Michelle Obama's Pivot From Politics
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Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
South Korea trade minister to leave for U.S. on Friday as tariff deadline looms
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo will leave for the United States on Friday for tariff talks, just days ahead of the July 9 deadline when U.S. tariffs could rise sharply. Yeo said he would consider requesting an extension of the reciprocal tariff pause, depending on the progress of negotiations with U.S. officials. South Korea has sought exemptions from U.S. President Donald Trump's punishing tariffs on imports of automobiles and steel products, as well as a 25% "reciprocal" levy on the Asian ally currently paused for negotiations. Washington is demanding better access to the agriculture and car sectors, and improved market access and non-discriminatory treatment in the digital sector, Yeo told a parliamentary hearing on Friday. "The government will respond flexibly by taking into account the level of the U.S. demands and domestic political security sensitivities," he said. Asked about whether South Korea could meet the July 9 deadline, Yeo said the substance of negotiations mattered more than the deadline. Yeo said he would ask the U.S. to take time and accelerate talks to reach a "win-win" deal.
Boston Globe
17 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Democrats see Trump's big bill as key to their comeback. It may not be so easy.
Indeed, in political battlegrounds across Alaska and Iowa, Pennsylvania and California, Democrats have already begun to use Trump's bill to bludgeon their Republican rivals. Democrats are promising that the package — Trump's biggest domestic policy achievement to date — will be the defining issue of every major election between now and next fall's high-stakes midterms. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'One thing is abundantly clear: Republicans own this mess and it's an albatross around their necks heading into the midterms,' Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin told The Associated Press. 'This is the least popular legislation in modern history, and the more voters learn about it, the more they hate it. That's a clear directive for Democrats -- we're going to make sure every single voter knows who is responsible.' Advertisement Even with early public opinion on their side, however, it's far from certain that the Republican budget bill will be the political winner Democrats hope. Advertisement The Democratic brand remains deeply unpopular, the party has no clear leader, its message is muddled and core elements of the Democratic base are frustrated and drifting. Some of the bill's changes won't take effect until after the 2026 midterms, so voters may not have felt the full impact by the time they vote. At the same time, it's unclear how many voters are paying attention to the Washington-based debate. The Democratic super PAC Priorities USA warned this week that Democrats must work harder if they want their message to break through the polarized media environment. 'We can't just assume that because we're angry that the voters that we need to communicate with are angry. Everyone needs to step up and realize the enormous challenge that's in front of us,' Executive Director Danielle Butterfield said. 'We're nowhere near a good starting place.' At its core, the bill's priority is $4.5 trillion in tax breaks enacted in Trump's first term that would expire if Congress failed to act, along with new ones. This includes allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay. The package includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to Medicaid and food stamps and a massive rollback of green energy investments. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the package will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the decade. Democrats in Congress were united against the bill, and even some Republicans expressed concerns. But ultimately, Trump persuaded the conservative holdouts to fall in line. Democrats' challenge on display Privately, some Democrats conceded that Republicans were smart to pass the bill on the eve of a holiday weekend when fewer voters would be paying attention. And as some Democrats in Washington predicted a fierce political backlash across America, the response was somewhat muted Thursday at a Democratic event in Iowa, barely 10 miles from the Iowa State Fairgrounds where Trump later drew thousands for an evening rally. Advertisement An audience of roughly 100 people listened as local Democratic officials railed against the legislation and called on voters to oust Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, the local congressman, for supporting it. Audience member Michael Rieck, 69, said Iowa Democrats left him a message about the rally, but when he went online to learn more, 'there was nothing.' 'I texted back to them that I didn't see any advertisement,' he said. 'They slowly corrected that. I'm still not impressed with what they did to advertise this event.' Rieck said he wants to see different factions of the party better coordinate their message. Meanwhile, progressive activists were moving through Minnesota in a big green bus as part of Fair Share America's 29-stop 'stop the billionaire giveaway' tour. The group is focused on Republican-led congressional districts where elected officials have largely stopped having in-person town halls with constituents. Fair Share Executive Director Kristen Crowell said the crowds, even some Trump supporters, have been receptive. Still, she acknowledged many people don't know what's in the bill. 'We know we're fighting upstream,' she said. 'But when people hear exactly what's in this bill, they're adamantly opposed. I mean, I can tell you, in 17 stops, I've not had one person come up to me and say, 'You are on the wrong side of this.'' What the polls say The GOP's bill is generally unpopular, according to polling conducted throughout the month of June, although some individual provisions are popular. Advertisement For example, a Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that majorities of U.S. adults support increasing the annual child tax credit and eliminating taxes on earnings from tips, and about half support work requirements for some adults who receive Medicaid. On the other hand, the poll found that majorities oppose reducing federal funding for food assistance to low-income families and spending about $45 billion to build and maintain migrant detention centers. The price tag could be a sticking point. About 6 in 10 U.S. adults in the poll said it was 'unacceptable' that the bill is expected to increase the U.S. national debt, currently at $36 trillion, by about $3 trillion over the next decade. But polling indicates that most Americans aren't paying attention to the nuances of the bill, either. The Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that only about one-third of U.S. adults have heard 'a great deal' or 'a good amount' about it. Democrats are planning a summer of organizing The Democratic National Committee and its allies plan an 'organizing summer' that will feature town halls, training and voter registration drives in at least 35 competitive congressional districts. The message will be focused heavily on Trump's bill. Democratic groups also are expected to unveil a new round of digital attack ads targeting vulnerable Republicans in the coming days. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who leads the Democratic Governors Association, said her party must keep the bill's contents at the forefront of people's minds to ensure it's an issue in the 2026 midterm elections — and even the next presidential election in 2028. 'We'll just have to keep that on the radar,' she said. Meanwhile, progressive groups are planning a 'Family First' day of action for July 26 in all 50 states. They'll highlight vulnerable Americans hurt by the new Medicaid cuts and hold a 60-hour vigil at the U.S. Capitol. Advertisement 'Because people call Medicaid something different in every state, a lot of people didn't realize — until this very moment — that their health care was at stake,' said one of the Family First organizers, Ai-jen Poo, president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. 'We have made a promise to each other and to future generations that there will be a safety net in place when we need it. And this is what's being ripped away. And people will not stand for it.' Peoples reported from New York. AP writers Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; and Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, contributed.
Associated Press
20 minutes ago
- Associated Press
A year before declaring independence, colonists offered 'Olive Branch' petition to King George III
NEW YORK (AP) — Alarmed by the policies of President Donald Trump, millions turned out last month for protests around the United States and overseas. Mindful of next year's 250th anniversary of American independence, organizers called the movement 'No Kings.' Had the same kind of rallies been called for in the summer of 1775, the response likely would have been more cautious. 'It ('No Kings') was probably a minority opinion in July 1775,' says H.W. Brands, a prize-winning scholar and chair of the history department at the University of Texas at Austin. 'There was a lot of passion for revolution in New England, but that was different from the rest of the country,' says Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis. 'There were still people who don't want to drawn into what they feared was an unnecessary war.' This month marks the 250th anniversary — the semiquincentennial — of a document enacted almost exactly a year before the Declaration of Independence: 'The Olive Branch Petition,' ratified July 5, 1775 by the Continental Congress. Its primary author was John Dickinson, a Pennsylvanian whose writing skills led some to call him the 'Penman of the Revolution,' and would stand as a final, desperate plea to reconcile with Britain. They put forth a pre-revolutionary argument The notion of 'No Kings' is a foundation of democracy. But over the first half of 1775 Dickinson and others still hoped that King George III could be reasoned with and would undo the tax hikes and other alleged abuses they blamed on the British Parliament and other officials. Ellis calls it the 'Awkward Interval,' when Americans had fought the British in Lexington and Concord and around Bunker Hill, while holding off from a full separation. 'Public opinion is changing during this time, but it still would have been premature to issue a declaration of independence,' says Ellis, whose books include 'Founding Brothers,' 'The Cause' and the upcoming 'The Great Contradiction.' The Continental Congress projected unity in its official statements. But privately, like the colonies overall, members differed. Jack Rakove, a professor of history at Stanford University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 'Original Meanings,' noted that delegates to Congress ranged from 'radicals' such as Samuel Adams who were avid for independence to such 'moderates' as Dickinson and New York's John Jay. The Olive Branch resolution balanced references to 'the delusive pretences, fruitless terrors, and unavailing severities' administered by British officials with dutiful tributes to shared ties and to the king's 'royal magnanimity and benevolence.' '(N)otwithstanding the sufferings of your loyal Colonists during the course of this present controversy, our Breasts retain too tender a regard for the Kingdom from which we derive our Origin to request such a Reconciliation as might in any manner be inconsistent with her Dignity or her welfare,' the sometimes obsequious petition reads in part. The American Revolution didn't arise at a single moment but through years of anguished steps away from the 'mother' country — a kind of weaning that at times suggested a coming of age, a young person's final departure from home. In letters and diaries written in the months before July 1775, American leaders often referred to themselves as children, the British as parents and the conflict a family argument. Edmund Pendleton, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, urged 'a reconciliation with Our mother Country.' Jay, who would later help negotiate the treaty formally ending the Revolutionary War, proposed informing King George that 'your majesty's American subjects' are 'bound to your majesty by the strongest ties of allegiance and affection and attached to their parent country by every bond that can unite societies.' In the Olive Branch paper, Dickinson would offer tribute to 'the union between our Mother country and these colonies.' An early example of 'peace through strength' The Congress, which had been formed the year before, relied in the first half of 1775 on a dual strategy that now might be called 'peace through strength,' a blend of resolve and compromise. John Adams defined it as 'to hold the sword in one hand, the olive branch in the other.' Dickinson's petition was a gesture of peace. A companion document, 'The Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms,' was a statement of resolve. The 1775 declaration was drafted by Thomas Jefferson, who a year later would be the principal writer of the Declaration of Independence, revised by Dickinson and approved by the Congress on July 6. The language anticipated the Declaration of Independence with its condemnation of the British for 'their intemperate Rage for unlimited Domination' and its vows to 'make known the Justice of our Cause.' But while the Declaration of Independence ends with the 13 colonies 'absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,' the authors in 1775 assured a nervous public 'that we mean not to dissolve that Union which has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which we sincerely wish to see restored.' 'Necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate Measure, or induced us to excite any other Nation to war against them,' they wrote. John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were among the peers of Dickinson who thought him naive about the British, and were unfazed when the king refused even to look at the Olive Branch petition and ruled that the colonies were in a state of rebellion. Around the same time Dickinson was working on his draft, the Continental Congress readied for further conflict. It appointed a commander of the newly-formed Continental Army, a renowned Virginian whom Adams praised as 'modest and virtuous ... amiable, generous and brave.' His name: George Washington. His ascension, Adams wrote, 'will have a great effect, in cementing and securing the Union of these Colonies.'
