memeorandum: Price says he'll repay taxpayers for his private jet travel (Rachana Pradhan/Politico)

5:55 PM ET, September 28, 2017

Top Items:

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:

With Tax Cuts on the Table, Once-Mighty Deficit Hawks Hardly Chirp — WASHINGTON — In 2001, when surging budget surpluses fueled hopes of extinguishing the national debt, a pitched battle broke out over President George W. Bush's proposed $1.6 trillion tax cut.

Discussion: CRFB Papers and Blog Posts, The Hill, CNBC, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Associated Press, Vox, Business Insider, Political Wire, Hit & Run, Daily Kos, Eschaton and Politico

Morgan Winsor / ABC News:

Trump adviser 'can't guarantee' taxes won't go up for middle class — President Donald Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, said today that he can't guarantee that taxes won't go up for some middle-class families under the administration's sweeping tax overhaul.

Discussion: Breitbart, Shakesville, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Week, Joe.My.God., Talking Points Memo, Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Associated Press and New York Magazine

Heather Long / Washington Post:

9 ways Trump's tax plan is a gift to the rich, including himself — President Trump and congressional Republicans keep saying their tax plan doesn't help the rich. But that's not true. — The nine-page outline released Wednesday is full of goodies that will make millionaires and billionaires happy.

Discussion: Axios, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, New York Magazine and FOX2now.com

Mike Allen / Axios:

Trump skeptical of his own tax plan — President Trump has built an escape hatch from his own tax plan. In Indianapolis yesterday, he bragged that it's the “largest tax cut in our county's history.” But in the West Wing earlier, Trump resisted the framework that had been cooked …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, ABC News, USA Today, The Rush Limbaugh Show, New York Magazine, No More Mister Nice Blog, Business Insider, Pew Research Center and ThinkProgress

Eric Boehlert / Shareblue:
George Stephanopoulos forces White House to admit Trump is lying about middle-class tax cuts

Discussion: IJR, Indianapolis Star, Hullabaloo, Politicus USA and New York Magazine

Bruce Bartlett / Washington Post:
I helped create the GOP tax myth. Trump is wrong: Tax cuts don't equal growth.

Discussion: CNN

Berkeley Lovelace Jr / CNBC:
Gary Cohn: ‘No room to negotiate’ our 20% corporate tax-rate proposal

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Signal and Reuters

Binyamin Appelbaum / New York Times:
Trump Tax Plan Benefits Wealthy, Including Trump

Discussion: ThinkProgress, ABC News, Power Line, Politico, NBC News, Washington Post, The White House, Business Insider, Mediaite, The Atlantic, Politicus USA, Outside the Beltway, Reuters, IJR, The Moderate Voice, Daily Kos, Bloomberg and Speaker.gov

Jake Tapper / CNN:

Exclusive: Kushner didn't disclose personal email account to Senate intel committee — Washington (CNN)In his closed interview with the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner did not share the existence of his personal email account …

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Business Insider, Balloon Juice, Above the Law, Raw Story, The Hill, Daily Kos and Mediaite

Brandon Carter / The Hill:
Senate Intel Committee says Kushner didn't disclose personal email account: report

Discussion: RedState

Jason Silverstein / New York Daily News:
Jared Kushner actually is registered to vote as a male, despite database error saying otherwise

Discussion: Axios, The Daily Caller and CNN

Tomi Kilgore / MarketWatch:

Mark Cuban, Pitbull step up, but Trump administration making Puerto Rico evacuees pay — Evacuees on U.S.-government-coordinated transport must sign IOUs for the cost — and give up their passports as collateral — A billionaire business shark and a “worldwide” pop star have donated the use …

Discussion: ABC News, Hullabaloo and Joe.My.God.

Jennifer Gould Keil / New York Post:

Puerto Rico's stray dog packs all killed by hurricane — The dogs ran wild on so-called “Dead Dog Beach” in Puerto Rico — abused and then abandoned by their owners. — Then the hurricane hit, and the feral dogs were washed away. None survived. — Christina Beckles …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

John Bowden / The Hill:
Trump administration requiring Puerto Rico evacuees to pay transportation costs

Discussion: ABC News and Snopes.com

CNN:
Puerto Rico's aid is trapped in thousands of shipping containers

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Axios, CityLab, CNBC, Daily Kos, Grist, The Atlantic, WHNT-TV, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Gizmodo, Mother Jones, CNNMoney and The Daily Caller

Niraj Chokshi / New York Times:
Jones Act Waived for Puerto Rico, Easing Hurricane Aid Shipments

Christopher Flavelle / Bloomberg:
General Who Turned Around Katrina Response Criticizes Puerto Rico Efforts

Discussion: AOL, Common Dreams, Raw Story and New York Times

Eric Boehlert / Shareblue:
Updated: Trump administration is gouging hurricane evacuees

Discussion: CNNMoney, Little Green Footballs, HuffPost, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller and CNN

Laura Blewitt / Bloomberg:
Mountains of Aid Are Languishing on the Docks in Puerto Rico

Discussion: Newsweek, Washington Post, RedState, Daily Kos and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Twitter:

Russian Interference in 2016 US Election, Bots, & Misinformation — Earlier this summer we outlined some of our work to combat bots and networks of manipulation on Twitter. Since then, we have received a number of questions about how malicious bots and misinformation networks on Twitter …

Discussion: CNNMoney, Recode, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Axios, Business Insider, CNN, Political Wire, BuzzFeed, Gizmodo, Engadget, Mediaite, Mashable, The Guardian and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

Ali Breland / The Hill:
Twitter finds 200 accounts connected to Russian election influence

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Axios, Politico and Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »

Rachana Pradhan / Politico:

Price says he'll repay taxpayers for his private jet travel — Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said he will write a personal check to the federal government for his costs of traveling on private jets and will permanently halt his use of charter flights.

Discussion: Axios, Business Insider, The Week and Politicus USA

Nathaniel Weixel / The Hill:

Price to reimburse taxpayers for cost of charter jets — Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price — vowed Thursday to reimburse taxpayers for his use of private charter jets for official government business. — “Today, I will write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury …

Discussion: ABC News, Political Wire, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine, Talking Points Memo, The Week and Washington Post

The Intercept:

Lindsey Graham on Obamacare Repeal: I Had No Idea What I Was Doing … Senate Democrats and their progressive allies spent the last week-and-a-half in a full-blown mobilization against an existential threat to the Affordable Care Act. — Now that it has fizzled out, the lead author of the measure …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, ACA Signups, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story

John Cassidy / New Yorker: Why the War Over Health Care Isn't Over

Ian Millhiser / ThinkProgress:

The Supreme Court's legitimacy problem — Neil Gorsuch, the man who occupies a seat on the Supreme Court because Senate Republicans held it open until Donald Trump could fill it, is on a bit of a victory tour. — Last week, the staunchly conservative judge spoke at the University …

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Caller, Common Dreams, Above the Law, Splinter and fed-soc.org

David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
Supreme Court poised to deal a sharp blow to unions for teachers and public employees

Discussion: New York Magazine and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Peggy Fikac / MySanAntonio.com:
Trump picks Texas Supreme Court justice, former solicitor general for U.S appellate court

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Hit & Run

Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:

The GOP Loses Again—and Moore — Trump and leaders in Congress should find the latest Republican failure sobering. — It was a disastrous day for the whole GOP—President Trump, congressional Republicans, grass-roots activists and anyone who wants progress on the party's agenda.

Discussion: New York Magazine and Politico

Mark K. Matthews / Denver Post:
Steve Bannon met with Tom Tancredo about a possible run for Colorado governor, Tancredo says

Discussion: Politico

Howard Koplowitz / al.com:
Russell County GOP head says he and Roy Moore are ‘anti-Muslim’ and it's not a ‘big deal’

Discussion: The Atlantic and NBC News

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

There Is No GOP Establishment or Base. Just Massive Resistance. — In a new story at NBC News, Steve Kornacki says there is a new GOP uprising underway leading into the 2018 election. It is a replay or the next stage of similar eruptions in 2010 and 2012 and to a lesser extent in 2014.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and NBC News

Marlow Stern / The Daily Beast:

The Time Donald Trump Turned Away in Disgust While a Man Was Bleeding to Death in Front of Him … Howard Stern is the greatest celebrity interviewer alive, bar none. He is possessed of an uncanny ability to induce self-revelation, stroking and feeding the ego until it swells up and bursts.

Discussion: Raw Story

CBS News:

Rep. Steve Scalise breaks his silence on shooting — In his first interview since being shot and critically wounded, Rep. Steve Scalise describes the extent of his injuries and how surgeons put him back together — In his first interview since sustaining a life-threatening gunshot wound …

Discussion: Washington Post, CNN, Washington Free Beacon, DCist, The Federalist, Outside the Beltway, The Week, FOX59, WREG-TV, IJR, Daily Wire, AOL, Mashable, Fox News Insider, Joe.My.God. and TVNewser

Max Greenwood / The Hill:

Elementary school librarian rejects books given by Melania Trump — A Cambridge, Mass., elementary school librarian said in a blog post this her school will not be keeping a collection of books from Melania Trump, though the school later denied her rejection of the gift.

Discussion: RedState, The Horn Book, Washington Free Beacon and CBS Boston

Russell Moore:

Hugh Hefner Did Not Live the Good Life — Overnight, we learned of the death of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Hefner is the iconic figure who not only made pornography socially respectable (and even more lucrative), but also spent a life constructing a “playboy philosophy” …

Discussion: RedState, alicublog and TheBlaze

Jia Tolentino / New Yorker:

The Repressive, Authoritarian Soul of “Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends” — When I was a child, I could spend all day at Shining Time Station, the fictive train depot with its own eponymous TV show, where Thomas the Tank Engine and all his plate-faced locomotive friends worked and lived.

Hadas Gold / CNNMoney:

Russia warns U.S. over treatment of its media outlets — Russia bought Black Lives Matter ad on Facebook — Russia is warning the United States: Back off our media. — The country's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova issued a warning Thursday that Russia would retaliate …

Alastair Gee / The Guardian:

Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars — Some, on the brink of homelessness, take desperate measures … here is nothing she would rather do than teach. But after supplementing her career with tutoring and proofreading, the university lecturer decided …