American Bridge statement on Trump naming Larry Kudlow NEC Director

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after Larry Kudlow accepted Donald Trump’s offer to succeed Gary Cohn as director of the National Economic Council:

“Just hours after voters in Pennsylvania rejected Trump economics, Donald Trump is doubling-down on an agenda that sells-out the American middle class in order to further help the richest taxpayers. Larry Kudlow believes Medicare and Social Security are ‘bad ideas,’ supports tax breaks for companies that send American jobs overseas, opposes the existence of a minimum wage, dismissed the gender pay gap as ‘nonsense,’ and wants to eliminate the Department of Labor.

“Kudlow will not deliver the economic changes Americans need as the deficit skyrockets and healthcare costs rise because of Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy.  His fringe beliefs are perfect for Trump but wrong for the country.”

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David Brock: Cohen Admission Increases Legal Problems Surrounding The Stormy Daniels Payoff

American Bridge founder and Chairman David Brock released the following statement in response to Michael Cohen admitting he paid Stephanie Clifford, stage name Stormy Daniels, $130,000 to keep quiet about an affair she had with Trump. Brock reiterated his call for an investigation into the seemingly illegal payment:

“Like I said on Monday, there must be an investigation of these allegations, even more so now that Michael Cohen has essentially confessed. The last time something similar happened, John Edwards was indicted, and it’s not a stretch to say that this looks like the same thing.

“If Cohen cut a check that amounted to an illegal contribution, he and the President must be held accountable.”

On Monday NBC published an op-ed from Brock outlining the need for an investigation of the matter by the FEC.  That same morning, American Bridge filed a complaint with the commission requesting such an investigation, […]

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Bridge Project Statement on Sen. Rubio’s Family Leave Plan and the Independent Women’s Forum

This week Senator Marco Rubio claimed that he is working with Ivanka Trump on a paid family leave plan, something long overdue and desperately needed by American working families. However, early reporting indicates that the plan is actually just an ability to draw from Social Security and is based on policies touted by the Independent Women’s Forum, a right-wing interest group with ties to the Koch brothers.

“Senator Rubio and Ivanka Trump’s proposal for a so-called ‘budget-neutral’ family leave plan is not paid family leave at all, but rather a cut to Social Security that will particularly hurt low-income women,” said Dawn Huckelbridge, director of American Bridge’s Women’s Rights Initiative. “Women already receive less in earnings and Social Security benefits than men and are more likely to experience poverty, including in retirement. This is not a comprehensive fix for working families, but another hollow proposal that does not serve the women […]

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Bridge Project Statement on Senate Abortion Ban Vote

Dawn Huckelbridge, director of American Bridge’s Women’s Rights Initiative, released the following statement in response to the US Senate’s vote on a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy and threaten doctors with jail time:

“Once again GOP leaders used women’s lives for political pandering by scheduling a vote on an unconstitutional abortion ban that would criminalize doctors and make no exception for the health of the mother. These kinds of bans are unpopular, scientifically unsound, and dangerously out of touch with the American people. Americans on both sides of the aisle have made it clear that this is not something Congress should be prioritizing. These complex and intensely personal decisions should stay in the hands of women in consultation with their doctors, not politicians — and voters agree.”

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Bridge Project Statement on HHS’s License To Discriminate

Dawn Huckelbridge, director of American Bridge’s Women’s Rights Initiative, released the following statement in response to the Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Service announcing a new Division on Conscience and Religious Freedom:

“Donald Trump’s administration is handing out permission slips for hospitals and providers to deny individuals, including women and LGBT patients, access to a full range of health services including life saving emergency care. If there is any doubt about how morally repulsive, politically unpopular, and far reaching the consequences of this rule will be, crafting it in secret behind closed doors and without public input says all you need to know.”

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American Bridge calls for investigation after leaked memo proves Trump deliberately raised healthcare costs on families for political purposes

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after a leaked Trump Administration memo proved that Donald Trump intentionally abused his executive authority to undermine the American healthcare system and needlessly raised out-of-pocket healthcare costs in order to help persuade Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA):

“Donald Trump has been caught red-handed: he drove-up​ healthcare costs on American families in an attempt to end Obamacare,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “Far from providing less expensive care to ‘everyone’ or fighting to reduce the economic burdens faced by the ‘forgotten men and women’ – as he promised – we now know that Donald Trump made the cost of healthcare soar for untold thousands on purpose. It is imperative that Congress and the HHS inspector general get to the bottom of this damning revelation immediately​.”

According to the Trump Administration’s own data, average premiums for benchmark silver plans on the health insurance marketplaces increased […]

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Bank of America’s chief economist refutes Trump on corporate tax cuts and wages

Today, Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s chief economist confirmed that the empty promises Donald Trump and Republicans made about wasteful new tax cuts for corporations “trickling down” to the middle class in the form of higher salaries and wages are untrue, telling the Associated Press, “The bulk of the corporate tax cuts should accrue to people who hold stock in companies…Workers benefit much more from a cut in taxes on ordinary income. In other words, better to get a direct cut than a spillover from cuts to others.”

This comes as evidence mounts that, as Fortune 500 CEOs announced many times over even before the Republican tax plan was passed, and as history demonstrates, companies will use these tax cuts to pay their shareholders more – not to raise wages and salaries for workers.

“Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are struggling as they fight against the […]

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NEW VIDEO: Trump is in overdrive to break his top campaign promise and force American taxpayers to pay for his ineffective border wall

Immediately after Donald Trump started his immigration meeting with Senators this morning – in which the White House indicated he would reiterate a demand that American taxpayers foot the bill for a wasteful and unnecessary wall between the United States and Mexico – Bridge Project released a new video via Twitter highlighting just a small number of the umpteen times Trump guaranteed the country that he would negotiate Mexico into paying for his wall.

“Every single time that Donald Trump threatens the American people with a government shutdown unless he can force them to pay for an almost 900-mile vanity project that national security experts say would be hopelessly ineffective and wasteful, Trump is trying to break one of his top promises to us,” said American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates. “Time after time, Trump swore he was such a formidable negotiator that Mexico would just cave and pay for his wall.  He failed – […]

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New Report: You’re Fired: How Americans Are Hurting While Trump Bails Out Wall Street, Big Corporations, & Donors This Holiday Season

Donald Trump has showered donors and cronies with tax giveaways, bragged about Wall Street’s record highs, and lauded massive corporate profits throughout his first year in office but has done next to nothing for the “forgotten man” who he pledged to serve throughout the campaign. In response, today American Bridge is releasing a new report that outlines the continued trend of mass layoffs and plant closings in communities across the nation this holiday season, all on Trump’s watch.

The new report is also being packaged and sent to key reporters, columnists, and bloggers across the nation so they can have the information they need to know about Trump’s policies this year, and who is hurting. To read a copy of one of the reports, click here.

“Donald Trump isn’t working for everyday Americans,” said Pat Dennis, American Bridge Trump War Room Research Director. “Trump’s agenda is further rigging the economy for the […]

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