Thursday, October 31, 2024

News Feed Comments
You are here: Home / Latest Lingerie News

Omarosa’s departure raises questions about White House diversity

December 15, 2017 by  
Filed under Latest Lingerie News

Comments Off

WASHINGTON — Omarosa Manigault Newman knew she stood out in this White House.

“I’m the only African-American woman who sits at the table,” the former “Apprentice” contestant and departing White House senior staffer said in an interview Thursday morning.

Wednesday’s announcement that the controversial aide was leaving her White House post has brought with it new questions about diversity — or lack of it — in the Trump White House.

In the ABC interview, Newman referred to herself as “the only African-American woman in this White House,” adding that she had “quite a story to tell” in the future about her time in an administration that has struggled with racial issues and outreach to minority communities.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Holds Press Briefing At The White House


White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Holds Press Briefing At The White House

That she’s the only at African-American woman at a senior level in the White House is not a stretch of the truth.

Newman, along with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, were the only black voices among more than 30 Cabinet secretaries and senior staff members around President Donald Trump. Though the position is not Cabinet level, Surgeon General Jerome Adams, an African-American, has been serving since September.

In a second interview with ABC, Newman pointed to a “lack of diversity” in the administration, calling it “very, very challenging being the only African-American woman in the senior staff” and even admitting it “was very lonely” working with a predominantly white staff who “had never worked with minorities, didn’t know how to interact with them.”

Asked by NBC News on Thursday how many black senior staffers remained at the White House in the wake of Newman’s departure, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to cite a number or specify who would take over Newman’s outreach to African-American communities.

“We have a really diverse team across the board at the White House,” she said, stressing that there’s also an effort to “continue to grow the diversity here” in the administration.

As for outreach efforts to minorities, Sanders noted that there are voices, including Carson’s, who play a role, but that Trump has also relied on some outside the White House.

“The president met with Senator Tim Scott,” Sanders said, referring to the South Carolina Republican. “I know he wants to continue those conversations as well to look at the best ways to do that and to do outreach to that community.”

The president himself told reporters Thursday afternoon that he liked Omarosa, but ignored a question about how many African-Americans he had in his inner circle.

Meanwhile, Newman said Thursday that the question of who would fill the void she left is one best asked of Trump and his chief of staff, John Kelly, whom she clashed with during her time in the White House.

Despite statements that the White House is “really diverse,” a June release of staff salaries showed that Newman was the only African-American at the top rung of the salary scale.



And while women have seen their profiles raised in this administration, including Communications Director Hope Hicks and Sanders, there are few staffers of color in high-level jobs.

An NBC News review found only a small percentage of nonwhite staffers were appointed as assistants to the president or special assistants to the president. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on these findings.

Last week, former White House strategist Steve Bannon, at a gathering of black conservative leaders, called out the administration that he was once part of for what he cited as a lack of diversity, saying the limited number of black staffers was “inexcusable.”

“You can’t defend it,” Bannon said, adding later, “I hope, and I think, that there’s action … taking place to solve that.”

The president repeatedly pitched himself as a friend to African-American voters during the campaign, asking at several rallies what they had to lose after voting for Democrats and not seeing any changes. In office, he has repeatedly inflamed race relations with his comments. After a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned into a violent clash in August, leaving one person dead, Trump blamed “both sides.”

“There are two sides to a story. I thought what took place was a horrible moment for the country, but there are two sides to a story,” the president said. Trump’s comments sparked swift criticism from lawmakers of both parties, and even members of his own administration.

Publicly, Newman was not one of them, and throughout her White House tenure she had a rocky relationship with black community leaders and activists.

Thursday morning she spoke cryptically about “a lot of things” she saw while in the service of the president —but in the second interview defended Trump, saying “he is not a racist” despite past missteps.

“Yes, I will acknowledge many of the exchanges, particularly in the last six months, have been racially charged,” Newman told ABC. “Do we then just stop and label him as a racist? No.”

“As the only African-American woman in this White House, as a senior staff, and assistant to the president, I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people,” she said.

“And when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.”

Share and Enjoy

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Tags:

Republicans Hunt for Ways to Pay for Tax Cuts

December 15, 2017 by  
Filed under Latest Lingerie News

Comments Off

Advertisement

Supported by

Image
Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, right, presided over the House-Senate Conference Committee meeting with Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, left, chairman of the finance committee, on Wednesday.CreditPete Marovich for The New York Times

WASHINGTON — A day after House and Senate Republican leaders said they had reached agreement on a merged version of their tax bill, they continued looking for ways to pay for the tax overhaul and faced the possible defection of a Republican senator, Marco Rubio of Florida.

Republicans plan to unveil a final bill on Friday, with the aim of voting on the legislation early next week and delivering it to President Trump for signing before Christmas.

But many of the changes made to assuage the concerns of businesses and Republican lawmakers are expected to drive up the cost of the bill and will need to be paid for to ensure the legislation does not add more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit over a decade. On Thursday, Mr. Rubio indicated he would vote no on the bill unless the expanded version of the child tax credit that he and another senator, Mike Lee of Utah, have been pushing was included. That change, which would allow families to claim the child tax credit even if they owe no income taxes, would drive up the cost of the bill even more.

“I think my requests have been pretty reasonable and consistent and direct. Right now the refundability level is $1,100, it needs to be higher,” Mr. Rubio said. “It’s a pretty straightforward ask. If the refundable portion of the child credit is substantially increased beyond the $1,100 it currently is, I’ll vote for the bill. If it’s not, I won’t.”

In an online town hall meeting on Wednesday night, Mr. Lee told constituents that negotiations were ongoing to include such an expansion in the conference tax bill.

Among the potential ideas being discussed on Capitol Hill to pay for the bill is allowing the tax cuts for individuals to expire even sooner than the 2025 date already stipulated in the Senate bill. Another idea under consideration, according to Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, is raising the tax rate on profits that companies have parked overseas as a way to pay for the bill.

“We’re literally trying to squeeze about $2 trillion in tax reform into a $1.5 trillion box and that’s been a problem,” Senator Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, who held out on supporting the initial version of the Senate tax bill until it gave more generous tax breaks to “pass through” businesses.

In an early morning cheer on Twitter, Mr. Trump encouraged Republicans to get the job done.

House and Senate Republicans agreed in principle on Wednesday to the framework of a consensus bill. Late changes included a slightly higher corporate tax rate of 21 percent, rather than the 20 percent in the legislation that passed both chambers, and a lower top individual tax rate of 37 percent for the wealthiest Americans, who currently pay 39.6 percent. But the bill will still scale back some popular tax breaks, including the state and local tax deduction and the deductibility of mortgage interest.

Breaking from the House bill, the agreement would allow taxpayers to continue to deduct high out-of-pocket medical expenses, and it would retain a provision allowing graduate students who receive tuition waivers to avoid paying taxes on that benefit. Also included is the Senate’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty and a provision that opens the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to energy exploration.


How the Final Tax Bill Will Affect Families, Homeowners, Businesses and More

Republicans have resolved the differences between the two versions of their tax bill.

Dec. 8, 2017

Still, the bill contains a host of tax changes that are expected to increase the cost of the bill that passed the Senate, such as repealing the corporate alternative minimum tax and increasing the income threshold at which the individual alternative minimum tax kicks in.

While the late changes to the tax bill were mean to alleviate concerns of skeptical Republicans, it was not clear how they would be paid for while still complying with the strict Senate budget rules that will allow the bill to pass without votes from any Democrats. Republicans can add no more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit if they are to pass the bill along party lines.

On Thursday, Republican leaders continued to express confidence that they were getting close to passing the most sweeping tax overhaul in decades.

“I think there’s going to be strong support in the House and Senate on this or we wouldn’t be moving forward,” Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said on CNN.

Mr. Brady has scheduled a signing of the signature sheets for the conference report — which is the deal that’s been struck between the House and Senate lawmakers on the congressional conference committee — between 10 a.m. and noon on Friday. A majority of the House and Senate lawmakers who are on the conference committee have to sign affirmatively for the bill to move forward.

But other concerns are looming, including the health of two Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona, who is in the hospital, and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who recently received medical treatment for health problems. Republicans, who hold a narrow 52-48 majority, can only afford to lose two senate votes, and Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee has already expressed his opposition to the bill.

Vice President Mike Pence decided on Thursday to delay a trip to the Middle East trip that he was planning to take next week so that he can preside over the tax vote in the event he needs to break a tie between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate.

Democrats have been largely sidelined in the final stages of the tax discussions.

They assailed the single public meeting of the conference committee on Wednesday as a “sham” and a “farce” and they continue to point to polls that show Republicans will likely pay for pushing tax cuts that do not appear to be popular with the general public. Democrats have also been calling on Republicans to delay the vote so that Alabama’s incoming Democratic senator, Doug Jones, has time to be seated.

“It’s the same rushed, awful process as before and it can only result in mistakes and unintended consequences that can wreak havoc on the economy,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, said on Thursday. “Every day, the more people know about the bill, the more they don’t like.”

At his weekly news conference on Thursday, Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, dismissed polls suggesting people are not supportive of the tax plan and predicted that the public would eventually warm to the legislation.

“Results are going to be what sells this bill, not the confusion before it passes,” Mr. Ryan said.

Advertisement

Share and Enjoy

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • Add to favorites
  • Email
  • RSS

Tags:

  1. Pages:
  3. 1
  4. ...
  5. 376
  6. 377
  7. 378
  8. 379
  9. 380
  10. 381
  11. 382
  12. ...
  13. 3201