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1/ Trump’s first budget can be summed up like this: Cuts for the poor. The budget would boost defense spending by $54 billion for the next fiscal year and another $2.6 billion for new border security measures, including $1.6 billion to build the border wall. Medicaid, food assistance and other anti-poverty and welfare programs – which provide benefits for up to a fifth of all Americans – would be cut by more than $1 trillion. Spending overall would be reduced by $3.6 trillion over 10 years. Trump’s budget is based on sustained growth above 3%, much higher than the expectations of most private economists. (CNN Money / Washington Post / New York Times / Associated Press / NBC News)
By The Numbers:
- State Department – 29.1% decrease
- Homeland Security – 6.8% increase
- Department of Education – 13.5% decrease
- EPA – 31.4% decrease
- Department of Transportation – 12.7% decrease
- Department of Defense – 10.1% increase
- HUD– 13.2% decrease
- Veterans Affairs – 5.8% increase
- Corps of Engineers – 16.3% decrease
- Department of Justice – 3.8% decrease
- Department of Labor - 19.8% decrease
- Department of the Interior – 10.9% decrease
- Source: (CNN)
2/ Trump’s budget will hit his own voters the hardest. The budget blueprint cuts taxes for the wealthy, boosts defense spending, and reduces programs for the poor and disabled – potentially hurting many of the rural and low-income Americans who voted him into office. (Politico)
3/ The budget is based on a $2 trillion math error. It appears Trump is double counting the benefits of economic growth: Once to offset the effects of lower tax rates and a second time to help close the budget deficit. (Wall Street Journal / New York Magazine)
4/ Russia may have successfully recruited Trump campaign aides and “brazenly” interfered in the election. John Brennan, the Former CIA Director, told the House Intelligence Committee that there was a “very aggressive” effort to intervene in the 2016 campaign, which he warned his counterpart in Russian intelligence about. Brennan said he didn’t know if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, but his confirmation that there was contact undermines Trump’s account of his campaign’s links to Russia. (Politico / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / Associated Press)
5/ Flynn hit with two new subpoenas by Senate Intelligence Committee in an effort to compel him to turn over documents about his contacts with Russian officials. Flynn invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to the previous subpoena attempt. The new subpoenas are aimed at Flynn’s businesses, believing they can’t plead the Fifth. (Politico)
6/ Comey’s public House Oversight Committee testimony postponed. He wants to speak with Robert Mueller first, who is investigating the ties between Russia and the presidential election campaign. Comey is also expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Russia probe later this month. (Reuters)
7/ ISIS claimed responsibility for the Manchester attack; Trump calls them “evil losers” and vows to “call them, from now on, losers because that’s what they are: losers.” (Washington Post / NBC News)
8/ Chris Christie gave Jared Kushner legal advice when asked him if Trump should hire a lawyer. In private, Christie told Kushner that the president “better lawyer up and keep his mouth shut,” according to a person who who recounted Christie’s conversation with Kushner. (Vanity Fair)
9/ Jeff Sessions narrowed Trump’s executive order on sanctuary cities. A federal judge said Trump had overstepped his authority in attaching conditions to federal money. Sessions’ new memo says Trump’s order will only apply to grants from the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security “and not to other sources of federal funding.” (New York Times) / Politico)
10/ Sheriff David Clarke is unsure if the Trump administration will still hire him. A review of Clarke’s master’s thesis found 47 examples where Clarke copied entire sentences, but credited them with a footnote – not quotation marks to indicate that he took the language verbatim. (CNN)
11/ Democrats warned Trump against a pre-emptive attack on North Korea. In a letter, 64 Democratic legislators urged Trump to talk directly to the North Koreans and warned that he would need congressional approval for any pre-emptive military strike. (New York Times)
😳 WTF, right?
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