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The Republican game plan for summer is on course, despite the fury about Russiagate, staffing in the Executive Branch, exciting results of the four special elections for the House, and the unbreathable Washington climate of distrust, disorder, and dishonor.

While the Democrats storm about the presidents temperament and tweets, and especially as Obama administration veterans tell tales about how they scolded the Kremlin for meddling in the election, the winners from Nov. 8, 2016, are beavering away with their majority position and their candid mandate on the economy.

After so many sparkling distractions by Russiagates venerated special counsel, Robert Mueller, it is useful to restate the simple, unwavering, conservative Republican ambition.

The first step is to transform into law of the land the American Health Care Act that was passed by the Republican House on May 4.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has now delivered a Senate version of the AHCA that can attract 50 Republican votes to leave Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie.

The AHCA then goes to reconciliation to solve the differences between the House version, which favors the repeal side of the GOP-despised Affordable Care Act, and the Senate version, which leans toward the replace side of the ACA.

The second step of the GOP plan begins in the reconciliation, and it includes components of the Trump administrations tax-reform proposal.

There is an opinion under discussion at the White House that, since the AHCA is a fiscal bill, there is no restriction to attaching another fiscal bill to the reconciliation. The Republican plan includes a possibility of attaching elements of President Trumps business-tax reform.

Larry Kudlow of CNBC reports that the Republican leadership, including Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina, are in discussion about attaching to the AHCA bill what Kudlow and his colleague Steve Moore of Heritage have dubbed Three Easy Pieces of business-tax reform.

First, cut the corporate tax rate for large and small, Kudlow explained last week, including pass-throughs, from 35 to 15 [percent]. Would have an electric effect on investment. Thats large and small. Seventy percent of the benefits go to the wage earners. Middle-class tax cut.

Second, all new investment would be expensed immediately. Right off. Tremendous.

And finally, repatriate whatever. Three trillion dollars overseas. American companies bring their cash home. A one-time toll of 10 percent, and thats all.

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The Republican opinion is that these two bold fiscal steps, health care and tax reform, will satisfy the critical campaign promises of 2016 and will make 2018 a strong showing to return Republican majorities to the Hill.

What can go wrong? The challenge to the GOP plan is the legislative calendar. There are less than two dozen days for the Republicans to hash out the AHCA reconciliation before the August recess. Returning after Labor Day, there are only 64 days left in the year to do the heavy lifting of a proposed Omnibus bill for all of tax reform, business and personal, in addition to renewing the debt limit and passing a budget.

The solution to such a small window for the Republicans is to forgo the August recess in order to solve reconciliation and attach to it the Three Easy Pieces. Meadows is a strong advocate of staying in Washington and gaining the much-needed days for debate on health care.

The entire Republican Party favors the business-tax cuts large and small, Kudlow told me. The whole party. In fact a lot of Democrats favor it. Health care was a big disagreement among Republicans. There will be no big disagreement on the tax cuts.

It is a simple path to success. A small caveat is that the Democrats will object to the AHCA, because of the Congressional Budget Office scoring that could render it a budget-buster.

However, there is a solution under discussion between the Hill and the White House.

Legally, technically, Kudlow explained of the planning in GOP leadership, you can attach the tax-cut bill to the health-care bill. Theyre both fiscal bills, OK, thats the key point. You do not have to use the CBO estimates for the economy You dont have to use the 10-year scorecard window. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is proposing 20 years. That will take care of all the revenue needs. All of them.

The plan is now entirely in the hands of Republicans, who have the votes, the resolve and the skill to succeed without need of any Democratic opinions or votes.

The Democratic leadership is completely informed of the Republican game plan.

After last Tuesdays efficient Republican victories in Georgia and South Carolina, disgruntled Democratic members of Congress have spoken out against leaders such as Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for devoting so much energy and time to disdaining Trump instead of developing an answer to the GOP fiscal dyad of health care and taxes.

Joe Rago of The Wall Street Journal editorial board told me two weeks back that the GOP Senate was enjoying the calm of constructing its version of AHCA while the Democrats and the major media were frantic on the front pages about Trump and Putin.

The latest anxious Democratic voice is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who can see the game getting away from him as surely as he can read the melodramatic headlines about Russiagates hypothetical colluding, blackmailing, hacking, obstructing, interfering, meddling.

Democrats need a strong, bold, sharp-edged, and commonsense economic agenda, Schumer declared on TV, adding Its what we are missing, and its not going to be baby stepsits going to be bold.

The irony is that Schumer is describing exactly the GOP plan to win by Labor Day.

Just in case Schumers frustration with the Democratic obsession with Trump was not obvious, the New York senator added, When you lose an election, you dont blame other people. You blame yourself.

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The Republican Turnaround Starts This Week With Health Care and Tax Reform - Daily Beast

Bernie Sanders at a rally on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Jason Merritt/Getty Images for MoveOn.org

As Donald Trump celebrated the marriage of Wall Street executive-turned-treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin in the Washington swamp he repeatedly pledged to drain, Bernie Sanders stepped onstage in Pittsburgh.

In a city the president last month said he was elected to represent rather than Paris, home of the global climate accord from which Trump has withdrawn, the Vermont senator denounced a moral outrage that this country will never live down.

In Washington, Senate Republican leaders pushed for a vote to dramatically reshape the US healthcare system, ignoring pleas from within their own party to allow more time for debate. In the Rust Belt, Sanders spent the weekend rallying opposition to their plan.

In Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, Sanders was unsparing in his attack on the Republican healthcare bill, which would likely leaves millions of people without insurance cover.

The so-called healthcare bill passed in the House last month is the most anti-working class legislation in the modern history of our country, he said in Pittsburgh, at the first of three rallies organized with the progressive group MoveOn.org, aiming to mobilize opposition ahead of an expected Senate vote this week.

The Senate plan, which was drafted in secret and released last Thursday, would repeal major pieces of the Affordable Care Act (Aca) and exact deep cuts to Medicaid.

The horrible and unspeakable truth, Sanders said, speaking to a crowd of roughly 1,600, is that if this legislation was to pass, and if millions of people, many of whom are terribly ill today, would to lose their healthcare that they have, there is no question but that many many thousands of our fellow Americans will die unnecessarily.

Unacceptable! a man called out.

Others shouted: I will die!

In Columbus, Ohio, Sanders told the crowd he been criticized for portraying the healthcare bill as a matter of life and death. But it was common sense, he said, to say that if you take away healthcare coverage, people will die by the thousands.

I say this with pain, with anxiety, he added. Thousands.

For many attendees, this was personal. Diana Zoelle, a retired political science professor, feared cuts to Medicaid would leave her 89-year-old mother unable to afford nursing home care. Her mother had spent nearly all of her retirement savings, she said, and had been told she was eligible for Medicaid, which covers the longer-term care needs of nearly two-thirds of nursing home residents.

But then Trump says hes taking $880bn out of Medicaid, Zoelle said. I guess he assumes that I will take my mother home with me from the nursing home and that I will pay for everything she needs and then I wont have anything for my old age.

One of the women Zoelle came with shook her head. If the healthcare bill goes through, she said, thats when the real revolt is going to start because its going to affect them and they will act.

Theres not a whole lot of familiarity with the bill. Thats what McConnell wants he wants to move it quickly

Republicans are facing an increasingly difficult challenge to find the votes to pass their healthcare overhaul this week. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to release an analysis of the bill as early as Monday; Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell will spend the week cajoling reticent members of his party.

Theres not a whole lot of familiarity with the bill, Sanders told the Guardian in an interview conducted in Ginos Pizza at Yeager Airport in Charleston, West Virginia. Thats what McConnell wants he wants to move it quickly without a lot of discussion because its such a bad bill.

McConnell has said he wants a vote by the end of the week, before lawmakers leave for a week-long holiday. Over the weekend, some Republican senators cast doubt on that timeline.

Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, who has announced his opposition to the bill from the right, said on NBCs Meet the Press: Theres no way we should be voting. Susan Collins of Maine, a moderate who has serious concerns, said on ABCs This Week: Its hard for me to see the bill passing this week.

Sanders said a delay would be a victory for Democrats and opponents of the effort to scrap the ACA that has only become more unpopular with scrutiny.

If we can beat back on votes this week, he said, it gives us the opportunity to better communicate to the American people how disastrous this legislation is.

At least five Republicans have announced their opposition three more than party leaders can afford to lose. Democrats do not have the votes to stop the bill but remain staunchly opposed.

If [Ohio] Senator [Rob] Portman votes no, the likelihood is this bill would go down, Sanders said at the rally in Columbus. In Charleston, West Virginia, he said the same of Senator Shelley Moore Capito. Neither has yet made a decision, unlike Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania who is likely to vote yes.

At the rallies, Ben Wikler, MoveOns Washington director, warned that Republican opposition could melt away as McConnell negotiates. He urged attendees to continue pressuring senators in their states.

This is not a drill, he said at that rally. This bill is on a knifes edge. This is a code red. We are here to show the entire country the energy, the passion it will take to stop this bill.

Trump, who celebrated with a Rose Garden ceremony when the House healthcare bill passed last month, has failed to make a winning case for the legislation. In an interview with Fox & Friends that aired on Sunday, he accused Barack Obama of copying his characterization of the House bill when the former president described the fundamental meanness of the Senate plan.

He actually used my term: mean. That was my term, Trump said. Because I want to see and I speak from the heart thats what I want to see, I want to see a bill with heart.

Earlier on Sunday, while administration officials defended the healthcare bill on the morning talk shows, Trump chose to revisit the 2016 Democratic primary, tweeting that Hillary Clinton colluded with the Democratic National Committee to beat Crazy Bernie Sanders.

One might think that the president of the United States would have more to worry about than an election that ended for me a year ago, Sanders told the Guardian. I can think of one or two issues that might be of greater importance than worrying about a Hillary Clinton v Bernie Sanders primary. But what do I know?

Sanders supporters from that primary remain, however, and many of them are young. Nearly 5,000 turned out for the three weekend rallies, which were organized with only a few days notice.

One might think that the president would have more to worry about than an election that ended for me a year ago

At an Outback Steakhouse in St Clairsville, Ohio, on Saturday night, servers fought over who would get to seat the senator. In the course of dinner, several diners interrupted to ask for a photo. One squeezed next to Sanders in the booth with her daughter. Im in my gym clothes! she exclaimed, embarrassed.

Another waitress, giddy with excitement, told Sanders: I love you so much Can I give you a hug? Sanders acquiesced to every request and occasionally even pre-empted them.

At the Charleston airport, a flight attendant rushed up to greet him. Do you want a picture? Sanders asked. She did. Look at that, he said dryly. I can read minds.

As a healthcare vote looms in the Senate this week, Sanders and his supporters are looking forward to the next step of the fight moving for a universal single-payer system. Sanders is expected to introduce Medicare for all legislation soon and he expects to have several co-sponsors. He had none when he introduced a version in 2011.

Sanders is realistic about the bills chances.

Youre not going to pass that in a Republican-controlled Congress when Trump is president, he said. The goal is to develop the momentum to at one point as soon as possible pass something like Medicare for all.

At the moment, Sanders said his priority is to defeat the Republican repeal effort.

If it passes the Senate, people should know that the fight is not over, Sanders said.

Unless the House accepts the Senates version of the bill, the legislation will be sent to a conference committee where members of both chambers will work to iron out the differences. This process would give liberal organizers and opponents of the bill another chance to pressure Republicans to abandon the effort.

The struggle continues, Sanders said. Our job is to educate, organize and to make sure that Republicans understand the American people are very strongly opposed to this legislation.

Original post:
Bernie Sanders rallies opposition to Republican healthcare reform plan - The Guardian

An influential House committee chairman will press his case on Monday for a $705 billion defense budget in 2018, more military spending than at any point during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a level even a number of his Republican colleagues don't support.

Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, who heads the Armed Services Committee, argues the sharp increase is badly needed to repair a military that's been at almost continuous combat for a decade and a half. He'll unveil a blueprint that proposes $37 billion above the $603 billion than President Donald Trump requested for core Pentagon operations along with another $65 billion for warfighting missions.

But Thornberry is at odds with fellow Republicans over how much the Pentagon should get in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. Conservatives who dominate the Budget Committee agreed last week on a budget outline that promises $620 billion for the core military budget that pays for weapons, training and troop salaries. That's $20 billion less than Thornberry wants.

The two committees, along with senior GOP members of the appropriations panel, have been meeting behind closed doors in hopes of breaking the impasse. Thornberry said he's willing to accept a lower number, but only if he's assured the Pentagon will no longer be hamstrung by a herky-jerky budgeting process that leaves the armed services unsure of how much they'll get each year and when the money will arrive.

Squarely in the sights of Thornberry and other defense hawks on Capitol Hill is a 2011 law that strictly limits defense spending. If the budget caps mandated by the Budget Control Act are breached, automatic spending reductions known as sequestration are triggered. They've been pushing for the law to be repealed, but that won't happen without help from Democrats who want limits on domestic spending erased.

"If we can get to a point where we don't have these draconian cuts hanging over our head there is value to that," says Thornberry, whose committee will craft the sweeping defense authorization bill this week.

Thornberry criticized Trump's maiden Pentagon's budget as inadequate, but he refused to blame the president for the shortcomings. The defense budget sent to Congress last month was essentially what former President Barack Obama would have proposed, he said.

"There wasn't anybody at DOD to write a Trump budget request," according to Thornberry. "I have no doubt that our president wants to repair and rebuild our military."

Yet the Trump administration is almost entirely responsible for the skeleton crew at the Pentagon. There are dozens of top-level jobs that require Senate confirmation before they can be filled, but Trump, in office since late January, has nominated just 20 so far. Six have been confirmed, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, while a dozen or so others await approval, according to figures maintained by the Senate.

Thornberry's blueprint recommends an increase of just over 18,000 active-duty troops for the Army, Air Force and Navy. The Army, with 10,000 new service members, would be the largest beneficiary of the boost. Overall, the plan envisions a full-time fighting force of 1.3 million.

The plan provides a 2.4 percent pay raise for the troops, which is slightly higher than the wage hike the Pentagon had proposed. Mattis defended the lower amount during a committee hearing earlier this month, telling lawmakers that the salaries of U.S. service members are competitive with the private sector.

"We probably have a better benefits package than most places," Mattis added.

But Thornberry told reporters last week that U.S. troops are entitled to a "full" pay increase. He also had grappled with the Obama White House over pay levels. The Obama administration had maintained that boosting troop salaries even a half-percentage point would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and upset the balance between fair pay and the ability to provide cutting-edge equipment and training.

The plan aims to reverse the $340 million cut made in the Trump budget to missile defense programs. Thornberry said he was "astonished" by the proposed reduction, citing the potential threat the U.S. faces of a missile strike by North Korea or Iran. He's seeking more money for interceptors that can bring down incoming missiles and money for investment in missile defense research.

Thornberry's committee rejects Mattis' bid to begin a new round of base closings in 2021, a move the Pentagon chief said would save $10 billion over five years. The Obama administration had sought to shutter excess bases too, but also was rebuffed by Capitol Hill. Military installations are prized possessions in congressional districts.

Lawmakers have questioned the data and the analysis the Pentagon has used to make its arguments for fewer facilities. They're also skeptical of the alleged savings, noting that there are substantial up-front costs required to close bases down.

Contact Richard Lardner on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rplardner

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Top Republican to press for $705 billion defense budget - ABC News

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellMitch McConnellDoctors can do messaging on Republican healthcare reform OPINION: Trump's right GOP health bill is mean, mean, mean Conway: ObamaCare 'robbed people of choices' MORE (R-Ky.) has said a vote will take place this week on the Senates newly proposed healthcare legislation.

Its a risky strategy. If he fails to get the votes it will demonstrate that after seven years of complaining about ObamaCare, the GOP cant pass a replacement. If it does pass, theres no guarantee the House will support it.

The biggest risk is the political one. If President Trump signs a new health law, the Republicans will own the healthcare space. They can reap the benefits, but the Democrats will, no doubt, pick apart and blame the GOP for anything that could otherwise be blamed on ObamaCare.

Republicans may face the same fate as Democrats in 2010 on Election Day next year if they cant deliver this week, and then show that their policy can do better by patients, small business owners and doctors.

Ultimately the final legislation must deliver on four major problems patients and employers face: costs, access, choice and quality. This is difficult but not impossible as long as the GOP members find compromise that will allow them to show voters they can at least make progress toward these issues.

Most importantly for doctors, the committee bill must address the increasing presence of insurance companies and government entities that have created an ever-growing wedge between the doctor and patient -- the relationship that nearlythree-quartersof doctors say is the most satisfying part of their job.

While agreeing on an exact policy is difficult, messaging from the 30,000 foot view is not. This is good because most voters respond to 30,000 foot messaging, not intricate policy debates -- as long as it is carried by the right messengers: doctors.

Consider: Polls show that just17 percentof the public supports the House proposal. Does anyone believe that more than a few percent of the population has even read the bill? Of course not. People are forming their opinions based on 30,000 foot messaging even if that messaging is fully false. Even before the House voted, seemingly every major media outlet predicted calamity.

This is the message that Democrats want average voters to hear to turn the focus away from the massive failures of ObamaCare.

Doctors can help. As someone who has organized doctors for the past three election cycles and has witnessed the humanity, the professionalism, and the deep understanding of the doctor-patient relationship of these healthcare professionals, I know there is no doubt doctors are ready to help message a better healthcare alternative.

While they may not agree on every single thread that tries to untie the healthcare Gordian knot,doctors will supporta patient-focused reform that returns medical decisions to them and their patients.

Given their high public esteem --a recent Gallup pollshows healthcare professionals are the most trusted people in the country, with two-thirds of respondents rating doctors ethical standards as very high or high doctors support could make the difference in generating the public support necessary for the final bill to pass.

The White House and congressional Republicans should enlist those trained, organized, and caring doctors who are willing to help. Their authority on the issue can cut through the misinformation, sensationalism and faux outrage that define much of todays media.

In short, President Trump and congressional reformers dont need to spend too much time crafting the message or finding the messengers. Doctors are here and ready to help. Focus on policy; get it done. As long as that plan includes more choice and more protection for the doctor-patient relationship while protecting the neediest, doctors will have reformers backs. And that might just save their political necks.

Joel L. Strom DDS MS is a Fellow at the Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California.

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Doctors can do messaging on Republican healthcare reform - The Hill (blog)

THE PURPOSE OF tax reform is to raise revenue more efficiently with fewer loopholes and special breaks that distort economic incentives and necessitate higher marginal rates. In discussing tax reform since President Trumps election, Republicans have promised to do just that: pass a bill with lower rates for both individuals and businesses, applied to an income base broadened by the elimination of deductions and credits.

If you listen very closely to what GOP leaders have been saying lately, however, especially in remarks last week by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Vice President Pence, what youll hear is the carefully chosen words of people planning something thats not real tax reform at all.

Speaking to the National Association of Manufacturers Tuesday, Mr. Ryan pledged to take on defenders of the status quo and then proceeded to defend many of the status quos worst aspects. He pledged to get rid of special-interest carve-outs except for those that make the most sense such as the deduction for mortgage interest. Actually, this distortion of the real estate market is one of the tax codes least sensible features, but it is politically sacrosanct due to the power of the real estate lobby. The only major individual tax break Mr. Ryan seemed to leave on the chopping block was the deduction for state and local taxes, which disproportionately favors states that send Democrats to Congress. Any GOP tax plan would eliminate the estate tax, Mr. Ryan insisted thus entrenching the concentration of wealth in the United States.

Somewhat more plausibly, Mr. Ryan advocated a new corporate tax system, with a lower top rate, so as to discourage shifting production abroad. However, he gave few specifics and seemed to soft-pedal the means of paying for the plan he and his House colleagues had previously offered a so-called border adjustment that would raise tens of billions of dollars per year, essentially by taxing the U.S. trade deficit. He referred to a new, lower tax, specifically for small businesses, which could translate into a costly new benefit for pass-through entities, such as sole proprietorships and S corporations.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pence repeated the Trump administrations promise that the end result of any tax rewrite will be tax cuts, implicitly endorsing the dubious notion that the U.S. economy lags due to an excessive tax burden. And not just any tax cut, Mr.Pence said, but the largest tax cut since the days of Ronald Reagan, meaning even bigger than those enacted by President George W. Bush. So much for the idea that tax reform ought to be revenue-neutral. Given that Mr. Trump and Congress cannot and should not cut spending enough to offset such large revenue losses, what may be in the offing is tax reform that ratchets up federal debt.

Mr. Ryan, too, alluded to the need for tax cuts. That made the weeks GOP messaging unanimous and reinforced suspicions that, for all their talk of reform, slashing taxes, mainly for the wealthy and corporations, is the one policy that Republicans agree on and therefore the only policy they are actually going to enact.

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The Republican tax-reform plan isn't reform at all - Washington Post