Wednesday, March 8, 2017
When approaching the self-proclaimed Master of the Deal, it’s best to offer him a chance to play dealmaker.
That’s what Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) took away from a Wednesday meeting with President Donald Trump. The subject: a bill championed by Welch and Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) that would allow the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for the Medicare program, which is currently forbidden by federal law.
“President Trump was knowledgeable and enthusiastic about this,” Welch reported. “He was not having staff whispering in his ear telling him what was going on. This was him totally in control and vividly aware of how expensive these prescription drugs are.”
The Oval Office sit-down included Welch, Cummings, and Dr. Redonda Miller, president of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, as well as Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, a former Georgia congressman.
Welch and Cummings have introduced the same legislation for eight years, and always run into what Welch called a “stone wall of resistance” from House Republicans.
When Price was serving in Congress, he was one of those devout stonewallers. He has also faced ethical questions about some very profitable trades in health care stocks he made when he had access to inside information as a member of a key House subcommittee.
It must have made Price a bit uncomfortable to hear his boss praising the idea. And Welch didn’t shy away from pointing out the discrepancy.
“I mentioned that Secretary Price had always been resistant to this when he was my colleague in the House,” Welch said, “so the president asked Price about that, and he said he’s against price fixing, price setting. And the president seemed undeterred by that, because I pointed out that price negotiation is what you do between a willing buyer and a willing seller.”
Welch called it “surprising” that Republicans oppose free-market dealmaking in the case of drug prices. “And the president said it’s probably because Big Pharma is very powerful in lobbying and campaign contributions,” Welch concluded. “So he gets that.”
Welch left the session optimistic, but with eyes wide open. “The proof will be, do we get a bill passed?” he said. “But bottom line, our only chance to succeed is to have his support.”
At the end of the meeting, Trump handed Welch’s and Cummings’ bill to Secretary Price with instructions to provide an official response. One hopes that Price didn’t find a convenient shredder on his way out of the Oval Office.
Tags: Peter Welch , Donald Trump , Elijah Cummings , Tom Price , Medicare , prescription drug prices , Redonda Miller , Image , Web Only
Friday, March 3, 2017
Trump has yet to unveil his budget blueprint — that is scheduled for March 16 — but he could cut $54 billion across federal agencies, including a quarter of the Environmental Protection Agency's funding and 20 percent of its staff.
Vermont's senior senator stood Friday with more than a dozen of the state's environmental leaders at the ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain on the Burlington waterfront and detailed just how devastating such cuts could be for the Green Mountain State.
"The Trump administration's plan for the EPA would eliminate funding for Lake Champlain," Leahy told the crowd.
Tags: Patrick Leahy , Lake Champlain , Donald Trump , Environmental Protection Agency , Image , Web Only
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday both called for Sessions to step down. Sen Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), however, stopped short of calling for Sessions’ departure. He said instead that it’s “crystal clear” Sessions must recuse himself from any investigation of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election.
The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that Sessions met at least twice with the Russian ambassador to the United States last year, despite saying otherwise in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing in January.
In a written statement, Sanders called it “deeply disturbing” that Sessions “falsely denied having met with the Russian ambassador,” and concluded that Sessions must resign and a special prosecutor be appointed to conduct an impartial investigation.
Tags: Senator , Jeff Sessions , Bernie Sanders , Peter Welch , Patrick Leahy , Ted Cruz , nothing burger , Peter Shumlin , Al Franken , Image , Web Only
Monday, February 27, 2017
“He was cordial to everyone,” Scott said of President Donald Trump, who hosted the nation’s governors at a state dinner.
Like the other governors and their spouses, Scott and his wife, Diana, were introduced to the president and first lady Melania Trump. She was making a rare White House appearance for the event.
“You had your picture taken and then you were shuffled off to another room,” Scott said Monday in a phone interview as he prepared to return to Vermont from a four-day National Governors Association meeting that included two White House events. “I never met him one-on-one.”
Tags: Phil Scott , Donald Trump , White House , National Governors Association , Image , Web Only
A number of Democratic congressmen are bringing immigrants and foreigners as their plus-ones to protest the president’s executive order on immigration.
Trump’s order — stayed by a federal judge — sought to bar refugees and residents of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iraq, from entering the U.S. Initially, the ban applied to Iraqi interpreters, who sometimes receive what are known as Special Immigrant Visas, but the Trump administration later amended the order to exclude that particular program.
Alsaeedi came to the U.S. with a Special Immigrant Visa.
Tags: Peter Welch , Donald Trump , Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program , Image , Web Only
Friday, February 17, 2017
The Associated Press reported earlier Friday that a draft proposal from the administration asked governors in 11 states — not including Vermont — to deploy Guard members for this purpose. The Trump administration declined to comment before the story's publication, but White House press secretary Sean Spicer later called the AP report "100 percent not true."
Asked during his weekly press conference how he'd respond if Vermont were added to the list of states, Scott responded with characteristic caution.
"I would seek advice from general counsel as well as the attorney general," he said.
In response to further questioning from reporters, the Republican governor said he would be "resistant" to the proposal. "Well, I don’t want us to become militant," he said, adding, "We need, actually, more citizens in Vermont."
Tags: Phil Scott , Donald Trump , Vermont National Guard , Image , Web Only
Former staffers of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign have founded a new group aiming to hold Democrats’ feet to the progressive fire.
WeWillReplaceYou.org wants U.S. senators to “do everything [they] can to Resist Trump.” Organizers see Democratic efforts as “not nearly … enough,” and they vow to raise up primary challengers for any who fail to meet their expectations. The group promises that it “won’t accept anything less than full opposition” to President Trump’s administration.
By its own definition of “full opposition,” there is not a single member of the Democratic caucus who comes close to meeting its criteria. Not one. Including Sanders himself.
The group is run by activists from environmental, racial-equality and immigrants’ rights organizations. Two belonged to the Sanders orbit: Claire Sandberg, former digital organizing director for his presidential campaign, and Kenneth Pennington, a former Sanders Senate and campaign staffer — and former digital director for Our Revolution, Sanders’ post-campaign advocacy organization. At least three other organizers are connected to 350.org, the climate-change activist movement founded by Vermont environmentalist Bill McKibben.
“Our message to Democrats is pretty straightforward: Fight Trump or we’ll find someone who will,” Sandberg told NBC News. “Our goal is not [to] primary every single Democratic member of Congress. It’s to push Democrats who are there to do better.”
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , WeWillReplaceYou.org , Patrick Leahy , Donald Trump , Claire Sandberg , Kenneth Pennington , Kirsten Gillibrand , Joe Manchin , FiveThirtyEight , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
They were contemplating what to do next when Solomon saw a report from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that left him aghast.
Fadwa Alaoui, a Moroccan-born Canadian citizen who is Muslim, her two children and an adult cousin were turned away at the border last week as they tried to go on a shopping trip to Burlington. Alaoui's parents live in Chicago, and she'd visited the U.S. on several occasions previously. But American border guards inspected her cellphone, quizzed her about Trump and her faith — and then wouldn't allow her in the country after waiting four hours to enter Highgate Springs, she told the CBC.
"He said, 'Do you practice? Which mosque do you go to?" she told the news outlet. "What is the name of the imam? How often do you go to the mosque? What kind of discussions do you hear in the mosque? Does the imam talk to you directly?'"
Tags: immigration , Canada , Leslie Holman , Fadwa Alaoui , Andy Solomon , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
"SmackDown," the pro wrestling show, aired Tuesday at 8 p.m. on the USA Network. Then, at 9 p.m. on CNN, came the main event: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a made-for-TV debate on the future of the Affordable Care Act.
CNN’s promotional material even looked like a fight poster. The two protagonists in grim closeup, their names in stark bold print: “SANDERS vs. CRUZ.” Mano a mano! You can’t miss it!
A pro wrestling match is a gymnastics routine in the guise of mortal combat. A good fight gives the impression of danger while preserving the safety of the combatants. And that’s pretty much what we got between the two senators on Tuesday: experienced, talented masters of their genre, showing off their moves and doing no real damage.
Sanders and Cruz performed well. They’d obviously spent serious time preparing for the encounter. They played their respective roles to the hilt. They hit their marks, made their points and rarely exceeded their time limits. There was the occasional heated exchange — usually, conveniently, just before a commercial break.
It all seemed so … scripted.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Ted Cruz , CNN , WWE Smackdown , Patrick Leahy , Our Revolution , Elizabeth Warren , Coretta Scott King , Betsy DeVos , Washington Post , Jeff Sessions , Image , Web Only
Friday, February 3, 2017
Miller was a holdover from former president Barack Obama's tenure and was likely to be replaced by President Donald Trump. The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Miller in 2015 after Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) recommended him for the position.
"Serving as Vermont's United States Attorney has been the highest honor of my career, and I am grateful for the trust placed in me by President Obama, Senator Leahy and the people of Vermont," Miller said in a statement.
Tags: Eric Miller , Sally Yates , Islam Hassan , Chris Louras , Donald Trump , Patrick Leahy , Image , Web Only