thank you baker
Trump offers budget with funds for border wall, Space Force
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will be making a significant request for border wall funds and seeking money to stand up Space Force as a new branch of the military in the White House budget being released next week, an administration official said.
For the first time, Trump plans to stick with the strict spending caps imposed years ago, even though lawmakers have largely avoided them with new budget deals. That will likely trigger a showdown with Congress.
The official said Friday that the president’s plan promises to balance the budget in 15 years.
Trump will seek $750 billion for defence, a boost for the military, while cutting non-defence discretionary spending by 5 per cent below the cap, said the official, who was unauthorized to discuss the document ahead of its release and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Budgets are mainly seen as blueprints for White House priorities. But they are often panned on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers craft the appropriation bills that eventually fund the government, if the president signs them into law.
Trump’s budget for the 2020 fiscal year will increase requests for some agencies while reducing others to reflect those priorities. Reductions are proposed, for example, for the Environmental Protection Agency.
The official said Congress has ignored the president’s spending cuts for too long. The federal budget is bloated with wasteful spending, the official said, and the administration remains committed to balancing the budget.
The cuts being requested by the White House would hit discretionary spending as well as some mandatory safety net programs, which Trump has proposed in the past. Many Republicans are often eager to reduce government spending, but Congress has had trouble passing bills that seriously slash the safety net programs used by many Americans.
Budgets often rely on various accounting measures to achieve desired results. This one, for example, counts $546 billion in defence money as a base, but another $174 billion in another account to keep within caps.
And while the budget will suggest it balances in future years, it is also expected to rely on projections for continued economic growth from the tax cuts Trump signed into law in 2017. But there’s no guarantee that would cover the lost tax revenues.
By proposing spending levels that don’t raise the budget caps, the president is courting a debate with Congress. Lawmakers from both parties have routinely agreed to raise spending caps established by a previous deal years ago to fund the government.
Trump, though, has tried to resist those deals. He threatened to veto the last one reached in 2017 to prevent a shutdown. Late last year, a fight over border wall funds sparked the 35-day shutdown that spilled into this year and became the longest in history.
https://ottawacitizen.com/pmn/news-pmn/trump-offers-budget-with-funds-for-border-wall-space-force/wcm/51328b43-a19f-49c4-8d26-d98c4d75c1ea
Ebola Treatment Center in Congo Is Attacked Again; 1 Dead
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Armed assailants again attacked an Ebola treatment center in the heart of eastern Congo's deadly outbreak on Saturday, with one police officer killed and health workers injured.
The early-morning attack in Butembo came less than a week after the treatment center reopened following an attack last month, which forced aid group Doctors Without Borders to suspend its operations in the city. Security forces repelled Saturday's attackers, one of whom was wounded, Butembo Mayor Sylvain Kanyamanda said.
The latest attack occurred hours before the World Health Organization director-general visited the center, which remains open. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus encouraged health workers to continue their fight against the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which is spreading in a region compared to a war zone.
"It breaks my heart to think of the health workers injured and police officer who died in today's attack," Tedros said. WHO has requested and received further support from United Nations and local police forces to protect treatment centers, he said. He blamed the attack on "elements who are exploiting the desperation of the situation for their own purposes."
Dozens of armed groups are active in eastern Congo, though some have allowed health workers access to administer Ebola vaccines and track contacts of infected people after delicate negotiations.
In addition, some residents wary of outsiders after years of deadly rebel attacks have shown hostility to health workers in a region that is facing its first Ebola outbreak. Misunderstandings have been high, especially over the need to conduct safe burials, a highly sensitive issue. Ebola is spread via bodily fluids of those infected, including the dead.
On Thursday, the Doctors Without Borders president warned that Ebola containment efforts face a "climate of deepening community mistrust" seven months after the outbreak was declared, and the use of security forces complicates efforts. People are still reluctant to bring the sick to treatment centers, Joanne Liu said.
To conquer Ebola, "we must strike a delicate balance between providing accessible care, maintaining the neutrality of the response and protecting patients and staff from attacks by armed groups," Tedros said in a Twitter post on Saturday. "We are committed to ending the outbreak and we will not leave until we do."
Another Ebola treatment center in Katwa was attacked late last month, with one person killed. Doctors Without Borders also has suspended its operations there. The attacks enormously disrupted containment efforts, Congo's health ministry said, warning that a "significant upsurge" in new Ebola cases could follow.
For those trying to contain the outbreak, the attacks are occurring in the worst possible locations. Butembo and Katwa made up more than 86 percent of new confirmed cases over the past three weeks, the health ministry said Monday.
he ministry, which on Sunday tweeted a photo of smiling workers reopening the Butembo treatment center, says 853 Ebola cases have been confirmed since this outbreak was declared on Aug. 1, including 578 deaths.
The outbreak is second to the one in West Africa that killed more than 11,300 people during 2014-2016.
This time, dramatic advances have been seen. More than 86,000 people have received an experimental Ebola vaccine, a clinical trial of experimental treatments is under way and new treatment facilities allow some Ebola patients to be within sight and sound of family members.
Still, millions of people have been screened at transit points in the densely populated region as health workers try to keep Ebola from spreading into neighboring Uganda, Rwanda and South Sudan.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2019-03-09/ebola-treatment-center-in-congo-is-attacked-again-1-dead
https://twitter.com/GovEvers/status/1101289976896126976
"New Tactic"
Massage Parlor Owner Claimed She Could Get Clients Access To President Trump
Li “Cindy” Yang, a 45-year-old from China who emigrated to the U.S. decades ago and founded a chain of spas and massage parlors in Florida, drew headlines this past week after a selfie of her and President Donald Trump was shared online. But do her connections to Trump run deeper?
Yang founded the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida, the site where New England Patriots owner (and Trump friend) Robert Kraft has been accused of soliciting sexual acts from its workers. Although Yang no longer owns that particular spa, she does own other locations in the region that have also been accused of offering clients similar sexual acts in exchange for money.
Yang was a guest of Trump’s at his Mar-a-Lago estate during the president’s Super Bowl watch party earlier this year, which is where the selfie image of the two originated. Though controversial on its own, Yang and the president may have stronger ties than people were previously aware of, beyond her simple support of the Republican president.
Aside from the massage parlors and spas she owns, Yang also runs an investment business. On the website of that business, reporting from Mother Jones has noted, Yang brags about her ties to Trump and his family members — and even offers to sell her clients, mostly Chinese executives, access to them.
The wording on the website suggests that she’s been successful in setting up such arrangements. Yang provides her investment clients “the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce and other political figures,” according to her site.
Yang is decidedly dedicated to promoting Trump. She claims to be part of the “Presidential Fundraising Committee,” and she and her family have donated more than $58,000 either to Trump directly or to Trump-related political action committees.
https://hillreporter.com/massage-parlor-claims-client-access-president-donald-trump-27039
Something looks very "off" with all of this BS to me.
Yes, how is giving illegals driver's licences making the roads safer??
I say, how about "get them the fuck out"! Then….safer roads.
what the fuck ISthat thing???
Does this mean the government will stop fucking with real "chronic pain patients"?
Because I am so fucking sick of how I am treated because I have a lifelong chronic pain "illness"
that the stupid doctors don't know how to treat!
So because of real addicts, I have a harder time getting needed medications; have to sign ridiculous agreements that make me feel like I am just some junkie pill-popper. Go after the REAL problem….the fentanyl and heroin! NOT CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS AND THE DOCTORS TRYING TO TREAT THEM!
A doctoranon a few breads ago said measles is spread by the vaccine.
same here anon. It sucks..
you don't like this?