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Then-Senate candidate and now Sen. John Kennedy speaks at a get-out-the-vote rally on December 9, 2016, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. DON EMMERT / AFP - Getty Images

"Until we can fix it, we cant let the system collapse and, I think, if you dont fund the CSRs, the system will collapse," said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.

While the outlines of a bipartisan bill are becoming easier to spot, its still not clear the new moves will produce actual legislation. The White House is weighing its options and Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La. and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are pushing an alternate bill that would provide health care funding to states in the form of block grants.

House Speaker Paul Ryan has also indicated hes not willing to give up on health care yet and conservative groups are expected to resist any deal that further entrenches Obamacare and makes it more difficult to repeal down the line.

"I dont know how this Problem Solvers plan goes anywhere," one Republican House aide said, suggesting it was more of a messaging effort for its organizers than a viable plan.

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Republicans and Democrats Suddenly Want to Fix Obamacare - NBCNews.com

Democrats are calling for harsh new punishments on companies that outsource jobs and a crackdown on currency manipulation, embracing a more populist economic agenda as they seek to win back control of Congress in next year's midterm elections.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York is slated to announce the plan Wednesday morning with fellow party Rust Belt lawmakers such as Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana.

It represents the second phase of Democrats' new platform dubbed "A Better Deal" aimed squarely at the blue-collar workers that helped propel President Donald Trump to victory.

"This plan would level the playing field for American workers by ensuring our workers aren't competing in a race to the bottom on wages and labor protections," strategy documents state.

Democrats' proposals include penalizing businesses that move jobs or their headquarters out of the United States. Companies would have to pay a corporate tax rate of 35 percent on any profits held overseas before relocating. Currently, businesses are able to defer those taxes until the money is brought back to the country.

Companies would also be prevented from deducting the expense of moving those jobs. On the other hand, businesses that bring jobs back to America would receive a tax credit for 20 percent of those costs.

Government contractors would face more stringent requirements under Democrats' plan, including a public "shame list" for those that regularly send jobs overseas. In addition, the proposal would require companies that outsource to add as much as 10 percent to their estimated costs, making them less competitive.

"U.S. companies need incentives to in-source production that has already been lost and be forced to pay an exit tax when outsourcing" the documents read.

The proposal also tackles one of Trump's favorite targets: China. Democrats are calling for a new law that would allow the federal government to impose duties on countries that undervalue their currency a move essentially directed at China. Under the existing system, only the Treasury Department can designate a nation as manipulating its currency.

Schumer has long been a vocal critic of China's currency and trade policies, and Democrats have traditionally been skeptical of the benefits of globalization. But Trump appealed to working-class voters particularly in typically blue states by breaking with Republican orthodoxy and verbally pummeling America's largest trading partner.

Some of the proposals in Democrats' new platform echo not only Trump's campaign promises, but efforts already underway in his administration: renegotiate NAFTA, create a "jobs security" council and tighten rules requiring the federal government to buy American. The plan would also establish an independent trade prosecutor.

Democrats are set to announce the new trade agenda amid reports in The Wall Street Journal and Axios that the White House is readying aggressive new enforcement actions against China for intellectual property theft.

Trump has also recently stepped up his rhetoric against the country as progress appears stalled on a hundred-days plan on trade and economic issues while North Korea ramps up ballistic missile tests.

"I am very disappointed in China," Trump wrote in two tweets last week. "Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!"

Democrats began rolling out their "Better Deal" agenda last week with vows to scrutinize big corporate mergers and bring down prescription drug prices. The platform is also expected to include proposals on the cost of higher education and infrastructure.

Link:
Democrats call for new 'outsourcing tax' - CNBC

Its true that the left will have to choose (and soon) between absolute ideological purity and the huge numbers required to seize the rudder of the nation and avert global catastrophe. But abortion is not valid fodder for such compromise, nor is racism, nor is L.G.B.T.Q. equality, nor is any issue that puts peoples fundamental humanity up for debate. Abortion is not a fringe issue. Abortion is liberty.

I hear from some people on the left that Donald Trumps victory was at least partially the fault of identity politics of feminists pushing too hard, of Black Lives Matter being too aggressive, of trans people needing to go to the bathroom as though the violent suppression of a movement points more toward its irrelevance than its necessity. What the Democrats need to do, I often hear, is to move away from issues of identity and toward purer, broader issues of economic equality.

But there is no model of economic equality that does not reckon with identity politics. There is no economic equality without the ability to terminate a pregnancy. There is no economic equality without the overthrow of white supremacy. What good is an economic opportunity if large swaths of the population cant access it? Telling minority groups that its their responsibility to sit back and wait, to subordinate their needs for the good of the party that implies that the party is not theirs as much as everyone elses. And it sounds a lot like the people were trying to defeat.

Abortion is normal. Abortion is common, necessary and happening every day across party lines, economic lines and religious lines. Abortion is also legal and, contrary to what the pundit economy would have you believe, not particularly controversial. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 70 percent of all Americans oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, while 75 percent of Democrats believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases. These are not numbers that indicate controversy.

Yes, abortion does draw certain groups to the polls. Trumps success among evangelicals can almost certainly be attributed to their belief that he will appoint justices who will bring about the end of Roe v. Wade (a promise that, it seems, with the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, he intends to fulfill). But that is why Republicans vote; its not why Democrats vote.

Abortion is not controversial on the left. So what does it say that so many lefty men are willing to scrap it in an attempt to pander to some vague fantasy of a vast, disgruntled, anti-choice center? What kind of cringing, bewildered invertebrates roll over and capitulate to the losing side of a debate at a time when theyve never had more leverage? What contortionist of logic came up with the proposal that alienating 75 percent of ones constituents, and declaring half to not deserve control over their bodies, can strengthen a partys numbers? This is not broadening our coalition; its flagrantly shrinking it.

There has never been a more opportune moment for the Democratic Party to demand compromise not from the left but from the center. What are anti-choice Democrats going to do? Become Republicans? Now? Jump into the abattoir of clown meat whose top policy priority seems to be poor people deserve to die of preventable diseases?

Come on, Democrats. Be something. Unite and move left. The center will follow or lose.

The rest is here:
Of Course Abortion Should Be a Litmus Test for Democrats - New York Times

Wichita Eagle

How will Brownback's departure affect Democrats? Not much, they say Wichita Eagle Kansas Democrats are preparing for the departure of arguably their biggest foe Gov. Sam Brownback by staying the course. Brownback was nominated by President Donald Trump last week to be ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. and more »

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How will Brownback's departure affect Democrats? Not much, they say - Wichita Eagle

TheWhite House budget director on Wednesday said tax reform looks "weaker" with Democrats on it.

During an interview on "Fox & Friends," Mick Mulvaney was asked if he thinks Republicans can get tax reform passed without needing Democrats' votes.

"You have a choice. You can either try and do it with 50 votes in the Senate, using what's called budget reconciliation, or 60 votes in the Senate without," he said.

Mulvaney said tax reform is necessary to get the American economy back at 3 percent economic growth.

"That's absolutely critical, and tax reform is a central feature in that," he said.

His comments come after Senate Democrats earlier this week urged Republicans to work with them on bipartisan tax reform.

In a letter addressed to President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Finance Committee ChairmanOrrin Hatch (R-Utah), Senate Democratsexpressed "interest in working with you on bipartisan tax reform." The letter said by working together, lawmakers could modernize the country's tax system.

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OMB director: Tax reform looks 'weaker' with Democrats on it - The Hill