Day: July 22, 2018

VP Mike Pence Praises Marsha Blackburn and Diane Black at Lee University Event

Tennessee Star Staff

Vice President Mike Pence praised Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) and Rep. Diane Black (R-TN-06) during a speech he delivered at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee on Saturday. “The former Indiana governor called the 2017 tax cuts the biggest in a generation and a generator of American jobs in front of a raucous crowd,” the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported: His wide-ranging 33-minute speech at Lee University addressed immigration, tax cuts, Supreme Court nominations, environmental rollbacks and chastised the “liberal left” before narrowing his message to tax cuts. “We cut taxes for working families” Pence said. “We think the average working family in Tennessee will save about $2,000. We cut taxes for businesses large and small so businesses here in Tennessee can compete and win against businesses anywhere in the world.” U.S. Reps. Diane Black and Marsha Blackburn, who are both in tight statewide races, joined the vice president on stage to compliment the administration’s work. The vice president spoke highly of both candidates before turning his attention to Trump’s recent European trip. Pence called the trip a “success” despite the president being criticized by members of his own party for backing Russian leader Vladimir Putin over the U.S. intelligence community.…

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Mitch McConnell Is Ready To Play Hardball To Get Kavanaugh Confirmed

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Mitch McConnell

by Kevin Daley   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told senior Republicans that he will schedule Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation vote on a date just before the November elections if Democrats demand access to the full scope of records the judge produced in the George W. Bush administration. Democrats are leveraging the access dispute to slow Kavanaugh’s nomination, as it is one of the few mechanisms they have to delay progress on the appointment. Politico reports that McConnell believes scheduling a confirmation vote in immediate proximity to the midterm elections will exacerbate political pressure on embattled Democrats from red states to support Kavanaugh. “To me, it’s in their best interest to have that vote done for a lot of their red-state senators who are facing their voters,” GOP Sen. John Thune of South Dakota. Democrats want access to a massive body of work Kavanaugh generated during his time in the Bush White House. The judge entered the administration as associate White House counsel, then became staff secretary in 2006. In these capacities he advised senior officials on a range of legal issues and managed the president’s paper flow. He left the executive branch following his confirmation to the U.S. Court of…

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Anti-Trump Group Drops Second Attack Mail Piece Against Bob Corlew in Tennessee’s 6th Congressional GOP Primary

Tennessee Star Staff
Nick Ryan

The American Future Fund, a 501(c)4 group that funded several attack ads against Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, has filed information with the Federal Election Commission indicating that they have just spent another $17,500 for a second round of negative mail against Republican conservative businessman and former Judge Bob Corlew.

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Senior CIA Official: China Threatens US Interests ‘Far More Significantly By Any Extreme’ Than The Russians

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Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin

by Ryan Pickrell   A senior CIA official warned of the dangers of China’s rise Friday, stressing that Beijing is determined to see China replace the U.S. as the world superpower. Arguing that China is fundamentally waging a “cold war” against the U.S., Deputy Assistant Director for the CIA’s East Asia Mission Center Michael Collins indirectly described China as a “country that exploits all avenues of power — licit and illicit, public and private, economic and military — to undermine the standing of [its] rival relative to [its] own standing without resorting to conflict.” “At the end of the day, they want every country around the world, when it’s deciding its interests on policy issues, to first and foremost side with China and not the United States, because the Chinese are increasingly defining a conflict with the United States and what we stand behind as a systems conflict,” he argued at the  Aspen Security Forum. Emphasizing that China represents the greatest challenge to American interests, he stressed that Chinese ambitions set “up a competition with us and what we stand behind far more significantly by any extreme than what the Russians could put forward.” His statements echo those of FBI Director Christopher Wray, who spoke at…

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‘Pig Book’ Spotlights 232 Earmarks Amid Pork That Wastes Taxpayers’ Money

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Ted Cruz

by Katherine Rohloff   All but a relative few farmers and other rural residents have had electricity and telephone service for a generation, but the U.S. government devoted $10 million in the current budget to a duplicative Rural Utilities Service program designed to help pay for energy costs. Taxpayers continue to finance the program even though then-President Barack Obama tried to eliminate the High Energy Costs Program in 2013 because it duplicated the U.S. Electric Loan Program. The program buried in the Agriculture Department budget is brought to the surface in the “2018 Congressional Pig Book” compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog that has put together the catalog of pork, earmarks, and other questionable federal spending since 1991. “Earmark spending, deficits, and debt all grow when the lights are turned off—all grow when attention is focused somewhere else,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Wednesday at the organization’s press conference announcing the new edition. “What earmark spending, deficits, and debt loathe more than anything is sunshine, is being revealed,” Cruz said. “Because that sunshine has a disinfectant effect.” The 2018 #PigBook has been released! Find out why this little pink book makes Washington squirm… https://t.co/Fiwzzvv0w6 — Citizens Against Government Waste (@GovWaste) July 18, 2018 The 2018…

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Fiat Chrysler Names Jeep Boss to Replace CEO Stricken with Illness

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Mike Manley

Reuters   Fiat Chrysler named on Saturday its Jeep division boss, Mike Manley, to take over immediately for Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, who is seriously ill after suffering major complications following surgery. The carmaker said British-born Manley, who also takes responsibility for the North America region, will push ahead with the midterm strategy outlined last month by Marchionne, who had been due to step down next April. Marchionne, 66, was credited with rescuing Fiat and Chrysler from bankruptcy after taking the Italian carmaker’s wheel in 2004. On Saturday, he was also replaced as chairman and CEO of Ferrari and chairman of tractor maker CNH Industrial — both spun off from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in recent years. “FCA communicates with profound sorrow that during the course of this week unexpected complications arose while Mr. Marchionne was recovering from surgery and that these have worsened significantly in recent hours,” the statement said. FCA disclosed earlier this month that Marchionne, a renowned dealmaker and workaholic, was recovering from a shoulder operation. But his condition deteriorated sharply in recent days when he suffered massive complications that were not divulged. Ferrari named FCA Chairman and Agnelli family scion John Elkann as new chairman, while board…

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