94.90 Mont and Jack's cabin and on line. 3rd. 2 from n.p.r. News in Washington d.c. This is Weekend Edition. I'm Luke r.c.n. Of our good morning President Trump is back from his 1st trip abroad and amid all the controversies and investigations he still has to push his agenda we'll take a look at his proposed budget and what it may mean for ordinary Americans and are you confused by terms like collusion obstruction of justice person of interest and all the other lingo of the Russian investigation we were too so we broke it down with a law professor also musician Gregg Allman has died will have a remembrance Plus it's called Pelleas curse strange terrible things happen when you take lava rock from the whole lion islands it's Sunday May 28th and the news is next. Live from n.p.r. News in Washington and Joel Snyder President Trump back at the White House following his 9 day trip to the Middle East and Europe Air Force One touched down last night at Joint Base Andrews in the Maryland suburbs Trump returns to Washington as his administration faces new questions about his campaign's possible ties to Russia the president has other issues on his plate too on Capitol Hill work continues on the Republican effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act N.P.R.'s Jeff Bennett reports that staffers for key Senate Republicans are putting pen to paper the start of the bill writing process follows weeks of private meetings among a group of Republican senators aimed at hashing out their differences on health care there are still major disagreements on everything from Medicaid to protections for preexisting health conditions but one thing on which they all agree the Senate plan to replace Obamacare will look nothing like what House Republicans passed earlier this month still Senate Republicans aren't ready to give a deadline for their health care bill even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's unsure at the moment how he'll win enough Republican support to push health care legislation across the finish line Jeff Bennett n.p.r. News Washington and Portland Oregon the 2 men who were killed after intervening when a man shouted an anti muslim ran to 2 young women on a light rail train Friday are being hailed as heroes Molly Sullivan from Oregon Public Broadcasting reports Oregon State leaders stood alongside Portland city officials and law enforcement for an update on the fatal attack that took place on a Portland Max train organ gov Kate Brown spoke after meeting with dozens from Portland's Muslim community at a Portland police precinct what happened yesterday was a crime of hate and it is absolutely unacceptable in our Oregon police have arrested 35 year old Jeremy Joseph Christian on murder charges he has a history of arrests with the Portland police and frequently posts anti muslim and anti-Semitic language on his social media the f.b.i. Says it's still too early to label the attack. As an act of domestic terrorism for n.p.r. News I'm Molly Solomon in Portland Americans are taking to the roads in large numbers for the Memorial Day weekend and Steve back to reports will be benefiting from lower gasoline prices the AAA is predicting the heaviest highway traffic since 2005 with more than 39000000 motorists expected to drive 50 miles or more away from their homes through Monday aside from increased employment and wages drivers are being enticed by the 2nd lowest gasoline prices in 8 years although the price of crude oil has rebounded refineries of ramped up gasoline production pushing its average national price down to $2.37 per gallon $0.04 lower than a month ago and well below the usual spring price in South Carolina and other states with lower gas taxes the prices falling below $2.00 per gallon for n.p.r. News I'm Steve Bucknor You're listening to n.p.r. News. The convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby is back in her native Australia as she arrived in Brisbane today after being deported from Indonesia Corby's case received huge media attention she's always maintained her innocence saying she was unaware that she was carrying some 9 pounds of marijuana inside a bag for her boogie board in 2014 Corby was released from prison but had to stay in Bali until her parole expired World Health Organization says India has recorded its 1st cases of those eco fibrosis N.P.R.'s Michael into clef reports that the findings provide evidence of the diseases circulating in some parts of the country is not new to India there have likely been sporadic cases since the 1950 s. But this is the 1st time secret has been detected directly in people in India across the country health officials have tested more than 34000 people for Zico all tests have come back negative except for 3 cases all in the western state of Gujarat which suggests the virus is circulating at low levels there Zico is known to cause birth defects and health officials recommend pregnant women not travel to places where there's a risk of Sica that also includes Central America and South America Michael undeclared n.p.r. News in the nation's capital motorcycles are filling the streets today the annual Rolling Thunder Ride is due to get underway at noon Eastern time and you'll vent has been going on over the Memorial Day weekend since the late 1980 s. It's an intended to honor prisoners of war and those missing in action that attracts thousands of bikers and spectators on trial Snyder n.p.r. News from Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the Wallace Foundation fostering improvements in learning and enrichment for disadvantaged children and the vitality of the arts for everyone ideas at wireless Foundation dot org and the listeners who support this n.p.r. Station. Membership drive. It's part of how we are funded. To get a jump start on the next drive. Today. And. It's quick and easy. On the. Thanks you support. This is Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Luke or Santa Varro Good morning President Trump has returned from his eventful 1st overseas trip and waiting for him here at home are new reports on his administration's connections to Russia this time involving his son in law and senior adviser Jared questioner all that controversy though distracts from some other items of government business that will have a huge impact on regular people across America last week President Trump's proposed budget was released detailing massive cuts to programs and agencies and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its assessment of the Republican health care bill this is the week that was welcome back to new budget making big news in the travel presidency of the week from Ford should introduce today constitutes a massive transfer of wealth from working families to leave the children the sick and the pool to the top one percent we are not kicking anybody off of any program who really needs it that's not we have plenty of money in this country to take care of the people who need help you have said that the foundation of your budget is 3 percent gross and I have looked every which way it has you might get there and you can't get their Congressional Budget Office has just released its report on the health care bill passed by the House earlier this month if you the government is going to stop forcing people to buy something that they don't want to buy then they won't buy it and that's basically what c.b.s. Saying Trump care would be a cancer on the American health care system unless you're a healthy millionaire from care is a nightmare. N.P.R.'s Susan Davis covers Congress and she's here to help us understand what happens now in the House and Senate on the budget and health care debates Good morning family live All right let's start with health care the hotly anticipated c.b.s. Couric came out what did we see and what's been the reaction not a ton of surprises in this report which the top lines of this are that the Republican health care's bill would over these 10 years save some money but it would also mean that fewer Americans were insured by c.v.s. Estimate 23000000 fewer Americans would have insurance over the next 10 years compared to the current health care law the hard part and the hardest part about the c.b.s. Score for Republicans is that it reassessed the changes they had made to the Bill of fecht ing preexisting conditions and the coverage requirements under the Affordable Care Act and essentially said yes some people in some markets with who have preexisting conditions could be priced out of the marketplace and that is a really devastating blow for Republicans as we know they voted on this without waiting for the c.b.s. Or what's been the reaction to this report there is an open question of whether this bill could have passed the House had they known that this is what the CVO is going to say about those preexisting condition protections because while the Republican Party for the past 6 or 7 years has been unified about the idea of repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act They've also campaigned on protecting the popular parts and the preexisting condition protections in the current law are arguably the most popular parts of the health care law right so what now you know you've got the bill in the Senate a group of 13 senators working on it what do you know about their efforts. Where is it going what's so interesting in the Senate as it's all kind of happening behind closed doors these 13 Republican senators were picked by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and they're meeting in secret so we don't really know what the Senate bill is going to look like we do know the timeframe in order to get this done because the Senate is using a very special budget. I'm to have this bill they really need to get it done by the August break so we're looking about the next 2 months are really the critical action time in the Senate and if we don't start to see a bill come together by early July they're going to be in really rough shape is it unusual for them to do this in secret it is unusual the Senate is circumventing the committee process they have not had any hearings there is no public input and it is notable when you consider that health care makes up about one 6th of the entire u.s. Economy and we don't know what they're talking about all right let's move to the budget does anyone in Congress from either party like this budget it seems there's been a lot of criticism Short answer No there really is something in there for everybody to dislike you know the act of the president sending up his budget has become sort of one of the greatest political theater acts in Washington we know that what the president has asked for is not going to become law so the budget is really a statement of priorities and values and what was really interesting about President Trump's budget is it wasn't really a reflection of President Trump the candidate it was much more a very traditionally fiscally conservative budget which is more consistent with perhaps Mick Mulvaney who is the director of the Office of Management and Budget a very conservative Republican not necessarily the Donald Trump on the campaign trail who campaigned on protecting things like Social Security and Medicare and campaigned on spending a lot of money on things like infrastructure projects what next though is going to be similar to what we saw during the Obama years where the president can ask for whatever he wants but basically Congress does what it was exactly and what Congress has to do they're going to write their own budgets and they need to set their own priorities for the money that the government's going to spend next year and what they need to do and why the budget matters this time is that the House and Senate Republicans really want to agree on a joint budget because if they can agree on a joint budget that will let them create another special budget process to do tax reform and tax reform is the other major legislative goal. Both the White House and Republicans in Congress where are the Democrats in this budget do they have leverage this time to protect some of the things that they're interested in protecting on the budget itself no Democrats going to vote for a Republican budget but on the spending bills yeah there is a lot of room for bipartisanship on the actual dollars that gets spent the appropriations bills the 12 spending bills every year they are generally passed with bipartisan support and Democrats yes is the word you said leverage they have leverage to focus on and get some of their priorities because Republicans can't move forward without them All right N.P.R.'s Susan Davis she covers Congress thanks so much you bet. And for reaction to President Trump's proposed budget we're joined by South Carolina representative and freedom Caucus member Mark Sanford on the phone from his district Good morning sir good morning to you you grilled Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch moving any This past week at a committee hearing you called the White House's numbers in effect a lie and you said they were fooling the American public what's your main concern here. My main concern is for us to have a real debate regardless of our different political perspectives we had to base it on real numbers if we end up with some optimistic projections that create numbers that are there and we forego the debate that ought to be taken place between Republicans Democrats and Independents alike on how we allocate resources of our country on the federal budget. You think it's a centrally that their numbers are too rosy that we cannot sustain 3 percent growth on which this budget is based Well I think we can as a country and the question is will we over the next 10 years and I think that absolutely shows that we won't give you a couple different indicators but to give you one the average economic expansion in the history of our republic it's been 54 much we're now at 96 months we're in the 3rd longest economic expansion in American history hasn't been as robust as some people would like but we have had a continuous expansion for $96.00 much what they suppose in their budget is that if it were going to defy the laws of sort of financial reality and the economic cycle will be dead we won't have another recession and we'll go another 214 months without an economic downturn I don't think that that's the kind of bet that you take as a businessperson that I don't think we should take it in terms of federal policy with regard to the budget entitlements is a huge issue Medicare Social Security they haven't been touched because it is politically unpopular but you. Said You can't balance a budget without tackling entitlements do you see a political will for this that currently I mean the president has said it's off limits again that's my big problem with the 3 percent growth projection as well which is to say it in essence reestablishes the law which is that we can balance a budget without addressing spending I think if you look at the role of math you can't I might also say this. Some people have said you know well we can get to 3 percent based on you know productivity growth but. Again be realistic and labor force folks on the labor force front it would literally take going back to what we saw in the 1972 and 90 days when women were joining the workforce in record numbers for us to meet the labor numbers that or some radical change with a quarter immigration policy you mention immigration right now obviously the trumpet ministrations trying to slow immigration do you think easing immigration restrictions is a good way to push the economy forward. I don't think that there is a political accord to do so I would say that one things we have to look at over the long run is moving from a family formation based immigration policy to one that's merit or needs based a lot of countries around the globe where that's Canada or Australia said yeah you come to our country if you're bringing a skill set and what we have in our country is basically reunification of families which is important for those families but of less value to society as a whole I think we need to be in the business attracting great mental capacity great talent on any front and therefore a needs based system probably makes a lot of. Those on the left see a Republican Congress that is unwilling or possibly even unable to act as a check on the executive while president trumps numbers are not good broadly his base and the Republican base remains loyal for now closely does his support inform how much of a check you give to the executive from a it doesn't that a whole I mean you know if that was the case I would have been asking for his tax returns at the very time that he would into office do you think your colleagues so acting as a check on the executive right now. I would say that it's the nature of parties that they seem to protect themselves and at times there's not a robust object by Democrats on a Democratic administration. By Republicans on the ministration would you say the nature of this administration is different than perhaps other administrations though I think that's an understatement. Congressman Mark Sanford of South Carolina thanks for joining us my pleasure. Listening to n.p.r. 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On Trial Snyder with these headlines President Trump is back at the White House he arrived last night following his 9 day trip to Europe in the Middle East he's returned to Washington amid the controversy involving the investigations into his campaign's possible ties to Russia British Airways says it is still working to restore its i.t. Systems but that it aims to operate a near normal schedule of flights today from London's Gatwick Airport and provide a majority of services from Heathrow however long lines are still being reported and Former President Obama is offering his condolences to the victims of the deadly bombing in Manchester he met with Prince Harry a Kensington Palace this weekend as British police released surveillance camera images of the bomber on the night of the attack on trial Snyder for n.p.r. News from Washington. Support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Member stations and from Squarespace allowing businesses to create their own website for those getting started or for established brands Squarespace this platform is designed to help businesses grow learn more at squarespace dot com from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value and working with partners to help and vision a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy productive life at Gates Foundation dot org And from the listeners who support this n.p.r. Station. This is Weekend Edition from n.p.r. News I'm Luke Garcia Navarro if you had trouble keeping up with the latest news on potential contact between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia you are not alone developments have been relentless just Friday night the Washington Post reported that White House adviser Jared cushion or may have tried to set up a secret line of communication between the Trump transition team and th