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Black People Take Note: Democrats Deliver Major Blow To President Obama’s Trade Bill
Jeb Bush Formally Announces
House Democrats dealt President Obama defeat on his free-trade initiative Friday, derailing a key priority for the President and rebuffing his rare, personal pleas for their support.
The defeat at the hands of his own party placed the Pres- ident’s trade agenda in limbo and exposed deep party divi- sions on economic policy, leaving the pro-trade Democ- rats marginalized by the anti- corporate wing of the party, which has been on the rise since the 2008 financial col- lapse. It also exposed the weakening hand of House Mi- nority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who had worked for days to avoid a Democratic takedown of the president’s agenda, only to throw her sup- port in with the rank-and-file rebellion at the last minute.
The fate of the trade legisla- tion now depends on the Pres- ident’s ability, along with business-friendly interests, to persuade dozens of Democrats to switch their votes before a planned do-over vote early this week. The 12-nation trade deal Mr. Obama has been
President Obama after defeat last Friday.
Jeb Bush formally launch his 2016 White House bid on Monday searching for momentum to break out of a crowded field for the Repub- lican presidential nomina- tion, but expecting a long battle ahead.
The 62-year-old former Florida governor made his announcement at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT) speech at Miami-Dade College, a school whose multicultural student population was cho- sen to emphasis Bush's com- mitment to trying to expand the appeal of the white-dom- inated Republican Party.
In his speech and in sub- sequent campaign stops in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina this week, Bush will say he would make it a top priority to gen-
Former Florida Gover- nor Jeb Bush Is the 11th Re- publican to throw his hat into the race.
erate higher growth in the U.S. economy and create as many as 19 million jobs, ac- cording to a memo prepared by the Bush team for his supporters to use as talking points.
negotiating in Asia took on special meaning. It was a way to leave behind a positive legacy abroad, one that could be measured, he hoped, by the number of lives improved rather than by the number of bodies left behind. And if the Pacific really is the future, Mr. Obama wanted to position the United States to lead the way. As it turned out, the biggest challenge to securing that legacy has been at home, and not overseas, as Mr.
Obama’s fellow Democrats shot down legislation Friday, crucial to finalizing the trade agreement on the grounds that it would hurt rather than help America. Unless he can convince scores of Democrats to change their votes in the coming days, the centerpiece of his much-touted re-engage- ment with Asia will slip away along with one of the last chances he has to leave his im- print on the world before leav- ing office.
Libyans Say Key Islamist Militant Killed In U.S. Airstrike
Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian militant was killed in an U.S. airstrike on Saturday.
His Run For The White House
Supreme Court Judge Could Be Key To 2nd Obamacare Victory
Justice Anthony Kennedy was furious when a majority on the U. S. Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama’s healthcare law. As he read the dissenting opinion from the bench three years ago, his anger was pal- pable. The majority regards its opinion “as judicial modesty," he declared. "It is not. It amounts instead to a vast ju- dicial over-reaching.”
That was Justice Kennedy on June 28, 2012.
Now, as the country awaits a ruling in the second major challenge to Pres. Obama's signature Affordable Care Act, a question is whether the jus- tice who was the voice of the opposition then, could provide the critical fifth vote to uphold the law on the nine-justice court now.
At stake are the tax-credit subsidies that have helped low- and moderate-income Americans obtain health in- surance. The challengers say the government unlawfully ex- tended those subsidies to states that did not create local insurance exchanges, but in- stead relied on the federal ex- change. If the court strikes down the subsidies, millions of Americans in at least 34 of the 50 states could lose cover- age.
Five years after its passage, the Affordable Care Act has become ingrained in Ameri- can life even as it remains po- litically divisive. “This is now part of the fabric of how we care for one another," Pres. Obama declared in a speech last week. Republicans have
JUSTICE ANTHONY KENNEDY
called for repeal and among the related lawsuits simmer- ing in lower courts is a dispute brought by Republicans in the U. S. House of Representa- tives over Treasury Depart- ment payments to healthcare insurers.
In the case before the court, the unique issue along with Justice Kennedy's record and his comments in oral ar- guments raise the possibility he will join the four liberal jus- tices to endorse the law. Three years ago, his fellow conserva- tive Chief Justice John Roberts cast the swing vote with the liberals to uphold the law. It marked a rare episode when Kennedy, the usual key justice on this divided bench, did not control the outcome of a momentous case.
It is impossible to predict with confidence how the court will resolve the case, King v. Burwell. A ruling is anxiously awaited by officials in Wash- ington and the insurance and healthcare industries nation- wide.
On healthcare, either Jus- tices Kennedy or Roberts could tip the balance. Yet the 78-year-old Kennedy, ap- pointed to the bench in 1988 by Republican President Ronald Reagan, may be in a more pivotal position based on his respect for state sover- eignty and concern for the practical consequences of a decision.
While the 2012 dispute posed a broad-ranging consti- tutional challenge to the indi- vidual insurance mandate before it even took effect, this one turns on a mere four-word clause allowing tax credits for insurance purchased through exchanges “established by the state.”
The challengers, libertarian lawyers who were among those who lodged the 2012 at- tack, say that means that the subsidies are not available to people who have bought in- surance through federally fa- cilitated exchanges, which vastly outnumber state-run exchanges. The Obama ad- ministration contends the law, taken as a whole, makes clear that Congress, when it passed the law, intended the subsi- dies to apply to all exchanges.
During oral arguments Justice Kennedy suggested the challengers' view of the law could put unconstitutional federal pressure on states, be- cause if they failed to set up exchanges, they would lose subsidies: "The states are being told either create your own exchange or we’ll send your insurance market into a death spiral,” he said.
A veteran Islamist militant blamed for a deadly attack on an Algerian gas field and who ran smuggling routes across North Africa has been killed in a U. S. air strike inside Libya, Libya's government said on Sunday.
The recognized govern- ment said the strike had killed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian militant who became a major figure in insurgencies across North Africa and the Saharan border region and was dubbed "The Uncatch- able" by the French military.
The U. S. military con- firmed Belmokhtar had been targeted in Saturday night's air strike but did not say if he was killed.
The Pentagon was continu- ing to assess the results of the operation, spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said in a statement.
Libya's internationally rec- ognized government, which sits in the eastern town of Bayda, said the U. S. strike had killed Belmokhtar at a gathering with other militant leaders, who it did not name.
Libyan officials gave no fur- ther details about the area of the strike. But Libyan military sources said an air strike on a farmhouse on Saturday in Ajdabiya city near Benghazi had killed seven members of the Ansar al Sharia militant group who had been meeting there.
Presidential/Government News
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