Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 3-21-17

Trump News
FBI Head Confirms They Investigating Russian Interference And Trump Campaign
President Trump tweets before the hearing that the Democrats are responsible for the fake allegation.
Trump’s Budget Slashes Funding To Programs, Assistance And Environment
FBI Director James Comey confirmed Monday that the bureau is investigat- ing possible links and coordi- nation between Russia and associates of President Donald Trump as part of a broader probe of Russian in- terference in last year's pres- idential election.
The extraordinary revela- tion, and the first public con- firmation of an investigation that began last summer, came at the outset of Comey's opening statement in a con- gressional hearing examining Russian meddling and possi- ble connections between Moscow and Trump's cam- paign.
He acknowledged that the FBI does not ordinarily dis- cuss ongoing investigations, but said he'd been authorized to do so given the extreme public interest in this case.
The hearing, providing the most extensive public ac- counting of a matter that has
dogged the Trump adminis- tration for its first two months, quickly broke along partisan lines.
Democrats pressed for de- tails on the status of the FBI's investigation, while Republi- cans repeatedly focused on news coverage and possible improper disclosures of clas- sified information developed through surveillance.
Under questioning from the committee's top Democ- rat, Rep. Adam Schiff, the FBI director also publicly contradicted a series of tweets from Trump that de- clared the Republican candi- date's phones had been ordered tapped by Presi- dent Barack Obama dur- ing the campaign.
"I have no confirmation that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI," Comey said. The same was true, he added, of the Justice Department.
Comey was the latest gov-
ernment official to reject Trump's claims, made with- out any evidence, that Mr. Obama had wiretapped his New York skyscraper during the campaign.
Rep. Devin Nunes, a California Republican and chairman of the House intel- ligence committee, also re- jected it earlier in the hearing.
Comey was testifying along with National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers, who also disputed allegations that surfaced last year that British intelligence services were involved in the wiretapping.
Trump took to Twitter Monday before the hearing began, accusing Democrats of making up allegations about his campaign associates' con- tact with Russia during the election. He said Congress and the FBI should be going after media leaks and maybe even Hillary Clinton in- stead.
President Donald Trump’s latest budget pro- posal is slated to upend the nation’s priorities by siphon- ing billions of dollars to na- tional defense while slashing much-needed funding to pro- grams for foreign aid, govern- ment assistance and the environment.
The budget, which will end up in the hands of Congress on Thursday, March 16, would fulfill the president’s campaign promise of “drain- ing the swamp” by severing a large chunk of the federal workforce.
His government spending ideas, however, are expected to receive much push back from both Democrats and Re- publicans who feel that his proposed spending cuts are a bit too hasty, and even reck- less.
For one, Trump’s budget would cut the Environmental Protection Agency by a whop- ping 31 percent, significantly rolling back its roster of nearly 15,000 employees. The EPA would get hit in the pockets, too, as the president seeks to slash the agency’s $8.2 billion budget by $2 bil- lion.
Like the EPA, the State Department would be slashed by 28 percent and the De- partment of Health and Human Services by 17.9 per- cent, according to The New York Times. Federal funding for smaller programs like the Legal Services Corporation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Na- tional Endowment of the
President Donald Trump re- leased his budget on Thursday.
Arts, among others, would be cut entirely.
Trump’s “America First” budget” doesn’t stop there, however.
The president seeks to reduce funding to the Depart- ment of Agriculture by $4.7 billion by making cuts to the National Forest System and gutting loan/grant programs for water and sewage sys- tems, The New York Times reported.
His budget, however, would provide $6.2 billion for the Special Supplemental Nu- trition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), which aids low-income fami- lies, and wouldn’t make cuts to the Food and Safety In- spection Service.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department would take a $4 billion hit, even amid Trump’s promises to ramp up efforts around immigration law enforcement. The cuts would include reduced fund- ing to programs like the Crime Victims Fund and also prison construction.
Trump’s Approval Ratings Hits Lowest In Poll History
Repealing Obamacare Is Very Unpopular
President Donald Trump’s latest approval rat- ing has sunk to a new low, ac- cording to the latest Gallup poll.
Only 37 percent of Ameri- can approve of the job Trump is doing, and 58 per- cent disapprove, the daily poll found Sunday.
Those are the worst rat- ings since he took office eight
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
weeks ago. His approval rat- ing stood at 45 percent just nine days ago.
Trump’s approval rating is lower than any other pres- ident at this point in his first term since Gallup started tracking the numbers 72 years ago in 1945.
Barack Obama’s rating at this point in his presidency was 60 percent.
President Donald Trump says wants to let the Affordable Care Act fail on its own before replacing it with the American Health Care Act, but people may rather take their chances.
A new poll shows that the Republicans’ health care plan is overwhelmingly unpopular — and that the Affordable Care Act, colloquially known as Obamacare, is preferred by a wide margin.
The survey by Public Pol- icy Polling discovered that 49 percent of voters oppose the American Health Care Act, compared to only 24 percent who support it.
While this margin is un- surprisingly lopsided among Democratic voters (71 percent opposing compared to only 15 percent supporting), inde-
pendent voters are also over- whelmingly opposed to the Republicans’ repeal-and-re- place plan (49 percent oppos- ing compared to only 22 percent supporting).
Perhaps most notably, 22 percent of Republican voters oppose the bill with a meager 37 percent supporting it and a surprisingly large 41 percent remaining unsure of how they feel.
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017