Daily Archives: June 9, 2017

Adding in changes to food stamps and TANF would provide another $400 billion over 10 years, Rep. Mark Meadows said. | Getty

By Aaron Lorenzo

06/09/2017 08:15 AM EDT

Updated 06/09/2017 08:09 AM EDT

House Freedom Caucus members will push for changes to two major welfare programs food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families as part of tax reform legislation, the group's chairman told POLITICO.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) also said the hardline conservative group's still-in-development bill wouldn't include a controversial tax on imports or immediate write-offs for business investments known as full expensing backed by House GOP leaders. The first is too unpopular and the second too expensive, he said.

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Meadows and others in the caucus expect to unveil more information about their plan at a Heritage Foundation event Friday

Republican congressional leaders and Trump administration officials have stepped up their efforts to reach a consensus on tax reform, hoping to enact the legislation this year. The Freedom Caucus's plans are likely to add another hurdle to that effort.

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Meadows said it helps the tax reform math to leave out full expensing if the tax on imports, known as a border adjustment, is also jettisoned. House GOP leaders are counting on border adjustment which would also make exports tax-free in a bid to bolster domestic production to generate more than $1 trillion over 10 years to help keep tax cuts from blowing a hole in the federal budget.

But the idea has split business leaders, with import-heavy companies like retailers fiercely opposing it and exporters pushing for it. It has also caused fissures within the congressional GOP Meadows estimated 75-80 House Republicans oppose it, along with up to half of Senate Republicans.

Meadows said adding in changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, and TANF would provide another $400 billion over 10 years, Meadows said.

Such additions and subtractions are aimed at a Freedom Caucus package that includes a corporate tax rate of 20 percent and an equal or just slightly higher rate on unincorporated businesses known as pass-throughs, Meadows said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has pushed for a 20 percent corporate rate and 25 percent for pass-throughs. President Donald Trump has proposed a single 15 percent tax on all business income.

How do we get to a 20 percent corporate and make sure theres a pass-through to LLCs and sole proprietorships and at the same time making sure that its not just a corporate tax cut but we actually make it fundamentally better for the person on Main Street? Meadows said. We believe it has to have both components.

For similar reasons, Freedom Caucus members dont want to alter the mortgage interest deduction, said Meadows. It could have too much impact on consumption in the U.S. economy, he said. (Congressional leaders and the Trump administration have also kept the mortgage deduction off limits.)

Were trying to look at how to make it better for consumers, not worse, so we really havent looked at that at all, Meadows said.

The caucus is trying to push the envelope on tax reform sooner rather than later.

Time is of the essence, Meadows said, who in recent days called for canceling the annual August recess for Congress in order to advance tax reform. Tax writers need to drop the discussion of border adjustment, he said, adding that White House officials have drawn the same conclusion.

Ryan and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) have yet to back off the idea, though. While the Freedom Caucus hasn't taken an official position on border adjustments, Meadows said the entire GOP conference needs to arrive at some type of an agreement on whats going to be included in a tax package and whats going to fall by the wayside.

Its important that we start discussing principles and concepts that need to be in place so that we act in the next few weeks, not the next few months, at least on starting the ball rolling with legislative text where we can all start to review it, Meadows said.

The Freedom Caucus had a hand in reshaping health care overhaul legislation that ultimately passed the House after weeks of fits and starts. The caucus, which Meadows said counts 36 members, wants to influence tax reform at an earlier stage in the debate, he has said.

To get tax reform, Republicans need to reach a budget agreement among various moderate and conservative factions on spending levels, Meadows said, pointing to a budget maneuver known as reconciliation that would let Republicans get around a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.

We do have a seat at the table, he said. Probably the biggest leverage has nothing to do with tax reform. It has more to do with the budget and budget reconciliation.

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House Freedom Caucus ties food stamp, TANF changes to tax reform - Politico

President Donald Trump delivers a speech Thursday at the Faith & Freedom Coalition. Watch in the player above.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump sought comfort in the figurative embrace of his evangelical supporters Thursday as the FBI director he recently fired told Congress about their conversations, telling a religious gathering that they are under siege but will emerge bigger and better and stronger than ever.

Trump made no reference to Comey in his remarks to the Faith and Freedom Coalitions annual gathering. But hours before the president arrived to make his first public comments of the day, Comey told the Senate intelligence committee that Trump tried to get him to pledge loyalty and drop an investigation into potential collusion between Russia and Trumps campaign.

Trump abruptly fired Comey on May 9. A private attorney for Trump said the president never asked Comey to stop investigating anyone.

In his remarks to the conference, Trump pledged to always support the right of evangelicals to follow their faith, which some conservatives believe is under attack by government.

We will always support our evangelical community and defend your right and the right of all Americans to follow and to live by the teachings of their faith, the president told more than 1,000 activists meeting at a Washington hotel across town from Capitol Hill, where Comey was testifying in a nationally televised hearing

And as you know, were under siege. We will come out bigger and better and stronger than ever. You fought hard for me and now Im fighting hard for all of you, Trump said.

He said his one goal as president is to fight for the American people and to fight for America and America first.

Trump spoke about his actions to safeguard religious freedom and continued, for a second straight day, to label congressional Democrats as obstructionists who are blocking his agenda. Yet it is differences of opinion among Republicans, who control both houses of Congress, standing in the way of what Trump wants to do on health care and other issues.

Following James Comeys testimony before a Senate Intel commmittee today, President Donald Trumps outside attorney Marc Kasowitz delivered a statement, accusing the former FBI director of unauthorized disclosures of talks with the president.

Trump also mentioned getting the Senate to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch for a seat on the Supreme Court, and keeping a campaign promise to repeal a rarely enforced IRS rule barring churches and tax-exempt groups from endorsing political candidates at the risk of losing their status.

As long as Im president, no one is going to stop you from practicing your faith or preaching what is in your heart, he said.

Trump said restoring freedom also means repealing and replacing the health care law enacted in 2010 by then-President Barack Obama, saying high deductibles and premiums have turned it into a catastrophe. But a replacement health care bill has yet to clear Congress despite seven years of pledges by Republicans to scrap the law and start over, and despite the fact that the GOP has full control of the White House and Congress.

The Republican-controlled House passed a bill with the bare minimum of GOP votes and none from Democrats. Senate Republicans are working on their version of the bill, but are divided about the approach.

Trump ignored that and blamed Democrats, calling them obstructionists. He said theyve gone so far to the left in terms of opposing him that theyre bad right now for the country.

He urged the audience to help send more Republicans to Congress in next years midterm elections, noting the GOP has just a two-vote edge in the Senate and a slim advantage in the House.

We have to build those numbers up because were just not going to get votes from Democrats, he said. Sadly, were going to have to do it as Republicans because were not going to get any Democratic votes and thats a sad, sad thing.

Trump also ignored the fact that three Democratic senators voted to confirm Gorsuch for the Supreme Court.

Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire in New York and Vivian Salama in Washington contributed to this report.

WATCH: James Comey testifies in Senate hearing on Russia

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WATCH: Trump addresses Faith and Freedom Coalition conference during Comey testimony - PBS NewsHour

Welcome to The A.V. Clubs coverage of Orange Is The New Black season five. These reviews and their comment sections are intended for those who have seen up to this episodeplease refrain from revealing or discussing events from future episodes in the comments.

At the end of season three, as the inmates piled through the open fence to the lake, few understood it as freedom. It was a fleeting moment of opportunity, which most inmates understood was going to be short-lived. No one tried to escape other than Maureen and Suzanne, whose efforts were short-lived once Maureen discovered that freedom didnt suit Suzanne. Everyone else just filed back into the prison, not realizing that their world had been turned upside down by the arrival of new inmates while they were gone.

I return to this moment now because the riot was, at least as first, a similar moment of freedom. The structure of the prison disappeared, and restrictions that once kept them from roaming the halls or exploring the grounds were gone overnight. The difference was that there is no clear agreement on when this particular freedom should end, or what exactly constitutes freedom in this environment. For some, freedom means justice; for others, justice is standing in the way of how they would choose to use their freedom. And in the end, no one is really free as long as their lives are held as collateral for a private prison system, and as a renegade guard acts out an absurd horror movie revenge fantasy for no discernible reason.

The Tightening is invested in this question of freedom on a few levels, utilizing a flashback to Reds final months in the Soviet Union in 1977 to think about what it really means to be free. She is a meek factory worker who gets dragged to a college party where young students wear blue jeans and listen to rock music. She gets swept up in it, believing that the business of smuggling blue jeans into the Soviet Union was a way to encourage real and legitimate change among a younger generation. But then she sees the barriers to freedom: people like her boyfriend, who wilts at the first sign of a crackdown, opting to go into hiding instead of protesting when their salespeople start disappearing. When milquetoast Dmitri approaches Red with the possibility of escaping to America, she realizes that freedom is not about rock music or blue jeans: its about commitment to finding a way to break down orif that proves too difficultescape the system that is oppressing you.

The flashback serves as a basic origin story for Reds belief system in an episode where she is convinced Piscatella is in the prison but reads as a drugged-up crazy person to everyone around her. But more than that, its also the story of someone who has the appearance of freedom but is not in fact free, and who must understand her personal meaning of freedom in order to find her true self. She says in the flashback that she doesnt have a choice about working in the factory, but it would be wrong to call her a prisoner: her freedom is simply constricted by the social structure around her. And the state of the riot has the inmates in a similarly complicated position: they have more choice than theyve ever had before, but they are still prisoners, and struggling with how precisely to explore these new freedoms while unable to make truly independent choices. They are trying to do what Red advised, protesting and fighting for their rights, but how much faith should they have in the system? And, more importantly, how many people will value their self-interest over that of the group?

That is the situation Gloria finds herself in when she gets on the phone with MCC and is told she can visit her son in the ICU if she releases the hostages. Its a somewhat frustratingly simple storyline: Gloria has been suddenly placed into a compromised emotional state, is given a tempting offer with no guarantee of follow-through, and then seems willing to sacrifice the entire negotiations as a result. I buy that Gloria might feel that way, but its frustrating from a narrative perspective to see a situation out of left field dramatically change her character arc so quickly. It gets across the point that they have newfound access to the outside world, which will influence their decision-making, but there is a suddenness to the whole situation that strikes me as hollow when taking the entire seasons arc into account.

Im more interested in the notion of freedom being prescribed by Lorna Morello, who is exhibiting her right to live in her own fantasy. Its still possible shes actually pregnant, but Lorna doesnt actually want to take a test: she actually hides them from sight as she dispenses medication. Instead, she goes and visits Suzanne, who spends the episode tied up in her bunk after Leanne and Angie commit a hate crime by putting her in white face with baby powder. When she gets there, though, she decides that part of their freedom is freedom from the definition of normal forced onto them by doctors, convincing Suzanne not to take her medication. And while I am in full support of both Lorna and Suzanne in terms of treating them as something other than just crazy, there is an argument to be made for freedom within limits, rather than the anarchy of Suzanne without any medication at all. But at a time when the inmates are able to define their own sense of freedom, these types of decisions will become more common, and create even more chaos as the riot reaches its climax.

The actual negotiations get almost nowhere: they cover a single issue, the education program, parsing out the chain gang from season four which gets complicated by Black Cindy blabbing about the dead guard in the garden and requires Caputo to come in as an extra negotiator to help plead the inmates case. They dont even resolve the issue: as Linda from Purchasing notes in failing to fit in with the inmates, MCC would sue the state for breach of contract if they tried to raise the budget for the prison, meaning that there might not actually be any justice to be found at the end of this process. Taystee is working hard to make this negotiation happen, but the definition of freedom within limits that the inmates are seeking requires a level of investment that MCC is never going to willingly make.

The one variable, though, is the liability problems created by Piscatellas one-man horror show. Its a storyline that fundamentally bothered me: yes, I appreciated the play on the different horror tropes as the story progressed on some level, but at its core the horror homage makes light of a situation that I find fundamentally absurd in its violence. My whole issue with Piscatella last season was that he was a one-dimensional villain that had no clear motivation for his cruelty, so to reframe him as a literal monster and turn it into an horror homage only steered into the skid with the characters problems. Nothing the show has done this season has given us any additional context into who he is, and so giving in so wholly to Reds conception of him felt like the show abandoning the grounded realism that started this riot for a sensationalist turn. Its a freedom that the chaos of the riot gives the showwe saw similar horror aesthetics during the previous night with Judy Kingin terms of formal experimentation, but story wise for me the escalation was too sudden and too rooted in a troublingly thin character.

What it does do, though, is immediately raise the stakes: although you could argue that the guards have been in mortal danger throughout the riot, this is the first time where you feel like things could go very wrong very quickly. The clock is ticking on the feeling of freedom within this riot, and now its time to figure out what kind of world theyre going to return to when its all over.

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Is there freedom in Orange Is The New Black's riot? - A.V. Club

Meredith MacLeod, CTVNews.ca Published Friday, June 9, 2017 12:16PM EDT Last Updated Friday, June 9, 2017 12:32PM EDT

Perhaps you feel unshackled today?

Aside from being a Friday on the cusp of summer, this Friday, June 9 is special because it is Tax Freedom Day, says the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute.

This is the day average Canadians officially start working to bring home the bacon to their own larders, rather than turning it over to tax collectors, according to the think-tank.

Tax Freedom Day is highly dependent on the province in which you live because provincial tax rates vary a great deal. The earliest comes in Alberta on May 21 and the latest in Newfoundland and Labrador on June 25.

The Fraser Institute has a tax freedom calculator that takes into account the province you live in, family status and income.

The average Canadian family (of two or more people) will earn $108,674 in income in 2017 and pay a total of $47,135 in taxes, says the Fraser Institute, based on models created from data from Statistics Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency. That translates to 43.4 per cent paid out in taxes of kinds income, property, fuel, sales, health, carbon, sin and a range of hidden taxes. If all that tax had to be paid up front, it would leave the average Canadian family paying every dollar earned until June 8 to local, provincial and federal taxes.

It's difficult for average Canadians to add up all the taxes they pay in a year because the different levels of government levy such a wide range of taxes, and thats why we do these calculations to give Canadians a better understanding of exactly how much they pay to government, said Charles Lammam, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute, in a news release.

Tax Freedom Day helps put the total tax burden into perspective, and helps Canadians understand just how much of their money they pay in taxes every year.

A day later in 2017

This years national tax freedom celebration comes a day later than it did in 2016 because the average tax bill is expected to increase faster (at 2.4 per cent) than growth in income (2.2 per cent).

Canadas Tax Freedom Day has been as late as June 25 in 2000, according to the right-leaning Fraser Institute. In 1961, it was May 3 (thats the first time the calculation was made) and in 1981, it was May 30.

Pattie Lovett-Reid, chief financial commentator for CTV News, says there is disagreement about the Fraser Institutes calculation. The left-leaning Broadbent Institute in Ottawa, for instance, says its inflated and that only two per cent of working Canadians pay more than 30 per cent in income taxes and that the effective tax rate for the typical Canadian family is more like 24 per cent.

Bottom line is death, taxes, those are the only certainties we know for sure and taxes get paid because they go into healthcare, infrastructure and different programs, she told BNN Friday.

The Fraser Institute says its tax freedom calculation is not intended to question the value Canadians get for their taxes but to look at the price paid for a product government."

"Tax Freedom Day is not a reflection of the quality of the product, how much of it each of us receives, or whether we get our money's worth. These are questions only each of us can answer for ourselves."

Forecasts indicate Canadians will pay, on average, $1,126 more in taxes this year, says the think-tank. Almost half of that ($542) is income taxes, while sales taxes will increase $311 and energy-related taxes will climb $204.

But, according to the report, "liquor, tobacco, amusement, and other excise taxes, payroll and health taxes, and import duties," all will decline.

The Fraser Institute also calculates what it calls the Balanced Budget Tax Freedom Day. That marks when tax freedom would arrive - June 18 this year - if governments had to increase taxes to balance budgets, rather than using deficits to cover spending.

Read the full Tax Freedom Day report here.

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Tax Freedom Day is finally here, think-tank says - CTV News

June 8, 2017 Yangon, MyanmarMyanmar journalists sporting "Freedom of the Press" armbands gathered on Thursday to campaign against a law they say curbs free speech, at the start of a trial of two journalists who the Army is suing for defamation over a satirical article.

The rally by more than 100 reporters in the rain outside a court in Yangon was the first significant show of opposition to the telecommunications law, introduced in 2013, that bans the use of the telecoms network to "extort, threaten, obstruct, defame, disturb, inappropriately influence, or intimidate."

Despite pressure from human rights monitors and Western diplomats, the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which took power amid high hopes for democratic reform in 2016, after decades of hardline military rule, has retained the law.

The journalists said they were dismayed by the recent arrests of social media users whose posts were deemed distasteful, as well as of journalists critical of the military.

"At first, they were suing people over news articles and now they are suing even over a satirical article, showing how they are restricting the media," said A Hla Lay Thuzar, one of the founders of the Protection Committee for Myanmar Journalists, which organized the rally.

She said that rather than staging a one-off protest, her group wants to launch a movement to raise public awareness of the issue and press the government to abolish the law.

The journalists on trial are the chief editor and a columnist of the Voice, one of Myanmar's largest dailies.

They were denied bail on the first day of their trial, meaning they may have to remain in custody.

"Obtaining bail is our right so we will keep fighting for it during next court dates until we get it," said Khing Maung Myint, who is representing the two journalists.

The telecommunications law was a main piece of legislation introduced by a semi-civilian administration of former generals which navigated Myanmar's transition from full military rule to the coming to power of Ms. Suu Kyi's government, from 2011 to 2016.

The protesting journalists said they would wear the armbands for the next 10 days to raise awareness about what they see as the threat to freedom of the press.

They are also planning to gather signatures for a petition to abolish the law, to be sent to Suu Kyi's office, the Army chief and parliament.

Excerpt from:

Myanmar protest for journalistic freedom underway - CSMonitor.com - Christian Science Monitor

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was cut off mid-speech during his remarks at Thursdays Faith & Freedom Coalitions annual conference in Washington D.C. and it was all caught on video.

During his speech, thanking the conference attendees for their prayers and well wishes for the nation, Cruz was accidentally cut off by conference organizers before he was able to finish.

What I want to say to the men and women here is two things, Cruz began. Number one thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your passion, thank you for your time, thank you for your energy, thank you for speaking out and working to retake our nation.

The audience clapped and cheered as Cruz continued, but at that point the senators microphone was muted and the master of ceremonies announced the next speaker, Virginia Galloway the Faith & Freedom Coalitions southern regional director welcoming her to the stage.

Cruz half-shrugged as Galloway made her entrance onto the stage and walked off while mouthing thank you on his way out.

On Twitter, Cruz was brutalized by users who disliked him and found glee in his embarrassing moment.

Read some of Twitters more vociferous reactions and continue for the awkward video in its entirety below.

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Watch: Ted Cruz cut off abruptly during 'Faith & Freedom' remarks in amazingly awkward video - TheBlaze.com

More than 100 people came out to Liberty High School on Thursday evening for the first of two public hearings on the Freedom Plan. More than 30 of those took to one of two microphones in order to read their comments into the official public record.

The majority of those comments were negative in some fashion, criticizing either certain components in the proposed plan, its overall theme or the process by which it had been drafted through the Carroll County planning commission.

"I don't believe this plan promotes a balance of environmental resources it seems biased towards business development," one woman told the planning commission, which was there to listen to comments but did not respond. "We do not need another grocery store or nail salon."

The Freedom Plan creates a guide for future long-term growth in the South Carroll area, in terms of roads, resources and future land use designations, which can then guide future zoning changes. State guidelines require the plan be updated every 10 years, but the Freedom Plan was last updated in 2001 the planning commission spent the past year drafting a new plan, which it accepted in April.

After a second public hearing on Tuesday, June 20, the planning commission will vote and could then approve the plan, which would send it to the County Board of Commissioners for another round of discussion. The commissioners can then reject the plan outright, alter it in some fashion or vote to adopt the plan, which would then be implemented.

Many of those who spoke were concerned about future land use designations for three properties the Wolf, Beatty and Gibson parcels from agricultural, industrial or low-density residential to medium density residential and how those potential additional homes could impact the community. They hoped the commission might take their comments and make changes to the plan before voting to approve it.

Patricia Dorsey, who lives along Md. 32, said she already has to time her walks with her dog around peak traffic times, and worries about how many more homes could lead to even worse traffic. She noted that she has been around long enough that it is not change alone, but the impact of certain changes, that concern her.

"I've lived here since 1976, even before Carrolltowne Mall was here," she said "I have seen a lot of changes."

Traffic was also a concern for George Gray, who lives on Monroe Avenue. He noted that traffic on Md. 32 and Md. 26 were already bad when he first moved to the area 17 years ago, but that the neighborhoods had always been quiet and safe. He worried that some proposed road changes could funnel much more traffic off of Md. 32 and into those same neighborhoods.

But Gray also noted that he had been to many such meetings and heard many of the same comments he was hearing from speakers Thursday.

"You are listening to us, but I am not sure there are a lot of changes being made," he said.

There were some speakers who voiced their support for the plan. Some, like Michael Reeves, were associated with developers he said he was with Williams Quarters LLC.

"I believe it's a good plan," Reeves told those assembled. "I have petitions from other citizens and business that support the plan, and depend on growth to survive."

Reeves passed his petition to the planning commission and also stated that he believed the number of houses some speakers believed would be built on the Wolf, Gibson and Beatty properties if the plan passed, were not realistic.

"The density of 900 units on those three properties can't physically fit," he said.

One of the last people to speak was Heidi Beatty Condon, one-fourth owner of the Beatty property, who spoke of property rights while also acknowledging she was grieving for her father, who had held the property since 1958 and had recently died.

"I know a lot of people are upset because you are not going to have a farm in your backyard anymore and I get that, but it doesn't give you the right to ask that park be built there. You think that doesn't devalue the property for the property owner?" she asked.

"I hear a lot of people wanting to say what happens to other people's property. Well, maybe you should pull your money together and buy it."

jon.kelvey@carrollcountytimes.com

410-857-3317

twitter.com/CCT_Health

What: Last public hearing on the Freedom Plan

When: 8:30 to 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 20, Last call for written comment is 9 a.m.

Where: Reagan Room of the Carroll County Office Building, 225 N. Center St., Westminster.

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Freedom Plan gets load of criticism, some support at hearing - Carroll County Times