Trump Turns Tables on North Korea - Epoch Times

North Korea is famous for its outlandish threats of waging war and using nuclear weapons against the United States and its allies.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2017

Trump Turns Tables on North Korea

North Korea is famous for its outlandish threats of waging war and using nuclear weapons against the United States and its allies.

The constant threat of war against North Korea’s adversaries is so integral to Kim Jong Un’s regime that state media are dominated by it and national events are marked with military parades and missile tests.

But now, President Donald Trump might have turned the tables, and the North Korean regime, once hungry for the “ultimate battle,” is now starting to walk back its threats of armed conflict.

A commentary published in North Korea’s state media on Wednesday, Oct. 11, is warning that U.S. military drills might set off a war—something the communist regime has claimed for years it wanted.

“The U.S. continues to kick up the racket of frantic nuclear war drills even though the situation on the Korean peninsula is on the verge of the outbreak of a worldwide thermonuclear war,” the commentary read.

The commentary also says that if NATO would join the United States in the Korean Peninsula, it would “change the balance of forces” against it.

Earlier this week, news came out that the United Kingdom, a key U.S. ally and NATO member, has been drawing up military plans for a potential armed conflict with North Korea.

It is a rare admission of weakness by the North Korean regime that normally boasts of being a major military power that is always right—with claims that it can destroy Japan, South Korea, and major cities in the United States with nuclear weapons.

North Korean state media reports referencing the United States normally include calls for its complete destruction along with its allies. However, the new commentary does not talk about attacking the United States, but instead on building up its own defenses.

President Trump has been hitting the North Korean regime hard in recent weeks. Last month he got China to agree to new U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea. The regime admitted in a rare article published on its state media late last month that the sanctions were causing “a colossal amount of damage.”

Last week, Trump stepped up his attacks on the rogue regime, saying that negotiating with it is not effective and that “only one thing will work.” Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, later said that the president was telegraphing with the statement that “military options are on the table.”

On Saturday, a U.S. nuclear-powered Los Angeles-class attack submarine arrived in South Korea. While it is not unusual for submarines to be active in the region, it is rare for their locations to be disclosed. In this case, revealing the location of the submarine, equipped with twelve vertical launch tubes for Tomahawk cruise missiles, was likely to send a message to the North.

On Monday, Trump’s Defense Secretary James Mattis said at the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army that the U.S. Army should “be ready” for a potential war with North Korea.

“There’s one thing that the U.S. Army can do, and that is, you’ve got to be ready to ensure that we have military options that our President can employ if needed,” Mattis said.

On Tuesday, President Trump met with his national security team and top military leaders to discuss military options against North Korea.

“The briefing and discussion focused on a range of options to respond to any form of North Korean aggression or, if necessary, to prevent North Korea from threatening the United States and its allies with nuclear weapons,” the White House said in a statement on the meeting.

On the same day as Trump’s meeting with military leaders, the U.S. Air Force flew two B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula in a show of force, after North Korea had threatened to shoot down U.S. bombers conducting such tests. No action by the North was observed during the 12-hour mission.

From The Epoch Times

President Trump Claims His Tax Plan Would Give Most Americans 'a $4,000 Pay Raise' - Associated Press

President Trump Claims His Tax Plan Would Give Most Americans 'a $4,000 Pay Raise'

Catherine Lucey & Josh Boak / AP

7:05 PM ET

(MIDDLETOWN, Pa.) — President Donald Trump pitched his tax plan as a boost for truckers at an event Wednesday in Pennsylvania, saying, "America first means putting American truckers first."

Trump appeared before about a thousand cheering people at an airplane hangar dramatically draped with American flags. Two big rigs were in the background.

"It will be rocket fuel for our economy," Trump said of a plan that would dramatically cut corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 20 percent, reduce the number of personal income tax brackets and boost the standard deduction.

Trump said a cut to business taxes would help truckers because there will be "more products to deliver and more contracts to fill." He also said his plan would benefit middle-class families by lowering rates, creating new jobs and making it easier for business owners to pass companies on to their children.

"So many people have come up to me and said give it to the middle class, give it to people who need it," Trump said.

President Trump Will Nominate White House Aide Kirstjen Nielsen as Secretary of Homeland Security

Trump is diving back into the tax fight after weeks in which his attention has shifted to rapidly emerging crises — including the mass shooting in Las Vegas and the hurricane recovery effort in Puerto Rico — as well as dramas of his own making, such as his escalating feud with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and public tension with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Taxes are the chief legislative priority for Republicans hungry for a major legislative achievement. With the 2018 campaign year looming, GOP lawmakers want something to show for their time as the majority party, and tax legislation remains their best hope.

Trump has left it up to Congress to fill in many specifics of his plan, which omits details such as the income levels for his new tax brackets. The outreach to truckers in Pennsylvania is an attempt to give a blue-collar appeal to a framework that outside tax analysts say would largely favor the wealthy.

About two-thirds of trucking firms are structured as small businesses in which the profits double as the owners' income, what's commonly known as "pass-through" companies, said Chris Spear, president of the American Trucking Associations.

The framework would cut the tax rate for these firms to 25 percent from 39.6 percent.

"It's pretty critical for our membership," Spear said.

But the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said few truckers would benefit from this preferential rate because the majority of truck drivers are employees rather than pass-through business owners, based on its analysis of Census data.

During his speech, Trump hailed truckers as a barometer for the nation's economy, and praised them as unsung heroes.

"You're going to make more money. You're going to do better than ever before. And we truly admire you. You are our heroes, believe me," he told them. "You are our heroes."

Republicans in Congress aren't solidly behind Trump, with some from high-tax states balking because the framework calls for eliminating the federal deduction for state and local taxes. That deduction is claimed by an estimated 44 million people and costs the government an estimated $1.3 trillion in lost revenue over 10 years.

Fractious Republican lawmakers, especially those from New York, New Jersey and California, are wary of the potential financial hit to their constituents. They contend repealing the deduction would subject people to being taxed twice.

"They need our votes" on the tax plan, said Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., a member of the group.

Discussions with House leaders on a possible compromise took place last week but are on hold, Collins and other lawmakers in the group said Wednesday. They said they were confident of a compromise.

Trump highlighted the tax plan's provisions aimed at encouraging international companies to bring back, or repatriate, cash that they've kept overseas. All told, there's more than $1 trillion in cash held abroad by S&P 500 companies, according to Deutsche Bank.

"We will totally eliminate the penalty on returning future earnings back to the United States and we will impose a one-time low tax on money currently parked overseas so it can be brought back home to America, where it belongs and where it can do its job," he said. He added that his Council of Economic Advisers estimates that the change, along with a lower tax rate, "would likely give the typical American household a $4,000 pay raise."

"Could be a lot more than that, too," he said.

The $4,000 in additional income estimate comes from a back of the envelope calculation by White House economics adviser Kevin Hassett based on companies returning 71 percent of their foreign profits over the course of eight years.

This estimate appears to assume that the returned profits would flow to workers in the form of higher wages. But many economists say much of it would likely be returned to investors in the form of stock dividends and buybacks.

Trump also said he would help truckers with a yet-to-be-announced infrastructure plan that he said would have "a special focus on roadways and highways."

"They will be smooth, beautiful highways again," he said.

___Associated Press writers Marcy Gordon and Jill Colvin contributed to this report.

Trump healthcare order could face strong legal objections - Reuters

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s expected plan to let Americans buy insurance across state lines could violate federal law governing employee benefit plans and will almost certainly be challenged in court, several legal experts said.

Trump said on Tuesday he would likely sign an executive order this week allowing people to cross state lines to obtain “great, competitive healthcare” that would cost the United States “nothing.”

The Republican president offered no specifics, but several sources familiar with the order said it was expected to be in the form of guidance to the U.S. Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury Departments, which would be asked to look at ways that individuals and small businesses can band together to form “associations” that would buy large group health plans from states with the fewest regulations.

If the plan were to come to fruition, some healthcare analysts said it would undermine former President Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, by making it easier for Americans to buy stripped-down health insurance policies on the cheap. Supporters say more people could gain health insurance at a lower cost.

Despite controlling the White House and Congress, Republicans have failed in efforts this year to fulfill their campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, which they say is intrusive and ineffective. Democrats defend the law, saying it has extended health insurance to some 20 million Americans.

Several experts in healthcare and employment law said Trump’s plan could violate the U.S. Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a federal law that governs large group plans that must be provided or maintained by employers or employee organizations.

Expanding association plans to market insurance to individuals who are not employees would “not be remotely legal,” said Nicholas Bagley, a professor of healthcare law at the University of Michigan.

ERISA does allow associations to act as employers and manage benefit plans.

But federal regulators have generally interpreted the law to mean that employers in the association must have a common interest beyond buying insurance, said Allison Hoffman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law.

“The E in ERISA is employee,” Joseph Antos, a healthcare expert at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank that has been critical of Obamacare.

“They are going to have to stretch the definition of whether you’re an employee or not,” he said of Trump’s expected plan.

The White House declined to comment.

ENCROACHING ON STATE POWERS?

It is not clear when challenges to a Trump order would be filed. The timing could depend on if and when the Cabinet departments begin taking steps to put the plan in place.

State attorneys general would likely be among the first to legally challenge Trump’s order or regulations that stem from it, said Dania Palanker, an assistant research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement on Wednesday that her office “will oppose any attempt to undermine” the state’s commitment to ensuring that every resident has access to quality healthcare.

Healey is one of several Democrats who previously sued to block Trump policies, including his proposal to block travel to the United States from six Muslim-majority countries.

In addition to challenging Trump’s healthcare proposal on ERISA grounds, the states could also oppose it on federalist grounds, said Hoffman. She noted that states had primary power to regulate insurance, except where a federal law explicitly says otherwise, as Obamacare does.

Donald Trump has 'turned into a pressure cooker that frequently explodes', say White House staff The President has been likened to a 'whistling tea pot' - Independent

Donald Trump has 'turned into a pressure cooker that frequently explodes', say White House staff

The President has been likened to a 'whistling tea pot'

Andrew Buncombe

Donald Trump, angry with officials he appointed and frustrated with his failure to progress his legislative agenda, is said to have turned into a “pressure cooker” who frequently explodes at those around him.

Reports suggest that in recent days, Mr Trump, fed up with criticism of his handling of the crisis in Puerto Rico and furious over comments from a senior Republican who claimed he was setting the US on “the path to World War III”, the President has been lashing out at those around him and burning political bridges.

Meanwhile, his relationship with Chief of Staff John Kelly, the former general appointed to try and bring order to the chaos of the White House, may have become “irreparable”, according to one report.

Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump

Senator Bob Corker "begged" me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee. I said "NO" and he dropped out (said he could not win without...

12:59 AM - Oct 9, 2017

“I’m not all all surprised by this,” Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University in New York, told The Independent. “He has never had to work together with people before, he has always been the king.”

She added: “He doesn’t not seem to understand that the President is a public servant and those people working for you are meant to help make you better.”

The Washington Post said Mr Trump’s fuse had been lit by several factors. He was perturbed when it was reported last that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had called him “a moron”. America’ top diplomat held a press conference to deny reports that he had considered quitting, but Mr Trump was sufficiently thin-skinned to suggest the pair of them take IQ tests and compare the results.

Trump tells interviewer: "I think I'm much more humble than you would understand"

Over the weekend, Mr Trump hit out on Twitter at Republican Senator Bob Corker, who had said the White House had devolved into an “an adult day care centre”.

Mr Trump said of Mr Corker, who has announced he will not seek reelection to his Tennessee seat: “Senator Bob Corker “begged” me to endorse him for re-election in Tennessee. I said “NO” and he dropped out”.

The Post said the President had in recent days been displaying flashes of “fury”. It said one confidant of Mr Trump had likened the President to a “whistling teapot”, adding that when he did not blow off steam, “he can turn into a pressure cooker and explode”.

“I think we are in pressure cooker territory,” the person added.

It has fallen to Mr Kelly to try and deal with this fall-out and smooth things over. Yet the atmosphere inside the White House may have already taken its took on the former military officer, who joined the administration in January as head of the Department of Homeland Security.

Kristin Donnelly ✔@kristindonnelly

John Kelly during the President's Q and A at Trump Tower

7:10 AM - Aug 16, 2017

Last month it was reported that Mr Trump delivered an ear-bashing to Mr Kelly that the former officer said was unprecedented in his 35 years of military service. While Mr Trump, along with his daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were said to be working though Mr Kelly’s lines of authority, the President has become frustrated at the latest attempt to rein him in.

Mr Kelly has on several occasions been photographed looking exasperated at various events, most memorably at a press conference inside Trump Tower when the President clashed with reporters over the violence during a neo-Nazi led rally in Charlottesville.

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Now Vanity Fair has said the relationship between Mr Trump and Mr kelly may have become “irreparable”.

One person close to Mr Kelly, said: “He doesn’t love this job. He’s doing it as a duty for the country.”