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Two Republican lawmakers admitted Sunday the initial GOP bill to repeal and replace the nations health law is probably dead and President Trumps proposal to solely repeal it appears to be a non-starter.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said in a televised interview on CBS it may now be time for Republicans to come up with a new proposal with support from Democrats.

"I think my view is it's probably going to be dead," McCain said of the GOP bill. If Democrats are included, he said, it doesn't mean "they control it. It means they can have amendments considered. And even when they lose, then they're part of the process. That's what democracy is supposed to be all about."

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La, speaking on Fox News Sunday, told Chris Wallace We dont know what the plan is. Clearly, the draft plan is dead. Is the serious rewrite plan dead? I don't know."

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, signaled pessimism as well. He wrote on Twitter late Saturday that Republicans will lose their Senate majority if they dont pass health care legislation. Grassley added the party should be "ashamed" that it hasn't been able to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

Trump used Twitter Sunday afternoon to urge Republicans to follow through on their pledge to get rid of the health care law pushed by his predecessor.

"For years, even as a "civilian," I listened as Republicans pushed the Repeal and Replace of ObamaCare. Now they finally have their chance!," Trump said in a tweet.

At least 10 GOP senators have expressed opposition to the initial bill drafted by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Republicans hold a 52-48 majority and Democrats stand united against the bill, meaning that just three GOP defections will doom it. The weeklong July 4 recess only raised more doubts among senators as many heard from constituents angry about the GOP bill and the prospect of rising premiums.

McConnell last week said he would introduce a fresh bill in about a week scuttling and replacing much of former President Barack Obama's health care law. But McConnell also acknowledged that if the broader effort fails, he may turn to a smaller bill with quick help for insurers and consumers and negotiate with Democrats.

Sen. Ted Cruzs plan, which aims to lower premiums for healthy people, has drawn support from the White House and some conservatives in the House, which would have to approve any modified bill passed by the Senate. But his proposal has limited appeal to Republican moderates such as Grassley, who told Iowa Public Radio that it may be "subterfuge to get around pre-existing conditions."

Cruz on Sunday sought to dismiss Grassley's criticism as a "hoax" being pushed by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, insisting that people will be able to get the coverage they need at an affordable price. Cruz cast his plan as a compromise to unify the party on a GOP health bill.

"When it comes to repealing Obamacare, what I think is critical is that Republicans, we've got to honor the promise we made to the voters that millions of Americans are hurting under Obamacare," Cruz said.

"In my view failure is not an option," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Two Republican senators declare bid to repeal health care law 'dead' - Fox News

OK, so the selling of Trumpcare is deeply dishonest. But isnt that what politics is always like? No. Political spin used to have its limits: Politicians who wanted to be taken seriously wouldnt go around claiming that up is down and black is white.

Does anyone remember the reformicons? A couple of years back there was much talk about a new generation of Republicans who would, it was claimed, move their party off its cruel and mindless agenda of tax cuts for the rich and pain for the poor, bringing back the intellectual seriousness that supposedly used to characterize the conservative movement.

But the rise of the reformicons never happened. What we got instead was the (further) rise of the decepticons not the evil robots from the movies, but conservatives who keep scaling new heights of dishonesty in their attempt to sell their reverse-Robin Hood agenda.

Consider, in particular, Republican leaders strategy on health care. At this point, everything they say involves either demonstrably dishonest claims about Obamacare or wild misrepresentations of their proposed replacement, which would surprise cut taxes for the rich while inflicting harsh punishment on the poor and working class, including millions of Trump supporters. In fact, theres so much deception that I cant cover it all. But here are a few low points.

Despite encountering some significant problems, the Affordable Care Act has, as promised, extended health insurance to millions of Americans who wouldnt have had it otherwise, at a fairly modest cost. In states that have implemented the act as it was intended, expanding Medicaid, the percentage of nonelderly residents without insurance has fallen by more than half since 2010.

And these numbers translate into dramatic positive impacts on real lives. A few days ago the Indiana GOP asked residents to share their Obamacare horror stories; what it got instead were thousands of testimonials from people whom the ACA has saved from financial ruin or even death.

How do Republicans argue against this success? You can get a good overview by looking at the Twitter feed of Tom Price, President Donald Trumps secretary of health and human services a feed that is, in its own way, almost as horrifying as that of the tweeter in chief. Price points repeatedly to two misleading numbers.

First, he points to the fact that fewer people than expected have signed up on the exchanges Obamacares insurance marketplaces and portrays this as a sign of dire failure. But a lot of this shortfall is the result of good news: Fewer employers than predicted chose to drop coverage and shift their workers onto exchange plans. So exchange enrollment has come in below forecast, but it mostly consists of people who wouldnt otherwise have been insured and as I said, there have been large gains in overall coverage.

Second, he points to the 28 million U.S. residents who remain uninsured as if this were some huge, unanticipated failure. But nobody expected Obamacare to cover everyone; indeed, the Congressional Budget Office always projected that more than 20 million people would, for various reasons, be left out. And you have to wonder how Price can look himself in the mirror after condemning the ACA for missing some people when his own partys plans would vastly increase the number of uninsured.

Which brings us to Republicans efforts to obscure the nature of their own plans.

The main story here is very simple: In order to free up money for tax cuts, GOP plans would drastically cut Medicaid spending relative to current law, and they would also cut insurance subsidies, making private insurance unaffordable for many people not eligible for Medicaid.

Republicans could try to make a case for this policy shift; they could try to explain why tax cuts for a wealthy few are more important than health care for tens of millions. Instead, however, theyre engaging in shameless denial.

On one side, they claim that a cut is not a cut, because dollar spending on Medicaid would still rise over time. What about the need to spend more to keep up with the needs of an aging population? (Most Medicaid spending goes to the elderly or disabled.) La, la, la, we cant hear you.

On the other side even I was shocked by this one senior Republicans like Paul Ryan dismiss declines in the number of people with coverage as no big deal, because they would represent voluntary choices not to buy insurance.

How is this supposed to apply to the 15 million people the CBO predicts would lose Medicaid? Wouldnt many people drop coverage, not as an exercise in personal freedom but in response to what the Kaiser Family Foundation estimates would be an average 74 percent increase in after-tax premiums? Never mind.

OK, so the selling of Trumpcare is deeply dishonest. But isnt that what politics is always like? No. Political spin used to have its limits: Politicians who wanted to be taken seriously wouldnt go around claiming that up is down and black is white.

Yet todays Republicans hardly ever do anything else. Its not just Donald Trump: The whole GOP has become a post-truth party. And I see no sign that it will ever improve.

Original post:
Attack of the Republican decepticons - The Seattle Times

WASHINGTON Two senior Republican U.S. senators criticized Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday for saying that Russia may have the "right approach" on Syria and for what they called his lack of focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"His statements about Syria really disturb me. No, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin does not have it right when it comes to Syria," Senator Lindsey Graham said.

In separate television interviews, Graham and Senator John McCain, prominent Republican foreign policy voices, took aim at Tillerson's remarks last week that Russia may have "got the right approach" and the United States the wrong approach to Syria.

Russia has backed President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's civil war, while the United States supports rebel groups trying to overthrow him.

McCain told CBS' "Face the Nation" that he "sometimes" regretted backing Tillerson's nomination by Republican President Donald Trump and that his comments on Russia being "right" on Syria made him emotional and upset.

"I know what the slaughter has been like. I know that the Russians knew that Bashar Assad was going to use chemical weapons. And to say that maybe we've got the wrong approach?" he said.

Both senators backed the nomination of Tillerson in January, even while expressing concern about his dealings with Russia when he was chief executive of ExxonMobil. (XOM.N)

Graham, who visited Afghanistan and Pakistan last week with McCain, accused Tillerson of being "AWOL" on the two countries and failing to fill key State Department posts.

"I am so worried about the State Department, Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

A State Department official responded to the criticism of Tillerson by saying that a U.S.-Russian-brokered ceasefire for southwest Syria was an example of what the secretary had described as the potential to coordinate with Russia, in spite of unresolved differences, "to produce stability and serve our mutual security interests."

The official, who did not want to be identified, also said the State Department was taking an active role in a review of Afghanistan and Pakistan policy and continued to work with the White House on nominations.

Since the exit of most foreign troops in 2014, Afghanistans U.S.-backed government has lost ground to a Taliban insurgency in a war that kills and maims thousands of civilians each year.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Additional reporting by Arsghad Mohammed and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Peter Cooney)

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., agreed to meet with a Kremlin-linked lawyer during the 2016 election campaign after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported on Sunday, citing three advisers to the White House.

WASHINGTON Republicans expressed increasing pessimism on Sunday about the prospects for the healthcare bill in the U.S. Senate aimed at rolling back Obamacare as lawmakers prepared to return from a week-long recess.

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Two senior Republican senators criticize Tillerson comments on Russia - Reuters

Marco Rubio had a message for his nearly 3 million Twitter followers on the morning of June 26: As dogs return to their vomit, so fools repeat their folly. Proverbs 26:11.

That one might have been his most head-snapping, but Rubio, the Republican senator from Florida, had been tweeting verses like that one since May 16. He has tweeted a biblical verse almost every day since then. Almost all of them come from the Old Testament, and specifically the book of Proverbs.

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Proverbs is notable in that is presents a fairly consistent view of the world: The righteous are rewarded, and the wicked are punished. In the understanding of Proverbs, everyone gets what is coming to them; behavior is directly linked to reward or punishment. This worldview has social consequences: Those who succeed in life must be more righteous than those who struggle.

Some of the statements in Proverbs look strikingly similar to those made by modern-day conservative policymakers. Take, for example, Representative Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who, arguing that poorer people should pay more for health care, recently said, Those people who lead good lives, theyre healthy. Its not quite a direct quote from Proverbs, but its not too far from these: The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry (Proverbs10:3) and A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich (Proverbs 10:4). In short: Proverbs is probably the most Republican book of the entire Bible.

Proverbs is really a collectionor, more accurately, a collection of collections. Some of these sayings have very ancient origins, including one section that is clearly dependent on an Egyptian wisdom treatise from the second millennium B.C. Overall, though, the book was put together rather lateand not, as tradition holds, by King Solomonand generally deals with questions of how to live a righteous life.

For example: Just this past July 5, Rubio tweeted, They will die from lack of discipline, lost because of their great folly. Proverbs 5:23. Of course, its not all diligence and righteousnessin Proverbs, faith in God, too, will keep you away from things like poverty and failure. On June 16, Rubio tweeted, Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

Other Republicans appear to have a thing for Proverbs, too. Ben Carson, during the 2016 presidential campaign, compared himself favorably to the blustery style of then-candidate Donald Trump by quoting Proverbs 22:4: By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life. Gerald Fords favorite Bible passage was Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust wholeheartedly in Yahweh [the Lord], put no faith in your own perception; in every course you take, have him in mind: He will see that your paths are smooth. Ford repeated this when he served in the Navy during World War II, throughout his presidency and in his swearing-in.

Trump likes the idea of Proverbs, even if he doesnt know much about the text itself. Back in September 2015, Trump claimed, in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, that among the biblical verses he most appreciated was Proverbs, the chapter never bend to envy. Ive had that thing all my life, where people are bending to envy. This would have been a more effective citation if there were such a line anywhere in the book of Proverbs. (His interviewer later told the Washington Post, not entirely persuasively, that Trump was referring to Proverbs 24:1-2: Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them. For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief.)

Proverbs, of course, is also just pithy and instructive and so has some appeal for Democrats, too. Bill Clinton employed Proverbs 29:18 when accepting the nomination in 1992: Where there is no vision, the people perish. But do a quick look at the Bible passages quoted in past inauguration speeches, and youll see that Republicans, from Ford to Herbert Hoover all the way back to William McKinley, have a clear preference for the section, relative to Democrats.

Its not just the Book of Proverbs that politicians have quoted to justify a worldview or political philosophy, however much squinting was required to make a connection. In April 2016, Trump referred (loosely) to Leviticus 24:19-21 when asked what his favorite Bible verse was. So many, he told the AM radio host. And some peoplelook, an eye for an eye, you can almost say that. He went on to explain why: But you know, if you look at whats happening to our country, I mean And we have to be firm and have to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you. It didnt take very long for Trump to segue back into his talking points about the need for more American muscle: Other countries laugh at our face, and theyre taking our jobs, theyre taking our money, theyre taking the health of our country.

There is surely nothing wrong with a politician turning to the Bible for spiritual, ethical and moral guidance. The Bible is the foundational text of Western civilization, after all. But concentrating exclusively on the parts of it that affirm ones own perspective is a form of confirmation bias. One might advise Rubio to read, and tweet, more widely: from Ecclesiastes, perhaps, or from prophets such as Amos: Because you trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain, you have built houses of stonebut you shall not live in them (Amos 5:11). Maybe Leviticus: When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself (Leviticus 19:3334). Or even the gospels of the New Testament: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God (Matt 19:24/Mark 10:25/Luke 18:25).

As for Trumps favorite Bible verse, we should remember that Jesus later repudiated it in the New Testament, when he said, Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also (Matthew 5:38-42).

Nor does Proverbs represent the sole biblical perspective on such issues of reward and punishment. Indeed, the entire book of Ecclesiastes is nothing less than a direct rebuke to the harsh, almost social Darwinist worldview of Proverbs: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster (Ecclesiastes 9:1112).

Its always nice to know that whatever your ideological persuasion, theres a verse in the Bible just waiting to be appropriated. Or, as Ecclesiastes put it, For every thing, there is a season.

Joel Baden (@joelbaden) is professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale Divinity School.

Excerpt from:
Marco Rubio Is Tweeting the Most Republican Part of the Bible ... - POLITICO Magazine

Kentuckys Republican Governor Matt Bevin plans to cut another 9,000 people from Medicaid in his state, signaling what lies ahead if Senate Republicans pass their plan to repeal and replace Obamacare in the coming weeks.

This weekBevinrevised a plan he came up with last year, seeking a waiverfrom the federal government, to allow Kentucky to roll back Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

The new plan would see 95,000 fewer people on Medicaid in the state at the end of Bevin'sfive-year plan. His original plan was for 86,000 to lose Medicaid coverage. The proposal is calculated to save the state a total of $358 million.

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Governor of Kentucky Matt Bevin speaks at 2017 SelectUSA Investment Summit in Oxon Hill, Maryland, U.S., June 19, 2017. Joshua Roberts/Reuters

The federal Medicaid program provides health insurance coverage for elderly and low-income Americans and covers roughly 1.4 million Kentuckians. Federal money is given to each state based on their needs. Obamacare legally mandated the expansion of the number of people who would be covered under stateplans.

In Congress, Senate Republicans are working to pass a health care bill that would grant waivers to all states over whether they keep the Obamacare Medicaid expansion. Under the bill, states would also be able to decide whether health insurers in their jurisdiction could discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions in the cost of their health coverage.

Republican Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Dennis Daugaard of South Dakota are both considering asking for waivers to roll back Obamacare provisions once the Senate Republican health care bill is passed. Both are particularly interested in curtailing the rules against insurance companies discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions.

Read more: Bernie Sanders's next move is to host rallies in red states to rail against the GOP's health care plan

The Senate health care bill, however, is deeply unpopular among Americans. A recent NPR and PBS NewsHour Marist poll shows just 17 percent of Americans approve of the Senate's health care plan.

An audit of the bill by the Congressional Budget Office said it will strip about $770 billion from American Medicaid over the next 10 years and leave22million Americans without insurance.

During Congress Independence Day recess Republican Senators have faced a backlash against the bill from their constituents, with some citizens even protesting on the July 4 holiday.

Rather than participate in local festivities, some Republican Senators decided to lay low during the holiday to avoid being confronted about the bill.

Although Virginia's Republican senator, Shelley Moore Capito said reforms to Medicaid are necessary, she is keen tomaintainthe Obamacare Medicaid expansion to helpher constituents.

The rebuke to Obamacare by Republican governors, however, continues. As Ohio's Republican lieutenant governor Mary Taylor entered the race for governor this week, she said she would confront the mistakes of Republican Governor John Kasich, a staunch supporter of the Medicaid expansion. Taylor noted on Friday that she led the state's fight against the federal health care law.

In Kentucky, Doug Hogan, Bevins spokesman for the states Cabinet for Health and Family Services, told The Courier-Journal that the governors plan will not cut anyone from Medicaid.

Rather, Hogansaid, people will opt out of Medicaid coverage if they refuse to meet requirements under the new plan that they volunteer or work a minimum of 20 hours a week or transition to employer health plans.

But, Dustin Pugel, a research associate with the Kentucky Center on Economic Policy, was not convinced.

Kentuckys new plan just takes a bad waiver and makes it worse," he said.

The rest is here:
Republican Medicaid Cut in Kentucky Would Slash 9000 More People From Health Coverage - Newsweek