Trump and Aides Take Hard Line on Border Wall, as Threat of Gov’t Shutdown Looms and More in Politics Today
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It’s difficult to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in this country and to break through the clutter, so we’re here to make it easier. Here’s what we at Countable are reading today:
1.Trump and his aides take hard line on border wall, as threat of government shutdown looms
President Trump and his top aides applied new pressure Sunday on lawmakers to include money for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border in a must-pass government funding bill, raising the possibility of a federal government shutdown this week.
In a pair of tweets, Trump attacked Democrats for opposing the wall and insisted that Mexico would pay for it "at a later date," despite his repeated campaign promises not including that qualifier. And top administration officials appeared on Sunday morning news shows to press for wall funding, including White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, who said Trump might refuse to sign a spending bill that does not include any.
Read more at the Washington Post.
2. U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Syrian Government Workers After Sarin Attack
The Trump administration on Monday said it was imposing sanctions on 271 employees of the Syrian government agency that produces chemical weapons and ballistic missiles, blacklisting them from travel and financial transactions in the wake of a sarin attack on civilians this month.
It was the second time the United States government has imposed sanctions on Syrians for the government’s use of chemical weapons. The Treasury Department blacklisted 18 Syrians in January after an investigation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international body that polices chemical weapons, determined that the government had been responsible for three chlorine gas attacks.
Read more at the New York Times.
3. Wake up, cross the border, go to school: For some Mexican students, it's a daily routine
In the era of Donald Trump and his talk of building an impenetrable — and "beautiful" — wall to beat back illegal immigration, the border has become a hardening line in America’s cultural wars.
But to many of the people here, the fence that separates the two countries is neither fully a bulwark against invasion nor a foreboding stop sign to immigrants’ hopes. It is a mundane part of the environment that must be crossed every day to live, work and study.
Read more at LA Times.
4. The U.S. Makes It Easy for Parents to Get College Loans—Repaying Them Is Another Story
Millions of U.S. parents have taken out loans from the government to help their children pay for college. Now a crushing bill is coming due.
Hundreds of thousands have tumbled into delinquency and default. In the process, many have delayed retirement, put off health expenses and lost portions of Social Security checks and tax refunds to their lender, the federal government.
Student loans made through parents come from an Education Department program called Parent Plus, which has loans outstanding to more than three million Americans. The problem is the government asks almost nothing about its borrowers’ incomes, existing debts, savings, credit scores or ability to repay. Then it extends loans that are nearly impossible to extinguish in bankruptcy if borrowers fall on hard times.
Read more at the Wall Street Journal.
5. Obama’s hidden Iran deal giveaway
When President Barack Obama announced the "one-time gesture" of releasing Iranian-born prisoners who “were not charged with terrorism or any violent offenses” last year, his administration presented the move as a modest trade-off for the greater good of the Iran nuclear agreement and Tehran’s pledge to free five Americans.
In its determination to win support for the nuclear deal and prisoner swap from Tehran — and from Congress and the American people — the Obama administration did a lot more than just downplay the threats posed by the men it let off the hook, according to POLITICO’s findings.
Through action in some cases and inaction in others, the White House derailed its own much-touted National Counterproliferation Initiative at a time when it was making unprecedented headway in thwarting Iran’s proliferation networks. In addition, the POLITICO investigation found that Justice and State Department officials denied or delayed requests from prosecutors and agents to lure some key Iranian fugitives to friendly countries so they could be arrested. Similarly, Justice and State, at times in consultation with the White House, slowed down efforts to extradite some suspects already in custody overseas, according to current and former officials and others involved in the counterproliferation effort.
Read more at Politico.
— Asha Sanaker
(Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr / Creative Commons)
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