Senate Makes Bid For Tax Cuts
Senate tax plan diverges from House version, highlighting political pressures. NYT: "Senate Republicans outlined their vision on Thursday for overhauling the tax code, proposing a one-year delay in President Trump’s top priority of cutting the corporate tax rate while reinstating some prized tax breaks used by middle-class families. The Senate bill differs significantly from the House version approved by the Ways and Means committee on Thursday: It would preserve some popular tax breaks, including ones for mortgage interest and medical expenses, and would maintain a bottom tax rate of 10 percent for lower earners. But it would also jettison the state and local tax deduction entirely and delay the enforcement of a 20 percent corporate tax rate until 2019, which could rankle the White House and mute the economic growth projections that Republicans are counting on to blunt the cost of the tax cuts."
Democratic Member of Trump's Voter Fraud Commission Sues Panel
Dem member of Trump’s voter fraud commission sues panel. The Hill: "Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap (D) is suing President Trump’s voter fraud commission, of which he is also a member. In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Democrat claims he has been blocked from receiving commission documents necessary 'to fulfill the oath he took and the obligations to which he committed when he joined the panel.' Trump formed the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in February to investigate his unsubstantiated claims that between three and five million people voted illegally in the 2016 presidential election. Dunlap said the lawsuit is an 'action of last resort.' He claims the commission has violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) by preventing certain members of the commission from substantively participating in the work it does, as well as from accessing documents made available to some members and prepared for or by the commission. FACA requires commission membership to be 'fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented' and all materials, 'which were made available to or prepared for or by' the commission, to be available to all commission members. 'Since the Commission’s meeting on September 12, 2017, Secretary Dunlap has received no information or updates from Commission staff or leadership about ongoing active research, inquiries for research requests, documents for consideration at future meetings, or any information about the Commission’s plans to hold another meeting."
FEMA To Airlift Desperate Puerto Ricans
50 Days after Maria, FEMA offers to airlift desperate Puerto Ricans to mainland. New York Magazine: "Fifty days after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, thousands of people displaced by the storm are still living in shelters. This week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has begun offering to temporarily relocate them to the mainland U.S. It’s the first time the agency has attempted to establish what it calls an 'air bridge' to pull people from a disaster area. Puerto Ricans who take FEMA up on its offer would be moved to either Florida or New York, two states with significant Puerto Rican populations."
WH Pressures DHS To Expel Thousands Of Hondurans
Kelly tried to pressure acting DHS secretary to expel thousands of Hondurans. WaPo: "On Monday, as the Department of Homeland Security prepared to extend the residency permits of tens of thousands of Hondurans living in the United States, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly called acting secretary Elaine Duke to pressure her to expel them, according to current and former administration officials. Duke refused to reverse her decision and was angered by what she felt was a politically driven intrusion by Kelly and Tom Bossert, the White House homeland security adviser, who also called her about the matter, according to officials with knowledge of Monday’s events. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations."
Alabama GOP Senate Candidate Roy Moore Sexually Preyed on Teens
Woman says Roy Moore initiated sexual encounter when she was 14, he was 32. WaPo: "Leigh Corfman says she was 14 years old when an older man approached her outside a courtroom in Etowah County, Ala. She was sitting on a wooden bench with her mother, they both recall, when the man introduced himself as Roy Moore. It was early 1979 and Moore — now the Republican nominee in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat — was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. He struck up a conversation, Corfman and her mother say, and offered to watch the girl while her mother went inside for a child custody hearing. 'He said, ‘Oh, you don’t want her to go in there and hear all that. I’ll stay out here with her,’ says Corfman’s mother, Nancy Wells, 71. 'I thought, how nice for him to want to take care of my little girl.'"
