‘The Trump administration moved on Wednesday to drastically shrink a government agency tasked with identifying looming financial risks, notifying around 40 staff members they would be laid off, according to a person familiar with the changes.’
Spending outpaced revenue between the beginning of the fiscal year, on Oct. 1, and July by $682 billion, $116 billion more than over the same period in the last fiscal year.
The rising deficit is largely the result of the tax cuts President Trump signed into law at the end of last year, as well as a bipartisan agreement to boost spending, according to CBO.’
Note that these are Congressional and not coming from the President. Great news all around!
‘The State Department just announced that the U.S. has determined Russia violated the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act by poisoning former Russian spy & his daughter. Sanctions will go into effect later this month.’
‘The U.S. detained a Mexican woman at Houston airport, revoked her visa and banned her from entering the country for five years because she had legally used Medicaid in 2016 after she gave birth in Maryland while legally visiting her mother, a citizen.’
‘President Trump’s lawyers rejected the special counsel’s latest terms for an interview in the Russia investigation, countering on Wednesday with an offer that suggested a narrow path for answering questions, people familiar with the matter said.’
The W.H. seems to say Rand Paul asked Trump to give him a letter to give to Putin: “At Senator Paul’s request, President Trump provided a letter of introduction. In the letter, the President mentioned topics of interest that Senator Paul wanted to discuss with President Putin.”
‘Rand Paul, now officially the Senate’s Rohrabacher, delivers letter from Trump to Putin on his Moscow visit.
This is the second trip where Republican Senators have acted as go-betweens with Putin’
‘Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Collins of western New York state has been indicted on charges that he used inside information about a biotechnology company to make illicit stock trades.
The charges were announced and the indictment unsealed in New York City on Wednesday.
The indictment charges Collins, the congressman’s son and the father of the son’s fiance, with conspiracy, wire fraud and other counts.’
‘But hundreds of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with former administration officials tell a different story — of a previously unknown triumvirate that hovered over public servants without any transparency, accountability or oversight. The Mar-a-Lago Crowd spoke with VA officials daily, the documents show, reviewing all manner of policy and personnel decisions. They prodded the VA to start new programs, and officials travelled to Mar-a-Lago at taxpayer expense to hear their views. “Everyone has to go down and kiss the ring,” a former administration official said.’
‘White House national security adviser John Bolton on Tuesday said North Korea has not taken the necessary steps to denuclearize despite an agreement between Pyongyang’s leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump in June.’
‘Canada plans to seek help from the United Arab Emirates and Britain to defuse an escalating dispute with Saudi Arabia, sources said on Tuesday, but close ally the United States made clear it would not get involved.’
