Washington Budget Cartoon

Trump's daughter, Ivanka, gives birth to third child

WASHINGTON –   Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is a grandfather — again.
The billionaire businessman's daughter, Ivanka Trump, has given birth to her third child with husband Jared Kushner.
Ivanka Trump announced the birth of her son, Theodore James, on Twitter Sunday, saying that the family feels "incredibly blessed."
Donald Trump, who has frequently made mention of his daughter's pregnancy while campaigning for the Republican nomination, has not yet made any public statements on the birth of his eighth grandchild.
Ivanka is the second of three children Donald Trump had with ex-wife Ivana Trump.

After big promises, House GOP facing reality of not passing budget, and backlash

Few people in Washington think House Republicans this year will complete a budget.
That’s a little astonishing.
Republicans have batted around dozens of ideas. They’ve conducted closed door meetings. Entertained options. And still, House Republicans aren’t much closer to solving the budget riddle than they were when conversations began over the winter.
“The leadership has been on a listening tour for three months,” said Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va. “We have to go back to constituents and say we made up for the crap sandwich. Made up for the barn cleaning.”
What Brat refers to is a plan President Obama forged last fall with then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to “clean the barn” for the next speaker.
Both houses of Congress approved the package, and Obama signed it into law. Only 79 House GOPers voted in favor of the measure in late October -- including new House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
The deal established what’s called “discretionary” spending numbers for this fiscal year and fiscal 2017, which begins in October 1.
“We are being asked to validate a spending level that the vast majority of Republicans in the House and Senate opposed months ago,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “Let’s do a budget and spend less money. I think that’s what voters are demanding after what you’ve seen in the presidential contest. We make this stuff way too complicated.”
A brief dive into the complicated stuff:
All federal spending is allocated into two chunks. “Mandatory” spending is what the government has to spend on entitlement programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and interest on the debt.
Congress long ago passed laws that put these programs on automatic pilot. Mandatory spending consumes more than two-thirds of all federal dollars each year. That money just floats out the door without anyone raising a finger.
“Discretionary” spending is the rest. It’s discretionary because lawmakers have discretion over how much to spend and on what programs. Discretionary dollars account for the remaining third of all annual government spending.
In Boehner’s barn cleaning, the duo set discretionary spending for fiscal 2016 at $1.067 trillion. They raised it for fiscal 2017 to $1.070 trillion.
But here’s the issue: Congressional conservatives are pushing for $30 billion in reforms to mandatory spending programs. That could reduce the discretionary number to $1.047 trillion. That would make it challenging for the House to approve annual spending bills to fund the government after October 1.
Conservatives have pushed for deep cuts and reductions since Republicans claimed the House in 2010. They made minimal progress in the debt-ceiling agreement of 2011 that resulted in sequestration -- deep, required spending limitations on the discretionary side of the ledger.
But the mandatory spending side is much larger than the discretionary side. That’s why reforms to entitlements make more impact. And conservatives want proof that savings aren’t fiscal fairy dust.
“It needs to be real,” Jordan said.
What counts as “real?” A plan Obama would in fact sign into law.
“That would be pretty real,” Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said when asked about moving a measure that would earn the president’s signature.
“It’s got to be this year,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas. “Real cuts that actually get signed into law.”
Conservatives think the GOP-led House has never made good on promises lawmakers made to constituents to reduce overall federal spending. Hence, that’s why they want to show they’re making amends for Boehner’s barn cleaning.
That’s why Republicans can’t cobble together the votes to approve a budget. The Republican brass needs the help of at least some of the 40-plus members who comprise the House Freedom Caucus. But there will be no budget if party divisions remain this deep.
Harley-Davidson stopped manufacturing motorcycle sidecars five years ago. Most bartenders can mix a sidecar cocktail with cognac, Grand Mariner and lemon juice. It’s unclear if House Republican leaders are devotees of Easy Rider or experienced mixologists.
But if the House will produce a budget this year, the production of budgetary “sidecars” are key to the entire enterprise.
“That’s getting warm,” said Brat of the sidecar possibilities. “We’re willing to go there.”
One sidecar option is for the House to approve a budget for fiscal 2017 at the $1.070 trillion level, but include a separate package that mines $30 billion in cuts from mandatory programs.
There is also conversation about approving a budget at a lower spending threshold -- with an agreement that Obama would sign actual spending bills into law with higher dollar figures.
Conservatives feel burned before on broad agreements. It’s customary for policymakers to commit to spending cuts but postpone the hard stuff well into the future.
Conservatives want to get away from that kind of gimmickry.
“We could have $30 billion (in cuts) over ten years with most of the savings in the ninth and tenth years,” said Huelskamp with a smirk, knowing the way Washington usually does things.
Notably, Huelskamp wasn’t endorsing punting the savings until the out years.
The House Budget Committee last week approved a budget that balances the books in a decade and slashes spending by $6.5 trillion.
Included in that budget is a repeal of ObamaCare. But keep in mind that congressional budgets aren’t binding and not signed into law. They’re aspirational.
The panel passed the budget. However, Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., knew there were several GOPers who voted yes in committee who would vote no on the budget on the floor. Dave Brat and Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., voted no in committee.
There’s a problem with not doing a budget. Failing to agree to an overall topline for mandatory and discretionary spending makes it virtually impossible for lawmakers to begin approving annual appropriations bills that fund the government.
There is a parliamentary failsafe that Ryan could deploy to help initiate the appropriations bills. It’s possible the House could simply hook some language to another measure and “deem” that it passed a budget -- even if it really hasn’t.
In Congress, “deeming” a budget at least starts the appropriations process. But Ryan is ruling out such a tactic.
“No,” he said. “We need to do a budget.”
Regardless, the House Appropriations Committee prepared its first spending bill of the year a few days ago.
The committee sketched a plan to spend $81.6 billion on military construction projects and fund the Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill represents $1.2 billion less than what Obama requested but is $1.8 billion above what lawmakers spent last year.
Of course, if the House can’t OK a budget at all -- or even deem a budget -- it’s likely Congress is stuck and must approve a gigantic interim spending bill in September to avoid a government shutdown.
Only some Republicans would be likely to vote for it. The GOP leaders would probably again turn to Democrats to bail them out.
And this is precisely what got Boehner in trouble with House Republicans: leaning on Democrats all the time to do the tough stuff.
A stopgap spending bill means the military construction/VA measure gets less money -- as do all of the other appropriations bills in the big, catchall bill.
That’s because not doing a budget and relying on old spending figure kicks the total discretionary figure back to what the government is spending this year: $1.067 trillion -- a cut of $3 billion.
As former House Budget Committee chairman, Ryan is the high priest of budgets. He authored multiple fiscal blueprints that Republicans embraced. He chastised Democrats when they failed to produce budgets.
This is why Ryan and Republicans know why it’s so important to produce a budget and adopt it on the floor. This is all on them. But as speaker, Ryan can only attest to the virtues of budgeting. This fight is internal, Republicans on Republicans.
Last time, they blamed Boehner. But he isn’t here anymore.
“Once Obama leaves office, there is nobody left to blame,” Huelskamp said.

Cruz slams Obama's foreign policy after Brussels attacks, says 'enough is enough'

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday took aim at President Obama's foreign policy in the wake of the Brussels terror bombings, calling the president's policies a "manifest disaster" and saying the U.S. "needs a commander in chief who will lead."
Cruz has specifically targeted Obama’s plans to allows refugees from war-torn Syria into the United States and has argued that U.S. law enforcement should have more authority to “patrol and secure” Muslim neighborhoods before their residents become radicalized.
“Enough is enough,” Cruz told “Fox News Sunday.” “We need a commander in chief who will protect this nation. … This is a policy of weakness and appeasement.”
Cruz’s original comments were quickly criticized by Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, the New York City police department and others.
And NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton wrote an op-ed in the New York Daily News on Sunday in which he said the department already patrols and secures Muslim neighborhoods but doesn’t engage in “selective enforcement” based on race or religion.
“Nor will we use the police and an occupying force to intimidate a populace or a religion to appease the provocative chatter of politicians seeking to exploit fear,” he wrote.“We already patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods, the same way we patrol and secure other neighborhoods."
Authorities have linked one of the Brussels attackers to the deadly Paris bombings in November, with ISIS claiming responsibility for both strikes.
Cruz pointed out the terror group has vowed to try to slip its fighters into the Syrian refugee program, which could increase the risk of a terror attacks on U.S. soil.
Cruz also said Europe’s immigration policies, which have allowed millions of Muslim refugees to enter the region, have created a "hotbed of racialization."
“We cannot become Europe,” he said.
Cruz said that in calling for stepped-up policing in Muslim neighborhoods he meant addressing problems by using "every tool" including law enforcement, the military abroad and the country's national security and intelligence communities.
He also condemned GOP rival Donald Trump's attack on Cruz's wife, Heidi, and a tabloid story suggesting Cruz might have had extramarital affairs.
“Attacks on a spouse have no place in politics,” Cruz said.
He added that Trump’s recent suggestion that the U.S. withdraw from NATO would be a huge mistake and shows his “lack of understanding” of foreign policy. He claimed such a move would be a “massive victory” for both Russian President Vladimir Putin and ISIS.

Sanders sweeps in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, but too little too late?

Sen. Bernie Sanders won nearly three dozen delegates Saturday in sweeping the Alaska, Washington and Hawaii Democratic presidential caucuses, but the strong, comeback victories failed to cut substantially into front-runner Hillary Clinton’s big lead.
Sanders needs to win 67 percent of the remaining delegates and uncommitted super-delegates through June to clinch the Democratic nomination. And so far he's winning only 37 percent.
There were 162 delegates at stake Saturday -- Washington with 101, followed by Hawaii with 25 and Alaska with 16.
The Vermont senator won 55 delegates, compared to 20 for Clinton. However, more will likely be allocated to Sanders in several weeks, when the Washington state Democratic Party releases vote shares by district.
Still, Clinton still maintains a wide advantage in delegates, winning 1,243 to Sanders' 975 based on primary and caucuses to date.
Her lead is even bigger when including super-delegates, or party officials who can back any candidate they wish. Clinton has 1,712 to Sanders' 1,004, with 2,383 needed to win.

2016 Election Headquarters

The latest headlines on the 2016 elections from the biggest name in politics. See Latest Coverage →

Still, Sanders sounded optimistic Sunday about his chances.
“Our calculations are that in fact we can win the pledge delegates,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have the momentum. We have won five out of the six last contests in landslide fashion. … And the reason is the issues that we are talking about -- a corrupt campaign finance system, the disappearance of the American middle class, … kids graduating college $50,000 in debt.”
To be sure, Sanders had a good Saturday, which he hopes will give him some momentum as the primary-caucus season moves to the Midwest, Northeast, then to the West Coast, including California with 546 delegates at stake in June.
Sanders won Alaska 81-to-18 percent over Clinton; 68-32 in Hawaii and 73-26 in Washington, with all precincts having reported.
The self-described democratic socialist on Saturday night acknowledged his struggles in earlier contests across the South, with its strong conservative voting bloc, but struck an optimistic tone.
"We knew things were going to improve as we headed west," he said at a rally in Madison, Wis. "We are making significant inroads in ... Clinton's lead. ... We have a path toward victory."
The next Democratic and Republican primaries are April 5 in Wisconsin. Other big, upcoming primaries include Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York, Clinton’s home state.
Sanders is popular among younger and more progressive Americans but continues to struggle to connect with Hispanic and African-American voters.
He was expected to do well in Washington, considering residents of Seattle, the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest, are among the most liberal in the country and major campaign contributors.
He drew more than 10,000 supporters at an outdoor rally Friday evening in Seattle. And the state appeared to have a record voter turnout, similar to others that have helped keep alive Sanders’ insurgent campaign.
Most of Washington’s Democratic leadership endorsed Clinton, including Gov. Jay Inslee, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.
Still, Sanders entered Saturday’s contests optimistic after winning more delegate than Clinton in three contests earlier last week -- nearly 20 in the Idaho and Utah caucuses, despite losing the marquee Arizona primary to the former secretary of state.
Sanders has done significantly better in caucus contests, now winning 10 of the last 12.
Most of his 15 primary-season wins have been in states with largely white populations and in the caucus contests, which tend to attract the most active liberal Democrats.
While Sanders faces a steep climb to the nomination, Clinton’s recent losses highlight her persistent vulnerabilities, including concerns about her trustworthiness and weak support among younger voters.
Clinton has been looking past the primary contests and aiming at potential Republican challengers.
She did not hold a public event after the Saturday’s results were announced.
But in interviews, rallies and speeches last week, she largely focused on Tuesday's deadly attacks in Brussels, casting GOP front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz as unqualified to deal with complicated international threats.
Her campaign sees the April 19 contest in New York as an important one, not just because of the rich delegate prize but because losing to Sanders in a state she represented in the Senate would be a psychological blow.
She hopes to lock up an even larger share of delegates in five Northeastern contests a week later.

Easter Bunny Cartoon

After bleak week, Pope Francis offers Easter message of hope

Pope Francis was wrapping up a bleak week in Europe by presiding Saturday night over a solemn vigil service and ushering in Easter celebrations with a message of hope.
Francis entered the silent and darkened St. Peter's Basilica with just a single candle guiding him at the start of the Easter Vigil service. As he reached the altar, the basilica's flood lights turned on in a symbolic show of light after the darkness of Jesus' crucifixion.
During the lengthy service, which is due to end just before midnight, Francis is to baptize 12 adults hailing from around the world. A few hours hours later he'll preside over Easter Sunday Mass and offer his annual Easter blessing.
Francis is expected to offer a message of hope following his bleak condemnations on Good Friday and earlier of the attacks by Islamic extremists in Brussels and elsewhere.
During remarks Friday at the Colosseum capping the "Way of the Cross" procession re-enacting Jesus' crucifixion, Francis denounced the "terrorist acts committed by followers of some religions which profane the name of God and which use the holy name to justify their unprecedented violence."
While the pope was at the Colosseum, his chief alms-giver was out on the streets of Rome giving out sleeping bags to the homeless Friday night in a show of papal support for the city's least fortunate.

Even the Man Suing Trump For Age Discrimination is Voting for The Donald

Further proof that Donald Trump is unstoppable. Even Ed Bals, the 81-year-old man suing Trump’s company after he got canned at Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck says he’d vote for Trump.
“The only way I can explain it is I don’t think Mr. Trump knew what happened, because if he did, I wouldn’t have been relieved, he’s that type of person,” Ed Bals told USA Today. “I don’t have a grudge against him.”
Bals sued Trump in federal court in 2014. He was the manager of the upscale men’s locker room at the New Jersey club when he was fired (at the age of 77). Bals now works as a taxi driver. In the lawsuit, he claims each year before he was terminated, he was given a bonus for “exemplary work” and maintained an “excellent friendship with the golf course members.”
So why vote for Trump after all this?

“I’ve voted for all sorts of people, but I feel like the other politicians have all BS’d us and have us upset,” Bals told USA Today. “I’m a traditionalist, and saw WWII, and saw what the country stood for then.”

Bals said he ran into Trump a few times at the club, and admired him for bringing the golf course back from financial turmoil. In the lawsuit, Bals is seeking to get his job back, damages and attorney’s fees. As you’ve heard before, Trump says he doesn’t like to settle. But, maybe, just maybe, on this one. he’ll make an exception.