Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions faced more than a dozen US senators today at his confirmation hearing for attorney general.
While his predecessors used their roughly 10 minutes of allotted time to question Sessions on various subjects, the Texas senator Ted Cruz chose to speak for almost the entire time.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said last week that the U. S. intelligence agencies could « get back » at President-elect Donald Trump for his criticism of their probe into Russian involvement in the hacking of Democratic Party officials.
« You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you, » Schumer, a New York Democrat, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. « So even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this. »
« From what I am told, they are very upset with how he has treated them and talked about them, » he added.
On Tuesday, intelligence officials said they had presented classified information to Trump that Russia had compromising personal and financial information about him.
Trump took to Twitter:
FAKE NEWS – A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!
On Wednesday, Trump continued to slam the intelligence community.
Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to « leak » into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?
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January 11, 2017
NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he will continue to profit from his global business empire after he enters the White House this month — a precedent-breaking decision that the director of the Office of Government Ethics swiftly condemned as unpatriotic.
At a news conference announcing a much-anticipated plan for dealing with his sprawling company, Trump and his lawyer said the Trump Organization would be run by the president-elect’s adult sons and a longtime company executive, although the president-elect will retain an ownership stake in a trust that holds his business assets.
Sheri Dillon, an attorney with the firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius, said the company will pursue new deals in the U. S. but will not enter new foreign arrangements while Trump is in office.
The steps are to assure Americans that he is « not exploiting the office of the presidency for his personal benefit, » she said.
The decision to stop new ventures abroad was one of Mr. Trump’s few concessions to ethics experts who have warned that the real estate development and licensing company’s international footprint could expose him to conflicts of interest. They have warned that foreign governments might try to curry favor with him or influence U. S. policy by cutting deals with his company and speeding approval for his projects.
The concerns have thrust a typically obscure office into the limelight. The Office of Government Ethics, which advises incoming presidents and their administration officials but is not an enforcement agency, on Wednesday urged Trump to go much further to distance himself. OGE Director Walter Shaub said Trump should sell off his businesses and put the proceeds in a blind trust overseen by an independent manager.
« I don’t think divestiture is too high a price to pay to be the president of the United States of America, » said Mr. Shaub, during a blistering 15-minute critique.
Explaining why presidential appointees, nominees and presidents themselves typically sever all business ties, Shaub said:
« Their basic patriotism usually prevails as they agree to set aside their personal interest to serve their country’s interests. »
Shaub praised some of Trump’s Cabinet nominees for making a « clean break » from business entanglements, singling out Rex Tillerson, whose Senate confirmation hearing to become secretary of state was held Wednesday as Trump was speaking in New York.
The president-elect and his lawyer vigorously defended his plan, saying it would be impractical for Trump to sell off his company.
Doing so, Ms. Dillon said, would create its own ethical questions about whether he was receiving a fair price. And moving too quickly could create a « fire sale » environment that devalued the company to which he has dedicated his adult life.
« President-elect Trump should not be expected to destroy the company he built, » Dillon said.
The business arrangements, announced at Trump Tower in New York during Trump’s first news conference since July, appeared to walk back a broader promise he made last month in a Fox News interview and a tweet that the company would do « no new deals » while he is in office.
Along with Shaub — who was appointed to a five-year term by President Barack Obama in 2013 — Republican and Democratic government ethics counselors have urged Trump to take bigger steps.
« Firewalls work in businesses, not in families, » said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight. « Trump’s plan doesn’t prevent his business interests from benefiting him or his family while he’s in office or interfering with his presidential duties. »
Trump stressed that a president is not subject to the same conflict-of-interest provisions as Cabinet members and other government employees.
« I could actually run my business and run government at the same time, » he said. « I don’t like the way that looks, but I would be able to do that if I wanted to. »
Yet presidents have typically followed the same rules as their Cabinet members as a best practice.
President Jimmy Carter sold his Georgia peanut farm when he took office. Soon after he was inaugurated, Ronald Reagan cashed out his personal holdings — worth about $740,000 — and put the money in a blind trust.
Trump’s dealings are far more complex; he has struck deals involving hotels, office buildings, golf resorts and residential towers in about 20 countries.
Dillon said the company will add an ethics adviser to its management team who must approve deals that could raise concerns about conflicts. Trump’s transition team has not said whether he will appoint a White House ethics adviser as two previous presidents have done.
Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr. will run the company along with Allen Weisselberg, the current chief financial officer. Mr. Weisselberg began work with the Trump family decades ago under the president-elect’s father, Fred.
Dillon also addressed the « emoluments clause » of the U. S. Constitution. Some lawyers have claimed that foreign leaders who pay for rooms and services at his hotels across the globe would put the president-elect in violation.
She argued that « fair-value exchange, » such as paying for a hotel room, does not run afoul of the ban on foreign gifts or payments to the president.
Nonetheless, she said, the company plans to donate money spent by foreign governments at his hotels to the U. S. Treasury.
The president-elect’s new hotel in the nation’s capital, has already hosted diplomats from Bahrain and Azerbaijan.
___
Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire in New York, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Chad Day and Stephen Braun in Washington contributed to this report.
© Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2017/0111/Ethics-official-denounces-Trump-s-plan-for-business
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Volkswagen has agreed to pay a total of $4.3 billion in criminal and civil penalties stemming from the German automaker’s efforts to cheat on federal and state emissions tests, the U. S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.
That number includes $2.8 billion in criminal penalties as well as $1.5 billion to resolve environmental, customs and financial claims, the agency said. Volkswagen will also plead guilty to three felony counts, will be on probation for three years and will be overseen by a corporate compliance monitor for that time, DOJ said.
About 590,000 diesel vehicles in the U. S. were sold that included a so-called defeat device to make their emissions seem lower than they were on tests mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board.
In a new fallout in the Volkswagen emissions scandal, lawsuits filed by three states claim top executives were involved with creating so-called « …
Six German executives and employees of Volkswagen have also been indicted and charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States: Heinz-Jakob Neusser, 56; Jens Hadler, 50; Richard Dorenkamp, 68; Bernd Gottweis, 69; Oliver Schmidt, 48; and Jürgen Peter, 59.
All are believed to be in Germany except for Schmidt, who was arrested in Miami on Friday and appeared in federal court there on Monday. The U. S. and Germany do not have an extradition agreement.
Schmidt worked as the general manager in charge of VW’s environment and engineering Office, in Auburn Hills, Michigan, from 2012 until February 2015. After that time and through September 2015, he worked directly for Heinz-Jakob Neusser, who was the head of development for the VW brand from July 2013 until September 2015.
Jens Hadler was head of engine development from May 2007 until March 2011. Bernd Gottweis was a supervisor responsible for quality management and product safety from 2003 until December 2014. Jürgen Peter has worked in the quality management and product safety group since 1990. From March 2015 until July 2015, he was one of the liaisons between the regulatory agencies and VW.
Feds prosecuting fewer corporate criminals; income inequality is a major global threat; and incarcerating Manson has cost millions. These headlin…
Richard Dorenkamp was the head of VW’s engine development after-treatment department from 2003 until December 2013. From 2006 to 2013, Dorenkamp led a team of engineers that developed the first diesel engine intended to meet the new, tougher emissions standards in the United States.
The indictment also charges Dorenkamp, Neusser, Schmidt and Peter with Clean Air Act violations. Neusser, Gottweis, Schmidt and Peter also face wire fraud charges.
It is extremely rare for corporate executives to receive criminal charges , even when their company is found to have behaved criminally. White-collar prosecutions in the U. S. have dropped by about a fifth over the past decade.
“When Volkswagen broke the law, EPA stepped in to hold them accountable and address the pollution they caused,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in a statement. “EPA’s fundamental and indispensable role becomes all too clear when companies evade laws that protect our health. The American public depends on a strong and active EPA to deliver clean air protections, and that is exactly what we have done.”
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Timothy Weeks, an Australian teacher at the American University in Kabul and his American colleague Kevin King were seized near the campus in August.
The video, which Weeks said was made on Jan. 1, showed the two men, both bearded, asking their families to put pressure on the U. S. government to help secure their release.
Addressing President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to take office on Jan. 20, Weeks said the Taliban had asked for prisoners held at Bagram air field and at Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the outskirts of Kabul to be exchanged for them.
« They are being held there illegally and the Taliban has asked for them to be released in our exchange. If they are not exchanged for us then we will be killed, » he said.
« Donald Trump sir, please, I ask you, please, this is in your hands, I ask you please to negotiate with the Taliban. If you do not negotiate with them, we will be killed. »
In September, the Pentagon said U. S. forces mounted a raid to try to rescue two civilian hostages but the men were not at the location targeted.
Kidnapping has been a major problem in Afghanistan for many years. Most victims are Afghans and many kidnappers are criminal gangs seeking ransom money but a number of foreigners have also been abducted for political ends.
Last year, the Taliban released a video showing a U. S. hostage and her Canadian husband abducted in 2012 asking their governments to pressure the Kabul government not to execute Taliban prisoners.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (UPI) — The top ethics official in the U. S. government on Wednesday dismissed President-elect Donald Trump ‘s promise to cede day-to-day control of his businesses to family members as nothing more than a « meaningless » symbolic gesture.
Walter Shaub, chief of the Office of Government Ethics, a watchdog that monitors the federal government, told reporters that Trump’s stated plan does hardly anything to address concerns about potential conflicts of interest he would face in the White House.
« The plan the president has announced doesn’t meet the standards that the best of his nominees are meeting and that every president in the past four decades has met, » Shaub said at his news conference , calling Trump’s plan « meaningless from a conflicts of interest perspective. »
« We can’t risk the perception that government leaders would use their official positions for professional profit, » he added.
The president-elect made it clear Wednesday that he won’t give up his ownership stake in the Trump Organization — but rather place managerial control of his holdings with two of his sons.
« My two sons are going to be running the company, » he said. « They are going to be running it in a very professional way. They’re not going to discuss it with me. »
However, Trump made it clear he would not give up his ownership stake in the Trump Organization.
The possibility of Trump’s business affairs influencing his decisions as commander in-chief has worried many in the public and private sectors.
Trump attorney Sheri Dillon also said the president-elect’s daughter Ivanka, too, will refrain from day-to-day business dealings because she is married to Jared Kushner, one of Trump’s top White House advisers.
Shaub is urging Trump to divest in his businesses, which he says is the best move to address conflict concerns.
« I don’t think divestiture is too high a price to pay to be the president of the United States of America, » he said, adding that divesting would serve as a good example for future presidents and other members of the government.
Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe agreed, called Trump’s plan a « fraudulent runaround. »
Trump’s team is still in the process of hiring an ethics official to guide them away from potential conflicts of interest.
© Source: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/01/11/Top-US-ethics-official-Trumps-plan-to-hand-over-business-control-meaningless/8681484176887/
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President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be the US envoy to the world broke with his future boss on a number of key foreign policy issues on Wednesday, denouncing Russian aggression in cyberspace and in Ukraine, talking up sanctions and affirming his belief in climate change.
Rex Tillerson, a former ExxonMobil CEO, at his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an “illegal action” — something Trump hasn’t done — and said he even would have sent the country defensive weapons to use against Moscow.
In a striking exchange Tillerson admitted that he’d only spoken to the President-elect about world affairs in general terms, and that they haven’t yet discussed Russian policy, telling the Senate panel “that has not yet occurred.”
Tillerson also praised the usefulness of sanctions as a deterrent — again, a very different view than his boss — although he cautioned that their use can hurt American businesses. “In diplomacy, it is useful to have a stick that is in your hand so that whether you use it or not, it becomes part of that conversation,” Tillerson said.
And Tillerson took steps in his opening remarks to strike an overall tougher line on Moscow than Trump has to date, saying that “Russia must know that we will be accountable to our commitments and those of our allies, and that Russia must be held to account for its actions.” “Sen. John McCain became aware of the information in December and passed it to FBI Director James Comey that month.”
On climate change, Tillerson told the Senators he believes “the risk of climate change does exist and the consequences of it could be serious enough that actions should be taken.” In contrast, Trump has in the past described climate change as a hoax perpetrated by China to hurt US manufacturers, although he recently acknowledged the possibility that human activity could be a contributing factor.
The Secretary of State nominee admitted that “ultimately the President-elect was elected and I’ll carry out his policies in order to be as successful as possible but I think it is important to note that he has asked and I feel free to express those views.”
Tillerson, who said he hadn’t received any classified briefings on the Russian hacks, said that it’s a “fair assumption” that Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the attacks.
For weeks, Trump has consistently denied or played down Moscow’s involvement, although Wednesday, at a press conference, Trump said, “I think it was Russian.”
At the Tillerson hearing, Democrats — and one Republican — came out swinging.
Democrats questioned why in his prepared opening remarks Tillerson didn’t mention Russia’s alleged hacking of US elections, and they hammered his views on human rights, climate change and ExxonMobil’s ties to Russia.
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio went after Tillerson about Russia’s violations of human rights and its alleged war crimes in Syria, telling the nominee that he found it “discouraging” when Tillerson wouldn’t put a label on Moscow’s actions in Aleppo.
“You are still not prepared to say that Vladimir Putin and his military have violated the rules of war and have conducted war crimes in Aleppo,” Rubio declared, pointing to information in the public record about civilians being targeted in the Syrian city.
“Those are very, very serious charges to make, and I would want to have much more information before reaching a conclusion,” Tillerson answered.
Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, challenged Tillerson on whether his business experience prepares him to represent the US to the world. “Diplomacy is not the same as deal making,” Menendez said.
He went on to question where Tillerson’s and Trump’s views actually align and asked if the two had discussed US policy toward Russia.
Tillerson said he and Trump had talked about world issues “in a broad construct and in terms of the principles that are going to guide that.” But when Menendez said that he assumed “Russia would be at the top of that considering all of the actions that are taking place,” Tillerson said, “That has not occurred yet, senator.”
“That’s pretty amazing,” Menendez shot back.
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the committee, pointed to Trump’s longstanding refusal to acknowledge the intelligence community’s assessment about Russian hacking and asked Tillerson what he would do about it.
“We need to stand up to that bully in Moscow,” Cardin said.
Cardin said he would be quizzing Tillerson on ExxonMobil’s business deals with Russia, indicating that they “supported directly or indirectly” some of Putin’s more aggressive actions.
“It’s not too great of a distance from Exxon business partnerships to Putin’s slush funds” for disinformation and other activities, Cardin charged.
The former ExxonMobil CEO claims close ties to Putin, having overseen the company’s partnership with a state-owned energy giant there, work that earned him the country’s highest award for non-citizens.
In opening remarks that were interrupted by a shouting protestor, Tillerson tried to strike a balance, saying that “where cooperation with Russia based on common interests is possible, such as reducing the global threat of terrorism, we ought to explore these options.”
“We need an open and frank dialogue with Russia regarding its ambitions, so that we know how to chart our own course,” he said.
But he added that “Russia must know that we will be accountable to our commitments and those of our allies, and that Russia must be held to account for its actions.”
And he validated NATO allies’ concerns about Russian aggression but said that some of the blame lies with the Obama administration.
The US “sent weak or mixed signals with ‘red lines’ that turned into green lights,” Tillerson said. “We did not recognize that Russia does not think like we do.”
Tillerson’s big moment in the spotlight comes as CNN reported Tuesday that US intelligence agencies are investigating reports that Russia collected sensitive and potentially compromising information about Trump’s personal and financial affairs. Trump dismissed those reports as “fake news” at a press conference Wednesday.
The information, from a firm run by a former British intelligence operative, also indicated that throughout the campaign, Trump surrogates were in touch with intermediaries for the Russian government. Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, became aware of the information in December and passed it to FBI Director James Comey that month.
Republicans will be key to Tillerson’s ability to get through the Foreign Relations Committee and to the Senate floor, where his nomination needs 51 votes to pass. The committee is controlled by Republicans, who hold 10 of the 19 seats. If all Democrats oppose him and they’re joined by just one Republican, Tillerson could stall there.
The oil man, who had headed the ExxonMobil empire since 2006 until retiring at the end of last year, began his journey to Washington in Texas. He was born and educated there, and spent his adult life inside the company, starting in 1975 as a production engineer after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin. He’s never worked anywhere else.
© Source: http://fox13now.com/2017/01/11/rex-tillerson-breaks-with-trump-on-foreign-policy-issues/
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WASHINGTON (WUSA9) – The verbal beat down by Pres.-elect Donald Trump to CNN reporter Jim Acosta was one of the most talked about topics out of Trump’s news conference Wednesday. And WUSA9 is listening.
We call it Your City, Your Voice. We’re giving people the chance to step into our confessional to say whatever they want as we lead up to the inauguration.
Rebecca Bryant stepped in with one thing on her mind—the heated exchange between the president-elect and Acosta.
“It doesn’t look right. It’s not good for the American President,” Bryant said. “I felt that’s not good leadership for him to yell at reporter to shut up—that’s not good leadership.”
Buzzfeed posted unverified documents that allege Russia has compromising information about Trump. CNN reported the documents exist.
“As far as CNN going out of their way to build it up? It’s a disgrace what they did. It’s a disgrace, and I think they ought to apologize,” Bryant said.
We want to hear your thoughts on Pres.-elect Trump’s exchange with Acosta or whatever else is on your mind as we get closer to welcoming our 45th president. Post on social media using #YourCityYourVoice or comment on our Facebook posts.
(© 2017 WUSA)
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President-elect Donald Trump’s first news conference in six months was a vintage performance. He was self-assured, aggressive, combative, at times willing to offend and at times trying to sound conciliatory. What it added up to was a reminder of the challenges he will face in gaining and maintaining full public trust once he is sworn in as president.
No president in memory has come to the brink of his inauguration with such a smorgasbord of potential problems and unanswered questions, or with the level of public doubts that exist around his leadership. Though he dealt with the issues directly on Tuesday, what he could not answer — what he cannot answer until he is in the Oval Office — is whether he can avoid having these kinds of questions plague and possibly debilitate his presidency over the next four years.
Trump and his advisers have dismissed much of the pre-inaugural controversy as part of an effort to delegitimize his election victory and undermine his presidency even before he takes office. Still, the questions swirling around him as he came to the lobby of Trump Tower were an unprecedented mixture of the personal, the financial and the substantive.
Has he been compromised by the Russians, the most explosive and newest of allegations? (He denied all as fake news.) Are he and his party in conflict over U. S.-Russia relations? Will he truly separate himself from his sprawling business empire in a way that avoids conflicts of interest? Can he and Congress find common ground on repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act? Will he live up to the promises he made as a candidate?
The news conference put on display everything the country has come to recognize in Trump from the presidential campaign. For those who responded to his message from the start, for those who came to his side later in the campaign and for those who didn’t but are prepared to give him some benefit of the doubt, it was a performance that no doubt went down well.
Right from the start, he swung back hard against salacious and unsubstantiated claims of personal misbehavior contained in a document prepared by a former Western intelligence officer and now in the hands of the federal government. He aggressively chastised BuzzFeed for publishing the entire document online and CNN for promoting the story about its existence (though CNN did not publish the document).
On the business side, he introduced Sheri Dillon, a tax attorney with the firm Morgan Lewis, to walk reporters through the steps he is taking to try to assure the public that he will serve its interests as president and not those of the Trump Organization — and to explain why many of the ideas proposed by outsiders arguing for taking bigger steps were impractical and likely to create their own potential conflicts.
He said he is confident that he can keep his pledge to have Mexico pay for the border wall he intends to build, even if taxpayers initially foot the bill. He put Congress on notice that replacing Obamacare should go hand-in-glove with votes to repeal it. No easy task. He put drug manufacturers on notice that they cannot expect to do business as usual when he is in office. He offered the same message to companies that move production out of the country.
On those matters, Trump’s performance was at once giving no quarter to his tormentors, reminding his core supporters that he will make good on his campaign promises no matter what the skeptics may say, and at the same time trying to offer some reassurance to critics who worry about the possibilities for ethical abuses by the businessman turned president.
In other ways, Trump also seemed eager to show that he has been hearing the criticisms of how he has handled the transition. For weeks he has been dismissive of intelligence findings that the Russians mounted a comprehensive campaign to meddle in the election and did so with the expressed aim of undermining Hillary Clinton and thereby aiding Trump.
For the first time, he gave ground on that question, saying that he believed the Russians were behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the private emails of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. He also warned Russian President Vladimir Putin not to engage in such activities when he is president.
But with each step in that direction, he quickly walked back the other way. While he said the Russians were behind the hacking, he said the United States gets hacked all the time by foreign entities. Critics worry that he would cozy up to Putin. He said that “if Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability.”
He declared flatly that he has no business dealings with the Russians, but again held out against greater transparency about his business. He dismissed calls to release his tax returns, a posture that puts him at odds with past presidents who have routinely done so. He claims that more can be learned by examining his financial disclosure statements, but financial tax experts disagree.
While he was willing to accept the intelligence findings that the Russians did the hacking during the election, he still appears far from calling a truce in what has been an ongoing war with the intelligence community. He as much as accused senior intelligence officials of leaking to the public. That fraught relationship ought to be a matter of grave concern — to Trump, to the intelligence community and most important to all Americans.
Despite his six-month hiatus from meeting with reporters, Trump appeared anything but rusty. He came to the lobby of Trump Tower ready to go on offense against his critics and his questioners. Yet remarkably, he offered kind words for news organizations — namely those that refrained from publishing the details of what it is claimed the Russians have gathered to compromise him. He recalled how much he had enjoyed the give-and-take in the campaign, which he said he stopped “because we were getting quite a bit of inaccurate news.”
In eight days, Trump will take the oath of office. He will do so with the public far from confident that he is up to the job ahead. Gallup measured him on several questions asked about other presidents as they were entering office. Trump’s scores were notably low.
Not quite half of those surveyed said they have confidence he can handle an international crisis. That compares with 7 in 10 who expressed confidence in President Obama, former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton in the weeks before their inaugurations. Just over half said they believe he can manage the executive branch effectively. For Obama and Bush, it was in the neighborhood of 8 in 10. And on whether Trump can prevent major scandals, just 44 percent said they were confident that he could do so, compared with 74 percent for Obama and 77 percent for Bush.
All presidents come to the Oval Office with questions about their ability to handle the complexities of the job. Obama arrived with limited experience on the national stage. George W. Bush took the oath after a contentious recount and controversial Supreme Court decision. Trump makes those situations look mild in comparison.
Public trust is the currency that all president must have to succeed. Trump might well have helped himself with his performance Wednesday, but there are enough challenges and questions surrounding him to make what is already an enormously difficult job all that much harder.
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It looked to Jim Cramer on Wednesday that someone forgot to tell Donald Trump about the Trump rally.
The averages quickly fell after Trump’s press conference in which he called for more price competition for drug companies. While the market managed to shrug off the comments by the close with technology stocks leading the way, it was a cause of concern for Cramer.
« I bet Health and Human Services is going to do something about this whipping boy that will involve substantive rollbacks before this episode is over, » the » Mad Money » host said.
Cramer said he has known Trump for years, and he is « not really a stock guy » and has never been that interested in the market. It was clear to Cramer that Trump’s love was always real estate.
However, Cramer reminded investors that just because Trump is pro-business, that doesn’t necessarily mean he is pro-stock market. In his world, he thinks if business does well than everyone does better. And he is OK with knowing that some industries will do worse if he believes they should be punished.
Trump has also made his intention clear to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act when he takes office. The problem is that no one knows what he will replace it with.
« We are looking at a very confused environment for the health care sector, especially the health maintenance organizations that are so heavily impacted by the law, » Cramer said.
It could be impossible to predict what could happen to health care providers like UnitedHealth , Aetna , Cigna and Humana , along with the millions of people who will lose insurance coverage and their subsidies if Obamacare is repealed.
The only winner of the group worth owning is UnitedHealth, Cramer said, even as it has run 14 percent since the election. UnitedHealth has already removed itself from the health care exchanges. Other competitors are still participating and even profiting from the exchanges, which makes them more vulnerable of the repeal actually occurs.
Pajama traders that used to plague the stock market opening every morning have mysteriously disappeared since Election Day, and Cramer was determined to find out why.
The term « pajama trader » was coined by Cramer to refers to traders who control the opening of the stock market based on extraneous data, like the futures, and news events from overseas.
Yet, it seems that the volatility caused by these nefarious traders for years has simply dissipated. They were right there distorting the market open during the Italian bank restructuring, a struggling financial system and Brexit. Now they are gone.
« We are all for the better for getting rid of this artificial, silly, infantile, immature trading, » Cramer said.
Cramer is always a fan of break-ups that unlock value for shareholders. Even better, when a company creates a new spinoff as a standalone company, it’s always worth him taking a look.
AdvanSix is the new spinoff from Honeywell that is the manufacturer of nylon 6 resin, chemical intermediates and ammonium sulfate fertilizer.
« I could see how a fresh spinoff like AdvanSix might seem enticing, but at this point, I think it’s too speculative to recommend after such an epic run, » Cramer said.
However, Cramer does like AdvanSix’s markets amid the current economic environment, which makes him like the stock. He just wants it to come down a bit first so it is less of a risky play.
The NFIB Research Foundation issued a report this week that indicated that small business optimism just had the biggest increase since 1980, when Ronald Reagan was elected.
If this is an indication that companies are going to expand, Cramer said that means they must invest in new technology. Pegasystems is a software company that helps to develop custom applications for marketing, sales, customer relationship management and business process optimization.
Pegasystems’ client list includes AIG, PayPal and Kraft, among others. Cramer spoke with Pegasystems founder, chairman and CEO Alan Trefler on what makes Pega unique from the competition.
« We have three core technologies that we have put together into one unified platform. Very different from our competitors, which have bought lots of stuff and franken-stacked them and stitched them together, » Trefler said.
In the Lightning Round , Cramer gave his opinion to a few stocks from callers:
Berkshire Hathaway (B Class) : « If anything, I am interested in buying more. I think the stock is incredibly undervalued. »
Westar Energy : « A good utility company. I happen to favor Dominion and my charitable trust name American Electric Power. «
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