NATION/WORLD
Friday, October 20, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 11A
Senate backs GOP budget in step forward for tax revamp
By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Republicans on Thursday
muscled a $4 trillion budget
through the Senate in a major
step forward for President
Donald Trump’s ambitious
promise of “massive tax cuts
and reform.”
The 51-49 vote sets the
stage for debate later this
year to dramatically overhaul
the U.S. tax code for the
first time in three decades,
cutting rates for individuals
and corporations while elim-
inating trillions of dollars
of deductions and special
interest tax breaks.
The tax cuts would add up
to $1.5 trillion to the deficit
over the coming decade,
however, as Republicans
have shelved fears about the
growing budget deficit in
favor of a once-in-a-gener-
ation opportunity to rewrite
tax laws.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks
from the chamber to his office during a long series of
votes at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday.
“These are reforms that
change incentives and drive
growth, and we’ve never
done that before,” said Sen.
Pat Toomey, R-Pa.
Divisions within the GOP
indicate the process won’t
be easy despite the political
imperative.
The
upcoming
tax
measure, always a top
item on the GOP agenda,
has taken on even greater
urgency with the failure
of the party to carry out its
longstanding promise to
dismantle former President
Barack Obama’s signature
health care law. Republicans
have said failure on taxes
would be politically devas-
tating in next year’s midterm
elections, when control of
the House and Senate are at
stake.
When reconciled with
the House budget plan, the
nonbinding measure would
set up special procedures to
pass follow-up tax legisla-
tion without the threat of a
filibuster by Senate Demo-
crats. Pressure is mounting,
however, on the House to
simply adopt the Senate
budget plan rather than risk
lengthy negotiations that
could delay the tax measure.
The House measure calls
for a tax plan that wouldn’t
add to the deficit, as well as
$200 billion worth of cuts
to benefit programs that the
Senate has rejected.
Democrats blasted the
GOP
budget,
warning
voters that the upcoming tax
measure will shower benefits
on top-bracket earners,
corporations, business part-
nerships and people inher-
iting
multimillion-dollar
estates. Trump promises that
the tax plan — still under
development — is aimed
at the middle class, but
previous versions have seen
upper-income
individuals
benefiting the most.
“Unfortunately, there’s a
big gap between the admin-
istration’s rhetoric on these
issues and the reality of what
is on paper,” said Oregon
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top
Democrat on the tax-writing
Finance Committee, who
warned that Trump’s plan
is “slanted overwhelmingly
toward the very top.”
“The more people learn
about this tax bill, the less
they will like it,” said Senate
Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y. “That’s
what led to the demise of
health care, ultimately, is that
it was unpopular with the
American people.”
Only one Republican,
Rand Paul of Kentucky,
voted against the budget. He
said the measure permits too
much spending and aban-
dons the GOP drive to repeal
the Obama health law. An
amendment by Paul to revive
the “Obamacare” repeal
failed by a 2-to-1 margin.
Under Capitol Hill’s
byzantine budget rules, the
nonbinding budget resolu-
tion is supposed to lay out a
long-term fiscal framework
for the government. This
year’s measure calls for $473
billion in cuts from Medicare
over 10 years and more than
$1 trillion from Medicaid.
All told, Senate Republicans
would cut spending by more
than $5 trillion over a decade,
though they don’t attempt
to spell out where the cuts
would come from.
Even so, the measure
doesn’t promise to balance
the budget, projecting deficits
that would never drop below
$400 billion.
BRIEFLY
Puerto Rico still stumbles in the
dark a month after Maria
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — One man climbs
24 flights of stairs several times a day alongside dormant
elevators. Street vendors hawk plastic washboards for $20.
And families outstretch their hands as crews in helicopters
drop supplies in communities that remain isolated.
This is life one month after Hurricane Maria slammed
into the U.S. territory on Sept. 20 as a Category 4 storm
that killed at least 48 people, destroyed tens of thousands of
homes and left tens of thousands of people without a job.
It was the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly a
century, with winds just shy of Category 5 force.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” retired schoolteacher
Santa Rosario said as she scanned empty shelves at a
supermarket in the capital of San Juan that had run out of
water jugs — again.
Maria caused as much as an estimated $85 billion in
damage across an island already mired in an 11-year reces-
sion. That has complicated and delayed efforts to restructure
a portion of a $74 billion public debt load that officials say
is unpayable. And it has thrust Puerto Rico’s territorial status
into the international spotlight, reviving a sharp debate about
its political future as the island attempts to recover from
flooding, landslides and power and water outages.
Maria has also put Puerto Rico into the U.S. political
spotlight with President Donald Trump on Thursday giving
himself a “10” for his response to the devastation wrought
by the hurricane. Asked when the 3.4 million U.S. citizens
living there could expect power to be fully restored, Trump
said it will take “a while.”
SMARTPHONES
AS LOW AS
$ 1 PER MONTH
Senators push for more online
transparency in elections
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators are moving to boost
transparency for online political ads, unveiling on Thursday
what could be the first of several pieces of legislation to try
to lessen influence from Russia or other foreign actors on
U.S. elections.
The bill by Democratic Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia
and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota would require social
media companies like Facebook and Twitter to keep
public files of election ads and meet the same disclaimer
requirements as political broadcast and print advertising.
Federal regulations now require television and radio stations
to make publicly available the details of political ads they air.
That includes who runs the ad, when it runs and how much
it costs.
The bill also would require companies to “make reason-
able efforts” to ensure that election ads are not purchased
directly or indirectly by a foreign national. The move comes
after Facebook revealed that ads that ran on the company’s
social media platform and have been linked to a Russian
internet agency were seen by an estimated 10 million people
before and after the 2016 election.
Warner is the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence
committee, which is investigating Russian meddling in the
2016 race, and Klobuchar is the top Democrat on the Senate
Rules Committee, which oversees elections. The legislation
also has support from Republican Sen. John McCain of
Arizona, who is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee.
Lawmakers on the Senate intelligence panel and other
committees investigating Russian influence have said one
of the main roles of Congress will be to pass legislation to
try to stop the foreign meddling. That’s in contrast to special
counsel Robert Mueller, who is also investigating and has the
ability to prosecute if he finds any criminal wrongdoing.
NO TRADE-IN REQUIRED.
Obama tells Democrats to reject
politics of division, fear
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Former President Barack Obama
called on fellow Democrats to reject politics of “division”
and “fear” while rallying on Thursday with party’s candi-
dates for governors in Virginia and New Jersey.
“Why are we deliberately
trying to misunderstand
each other, and be cruel
to each other and put each
other down? That’s not who
we are,” Obama said at the
Virginia rally in front of
several thousand supporters.
Stepping back into the
political spotlight for the
AP Photo/Steve Helber
first time since leaving the
Former President Barack
White House in January,
Obama listens to the
Obama did not mention
crowd during a rally with
President Donald Trump in
Virginia’s
Democratic
gubernatorial candidate
his speeches at Richmond’s
Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam,
convention center or at a
Newark hotel. But he did tell Richmond, Va., Thursday.
crowds at both events that
they could send a message to the rest of the country in the
upcoming elections.
“Our democracy’s at stake and it’s at stake right here in
Virginia,” Obama said.
Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states electing
new governors this year and those Nov. 7 races will be
considered a bellwether of Democrats’ strength in the face of
Trump’s victory last year.
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