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Posts tagged ‘Barack Obama’

The House Has Passed More Bills In 10 Months Of Trump Than Obama, Bush or Clinton


Reported By Jack Davis | November 14, 2017 at 8:10am

URL of the original posting site: https://www.westernjournalism.com/house-passed-bills-10-months-trump-obama-bush-clinton/?

Productivity came to Washington along with President Donald Trump, according to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. In a Monday Facebook post, McCarthy noted that in Trump’s first few months in office, more bills have passed the House than under any of the previous four presidents.

“Over 400 bills have passed the House during Donald J. Trump’s first 10 months. That’s more than under Obama, Bush, or Clinton,” he posted.

McCarthy displayed a graph that showed the average numbers of bills passed in the first 10 months of a presidency going back to President George H.W. Bush was 306. Under the Trump administration, the House has passed 407, 33 percent above the average.

According to McCarthy, the number of bills passed in the first 10 months under past administrations were:

President Barack Obama, 353;

President George W. Bush, 215;

President Bill Clinton, 263; and

President George H.W. Bush, 292.

Earlier this fall, McCarthy said the House needs help from the Senate to translate their achievements into achievements for the American people.

“Think what we’ve been able to achieve, the number of bills,” he said in September, according to Newsmax. “More so than any modern Congress you had in the first year of a new presidency: 16 human trafficking bills, 16 congressional review acts, 14 signed into law. In the history of America, only one other Congress has ever done one of those.”

“The last time a Republican majority did that, the iPhone wasn’t invented,” he said. “We need a little help on the other chamber.”

While McCarthy appeared pleased by the output of the current administration, his excitement grew when referencing the GOP tax plan.

The bill is expected to pass the House this week.

“It brings the lowest rate for small business, the lowest it has been in 80 years,” said McCarthy, who believes the bill will help all Americans. “That is what creates new jobs. That is what we have to continue to work on.”

McCarthy criticized Democrat opposition to the bill, citing America’s grew sluggish under the Obama administration.

“You know the last eight years under Barack Obama, if you take his very best growth year, that is actually lower than the worst year under Bill Clinton. We have got to get America moving again.”

“Get America moving again” seems to be the theme, as Trump wraps up his tour of Asia, and returns to the U.S.

He is expected to meet with House Republicans on Thursday in an effort to ensure passage of the legislation, which is one of Trump’s top priorities.

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Obama’s HUD Misplaced $500 Billion — Enron Was Only $63 Billion


Reported By Ben Marquis | October 23, 2017 at 3:56pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/obamas-hud-misplaced-500-billion/?

Some of our readers may recall the massive scandal in 2001 surrounding the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an energy company based in Texas. Investors lost an estimated $63 billion when investigators discovered that Enron officials and auditors at the Arthur Anderson accounting firm had knowingly and unethically used loopholes in the law and various accounting tricks to hide billions that had been lost in bad deals and debt from shareholders.

Several people ultimately went to jail, and the liberal media used the scandal to excoriate capitalism in general and energy companies in particular.

Fast forward to March 2017 and the release of an astonishing report from the Office of Inspector General regarding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and hardly a peep has been heard from the media.

That report revealed that an audit of HUD‘s 2015 and 2016 consolidated financial statements were riddled with so many “pervasive material errors” as to be unacceptable, errors which totaled nearly $520 billion, among other grievous failures on the part of the department.

All told, the OIG reported, “This audit report contains 11 material weaknesses, 7 significant deficiencies, and 5 instances of noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations.”

The report noted that an initial audit of HUD’s 2015 and 2016 numbers were so error-ridden that they needed to be sent back and re-released as “restated consolidated reports,” but even those were filled with “material errors” of enormous magnitude.

A big part of the problem was what was described as “weak internal controls” over the complex financial reporting system, which was reportedly in the process of transitioning from a standard ledger format to new “undefined and untested processes” that increased the workload on the financial reporting division and caused them to outsource some of their work to others with even less familiarity or training to handle the processes.

Altogether, the errors in the initial reports amounted to $278.5 billion in misstatements in financial notes, a half billion dollar error in the statement on budgetary resources, and $19.5 billion in discrepancies of line items of the report that differed from what was submitted for audit.

The corrected and restated consolidated financial reports made over $516 billion in corrections to the notes and another $3.4 billion to the financial statement, but even though the Inspector General appreciated HUD’s corrections, the scathing report still called for substantial change to the department’s internal accounting practices.

As previously noted, the media has largely yawned at this incredible story of HUD’s gross malfeasance with taxpayer money, focused as they are on President Donald Trump’s latest tweet or the never-ending search for elusive evidence of alleged collusion with Russia to win the 2016 election.

Alas, such malfeasance occurred under the watch of the administration of former President Barack Obama, so the media will continue to ignore it. Bet they’d be lined up to issue breathless reports for months if this had been discovered as happening under Trump’s administration.

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GREAT NEWS: DOJ Lifts Gag Order, Frees Informant to Speak to Congress on Russia Bribery Case With Ties to Clintons


Reported By Andrew Kerr | October 26, 2017 at 8:45am

URL of the original posting site: https://www.westernjournalism.com/doj-lifts-gag-order-frees-informant-to-speak-to-congress-on-russia-bribery-case-with-ties-to-clintons/?

The Justice Department lifted a gag order Wednesday that will allow a former FBI informant to speak with Congress about information he uncovered involving a Russian bribery scheme linked to a controversial uranium deal in 2010.

The move comes as Congress renews its focus on the Obama administration’s approval of Russian-owned energy company Rosatom’s purchase of Uranium One, a company based in Canada that controlled 20 percent of U.S. uranium.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led the State Department when it approved the deal back in 2010. Eight other U.S. government agencies also approved the deal.

Three congressional committees launched investigations into the deal last week after The Hill reported that the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that the Russian nuclear industry officials involved in the deal were involved in a racketeering scheme as early as 2009.

However, the Department of Justice waited until 2014 to bring any charges on the evidence first gathered in 2009 and 2010.

The CEO of Tenex, a subsidiary of Rosatom, pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2015.

Congressional Republicans now seek to discover who knew what, and when. Republicans have also expressed concerns about Clinton’s connection to the interested parties in the nuclear deal. The Clinton Foundation reportedly received millions of dollars in contributions from interested parties in the transaction, and former President Bill Clinton received $500,000 for a speech in Russia around the time of the deal.

The FBI informant, who hasn’t been identified by name, went undercover for five years to obtain intelligence on Russia’s efforts to acquire a share of the U.S. uranium market.

Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said the DOJ would cooperate with the three open congressional investigations.

“As of tonight, the Department of Justice has authorized the information to disclose to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as one member of each of their staffs, any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market,” Prior said in a statement Wednesday, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores confirmed to The Hill that the undercover FBI informant is cleared to disclose to Congress “any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market, including but not limited to anything related to Vadim Mikerin, Rosatom, Tenex, Uranium One, or the Clinton Foundation.”

The informant’s lawyer, Victoria Toensing, told The Hill her client has information relating to “the Russian nuclear bribery case and the efforts he witnessed by Moscow to gain influence with the Clintons in hopes of winning favorable uranium decisions from the Obama administration.”

“He is now able and willing to talk with the congressional committees seeking his testimony, though I will be working with all parties to ensure his identity remains confidential to ensure his safety,” she added.

But some high-ranking Democrats have called foul on the Republican’s renewed focus on the 2010 uranium deal.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday the investigations are a “partisan effort to distract” from the real issue at hand — special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s alleged collusions with the Russians during the 2016 election.

Trump told reporters Wednesday he believes the uranium investigation will quickly swell to Watergate proportions.

“The uranium sale to Russia and the way it was done was so underhanded. With tremendous amounts of money being passed, I actually think that’s Watergate: modern age,” Trump said, as reported by the New York Post.

DOJ Lifts Gag Order on Uranium One Informant, Hillary and Obama Feeling the Heat

Reported By Kim Smith | October 26, 2017 at 9:40am

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/doj-gag-order-informant-hillary/?

The Justice Department announced Wednesday night that it had lifted a gag order on a former FBI informant who could provide testimony to Congress about an inquiry linked to a 2010 Obama-era deal that transferred ownership of a uranium mining firm to a Russian-owned company.

Fox News reported the department said it authorized the informant to speak to the Senate Judiciary Committee, House Oversight Committee, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as select staffers.

The Justice Department said the informant could provide “any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market,” including Russian company Rosatom, its subsidiary Tenex, Uranium One and the Clinton Foundation.

The FBI said in court documents and in interviews that they had gathered enough evidence to prove that Rosatom-connected officials were engaged in a bribery scheme that included kickbacks and money laundering in 2010, Circa reported.

Despite that little tidbit, the U.S. government approved the sale. Not surprising considering who was in office. Now we have a chance to know what really went down.

The informant’s attorney, Victoria Toensing, told Fox Business Network Monday that her client could “tell what all the Russians were talking about during the time that all these bribery payments were made.”

Toensing said her client, an American businessman who reportedly worked as an undercover FBI confidential witness, was prevented from testifying by former attorneys general Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch after having signed a non-disclosure agreement, according to Fox News.

Circa reported that Toensing also said the informant has pertinent information regarding Russia’s attempts to gain access to former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to influence the Obama administration’s decision on the purchase of Uranium One.

After the sale of Uranium One to Rosatom was completed, millions of dollars flowed to the Clinton Foundation from Russian officials, as reported by The Hill.

This FBI informant can also testify about comments made by FBI agents that suggested “political pressure was exerted during the Justice Department probe of the Russia corruption case and that there was specific evidence that could have scuttled approval of the Uranium One deal if it became public,” according to The Hill.

There is little doubt that if Clinton had won the presidency, this gag order would still be enforced.

Thus, the truth about who really colluded with the Russians would likely never be known. Hopefully, the informant’s testimony will shed some light on what happened during these deals and the truth behind them can come out. You can bet this news has former President Barack Obama and Clinton sweating bullets.

You can also bet the mainstream media will take its sweet time covering this news because it doesn’t fit their Trump-hating agenda.

H/T American Military News

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Here’s What Obama Demanded of Otto’s Family Months Before He Died


Reported By Cillian Zeal | on September 27, 2017 at 9:24am

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/heres-what-obama-demanded/?

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In an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday, the parents of Otto Warmbier — the American college student imprisoned in North Korea who died shortly after being released from North Korean custody — revealed that the Obama administration had told them they should keep quiet during their son’s captivity.

Warmbier, an American student who was detained during a visit to Pyongyang, died in June after being brought back to the United States. In the interview, Otto’s father Fred Warmbier credited the Trump administration with helping bring their son home by “aggressively” pursuing the young man’s release.

Warmbier was initially taken into custody back in January of 2016 for allegedly stealing a North Korean propaganda poster.

“When Otto was first taken, we were advised by the past administration to take a low profile while they worked to obtain his release,” Warmbier told “Fox & Friends” Tuesday.

“We did so without result. Earlier this year, Cindy and I decided the time for strategic patience was over,” he continued, referencing the former president’s policy of “strategic patience” with Pyongyang.

“We made a few media appearances and traveled to Washington to meet with (Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Korea and Japan) Ambassador Joe Yun at the State Department.

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“It is my understanding that Ambassador Yun and his team, at the direction of the president, aggressively pursued resolution of the situation,” Fred Warmbier added. “They have our thanks for bringing him home.”

His parents also said that Warmbier wasn’t in a coma when he returned to the United States, but that he’d still been brutally tortured by Kim Jong Un’s regime.

“We walked over to the plane, the engines are still humming, they had just landed … when we got halfway up the steps we heard this howling, involuntary, inhuman sound,” Fred said. “We weren’t really certain what it was.”

Sadly, it was their son, who was jerking violently on a stretcher.

“Otto had a shaved head, he had a feeding tube coming out of his nose, he was staring blankly into space, jerking violently,” Fred Warmbier said. “He was blind. He was deaf. As we looked at him and tried to comfort him it looked like someone had taken a pair of pliers and rearranged his bottom teeth.”

https://video.foxnews.com/v/video-embed.html?video_id=5588887953001&loc=conservativetribune.com&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fconservativetribune.com%2Fheres-what-obama-demanded%2F&_xcf=Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>Just days later, Otto Warmbier was dead.

“North Korea is not a victim, they are terrorists,” Fred Warmbier said. “They purposefully and intentionally injured Otto.”

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what “strategic patience” hath wrought. Otto Warmbier is dead, North Korea is emboldened, and there are even more Americans in North Korean custody.

For everyone on the left criticizing Donald Trump for his aggressive stance on North Korea, they ought to remember where the alternative has gotten us — and where an Obama-imposed silence got the Warmbiers.

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Rush Limbaugh Read Trump Wiretap Story, Made Grave Discovery


Reported By Davis | on September 21, 2017 at 10:19am

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/rush-limbaugh-trump-wiretap/?

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On Monday evening, the political world was blown wide open when a bombshell report emerged revealing former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort had been wiretapped — and, even worse, that his conversations with President Donald Trump may have been recorded as a result.

Of course the liberal media has been quite slow to admit that the revelation proves Trump’s infamous allegations in March that he had been wire tapped at New York City’s Trump Tower weren’t quite as insane and unfounded as they claimed.

Speaking on his show Tuesday, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh explained that he believed this revelation is actually “worse than Watergate,” according to a transcript from RushLimbaugh.com

“This is much worse than Watergate, folks. That was a third-rate burglary that went awry,” Limbaugh said. “Trump was called a liar. He was mocked for tweeting about Trump Tower being wiretapped.”

Limbaugh went on to explain that it appears that former President Barack Obama and former FBI Director James Comey spied on a rival political campaign — possibly in an attempt to sway the election.

“Now we know, ladies and gentlemen, that Obama and James Comey’s FBI wiretapped the head of a political campaign,” Limbaugh said. “This is bigger than Watergate. The phone lines and other aspects of life that were wiretapped and surveilled were that of Paul Manafort, the first campaign manager for Donald Trump.”

We should point out that right now there is no proof that Obama ordered the wiretaps, or that this was done to sway an election. The wiretaps on Manafort preceded his work with the Trump campaign, and actually weren’t in place for much of his time as manager. But that doesn’t change the accuracy of Limbaugh’s essential point.

“What the government’s doing is bigger than Watergate. Nixon never did any of this. He may have dreamed about it, and he may have gotten drunk and talked to people, but he never did this. Nixon never actually used the IRS to penalize enemies, but Obama did. Ever heard of Lois Lerner?” Limbaugh asked.

This wiretapping revelation raises serious questions that need to be answered. Multiple high-level Obama officials, like former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, insisted before Congress that there was no wiretapping (or claimed they weren’t aware of any).

Clearly, that wasn’t the truth.

This is one of the biggest political bombshells to drop in a long time. If Obama was spying on Manafort for political reasons, the ramifications could be extreme. The American people need answers, and they need them now.

H/T PJ Media

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Gay Couple Lawyers Up Against Christian Baker, Then Trump Steps in


Reported By V Saxena | on September 12, 2017 at 8:10am

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/gay-couple-lawyers-up/?

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A Christian baker from Colorado received an unexpected blessing from the administration of President Donald Trump last week when the Justice Department filed a brief on his behalf to the Supreme Court, which is slated to hear his religious liberty case upon returning to the bench next month.

For Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, the trouble started five years ago when he politely refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple. Although he only meant to protect his religious beliefs, he wound up triggering a chain reaction of undeserved backlash.

It included death threats from angry activists, character assassinations from the liberal media, a judgment of illegal discrimination from a Colorado civil rights commission and an affirmation of the commission’s ruling by a lower court.

The tide finally began to turn in Phillips’ favor in late June when the Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal and decide whether he actually discriminated against the gay couple when he refused to bake their cake over his religious objections.

And just on Thursday, he won yet another “huge” victory when Trump’s DOJ filed an amicus brief defending his decision five years earlier to not bake the gay couple’s wedding cake. In the brief, acting Solicitor General Jeffrey B. Wall specifically argued that allowing the lower court’s ruling against Phillips to stand would create a violation of the First Amendment “where public accommodations law compels someone to create expression for a particular person or entity and to participate, literally or figuratively, in a ceremony or other expressive event.”

“When Phillips designs and creates a custom wedding cake for a specific couple and a specific wedding, he plays an active role in enabling that ritual, and he associates himself with the celebratory message conveyed,” he added. “Forcing Phillips to create expression for and participate in a ceremony that violates his sincerely held religious beliefs invades his First Amendment rights.”

This is good. Very good, in fact.

And according to The Washington Times, the DOJ’s surprising decision to file a brief in Phillips’ case “raises the possibility that the government will also ask for time to argue in front of the justices when the case goes for oral argument.”

That would be even better.

During the administration of former President Barack Hussein Obama, a man who loved sitting idly by as Christians were persecuted, the DOJ said nothing about Phillips, instead choosing to allow him to suffer the indignity of being persecuted for his Christian beliefs. But with Trump in the White House, it appears those days are finally behind us. Thank God.

H/T Informed Folks

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Susan Rice Drops NK Bombshell… This Is What Obama Planned


Reported By V Saxena | August 10, 2017 at 10:47am

URL of the original posting site: http://conservativetribune.com/susan-rice-drops-nk-bombshell/

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If you want to know how the world has managed to become so royally screwed-up that North Korea now possesses the capability to fire a miniaturized nuclear warhead at us, you need to look to the past — namely, to the Obama administration.

Take former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, for instance, who penned a column for The New York Times Thursday begging President Donald Trump to stop standing up to North Korea.

“History shows that we can, if we must, tolerate nuclear weapons in North Korea — the same way we tolerated the far greater threat of thousands of Soviet nuclear weapons during the Cold War,” she wrote. “It will require being pragmatic.”

What she conveniently neglected to mention is that her definition of pragmatism is in fact the same sort of Chamberlain-esque appeasement that allowed Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to gain an upper hand prior to the start of World War II. In fact, her whole career has been a testament to this sort of appeasement, as noted by Joel Pollak of Breitbart.

“In her long and disastrous career, Rice has advocated inaction when intervention would have saved lives,” he explained in a column published after the former adviser’s column hit the Web. “During the Rwandan genocide, she counseled President Bill Clinton to avoid using that term, and helped stop the U.S. from responding.”

“In Benghazi, the Obama administration failed to make any effort to save U.S. diplomats and security personnel — and then Rice lied shamelessly to the American people, blaming a YouTube video for the attack.”

Likewise, the policy of “Strategic Patience” concocted by her and former President Barack Obama to curb the rogue regime’s nuclear ambitions has failed — and will continue failing, according to retired special agent and former U.S. Navy Capt. John M. DeMaggio.

“North Korea has seen many international diplomatic threats and actions come to nothing,” he explained in a recent column for The Hill. “They will in all likelihood ignore future actions, fully expecting the international coalition to follow historical precedent and crumble.”

Trump and his staff recognize that we need a new strategy, but clearly, Rice would prefer that we remain bound to the path set forth by her former boss, Obama, i.e., the same path that led North Korea into gaining this technology in the first place.

I guess it’s true that some people never learn.

H/T Breitbart

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Pelosi: ‘Hundreds Of Thousands’ Will Die If GOP Health Care Bill Passes


Reported By Randy Desoto | June 26, 2017 at 12:51pm

URL of the original posting site: http://www.westernjournalism.com/pelosi-hundreds-of-thousands-will-die-if-gop-health-care-bill-passes/

The California congresswoman went on to contend that Republicans should join with Democrats to fix Obamacare, not scrap it, and she argued that Republicans are currently sabotaging the law. According to Pelosi, the GOP House and Senate bills are “systemically, structurally, they are very, very harmful to the American people. They will raise costs, with fewer benefits. …They will undermine Medicare.” The minority leader likely meant to refer to “Medicaid,” because neither GOP bill seeks to change Medicare.

As reported by Western Journalism, Obamacare has failed to live up to many of the promises made by former President Barack Obama and the Democrats.

Perhaps the most infamous promise broken was Obama’s claim, both before and after the bill’s passage, that “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.”

Politifact named this promise the “Lie of the Year” in 2013, as over four million cancellation letters went out to policy holders that year, and such letters continued in the years thereafter.

Despite the insurance mandates contained in Obamacare, the former president promised that premiums would go down an average of $2,500 a year per family of four, thereby living up to the name “Affordable Care Act.” However, the opposite proved to be true, and Politifact listed Obama’s assurance as a “Promise Broken.”

The average nationwide premium cost has increased by 99 percent for individuals and 140 percent for families from 2013 through February 2017, according to an eHealth report.

Moreover, the Heritage Foundation determined that 70 percent of U.S. counties have only one or two insurers offering coverage through the Obamacare exchange. Some areas of the country could face having no insurers on the exchange at all in 2018, according to Bloomberg.

Despite the law’s major failings, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., joined with Pelosi in arguing that the only solution is to fix Obamacare.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Durbin pointed to the Republican plan to provide Medicaid funds to the states in block grants as something he could not support. He added that the Republican plan would result in 23 million less people obtaining health insurance, which is what the Congressional Budget Office projected would be the result over 10 years.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., responded, “The amount of dollars going into Medicaid continues to go up year after year. So if Senator Durbin refers to a cut, only in Washington is giving more each year, something you can conceive as a cut, if it doesn’t go up as fast as he would like it to go up.”

Under Obamacare, the Medicaid rolls grew by approximately 12 million people, thanks to new eligibility guidelines. Over 70 million are now enrolled in the program, or about one in every five Americans.

Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies with the Cato Institute, told Western Journalism that even the so-called cuts designed to slow the growth of Medicaid should be viewed with skepticism.

Cannon explained that proposed legislation does not call for true block grants, but rather matching grants based on the number of Medicaid enrollees in each state. States can increase the grant cap simply by increasing the number of enrollees.

Further, Cannon noted, in both the Senate and the House plans, the restraints in the increase in Medicaid spending are not due to take effect until the 2020s, after multiple intervening federal elections. Therefore, he believes the chances of them being repealed is high, particularly since many Republican governors support Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

“This is a Medicaid expansion repeal that was designed never to take effect,” he said.

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