Trump escalates sabotage of ACA marketplaces by drastically cutting enrollment ad funding

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after it was reported that the Trump Administration would cut the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace enrollment ad budget by 90% during the same week that the Centers for Disease Control determined that the ACA had continued to reduce the U.S. uninsured rate to unprecedented lows during the first months of his administration:    

“Donald Trump’s malicious undermining of Affordable Care Act marketplaces started on his first day in office, and it has resulted in needless, double-digit premium increases that will hammer the finances of millions of hardworking families across the country. This callous funding cut is an obvious attempt to continue sabotaging the marketplaces to hurt a life-saving law that the American people overwhelmingly support bipartisan action to improve.”

Washington Examiner: Trump cuts Obamacare ad budget by 90 percent
by Robert King | Aug 31, 2017, 4:30 […]

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Evidence Of More Trump Campaign Lies About Russia

American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah released the following statement on the bombshell report from NBC News, citing notes taken by then Trump campaign Chair Paul Manafort, that donations and the RNC were discussed at the June 2016 meeting between the Trump campaign and an alleged Russian government attorney. 

“The evidence uncovered in this report is at odds with Jared Kushner’s testimony before Congress where he alleged this meeting was about adoption policy, not the campaign. It doesn’t take a federal prosecutor to figure out one of them is lying, and with the evidence now suggesting Kushner wasn’t telling the whole story, he may have committed a federal crime. If that’s the case, he must be held accountable.” 

Background: 

Manafort’s Notes From The Trump Tower Meeting Mention “Donations” And The Republican National Committee. According to NBC News, “Paul Manafort’s notes from a controversial Trump Tower meeting with Russians during the 2016 presidential […]

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Sanders Questions: Back To School Edition

The devastation of Hurricane Harvey continues, but the President seems more focused on pushing a plan to cut taxes for the rich while leaving his press shop to clean up the fact that he failed to even meet with storm victims on his brief trip to Texas. It’s the last day of August and everyone agrees- President Trump is going to have to actually do something in September.

American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden says “good luck” and calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. Why is the President cruelly tormenting Dreamers with his uncertainty surrounding DACA?

2.  Experts agree President Trump’s tax plan announced yesterday would benefit corporations and billionaire CEOs — not regular people. Why did the President abandon his populist campaign rhetoric?

3. Does the White House deny Michael Cohen’s claim that he spoke to President Trump about the Trump Tower Moscow […]

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What they’re saying: Trump’s tax plan would fail the American middle class

After Donald Trump tried to market his tax plan blueprint in Missouri with empty rhetoric, reviews from experts found that, as has been the case with Trump’s entire economic agenda, it  would hammer struggling Americans.

Trump’s tax proposal would instead further rig the U.S. economy for the wealthiest Americans – including Trump himself – with disproportionate and wasteful new tax giveaways, while failing to deliver the growth and opportunity that Trump promised the American middle class.

Here’s what they’re saying:

PUTTING TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY AHEAD OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Washington Post: “Trump speech will bash rigged system. But tax outline would benefit 1 percent.” [Washington Post, 8/30/2017]

Bloomberg: “Tax policy experts have said the dozen bullet points the White House released in April outlining its principles would undoubtedly mean lower taxes for top earners, while the impact on middle incomes was less clear.” [Bloomberg, 8/30/2017]

Quartz: “Most of Trump’s […]

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Trump tax proposal cements him as the Bernie Madoff of American politics

Just like on healthcare and jobs, Trump’s tax “plan” proves he is only out for himself – and that he’s lying about it

Totally contradicting the economic pledges that Donald Trump made to the American people last year, Trump is at it again today, this time selling a sham tax proposal that is nothing more than a windfall for himself and the rich. This follows a pattern for Trump; to date, each of his major initiatives have been rooted in an agenda will only further rig the American economy for rich Americans at everyone else’s expense – including the “forgotten men and women” he spoke of in his inaugural address.

It’s no surprise that Trump is disingenuously claiming his tax plan will have populist outcomes when it in fact won’t. Trump lies about everything and today is no different. His empty rhetoric, however, has already been discredited even before his speech begins, […]

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NEW DATA: Affordable Care Act kept bringing number of Americans with health insurance to unprecedented lows under Trump 

New Centers for Disease Control data show that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) kept reducing the uninsured rate in the United States to unprecedented lows even during the first months of Donald Trump’s presidency, when the law was already facing sabotage efforts from the Trump Administration.

This continued success of the ACA occurred despite Trump signing an executive order undermining the law on his first day in office, followed by the administration calling enforcement of the individual mandate into question days later, and then pulling ads promoting ACA enrollment – which had already been paid for – at the end of his first week.

“Even though the Affordable Care Act was continuing to provide more Americans with health coverage than at any point in our history, Donald Trump and Republicans still began a sabotage campaign against it so that they could cut taxes for the rich at the expense of  tens of millions […]

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Who is Felix Sater? A convicted criminal

The man at the center of the latest bombshell reports on the Russia scandal is a convicted felon. As a young stockbroker in 1991, Felix Sater stabbed a man in a Manhattan bar and was subsequently sentenced to prison and effectively barred from selling securities by the National Association of Securities Dealers. Later, he was implicated in a Mafia-connected stock manipulation scheme in 1998.  Despite that fact, Sater went on to work Donald Trump throughout the 2000s, partnering with him on the scandal-plagued Trump Soho and Fort Lauderdale projects that were the subject of various lawsuits.

Sater is also a former executive of the Bayrock Group, a scandal-plagued real estate firm that worked extensively with the Trump Organization. And as reported in the last 24 hours, on an unsuccessful project in Moscow, Sater advised Trump Organization lawyer Michael Cohen to email Vladimir Putin’s top press aide for help in expediting the […]

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WATCH: Trump Bemoans Deadly Hurricane for Stomping on “Ratings” for Sheriff Joe Pardon

Just when you think Donald Trump can’t be any more of a disgusting human-being, he finds a way to sink even lower. This afternoon, Trump admitted he saw coverage of a deadly hurricane that is still, as we speak, wrecking havoc on Texas and Louisiana as an opportunity for higher ratings of a pardon for racist Joe Arpaio. The pardon, meanwhile, was decried by both Republicans and Democrats as it represented an unprecedented abuse of power and break from Justice Department protocol.

Watch Trump’s offensive comments here:  

Trump: “Well a lot of people think it was the right thing to do, John, and actually in the middle of the hurricane even though it was a Friday evening, I assumed the ratings would be far higher than they would be normally you know the hurricane was just starting and I put out it that I had […]

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What’s Putin Have On Trump?

“What does Putin have on Trump?” is a question we’ve asked for over a year now. 

The full story still isn’t yet out there, but we now know that during the 2016 election, President Trump was personally involved in pursuing a Russian real estate deal, and that Trump’s aides directly contacted the Kremlin seeking assistance from Vladimir Putin.

Trump and his associates subsequently for months denied any such interactions took place, putting themselves at the mercy of Putin, who knew they were lying to the American public and had the documentation to back it up. In other words, Putin probably has plenty of blackmail material and is likely using this leverage to shape what Trump does in the White House. 

To repeat: a U.S. presidential candidate during the course of the election sought to enlist a foreign government in a business deal to enrich himself, and later, a quid pro […]

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KKK-Sympathizing Racist Pardons Disgraced Birther

By issuing a presidential pardon for convicted criminal, disgraced sheriff, and all-around-birther Joe Arpaio, Donald Trumptonight made a complete and total fool of anyone who believed the lying KKK-apologist in the White House’s recent claimed conviction that “there is no room for prejudice, no place for bigotry, and no tolerance for hate” in the United States.

American Bridge President Jessica Mackler issued the following statement on Trump’s Arpaio pardon:

“Donald Trump is abusing the power of the presidency to endorse bigotry, racism, and fascism. Arpaio’s pardon is just the latest example. It’s horrifying and utterly disqualifying that Trump continues to coddle Neo-Nazis, hire white nationalists, and inspire repugnant anti-American hatred among far-right racists across the country. The public isn’t going to stand for this, and the Republican Party should expect to be held accountable.”

 

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