Latest news with #FrancisChung
NBC News
3 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Live updates: Trump attends NATO summit; Cuomo concedes NYC mayoral primary election
IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The Trump-backed Republican domestic policy bill is hitting some snags in the final stretch toward Senate passage. President Trump speaks to the media outside the White House on Tuesday. Francis Chung / Politico / Bloomberg via Getty Images Updated June 25, 2025, 7:17 AM EDT State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani is the leader as first-choice votes are tallied in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, ahead of former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who declared his rival the winner even though no candidate is set to secure a majority in the first round of the ranked choice election. Mamdani had been surging in the race's final weeks as he touted a progressive vision for a new direction for the city — one with rent freezes and city-run grocery stores price caps, free city buses and more. He boosted his appeal with energetic direct-to-camera videos, as well as moves like spending a weekend night before Election Day walking the length of Manhattan, stopping to chat with voters and record clips along the way. And he won the backing of prominent liberal politicians in the city as the flag-bearer of a unified, progressive effort aimed at depriving Cuomo a political comeback. Read the full story here.
Politico
19-06-2025
- Health
- Politico
Hospitals stunned by Senate GOP's Medicaid plan
Hospitals are hoping senators like West Virginia Republican Jim Justice will block a cut to their Medicaid payments. | Francis Chung/POLITICO One of the most powerful lobbies in Washington is redoubling its efforts to avoid a cut to Medicaid payments in the GOP's megabill. Hospital executives weren't happy last month when the House included a provision in its version of the bill freezing a loophole states have used to boost payments to hospitals serving the low-income patients enrolled in Medicaid. Hospitals have long enjoyed deference from lawmakers — since they both care for and employ their constituents. But they were infuriated when Senate Republicans on the Finance Committee released their version of the bill Monday. Their proposal went even further than the House measure in curtailing the ability of states to impose taxes on providers. States have used those taxes to gain a larger federal Medicaid contribution, which they have then directed back to hospitals with higher reimbursements. The Senate's proposal would lower the amount the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare can levy in provider taxes from 6 percent to 3.5 percent. It has hospital lobbyists painting a bleak picture of their financial prospects in a last-ditch effort to change senators' minds. 'No senator wants to be the reason their local hospital shutters its doors, and now is their opportunity to stop that from happening,' said a source familiar with hospital industry thinking, granted anonymity to speak freely on strategy. More than 250 hospital leaders flew into Washington on Tuesday to urge senators to preserve Medicaid as part of an American Hospital Association lobbying campaign. The association spent almost $8.5 million on lobbying in the first quarter of the year, a high water mark dating back almost two decades. 'There are aggressive conversations ongoing … to make sure that all senators recognize the vulnerability that it is going to potentially put all of our hospitals in,' said one stakeholder granted anonymity to speak on strategy, adding that the lobbying push will continue in the states later this week after senators depart Washington for the Juneteenth holiday. Hospitals have long gotten their way on Capitol Hill, as they don't just offer health care to a community but are sometimes its biggest employer. There are signs of encouragement this time around, too, as several influential GOP senators lodged objections to their colleagues' proposal after its release Monday. 'We've got all kinds of concerns,' Sen. Jim Justice ( who had accepted the House's language, said Tuesday. But for now, at least, anxiety is running high. The industry was able to get House Republicans to steer away from cuts to provider taxes. Instead, Republicans there installed a moratorium on any new taxes but allowed current ones to continue. Thirteen state hospital groups said they were okay with that. But the Senate went in another direction, and it has sent hospitals and their allies scrambling. 'The further the cuts that are made, the more devastating it is,' said Shantel Krebs, president and CEO of Avera St. Mary's, a hospital in South Dakota, in a call with reporters Tuesday. The Senate Finance Committee's version of the megabill keeps the moratorium in place, but only if the state is one of 10 that hasn't taken advantage of an Obamacare provision offering federal funds to expand Medicaid to cover lower-middle income people. States that have expanded Medicaid must lower their taxes to 3.5 percent. This would imperil more than 30 states and the District of Columbia that have taxes above 3.5 percent, according to data from the health care think tank KFF. The House version was palatable partly because red-state governors intervened to mitigate the impact, one hospital lobbyist said. 'I would assume there will be just a massive amount of pushback from states, and we'll see whether it moves the needle,' the person said. Hospitals are not used to losing on Capitol Hill. In recent years, they have successfully fought off efforts to lower Medicare payments for their outpatient clinics so they're in line with doctors' offices. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized hospitals for getting paid more for performing the same service. Hospital groups have also successfully fought off a payment cut to safety net hospitals, which serve low-income patients, that lawmakers included in Obamacare. The cut aimed to help pay for the bill. And the Democrats who passed Obamacare in 2010 expected the Medicaid expansion would make the hospitals whole. But Congress has repeatedly passed legislation to block the cuts from taking effect at hospitals' request. Now, the industry is working against a Senate hungry for savings to pay for the megabill, the primary purpose of which is to extend the tax cuts President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress enacted in 2017. It's also up against conservatives' philosophical opposition to the state taxes. Some conservatives close to Trump have argued that states and hospitals are essentially engaged in 'money laundering' when they use provider taxes to boost federal Medicaid contributions and then send the money back to the hospitals. Brian Blase of the conservative Paragon Health Institute posted on X on Monday that even Joe Biden wanted to tackle provider taxes. 'The [Senate Finance] proposal is just a commonsense good government step to restore accountability in Medicaid and focus states on getting value from their programs,' he said. GOP dissent Senate Republicans can lose only three members and still pass the megabill if Democrats remain united in opposition. GOP leaders want to meet Trump's demand that they pass it by July 4. Hospitals listening to the tepid reaction from some in the GOP caucus to the provider tax restrictions see reason for hope. 'From the standpoint of West Virginia, I think the president outlined where he stood, and what's coming out right now could be much different, and so we've got concerns,' Justice said, referencing Trump's repeated pledge to protect Medicaid. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has largely declined to delve into specifics since the Finance Committee released its plan, but she reiterated her concerns about the provider tax language and said she's still 'asking for many changes.' The most outspoken pushback has come from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who spoke with Trump on Tuesday. Hawley told reporters that the Senate language is 'alarming' and 'surprising' and that Trump had told him he was also surprised by the language in the bill. Finance Chair Mike Crapo's decision to go further in curtailing the taxes than the House bill caught GOP senators off guard, after several indicated last week that they expected the Senate's plan would largely match the House's. The two chambers will have to agree on the bill text before Trump can sign it into law. The language Crapo settled on nets the Idaho Republican and Senate Majority Leader John Thune something they are desperately hunting: more savings. Crapo predicted that making changes to the Medicaid language would help give Republicans several hundred billion dollars to work with. Republicans can pass the bill with a simple majority if they adhere to special budget rules that require the bill not increase the deficit within a 10-year window. 'Every spending reduction that we were able to achieve was helpful in achieving the permanence,' Crapo said, referencing GOP plans to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent. The 2017 law, in order to reduce the cost of the measure, set the tax cuts to expire at the end of this year. Crapo added that he was 'not surprised' that there was pushback from his colleagues and that the Medicaid language might not be fully locked in: 'Right now, we're vetting it,' he said. One lobbyist pointed out that hospitals would be happy to make a deal. 'Right now, the Senate bill is so bad for hospitals,' the person argued, 'that if it's softened a little bit, you could … almost neutralize them.'
The Irish Sun
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Irish Sun
Football fans must give Trump's World Cup a wide berth after chilling threat – Apple Pie is poisoned after 94 golden era
5 THE World Cup takes place in the United States next year, 32 years after they last hosted the greatest football show on earth. Advertisement 5 Trump met with the Fifa president this week ahead of next year's World Cup Credit: Francis Chung / Pool via CNP Tens of thousands of die-hard Green army men and women made their way by hook or by crook to To this day, I can still see the bouillon of lobster-red tans. If you close your eyes and think, 'Steve Staunton', you'll be with me too. Where were you when Ray Houghton brought the ball down on his chest and lobbed Gianluca Pagliuca from 24 yards in our first outing to beat Italy 1-0 in Giants Stadium? Jammed into a boozer somewhere, no doubt, hot under the collar, warm Advertisement READ MORE IN NEWS How in the name of god did we keep Baggio and co at bay for 80 minutes? Like dancing on the edge of a razor blade. Well, one word, Can you still recall angsty The confrontation wound him up so much he stormed onto the pitch, us 2-0 down to the majestic Advertisement Most read in The Irish Sun Then a few days later, did you lose the will to live while watching the mind-numbing sterility of the nil-nil draw with John Sheridan pinging the crossbar, the only light amid the New York gloom. Donald Trump claims letting Russia qualify for World Cup 2026 could be 'incentive' to end Ukraine war What about the battle with the Dutch? Were you there in that Orlando sweat box? Remember the burst water bags littering the pitch? The red cheeks, Packie's parry, the goals that sent us home? Advertisement All of those golden moments are banked as proper live-forever memories among those who were around back then. America in 1994 was our ancient friend, our ally in freedom, our home from home, our refuge throughout all the tough times of our history. And so it continued to be, even in the aftermath of the Twin Tower attacks on 9/11, 2001. 'IT'S NOT LIKE THAT ANYMORE' America always looked out, embraced the world, saw itself as its leader, morally obliged to be the protector of freedom, of individual liberty. Advertisement Yes, it made mistakes in the wars that were fought, but at heart, It's not like that any more. The Apple Pie is poisoned. When we look upon America under 'A DISRUPTIVE ANARCHY' In his first 100 days in power Trump and his team have swept aside the old established order and replaced it with a disruptive anarchy, where everything is for the chopping block. Advertisement Chaos is the order of the day. America, under Trump has become unrecognisable, an alien place. So he announces tariffs on world trade in the concocted belief America had been taken for a ride. He unleashes his stormtroopers in ICE to detain every illegal and legal immigrant deemed unworthy to remain in the US, including several Irish people who've lived legally in America for decades. He's defunded universities; kids libraries have been raided to bin books seen to promote decent human values, including diversity, inclusion and equality; overseas aid programmes that kept the poorest people in the world fed and watered, are being dismantled; climate change is being vociferously denied, as the 'drill baby, drill' mantra drowns out the notion of responsibility to the planet; drug pricing reforms that would have capped costs for the poorest Americans reliant on Medicaid are being axed too; vaccines undermined . . . the miserable list goes on and on. Advertisement MOST BEAUTIFUL GAME CLAIM Trump sat down with His JD Vance's He said: 'We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games. But when the time is up, we want them to go home, otherwise they will have to talk to Secretary (Kristi) Noem.' Advertisement She is Trump's Homeland Security Secretary and has been christened 'ICE Barbie' after getting glammed up for immigration raids which she streams live on social media. If you're in possession of a modicum of self respect, give U.S. 2026 a wide berth. The only excuse for going next year is if you've had a lobotomy. UNFIT FOR PURPOSE PEOPLE don't just get sick Monday to Friday 9 to 5, do they? So it's crazy that in 2025 the HSE still operates a five-day week roster with weekends largely unworked. The HSE's chief executive Bernard Gloster has been pushing to introduce an extended 8am to 8pm working day, where employees would work five days over a seven-day roster. It's eminently reasonable and how the real world works. The move would improve hospital overcrowding and ensure people are treated in a timely manner. But guess what? The unions are dragging their heels. Meetings were due yesterday but clashed with annual conferences, so have peen postponed. More delays are unacceptable. CAUGHT SKORT NO LONGER IT'S utterly bonkers that girls and women are forced to wear skorts while Advertisement A skort is a pair of shorts made to look like a skirt. Whoever invented the skort obviously never had to wear one. Probably because he was a bloke. 5 Players are fighting back against the mandatory kit Credit: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile Apparently, if you talk to Camogie players, a majority say they're extremely uncomfortable with buttons, that if they burst, leave nothing to the imagination. The girls who play the game are fed up with inaction from those in charge of Camogie and have taken matters into their own hands. Advertisement This weekend Cork and Waterford ladies square off in the Munster Final and they'll all be wearing shorts, not skorts. Cork ace Ashling Thompson urged the Camogie Association to listen to players' concerns, saying they want 'a choice in what we wear'. Well, it seems the Camogie Association A Special Congress has been convened for May 22 next to vote on allowing girls/women to wear shorts if they like. Common sense prevails. Advertisement EASY DAIL AT WORK THEY'RE as quiet as mice. Hasn't been a peep out of them for a good while. Of course, I'm talking about our government. Ah, give them time. They're only back from a long Bank Holiday weekend (they got an extra day off on Tuesday). 5 Nicole Ryan of Sinn Fein wore shorts in solidarity with the camogie players' fight Credit: Social Media Collect They started back to work in the Advertisement You see they get Fridays off too. Won't be back till next Wednesday. Well for them, isn't it. They mustn't have much work to do. The only thing they seemed to be concerned about on Wednesday was women wearing skorts in Camogie matches. Several Advertisement The government blathered on about being 'aware of the issue' and the importance of 'engagement'. Christ. And that was their day's work done. Off home again to gaze at their navels while Ireland burns on a bonfire of their ineptitude and listlessness. PAINFUL PRICE POINT HOW does a small bread roll, the size of a baby's fist, cost €1? An egg sandwich €5? A bottle of own brand water €2.50? Prices have gone Doolally. Someone is making a killing, and it isn't the poor saps who must grin and bear being fleeced. DUBLIN CITY TASK FORCE IT'S been 200 days since the government appointed Advertisement 1,000 more cops, an 'agile' public transport plan, and 'dedicated waste management system' were just three of the practical proposals that are easily implemented. Have they been? Not on your life. The report is gathering dust on Tanaiste And it died a death, it seems. Who'd have thought it would? Hands up. Betcha every single one of ye have the lamh suas. The CEO of the Licensed Vintners' Federation, Donall O'Keeffe said: 'It's almost 500 days since the day before the riots took place in the city centre. Advertisement What practical changes have taken place since? I think if anyone looked at Dublin the day before the riots and Dublin today, they wouldn't see any difference.' In other words, it's still a kip. MET GALA CLASS NOW, when it comes to Don't care for the luvvies, the canapes, the outrages clobber, the glitz, the glamour, the champagne, the inanities. Advertisement 5 Nicole Kidman stunned at the famous fundraiser Credit: Angela WEISS / AFP All that nonsense, flush it down the jacks and be gone. But when it comes to certain stars such as The Aussie actor, 57, is versatile, captivating and talented. Advertisement When she arrived at the Met Gala last week she was alone in exuding class, thrilling in a simple black dress that had jaws on the floor. Including mine.
South China Morning Post
03-04-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong's MPF gains US$4.5 billion in first quarter, or US$936 for each member
The 4.75 million members of Hong Kong's Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) earned an average of HK$7,300 (US$936) in the first quarter of this year, as the pension fund got a boost from a stock-market rally Advertisement On Thursday, the MPF reported a HK$34.8 billion investment return in the first quarter, according to data from MPF Ratings, an independent research firm. The MPF's 379 constituent funds generated an average return of 2.7 per cent in the first quarter, the best performance since a 4.1 per cent gain in the first quarter of 2023. For 2024, the MPF posted a return of 8.8 per cent. The results boosted the MPF's total assets to HK$1.338 trillion as of the end of March. The sum, which takes into account investment gains and new contributions from members, works out to HK$279,100 per person. That was 13 per cent higher than a year earlier, indicating an average portfolio increase of HK$30,000 per member. 'Notably, Hong Kong and China equities led all asset classes in the first quarter while US equities slumped,' said Francis Chung, the chairman of MPF Ratings. Advertisement 'This performance difference should serve as a harsh lesson for the record number of MPF members who switched out of Hong Kong and China equities and into US equities last year.'
