Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 3-28-17

Trump News
Repeal And Replacement Of Obamacare Is Now Dead! Trump Suffers Major Setback
Trump’s Budget Will Hurt Low Income College Students
President Donald Trump re- leased his budget on Thursday.
As President Donald Trump continues to make changes to the nation's budget, his most recent cut to the U.S. Department of Education is bad news to millions of low-in- come students and thousands of schools around the country.
Trump is planning to dras- tically reduce the Pell Grant Program, and totally eliminate the Federal Supplemental Ed- ucational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) program.
Millions of students will be affected
Trump plans to reduce funding of Pell grants by $3.9 billion. To put this into per- spective, the government spent $28.2 billion on Pell grants in the 2015-2016 aca- demic year. This cut will affect low-income students, includ- ing people who lost their jobs and went back to school to gain new skills.
Another education grant program that got the ax is the Federal Supplemental Educa- tional Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) program. It will be totally eliminated.
Top U.S. General In Europe Says Russia May Be Supplying Weapons To Taliban
President Donald Trump at the White House speaking on health care policy change (Obamacare).
Russia may be influencing and supplying the Taliban in Afghanistan, the top U.S. gen- eral in Europe said during a Senate Armed Services Com- mittee hearing on Thursday.
Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, who also serves as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, told Senators that Russia's role in Afghanistan seemed to be growing, according to Reuters.
"I've seen the influence of Russia of late — increased in- fluence in terms of associa- tion and perhaps even supply to the Taliban," Gen. Scaparrotti said.
The news comes in the wake of the Taliban's re- ported capture of the hotly contested town of Sangin in Afghanistan on Thursday, the location of a number of U.S. and British fatalities inside the deadly Helmand Province.
A week before Republicans unveiled their doomed healthcare bill, President Trump claimed that “no- body knew that health care could be so complicated.”
On Friday, barely a month later, Trump suffered a major political setback when his crusade to “repeal and re- place” Obamacare came crashing down — without even making it to a vote. Here is a timeline:
Jan. 20: On the same day as his inauguration, Trump optimistically signs an execu- tive order directing agencies to begin preparing for the re- peal of Obamacare.
March 6: The American Health Care Act is introduced by House Speaker Paul Ryan and his fellow Repub- licans.
March 7: Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price shows off two stacks of paper as a he at- tempts to sell the plan.
Asked if it should be called Trumpcare, Price responds: “I prefer to call it patient care.”
March 9: The bill is ap- proved by House Energy and Commerce Committee and House Ways and Means Committee.
March 13: The Congres- sional Budget Office releases a report that finds the bill would cause 24 million Americans to lose their cov- erage, doubling the number of uninsured.
March 20: Leaders unveil several tweaks meant to ap- pease moderate and conser- vative Republicans.
March 21: Trump begins to threaten GOPers not back- ing the legislation, reportedly telling lawmakers, “I honestly think many of you will lose your seats in 2018 if you don’t get this done.”
March 22: White House press secretary Sean Spicer confidently calls Trump “the closer,” saying that the Pres- ident is nearing the votes needed to pass the bill.
Over the final 24 hours, with the bill on life support, and hardline conservatives still holding out, a desperate President Trump begs for
a vote.
March 23:— 7:28 a.m. —
Trump tweets: “You were given many lies with #Oba- macare! Go with our plan! Call your Rep & let them know you're behind #AHCA”
— 11:30 a.m. — Trump meets with members of the conservative Freedom Caucus at the White House.
— Spicer tells reporters that the administration does not feel it needs a “plan B.”
—Trump meets with mod- erate Republicans, known as the “Tuesday Group,” at the White House.
— A scheduled afternoon vote is postponed as it lacks support.
—Ryan and Trump spend 45 minutes on the phone.
— Late Thursday, an eleventh hour scramble leads GOPers to series of last- minute changes to try to win over disgruntled conserva- tives, including ending the Obamacare requirement that insurers cover certain “essen- tial benefits” such as mater- nity care, mental health services and prescription drug coverage.
Friday: — 8:23 a.m. — Trump tweets: “The irony is that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows P.P. to continue if they stop this plan!”
— 10:45 a.m. — The Presi- dent says, “we’ll see what happens,” when asked about the possibility of the bill fail- ing in the House.
— 11:05 a.m. — Procedural vote of 230-194 held to in- serts final changes.
— 12:30 p.m. — Ryan vis- its White House.
— 3:30 p.m. — The final scheduled vote is cancelled and the legislation is canned.
— 4:30 p.m. — Trump tries to immediately turn the page. “We’re probably going to start going very strongly on big tax cuts,” he told reporters. “Tax reform that will be next.”
Ryan was more willing to admit defeat.
“We are going to be living with Obamacare for the fore- seeable future,” he said.
African Economic Summit Had No Africans Due To Denied Visas
Days after the Atlanta Black Star reported that ICE agents have been targeting African immigrants with in- creased prejudice under the Trump administration, comes a report from The Guardian that a recent U.S.-African trade summit was forced to proceed without any Africans.
The University of South- ern California planned to host a three-day event, The African Global Economic and Development Summit as it had in years past. The sum- mit’s organizer, Mary Flow- ers, invited businesspeople and politicians from Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and South Africa, among others.
And every single African person she invited, between 60 and 100 people, was de- nied a visa.
Now, getting a visa to the
United States isn’t easy — you’ve got to bring bank statements, explain why you’re coming, provide a per- sonal history and prove you’re not going to stay here after you’ve completed your business.
And the Muslim ban, de- spite the efforts of Hawaiian judge Derrick Watson and others, doesn’t make it any easier.
According to The Washing- ton Post, Africa’s consumer spending will reach $2.2 tril- lion by 2030. Other countries have been quick to try to grab a piece of that pie — China re- cently delivered the first half of a pledged $60 billion to the continent, and enjoyed a $103 billion return on exports in 2015. The United States, on the other hand, reaped only $27 billion that same year.
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, MARCH 28, 2017