NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Border wall, health care jeopardize bill days from shutdown
WASHINGTON
(AP)
—
Partisan disputes over health care
and President Donald Trump’s
border wall threw must-pass
spending legislation into jeopardy
Monday days ahead of a govern-
ment shutdown deadline.
The border wall money is
fiercely opposed by Democrats,
whose votes are needed to pass the
legislation, and they are equally
incensed over Trump’s threat to
deprive former President Barack
Obama’s health care law of key
funds to help poor people.
Those were the most pressing
unresolved issues confronting
lawmakers as they returned from
a two-week spring recess to face
a critical deadline. Congress must
pass a $1 trillion catch-all spending
bill to pay for all agencies of
government by midnight Friday or
trigger a partial shutdown the next
day, which happens to coincide
with the 100th day of Trump’s
presidency.
The standoff echoed similar
spending fights during the Obama
administration when Republicans
would push to “defund” Obama’s
health law over the objections of
Democrats. Even though Republi-
cans now control both chambers of
Congress and the White House the
dynamics are not all that different,
given Democrats still have leverage
and Republicans fear that as the
party in charge, they would shoulder
the blame from any shutdown.
“I’m optimistic. I don’t think
anybody wants a shutdown,” said
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who said
there are just a handful of unre-
solved issues on the core package of
spending bills. “The White House
and basically the minority leaders
of the House and Senate have to
have some level of agreement on
the things that you’re adding.”
It’s increasingly obvious that
the House and Senate will have to
pass a temporary funding extension
of a few days or more to prevent a
shutdown this weekend and allow
more time for talks.
“I do not think the election was a
referendum on building a wall to the
tune of tens of billions of dollars,”
said House Minority Leader Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif.
The negotiations over the
spending bill took center stage
despite a separate White House
push for fast action to revive
health care legislation to repeal
and replace the Affordable Care
Act. After signaling last week that
they hoped for a vote as soon as
this week on a rewritten health bill,
White House officials softened
their stance Monday. Echoing the
views of House GOP leaders, White
House press secretary Sean Spicer
said there would be a vote on health
care legislation when House leaders
count the 216 votes needed to pass.
“I think we want to make sure
that we’ve got the votes and we’re
headed in the right direction before
putting some artificial deadline,”
Spicer said.
Trump and House Speaker
Paul Ryan were embarrassed last
month when they had to pull their
“Obamacare” replacement bill
off the floor without a vote as it
became clear it would fail. Since
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
President Donald Trump, sitting next to U.S. Ambassador to the
UN Nikki Haley, speaks during a working lunch with ambassa-
dors of countries on the United Nations Security Council and their
spouses on Monday in Washington.
then leaders of conservative and
moderate factions in the House have
been negotiating on a compromise
allowing states to opt out of certain
“Obamacare” requirements, and
they appear to be making progress,
although legislative text had not
been finalized as of Monday.
The original GOP bill elimi-
nated many of the “Obamacare”
mandates, offered skimpier subsi-
dies for consumers to buy care and
rolled back a Medicaid expansion.
Conservatives balked, saying it
didn’t go far enough.
With Democrats unanimously
opposed it remains to be seen
whether the deal will come together
and attract the needed support.
Trump talked it up on Twitter,
writing Monday, “If our healthcare
plan is approved, you will see real
healthcare and premiums will start
tumbling down. ObamaCare is in a
death spiral!”
Trump also pushed for his border
wall, a central campaign pledge that
he still insists Mexico will pay for
in the end, though Democrats and
even most Republicans doubt that
will ever come to pass. Cost esti-
mates for the wall range past $20
billion and Republicans are seeking
$1.4 billion as a down payment in
the spending bill.
Trump turned again to Twitter:
“The Wall is a very important tool
in stopping drugs from pouring
into our country and poisoning our
youth (and many others)! If the wall
is not built, which it will be, the drug
situation will NEVER be fixed the
way it should be! #BuildTheWall.”
Prior to the White House demand
late last week for border wall money
in the spending bill, it had largely
been assumed on Capitol Hill that
the measure would include funding
for additional security steps along
the border, but that there wouldn’t
be any money explicitly dedicated
for new wall construction.
The other major stumbling block
involved a demand by Democratic
negotiators that the measure fund
cost-sharing payments to insurance
companies that help low-income
people afford health policies
under Obama’s health law, or that
Trump back off a threat to use the
payments as a bargaining chip. The
subsidies are embroiled in a lawsuit
brought by House Republicans, and
supporters of the health law warn
that its marketplaces could collapse
if they are taken away.
GOP leaders warn, however,
that it would be exceedingly diffi-
cult for Republicans controlling
Congress to give in to Democratic
demands to include the cost-sharing
payments — they help low-income
people with copayments and other
out-of-pocket “Obamacare” costs
— at the same time Republicans
are trying to repeal major pieces of
“Obamacare.”
Trump does appear poised to
win a significant supplemental
Pentagon funding package that,
while still subject to negotiations,
could top $15 billion.
Xi urges restraint on New Orleans takes down white supremacist monument
N. Korea in phone
call with Trump
BEIJING (AP) — Pres-
ident Xi Jinping called
for restraint when dealing
with North Korea during a
telephone call with President
Donald Trump, Chinese state
media reported Monday,
amid speculation that Pyong-
yang could soon carry out a
sixth nuclear test.
The official broadcaster
CCTV quoted Xi as telling
Trump that China strongly
opposed North Korea’s
nuclear weapons program,
which are in violation of
United Nations Security
Council resolutions, and
hoped “all parties will
exercise restraint and avoid
aggravating the situation” on
the Korean Peninsula.
The Trump administration
has warned that all options,
including a military strike,
are on the table to halt
North Korea’s ambitions of
developing a nuclear-tipped
missile that could reach the
U.S. mainland. However,
U.S. officials have told The
Associated Press that the
military response isn’t likely.
Trump has reportedly settled
on a strategy that emphasizes
increasing
pressure
on
Pyongyang with the help of
China.
“Only if all sides bear
the responsibilities they’re
supposed to bear and come
together, can the nuclear issue
on the peninsula be resolved
as quickly as possible,” Xi
told Trump, according to
CCTV.
The phone call, which
took place Monday morning
Beijing time, came as South
Korean officials warned there
is a chance that the North
will conduct a nuclear test
or a maiden intercontinental
missile launch around the
founding anniversary of its
military on Tuesday.
Trump has pressed Xi to
exert greater pressure against
North Korea, given China’s
status as the country’s sole
economic lifeline and major
ally. Monday’s call is the
second time that the two
leaders have spoken by tele-
phone this month.
In a Friday interview
at the Oval Office, Trump
told the AP that he declined
to label China a currency
manipulator mostly because
he needed Xi’s help with the
North Korean crisis.
“They are working with
us on North Korea. Now
maybe that’ll work out or
maybe it won’t,” Trump
said, adding that he had a
“great relationship” with the
Chinese president.
Trump
also
spoke
Monday with and Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
and they agreed to urge
North Korea to refrain from
what Abe called provocative
actions.
Hermiston Safety & Security
In 2015 the Hermiston Police Department conducted an
independent safety audit of the schools. However, both
Rocky Heights and Highland Hills elementary schools, due
to their design, age, and lack of life-safety alert systems,
are inadequate to meet current safety standards.
A YES VOTE is less than $0.90 per thousand
assessed value. $175,000 home = $157.50 a year.
Less than $14.00 a month.
PROPOSED SOLUTION:
Replace Rocky Heights & Replace Highland Hills
Elementary Schools on same sites; improve
emergency access and parking at HHS.
ADDITIONAL PROPOSED PROJECTS:
• New elementary school on district-owned Theater
lane property
• Sandstone Middle School maintenance and repair
Nine years ago, the Hermiston School Board asked for
$1.40 per thousand. This is significantly less, because of
business and population growth.
Paid for by Vote Yes for Kids PAC
1000 S. Hwy. 395, Ste. A, #146 • Hermiston, OR 97838
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NEW ORLEANS (AP)
— A monument to a deadly
white-supremacist uprising
in 1874 was removed
under cover of darkness
by workers in masks and
bulletproof vests Monday
as New Orleans joined the
movement to take down
symbols of the Confederacy
and the Jim Crow South.
The
Liberty
Place
monument, a 35-foot granite
obelisk that pays tribute to
whites who tried to topple
a biracial Reconstruction
government installed in New
Orleans after the Civil War,
was taken away on a truck in
pieces before daybreak after
a few hours of work.
In the coming days, the
city will also remove three
statues of Confederate Gens.
Robert E. Lee and P.G.T.
Beauregard and Confederate
President Jefferson Davis,
now that legal challenges
have been overcome.
“We will no longer allow
the Confederacy to literally
be put on a pedestal in the
heart of our city,” Mayor
Mitch Landrieu vowed.
The removal of the
obelisk was carried out early
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Workers dismantle the Liberty Place monument
Monday, which commemorates whites who tried to
topple a biracial post-Civil War government.
in the morning because of
death threats and fears of
disruption from supporters
of the monuments.
The
workers
wore
military-style helmets and
had scarves over their faces.
Police were on hand, with
officers watching from atop
a hotel parking garage.
“The statue was put up to
honor the killing of police
officers by white suprema-
cists,” Landrieu said. “Of the
four that we will move, this
statue is perhaps the most
blatant affront to the values
that make America and New
Orleans strong today.”
Citing safety concerns,
the mayor would not
disclose exactly when the
other monuments would be
taken down, except to say
that it will be done at night
to avoid trouble.
He said the monuments
will be put in storage until an
appropriate place to display
them is determined.
New Orleans is a mostly
black city of nearly 390,000.
The majority-black City
Council voted 6-1 in 2015 to
take the monuments down,
but legal battles held up
action.
Landrieu,
a
white
Democrat, proposed the
monuments’ removal and
rode to victory twice with
overwhelming support from
the city’s black residents.
The Liberty Place monu-
ment was erected in 1891
to commemorate the failed
uprising by the Crescent
City White League.
Sixteen White Leaguers,
13 members of the white and
black Metropolitan police
force and six bystanders
were among those killed in
the bloody battle.
President Ulysses Grant
sent federal troops to take
the city back three days
later. However, the White
League grew in power in
New Orleans after the battle,
with its members and allies
taking over the city and state
government after Recon-
struction.
Landrieu said the memo-
rials don’t represent his city
as it approaches its 300th
anniversary next year.
BUTTE CHALLENGE
SATURDAY , MAY 6 , 2017
5K Run, 5K Walk, 10K Run, Kid's Butte Scoot
All races begin & end at Hermiston's Butte Park
DRAWINGS • FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Online registration & race information at
WWW.BUTTECHALLENGE.COM
All proceeds benefi t THE HERMISTON
CROSS COUNTRY PROGRAM
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!