Chris Kennedy to run for Illinois governor, says 'compromise is not surrender' in Rauner dig

Chicago businessman Chris Kennedy will join the Democratic race for Illinois governor, officially filing paperwork with the state later Wednesday, said campaign aides to the son of the late Robert F. Kennedy.

"Today I am announcing my run for governor because I love Illinois," Kennedy said in a statement. "But we have never been in worse shape. We don't need incremental improvement. We need fundamental change in state government."

Kennedy said it was time for "Illinois to again embrace the American Dream, the notion that we are a country and a state where anyone can make it and where unlimited opportunity is the promise of our country."

A video the campaign posted shows images of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who plans to seek re-election next year. Kennedy doesn't mention Rauner by name but says that he believes "in working with others, not telling them what to do" and that "compromise is not surrender." Rauner has been locked in a lengthy budget stalemate with Democrats who control the General Assembly.


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Kennedy previously had considered bids for state office only to abandon them. But in his current effort, he has worked to gear up on staff prior to an announcement.

He is the second announced Democrat to challenge Rauner's expected re-election bid in 2018. Chicago Ald. Ameya Pawar also has announced, but several other Democrats are considering a run — including another Chicago businessman, J.B. Pritzker.

Although he’s been coy publicly about his re-election campaign, Gov. Bruce Rauner made a big-money statement about his desire to serve a second term, contributing $50 million to his campaign fund this week.

It’s a surefire sign the 2018 gubernatorial campaign may become the most expensive on record. And a Rauner operative called the massive contribution “a first installment.”
Rauner contributed $50 million on Tuesday to Citizens for Rauner, Inc, his campaign committee, according to filings with the state’s Board of Elections.

The contribution is the largest individual contribution in Illinois history. The second largest is also from Rauner, when he donated $10 million to his campaign in 2014, according to Sarah Brune, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Brune also noted the timing and amount is also unprecedented in Illinois elections.

The Illinois Republican Party is already launching attacks on potential gubernatorial challengers, including Democrats Chris Kennedy and J.B. Pritzker. A top Rauner operative said having a good chunk of early money allows them to determine when to begin the race and gives them “tactical flexibility.”

Hanah Jubeh, a Kennedy consultant, countered that the contribution is not a surprise.

“It’s no surprise that the governor is attempting to buy his re-election, because he sure hasn’t earned it,” Jubeh said. “If he believes his Christmas gift to himself intimidates anyone, he’s sorely mistaken.”

Heres The Coretta Scott King Letter Mitch McConnell Suppressed

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wouldn’t let Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) read Coretta Scott King’s blistering takedown of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on the Senate floor on Tuesday night. But there’s no reason you can’t.

King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote the scathing 10-page letter in 1986, when Sessions ― now President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general ― was being considered for a federal judgeship.

In it, King said Sessions “lacks the temperament, fairness, and judgement to be a federal judge” and has “used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens.”

King argued that Sessions’ appointment “would irreparably damage the work of my husband.”

Trump Administration May Use Executive Authority To Tweak Obamacares Rules

Insurers would be happy. Consumer advocates, not so much.

With the congressional debate over repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act likely to drag out for some time, the Trump administration is considering using its executive authority to tweak some of the law’s rules for insurers.

Many of the changes under discussion track closely to recommendations from the insurance industry, which has argued such modifications are necessary in order to stabilize newly reformed markets.

But the changes could raise objections from consumer advocates, who have warned previously that these sorts of moves might limit access to coverage for people who need it.

The ACA establishes basic guidelines for how insurers sell to consumers, whether directly or through the new state exchanges. But it gives the Department of Health and Human Services leeway to interpret and apply those guidelines, by writing the specific regulations that insurers must obey.

The Obama administration spent the last few years writing the regulations that are currently in place. Now, the Trump administration is looking to make some adjustments.

The changes couldn’t take place instantly. To modify existing regulations, HHS would have to get approval from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, post the proposal for public comment and then review those reactions before finalizing any new rules.

HHS has already submitted a proposal of new rules to OMB. And while officials have not said publicly what’s in that proposal, industry consultants and lobbyists told The Huffington Post that HHS has been considering the following three changes, among others:

1. Insurers would have more leeway to vary prices by age, so that premiums for the oldest customers could be 3.49 times as large as those for younger customers. Today, premiums for the old can be only three times as high as premiums for the young, which is what the Affordable Care Act stipulates. According to sources privy to HHS discussions with insurers, officials would argue that since 3.49 “rounds down” to three, the change would still comply with the statute.

2. People who want to apply for coverage mid-year, outside of open enrollment, would have to provide documentation of a qualifying life change ― such as a divorce or lost job ― before coverage begins. Presently, insurance kicks in for such people right away, as soon as they apply for it, subject to verification afterward.

3. Insurers could cut off coverage for people who are more than 30 days late on premiums. Presently, lower- and middle-income consumers who qualify for the law’s tax credits get a 90-day grace period.

Insurers have said that they are struggling to attract and keep younger, healthier customers. In theory, looser “age bands” would allow insurers to lure customers in their 20s and 30s with cheaper premiums.

The companies have also said that people are abusing existing insurance rules ― by faking conditions that would qualify them for mid-year purchase, or by failing to pay premiums immediately after insurers pay for expensive care.

Insurers say these problems are one reason many of them have lost money in the last few years, forcing them to raise premiums and, in some cases, withdraw from markets altogether. Without the sorts of changes the Trump administration is contemplating, insurers argue, more of them will have to drop out.

The legitimacy of these complaints has been the subject of great debate. Many insurers really have lost money on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, and in some states, such as Arizona, plan withdrawals have left consumers with few choices.

Mitch McConnell Distances Himself From Donald Trumps Latest Controversial Statements

“I’m not going to critique every utterance of the president. I obviously don’t see this issue the same way he does,” McConnell said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, distancing himself from President Donald Trump’s more equivocal view of the foreign leader.

“Putin is a former KGB agent, he’s a thug, he was not elected in a way that most people would consider a credible election,” McConnell said in an interview on CNN’s “State Of The Union.”

“No, I don’t think there is any equivalency between the way the Russians conduct themselves and the way the United States does.”

Trump had brushed off Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s characterization of Putin as a “killer” in a recent interview, responding, “We’ve got a lot of killers. What do you think? Our country’s so innocent?”

But McConnell didn’t explicitly criticize Trump’s stance.

“I can speak for myself, and I already have about my feelings about Vladimir Putin and the way the Russians operate,” McConnell said. “I’m not going to critique every utterance of the president. I obviously don’t see this issue the same way he does.”

The Senate majority leader also seemed to disagree with the president’s response to the emergency stay that halted the ban on refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations on Friday. Following the decision, Trump insulted the judge who had temporarily blocked the order on Twitter, blasting “[t]he opinion of this so-called judge.”

Vice President Mike Pence defended the president on Sunday for “speaking his mind” to the American public, but other Republicans registered their disapproval.

“I think it’s best not to single out judges for criticism,” McConnell said. “We all get disappointed from time to time at the outcome in courts on things that we care about, but I think it’s best to avoid criticizing judges individually.”

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) also took issue with Trump’s statement.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t understand language like that,” Sasse said Sunday on ABC. “We don’t have so-called judges, we don’t have so-called senators, we don’t have so-called presidents, we have people from three different branches of government who take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution.”

Orrin Hatch Ignores The Rules, Advances Key Trump Nominees Despite Democratic Boycott

MORE :http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mnuchin-price_us_5891f428e4b0c90eff01300a

WASHINGTON ― Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) pushed forward two of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks Wednesday morning, advancing their nominations despite a Democratic boycott.

The rules require at least one member of the minority party to be present for the committee to vote on a nominee. But Hatch suspended the rules, allowing him to go around that requirement.

Senate Republicans advanced Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Steve Mnuchin, the pick for treasury secretary, out of committee favorably, on a 14-0 vote. Price and Mnuchin are now cleared to receive a full vote on the Senate floor.

Democrats are opposed to moving forward on the two nominees because they believe the two men misled the public and held back vital information about their backgrounds. The decision to boycott committee votes spread Wednesday morning, when Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee also skipped the vote on Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to be head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Last Call with Carson Daly re: Joy Reid.

Last Call shines a light on host of "AM Joy" on MSNBC. This is Joy Reid.

Ellen comments on the travel ban...

Before You Call Your Senator, Read This On How Our Trump Scores Work

By Nate Silver

On Monday, we launched a dashboard that tracks how often members of the House and Senate have voted in line with President Trump’s position on bills and nominations. We were pleasantly surprised at how many people1 were interested in this feature — the level of political energy right now is about as high as I can remember in the almost 10 years that I’ve covered politics. But as a result, what we’d expected to be a fairly slow rollout suddenly occurred much faster. So I wanted to add a word of caution, along with a bit more methodological detail.

The caution is simply this: For the time being, these calculations aren’t based on very many votes. Therefore, they’re likely to bounce around over the next few weeks until more votes are taken. As of Monday, they included just four votes in the House and six votes in the Senate. It’s also important to note that we aren’t tracking all votes — only those on which Trump takes a clear position.2 So they represent a small sample size, for now.

Another unique feature of our dashboard is the plus-minus scores. The basic idea is to compare how often a member of Congress voted with Trump against others where the 2016 presidential vote was similar. For instance, you’d expect members to support Trump most of the time if they come from a state or district that voted for Trump by 30 percentage points, but not very often if they’re from one where Hillary Clinton won by that margin.

These estimates are calculated on a bill-by-bill basis. Here, for instance, is a breakdown of votes on confirming Mike Pompeo as CIA director based on the 2016 vote in each senator’s state. Almost all (38 of 40) senators from states that Trump won by 10 or more percentage points voted to confirm Pompeo. Just five of 24 from states that Clinton won by 10 or more points voted to confirm him, however. The majority of senators from swing states voted to confirm him, however, which is why his nomination eventually passed by a fairly clear 66-32 margin...

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Wins Best Female Actor in a Comedy 23rd Annual SAG Awards TBS

Marvin Gaye songs were both taken, so I thought of Yolanda Adams..