Rubio urged to punish Iraq with 'maximum pressure' sanctions for its 'complete subjugation' by Iran
FIRST ON FOX: A pair of House Republicans are urging Secretary Marco Rubio to punish Iraq with sanctions for its "complete subjugation" by Iran as part of the U.S.'s "maximum pressure" policy toward Tehran.
"More than 4,400 American service members sacrificed their lives since the start of the Iraq War, yet today, Iraq stands as nothing more than a puppet of Tehran," Reps. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., and Greg Steube, R-Fla., wrote in a letter to the secretary of state and interim national security advisor.
The letter laid blame on the Obama administration, arguing former President Barack Obama and his Iraq envoy Brett McGurk "propped up" Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose leadership was marred by brutal political crackdowns and led to the rise of ISIS.
"The Obama administration doubled down on its mistakes, relying on Iranian-backed militias to fight ISIS," the letter read. "The consequences of those failed decisions are now undeniable: Iran-backed forces wield unchecked power over Iraq's government and security services."
Since 2015, the U.S. has offered Iraq's forces $1.25 billion in foreign military financing, in addition to billions more for the interior ministry and defense ministry.
Iran's influence over Iraq was on full display when, in 2021, Iraq issued an arrest warrant for President Donald Trump for the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, even as the U.S. still has 2,500 forces on the ground in Iraq to partner with local forces and fight ISIS.
Steube and Wilson called on the U.S. to cut all foreign aid to Iraq until it comes out from under Iran's influence.
The letter calls for the U.S. to sanction Iraq's importation of Iranian gas. Currently, only payment for the gas is under sanction, meaning Iran gives fuel to Iraq without charge but expects repayment in other ways. The Trump administration ended a waiver that allowed Iraq to buy Iranian electricity in March.
The lawmakers called for designating the Popular Mobilization Forces, an Iranian-backed paramilitary group operating in Iraq, and its financial backers as foreign terrorist groups and sanctioning Iraq's state banks that financially support Iran. It also called for sanctions on Iraq's political figures that allow Iranian influence to flourish.
"We urge you to take immediate action to implement these necessary policies and ensure that American resources are no longer used to prop up Iran's control over Iraq."
The U.S. initially invaded Iraq in 2003, toppling Saddam Hussein's regime and drawing down its troop presence from wartime levels in 2007 and leaving altogether in 2011, before returning in 2014 at the head of the coalition to fight the Islamic State.
Other nations, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy, also contribute hundreds of troops to the coalition.
In September, reports emerged that the Biden administration was working on a plan to draw down the U.S. troop presence in Iraq within the year, but no set-in-stone decision was made.
Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department and the Iraqi Embassy for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Black America Web
26 minutes ago
- Black America Web
Cory Booker Responds To Ridiculous MAGA Republicans Accusations of Doing A 'Nazi Salute'
Source: Getty Images / Cory Booker / Elon Musk Cory Booker is shutting down claims he was out here throwing up a Nazi salute. MAGA Republicans and Elon Musk are losing their sh*t and doing their best to compare a moment where Cory Booker put his hand on his heart and waved goodbye to the crowd at the Democratic National Convention in California to when Musk clearly did a Nazi salute. Through a spokesperson, Booker shut down those ridiculous claims. 'Cory Booker was obviously just waving to the crowd. Anyone who claims his wave is the same as Elon Musk's gesture is operating in bad faith,' Maya Krishna-Rogers, spokesperson for Booker, said to Newsweek in a statement sent via email on Sunday. 'The differences between the two are obvious to anyone without an agenda.' Musk also doubled down on his acceptance of th use of the word 'retard' as an insult. 🤨 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2025 MAGA Republicans going hard trying to make something out of nothing about Cory Booker waving goodbye to the crowd, comes after Musk and Steve Bannon both were both accused doing nazi salutes during events. Musk was accused of doing a Nazi salute during Trump rally during his second inauguration following his unfortunate election win. Elon Musk has gone full mask off Nazi. He is actively promoting Nazism. Tesla is now a hate symbol. — James Jansson (@jamesjansson) January 20, 2025 Still despite Booker's statement and the video evidence, you can't tell these MAGA fools a damn thing as continue to take photos of other elected officials clearly waving bye, and using them as evidence of them doing Nazi salutes in order to vindicate the alleged ketamine abuser Elon Musk. 🤨 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2025 SMH. You can see more stupid reactions in the gallery below. Cory Booker Responds To Ridiculous MAGA Republicans Accusations of Doing A 'Nazi Salute' was originally published on Here's a list of all the news networks who have not covered Cory Booker's salute:- NYTimes- CNN- Washington Post- MSNBC- NPR- USA Today- Reuters- Axios- ABC NewsEvery single one of them wrote stories on Elon Musk's salute. do you get it yet? — kekius tees (@kekmaximusk) June 1, 2025 I'm literally shaking right now. Cory Booker is literally Hitler. I can't wait for fake news to cover this as extensively as they did Elon when gave his heart out to everyone! — Sara Rose 🇺🇸🌹 (@saras76) May 31, 2025 Hello, @NewsHour — will you be making a post comparing Cory Booker's apparent 'fascist salute' to the 'Sieg Heil?"Your post about Elon Musk making a very similar gesture amassed over 36M views. Since you assure US taxpayers that PBS is a non-partisan organization, and all. — Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) June 1, 2025 It's most amusing to watch all the people who branded @elonmusk a Nazi now tying themselves in tortured knots trying to explain why Cory Booker isn't… for doing the EXACT SAME THING. Of course, neither is.. but the hypocrisy stinks. — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 1, 2025 Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Opinion - Trump's ‘return to office' crusade smothers its pronatalist promise
The White House trumpets a 'baby bonus' — $5,000 wired days after delivery — to reverse America's record-low 1.6 fertility rate, documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Vital Statistics Reports. In the same breath, it orders every federal employee back to the office five days a week. But Stanford's new 'Working from Home in 2025' survey of 16,422 professionals upends that logic: women with children desire 2.66 remote days each week, higher than any other demographic. The administration vows to grow families while vaporizing the flexibility that makes new children feasible, creating a collision that risks empty cribs and hollow offices alike. Time rules parenthood. The average American commute consumes 55 minutes round-trip, meaning a traditional five-day schedule eats up almost another five hours of free time each week. Those hours fuel bedtime routines, homework patrol and marriage maintenance; without them, parental stress spikes. Stanford's survey shows parents steer toward hybrid work precisely because several home days help restore that bandwidth. Parents still collaborate on site yet dodge traffic's cortisol surge. The federal badge doctrine yanks that option, forcing caregivers back into rush-hour gridlock and shredding the very capacity the 'baby bonus' seeks to reward. The White House defends the order as a downtown-revitalization plan, yet empty playgrounds undermine long-term urban vitality far more than shuttered salad bars. The response has been swift — over 260,000 civil-service resignations, buyouts or early retirements since the mandate, a wave led by mid-career women. These departures bleed institutional knowledge, spike contractor costs and prove that rigid schedules push out precisely the workers the baby-bonus scheme aims to empower. Direct payments headline well, yet history shows money alone seldom moves fertility. France, Hungary and South Korea all dangled cash but saw sustained birth-rate gains only after they paired subsidies with affordable childcare and generous leave. We've seen the same skepticism here, with women calling the $5,000 proposal 'meager' without schedule support. In fact, policymakers still debate whether a bonus would move the needle at all. Child-care tuition already tops mortgage payments in many metro areas, and the gas, parking and wardrobe costs tied to full-time commutes burn up the bonus long before a first birthday. Rigid attendance therefore turns the 'baby bonus' into a consolation prize for exhaustion. The persistent declines in births stem from soaring childcare costs, student debt and delayed milestones such as homeownership — all problems amplified by longer daily commutes. When the administration mandates five badge scans a week, it inflates every hidden parenting expense the subsidy intends to ease. The result is policy whiplash: a check in one envelope, a time audit in the next. The Stanford survey reinforces that economic calculus: women with children value schedule control more than any other employment perk, ranking it higher than pay or promotion prospects. Force them back, and many abandon growth plans — at work and at home. The administration's own ranks testify. Treasury's internal return-to-office guidance, issued in February, acknowledges 'heightened retention risk' among caregivers, yet it still enforces five days on-site. Pronatalism that ignores workplace physics turns into press-release theater. One pivot resolves the clash: Replace the blanket five-day decree with a disciplined three-day anchor model for roles that do not handle classified hardware or wet-lab equipment. Stanford's Steven Davis and Nicholas Bloom show firms keep productivity steady — or lift it — under such hybrid rules, while recruitment costs fall because talent pools widen geographically. Eighty percent of Fortune 500 companies now run some version of this model, proof that flexibility and performance coexist. Hybrid schedules also cut vehicle miles, handing the administration an unwritten climate victory without another regulation, as remote-work research from Hoover Institution scholars confirms. Congress can hard-wire the alignment. Tie the enlarged Child Tax Credit now under debate to employer certification of at least two voluntary home days per week, nudging private firms toward family-friendly norms. House negotiators already weigh credit expansion as part of a broader pronatalist push. Add lease subsidies for offices that include on-site childcare and stroller storage, and the commute becomes a support node, not a hurdle. Stanford's evidence stands clear: caregivers who will deliver tomorrow's taxpayers want 2.66 remote days each week, yet the badge order throttles that desire and drains the very talent the government hopes to retain. Align workplace structure with family aspirations, and the baby bonus transforms from political gimmick to demographic catalyst. Ignore the contradiction, and America exchanges rattles for resignation letters — a trade no nation can afford. Flexibility, not fiat, is the linchpin that lets families, careers and the country thrive together. Gleb Tsipursky, Ph.D., serves as the CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts and authored the best-seller Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The latest GOP push to cut waste and spending: Work requirements
The Trump administration and congressional Republicans are increasingly turning to work requirements as part of a wide-ranging effort to slash spending on welfare benefits - extending GOP messaging around waste and fraud to argue that many people who get federal aid don't deserve it. In late May, the House passed a sweeping tax and budget bill that would impose new work requirements as part of a plan to cut Medicaid. The Agriculture Department is poised to broaden work requirements that already condition access to the nation's largest food assistance program. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development sees work requirements as an 'absolute priority' for rental assistance programs - possibly within President Donald Trump's first year in office - according to an official briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that aren't finalized. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. Specific policies could change as the bill heads to the Senate, where multiple Republicans have expressed concerns over work requirements for Medicaid. Yet the proposals reflect a shifting view among Republicans in Washington about who should receive federal benefits. In a New York Times op-ed last month, four top Trump officials overseeing housing, health and food programs wrote that welfare programs were created to help the neediest but have 'deviated from their original mission both by drift and by design.' Even able-bodied adults should look to welfare as a 'short-term hand-up, not a lifetime handout,' wrote Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner. Meanwhile, Republican House leaders are also linking work requirements to broader efforts to root out fraud and abuse, and prevent undocumented immigrants from accessing public benefits. 'There are vulnerable citizens of this country who depend on the safety net,' House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) told The Washington Post last month. 'The safety net is weakened and is less sustainable when you are allowing these monies to go to people or to stakeholders … and used in other ways outside of supporting those who need it, depend on it and qualify for it.' The proposals have drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and left-leaning economists, who argue that work requirements are the wrong tool for this economy. They say the policies risk dropping some of the most vulnerable benefits recipients - such as people who work inconsistent hours, go through bouts of unemployment, struggle with health issues that don't qualify as disabilities or do unpaid work caring for relatives. 'We have never required a 64-year-old single widow who's taking care of her grandchild to work in order to be able to receive SNAP benefits,' said Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, referring to the food assistance program for low-income families. 'And I guess that's going to change.' Work requirements for benefits programs have been pushed at various times over decades. President Bill Clinton campaigned on a promise to 'end welfare as we know it' and in 1996 worked with the Republican-controlled Congress to overhaul benefits in a landmark law. The measure ended Aid to Families with Dependent Children - which effectively entitled the poorest Americans to federal help - and introduced Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known more commonly as TANF. The number of people receiving federal welfare payments fell by half in four years, to 6.3 million in 2000. And the past few decades have given rise to debates over whether the changes worked, especially since measures of poverty fluctuate with recessions and other economic forces. The new policies under consideration could be even more far-reaching. Under the Affordable Care Act, adults with low incomes and no children or disabilities qualified for Medicaid for the first time, marking a significant expansion of the safety net insurance program. The new Republican plan would require beneficiaries to spend at least 80 hours a month working, training for a job, in school or volunteering to qualify for Medicaid. In May, Kennedy, the health and human services secretary, told the Senate that the changes would primarily affect people fraudulently receiving benefits and 'able-bodied male workers, males, who refuse to get a job.' Work requirements are meant to reduce the number of people on the program: Roughly a third of the $800 billion in health-care savings in the GOP's sweeping tax bill would come from the work rules, which would result in 4.8 million people becoming uninsured, according to an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported by The Washington Post's Fact Checker. SNAP, the nation's largest food assistance program, already carries work requirements. Able-bodied adults between 18 and 54 who don't have dependents must work at least 80 hours a month to be eligible. Those who don't qualify can only receive food assistance for three months in a three-year period. People can be exempt because of homelessness, being in foster care or for other reasons, or states can apply for waivers if there aren't enough jobs in a region. Research is split on whether SNAP's existing work requirements have the intended effects. Bauer, the Brookings fellow, cited a 2021 study of Virginia food stamp recipients that found work requirements caused a large decline in SNAP participation without a corresponding boost in employment. The food stamp benefits 'are not binding disincentives against labor force participation for a population that overwhelmingly has no income,' the researchers wrote. Republicans have said current policies allow states to exempt too many people from work requirements. The GOP bill would alter the rules, raising the cutoff age to 64. It also newly subjects parents with dependent children ages 7 or older to work requirements, though a spouse in a two-parent household can still be exempt. The bill would also restrict place-based waivers to counties with an unemployment rate of over 10 percent: a bar many areas receiving waivers would not meet. A CBO analysis estimates the changes would reduce direct spending for SNAP by $92 billion over 10 years and push 3.2 million people out of the program. Work requirements are the 'right policy at the right time' for those in need and will stop able-bodied adults from being 'idle and disengaged,' Rollins, the agriculture secretary, said in a statement. The path for shifting housing policies is less clear. Most of the nation's 3,600 public housing agencies do not have work requirements. But about 140 are part of a narrow program called Moving to Work that gives local authorities room to test a range of rules that are not usually permitted, including those to boost self-sufficiency. Housing authorities, nonprofit groups, property managers and tenants are eager for details on whether work requirements will be mandatory, how many hours of work would be required and who would be exempt. The HUD official briefed on the matter told The Post that 'everything is on the table' and noted that the White House's proposal for a new two-year cap on rental assistance was another way of preventing long-term dependency. In 2024, nearly half of non-elderly, nondisabled households receiving HUD assistance did not include anyone who worked, said the official, citing internal data. Other research differs. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that based on 2022 data, 60 percent of working-age, nondisabled households receiving HUD rental assistance in 2022 included at least one worker. The HUD official said the administration also supports policies that shift power to local authorities and lets them decide which approaches are best. Within the Moving to Work cohort, the official said around 40 public housing agencies already have work requirements, are implementing them or plan to soon, and that such requirements often improve household incomes and employment. Opponents say an increase in work requirements would fall heavily on people who already have a harder time getting work, keeping steady housing or accessing health care. And they say the loss of benefits would be even more extensive given planned cuts to major services. For example, the White House budget proposal would significantly cut rental assistance programs for the fiscal year beginning in October, in part to shift more power to the states. It is unclear whether those cuts would be achieved through work requirements, since HUD's plans are still in flux. That could amount to millions of people losing aid whether they work or not, since many states won't be able to cover those losses. 'What this indicates is that the driver behind this policy isn't this goal of helping people to advance economically,' said Will Fischer, senior fellow and director of housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 'The driver is they're trying to cut what they are spending on these programs.' A large share of welfare recipients have jobs. About 32 million people who worked in 2023 got health coverage through Medicaid or food assistance through SNAP, according to a CBPP analysis of census data. In theory, new work requirements shouldn't jeopardize benefits for these recipients. But advocates and left-leaning economists say such requirements do sometimes have that effect - in part because enforcing the rules means enough new administrative burdens that people fall through the cracks. In Georgia, for example, just 12,000 of nearly 250,000 newly eligible recipients received Medicaid after the state implemented work requirements. That was in part because people who worked had a tough time proving it to state officials or their work didn't meet certain qualifications. Finally, those against the policies say even people with jobs sometimes need help making ends meet - so pushing recipients to work wouldn't necessarily solve their household budget problems. Homelessness is worsening among the employed, and inflation often falls hardest on poorer people. At Los Angeles's Downtown Women's Center, which works to end homelessness, regular job training programs are some of the most popular offerings, chief executive Amy Turk said. But even those with jobs need help. A report found that in 2022, nearly 30 percent of homeless women in Los Angeles County were working for pay. Monthly incomes averaged $1,186. In Los Angeles County, though, the average rent is more than $2,000. Analysts at left-leaning think tanks, and some researchers who have studied work requirements, say supporters of the policy have it backward: Health insurance, stable housing and access to food make it possible for people to find work and remain employed. They point to Arkansas, the first state to enact work requirements for Medicaid, as a key example. In 2018, the state implemented its work mandate, which led to 18,000 people losing insurance before a judge in 2019 struck down the requirements in a lawsuit brought by three nonprofits on behalf of some Medicaid recipients. One 40-year-old man lost health coverage after incorrectly reporting the details of his employment and could no longer afford his medication. He suffered complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lost his job and struggled to find work again. Others worked odd jobs that did not always allow them to meet the 80-hour-a-month requirement, like a landscaper who struggled to get work in rainy months. 'You cannot conclude that work makes people healthier,' said MaryBeth Musumeci, an associate professor of health policy and management at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health. 'You need to be physically and mentally healthy enough to work, and particularly for poor people, the types of jobs they are doing can create health problems.' Leaders of Opportunity Arkansas, a conservative policy group, said the state's data shows that most people who lost insurance did so because their incomes rose - exactly the goal of requiring work. 'If Congress is serious about restoring Medicaid as a safety net for the truly needy - not a long-term program for able-bodied adults - then policies that encourage work and self-sufficiency, like the one Arkansas implemented, need to be part of the conversation,' J. Robertson, the organization's public affairs director, said in an email. - - - Jacob Bogage contributed to this report. Related Content Black Democrats fume over 2024 while 'searching for a leader' in 2028 Joy, tension collide as WorldPride arrives in Trump's Washington Kari Lake won awards for overseas reporting. Now she has the job of cutting it.
