Coal executive: Trump 'can't bring mining jobs back'

Source: The Hill



BY DEVIN HENRY - 03/27/17 11:15 AM EDT

The head of the largest private coal firm in the U.S. says President Trump won’t be able to bring back coal industry jobs despite a push this week to deregulate fossil fuels.

Robert Murray, the founder and CEO of Murray Energy, said Trump should “temper his expectations,” given the way market forces — rather than regulations — have hurt the coal industry and reduced employment. “I suggested that he temper his expectations,” Murray told The Guardian. “Those are my exact words. He can’t bring them back.”

Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Tuesday undoing several Obama-era climate regulations, including many opposed by the coal industry.

Trump’s executive order is expected to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to undo the Clean Power Plan, a rule issued under Obama to cut electricity-sector carbon emissions.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/325891-coal-executive-trump-cant-bring-mining-jobs-back

Sen. Coons: GOP Will 'Almost Certainly' Go Nuclear If Dems Filibuster Gorsuch

Source: Talking Points Memo



By MATT SHUHAM Published MARCH 27, 2017, 10:43 AM EDT

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said Monday that he was worried that Democratic opposition to Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch would lead Republicans to trigger a “nuclear option,” eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

“I doubt he’s going to get 60 votes,” Coons told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said that Gorsuch will need 60 votes to be confirmed, implying that Democrats will filibuster his nomination.

“And the question then, Joe, becomes, ‘What do we do?’” Coons continued. “There’s a lot of finger-pointing. There’s a lot of Democrats justifiably still very mad about the treatment of Merrick Garland.”

Senate Republicans have indicated that they are willing to invoke the so-called “nuclear option” – shorthand for changing the Senate’s rules with a simple majority vote – to eliminate the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/coons-republican-nuclear-option-gorsuch

Dem senator: 'Not inclined to filibuster' Gorsuch

Source: The Hill



BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 03/27/17 11:01 AM EDT

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is signaling that he could buck Democratic leadership and help President Trump's Supreme Court nominee clear a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

“I am not inclined to filibuster, even though I’m not inclined to vote for him," Leahy — a former ranking member on the Judiciary Committee — told a Vermont news outlet.

Neil Gorsuch will need 60 votes — including the support of at least eight Democratic senators — to overcome an initial procedural hurdle. GOP leadership has refused to rule out using the "nuclear" option, which would allow Gorsuch and future Supreme Court nominees to clear the Senate with only a simple majority. Leahy warned Republicans against going nuclear, saying that eliminating the 60-vote threshold to end debate on a nominee "hurts everybody."

“I was very reluctant to see us the use nuclear option, though I don’t think we would have seen any of President Obama’s judges go through without it," he told VTDigger.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/325890-dem-senator-not-included-to-filibuster-gorsuch

Wall St. hits six-week low on Trump's healthcare bill defeat

Source: Reuters



Mon Mar 27, 2017 | 10:03am EDT

By Yashaswini Swamynathan

Wall Street main indexes hit their lowest levels in six weeks on Monday after Republican's pulled a healthcare bill, raising questions about President Donald Trump's ability to deliver on his ambitious economic agenda.

The bill, which was set to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was Trump's first major legislative move.

Bank stocks, which had outperformed in the post-election rally on bets of tax cuts and simpler regulations, took a beating on Monday.

Bank of America (BAC.N) was down 3.6 percent and JPMorgan 2 percent (JPM.N), with the two stocks being the biggest drag on the S&P 500.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks-idUSKBN16Y194

GOP congressman faces furious constituents at packed Texas town hall

Former WH Spox Josh Earnest Makes Debut As NBC, MSNBC Political Analyst

Source: Talking Points Memo


By MATT SHUHAM Published MARCH 27, 2017, 9:46 AM EDT

Former White House press secretary Josh Earnest made his start as an NBC political analyst on Monday, appearing on “Today” and MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” Earnest, who served as press secretary from 2014 to 2017, was deputy press secretary and principal deputy press secretary under his two predecessors in the Obama administration, Robert Gibbs and Jay Carney.

“With his wealth of experience and insight, Josh will be a great addition to our roster of contributors and will be an asset for our two networks as we continue to cover the White House, Congress and politics beyond the Beltway,” NBC News president Noah Oppenheim said in a staff memo obtained by the Hollywood Reporter and Axios.

In his debut on “Today” Monday, Earnest said the Republican Party’s surprising failure to replace Obamacare with its own legislation was the result of years of rigid partisanship.

“The one unifying principle of congressional Republicans over the last 10 years has been instinctive, reflective opposition to everything related to President Obama,” he said. “That’s why it was easy for them to vote to repeal Obamacare. But when it came to replacing it; when it came to building a coalition to actually do something proactive and positive for the country, there’s no consensus in the Republican Party.”

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/josh-earnest-joins-nbc-msnbc

Joe Scarborough: Trump can't remake government if he doesn't know how it works

Nunes says he was on WH grounds day before revealing Trump surveillance info

Source: CNN



By Jake Tapper, Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent
Updated 10:12 AM ET, Mon March 27, 2017

Washington (CNN)It has been something of a mystery, the whereabouts of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes on the day before his announcement that he saw information suggesting that communications of then-President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers may have been swept up in surveillance of other foreign nationals.

One source told CNN that Nunes, a California Republican, was seen on the White House grounds the day before his announcement. In a phone interview, Nunes confirmed to CNN that he was on the White House grounds that day -- but he said he was not in the White House itself. (Other buildings, including the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, are on the same grounds.) No one in the White House was aware that he was there, Nunes said.

The California Republican said he was there for additional meetings "to confirm what I already knew" but said he wouldn't comment further so as to not "compromise sources and methods." He went to the building because he needed a secure area to view the information, he told CNN.

Two congressional sources said Nunes was with a staff member Tuesday night when he got a message, got out of the car and got into an Uber. Staff did not hear again from him that night.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/27/politics/devin-nunes-white-house-donald-trump/index.html

Par for the course: White House says Trump's golf outings to his courses were "meetings"

MONDAY, MAR 27, 2017 07:50 AM EDT

Par for the course: White House says Trump’s golf outings to his courses were “meetings”

The White House and Fox News don't want to admit that the president is enjoying a leisurely weekend on the links

MATTHEW ROZSA

President Donald Trump has already been criticized for spending so much time on the golf links, but that didn’t stop him from spending last weekend at one of his own golf courses.

On Sunday Trump played golf for the 13th time since taking office, in the process also marking the eighth consecutive weekend he had spent at a property that he personally owns, according to CNN. On this occasion he went to his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

The White House said that Trump’s golf trip actually was a series of meetings, but photos posted on Instagram and Twitter show that the president was hitting the links.

https://twitter.com/jbillinson/status/845732033305481216

https://twitter.com/ashleyfeinberg/status/846094389583732737

But Fox News erroneously reported on Sunday that Trump was spending the weekend working at the White House.

https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/846112245797007360

more
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/27/par-for-the-course-white-house-says-trumps-golf-outings-to-his-courses-were-meetings/

So much for all that winning: Will the health care debacle expose the fraudulent nature of Trump's..

MONDAY, MAR 27, 2017 08:56 AM EDT

So much for all that winning: Will the health care debacle expose the fraudulent nature of Trump’s presidency?

Republicans have lost any ability to govern or pass legislation — and their president is an unrepentant scam artist

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON

Back in early December of last year I wrote a piece in which I recounted all of President Barack Obama’s attempts to woo Republicans and wondered whether the Tea Party — represented by the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus — would save Obamacare by once again refusing to go along with the leadership. And by gosh, they went and did it again. By all accounts, the HFC wouldn’t accept Paul Ryan’s draconian “replacement” for Obamacare because its members didn’t merely go back to the time before the ACA was enacted — they wanted to take the health care system back to the time of Dickensian England.

Mainstream conservatives, on the other hand, were willing to deny millions of people health care but they figured their seats might be in jeopardy if they went as far as the Freedom Caucus demanded. This bill died the way that everything dies in the Republican Congress — at the hands of fanatics who will not take yes for an answer.

The best meme circulating on Twitter during the negotiations was this one:

https://twitter.com/1PatriciaMurphy/status/844989686657531906

Speaker Paul Ryan deserves the lion’s share of the blame for this debacle. He’s the allegedly serious wonk who was supposed to be able to whip up a quick replacement in a matter of days that they could get through on reconciliation in the Senate with 50 votes, Trump would sign it and victory would be at hand in no time. That didn’t work out. Ryan’s alleged grasp of policy was always a Beltway delusion, largely based on his love of “Atlas Shrugged” and those blue, blue eyes. The health care bill he slapped together was a monstrosity that failed on every level, from cost savings to coverage, and it pleased absolutely no one. The trainwreck of a negotiation shows that Ryan is just as bad at political leadership as he is at policy.

more
http://www.salon.com/2017/03/27/so-much-for-all-that-winning-will-the-health-care-debacle-expose-the-fraudulent-nature-of-trumps-presidency/