans are losing their insurance at an alarming rate and premiums are increasing by as much as 30%.  Republicans have to quickly embrace the bipartisan Senate deal to stop this pain, or they will be held accountable by their constituents.”

A wide range of independent medical experts, as well as the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, have found that Trump Administration policies have undermined the […]

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Sanders Questions: Conflicts Abound Edition

It’s a conflict for President Trump to interview US Attorneys who would have jurisdiction over his businesses, properties, and assets.  It’s a conflict for President Trump to push tax cuts for the super wealthy like himself without releasing his tax returns. And finally, it’s a conflict for President Trump and his administration to continue spreading lies about the Russia investigation.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. Why did CIA Director Mike Pompeo lie about the US intelligence agencies’ findings regarding Russian influence on the 2016 election?

2. Why did President Trump promise an announcement on the opioid crisis next week when reports state that the White House is completely unprepared to follow through?

3. Isn’t it an obvious conflict of interest for President Trump to personally interview candidates for US Attorney positions in New York who would have […]

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Republicans vote with Trump to cut taxes for the rich, slash Medicare 

American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah released the following statement in reaction to Senate Republicans passing a budget resolution paving the way for Trump’s tax plan:  

“This vote tells you everything you need to know about the appalling priorities of Donald Trump and the Republicans rubber-stamping his anti-middle class agenda: 80% of these tax cuts would got to the wealthiest 1% of earners while raising taxes on a quarter of the American middle class.  On top of that, every Senator who supported this budget voted to pay for this by cutting Medicare by nearly $500 billion and Medicaid by over $1 trillion. Middle class families and American workers deserve people who will stand up for them – not sell them out.”

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Sanders Questions: Under His Eye Edition

The Trump administration is literally going to court to force a teenager to bear a child she is not prepared to care for despite her legal right to have an abortion. This shocking government intrusion into a young woman’s right to make her own private health care decisions is ripped straight from dystopian horror fiction.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. Why is the Trump administration preventing a 17 year old from obtaining a legal abortion despite the fact that she received judicial consent, as required in Texas, and obtained her own private funds to cover the cost?

2. Why hasn’t the White House briefed the Senate Armed Services Committee on what went wrong in Niger? Would the White House cooperate with a congressional investigation into the ambush that led to the death of four US soldiers?

3. […]

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Trump’s sabotage of the Affordable Care Act increases premium costs for North Carolinians 

BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina has announced that it will increase the average premiums for Affordable Care Act marketplace plans by an average of 14.1% in 2018, citing the Trump Administration’s failure to pay cost-sharing reductions that are vital for lowering out-of-pocket costs paid by working people.

Numerous healthcare experts and patient advocacy organizations, including the American Cancer Society, have called for Congress to ensure that these payments resume to reduce premiums.

“Plain and simple, if Donald Trump had not cut-off cost-sharing payments in order to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, premiums on the individual market would barely go up at all in North Carolina next year,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. ​”​Republicans representing North Carolina in Congress should stand-up to Donald Trump and support the bipartisan compromise deal put forward by Senators of both parties so that North Carolinians don’t suffer the needless economic pain […]

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Sanders Questions: He Knew What He Signed Up For Edition

President Trump has reached a new depth of disgusting, petty, and unpatriotic behavior by reigniting a feud with Gold Star families. The words of Khizr Khan, the father of an American soldier killed in Iraq, to Trump are more true now than ever before: “You have sacrificed nothing and no one.”

There is absolutely nothing White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders can say to make up for the pain the President has caused. But she can do the country a service by finally telling the truth, in the interest of transparency and decency, so that the public can hold this White House accountable. American Bridge Rapid Response Emily Aden calls on her to answer the following questions:

1. Why was President Trump so callous in his call to the grieving widow of Sgt. La David T. Johnson? Do you deny that the President did not even know the name of […]

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BREAKING: Trump and Ryan oppose bipartisan ACA compromise, instead continue their sabotage of health insurance markets

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after Donald Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan announced their opposition to the bipartisan Alexander-Murray compromise deal that would fund the Affordable Care Act (ACA) cost-sharing subsidies:

“Premiums are already soaring by as much as 30% because of Trump​, yet he and Speaker Ryan are trying to kill a bipartisan compromise that would reverse this trend and improve millions of lives.  They’re instead doubling-down on the malicious, politically-motivated sabotage of the Affordable Care Act that brought us here. Trump, Ryan, and every other Republican who side with higher premiums and against this bipartisan breakthrough will be inflicting needless economic pain upon the country, and their constituents will hold them accountable.”

Ryan and Trump’s opposition comes as health insurers have already begun to hike premiums on ACA marketplaces – including by 30% in Pennsylvania – as a result of Trump’s executive […]

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Breaking with Trump, White House legislative director admits that “we need to turn this economy around”

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after White House Legislative Director Marc Short said we need to “turn this economy around,” directly contradicting Trump’s self-congratulatory and dishonest rhetoric about the economy:  

“Even Donald Trump’s top legislative aide doesn’t believe the President’s lies about his economic record. He just slipped and admitted the truth: the Trump economy isn’t working for everyone. Not only is job growth down under Trump, but across the board Trump has pursued an economic agenda that sells out the middle class and American workers to further rig the economy for the rich.

“Rather than investing in job creation and infrastructure, Trump has prioritized taking healthcare from millions of Americans in the name of partisanship and cutting taxes for the wealthy – the opposite of what the American people need.”

White House Legislative Affairs Director March Short on Fox & Friends, 10/17/2017: “We need it […]

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