Page 10 The Skanner March 15, 2017
News
World News Briefs
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Donald Trump earned $153 million
and paid $36.5 million in income taxes
in 2005, paying a roughly 25 percent
effective tax rate thanks to a tax he has
since sought to eliminate, according to
highly sought-after newly-disclosed
tax documents.
The pages from Trump’s federal tax
return show the then-real estate mogul
also reported a business loss of $103
million that year, although the docu-
ments don’t provide detail. The forms
show that Trump paid an effective tax
rate of 24.5 percent, a figure well above
the roughly 10 percent the average
American taxpayer forks over each
year, but below the 27.4 percent that
taxpayers earning 1 million dollars a
year average were paying at the time,
according to data from the Congressio-
nal Joint Committee on Taxation.
The tax forms were obtained by jour-
nalist David Cay Johnston, who runs a
website called DCReport.org, and re-
ported on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Mad-
dow Show.” Johnston, who has long re-
ported on tax issues, said he received
the documents in the mail, unsolicited.
Trump’s hefty business loss appears
to be a continued benefit from his use
of a tax loophole in the 1990s, which al-
lowed him to deduct previous losses in
future years. In 1995, Trump reported
a loss of more than $900 million, large-
ly as a result of financial turmoil at his
casinos.
Tax records obtained by The New
York Times last year showed the losses
were so large they could have allowed
Trump to avoid paying taxes for up to
18 years. But Trump’s 2005 filing shows
that another tax prevented him from
realizing the full benefit of those de-
ductions.
Ryan’s Gambit: Second
Health Care Bill to Woo the
Reluctant
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Repub-
licans are working on a companion
to their bill replacing “Obamacare,” a
legislative second act that would ease
cross-state sale of health insurance and
limit jury awards for pain and suffer-
ing in malpractice lawsuits.
The problem: the so-called “sidecar”
bill lacks the votes in the Senate.
Skeptics abound. Republican Sen.
Tom Cotton of Arkansas called it “myth-
ical legislation” in an interview Tues-
day on the Hugh Hewitt radio show.
In a tweet, conservative Rep. Thomas
Massie, R-Ky., suggested “Easter bas-
ket” might be a better description.
Yet Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., has
said he wants to move a companion
bill through the House alongside the
main GOP legislation that rolls back
key parts of Barack Obama’s health
care law and limits federal spending on
Medicaid for low-income people.
That strategy may just help Ryan put
together enough votes to get through
the House, but then the sidecar would
probably get detached in the Senate,
where 60 votes would be needed for
such legislation. Republicans only
have 52 senators and they would need
the support of Democrats alienated by
the drive to repeal “Obamacare.”
GOP Health Overhaul
Puts Pressure on State
Governments
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — The Repub-
lican health care plan means less mon-
ey for states and gives them a tough
choice: Find a pot of cash to make up
the difference or let coverage lapse for
AP PHOTO/EVAN VUCCI
Trump Earned $153m and
Paid $36.5m in Taxes in
2005
President Donald Trump gets into his vehicle after arriving at Detroit Metro Airport, Wednesday, March
15, 2017, in Detroit.
millions of lower-income Americans.
Governors and state lawmakers an-
alyzing the Republican plan to replace
former President Barack Obama’s Af-
fordable Care Act fear a return to the
past, when those without health cov-
erage used emergency rooms for their
medical needs. That uncompensated
care that was written off by hospitals
or billed to the state.
The ax would fall especially hard on
Medicaid, the state-federal program
that provides health care to the poor
and lower-income workers.
In Washington, for example, state of-
ficials say they would have to come up
with $1.5 billion a year starting in 2020
to keep coverage in place for about
600,000 residents who gained coverage
through the Medicaid expansion that
was a key part of Obama’s health care
law.
“It would actually leave our nation
worse off than before the ACA was
implemented,” Gov. Jay Inslee, a Demo-
crat, said in a written statement.
Trump Set to Challenge
Obama-Era Fuel standards
in Detroit
WASHINGTON (AP) — Moving force-
fully against Obama-era environmen-
tal rules, President Donald Trump is
set to announce in Michigan plans to
re-examine federal requirements that
regulate the fuel efficiency of new cars
and trucks.
Trump is expected to reveal his plans
during an appearance Wednesday at
the American Center for Mobility in
Detroit where he’ll challenge the Cor-
porate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)
emissions targets that were a cen-
terpiece of former President Barack
Obama’s strategy to combat global
warming. The rollback underscores
the Trump administration’s rejection
of mainstream climate science in an ef-
fort to boost economic growth.
The Detroit center was used to pro-
duce B-24 bombers during World War
II and is now in the process of being
converted into an automotive test-
ing and product development center.
While visiting there the president is
expected to meet with auto executives
and workers and discuss “how his
plans for rolling back federal red tape
will lead to more American jobs and
higher wages, specifically in the auto-
mobile sector,” Press Secretary Sean
Spicer told reporters.
The president will travel later
Wednesday to Nashville, Tennessee,
where he’ll lay a wreath at President
Andrew Jackson’s tomb to mark what
would have been Jackson’s 250th birth-
day, before holding a campaign-style
rally in the city.
But the most significant move of the
day will likely be the president’s an-
nouncement on the CAFE emissions
targets. The move will have no imme-
diate effect. But it is expected to set
the stage for weaker fuel efficiency
standards as well as drawn-out legal
battles with environmental groups and
states like California that have adopted
their own tough tailpipe standards for
drivers.