Rep. Tom MacArthur resigned Tuesday as co-chairman of the caucus of GOP moderates known as the Tuesday Group in the wake of deep divisions among its members over the House Obamacare replacement bill he helped craft.

"You can’t lead people where they don’t want to go," MacArthur said in an interview with POLITICO New Jersey Tuesday morning. "I think some people in the group just have a different view of what governing is."

“Clearly, our group is divided. Many in the Tuesday Group are eager to live up to our ideal of being problem-solvers, while others seem unwilling to compromise,” MacArthur, 56, told the group, according to prepared remarks obtained by POLITICO New Jersey.

“More than half of the no votes for the AHCA came from Tuesday Group members, despite almost every one of our members voting numerous times to repeal the ACA,” MacArthur said, according to the prepared remarks he delivered to the group on Tuesday. "Arguably we have a Congressional majority because of this very issue."

CalvinBall wrote:A progressive Dem won a state assembly seat in NY in a district that Trump won with 60 percent of the vote.

Democrat Christine Pellegrino defeated Conservative Tom Gargiulo on Tuesday in the 9th Assembly District special election as the progressive and union-backed candidate pulled off an upset victory for the heavily Republican seat.

The state teachers union funneled $200,000 to a committee backing Pellegrino, 48, a Baldwin teacher from West Islip active in the anti-Common Core “opt out” movement. She served as a Democratic National Convention delegate for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

ALBANY — There was a time when this special election, to fill a vacant state Senate seat in Harlem, would have carried some greater significance.

The chamber was split, 31-31, between Democrats and Republicans, until this Harlem seat — the tiebreaker — was captured on Tuesday by a Democrat, Brian Benjamin, a 40-year-old affordable housing developer.

But because of a coalition between Republicans and a collection of rogue Democrats in Albany — including the eight members of the Independent Democratic Conference — Mr. Benjamin’s election will not put the Democrats in power; he will simply take his place in the minority alongside 22 other members of the Senate Democratic Conference.

That coalition has allowed the I.D.C. and its leader — Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester County — to reap the benefits of working with the Republicans, including larger staffs, bigger offices, and in many cases, richer stipends. Those stipends, known as “lulus,” are at the center of at least two investigations by the state attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, and the United States attorney in Brooklyn.

Articles in The New York Times in early May revealed that eight senators — including three members of the I.D.C. — had received tens of thousands of dollars for committee chairmanships that they did not hold, payments that were authorized by John J. Flanagan, the Republican leader in the Senate. Those payments were approved in documents sent to the state comptroller by Senate staff falsely listing the senators as chairmen, when each actually served as vice chairman, an amorphous position with little if any defined duties and no pay explicitly enumerated in state law.

CalvinBall wrote:

Youseff wrote:https://twitter.com/sethabramson/status/867172280350146561

seem legit to the lawyers?

Twitter threads are getting out of hand. Write a blog post or something.

The Trump administration, determined to overhaul and modernize the nation’s infrastructure, is drafting plans to privatize some public assets such as airports, bridges, highway rest stops and other facilities, according to top officials and advisers.

In his proposed budget released Tuesday, President Trump called for spending $200 billion over 10 years to “incentivize” private, state and local spending on infrastructure.

Trump advisers said that to entice state and local governments to sell some of their assets, the administration is considering paying them a bonus. The proceeds of the sales would then go to other infrastructure projects. Australia has pursued a similar policy, which it calls “asset recycling,” prompting the 99-year lease of a state-owned electrical grid to pay for improvements to the Sydney Metro, among other projects.

To speed up infrastructure projects, officials are preparing to overhaul the federal environmental review and permitting system, which they blame for costly delays. Trump asked advisers whether they could collapse that process, which he said takes at least 10 years, down to four months. “But we’ll be satisfied with a year,” Trump said. “It won’t be more than a year.”

LeFrak says that there is money lying around in government assets that can be privatized, and that people can get “socialized” to paying tolls.He said uncollected Internet sales taxes could go to states to help pay the infrastructure bill. He also thinks Washington should borrow large sums at today’s low interest rates.

He also noted that the federal gas tax hasn’t been raised in nearly a quarter-century, and that more than 20 states have raised or indexed their gas taxes since 2013. For federal officials, that presents “a test in political courage,” LeFrak said.

pacino wrote:

“If I can look you in the eye and say I’m going to take this money from you so I can help this injured vet, I can do that in good conscience,” he said. “I am a lot less comfortable to the point of not wanting to look you in the eye and say, ‘Look, I need to take this money from you to give to this person over here who really isn’t disabled but is getting a disabled benefit or this person over here who is supposed to use the money to go to school but isn’t actually going.”

The Crimson Cyclone wrote:https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-submarines-idUSKBN18K15Y?il=0

so not only did Trump congratulate Duterte on the great job he's done on drugs (he's murdering anyone suspicious of dealing or using drugs), he also told him that we have two nuclear submarines in the area near North Korea

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte threatened to behead human rights advocates who criticized the country’s record Friday and refused to investigate thousands of deaths attributed to his war on illegal drugs, one day after rejecting 250 million euros in aid because the European Union was “interfering” in domestic concerns.

“There are people dying everyday—let’s say a hundred a day. Who is killing them? I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out,” the President said in Filipino at the inauguration of a bridge in Tagum City.

Reiterating his vow to finish the drug war within three years, Duterte also threatened to behead human rights advocates who were criticizing his drug campaign.

“Do not believe these human rights activists. I’ll kill you along with drug addicts, I’ll decapitate you. You cannot taunt me with that. Try to place me behind bars,” he said.

Duterte said human rights activists had alleged that 7,000 people had died in his drug war since he came to power in the middle of last year, but warned of many more deaths in his quest to eradicate drugs in society.

“Make that 50,000. I will really finish them off. And even if I go to hell, I can rot in prison. I do not mind. I am old,” he said.

pacino wrote:this guy is the former head of the CIA and was on Trump's transition team until he left. President Obama tried to preach the mildest form of restraint and he's looked at by these hard power neocon fools as basically not wanting 'win' wars and anti-American, etc.

drsmooth wrote:

pacino wrote:this guy is the former head of the CIA and was on Trump's transition team until he left. President Obama tried to preach the mildest form of restraint and he's looked at by these hard power neocon fools as basically not wanting 'win' wars and anti-American, etc.

Woolsey is a major creep, but frankly so is Clapper. All these spooks give me the willies

pacino wrote:6 states hope to get federal waivers for #$!&@ forms of Medicaid

pacino wrote:get on the TRUMP TRAIN:

The Trump administration, determined to overhaul and modernize the nation’s infrastructure, is drafting plans to privatize some public assets such as airports, bridges, highway rest stops and other facilities, according to top officials and advisers.

In his proposed budget released Tuesday, President Trump called for spending $200 billion over 10 years to “incentivize” private, state and local spending on infrastructure.

Trump advisers said that to entice state and local governments to sell some of their assets, the administration is considering paying them a bonus. The proceeds of the sales would then go to other infrastructure projects. Australia has pursued a similar policy, which it calls “asset recycling,” prompting the 99-year lease of a state-owned electrical grid to pay for improvements to the Sydney Metro, among other projects.

To speed up infrastructure projects, officials are preparing to overhaul the federal environmental review and permitting system, which they blame for costly delays. Trump asked advisers whether they could collapse that process, which he said takes at least 10 years, down to four months. “But we’ll be satisfied with a year,” Trump said. “It won’t be more than a year.”

Faster. Faster! FASTER!!!!

LeFrak says that there is money lying around in government assets that can be privatized, and that people can get “socialized” to paying tolls.He said uncollected Internet sales taxes could go to states to help pay the infrastructure bill. He also thinks Washington should borrow large sums at today’s low interest rates.

He also noted that the federal gas tax hasn’t been raised in nearly a quarter-century, and that more than 20 states have raised or indexed their gas taxes since 2013. For federal officials, that presents “a test in political courage,” LeFrak said.

There are aspects of this I agree with (borrowing during a time of low interest rates, gas tax increase), but I don't really trust ideas from conmen. they talk a good game until you have to actually hammer out the contract details.

This is the party of corporate enrichment uber alles; the party whose idea of infrastructure investment is going to be giving private companies tax credits for infrastructure, plus the right to charge taxpayers for the use of the infrastructure -- effectively giving away public assets to private companies for their own enrichment (what could be referred to as the Putin Plan).

Mulveney on cutting CBP: I saw the 1st Sesame St. Bird Bird makes more $ than anyone in this room. A Grand Rapids family (doesn't want that)

Last year, Sesame Workshop had $121.6 million in revenues. Of that, $49.6 million came in distribution fees and royalties and $36.6 million in licensing of toys, games, clothing, food and such. In 2014, only 4% of its revenue came from government grants.

Still, defenders of taxpayer funding for public broadcasting say the amount of money involved — $445 million a year — is a flyspeck in a $4 trillion federal budget.