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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American Bridge Women’s Health Initiative Launches Campaign Against Trump’s Anti-Choice Judicial Nominee

This morning, American Bridge launched a digital ad campaign against President Trump’s latest anti-choice judicial nominee Gregory Katsas before his first Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. If confirmed Katsas would serve as United States Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia, which is well known as a “feeder” to the Supreme Court.

Emily Aden, director of American Bridge’s women’s health initiative Protect Women’s Health Care stated, “The single greatest threat Donald Trump poses to women is his ability to name federal judges. We cannot allow him to stack the courts with anti-choice conservatives like Gregory Katsas who will strip away women’s reproductive freedom for generations to come.”

View the ad here: https://youtu.be/cMyPFcp8Z4A

Read the full background report on Katsas here: http://bridgeproject.com/app/uploads/Gregory-Katsas-1.pdf

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WATCH: Gary Cohn applauded by banking lobby for Trump Administration plan to weaken Wall Street reforms 

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after National Economic Council (NEC) Director Gary Cohn told the American Bankers Association – receiving applause – that the Trump Administration was working to diminish financial sector regulations put into place after the 2008 financial crisis: 

“At the very same time that Trump is pushing a tax plan that would give 80% of its benefits to the wealthiest Americans, his top economic adviser is being applauded by the banking lobby for promising to erode post-financial crisis Wall Street reforms.  The middle class and American workers need an advocate in the White House, but instead Donald Trump is trying to further rig the economy in favor of the richest taxpayers and expose the American people to a catastrophic repeat of the 2008 recession.”

WATCH:

American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols: Kind of a broader picture just about the overall tone […]

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Sanders Questions: Blowing Up Health Care Edition

This weekend President Trump continued to ignore the deadly disasters in California, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and the killing of US soldiers in Niger, but managed to find time to golf and tweet partisan attacks. This leaves the country rightfully questioning his priorities, not to mention his fitness to actually do the job he was elected to do.

So far the only thing this White House has seemed to do with consistency is sabotaging health insurance market places, a move that will hurt millions, and pushing a reckless tax plan that will cut taxes for the rich and raise taxes for the middle-class.

The start of the week brings fresh questions the Administration should answer, and American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to start with the following:

1. After Steve Bannon bragged to President Trumps’ base that Trump ended health payments […]

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WATCH: Bannon admits Trump is “blowing up” Obamacare exchanges, contradicting Trump tweets from this morning 

American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement after former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon told the Values Voters Summit that Donald Trump was acting to “blow up” the Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance marketplaces by cutting-off payment of cost-sharing reductions.

“Donald Trump’s former chief strategist just admitted what has been obvious since Trump took office: this administration is actively sabotaging marketplaces in the name of politics. While the administration has tried to mislead the public about their efforts, Steve Bannon just tore their facade apart and told the truth – getting cheers from the Republican base.

“Trump’s executive order will cause economic and medical hardship for countless families across the country, and now Bannon has ensured that everyone knows this was done intentionally, and for partisan reasons. The country is going to hold Republicans accountable.”

This week Trump issued two executive orders that took the administration’s months-long efforts to sabotage […]

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Editorial Roundup: Adult Day Care Edition

In a week where California is literally burning and Puerto Rico still needs help, President Trump decided to inject uncertainty into FEMA’s commitment to Puerto Rico, throw DACA recipients back into limbo, and recklessly sabotage the Affordable Care Act. Editorial boards across the country criticized him for all of these issues and more.

Here’s what Americans were reading in their local papers this week:

10/6

San Francisco Chronicle: Trump’s Cabinet Of Chaos

Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee this week described Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly as “those people that help separate our country from chaos.” While it might surprise some administration observers to learn that anything is separating the nation from chaos, Corker has a point about the thin gray line of generals and executives who constitute the embattled anti-entropy faction of President Trump’s […]

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NEW POLL: Americans overwhelmingly oppose Trump’s sabotaging of ACA marketplaces   

A new, independent poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that the country overwhelmingly supports bipartisan action to maintain and strengthen the Affordable Care Act​ (ACA)​, and opposes forcing the law to fail as Donald Trump has been attempting to do for months. A similar poll in April also indicated that a large majority of the public would blame Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress for “any problems with the Affordable Care Act going forward.”

​What’s more, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that ending the payment of cost-sharing reductions, as the Trump Administration announced they will do last night, would increase premiums for benchmark silver plans on the ACA exchanges by 20%.

In response to the latest polling, American Bridge spokesperson Andrew Bates released the following statement: 

“The writing is on the wall – the American people want to keep the unprecedented coverage gains and protections for people suffering from preexisting conditions that […]

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BREAKING: Trump’s sabotage of the ACA will result in a Trump tax on health insurance

American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah released the following statement after it was reported that Donald Trump will withhold the payment of Affordable Care Act cost-sharing reductions:

“Donald Trump is sabotaging insurance marketplaces across the country in the name of partisan politics and as a result, the country is going to pay the price in the form of higher premiums.  Trump is singlehandedly selling out millions of working Americans who count on these payments to afford insurance and when they’re faced with the consequences of this decision they’re going to know Donald Trump is the only one to blame.  Every Republican across the country should expect to be held accountable for this reckless decision that will hurt so many people.”

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Sanders Questions: Abandoning Americans In Their Hour Of Need Edition

The crises facing the White House are serious and Donald Trump’s reckless behavior is putting lives in danger. Everybody seems to know that except the President. American Bridge Rapid Response Director Emily Aden calls on White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to answer the following questions:

1. Why is President Trump threatening to abandon Puerto Rico when 84 percent of the Americans living there still don’t have power and a third don’t have access to clean drinking water?

2. Why has the President still not made a public statement himself about the American soldiers who were killed in an ambush in Niger?

3. Experts agree that President Trump’s health care executive order will force premiums to go up, leave millions of Americans with inadequate care, and could kill the health care market within a year. Why is he doing this other than to fulfill his childish grudge against President Obama?

4.Yesterday, the Director […]

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Statement: Trumpcare Executive Order Undermines Americans’ Access to Healthcare and Risks Legal Challenges

American Bridge Vice President Shripal Shah issued the following statement on Trump’s executive order further undermining the Affordable Care Act’s state insurance marketplaces as well as its protections for Americans with preexisting conditions: 

​”This is an outrageous, and potentially illegal, attack on Americans with preexisting conditions and the finances of middle class Americans. Trump’s actions will exacerbate the chaos in already-sabotaged marketplaces, force premiums to skyrocket, and open the doorway to large-scale health insurance fraud, all in the name of partisan politics. American families are paying attention, and they’ll know exactly who to blame when they’re hit with the consequences of Trump’s reckless behavior.”

​EXPERTS ON LEGALITY OF THE EXECUTIVE ORDER​

​American Enterprise Institute Resident Scholar Joseph Antos: “The E in ERISA is employee…They are going to have to stretch the definition of whether you’re an employee or not.” [Reuters, 10/12/2017]

Reuters: “U.S. President Donald Trump’s expected plan to let […]

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