Month: January 2020

Trump Plans to Divert $7.2 Billion for Border Fence

Buck Banks

$7.2 billion

“President Trump is preparing to divert an additional $7.2 billion in Pentagon funding for border wall construction this year, five times what Congress authorized him to spend on the project in the 2020 budget,” the Washington Post reports. “The Pentagon funds would be extracted, for the second year in a row, from military construction projects and counternarcotics funding. According to the plans, the funding would give the government enough money to complete approximately 885 miles of new fencing by Spring 2022, far more than the 509 miles the administration has slated for the U.S. border with Mexico.”

Trump’s Biggest Healthcare Lie

Buck Banks

“Since he began running for president, Donald Trump has been lying about health care in general, and protections for patients with preexisting conditions in particular. Trump’s long-standing lie is that he has a plan to help people with preexisting conditions afford insurance, or will shortly unveil such a plan. His most recent version of this lie goes even farther. Trump is now saying that he actually created the protection for preexisting conditions, and that Democrats are trying to take it away. … This is the literal polar opposite of reality.”

— Jonathan Chait

Biden Way Ahead in Black Democrat Support

Buck Banks

48%

A Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds Joe Biden is far and away the favored Democratic presidential candidate for black Americans with 48%, boosted by his personal popularity, his service in the Obama administration and perceptions that he is best equipped to defeat President Trump. Bernie Sanders occupies second place at 20 percent, while Elizabeth Warren runs third at 9 percent. Pete Buttigieg is at just 2 percent among black Democratic voters nationally.

Wealth Tax Drawing Broad Support

Buck Banks

64%

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds 64% of Americans strongly or somewhat agreed that “the very rich should contribute an extra share of their total wealth each year to support public programs” – the essence of a wealth tax. Results were similar across gender, race and household income. While support among Democrats was stronger, at 77%, a majority of Republicans, 53%, also agreed with the idea.

The Secret Meaning of Trump’s Middle Initial

Buck Banks

“Standing near the bar, Sherman ran into Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, and the two started chatting. Sherman asked Luntz when he last saw the President. ‘Last week, at the White House Christmas party,’ Luntz said. Sherman asked what the two men talked about, to which Luntz replied that he had asked Trump what his middle initial ‘J’ stands for. ‘Genius,’ Trump responded.”

— Inside the Hive: “Vanity Fair special correspondent Gabriel Sherman, who was attending the Golden Globes for his show, The Loudest Voice, relayed a story that sums up the Trump presidency and the mess we’re currently living in.”

Trump Allies Might Create Fox News Competitor

Buck Banks

$250 million

“Allies of President Trump are pursuing an effort to acquire right-leaning news channel One America News Network, in a bid to shake up a conservative media market that has been dominated by Fox News,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “The investment firm Hicks Equity Partners is looking to acquire the channel and is pitching other wealthy GOP donors to arrange a bid of roughly $250 million for the channel’s parent company, the people said. The firm is owned by the family of Thomas Hicks Jr., co-chairman of the Republican National Committee and a close friend of Donald Trump Jr.”