[AMV] Amerikaanse politiek #441The biggest tax scam in history

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Op vrijdag 22 december 2017 23:32 schreef ExtraWaskracht het volgende:

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Ja, het was toen wel goed natuurlijk. Maar ja, het bleek niet heel effectief om dit te gebruiken voor publieke forums, omdat de spike in gevraagde bandbreedte in bepaalde gevallen niet afdoende is. Imgur is in mijn ervaring echt veel en veel beter wat dat betreft.

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President Donald Trump told aides he was eager to take questions Friday and hold a news conference to tout his accomplishments before leaving for Mar-a-Lago, but some advisers argued against it.

The aides were eager to avoid him being besieged with questions about the investigation into Russian election meddling and other matters that could overshadow the tax bill he had signed into law, two White House officials told CNN.

The President's schedule remained in flux over the last day, amid questions about whether he would stage a public bill-signing ceremony of the tax legislation or hold a news conference. Many previous presidents have held year-end news conferences before leaving for Christmas vacations.

For two straight days, Thursday and Friday, White House aides were told to prepare for a news conference of some kind.

Both plans were scrapped.

Friday morning, aides finally said the President would sign the tax and government funding bills in private. When the pool protested, saying the pictures from a White House photographer wouldn't be used, news reporters and photographers were hastily escorted into the Oval Office for the signing.

The President's mood was bright and he seemed eager to answer a few questions. Aides appeared on higher alert than normal, with Chief of Staff John Kelly and other aides attempting to kick reporters out and get the President on Marine One to Mar-a-Lago.

Trump answered several questions, including whether he had learned anything from the legislative process related to the tax overhaul, whether he would travel to sell the tax package and whether he wished he had started his congressional agenda with infrastructure.

"We're going to get infrastructure," Trump told reporters. "Infrastructure is the easiest of them all. We're very well on our way. We have essentially repealed Obamacare. You know, the individual mandate was a very big factor in this bill, frankly. A lot of people don't talk about it because the tax cut is so important."

As reporters kept pressing Trump, aides moved closer and closer to the Resolute Desk, gently prodding reporters and photographers to leave the Oval Office. With the President still talking, chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and other officials stood in front of the desk, all but blocking Trump's view.

Finally, White House chief of staff John Kelly also joined in and asked the press to leave, saying: "Helicopter is running out of gas," referring to Marine One that was waiting to take the President to Air Force One.

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President Donald Trump's commission investigating voter fraud must give one of its Democratic members access to more of the panel's records, a federal judge ruled Friday night.

U.S. District Court Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap appeared to have been denied documents needed to be an active player in the deliberations of what is formally known as the President's Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

"Plaintiff has a right, as a commissioner, to 'fully participate' in the proceedings of the Commission. In the Court’s view, his assertion that he will be unable to fully participate without the information contained in relevant documents that the Commission has not shared with the public has merit," wrote Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of President Bill Clinton.

The judge said she was issuing an injunction to prevent "dysfunction" at the commission, but her effort to keep the panel on track may be too little, too late. The group held its last meeting in September and officials have said it will not meet again this year.

The commission was expected to issue a report early next year. But several members say it has been dormant for a couple of months and there appears to be little chance of a report emerging in the next few months.

In her 24-page opinion, Kollar-Kotelly cited three instances where she said Dunlap was not given adequate access to information needed to participate in the panel's deliberations. The judge said Dunlap should have been informed about and seen a draft of a controversial request asking states to submit their voter rolls and other sensitive, but publicly-available, information about voters.

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A panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled against the third iteration of President Trump

's travel ban, saying it goes against federal law.

"We conclude that the President’s issuance of the Proclamation once again exceeds the scope of his delegated authority," the court said in its ruling.

The most recent iteration of the ban bars people from eight countries – six of which are predominantly Muslim – from coming to the U.S.

The San Francisco-based appeals court, however, said the Trump administration could continue to bar individuals from countries in the Middle East and North Africa from entering the U.S. if they do not have a "bonafide" relationship with someone in the U.S.

The court said the ruling would be put on hold pending any review by the Supreme Court.

In the ruling, the court said that "the Proclamation’s indefinite entry suspensions constitute nationality discrimination in the issuance of immigrant visas," and that it discriminates against travelers and immigrants in the same vein as Trump’s previous travel bans.

The Supreme Court decided earlier this month that it would allow the latest travel ban to take effect, while litigation ran its course.

A Richmond, Va.-based appeals court must rule on the ban before the Supreme Court revisits the matter.

The Trump administration has pushed for a travel ban since January, which it says is necessary to safeguard national security. But each iteration of the ban has run into legal disputes, prompting the administration to issue increasingly narrow orders that could muster legal challenges.