Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 9-8-17

White House and Political News
Trump Pushes DACA Decision Back 6-Months
Report: Damage Caused By Harvey Will Exceed Katrina
Trump Has Taken Steps To Undermine Obamacare
On Sunday, Pres. Trump’s plan to end DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects 800,000 un- documented immigrants who came to the United States as children, will be delayed for six-months.
The administration hopes that a slow phaseout of the program will give Congress enough time to pass replace- ment legislation to cover the “dreamers.”
To continue to carry out his vendetta to attempt to erase the legacy of President Obama, Donald Trump and his team have begun measures to undermine Obamacare.
President Donald Trump’s administration has taken more steps to under- mine the Obamacare market- places it’s responsible for managing.
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Serv- ices announced Thursday that it’s making drastic cuts in spending on advertising for the 2018 open enrollment pe- riod on the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance ex- changes, as well as significant cutbacks in funding for local organizations that help con- sumers navigate the buying process.
Weakening the two m o s t important tools the federal government has to promote enrollment on the state-based exchanges ― 39 of which are run wholly or mainly by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ― is the lat- est signal that the Trump ad- ministration isn’t committed to serving exchange cus- tomers.
Less awareness of the open enrollment period running from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, com- bined with less help from community organizations, which have assisted more than 9 million enrollees with sign- ups since the autumn of 2013, will likely result in fewer peo- ple being covered by health in- surance obtained via the federally operated exchanges accessed on HealthCare.gov.
In addition, these moves could worsen the financial state of the exchanges, as sicker and costlier consumers are more likely to seek out coverage than healthier peo- ple, who may be unaware that the sign-up season is taking place.
Trump himself repeat- edly has said he wants to let or make the health insurance ex- changes collapse, and his ad- ministration has taken a number of actions to destabi- lize them.
Chief among the desta- b i lizing steps has been Trump threatening to with- hold billions owed to health insurance companies serving poor enrollees, which has con- tributed to large rate hikes for next year. The Department of Health and Human Services also has used its websites and social media channels to criti- cize the Affordable Care Act at taxpayer expense.
And the administration previously canceled other out- reach and education programs President Barack Obama’s administration cre- ated to help get out the word about coverage options and provide in-person assistance to people seeking help signing up. The current administra- tion also cut the open enroll- ment period for next year to half its length from last year, giving customers less time to weigh their options.
Omarosa’s Days At White House Could Be Numbered
It will cost more than the $120 billion it took to rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to carry out a similar restoration of the areas of Texas devastated over the last week, according to state governor Greg Abbott.
Abbott said the $7.8 b i l lion “downpayment” re- quested by the White House would not be enough to repair the damage caused by Hurri- cane Harvey, which has dis- placed more than one million people, resulted in at least 44 deaths and damaged 185,000 homes in Houston alone.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has said it will have to work for several years to help Houston and surrounding areas to re- cover and Abbott said the eventual bill for the federal
government would exceed the $120 billion required after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that most homes in the path of Harvey did not have flood insurance.
Thousands of people re- mained in shelters in Texas
and Louisiana on Monday. Those who had been housed in smaller shelter locations, such as churches and schools, have been bussed to larger facilities, such as the George R. Brown Convention Center in Hous- ton, where more than 7,000 people are being sheltered.
Omarosa Manigault‘s
days at the White House could be numbered. In the mean- time, her access to President Trump has been pretty much eliminated by Chief of Staff John Kelly.
According to the Daily Beast, the former “Appren- tice” co-star—who currently serves as the communications director for the Office of Pub- lic Liaison—has seen her di- rect access to the president limited since Kelly took the top White House job in late July, according to sources.
Specifically, Kelly has taken steps to stop her and other senior staffers from get- ting unvetted news articles in front of the orange a-hole that influence his thinking and add to all the internal White House drama.
The Daily Beast article points out that multiple sources in and outside the Trump White House said that until recently, it was com- mon practice for aides to walk into the Oval Office and dis-
Omarosa Manigault may not be at the White House for long ac- cording to sources.
tract and infuriate the presi- dent with pieces of negative news coverage. Manigault was one of the worst offenders they say.
The stories Manigault would present to Trump, often on a phone or printed out, would often enrage the president, and resulted in him spending at least the rest of the day fuming about it.
The story goes on to say Omarosa’s actions added to the president’s mounting rage
against the MSNBC couple, which exploded in late June when Trump attacked them and tweeted that, among other things, Brzezinski “was bleeding badly from a face- lift.”
Manigault earned a repu- tation within the White House for this kind of stuff, and, to many of her colleagues, it quickly overshadowed her comms duties and pro- Trump outreach to African- American audiences.
PAGE 6-A FLORIDA SENTINEL-BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2017