Monthly Archives: June 2017

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said Friday that Congress should have a "real proposal" on tax reform that lawmakers can start debating by the end of July.

We believe that time is of the essence, Meadows said at an event at The Heritage Foundation.

The conservative Freedom Caucus took a formal positionearlier this week, calling on the House to work through the August recess to advance GOP priorities such as tax reform.

Meadows said that Congress should cancel recess if there's no detailed tax proposal before August "to make sure that we put the priorities of the American people first on the legislative agenda."

Meadows said that he supports lowering the corporate tax rate as well as the tax rate for businesses whose income is taxed through the individual code. He also wants to allow businesses to have the option of repatriating their foreign earnings at an 8 percent rate over the course of 20 months.

Meadows praised House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin BradyKevin BradyConservatives push to drop border tax from tax reform Freedom Caucus chairman: 'Time is of the essence' on tax reform Overnight Healthcare: Conservatives push back on Senate changes to health bill MORE (R-Texas) and the White House for releasing tax reform plans.

But the Freedom Caucus chairman suggested that Congress move on from one part of Brady's plan the border-adjustment proposal to tax imports and exempt exports since it has faced a lot of pushback from lawmakers. Meadows said that Congress should acknowledge that "the political facts are there is not consensus to have a support for the border-adjustment tax.

The Freedom Caucus hasn't taken a formal position on the border-adjustment tax, and its membership is divided on it. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) blasted the provision during the event, while Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) said that he could back legislation that includes the tax.

Brady continued to defend the border-adjustment tax this week, saying it helps to encourage companies to bring jobs back into the United States. He also said that those with concerns about it should "bring us their solutions on how we stop jobs from leaving and more importantly bring them back.

Congressional GOP leaders have said they want tax reform to be revenue neutral.

Jordan said he disagreed.

"Revenue neutral's a fancy way of saying the tax burden stays the same," he said.

Congressional Republicans want to pass tax reform legislation through the Senate with the reconciliation process, which would bypass a potential filibuster and avert the need to court Democratic votes. To do that, Congress first needs to pass a budget for fiscal 2018.

Jordan said that "right now, a budget cannot pass in the House of Representatives." The Freedom Caucus is discussing accepting a higher budget number if welfare reforms are included in a tax bill, he said.

Excerpt from:

Freedom Caucus chairman: 'Time is of the essence' on tax reform - The Hill

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are toying with the lives of thousands of Gulf residents as part of their dispute with Qatar, splitting up families and destroying peoples livelihoods and education, Amnesty International said today.

The organizations researchers have interviewed dozens of people whose human rights have been affected by a series of sweeping measures imposed in an arbitrary manner by the three Gulf countries in their dispute with Qatar.

For potentially thousands of people across the Gulf, the effect of the steps imposed in the wake of this political dispute is suffering, heartbreak and fear, said James Lynch, Deputy Director of Amnesty Internationals Global Issues Programme, who was in Doha last week.

These drastic measures are already having a brutal effect, splitting children from parents and husbands from wives. People from across the region not only from Qatar, but also from the states implementing these measures risk losing jobs and having their education disrupted. All the states involved in this dispute must ensure their actions do not lead to human rights violations.

All the states involved in this dispute must ensure their actions do not lead to human rights violations

While Amnesty International takes no view on the political dispute itself, which also involves other countries including Egypt, Jordan and Yemen, the organization is seriously concerned about the impact of some of these steps on the rights to family life and education.

In a fresh blow to freedom of expression in the Gulf, people in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and UAE have also been threatened with harsh punishment if they dare to criticize these measures.

On 5 June all three states ordered Qatari nationals to leave their territories within 14 days, and announced that all of their nationals had to return from Qatar, threatening penalties for anyone who did not return within this timeframe. According to Qatars National Human Rights Committee, more than 11,000 nationals of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and UAE live in Qatar. Many Qataris also live in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and UAE. All are potentially affected by these measures.

People with relations from other Gulf states are particularly at risk. Amnesty International has documented several cases of people cut off from parents, children and spouses as a result.

One Qatari man, who has lived in the UAE with his family for more than 10 years, was refused entry and sent back to Qatar as he tried to return home to Dubai from Doha, just after the measures were announced on 5 June. His wife is an Emirati national and is therefore forbidden from travelling to Qatar, while his children are Qatari nationals and so are required to leave UAE. He is now separated from his family and does not know when he will next see them.

He described to Amnesty International how his wife had pleaded with the duty officer to see her husband one last time. The officer said, no way just go back, he said.

He told Amnesty International that he fears his employers in the UAE will dismiss him from his job since he cannot return and because of his nationality.

A Saudi Arabian man, who lives in Doha with his Qatari wife, told Amnesty International that he is unable to visit his mother, who is seriously ill in hospital in Saudi Arabia, because if he did he would not be able to return to Qatar to be with his wife and children:

I go home, I cant see my wife. I stay here, I cant see my mum.

I go home, I cant see my wife. I stay here, I cant see my mum

A newly-wed Qatari woman told researchers she had been in the process of moving to Bahrain to live with her husband, a Bahraini national, when the measures took force.

I was so happy to marry last year Before the ban, while I was looking for a job in Bahrain I would go there every weekend, to see my husband, my family, my house. When they did this, how could they not think of the people?

Amnesty International also interviewed several Qatari students concerned they could not continue their education in the UAE and Bahrain. One student said all her classes in the UAE for the rest of the year had been cancelled with immediate effect.

A states power to regulate and restrict immigration is constrained by international human rights law, and differences in treatment between different categories of non-citizens can only be justified if they are necessary to achieve a legitimate objective. Arbitrarily splitting up families as part of immigration policies violates the right to family life.

Ban on expressing sympathy Residents in Saudi Arabia, UAE or Bahrain have been warned they could face harsh penalties if they make comments in support of Qatar.

Citing existing, flawed legal provisions, the UAEs general prosecutor has announced that people who express sympathy for Qatar could face up to 15 years in jail; while state-controlled Saudi Arabian media stated that such expression could be considered a cybercrime offence. The Bahraini Ministry of Interior has also threatened anyone who shows sympathy or favouritism to the Qatari authorities either on or off line, with up to five years in prison and a fine under the Penal Code.

These statements from governments with a record of repressing peaceful expression are a flagrant attempt to silence criticism of these arbitrary policies. Prosecuting anyone on this basis would be a clear violation of the right to freedom of expression. No one should be punished for peacefully expressing their views or criticizing a government decision, said James Lynch.

Concerns over migrant workers in Saudi Arabia

There are also concerns that migrant workers employed by Qatari nationals to look after their properties in Saudi Arabia may find themselves stranded, unable to return to Qatar where they have residence permits and becoming undocumented in the process, at risk of exploitation or arrest and deportation. Amnesty International has spoken to workers in this situation, who have little information about what might happen to them.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states must protect any workers employed by Qatari nationals, including by facilitating the safe return of those who wish to return to their home countries or assisting those who wish to return to Qatar.

Political disputes between states must be handled in a manner that respects human rights. There can be no justification for tearing families apart, suppressing peaceful expression, and leaving migrant workers abandoned and at risk. Arbitrary measures should be suspended immediately, said James Lynch.

Background

Under the nationality laws in the countries involved, women are not able to pass on nationality to their children and as such children inherit their fathers nationality. This in itself is a violation of the rights to non-discrimination and equality. Holding dual nationalities is generally not permitted.

Amnesty International interviewed 35 people nationals of Bahrain, Bangladesh, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE affected by these measures. Researchers met the majority of these people in Qatar. Others, based in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, were interviewed remotely.

Read the original:

Families ripped apart, freedom of expression under attack amid political dispute in Gulf - Amnesty International

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

As Washington sat transfixed before the image of former FBI Director James Comey spilling some beans on the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump went to work. An expert in creating crises, Trump is not the kind to let his handiwork go to waste.

At a conference of mostly evangelical Christians convened in Washington, DC, by Republican political operative Ralph Reed,Trump reminded attendeesof the Faith and Freedom Coalitions annual Road to Majority conference of their agenda and his. If he made any reference to the drama unfolding before the Senate Intelligence Committee, it was this: As you know, were under siege; you understand that, the president said. But we will come out bigger, better and stronger than ever you watch.

Expressing his appreciation to members of the Faith and Freedom Coalition for their work on his behalf during the 2016 presidential race, Trump cited some 22 million pieces of mail sent, 16 million videos shared, 10 million phone calls made and 1.2 million doors knocked on in the key battleground states. He quoted the Book of Isaiah from the teleprompter.

He went on to recount what he had already delivered for his religious supporters: a drastic reduction in illegal crossings on the southern border; the appointment of Neil Gorsuch, a foe of abortion rights, to the Supreme Court; an executive action on religious freedom, a withdrawal of aid to overseas humanitarian groups that dare to speak of abortion, and withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. That last one elicited a raucous and sustained cheer from the assembled, seeing as how its very name combines two mutually repugnant ideas: the fact of climate change and a city in which people speak French.

Without naming it as such, Trump noted theleaked draft of a rule revision, dated May 27, under consideration at the Department of Health and Human Services that would appear to definitively permit religious orders that run hospitals and social service agencies to flout the current mandate that employer-provided health insurance include coverage for prescription contraceptives. The Little Sisters of the Poor, Trump said, referring to a Catholic religious order that brought a lawsuit against the Obama administration that challenged the mandate, had just won big with his executive actions on behalf of religious freedom. The president pointed at two nuns in the audience. Stand up, he instructed them. You dont mess with the Little Sisters, he quipped. Never mind that the nuns obediently standing were from an entirely different order (the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist); they were old women in habits. They would do. The optics worked.

He went on at length to describe his instruction to the IRS to refrain from investigating houses of worship for political activity that would threaten their non-profit status as an unleashing of free speech from the pulpits of the nation.

The audience then received an accounting of the agenda yet to be undertakenthe part that requires legislation by Congress. Trump came to Road to Majority to set its army of socially conservative, mostly white churchgoers to work on Capitol Hill, lobbying senators and members of the House, as many groups do during national conference. But few get their marching orders directly from the president, even if not said in so many words.

First on the presidents list was the health care bill that is currently stalled in the Senate.

Restoring freedom and opportunity also means repealing and replacing the disasterknown as He put his hand to is ear.

Obamacare! the crowd shouted.

That was easy, Trump replied. SomethingI hope greatis going to come out through [Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell in the Senate.

The next big item was tax reformthe biggest tax cut ever, he said. But sadly, Trump added, they would have to pass each of these measures without a single Democratic vote, because Democrats are obstructionists who are bad, right now, for the country.

The entrenched interests and failed bitter voices in Washington will do everything in their power to try and stop us from this righteous causeto try to stop all of you, Trump said. They will lie, they will obstruct, they will spread their hatred and their prejudice, but we will not back down from doing what is right. Because, as the Bible tells us, we know that the truth will prevail, that Gods glorious wisdom will shine through, and that the good and decent people of this country will get the change they voted for, and that they so richly deserve.

He patted himself on the back for deporting people he deemed gang members and drug dealers, and characterized his summit with Saudi leaders as a blow against global terrorism.

He made a call for unity, noting that whether we are black, brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood.

In America, he said, we dont worship government; we worship God.

The speech, delivered at the conference luncheon, was well-received. Afterward, attendees boarded busses headed for the Capitolthe Senates Dirksen Office Building, to be exact. There they would be treated to a town hall-style meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other Republican lawmakers. The meeting was closed to the press.

Once it concluded, members of the group would lobby the senators from their respective states.

Milling outside the hearing room where the town hall would take place, Rebecca Clutter, a woman who looked to be in her 50s or 60s, offered her assessment of the presidents speech. [I]t was amazing and awesome and it hit all the points, said Clutter, who had traveled to Washington from Ohio, where she had knocked on doors during the campaign under the aegis of Women for Trump.

Casey Matta, a student at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, also loved the presidents speech, naming as his favorite points Trumps anti-abortion rhetoric and something about the Paris [climate accord].

Asked how the US withdrawal from the climate accord agreement fit in with the religious purpose of the Faith and Freedom Coalition event, Matta thought a minute. Well, I think its like a Republican religious convention so when he brings that kind of stuff for conservatives I agree with that.

What did he make of the probe of Russian meddling in the US election, and contacts between Trump campaign figures and Russian officials? Matta said he didnt believe that Russia had intervened in the election. By his lights, it was all a put-up job by Democrats.

I think [Trump] definitely is being targeted, with the Democrats and everything. I mean, they need to cool it, he said. Give him some time to worry about what hes got to worry about now.

Right now, Trump is worrying about, among other things, getting a legislative win. And Casey Matta, Rebecca Clutter, and hundreds of others came to the nations capital to help him get it, all in the name of God.

Adele M. Stan is a weekly columnist for The American Prospect. Follow her on Twitter @addiestan.

This article was made possible by the readers and supporters of AlterNet.

Read more:

Trump Brings Out The Bible For Faith And Freedom - The National Memo (blog)