This Week in Politics - Week of March 6

Post date: Mar 21, 2017 12:2:48 PM

Published 3/21/17

By Nick Robertson, '19

Trump signs an Executive Order in the Oval Office. At the beginning of his term, Trump signed an average of 1.5 orders per day. Sean Spicer // Wikimedia Commons

Welcome to This Week in Politics, the recurring column covering the highlights in politics for this week.

Saturday, March 4 - Sunday, March 5

• • President Donald Trump Claims former President Barack Obama Tapped Phones

    • Trump announced in a tweet that he intends to investigate his claim that Obama has the phones of Trump Tower wiretapped weeks before the election.

      • No evidence has been provided for the claim, and it has been denounced by the CIA, and the Director of the FBI James Comey.

Monday, March 6

• • New Immigration Executive Order Signed

    • Trump did not publicize the signing, having multiple speakers talk about the order on his behalf. This order replaces the one that was shot down in Federal Appeals Court, but slightly limits its extent.

    • The Executive Order contains some changes:

      • Green card and Visa holders are no longer affected

      • Iraq has been removed from the list of banned countries

      • Syrian refugees are only banned for 120 days, instead of indefinitely

    • The order goes into effect on March 12

  • Obamacare Replacement Revealed

    • House Republicans published their bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, which does not change every aspect of Obama’s legacy legislature.

    • The changes include:

      • Repeal of the Individual Mandate and Employers Mandate making health care required.

      • Repeal of “cost-sharing” subsidies to consumers and change to premiums subsidies.

        • Under the new system, consumers will receive premiums subsidies based on their age instead of their income.

      • Halts new expansions to Medicaid for states.

      • Expands the max size of a health savings account, a tax free government bank account used for emergency medical expenses.

      • Changes age pricing from 1:3 to 1:5.

        • Health care providers can now charge their oldest customers five times more than their youngest, increased from three times.

    • Popular clauses, like the ability for children to stay on their parents policies until 26, no discrimination based upon pre-existing conditions, and no lifetime cost limits, are all kept in the House bill

Tuesday, March 7

• • CIA Vault 7 Program Leaked

    • WikiLeaks released documents describing the CIA’s Vault 7 program. The Vault 7 program is a surveillance system that uses many personal electronics, such as cell phones, laptops, and even certain televisions, to listen to and see people in their homes.

      • Both the Trump administration and the CIA have denied the validity of the leak.

  • Afghanistan Hospital Bombing Kills 30

    • ISIS has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing inside a Kabul, Afghanistan hospital.

    • At least 30 were killed and over 50 wounded.

Wednesday, March 8

• • Russia Violates Missile Treaty

    • The Vice President of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress that Russia deployed a prohibited cruise missile.

  • International Women's Day

    • Millions around the world celebrated International Women’s Day with protests against inequality.

    • France held the largest strike, with millions of women leaving their jobs at exactly 3:40 p.m., symbolically the time of day when Frenchwomen stop being paid because of wage inequality.

Thursday, March 9

• • President of South Korea Ousted

    • President Park Geun-hye has been removed from office after being impeached, a first for the country, after she was involved in a wide-scale corruption scandal.

      • Park is alleged to collect tens of millions of dollars from Samsung, as well as use her influence to gain power for her friends in government.

Friday, March 10

• • 46 United States Attorneys Asked to Resign

    • On order from the Trump Administration, the attorneys were asked to submit letters of resignation.

    • The attorneys included powerful Manhattan Attorney General Preet Bharara, who is infamous for corruption investigations.

      • Bharara refused to resign, and was promptly fired Saturday.

  • National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, Agent of Turkey

    • It was released that former Flynn was acting as an official agent of Turkey while on the Trump campaign.

    • Both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence denied knowledge of Flynn being a foreign agent.

      • Pence was sent a letter by Flynn, describing his relation with Turkey, in September of 2016.

    • Flynn was paid over $500,000 while acting as an agent of the eastern Mediterranean nation.

  • Protests Erupt in South Korea

  • Thousands took to the streets to protest the removal of Park Geun-hye from president. Special elections must be held within three months of her removal, according to the South Korean constitution.