“We’re challenging him to join us”, said Schumer, who said he told Trump he would have to lean on Congressional Republicans who had stymied Democrats’ previous infrastructure proposals if he wants to make it happen. Republicans in Congress who have resisted this effort in the recent past should learn from us. The future of US infrastructure could be the first giant rift between the established GOP and President Trump, but it’s promising that Congress is trying to find common ground to address America’s crumbling infrastructure. Tom Cotton. When Schumer stated that Cotton hadn’t been around 8 years previously when Obama’s picks were confirmed, Cotton replied, “Eight years ago, I was getting my ass shot at in Afghanistan”.
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Not without the support of the Republican majority in the Senate, says Joshua Huder, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute in Washington.
Most of Trump’s nominees haven’t yet advanced out of Senate committees. McConnell could also use his position as Majority Leader to change the rules and eliminate the filibuster, like former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nev.) did in the past. Ben Sasse, a conservative Nebraska Republican who often opposed Trump during the campaign, said Schumer and Democrats could essentially hold the Senate hostage if they want. I suspect otherwise. His chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has made it clear that a massive infrastructure plan is a key, and perhaps the key, element in Trump’s plan to cement the loyalty of white working-class Democrats.
The Senate confirmed two Trump nominees on Inauguration Day: James Mattis to be secretary of defense (98-1) and John Kelly to be secretary of homeland security (88-11).
“For us to repeal sanctions, given what Russian Federation has done in Ukraine and threatened the Baltics, and now they have clearly tried to intervene in our election – whether it had an effect or not – that is something, that’s a danger that we have never faced to this extent in American history”, Schumer went on. That means they are willing not only to give Trump the political win he craves but also to tacitly cooperate with his obliteration of long-standing norms. Well, this is an extraordinary circumstance, and Democrats have to take a stand.
Trump’s choice to head the Office of Management and Budget, Rep. Mike Mulaney, R-South Carolina disclosed openly that he failed to pay more than $15,000 in taxes for his family’s nanny. Ultimately, Pallasch says, all of these will be necessary.
One of the problems with Trump’s plan is that the private sector has few incentives to directly invest in public works that don’t generate steady profits-this is the reason why the federal government and state governments heavily invest in infrastructure in the first place. Each of Trump’s executive-branch picks will require only 51 votes.
Some Republicans said they believed Democrats would learn quickly that staunch opposition wouldn’t be a fruitful strategy.
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Senator Ron Wyden of OR, the panel’s top Democrat, asked Price if he had used “bad judgment” by participating in a private placement at “below-market rates”.
