Conservative Blogger
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Bill Clinton calls ObamaCare 'crazy system' while campaigning in Michigan
Former president Bill Clinton appeared to take a shot at President Obama's signature health care legislation during a campaign stop in Michigan on Monday, calling it a "crazy system" that "doesn't make any sense."
Clinton was in Flint, Michigan for a campaign event for his wife and was on the topic of government-run marketplaces under ObamaCare when he made the remarks, The Daily Caller reported.
"It doesn't make any sense. The insurance model doesn't work here," he said.
He added that ObamaCare "works fine" for people with "modest" incomes eligible for government subsidies but that "the people that are getting killed in this deal are small business people and individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies," the Daily Caller reported.
“You’ve got this crazy system where all of a sudden 25 million more people have health care and then the people are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half,” Clinton said. “It’s the craziest thing in the world.”
Clinton's comments on ObamaCare were immediately seized upon by the Republican National Committee, who put out video clips of his speech.
FBI agreed to destroy laptops of Clinton aides with immunity deal, lawmaker says
 |
| FBI destroyed laptops of Clinton aides after reviewing |
Sources said the arrangement with former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills and ex-campaign staffer Heather Samuelson also limited the search to no later than Jan. 31, 2015. This meant investigators could not review documents for the period after the email server became public -- in turn preventing the bureau from discovering if there was any evidence of obstruction of justice, sources said.
The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee fired off a letter Monday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking why the DOJ and FBI agreed to the restrictive terms, including that the FBI would destroy the laptops after finishing the search.
“Like many things about this case, these new materials raise more questions than answers,” Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News.
“Doesn’t the willingness of Ms. Mills and Ms. Samuelson to have their laptops destroyed by the FBI contradict their claim that the laptops could have been withheld because they contained non-relevant, privileged information? If so, doesn’t that undermine the claim that the side agreements were necessary?” Goodlatte asks.
The immunity deals for Mills and Samuelson, made as part of the FBI’s probe into Clinton’s use of a private email server when she served as secretary of state, apparently included a series of “side agreements” that were negotiated by Samuelson and Mills’ attorney Beth Wilkinson.
The side deals were agreed to on June 10, less than a month before FBI Director James Comey announced that the agency would recommend no charges be brought against Clinton or her staff.
Judiciary Committee aides told FoxNews.com that the destruction of the laptops is particularly troubling as it means that the computers could not be used as evidence in future legal proceedings, should new information or circumstances arise.
Committee aides also asked why the FBI and DOJ would enter into a voluntary negotiation to begin with, when the laptops could be obtained condition-free via a subpoena.
The letter also asked why the DOJ agreed to limit their search of the laptops to files before Jan. 31, 2015, which would “give up any opportunity to find evidence related to the destruction of evidence or obstruction of justice related to Secretary Clinton’s unauthorized use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State.”
Aides expressed shock at the parameter, saying it is especially troubling as Mills and Samuelson already had immunity from the consequences of whatever might be on the laptop.
“You’re essentially extending immunity to everyone,” one aide said.
The letter to Lynch sought to determine how many documents were blocked from FBI investigators because they fell outside of the date range agreed to by the DOJ.
Clinton-backed branch of foundation donor GM now caught in major scandal
Hillary Clinton had glowing words for the General Motors plant in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, when she traveled there in 2011 as secretary of state to announce the joint venture -- of GM and an Uzbekistan state-owned firm -- as a finalist for a State Department award.
“It is a collaboration between Uzbek and American companies, and it will serve as a symbol of our friendship and cooperation,” Clinton said, touting the plant’s “newest, most advanced technology.”
The visit came a year after the General Motors Foundation had contributed $684,455 in vehicles to the Clinton Foundation.
Fast-forward several years, and GM-Uzbekistan is now embroiled in a massive scandal, reportedly facing charges of fraud, money laundering, and embezzlement, a legal case that has reached high-ranking government officials in the country.
Clinton isn’t tied to any of the allegations. But it’s another example of how Clinton Foundation donations and subsequent State Department actions have put the Democratic presidential nominee in an awkward position. The 2011 praise wasn’t a one-off, either. Clinton’s State Department again made GM Uzbekistan a finalist for the Award for Corporate Excellence in 2012.
Peter Flaherty, president of the watchdog National Legal and Policy Center, said the GM branch’s recent turmoil casts doubt on Clinton’s judgment.
See the Fox News 2016 battleground prediction map and make your own election projections. See Predictions Map →
Earlier this year, authorities detained GM Uzbekistan General Director Tohirjon Jalilov. Uzbek prosecutors also have reportedly been investigating the GM venture’s business partners and officials with Uzbekistan’s National Security Service. Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Ulughbek Rozikulov was reportedly questioned in the matter.
Asked for comment, Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin noted the U.S. government had honored GM well before Clinton served as secretary of state -- referencing that in 2006, GM’s joint venture in Colombia actually won the award. It was merely a finalist under Clinton.
“While GM did receive the Secretary of State’s 2006 Award for Corporate Excellence from the Bush administration, it did not receive the award while Secretary Clinton was in office,” Schwerin told FoxNews.com. “Further, it appears that the legal issues you refer to began several years after Clinton left office. The fact remains that Hillary Clinton never took action as secretary of state because of donations to the Clinton Foundation.”
GM owns 25 percent of the company established in 2008, while UzAvtosanoat, an Uzbek firm, controls 75 percent.
“We are aware that one of the suspects arrested was an Uzbek national who worked at the joint venture company and also UzAvto, and he has been dismissed by the joint venture,” GM spokesman Patrick Morrissey told FoxNews.com. “We can’t comment on any other law enforcement actions.”
Morrissey also said that U.S. auto bailout money GM received “was not directed toward its international operation.” He said no U.S. government financial support of any kind was provided to GM Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov -- whose 27-reign earned him the reputation of a ruthless tyrant -- reportedly uncovered the alleged misconduct this spring regarding an elaborate export-import scheme for vehicles that were supposed to be sold in Russia but were instead allegedly shipped back to Uzbekistan and sold at higher prices to maximize profits for executives. Karimov, who died in September, is most remembered for having his troops kill 700 unarmed protestors in 2005, and running a centralized economy.
The global watchdog group Transparency International ranked Uzbekistan 153 on its corruption index, with a transparency score of just 19.
So, there are reasons to doubt the legitimacy of the prosecution, said Flaherty.
“Everything in Uzbekistan is political, so I wouldn’t put a lot of faith in the criminal justice system,” Flaherty said. “But it seems like the Clintons still are not very discerning about who they associate with.”
General Motors Corporation has contributed between $50,000 and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation. Also, in February 2010, the General Motors Foundation announced a donation of 30 pickup trucks to the Clinton Foundation, which GM’s Morrissey said were valued at $684,455, to be used in relief efforts in Haiti. Hillary Clinton delivered the remarks at the GM Uzbekistan plant the following year, and the company was a finalist for the State Department honor in back-to-back years.
In a statement to FoxNews.com, the Clinton Foundation noted most of the other GM donations to the foundation went for the Clinton Global Initiative.
“GM was a member of the Clinton Global Initiative for several years, and their financial contributions to the Foundation are totally comprised of CGI membership fees,” the statement said. “In this time, they partnered on a wide range of commitments, from initiatives to expand clean energy in their automobile lines, to a training program for NGO leaders, to an effort to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention in China.”
Trump dismisses media focus on his taxes, says he used fed law ‘brilliantly’
Donald Trump dismissed a published copy of an IRS filing that showed he used the U.S. tax code to take a nearly $1 billion operating loss in 1995, saying Monday the news media is “obsessed” with a decades’ old return and that he, in fact, “brilliantly used the law” to salvage his real estate empire.
Trump made his comments two days after The New York Times published a story about the nearly $1 billion loss that also stated that as a result, he might not have had to pay federal taxes for 18 years.
“From the depths of that terrible real estate depression, I created a company worth billions and billions of dollars and created tens of thousands of jobs,” Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said at a campaign stop in battleground state Colorado. “Everybody said I was done. I knew how to use the tax code while others didn’t.”
Trump's reported loss was purportedly the result of his Atlantic City hotels suffering amid the resort’s declining casino-gambling industry, a failed airline venture and the purchase of the Plaza Hotel on Central Park in Manhattan.
The campaign for Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival, almost immediately pounced on The Times’ story, calling it a “bombshell,” in a tight race, with Election Day about five weeks away.
Hours before Trump spoke Monday, Clinton said at a rally in Toledo, Ohio, that Trump had used tax loopholes to “take from America with both hands and leave the rest of us with the bill.”
See the Fox News 2016 battleground prediction map and make your own election projections. See Predictions Map →
Trump avoided the controversy at a Monday morning rally in northern Virginia. However, in Colorado he referred to the documents as “alleged” tax filings.
Still, neither Trump nor his campaign has said whether a lawsuit against the paper, which has endorsed Clinton, will be filed.
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on Monday morning urged Trump to sue the newspaper “into oblivion.”
Lewandowski, now a CNN political analyst, questioned The Times’ legal standing on the story, arguing its being published was not a matter of national security.
“That’s a fact,” he said. “And The New York Times should be held accountable. If it comes out that these aren’t accurate, where’s the recourse?”
On Sunday, Trump surrogates New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani defended Trump’s 1995 returns as legal and said they showed his business “genius.”
“What kind of genius loses a billion dollars in a single year?” Clinton asked the crowd in Toledo.
Trump is not alone in having potentially used the tax system to reduce his tax burden.
Though Trump's "operating loss" was on a substantially larger scale, Clinton reported a roughly $700,000 long-term capital loss in 2015, according to copies of her IRS returns released in August.
The tax return controversy follows last week's opening debate, after which Clinton has opened up a small polling lead, according to the latest Fox News survey.
While Trump’s reported loss is legal, the revelation that he might have used the U.S. tax code to not pay taxes for nearly two decades has renewed calls for him to releases his returns, as Clinton has done.
Clinton on Monday also called for a law that would require future nominees to releases their taxes as a requirement for a White House run.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
NEW YORK (AP) — As New York City faced one of its darkest days with the death toll from the coronavirus surging past 4,000 — more th...
-
Tit for Tat ? ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A statue of abolitionist Frederick Douglass was ripped from its base in Rochester on the an...
-
What's the role of government? To one award-winning academic, it's discrimination according to race. On February 9th, Mic...
