President Donald Trump acts swiftly at dawn of new era

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump assumed power Friday with a fiercely nationalistic vow to put “America first,” taking a stinging swipe at the legacy of his predecessor hours after reciting the oath of office.

Hundreds of thousands of people stood on the rain-splattered National Mall to see the 70-year-old Republican billionaire be sworn in, and deliver a stridently populist call-to-arms.

Trump promised to lift up the nation’s disenfranchised and those who felt betrayed by the political elites, declaring with vindication that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.”


“From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land,” Trump said, promising an end to business-as-usual in Washington. “From this moment on, it’s going to be only America First.”

Adhering to his vow to immediately start dismantling the healthcare reforms passed by outgoing president Barack Obama, Trump signed his first executive order in the Oval Office, targeting Obamacare.

It commands government offices to grant all possible exemptions to limit the “economic and regulatory burden” of the Affordable Care Act, as a prelude to a full repeal.

As the day’s ceremonial rituals drew to a close, Trump and his wife Melania stepped out — the first lady stunning in an off-the-shoulder ivory gown — to lead the dance at one of the string of glitzy inaugural balls being held across the capital.

The pair slow-danced in a close embrace to a version of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” before they were joined by Vice-president Mike Pence and his wife Karen, and both families’ children.

“Well, we did it,” Trump told the revelers. “We won. And today, we had a great day.”

“This was a movement. And now the work begins.”

Power to the people 


During his inaugural address, Trump vowed that his presidency would usher in a new political era.

“We are transferring power from Washington, DC, and giving it back to you, the people,” he said.


Moments earlier, the incoming US leader had placed his left hand on a bible used by Abraham Lincoln and recited the 35-word oath spoken since George Washington.

The popular turnout was visibly smaller than for Obama’s two inaugurations, in 2009 and 2013, with sections of the mall and bleachers along the parade route left nearly empty.

Throngs of Trump’s opponents also converged on Washington.

Most of their protests — by an array of anti-racist, anti-war, feminist, LGBT, and pro-immigration groups — were peaceful, but sporadic violence marred the day.

Several hundred masked, black-clad protesters carrying anarchist flags smashed windows, lit fires and scuffled with riot police blocks from the parade held in Trump’s honor, with at least 217 people arrested for vandalism.

Even the peaceful protesters were intent on spoiling Trump’s party — letting out a deafening roar as the presidential limousine rolled past.

“Not my president! Not my president!” they yelled, as the pro-Trump crowd in nearby bleachers chanted “USA! USA!”

‘This carnage stops here’

For Trump’s critics, there was disbelief that a man who 19 months ago hosted “The Apprentice” reality TV show is now leader of the free world — sworn in with a 37 percent approval rating, the lowest on record, according to a CBS News poll.

Public interest lawyer Renee Steinhagen, 61, came from New York to join the protests.

“I’m doing this to express resistance to the change that await us,” she said. “This administration seems more extreme than any other. This is a simple act of resistance. It’s better than staying at home.”

Trump’s inauguration caps the improbable rise of the Manhattan real estate magnate who has never before held elected office, or served in government or the military.

Rather than appealing to desire to bridge political divides and lift Americans’ gaze to the horizon, his first address to the nation was deeply unorthodox.

Trump painted parts of America as a dystopian hell, with mothers trapped in poverty and “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape.”

“This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he said.

It was a deliberate and striking contrast from the uplifting message of Obama, who was among the dignitaries in attendance.

Obama and his wife Michelle departed the Capitol by helicopter minutes after the swearing-in, turning a page on eight years of Democratic leadership in the White House.

Alliances

A first two Trump cabinet members were sworn in after being confirmed Friday by the US Senate. Both are retired generals: Secretary of Defense James Mattis, and Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

For the next few weeks the White House plans a series of daily executive orders to roll back Obama’s agenda.

Trump has also vowed to re-examine long-running alliances with Europe and in Asia.

“We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.”

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

White House steps up damage control on healthcare rollout

WASHINGTON - The White House sought to limit the political damage from the troubled rollout of the government's healthcare website as Republicans increased pressure on Wednesday to delay parts of President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy.

Obama administration officials held a closed-door briefing for Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and planned a session with insurance company executives to explain steps they are taking to quickly resolve problems with Healthcare.gov.

Republican critics in Congress demanded a delay in a requirement of the healthcare law that uninsured Americans must purchase insurance or face a tax penalty. They also said they would intensify their investigations into the launch of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as "Obamacare."

"It is our job to hold them accountable, and when it comes to Obamacare clearly there is a lot to hold accountable," House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner told reporters.

The chair of the Democratic National Committee, Florida Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, told MSNBC that the administration should be willing to extend the open-enrollment period for people to sign up for insurance.

Online exchanges, or marketplaces, were designed to be the main way for millions of uninsured Americans to find out prices and buy health insurance plans required under the law, but the Oct. 1 debut has been marred by technical glitches that have kept many from signing on and making purchases. Those unable to sign up online can call a toll-free telephone number as an alternative.

The administration has so far declined to disclose the number of enrollments either online or by telephone.

A prolonged delay in getting Healthcare.gov to work could jeopardize White House efforts to sign up as many as 7 million people in 2014, the first full year the law takes effect. The administration on Tuesday began what it has called a "tech surge," bringing in experts led by the administration's top economic aide Jeffrey Zients to analyze and fix the problems.

"I think what we learned is they're working hard to fix the problems," Representative Sander Levin of Michigan, senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said after Wednesday's briefing.

House Democrats said there was no talk in Wednesday's briefing about whether the problems should lead to a delay of the individual requirement that every American have insurance or pay a tax penalty. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated a delay would reduce enrollment significantly.

REPUBLICANS DEMAND DELAY

Republicans, who oppose the healthcare law on the grounds that it is an unwarranted extension of the federal government, said the requirement should be delayed until the problems with the rollout are resolved.

"With so many unanswered questions and the problems arising around this rollout, it doesn't make any sense to impose this one percent mandate tax on the American people," House Republican Leader Eric Cantor told reporters on Wednesday.

Republicans, who have repeatedly tried to derail or delay the healthcare law since taking control of the House in the 2010 elections, also demanded more answers about the scope of the problems and how many people were signing up for insurance in the federal exchanges.

Despite the announcement of the "tech surge," the administration has not provided details about what caused the problems, what is being done to fix them and who exactly is being brought in for the effort aside from Zients.

"This is not transparency, this is adding to the confusion and the fears surrounding the rollout of Obamacare," Cantor said.

Three committees in the Republican-controlled House have announced investigations of the law's rollout, which Cantor described as "nothing short of a debacle."

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been the focal point of criticism for the problems and Republicans have demanded she step down, but so far the White House has rallied around her.

Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, told the New York Times on Tuesday that Sebelius "has the president's confidence. And she knows that."

In that same article, however, an unidentified White House aide was quoted as saying that Sebelius did not have the "access to the president that she really needs to make a difference" and that while "everybody thinks that she's the driving force" in implementing Obamacare, "unfortunately she's not."

Sebelius, who will testify to Congress next week, will attend the session with insurance company executives, including the chief executives of WellPoint Inc and Humana Inc

WellPoint raised its 2013 membership and profit forecasts in part to reflect coming market changes under the law, its chief executive, Joseph Swedish, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Republican Representative Tim Murphy, chairman of a House and Energy Committee panel that will hold a hearing on the problems on Thursday, said the government had "frittered away" more than $300 million in payments to contractors for a website that does not work.

"Either they didn't know what was going on in their own offices, or they were deliberately misleading us and the American people," Murphy said.  — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

US Congress enters crucial week in battles over budget, debt limit

WASHINGTON - As the U.S. government moved into the second week of a shutdown on Monday with no end in sight, a deadlocked U.S. Congress also confronted an Oct. 17 deadline to increase the nation's borrowing power or risk default.

The last big confrontation over the debt ceiling, in August, 2011, ended with an eleventh-hour agreement under pressure from shaken markets and warnings of an economic catastrophe if a default were allowed to occur.

A similar last-minute resolution remained a distinct possibility this time as well.

In comments on Sunday political talk shows, neither Republicans nor Democrats offered any sign of impending agreement on either the shutdown or the debt ceiling, and both blamed the other side for the impasse.

"I'm willing to sit down and have a conversation with the president," said Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, speaking on ABC's "This Week." But, he added, President Barack Obama's "refusal to negotiate is putting our country at risk."

On CNN's State of the Union, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said: "Congress is playing with fire," adding that Obama would not negotiate until "Congress does its job" by reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling.

Shutdown, debt ceiling issues merged

The two issues started out separately in the House but have been merged by the pressure of time.

Conservative Republicans in the House have resisted funding the government for the current fiscal year until they extract some concession from Obama that would delay or defund his signature healthcare law, which launched Oct. 1.

Many of those conservatives want a similar condition placed on raising the debt ceiling, but in his list of debt-ceiling demands Sunday, Boehner did not mention the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

"It's time to talk about the spending problem," said Boehner, including measures to rein in costs of entitlement programs such as the Social Security retirement system and Medicare, the government-run health insurance plan for seniors.

Harry Reid, leader of the Democratic-led Senate, is expected to decide soon on whether to try to open formal debate on a "clean" bill - without extraneous issues attached - to raise the U.S. Treasury's borrowing authority.

Passage of such a measure would require at least six of the Senate's 46 Republicans to join its 54 Democrats in order to overcome procedural hurdles that opponents of Obamacare could erect.

According to one Senate Democratic aide, the debt limit hike might be coupled with a new initiative to reform the U.S. tax code and achieve long-term savings in Social Security and Medicare, whose expense has soared along with the population of retirees.

Republican lawmakers have floated other ideas, such as a very short debt limit increase, which would create time for more negotiation at the expense of further market uncertainty, and repeal of a medical device tax.

The tax is expected to generate some $30 billion over 10 years to help pay for healthcare insurance subsidies under Obamacare.

Some Democrats favor repealing the tax, but they insist that replacement revenues be found and repeal be considered only after government reopens and the debt limit is raised.

Major problems in House 

Agreement in the Senate would send the snarl of issues back into the House, whose Republican caucus has adopted a hard line on both Obamacare and the debt ceiling.

There may be enough votes in the House for passage of a clean bill, according to some analysts. That would require almost all of the House's 200 Democrats and about 20 of its 232 Republicans to vote in favor. But taking such a vote would require Speaker Boehner to violate his policy against bringing a vote on any legislation that is favored by less than a majority of House Republicans.

In any case, neither side is making any move toward accommodation, and the stakes rise with the passage of time.

For any deal to work, negotiators probably would have to choreograph a multi-pronged approach that allows all sides to declare victory, even if it is one that cues up another battle in mid-November or December.

While the shutdown itself is unlikely to cause major disruption in the markets, a fight over the debt ceiling could. In the last two days of the debt-limit standoff of August 2011, the New York Stock Exchange lost 11.2 percent of its value, and the deadlock led to a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating "AA+" from "AAA" by Standard & Poors.

The outlooks from Moody's and Standard & Poor's, the only agency so far to have lowered its rating on U.S. debt, are both at "stable," but Fitch Ratings has indicated a negative outlook for the U.S. debt rating.

All three agencies have said the U.S. debt profile has improved substantially over the past two years, with gross domestic product growth, while slow, proving to be persistently positive and the budget deficit trending lower.

Fitch said in a note last week that the U.S. rating is at risk in the current showdown over the debt ceiling because failure to raise it sufficiently in advance of the deadline, raises questions about the full faith and credit of the United States to honor its obligations.

Political gridlock remains the greatest risk to the U.S. outlook, Fitch said in its note of Oct. 1, the first day of the partial shutdown of federal government operations.

"This 'faith' is a key underpinning of the U.S. dollar's global reserve currency status and reason why the US 'AAA' rating can tolerate a substantially higher level of public debt than other 'AAA' sovereigns," Fitch said.

Investors have so far been relatively sanguine about the approaching debt ceiling deadline, but measures of anxiety, such as the Chicago Board Options Exchange's Volatility Index, have begun trending up since the shutdown began last Tuesday. The VIX rose 18 percent last week and briefly hit its highest level since June. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

White House rejects latest Republican offer to end shutdown

WASHINGTON - The White House rejected a Republican plan to reopen portions of the US government on Tuesday as the first shutdown in 17 years closed landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and threw hundreds of thousands of federal employees out of work.

The back and forth offered no sign that President Barack Obama and Republicans can soon end a standoff over health care that has sidelined everything from trade negotiations to medical research and raised new concerns about Congress's ability to perform its most basic duties.

The Republican plan would restore funding for national parks, veterans services, and the District of Columbia. Other government services would remain unfunded.

While the selective funding approach appeared to unite conservative and moderate Republicans for now, the White House said Obama would veto it. Democrats who control the Senate said they would reject it before it reached Obama's desk.

Republicans who control the House of Representatives said Obama could not complain about the impact of the shutdown while refusing to negotiate. "The White House position is unsustainably hypocritical," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner.

An even bigger battle looms in coming weeks, when Congress must raise the debt limit or risk a US default that could roil global markets.

"This is a mess. A royal screwup," said Democratic Representative Louise Slaughter of New York.

Obama accused Republicans of taking the government hostage in order to sabotage his signature health care law, the most ambitious US social program in five decades.

"They've shut down the government over an ideological crusade to deny affordable health insurance to millions of Americans," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden.

Republicans in the House view the Affordable Care Act as a dangerous extension of government power and have coupled their efforts to undermine it with continued government funding. The Democratic-controlled Senate has repeatedly rejected those efforts.

Spending authority for much of the government expired at midnight on Monday (0400 GMT), but that did not prevent the Obama administration from opening on Tuesday the health-insurance exchanges that form the centerpiece of the law.

Veterans pass barricades

Republicans said their latest proposal would help elderly veterans who earlier in the day pushed past barricades at the National World War II Memorial to get into the shuttered site.

"They're coming here because they want to visit their memorial, the World War II memorial. But no, the Obama administration has put barricades around it," said Republican Representative Mike Simpson ofIdaho.

Democrats said Republicans were resorting to gimmicks to avoid a vote that would restore funding to the entire government because they were afraid it would pass.

"That's important--a park? How about the kids who need daycare?" said Democratic Representative Sander Levin of Michigan. "You have to let all the hostages go. Every single one of them."

The veterans in question had gotten in to the memorial with help from several Republican lawmakers. But they didn't seem particularly interested in taking sides.

"It's just like a bunch of little kids fighting over candy," said George, Atkinson, an 82-year-old Coast Guard veteran of the Korean War. "The whole group ought to be replaced, top man down."

The plan appeared to temporarily unite Republicans, heading off a split between Tea Party conservatives who pushed for the government funding confrontation and moderates who appear to be losing stomach for the fight.

Before a meeting of House Republicans, Representative Peter King, a New York moderate, estimated that more than 100 of the chamber's 232 Republicans would back Obama's demand to restore all government funding without conditions. That would be enough to easily pass the House with the support of the chamber's 200 Democrats.

The shutdown closed landmarks like the Grand Canyon and pared the government's spy agencies by 70 percent. In Washington, the National Zoo shut off a popular "panda cam" that allowed visitors to view its newborn panda cub online. In Pennsylvania, white supremacists had to cancel a planned rally at Gettysburg National Military Park.

Market reaction

Whether the shutdown represents another bump in the road for a Congress increasingly plagued by dysfunction or is a sign of a more alarming breakdown in the political process could be determined by the reaction among voters and on Wall Street.

Stock investors appeared to be taking the news in stride with investors confident a deal could be reached quickly. The S&P 500 closed up 0.8 percent and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.2 percent.

But the US Treasury was forced to pay the highest interest rate in about 10 months on its short-term debt as many investors avoided bonds that would be due later this month, when the government is due to exhaust its borrowing capacity.

If Congress can agree to a new funding bill soon, the shutdown would have little impact on the world's largest economy.

A week-long shutdown would slow US economic growth by about 0.3 percentage points, according to Goldman Sachs, but a longer disruption could weigh on the economy more heavily as furloughed workers scale back personal spending.

The last shutdown in 1995 and 1996 cost taxpayers $1.4 billion, according to congressional researchers.

The political crisis raised fresh concern about whether Congress can meet a crucial mid-October deadline to raise the government's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Some Republicans see that vote as another opportunity to undercut Obama's healthcare law.

Failure to raise the debt limit would force the country to default on its obligations, dealing a blow to the economy and sending shockwaves around global markets.

A 2011 standoff over the debt ceiling hammered consumer confidence and prompted a first-ever downgrade of the United States' credit rating.

Analysts say this time it could be worse. Lawmakers back then were fighting over how best to reduce trillion-dollar budget deficits, but this time they are at loggerheads over an issue that does not lend itself to compromise as easily: an expansion of government-supported health benefits to millions of uninsured Americans.

Republicans have voted more than 40 times to repeal or delay "Obamacare," but they failed to block the launch of its online insurance marketplaces on Tuesday. The program had a rocky start as government websites struggled to cope with heavy online traffic.

"What I'm hearing from my constituents at home is if this is the only way to stop the runaway train called the federal government, then we're willing to try it," said Texas Senator John Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 24 percent of Americans would blame Republicans, while 19 percent would blame Obama or Democrats. Another 46 percent said everyone would be to blame.

The shutdown battles of the 1990s didn't substantially affect public's opinion of then-Democratic President Bill Clinton or his Republican adversaries, the Gallup polling organization said.

Republicans and Democrats traded blame for the shutdown, but many seemed deeply embarrassed for the institution as a whole.

Several said they planned to donate their salaries to charity or forego pay altogether.

"This is a black eye on our government at all levels," said Republican Representative Michael Grimm of New York. "I think it's a low point for us." — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Obama urges Congress to pass budget, raise debt ceiling

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Saturday urged the US Congress to approve a budget to keep the government open after October 1, and raise the debt ceiling so the country can pay its bills.

Far-right Republicans in Congress want to take neither action in their attempt to defund a sweeping health care overhaul approved more than three years ago. Critics nicknamed the law "Obamacare," and Republicans have fought to repeal it since its passage.

If a budget "doesn't pass before September 30th - a week from Monday - the government will shut down," Obama said in his weekly Saturday morning broadcast address. "And so will many services the American people expect."

Obama warned that even soldiers serving abroad could see their paychecks stopped.

Congress must also raise the limit on government borrowing, as the US government is expected to run out of money by around the middle of October -- a scenario that could make stock markets tumble and send shockwaves through the global economy.

"Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every president has signed it - Democrats and Republicans," including conservative icon Ronald Reagan, Obama said.

"And if this Congress doesn't do it within the next few weeks, the United States will default on its obligations and put our entire economy at risk."

While Democrats and "some reasonable Republicans" are willing to take both actions,"there's also a faction on the far right of the Republican party who've convinced their leadership to threaten a government shutdown" and are "willing to plunge America into default" if they can't defund the health care program.

"The United States of America is not a deadbeat nation," Obama said. "We are the world's bedrock investment. And doing anything to threaten that is the height of irresponsibility.

"That's why I will not negotiate over the full faith and credit of the United States. I will not allow anyone to harm this country's reputation, or threaten to inflict economic pain on millions of our own people, just to make an ideological point."

Many federal agencies and programs will shutter on October 1, day one of the coming fiscal year, if Congress and the president do not agree on a temporary budget measure. — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com