Spending bills, debt ceiling complicate Hill Republicans' efforts on taxes, ObamaCare

The GOP-controlled Congress returns Monday in what members and top staffers say will be one of the busiest Junes in years —  as Republicans try to pass ObamaCare reform or another top item on President Trump’s legislative agenda.
Their goal to give Trump -- and themselves -- a major win during the president’s first year in office continues to be complicated by additional legislative challenges and the ongoing Capitol Hill investigations into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential elections.
Lawmakers are way behind on the annual spending legislation to keep the government fully operational past September and likely will have to pass another stop-gap measure.
In addition, they recently were informed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that they will have to raise the federal government's borrowing limit before August, a daunting task ripe for brinkmanship.
Senate Republicans say they are working daily behind closed doors to craft an ObamaCare overhaul bill, following the House last month passing its version. However, Republicans appear less than optimistic about crafting a bill that at least 51 of its 52 senators will sign.
“I don't see a comprehensive health care plan this year," North Carolina GOP Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate's Intelligence committee, on Friday told a hometown TV station. "At the end of the day, this is too important to get wrong."
Still, Trump and essentially every elected Washington Republican campaigned on repealing and replacing ObamaCare. So failing in that effort would be a big problem with voters, ahead of the 2018 midterm races in which Democrats are trying to win about two dozen more House seats to retake the chamber.
"We just need to work harder," Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, told KFYO radio in Lubbock over the week-long congressional recess that ends Sunday.
And he pledged to complete the health care “by the end of July at the latest."
Congress has yet to unveil a plan to overhaul the U.S. tax code -- another Trump campaign promise -- even though the president recently tweeted that the plan is ahead of schedule.
"The president keeps saying the tax bill is moving through Congress. It doesn't exist," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said mockingly on Friday. 
Seven legislative weeks are left before Congress scatters for the five-week August recess.
Healthcare and taxes are enormously difficult challenges, and the tax legislation must follow -- for procedural reasons -- passage of a budget, no small task on its own.
Looming over everything is the investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign and connections with the Trump campaign.
Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump, is scheduled to testify before the Senate on Thursday.
"The Russia investigation takes a lot of oxygen, it takes a lot of attention," said Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a veteran lawmaker.
Trump has hired an outside attorney and reportedly dedicated an entire team to the issue -- in an apparent attempt to limit the amount of distraction the issue is creating for his legislative agenda.
Cole also argued that Republicans have not gotten the credit they deserve to date for what they have accomplished: voting to overturn a series of Obama regulations and reaching compromise last month on spending legislation for the remainder of the 2017 budget year that included a big increase for defense.
The biggest bright spot for the party and for Trump remains Senate confirmation in early April of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose elevation goes far to placate conservatives frustrated with inaction on other fronts.
Historically, Capitol Hill has been at its busiest and most productive in the early days of a new president's administration, during the traditional honeymoon. But with his approval ratings hovering around 40 percent, Trump never got that grace period, and although his core supporters show no signs of abandoning him, he is not providing the focused leadership usually essential to helping pass major legislation.
In the Senate, Republicans' slim 52-48 majority gives them little room for error on healthcare and taxes, issues where they are using complicated procedural rules to move ahead with simple majorities and no Democratic support. Trump's apparent disengagement from the legislative process was evident this past week when he demanded on Twitter that the Senate "should switch to 51 votes, immediately, and get Healthcare and TAX CUTS approved, fast and easy."
In fact that's exactly how Republicans already are moving. But the trouble is within their own ranks as Senate Republicans disagree over how quickly to unwind the Medicaid expansion under Obama's health law as well as other elements of the GOP bill.
For some Republicans, their sights are set on the more immediate and necessary tasks of completing the annual spending bills that are needed to avert a government shutdown when the budget year ends September 30, and on raising the debt ceiling to avert a first-ever default.

London terror: Saturday attacks a tipping point in campaign to destroy the West

There is no longer any doubt: the mayhem in London Saturday night has raised terrorism to a new threat level to the Western world.
The methods, and reported reference to Allah by one of the knife wielders points to Islamic perpetrators, though no official statements have been issued. Yet the van that plowed into pedestrians on the historic London Bridge, the knife attacks near Borough Market – carried out nearly simultaneously – reflect the same boldness and brazenness on the part of the twisted warriors of the Islamist campaign to destroy Western civilization and force us all to worship their version of God.
Coming only a few days before British voters go to the polls for a June 8 snap election, and just months after a similar vehicular attack on Westminster Bridge, the weekend violence is certain to have an effect on turnout and, quite possibly, the makeup of parliament and the next British government.
“My view is that we are no longer facing random acts of terrorism,” says Frank Gaffney, a terror expert who is president of the Washington-based Center for Security Policy. “We have reached a tipping point. This is now an insurgency.”
Gaffney, who has warned of the dangers of Islamic extremism for years, thinks this latest spate of attacks is the natural evolution of years of recruitment among British Muslims by terror cells like ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda.
“The Muslim terrorist population in Britain and Europe no longer feels constrained to live by stealth,” Gaffney says. “They have built an infrastructure, they have put it in place, and now they are moving up to the next level.”
Gaffney calls the new phenomenon “Sharia Supremacism.” And he warns that the United States is on the same trajectory.
He’s right.
For far too long, Western societies, including in the United States, have tried to rationalize what has now become an avalanche of violent hatred of democratic freedom, basic human rights, and freedom to choose if and how to worship. We have asked if some of this is our fault, if we haven’t listened to the voices of religious extremism, or if we have failed to understand their message. The result in Britain: government officials estimate there are more than 20,000 jihadists living among the population.
Here’s their message: We hate you and want to kill you.
Gaffney is among an emerging group of terrorism experts who now downplays the ideological differences between Shi’a and Sunni Muslim extremists. Yes, ISIS is peopled by Sunni killers and Hezbollah soldiers are Shi’a. The two Muslim sects dislike each other and have killed one another – always in Allah’s name, of course.
But here’s the thing, as Gaffney sees it: “Shi’as and Sunnis have had serious differences for centuries, but what we are seeing now is a global alliance, they are perfectly capable of making common cause to take down the West. And I think it will get worse before it gets better.”
For British voters, this week’s election may come down to one central issue: who will call these soldiers of Islam what they really are – savages – and keep us safe?

Trump uses suspected London terror attacks to again make case for US travel ban

President Trump responded Saturday evening to suspected terror attacks in London by vowing U.S. support and apparently using the incidents to bolster his legal argument for a travel ban into the United States.
Trump has tweeted three times since the first incident was reported on the London Bridge shortly after midnight local time.
“Fears of new terror attack after van 'mows down 20 people' on London Bridge …,” the president retweeted from the news aggregator DrudgeReport.com.
A second incident was reported in London shortly after the bridge incident -- multiple stabbings at the nearby Borough Market.
London police said about an hour after the attacks that they are terror related. They also said a third incident, in a southern part of the city named Vauxhall and thought to be connected to the other attacks, has been ruled out as a terror strike.
Trump later tweeted: “We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!”
Trump's executive order to impose a temporary travel on six mostly Muslim nations, training grounds for radical Islamic terror groups, is being held up in federal courts and appears headed to the Supreme Court.
His most recent tweet was: "Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there - WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!"
British Prime Minister Theresa May said the incidents are being treated as potential terror attacks.
The White House said Trump spoke with May and personally offered his condolences for "the brutal terror attacks."
Trump also praised the "heroic response of police and other first- responders," according to the White House.
The incidents come nine days after a suicide bomber with apparent ties to terror groups killed 22 people and injured scores of others outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.
Within minutes of the first incident, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that the president had been apprised.
The State Department said the United States "condemns the cowardly attacks targeting innocent civilians," which the agency understands are being treated by local authorities as terror incidents.
An agency spokeswoman also said the U.S. "stands ready to provide any assistance" and expressed support for the victims and their families.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement in which an official said the agency is "closely monitoring the ongoing situation."
The agency also said it so far has no information to indicate a "specific, credible terror threat in the United States."
Homeland Secretary John Kelly told Fox News said such a attack is "right around the corner" in the United States and that DHS and other domestic law enforcement agencies are working tirelessly to prevent another one here.
He repeated that the biggest threats remain explosives on airplanes and people in the U.S. being "radicalized" and committing attacks on American soil.
"I do toss and turn all night," Kelly also said.
DHS also urged Americans in the area to "heed direction from local authorities and maintain security awareness."
In addition, the agency is encouraging American citizens who need assistance to contact the U.S. Embassy in London and follow State Department guidance.

Liberal Bill Maher Cartoons

Bill Maher: HBO host slammed for use of the N-word

Liberal ?

Bill Maher, the HBO late-night host of “Real Time,” was criticized widely on social media after an interview with a Nebraska senator that aired Friday night where the host joked that he is a “house [expletive].”
Maher was having a back-and-forth with Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., and the senator invited the liberal talk-show host to visit his state.
“We’d love to have you work in the fields with us,” Sasse joked.
Maher responded, “Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house [expletive].”
Some in the audience groaned and a few clapped. Maher appeared to quickly reassure the audience and said, “No, it’s a joke.”
Sasse did not address the comment and the two moved on to another subject. Sasse faced some criticism on social media for not quickly condemning the host’s comments.
Deray Mckesson, an activist for Black Lives Matter, took to Twitter, saying, “But really, @BillMaher has got to go. There are no explanations that make this acceptable.”
The New York Times reported that the word was not cut out during HBO’s rebroadcast at midnight.
Maher was criticized last month for comments he made about President Trump and his daughter Ivanka.
Maher made his most recent controversial comments the same week Kathy Griffin faced fallout for a video showing her posing with a likeness of Trump’s severed head.
Griffin says the video was meant to be a pointed comeback to Trump's remark last summer that journalist Megyn Kelly had "blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of wherever."

Secretary Mattis Arrives in Singapore to Talk North Korea with Asian Leaders

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, right, meets U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for a bilateral meeting at the Istana or Presidential Palace in Singapore on Friday, June 2, 2017. On Friday Mattis indicated that the Trump administration is aiming for continuity in Asia policy, sticking broadly with the approach its predecessors have taken by emphasizing diplomacy and cooperation with allies. (AP Photo/Joseph Nair)

Defense Secretary James Mattis travels to Singapore as he hopes to convince Asian countries for greater cooperation in dealing with North Korea.
Mattis arrived early Friday ahead of his policy speech at an international security conference on Saturday.
Sources indicate he will stress the threats Pyongyang poses and reiterate the importance that Asia Pacific countries work together to counter its nuclear program.
Officials say he’ll also meet with several Asian counterparts during his visit in hopes of reinforcing international order, while also seeking a peaceful, prosperous and free Asia.

‘Convicted Terrorist Shows More Integrity Than de Blasio’

New York, NY – Claire Hardwick, OAN Political Correspondent
While Oscar Lopez Rivera has decided to not accept the national freedom hero award, Nicole Malliotakis said this terrorist has shown more integrity than the New York City Mayor.
In the final days of his presidency, President Obama suspended the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, the one time leader of the F.A.L.N. and a convicted terrorist.
The Puerto Rican Day Parade Committee chose to honor him with the National Freedom Hero Award, causing politicians, first responders, law enforcement, and sponsors to drop out of the parade
Nicole Malliotakis, a NYS Assemblywoman and GOP candidate for NYC Mayor, said this decision put the Puerto Rican People in a very tough position.
“I believe the majority of people from Puerto Rico believe that Oscar Lopez Rivera doesn’t represent them, and they are also very upset this is taking away from what is supposed to be a celebration about a beautiful island, its culture, its beautiful people, music food, all of the things Puerto Rico has contributed and the individuals we have celebrated,” Malliotakis said.
But despite all of this, Malliotakis said Mayor de Blasio still chose to march with him and give him this award.
And it was Rivera, a convicted terrorist, who had to decide to do the right thing for the Puerto Rican people.
“I think it is completely outrageous and shows how far city government has gone astray when we have both the speaker of the city council as well as the mayor who have spoken and said it is okay for an individual who was the leader of an organization that claimed responsibility for over 100 attacks in our nation, most of which occurred right here in nyc, to be the honoree is a sad situation,” Malliotakis said.
Malliotakis said the people of New York have not forgotten the F.A.L.N terrorist attacks, and they will will not forget de Blasio’s total lack of leadership on this decision.

President Trump Signs Bills for Officers and Vets

President Trump signs two bills including one that encourages law enforcement agencies to hire veterans.
The “American Law Enforcement Heroes Act of 2017” and the “Public Safety Officer Benefits Improvement Act of 2017” were both signed Friday at the White House after congressed passed them in May.
The heroes act authorizes the Justice Department’s community policing program to use funds to hire veterans.
The Benefits Act aims to reduce waiting times for the families of officers killed in the line of duty to receive survivor benefits.