White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer holds the press briefing for Wednesday March 8th 2017.  Live Stream Link – Alternate Live Stream #1 – Alternate Live Stream #2

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If Monica Crowley did not know the severity of the opposition previously, she most certainly understands it now – as she explains in this interview:

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During an interesting Lou Dobbs interview Judge Andrew Napolitano discusses the “Deep State” and how President Trump is the first president to confront them without backing down.

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FACT: ObamaCare was passed, using the original legislative vehicle, at 1:38am on 12/24/09 with 60 votes in the Senate (see below).  The House then approved that Senate Bill without changes; and in February 2010 created a secondary bill which created the opportunity for the Senate to modify ObamaCare using “reconciliation” for a lower vote threshold of 51 votes.
Literally under the cloak of darkness Democrats rammed their holy grail of a socialist construct down the throat of every American. We no longer needed to imagine having usurping representation that did not represent the will of the people – we saw it.
[Understand the full construct by reading HERE]  If you do not understand how legislation is created; if you do not understand the difference between the Senate and House; if you do not understand the way ObamaCare was created, you really need to read this first.
A clean repeal bill, meaning a law to repeal the entire ObamaCare construct only, would require another 60 vote hurdle in the Senate.
Republicans, while in the majority, only control 52 seats.  Without 8 Democrats voting to approve a “repeal bill”, any House (Or Senate) bill that repeals ObamaCare cannot pass the Senate.
This is why Mark Levin is a con-man; selling snake oil as outrage to keep a listening audience angry, yet clueless and hopeless.   That’s what I don’t like.
A complete repeal of ObamaCare is currently impossible.  The House Freedom Caucus can push all the repeal bills they want, but they cannot get a clean repeal bill through the Senate because they cannot get the 60 votes needed. Period.
Additionally, despite claims to the contrary, the GOP has never passed an Obamacare “repeal bill”. Ever.  What they did previously pass was a “defund bill” using the lower vote reconciliation process. President Obama vetoed it.  A defunding bill was possible because of the financial pathway which falls under reconciliation rules.  The current Ryan bill is almost identical to the 2016 defunding bill everyone is mistakenly calling a prior “repeal bill”.
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Commerce Secretary Wilbur “Wolverine” Ross put the trade world on notice today when he announced a staggering $1.19 billion penalty on Chinese company ZTE for violating U.S. sanctions and selling electronics to Iran and North Korea.
China’s ZTE has agreed to pay the United States the fine.  Remember, in China all private businesses are politically attached to the central government.

(From Wilbur Ross Office) Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. today announced that China’s Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation and ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd., known collectively as ZTE, has agreed to a record-high combined civil and criminal penalty of $1.19 billion, pending approval from the courts, after illegally shipping telecommunications equipment to Iran and North Korea in violation of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR).
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Two important videos containing two important aspects to advancing legislation.  In the first video President Trump is meeting with Republican House “whip team”.  The role of the House Majority Whip, Steve Scalise, is to get the various republicans factions to unite in support of a singular legislative goal.  Unite the clans.
President Trump is not meeting with the House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, because Trump views McCarthy as a weasel (don’t ask – just watch).  President Trump gives remarks to the media during the White House meeting:

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The second meeting is Speaker Paul Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Greg Walden. Ryan, McCarthy and Walden outline the three-step legislative process that a full and replace bill needs.
Walden outlines the House Energy and Commerce Committee beginning the mark-ups on the bill which starts tomorrow.
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There are bazillions of opinions on the current ObamaCare repeal and replace efforts. Many people are rightly concerned their wants, wishes or needs do not seem addressed within the Price/Ryan bill announced last night.
CTH is far from a SME on the details.  However, we do know the legislative “process” and we followed the original construct closely.  Many people are missing the big picture challenges with “repeal and replace” – perhaps we can explain a little, and maybe it will settle some nerves.

The best way to explain what appears to be the Price/Ryan legislative road-map is to remind ourselves how a Dem legislature was able to enact ObamaCare with zero Republican support.   In 2017 the reversal of this process also lines up to be a Republican repeal with zero Democrat support.
Way back in 2009 when ObamaCare was being constructed, there were two procedural legislative constructs to create ObamaCare- one from the House (Pelosi) and one from the Senate (Reid).
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White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, will be delivering the latest press briefing today at approximately 1:30pm.  Live Stream Link – Alternate Live stream #1 – Alternate #2

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Wide-ranging interview by Stuart Varney of Nigel Farage discussing the upcoming visit of Germany’s Angela Merkel visit to the U.S. to meet with President Trump, and the state of the EU against the backdrop of the upcoming elections.

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel will travel to Washington on March 14 to meet President Donald Trump, their first encounter after a rocky start to relations amid disagreements about trade, Trump’s travel ban and his comments about the media.
A United States official announced the visit, which comes shortly before a meeting in Germany of the finance ministers of the G20 industrialized countries and will help lay the groundwork for Trump’s visit to Germany in July for a meeting of G20 leaders.
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This is YUGE news and will impact each and every American.  One of the missing elements in our quest for energy independence has always been the lack of oil refining capacity to produce gasoline and other fuel end-products.
Years of choking fossil fuel regulation, partly funded and supported by an alignment of special interests including foreign governments, OPEC and eco lobbyists, has created a situation where over half of our oil refining capability was eliminated.
With the election, and independence, of Donald Trump that course has changed dramatically.  Trump is not beholden to the lobbyists and special interests who pay for the U.S. to remain dependent on foreign oil and off shore refinement.
Additionally, this is a really big deal because our predictions have always been that President Trump will find a way to make ‘US energy exports‘ a big part of the U.S. expanding economy.  A complete paradigm shift – and with it comes unexpected and unpredicted (by most) additional growth in GDP.  Hence this emphasis:
https://www.facebook.com/POTUS/videos/1273324796070291/
 
(Via Reuters) Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, said on Monday it would invest $20 billion through 2022 to expand its chemical and oil refining plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The investments at 11 sites should create 35,000 temporary construction jobs and 12,000 permanent jobs, Chief Executive Darren Woods said in a speech at CERAWeek, the world’s largest gathering of energy executives. (more…)