Trump: Pennsylvania redistricting unfair
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump added his voice Saturday to the continued conservative outcry over the court-ordered redistricting of the Pennsylvania congressional map, calling the decision "very unfair to Republicans and to our country."
"Democrat judges have totally redrawn election lines in the great State of Pennsylvania," Trump wrote on Twitter. "This is very unfair to Republicans and to our country as a whole. Must be appealed to the United States Supreme Court ASAP!"
The Supreme Court this month denied a request from Pennsylvania Republicans to stop the state's highest court from requiring lawmakers to redraw the map of the state's 18 House districts. The new map, released by the state court last week, effectively eliminates the Republican advantage in Pennsylvania, endangering several incumbent Republican seats and bolstering Democrat standings in two open races.
Pennsylvania is typically a swing state in statewide elections, and the new map, if it stands, could play a big role in efforts by the Democratic Party to gain control of the U.S. House in the midterm elections.
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Suit calls Trump hotel use illegal gifts
WASHINGTON -- Attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia on Friday expanded their lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of accepting gifts from foreign and state governments, suing him not only as president but in his personal capacity as a businessman.
Legal experts said the move takes the "emoluments" clause of the Constitution into uncharted legal waters, since it has been interpreted as applying only to presidents in their official capacity.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Maryland, is one of several recent cases challenging Trump's ties to his business ventures and his refusal to divest from them.
The suits allege that foreign governments' use of Trump's hotels and other properties violates the Constitution's emoluments clause, which bans the president's acceptance of foreign gifts and money without Congress' permission.
The clause has never been fully tested in federal court, and Trump's Justice Department attorneys have argued that hotel room stays do not represent "foreign gifts."
Mulvaney: Economic good to offset bad
WASHINGTON -- At the recent pace of economic growth, gains in government revenue will outstrip rising spending and the extra borrowing costs connected to rising interest rates, President Donald Trump's budget director predicted Saturday.
"If we can control our expenses and grow the economy," the government's revenue will rise as well, and deficits will shrink, Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington.
Commerce Department figures showed that the U.S. economy expanded at an annualized pace of 3.1 percent in the second quarter of 2017, followed by 3.2 percent in the third quarter and 2.6 percent in the fourth. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect growth of 2.7 percent in 2018 and 2.4 percent in 2019.
Mulvaney, a deficit hawk during his years as a congressman from South Carolina, said he was disappointed by the recent bipartisan budget deal that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would add $296 billion in spending authority over the next two years. He blamed it on "extortion" from Democrats.
The White House's 2019 budget proposal, released Feb. 12, would sharply raise the federal deficit, to $984 billion -- nearly double the projection from last year. The red ink would total $7.1 trillion over the next decade.
Official denies mission statement slant
SAN DIEGO -- The head of the federal agency that grants citizenship and immigration benefits said Friday that he had a message for anyone who considers his new mission statement anti-immigrant: "A thousand times no."
Francis Cissna said he cut reference to the U.S. being a "nation of immigrants" from Citizenship and Immigration Services' mission statement because a "bureaucratic" document was the wrong platform to say so. He said the country is indisputably a nation of immigrants.
Cissna said he was surprised by criticism after announcing the change Thursday to his 18,000 employees. He said the White House had no involvement.
"This was all inside my head," he said.
Cissna, who became director Oct. 1 after 12 years in various positions at the parent Department of Homeland Security, said he proposed a complete rewrite of the mission statement with senior agency leaders and union officials at a meeting in mid-October. It was widely discussed in the agency over several months.
A Section on 02/25/2018