The US Chamber of Commerce Says Trump Is Bad for Business The administration's in hot water with cor

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I really am fearful for the ACA and its horrible consequences.

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https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-big-pharma-executive-orders/
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Signal:Noise

The US Chamber of Commerce Says Trump Is Bad for Business
The administration’s in hot water with corporate America for draconian work visa policies.


By Sasha Abramsky Twitter July 28, 2020


The Signal this week is that pigs just might be able to fly.


In a little-noticed move, the US Chamber of Commerce, one of the Republican Party’s most reliable allies, has announced that it is preparing to sue the Trump administration over its anti-immigration executive orders and regulatory changes. This marks an extraordinary moment. The lobbying group has long regarded the GOP as the party of low taxes, deregulation, and anti-unionism, but also of free trade, internationalism, and a relatively open immigration system. The Chamber’s nearly unstinting support has been a huge boon to Republicans in recent decades.

Now US business interests are beside themselves with anger at the Trump administration’s recent efforts to shred the H-1B visa program, ongoing attempts to end Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA), and the ham-handed (albeit short-lived) decision to deny visas to international students whose colleges had moved to all-online classes during the pandemic. Chamber CEO Thomas Donohue even penned a furious op-ed for The New York Times, arguing that these actions “clearly exceed the authority of the executive branch, as they take a sledgehammer to the immigration laws that Congress crafted over many generations.”

Donahue writes that it is economically counterproductive to lock out skilled workers and kick out international students. In reference to the administration’s continued threats to end DACA despite the recent Supreme Court ruling that it had not provided a good reason to do so, Donohue states, “If you want children to grow up to reach their potential and live their American dream, you give them the tools and certainty to succeed; you don’t kick them out of the only country they’ve ever known.”


The Chamber’s eruption of rage at Trump’s nativism got shouted down by all the crass Noise this past week, including Trump’s threat to send tens of thousands of federal officers into cities around the country and the epithets that Ted Yoho lobbed at fellow representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (AOC held her own, publicly shaming Yoho with a powerful speech delivered from the floor of the chamber.)

But make no mistake: Even if it didn’t command the headlines last week, the Trump–Chamber of Commerce rift is a big, big deal. If the group breaks with Trump and sours on the Republican project more generally—and if the businesses it represents start to distance themselves from a Trumpified GOP—that could signal a major realignment, barely three months before the election.

Also in the pigs-can-fly category: Trump has spent much of his time in the White House trying to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act and cozying up to Big Pharma and the worst for-profit elements of the health care system. Last week, however, the Trump administration announced four executive orders seeking to rein in drug costs. One of these orders would allow patients to import lower-cost drugs from Canada. Another would seek to drive down drug prices in the United States by limiting Big Pharma’s ability to charge Medicare and other bulk purchasers more than it would charge in other countries. ......... .................................


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President Donald Trump speaks in front of a fake “pharmacy” backdrop at the White House complex, July 24, 2020. (Alex Brandon / AP Photo)







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