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GOP Forced to Fend off Government Shutdown Amid Rushed Trillion Dollar Tax Giveaway to Elites

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Congressional Republicans are hoping to avert an impending government shutdown this week, with Washington engrossed in tax reform. The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday afternoon to set the terms of debate over a bill that would fund the government for two weeks. The United States government runs out of short-term funding on Friday. The committee vote is set to come one day after the House is expected to advance a watershed tax reform plan. Early Saturday morning, Senate Republicans approved of…

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Without a Hearing, and Amid Protests, Senate Budget Panel Passes Tax Bill

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Senate Republicans’ $1.4 trillion tax bill was narrowly passed out of the Budget Committee in a party-line vote, clearing its final hurdle before what will likely be contentious consideration in the full upper chamber. As with its passage earlier this month out of the Senate Finance Committee, the legislation was approved by the budget panel on Tuesday in a 12-11 vote, without first holding a hearing on its impact. The committee’s ranking member, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) lashed out at the hastiness with which the bill…

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Ex-Union Buster Turned NLRB Member Divulges 100-plus Additional Former Clients, Including Amazon, Wells Fargo, and CBS

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A Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board revealed the names of more than a hundred more former clients and committed to recusing himself from matters they might have before his agency. William Emanuel disclosed a more complete list of firms who employed his legal services in the past two years, after prodding from Democratic Senators. Before his appointment to the NLRB, Emanuel worked as a partner for Littler Mendelson, a law firm that specializes in union-busting consultancy. The lawmakers had noted that while…

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Mulvaney Drama Enhanced by Democrats’ Proposals to Hamstring CFPB

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One block west of the White House, the Trump administration is currently engaged in a battle with federal officials resisting a Republican attempt to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Meanwhile, a few blocks West on Pennsylvania avenue, the President is getting a helping hand from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Though the temporary appointment of Mick Mulvaney signals doom for the CFPB (the top White House economic aide has described the watchdog agency as “a sick, sad joke”), legislation, with liberal support, could do much…

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Report: Poor Oversight at Veteran’s Affairs Gives Cover to Bad Doctors

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Medical providers that offered suboptimal care and, sometimes, abuse to veterans were often never reported to agencies charged with overseeing their practices. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued an audit of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) on Monday, revealing procedural failures that allowed health care practitioners to continue seeing patients, despite being accused of serious wrongdoing. Concluding that veterans may be “at increased risk of receiving unsafe care,” the report calls into question the management of the nearly 40,000 doctors and nurses that staff Department of…

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Media Oligarchs Find Friends at F.C.C., After Net Neutrality Order and Broadcast Ownership Study

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The Federal Communications Commission is leading the charge within the Trump administration to give a boost to media conglomerates. Republican appointees at the FCC are moving toward the complete reversal of Obama administration rules on Net Neutrality—regulations designed to preserve consumers’ access to information. Commission Chair Ajit Pai announced the plans on Tuesday, saying “the federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet.” The move looks set to allow micromanagement of cyberspace by multinational giants. In 2015, then-FCC Chair Tom Wheeler ruled that internet service providers…

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Tillerson Facing Internal Dissent at State Dept. Over Refusal to Enforce Child Soldiers Law

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The Secretary of State is in violation of US law, according to a “dissent” memo published by department employees first reported by Reuters. Officials at State accused Rex Tillerson of breaking the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA), which prohibits aid and military assistance to nations that conscript troops younger than 18 years old. In June, Tillerson removed Afghanistan, Iraq, and Myanmar from the list of offending nations, overruling recommendations from career diplomats who cited evidence that each country still employs child soldiers. A July 28 memo…

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Software Bugs Led to 1 Million Inaccurate Car Loan Records, Tech Company Admits in CFPB Agreement

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Records on roughly one percent of outstanding auto loans in the United States were plagued last year by inaccuracies caused by a software company’s negligence. Source code used by Conduent Business Services was buggy for years and the company knew it, according to details of a consent order released Monday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB said that Conduent data last year alone was off for “over one million of the more-than 6.4 million consumer accounts” that the company oversees. Bureau officials noted…

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U.S. Military No Longer Cool With Narcotics Labs in Afghanistan, Bombs Them

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The US Commander in Afghanistan announced several airstrikes on Sunday against opium production facilities, marking a shift in the Pentagon’s approach toward the booming illicit drug industry in the country. Army Gen. John Nicholson reported that roughly ten opium laboratories in the Northern Helmand province were destroyed in the barrage. The purported aim of the strikes was to cut off Taliban insurgents’ revenue streams. The Washington Post noted the assault was the “first significant use” of new authorities President Trump bestowed upon the Pentagon, giving military…

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Corporate Tax Cut Bill Clears House

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A massive overhaul of the US tax code that showers benefits on business owners and high income earners passed out of the House of Representatives on Thursday. The measure was approved mostly along party lines in a 227-205 vote, shortly after President Donald Trump arrived on Capitol Hill for a meeting with Republican lawmakers. Not a single Democrat supported the bill. Thirteen Republicans voted against it. During debate over the legislation, Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused her colleagues on the other side of…

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Bush DOJ Official Coke Dealer Past Unearthed While Senate Committee Cleans Skeletons from Its Closet

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A top law enforcement official under the George W. Bush administration was reportedly once involved in cocaine trafficking prior to government service, according to a frank public discussion today by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), a veteran member of the committee and its former chair, said that Republicans insisted that the unnamed Justice Department nominee be confirmed by the Senate—despite the prior disqualification of judicial nominees based solely on their cannabis usage. The remarks came amid a proposal by Sen. Dick Durbin…

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