On Saturday, socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders posted a landslide victory against Hillary Clinton in the Washington State Democrat caucus. With turnout approaching the 2008 record levels, Sanders won with 73 percent of the vote.
Category: 2016 Election
Trump Camp: Ted Cruz Is ‘The Reason Why Obamatrade’ Passed
“The reason why Obamatrade became law is because of Ted Cruz,” said Donald Trump’s senior policy advisor Stephen Miller on Monday’s program of Breitbart News Daily. Miller — who had been working for Sen. Jeff Sessions at the time that Sessions led the conservative opposition to Obamatrade in the U.S. Senate— said that Cruz’s “lobbying” effort to fast track President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership “was the difference maker” that enabled fast track to pass. Like Sen. Cruz, Obama had been pushing for fast track to ensure the passage of TPP. Fast track lowers the 67 votes required to pass a treaty to a mere simple majority, it surrenders the 60 vote filibuster, and it forfeits individual senators’ ability to add amendments or changes to the trade deals negotiated by the president. As Sen. Sessions explained, “A vote for fast-track is a vote to authorize the President to ink the secret [TPP] deal contained in these pages—to affix his name on the Union and to therefore enter the United States into it.” On Monday’s program of Breitbart News Daily, Miller said: We talk about Club for Growth, we talk about these groups that are out there pushing offshoring, there’s a reason why they’re aligned
CNN’s Tapper: Obama’s Media Criticisms Should Be Directed Towards His Own Admin Given Lack of Transparecncy
CNN’s “The Lead” host Jake Tapper argued that while President Obama made some good points in his criticism of the media’s coverage of the 2016 presidential race, his “lecturing would be better delivered to your own administration” given its record on transparency on Tuesday. Tapper said that while Obama “made many salient points” he might not have been the right messenger. He added, “Many believe that Obama’s call for us to probe and dig deeper, and find out more has been made far more difficult by his administration, than any in recent decades, a far cry from assurances he offered as he first took office.” Tapper continued, “Transparency? ‘Obama hasn’t delivered,’ ProPublica reporter Justin Elliott wrote, in the Washington Post, just a few days ago, calling the massive backlog of those seeking and failing to receive information from the government under the Freedom of Information Act, ‘a disaster’ under Obama’s watch, with Obama officials ‘aggressively lobbying against reforms proposed in Congress.’ An Associated press study last year concluded that, ‘The Obama administration set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them under the…Freedom of Information Act.’ The Committee to Protect Journalists told CNN today, the
Marco Rubio Wants to Keep His Delegates at Republican Convention
Sen. Marco Rubio wants to keep his delegates — even though he is no longer running for president. That’s the message he is sending to Republican officials in several states where the Florida Senator won delegates, according to the Associated Press. Rubio currently has 171 delegates, according to Real Clear Politics, and will try to retain them as the Republican convention approaches. The Washington Examiner’s Joel Gehrke obtained the text of a letter that Rubio sent to the Alaska Republican party, suggesting that he would like a say in how they vote during the Republican convention in July. “The decision to suspend my campaign for president of the Untied States is not intended to release any national convention delegates bound to me as a result of the 2016 delegate selection process that took place in your state,” Rubio wrote. “It is my desire at this time that the delegates allocated to me by your rules remain bound to vote for me on at least the first nominating ballot at the national convention.” In Alaska, it appears that Rubio’s letter has had the desired effect. Officials had already reassigned Rubio’s five delegates to Trump and Ted Cruz, the Associated Press reported, but the delegates will now
‘Blunt’ Obama: Drug Problem Was Ignored When It Was Hurting Minority Communities
President Obama joined the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta this afternoon to discuss the problems of drug addiction and the importance of treating it as a disease instead of a character flaw.
David Brock: Trump Needs to Tell Lewandowski ‘You’re Fired’
David Brock issued a statement Tuesday through a pro-Hillary Clinton Super PAC asserting that Donald Trump should fire his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Hillary Clinton’s Muslim Brotherhood Problem
On March 24th, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton put in an appearance in Los Angeles that perfectly captured one of the most problematic facets of her checkered public service. Seated next to a prominent Islamic supremacist with longstanding ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, she nodded like a bobbing-head doll as he dissembled about Islam, fraudulently professed a commitment to “partnership” with law enforcement to prevent radicalization, and criticized those who know better.
Sarah Silverman: Socialism Is ‘Wildly American’
Leftwing comedian and actress Sarah Silverman released a video on Monday defending socialism and explaining why she supports Sen. Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary. “If you vote or not, that’s not my business, I’m not your mommy,” Silverman began. “Though like your mommy, I have a completely full bush.” The feminist comedian, who previously said all men are potential rapists, then acknowledged that she was once a Clinton supporter, but switched over to Sanders because she shares his socialist views on free college tuition and raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. “I’m a feminist. Democratic woman president? Yes please!” Silverman said of her past Clinton support. Calling out Hillary for taking large donations from “big money,” the pro-abortion activist praised Sanders for raising over $100 million from more than five million individual donors. “He proved that what is right can also be possible,” she said. “This man is running for president on a platform that is just a giant ‘f—k you’ to the above-the-law billionaire class who have been controlling government policy with their money and not paying a nickel in taxes through government loopholes they secure with said money.” Silverman further stated she feels Sanders is running on
President Obama Is Taking More Steps to Address the Prescription Drug Abuse Epidemic
Watch President Obama speak in Atlanta at 2:30 pm ET
Today, as part his efforts to escalate the fight against the prescription opioid abuse and heroin epidemic, the President will join individuals in recovery, family members, medical professionals, and law enforcement officials at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Georgia.
At the event, he’ll take questions from the Facebook group Young People in Recovery:
The prescription opioid abuse and heroin epidemic claims the lives of tens of thousands of Americans each year. The President has made clear that addressing this epidemic is a priority for his Administration, and has escalated the fight against the epidemic on three different fronts: expanding access to treatment, preventing overdose deaths, and increasing community prevention strategies.
Here are some highlights from the new actions announced today:
Increasing access to medication-assisted treatment
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is issuing a proposed rule to increase the current patient limit for qualified physicians who prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorders from 100 to 200 patients with the goal of expanding access to this evidence-based treatment while preventing diversion. The proposed rule aims to increase access to medication-assisted treatment and behavioral health supports for tens of thousands of people with opioid use disorders.
Why this matters: Buprenorphine is an FDA-approved drug that, because of its lower potential for abuse, is permitted to be prescribed or dispensed in physician offices, which significantly increases its availability to many patients. When taken as prescribed, buprenorphine is safe and effective. Existing evidence shows that this lifesaving, evidence-based treatment is under-utilized. Updating the regulations around the prescribing of buprenorphine-containing products, as proposed today, would help close this treatment gap. Learn more here.
Addressing the substance use disorder parity in medicaid
HHS is finalizing a rule to strengthen access to mental health and substance use services for people enrolled in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) plans by requiring that these benefits be offered at parity, meaning that they be comparable to medical and surgical benefits.
Why this matters: These protections are expected to benefit more than 23 million people in Medicaid and CHIP.
These actions build on the President’s proposal for $1.1 billion in new funding to help every American with an opioid use disorder who wants treatment get the help they need.
Susan Sarandon: Donald Trump Might Be Better Than Hillary Clinton
Bernie Sanders backer Susan Sarandon is not sure she could bring herself to vote for Hillary Clinton if the Vermont senator fails to win the Democratic Party’s nomination — and besides, she says, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump may be the better option over Clinton, anyway. In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes on Monday, the 69-year-old Thelma and Louise star and avid Sanders campaigner said that independent voters and grassroots progressives may have trouble pulling the lever for Clinton in November. “That’s a legitimate concern, because they’re very passionate and very principled,” Sarandon said of the possibility that Sanders supporters could simply walk away if Clinton becomes the nominee. “[Clinton] doesn’t believe [in the things Sanders does],” she added. “She’s accepted money from all those people. She doesn’t even want to fight for a $15 minimum wage, so these are people that have not come out before, so why would we think they’re going to come out now, for her?” “I think Bernie would probably encourage people to [support Hillary if he loses] because he doesn’t have any ego in this thing,” the actress conceded. “But I think a lot of people are, ‘sorry, I just can’t bring myself to [vote