Trump impeached for abuse of power

WASHINGTON, United States — US President Donald Trump was impeached for abuse of power in a historic vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, setting up a Senate trial on removing him from office after three turbulent years.

By a 230 to 197 vote in the Democratic-majority House, the 45th US president becomes just the third occupant of the White House in American history to be impeached.

Democrats said they had "no choice" but to formally charge the Republican president, whose impeachment along stark party lines places an indelible stain on his record while driving a spike ever deeper into the US political divide.

"What is at risk here is the very idea of America," said Adam Schiff, the lawmaker who headed the impeachment inquiry, ahead of the vote.

Trump will now stand trial in the Senate, where his Republicans hold a solid majority and are expected to exonerate him.


The House vote came four months after a whistleblower blew open the scandal of Trump pressuring Ukraine's president to investigate his potential White House challenger in 2020, the veteran Democrat Joe Biden.

After a marathon of 10 hours of debate, lawmakers were to vote quickly on the second article of impeachment facing Trump -- for obstructing the congressional probe into his Ukraine dealings by blocking the testimony of subpoenaed White House aides.

Despite testimony from 17 officials that Trump leveraged his office for domestic politic gain, the president maintained his innocence throughout the impeachment inquiry -- furiously denouncing it as a "witch hunt," an "attempted coup" and on Wednesday as an "assault on America."

Trump spent the first part of the day holed up at the White House, sending out tweets reflecting his frustration, anger and predictions of revenge in the 2020 election.

But as the vote took place, the 73-year-old was on friendlier territory.

In an extraordinary split screen moment, while the House was casting votes to impeach him, thousands of Trump's most fervent supporters were cheering him at a rally in Michigan where he railed against a "radical left" he said was "consumed with hatred."

Democrats are "trying to nullify the ballots of tens of millions of patriotic Americans," he charged.

"Four more years, four more years," the crowd chanted back.

'Threat to national security'

Neither of the two previous presidents impeached since 1789, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998, was convicted in the Senate, and both held onto their jobs.

But despite the high likelihood of Trump being cleared by Senate Republicans, Democrats said the evidence against him was overwhelming and forced them to act.

"It is tragic that the president's reckless actions make impeachment necessary. He gave us no choice," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"It is a matter of fact that the president is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections."

Both camps approached the vote with solemnity.

"It's a big responsibility, it's sobering, and I think the members feel that way too," House Democrat Diana DeGette told AFP.

"I come to this floor not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as an American," said independent legislator Justin Amash.

"Impeachment is about maintaining the integrity of the office of the presidency."

'Triggered into impeaching'

The day of dramatic and often angry oratory saw both sides delving deep into Constitutional law, citing the intentions of the country's hallowed founders such as Benjamin Franklin or Alexander Hamilton.

Republicans repeatedly drove the line that the Democrats rushed the investigation; Trump was treated more unfairly than witches put on trial in the 17th century Americas -- or even than Jesus Christ, they claimed.

"Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers. During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats afforded this president and this process," said Georgia Republican Barry Loudermilk.

They accused Democrats of being driven by a party fringe of socialist extremists and "Trump-haters," and warned that impeaching Trump would backlash against the party in national elections next November.

"This is not about the Ukraine, it's about power," said Republican Matt Gaetz.

"Voters will never forget that Democrats have been triggered into impeaching the president, because they don't like him, and they don't like us."

Democrats countered that Republicans were not addressing the charges and evidence, instead issuing blanket denials and counter-accusations.

"We do not hear, because we cannot hear, because they cannot articulate, a real defense of the president's actions," said Jerry Nadler, whose Judiciary Committee drafted the charges against Trump.

source: philstar.com

Democrats scent victory over Trump's Republicans in Congress

WASHINGTON, United States — Democrats began to scent a big night in the US midterm elections Tuesday with early results pointing to them seizing the House of Representatives from the Republicans in what would be a dramatic rebuke to President Donald Trump.

With polls yet to close in swaths of the country, it was still far too early to know who will control the House and Senate, which for the first two years of Trump's presidency have been held by his Republican allies.

However, initial results -- like the flipping by Jennifer Wexton of a previously solidly Republican Virginia seat in the House -- signalled that pre-election predictions of Democrats taking over the lower chamber may be confirmed.


Democrats were also heartened by heavy turnout after a bitter campaign which at Trump's own insistence was widely seen as an unofficial referendum on his polarizing presidency. From New York to California and from Missouri to Georgia there were long lines from early morning at polling stations.

Although Republicans remained forecast to keep control of the Senate, a Democratic House would upend the current Washington power balance.


Trump has spent months ahead of the midterms deriding the Democrats as bent on destroying the US economy and allowing criminals to run riot.

But with the party leading the House, Trump would be forced to compromise more -- or risk presiding over an ever more divided country. Democrats, still smarting from Trump's extraordinary upset win against Hillary Clinton in 2016, would likely use their ascendancy to exact payback.

Democratic leadership of the House's powerful investigative committees would breathe new wind into probes of Trump's opaque personal finances, Russian interference in the 2016 election, and even calls for his impeachment.

Confident Democratic leaders
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 seats in the 100-member Senate and 36 governorships were up for grabs.

Polls indicated that Democrats have a good chance of winning the 23 seats they need to seize the House, while Republicans could slightly increase their razor-thin Senate majority of 51-49.

Pollsters, gun shy after getting their 2016 predictions wrong, urged caution. Several dozen midterm races where candidates from the two sides were barely separated will decide the day.

Even so, Democrats were confident, with Nancy Pelosi, the party's top leader in the House, saying "it's just a question of the size of the victory."

Former vice president Joe Biden, often touted as a possible Democratic candidate to take on Trump in 2020, said he'd be "dumbfounded" not to win the House.

The first polling stations closed at 6:00 pm Eastern time (2300 GMT) in parts of Kentucky and Indiana, with the last to close seven hours later in Alaska, and results trickling in through the evening.

Big turnout
Voters often sit out the midterms. This time, they're sitting up.

According to Michael McDonald of the US Elections Project, 38.4 million Americans cast their ballots early ahead of this election, compared with 27.4 million in the 2014 midterm.

And on the streets there was a palpable buzz.

"We have already seen huge turnout, people out and about knocking on doors, making sure everybody gets out there, but I think turnout will be very, very high," Democratic candidate Katie Porter, who is running in Irvine, California, against two-term Republican incumbent Mimi Walters, told AFP.

On the other side of the country, in Atlanta, Georgia, voters waited in line for nearly two hours to cast ballots, according to local media reports.

At a polling station in Arlington, Virginia, head election officer William Harkins said "it's a very good turnout."

Trump himself noted the energy as he wrapped up a punishing schedule of rallies around the country that were intended to boost Republican candidates -- and his own brand heading towards reelection in 2020.

"The midterm elections used to be, like, boring," Trump told a crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday. "Now it's like the hottest thing."

Immigration fears
Trump was watching the results alongside friends and family at the White House, his spokeswoman said.

The president so dominates politics across the country that despite not being on any ballot he has made the election largely about him.

Voting in Chicago, James Gerlock, 27, a Republican, said he wanted to see more of the soaring economic growth that Trump says is the fruit of his business-friendly policies.

"I am extremely happy with the economy," Gerlock said. "I just want to keep everything moving, because I'm loving it."

But Democrats have been fired up by anger at Trump's extraordinary attacks over the last few weeks against immigrants, claiming that his opponents seek to throw open the borders to "drug dealers, predators and bloodthirsty MS-13 killers."

Trump has sent soldiers to the Mexican border, threatened to have illegal immigrants shot if they throw stones at the border, and vowed to restrict citizenship rights.

Beto O'Rourke, a charismatic Democrat in a closely watched bid to dethrone Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Texas, told voters that Trump was wrong, describing his state as built from "immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees."

The result in Texas will say much about which way argument has worked best in these polarized times. Other tight Senate races are in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Nevada, North Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia.

source: philstar.com

Republicans unveil plan to avert US debt default, probably end standoff

WASHINGTON - Republicans in the House of Representatives on Thursday unveiled a plan that would avert a looming US default, in a sign that lawmakers may end a standoff that has rattled financial markets and thrown America's future creditworthiness into question.

Ahead of a meeting with President Barack Obama, it was unclear whether Republicans would be willing to end a government shutdown that took effect on October 1 without concessions that would undermine Obama's signature healthcare law, a stance that precipitated the crisis.

Still, the offer to raise the debt ceiling is a significant shift for Republicans, who had hoped to extract concessions on spending and health care. By extending the government's borrowing authority until possibly the middle or end of November, it would eliminate the near-term threat of a default that would hit everyone from retirees to bondholders.

"It's time for these negotiations and this conversation to begin," House Speaker John Boehner told reporters after presenting the plan to his fellow Republicans.

Obama has already said he is willing to consider a short-term debt ceiling increase as long as it is not tied to other concessions. Obama will take a look at the proposal, a White House official said. But the White House insisted that Republicans also must agree to end a government shutdown that took effect on October 1.

Many rank-and-file Republicans also appeared to be skeptical of the deal when Boehner presented it at a closed-door meeting on Thursday morning, aides said. Boehner's grip over his troops has been tenuous this year and many of the chamber's most conservative lawmakers have defied him repeatedly on other crucial votes.

Still, investors seemed to be heartened by the development. US stocks rallied strongly with major indexes climbing more than 1 percent.

The Treasury Department says it will be unable to pay all of its bills if Congress does not raise the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by October 17. Republicans say the Obama administration would be able to keep up with its bond payments at the expense of other obligations if that deadline was missed. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said that's not possible.

"It would be chaos," he told the Senate Finance Committee.

The Republican plan would postpone that day of reckoning by six weeks, which would give them more time to seek spending cuts, a repeal of a medical-device tax, or other measures they say are needed to keep the national debt at a manageable level.

Democrats have called for a debt-ceiling hike that would extend government borrowing authority for more than a year.

The House could vote on the measures as early as Thursday afternoon, though timing remained unclear. House leaders canceled a planned recess and said they would remain in Washington next week to keep working on the problem.

With the October 17 deadline a week away, Obama is scheduled to meet with House Republican leaders on Thursday afternoon. He is also due to meet separately with Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans.

The plan would do nothing to resolve Republican objections to Obama's healthcare reform bill, known as the Affordable Care Act, which prompted the October 1 shutdown.

Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been out of work since then and individual businesses, from arms makers to motels, have begun to lay off workers as well.

The Labor Department said on Thursday that 15,000 private-sector workers have filed for unemployment benefits due to the shutdown.

House Republicans have passed bills that would reopen portions of the government and otherwise ease the pain of the shutdown, but they still hope to tie a full restoration of government funding to conditions that would undercut "Obamacare," as it is popularly known. (Additional reporting by Jason Lange, Thomas Ferraro, Steve Holland and Roberta Rampton)

source: interaksyon.com

Pacman remains richest congressman

MANILA, Philippines -- Manny Pacquiao may have lost his boxing crown but the Sarangani representative remains king in the House of Representatives, remaining the wealthiest of the chambers’ 278 members according to the summary report of filed Statements of Assets Liabilities and Net worth for 2012.

Pacquiao's net worth even jumped from P1.352 billion in 2011 to P1.770 billion in 2012, according to the document released by the Office of the House Secretary General. 

In 2010, the boxing champion posted a net worth of P1.130 billion. For 2012, he had a total of P258 million liabilities.

For the third straight year, Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano was the poorest, with a net worth of only P92,507.

ALE Representative Catalina Bagasina emerged as the richest party-list member with a net worth of P113.77 million.

The 10 richest members of the House remained the same as last year, except for Ilocos Norte Representative Rodolfo Farinas, who fell to 16th spot, and Rizal Representative Joel Roy Duavit, who joined the ranks of the wealthiest.

The top 20 richest House members are:

    1.   Manny Pacquiao (Sarangani) - P1.770 billion (net worth)
    2.   Imelda Marcos (Ilocos Norte) - P 922.80 million
    3.   Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Quezon City) - P 817.54 million
    4.   Alfredo Benitez (Negros Occidental) - P 702.06 million
    5.   Julio Ledesma IV (Negros Occidental) - P 590.55 million
    6.   Martin Romualdez (Leyte) - P 474.18 million
    7.   Mark Villar (Las Pinas) - P 361.78 million
    8.   Augusto Syjuco (Iloilo) - P 301.57 million
    9.   Enrique Cojuangco (Tarlac) - P 214.83 million
    10. Joel Roy Duavit (Rizal) - P 195.92 million
    11. Rodolfo Antonino  (Nueva Ecija) - P 189.00 million
    12. Danilo Suarez  (Quezon) - P 188.72 million
    13. Lucy Torres-Gomez  (Leyte) - P 179.60 million
    14. Ferjenel Biron (Iloilo) - P 173.39 million
    15. Lani Mercado (Cavite) - P 169.14 million
    16. Rodolfo Farinas (Ilocos Norte) - P 159.48 million
    17. Aurelio Gonzales (Pampanga) - P 158.30 million
    18. Rodolfo Valencia (Oriental Mindoro) - P 150.64 million
    19. Joseph Violago (Nueva Ecija) - P 121.26 million
    20. Gloria Arroyo  (Pampanga) - P 120.51 million


(Click to download the list of House members according to net worth)

Among the House members who ran for senator, Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo Angara was the wealthiest, with a net worth of P99.48 million.

He was followed by Zambales Representative Mitos Magsaysay with P82.61 million, Cagayan Representative Jack Enrile with P78.71 million, San Juan Representative Joseph Victor Ejercito with P72.62 million, and Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teddy Casino with P446,389.

Angara and Ejercito made it to the top 12 in the Senate race.

source: interaksyon.com

House members differ over Pacquiao's fight against BIR

MANILA, Philippines -- House members are of two minds on the accusation by their peer, Saranggani Rep. Manny Pacquiao, that he is being persecuted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. One view holds he should just quietly settle the issue with the tax agency, while another view insists he was treated unfairly.

Leaders of the House of Representatives said Wednesday that instead of crying harassment, Pacquiao should just explain to the BIR the questions raised on his tax payments.

“Congressman Pacquiao should talk to BIR preferably with his accountant. That’s the better way to settle the issue,” Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said.

The issue at hand stems from a case the BIR lodged against Pacquiao for alleged violation of Section 266 of the National Internal Revenue Code or the provision on “failure to obey summons.”

Majority Leader and Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales II said the cry of harassment by the boxing champion was unfounded.

“There no basis to cry harassment,” Gonzales said, adding “to further connect it to the impeachment is hitting below the belt.”

But Pacquiao's friend and colleague from San Juan City thinks otherwise.

“Insensitive and a major distraction in preparation for Pacman’s June fight” was how San Juan Rep. JV Ejercito slammed the BIR and Commissioner Kim Henares’ attitude toward their handling of the alleged tax fraud case against Pacquiao.

The lawmaker said this distraction is all due to the bureau’s process of exacting tax, which has now come to a point of harassment to the personality of the Sarangani Representative.

“BIR’s duty is given; Manny is not taking that personally. What only bothers him is how his case is being handled. Because BIR officials coming out to speak to the media is apparently becoming an attack to his personality rather than what they say as a fulfillment of duty,” Ejercito explained.

“For example, in news reports, some government officials may not be blatantly labeling Pacman as a tax evader. But if you read between the lines, it’s all the same,” he added.

And given Pacquiao’s rock star status, Ejercito said the media picks up almost every news item that relates with the boxing champ so easily.

“It is just unfortunate that at this time that Pacman needs to promote his upcoming fight, some government officials choose to feed media with pressers that smear on his personality,” he furthered.

“Is this how the government repays him with the victories he has brought to our country, by harassing him in the public to pay his taxes?”

But this is not to say that he and his colleagues in Congress are seeking for special attention with regard to Pacquiao's taxes, the lawmaker said. “Manny is only asking for consideration that they (government) listen to his side of the story. Because after all, he is also a public official.”

In the end, Ejercito hopes the BIR is not merely riding on Pacquiao’s popularity to portray that it is performing well, but is only after accomplishing its tax exacting responsibilities.

source: interaksyon.com