Day: May 29, 2018

New Figures Now Reveal More Than 5,000 Were Killed When Maria Hit Puerto Rico

Trish

As we debate whether the numbers of people who were killed when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in September, 2017 were deliberately under-reported or just badly counted, there’s one thing Trump knew. It was nothing compared to a “real catastrophe like Katrina.”

Even as Trump made that insulting comment the following month, average Puerto Ricans were certain that many more than the 16 people he touted had been lost.

A new study from the New England Journal of Medicine estimates the actual death toll to be closer to 5,000. Even worse, “one third of the deaths were attributed to delayed or interrupted health care.”

Hurricane Katrina, which hit South Florida and Louisiana in August, 2005, resulted in 1,833 fatalities.

Trump made no secret he considered money spent in Puerto Rico to be both unnecessary (since he believed it to be full of non-citizens) and an annoyance. Could his attitude have led to a tightening of the purse strings that contributed to the death toll?

Romney Squishy on Trump

Buck Banks

“I don’t think that I would point to the president as a role model for my grandkids on the basis of his personal style. He has departed in some cases from the truth, and has attacked in a way that I think is not entirely appropriate. I think that his policies have been by and large a good deal better than I might have expected. But some of the things he has said are not ones that I would aspire for my grandkids to adopt.”

— Utah U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney (R), in an interview with NBC News.

Nunes Supporters Are Not Constituents

Buck Banks

$19,000

Fresno Bee: “Rep. Devin Nunes’ big role in the unfolding drama between Justice Department and the Trump administration has drawn national headlines — and allowed him to collect big money from D.C. area donors. But the California Republican is also being dogged by accusations he’s no longer focused on his constituents. … Of the more than $1 million Nunes raised from individual donors, roughly $19,000, or 2 percent, came from people in his district, which includes chunks of Fresno and Tulare Counties. That’s the smallest percentage of any the eight California Republicans in Congress who Democrats are targeting for defeat this fall.”

Half of Republicans Believe Millions Voted Illegally in 2016

Buck Banks

48%

A new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds that 48% of Republicans believe that up to 5 million people voted illegally in the last presidential election ? a claim that President Trump has repeatedly made, even though neither he nor anyone else has produced concrete evidence to show it’s true. Just 17% said they do not believe that claim and 35% said they were unsure.

Trump Administration’s Deficit Forecast Is Waaaaay Off

Buck Banks

$9.5 trillion

“The Congressional Budget Office estimates the government will take in $1.9 trillion less in revenue and spend $300 billion more over the next decade than the White House estimated under its latest budget proposal if the plan were enacted,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Deficits would total $9.5 trillion over the coming decade, or $2.3 trillion more than the White House estimates.”