Tomorrow, the House will vote on the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, which will cut federal grant money to cities that shield dangerous criminal aliens from being turned over to federal law enforcement. The House will also vote on Kate’s Law – named for Kate Steinle, who was killed by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times. This law will enhance criminal penalties for those who repeatedly re-enter the country illegally.

Today, ahead of tomorrow”s vote, President Trump met again with families of victims impacted by the crimes committed by illegal aliens, thanked them for their courage and presented their stories for all to hear.    The passage these laws, and the enforcement of America’s border security, represents well-known campaign promises.

[Transcript] – 3:07 P.M. EDT – THE PRESIDENT: Good to have you all. Hello, Chairman. Great man, right here. Might be another one right there. We have some good ones. We had a wonderful meeting on healthcare, yesterday, you probably know about, and so we’re moving along. Hello, Thomas.

Thank you very much for being here to discuss two crucial votes taking place in Congress tomorrow on vital safety and national security legislation.

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President Trump meets the swamp people to discuss the making of swamp sausage…

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Again, as with 99.99% of all ObamaCare conversations, the entirety of media discussion  surrounds Medicaid spending, funding, etc.

The middle-class taxpayers’ healthcare interests, those on the individual market, are entirely disconnected from the political discussion by the professional political class.

Frustrating is an understatement.

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In an effort to break the intransigence of Republican Senators who refuse to vote approval for the senate healthcare reform/replace bill, President Trump met with Senator Rand Paul earlier this afternoon.  President Trump is trying to get the #NeverTrumper’s to support the 3 step approach.

The Senate version of the Freedom Caucus (Cruz, Lee, etc), and Senators from states who are now entirely addicted to federal medicaid spending, are not willing to support legislation that doesn’t: A.) give them a full repeal, and B.) give them even more Obamacare money, respectively.

Because of the intransigence of both oppositional sides within the Republican Senate, it now appears a vote is not going to take place this week.

That said, President Trump calling them to the White House to remind them if they don’t do it this week, the far-left-activist groups (those demanding single-payer) are going to swarm the Senators over the holiday break; and they will return to DC in no better shape than they are in today.

There is a reason why Harry Reid ‘sequestered’ the entire Senate for two weeks before Christmas 2009, never let them leave for holiday recess and forced a vote on Christmas Eve at 1:38 in the morning.  If they don’t get it done now, it’s dead.

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The U.S. State Department has released it’s 2017 ‘Trafficking in Persons Report” (TIP report), as annually mandated by U.S. law.   Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Senior Counselor to the President Ivanka Trump discuss the ongoing initiatives to combat human smuggling, sex trafficking and modern slavery.

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You can read the full Trafficking in Persons Report HERE.

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White House Senior Adviser to the President Kellyanne Conway is interviewed by former Clinton White House aide ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos about the current healthcare bills on Capitol Hill.

ABC’s Stephanopoulos is one of the most ardent Democrat party ideologues/operatives within media and this interview is a representative example of how he argues exclusively from a position of ideological advocacy against the Trump administration.

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HHS Secretary Dr. Tom Price appears on CNN State of The Union to discuss the legislative repair efforts for an ObamaCare overhaul, and overall healthcare reform efforts.

Notice how the various “concerns”, amid all of the politically charged discussion, are always centered around medicaid – or the state run, taxpayer-funded, low income, healthcare coverage. Not a single oppositional argument is ever made about negative impacts for those who actually pay for their own healthcare coverage. The opposition arguments are entirely framed around benefits toward those who pay little to nothing.

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There is a parallel, comparative and representative example of what President Trump’s smart policy team is trying to do with healthcare.  the comparison actually lies within another set of economic policy objectives. However, it takes elevation in thinking to understand the approach and see the similarity.

The comparative reform example is within the banking and finance industry.

For those who have read all the statements, watched the hearings, listened intently to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, you might have already noted their approach to working around the ridiculously burdensome Dodd Frank regulations within the banking and finance sector. – OUTLINED HERE –

Essentially, instead of trying to untangle all the complexities of decades long DC constructs enmeshing and enlarging the bureaucracy around banking, Trump’s team is constructing a parallel system. Cliff Noted for Brevity: (more…)

There was a widely read Chicago Tribune op-ed written a few days ago outlining an approach to dissolve the entire state and apportion the geography to Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa. –SEE HERE–  It was written tongue-in-cheek, but with an uncomfortable level of reality behind it.

Illinois has been struggling with its finances for a long, long time.

The Illinois long-term labor pension liabilities are ridiculous in the extreme.  However, things just went from bad to jaw-droppingly, gobsmackingly, unbelievably worse.

According to the latest financial media reports, Standard and Poors Global Ratings agency has positioned Illinois bonds to drop below “investment” grade; that would make Illinois the first state in the nation to achieve “junk bond” status.

(Via ABC) Illinois is on track to become the first U.S. state to have its credit rating downgraded to “junk” status, which would deepen its multibillion-dollar deficit and cost taxpayers more for years to come.

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Today President Trump delivered on a promise to provide accountability within the Veterans Affairs department.  Together with VA Secretary David Shulkin, President Trump signs the VA Accountability and Whistle-blower Protection act.

Retired Sargent Michael Verardo gives a personal testimonial and introduces Secretary Schulkin.

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Secretary Shulkin explains the goals and objectives and introduces President Trump.

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Before explaining I must state this is written with a servant’s heart.  It is not my intention to debate the arguments or merit of legislation, only to point out the logical pathway if people hang tough, support President Trump and stay out of the traps laid by special interests (and their special-interest paid troll army).

There’s a parallel, comparative and representative example of what President Trump’s smart policy team is trying to do with healthcare; it lies within another set of economic policy objectives.  However, it takes elevation in thinking to understand the approach.

The comparative example is within the banking and finance industry.

For those who have read all the statements, watched the hearings, listened intently to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, you might have already noted their approach to working around the ridiculously burdensome Dodd Frank regulations within the banking and finance sector. – OUTLINED HERE –

Essentially, instead of trying to untangle all the complexities of decades long DC constructs enmeshing and enlarging the bureaucracy around banking, Trump’s team is constructing a parallel system.  Cliff Noted for Brevity: (more…)

After Democrats announced they wanted nothing to do with the Obamacare reform efforts, the Democrat leadership and their water-carrying media counterparts cried foul because they feel they were not consulted on a current Senate bill to reform Obamacare.  Go figure.

The original (’09/’10) ObamaCare bill was 2,700 pages and most of the toxic takeover construct was intentionally and ambiguously deferred to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius where she added an initial 74,000 pages of regulatory and compliance rules and procedures. [Those HHS regulations now total 673,448+ pages and growing.]

Today, the Senate releases their version of a bill to reform the collapsing Obamacare construct.  It is only 142 pages (full pdf below), and essentially tracks along the three-stage repeal and replace road map previously outlined by HHS Secretary Tom Price.

Despite their pearl-clutching pontifications, all of the whining politicians and media-gnats can read the bill in a few hours.  Here’s the TOP-LINE basics:

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