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Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE May 31, 2017 05/31/2017 8:51 am By Jonathan Chait Share Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Senate Republicans have a huge problem with an extremely simple solution. The problem is that the American Health Care Act increases the number of uninsured by 23 million, mainly because it cuts a trillion dollars out of financing for Medicaid and tax credits for individual insurance in order to finance a big tax cut. They have a very simple solution: Dont use the health-care bill to finance a huge tax cut. Oddly enough, this solution does not seem to have occurred to any of the Republicans working on their partys plan.

A somewhat surreal Politico story from last week reports that Senate Republicans feel intense gloom over their inability to produce a bill that substantially improves upon the negative-23 million insured in the House version. Senate Republicans also arent sure how much they can improve on a score that, in their view, fell far short of an acceptable outcome, the story reports. A very easy step would be to eliminate the tax cuts, thus eliminating the need to reduce spending for insurance for people who cant afford it on their own.

The report also suggests that Senate Republicans are hampered by special rules that force them to match or exceed the deficit reduction in the House bill:

You know what would be an easy way for the Senate bill to find a lot of budget savings? Take out the huge tax cut!

The 24th paragraph of the 26-paragraph-long story floats the possibility of delaying the tax cut. (One option under consideration: Delaying repeal of Obamacares taxes to produce more money to shore up Medicaid coffers and reduce premiums in the short term.) But of course a delay merely puts the problem off rather than resolving it.

The irony here is that Republicans appear to be hampered by a legislative strategy that no longer applies. The original Republican plan called for repealing Obamacare, including the taxes that pay for it, early in 2017. Then Republicans would pass a revenue-neutral tax cut, which offset tax cuts for high-income earners by imposing a border-adjustment tax.

Why didnt Republicans want to just combine both tax cuts into one extremely large tax cut for the rich? Because their plan required that the cost of the tax cuts be offset. The first tax cut for the rich would be offset with cuts to insurance subsidies, and the second offset with tax increases on the middle class. Doing all the tax cuts in one tax bill would require finding even more painful tax increases to offset their cost.

But now, Republicans are starting to realize tax reform that is, tax cuts that are offset by revenue increases elsewhere is a pipe dream. The border-adjustment tax has implacable enemies within the GOP. Theyre not going to find enough new revenue to cover the costs of the taxes they want to cut. Their plausible Plan B is just to pass a big tax cut without paying for its cost. That means they can just repeal the Obamacare taxes in the tax cut bill. They dont need to do it in a separate health-care bill.

Given the parameters Senate Republicans are working within, it is literally impossible for them to write a non-horrific health-care law. Their commitment to eliminating Obamacares taxes in the health-care bill deprives them of the funding they need to provide even bare-bones minimal coverage. And their longstanding party-wide opposition to any new taxes means they cant replace the lost revenue with something else. If they realize they can leave the Obamacare taxes in place, and repeal them in a separate tax-cut bill, they can get a health-care law that isnt a humanitarian disaster and a tax-cut bill that gives rich people some really big tax cuts. They have to realize this eventually, dont they?

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She denies her paid speeches for Wall Street audiences represented special treatment. Its probably true, but hard to prove.

Were increasingly divided between people who think Trumps doing a fine job, and people who think Congress should take steps to impeach him.

Sergeant Hugh Barry was indicted nearly six months after fatally shooting 66-year-old Deborah Danner.

U.S. officials released a video that shows the simulated ICBM being shot down.

The committee issued seven subpoenas Wednesday: four related to the Russia investigation, and three concerning the unmasking controversy.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has joined scores of other businesspeople speaking out in favor of the agreement.

She also slagged the DNC and addressed the possibility of running for office again.

Al Franken continues to trash talk his Senate colleague.

The firms knowingly misled doctors and patients about the risks inherent to opioid painkillers, the lawsuit alleges.

As the First Daughter keeps her head down, her dads decisions call into question how much pull she really has.

The president enlists his 11-year-old son Barron to express his outrage in the aftermath of the controversial Kathy Griffin photo shoot.

The right plans to seed damaging narratives about Warren early just as it did with Clinton. But that task will be much harder this time around.

Theresa May figured a snap election would strengthen her hand in Brexit talks. But the Tory lead is shrinking and Jeremy Corbyns doing well.

There is fresh evidence that African-American turnout sagged notably in 2016, and is not rebounding so far in 2017, either.

The former FBI director could appear before the Senate as soon as next week, CNN reports.

Liz Spayd, the papers sixth public editor, will also be its last.

The firm also attempted to hide its role in the film, which constituted the bulk of work it did on behalf of Turkeys government.

After months of deliberation, Trump has reportedly decided to undermine global cooperation on climate change and Americas diplomatic clout.

Who among us?

The student was supposed to be graduating from nursing school, but instead spent two hours stuck underground.

See original here:
Senate Republicans Could Save Trumpcare With This One Weird Trick - New York Magazine

GLENDALE, Ariz. Sen. Jeff Flake delivered a stark warning to business leaders eager to learn more about GOP plans to remake the health-care system: Its really hard, and Republicans might not succeed.

There are some still saying that well vote before the August break. I have a hard time believing that, he told about 150 members of the local Chamber of Commerce here this week.

Similarly, when a hospital employee asked about how to save the Medicaid program, Flake said, Were trying to find that balance, and we arent close yet, frankly.

Flake (R-Ariz.) isnt afraid to buck President Trump or to defy the Republican orthodoxy in Washington that the agenda is proceeding apace. He did it last year, refusing to support Trump for president, and hes doing it again now by publicly doubting that the GOP can revamp the nations health-care system.

Few congressional Republicans go as far as Flake, fearful that pro-Trump forces could derail their reelection campaigns next year. And Flake is already paying his own price, drawing a conservative primary opponent and probably earning him the distinction as the GOP incumbent most vulnerable to an intraparty challenge.

If I wanted an easier path through the primary, then I would line up more with where the president is, he said. But I think if youre an elected official, youve got to do what you know whats right. Itll be a tougher path than I could have had, would have had, but I think Ill get there.

Flakes independent streak mirrors that of his fellow Arizona Republican in the Senate John McCain. And its not necessarily out of step with his state: Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton 49 percent to 45 percent the narrowest win for a Republican since 1996, the last year a Democrat, Bill Clinton, won Arizona.

Yet Flake faces challenges that McCain does not notably name recognition. Polling is scant in Arizona, but a survey last fall gave Flake a 35 percent favorability rating, with roughly 30 percent of voters unwilling or unable to render an opinion of him.

In appearances across Phoenix this week, Flake focused on tempering expectations.

Like other Republicans, he wants to drive down health-care costs for consumers, many of whom in Arizona, he said, are spending more each month on health carethan their mortgages. Butmore than a quarter of Arizonans get health-care coverage from Medicaid, leaving many here vulnerable to Trumps proposed $1.4 trillion in cuts to future spending on the program cuts that many Republicans support.

Known as a fiscal conservative eager to slash Medicaid and other entitlements, Flake said he supports the cuts, but only if governors can take more control of the program and if the program remains sustainable so that beneficiariesdont have the rug pulled out from under them.

Thats a tricky balance to strike. Flake faces reelection next year in a state where Democrats are making gains, and Republicans may want him to take a harder line on repealing the Affordable Care Act. Defending just eight seats next year, the GOP isnt expected to lose control of the Senate, but Flake and Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) are expected to earn outsize attention from Democrats, who know that these Western states are increasingly tilting purple or blue.

Meanwhile, Kelli Ward, Flakes conservative opponent, called his refusal to support Trump last year treacherous and criticized him for standing against the presidentbefore Donald Trump became the nominee, after he became the nominee and after he became the president.

She also warned that nothing short of a full repeal of Obamacare would be acceptable to many GOP voters.

I wish that over the last seven years that they had been planning for the full repeal that they campaigned on and fundraised upon, said Ward, who mounted an unsuccessful challenge against McCain last year.

Flake has mostly ignored Wards barbs. He plans to hold fundraisers with Mitt Romney on Friday and has already raised money with George W. Bush two GOP leaders who cast doubt on Trump.He touts his work with former president Barack Obama to open up diplomatic relations with Cuba. A co-sponsor of the 2013 bipartisan immigration bill, Flake tells audiences that he believes the issue might be debated again later this year. At odds with Trumps nationalist tendencies, he said Tuesday that were all better off because of globalization and that NAFTA should be renegotiated, not scrapped. And he insists that the only way to fix health care is withbipartisan consensus.

Some are saying: Stand on principle, dont deal with the other side, just ram it through, they did it when they were in charge. But then you have others that say you need to work with the other side, thats the only way it can be done, Flake said. Theres push and pull everywhere. You just do the best you can.

Flake, 54, grew up in Snowflake, Ariz., a town named for his great-great-grandfather. Flake served as a Mormon missionary in South Africa in the 1980s before finding his way to Washington to work at a public relations firm. He moved back to Arizona as head of the Goldwater Institute and won a House seat in 2000.His perpetual tan and Jimmy Stewart demeanor earned him national attention when he escaped alone to a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean during a 2009 congressional recess.

[From 2013: 1 senator, 2 sons, 4 days, 1 deserted island. Jeff Flakes escapes again to the Pacific]

In 2012, Flake won his Senate seat and now serves in the long shadow of the states senior senator, McCain.During a stop Tuesday at the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Tonopah, Ariz., Flake told workers that on a recent flight home to Phoenix on a plane that was also carrying McCain, he sat next to a woman who had no idea he also serves in Congress.

The guy sitting in front of me finally leaned back and said, Hey lady, hes the OTHER senator from Arizona! Flake said.

Updating the workers on events in Washington, Flake lamented that after years of congressional gridlock, We havent regulated the regulators, allowing federal agencies to impose what he considers burdensome policies on the energy sector and other industries. Heexplained that the Senate is kind of in the personnel business, stuck confirming hundreds of Trump administration appointees. He said that Trump has assembled a pretty good Cabinet. Hes surrounded himself with a good group of people.

But he was more critical of Trump during a private tour of the plant. Riding in a van to inspect a nuclear waste site and reactor, Flake heard pleas to ensure thatKristine L. Svinicki, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, gets reappointed before her term expires at the end of June. If her term ends, the agency that regulates nuclear power would be paralyzed without a quorum.

Flake told Donald Brandt, the plants chief executive, and Robbie Aiken, its Washington-based government affairs vice president, that he believes that Democratic objections to Trump nominees will start to ease as the Senate moves to confirming deputy secretaries and less controversial appointees.But he said that Trump owes Congress hundreds of nominees for political jobs.

We cant hold oversight hearings because we cant call anybody up to testify, he said.

[Tracking how many key positions Trump has filled so far]

Read more at PowerPost

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Do Republicans who criticize Trump face peril? Jeff Flake is about to find out. - Washington Post

WASHINGTON House Republicans who vowed months ago to combat climate change have found themselves at odds with the most prominent member of their party:President Donald Trump.

Trump is reportedly close to announcing that he will withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, which is aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. If Trump does pull out of the pact, it would make the U.S. one of only three countries to not be included in the historic agreement.

Three months ago, 17 House Republicans introduced a resolution attempting to steer debate away from whether climate change is real, and promising to do something about greenhouse gas emissions. There is also a Climate Solutions Caucus with 34 members, including 17 Republicans but thats not enough to push through any kind of substantial climate change legislation in the House.

Four of the Congress members who signed the resolution spoke against Trumps reported decision on Wednesday. Others remained silent, and a few said they would not comment until the president had formally announced that the U.S. would withdraw.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who helped draft the resolution, said the Climate Solutions Caucus would need to amp up its efforts to get lawmakers behind policies to help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.) said the U.S. would fall behind on the world stage if Trump backed out of the pact, which nearly 190 nations signed.

If these reports are accurate, its disappointing, Meehan said in an emailed statement. The result will be diminished American leadership and influence as the world works together to combat climate change.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) also said the U.S. should work to fight climate change around the world.

Rep. David Reichert (R-Wash.) issued the most detailed statement in response to the reports.

The Paris Accord gives the United States a global platform to be a leading voice on international issues impacting our economy, security, and the environment, he said. Withdrawing from the agreement would cause us to lose this influence. I have always believed stewardship of our environment and sound economic policy are not mutually exclusive.

The caucus appeared to gain support from a few other Republicans in the House.

The White House wouldnt confirm or deny reports that Trump plans to back out of the climate deal. The president said Wednesday that people will find out very soon what hes decided.

Im hearing from a lot of people, both ways, Trump said, according to a White House pool report. Both ways.

See the rest here:
Republicans Who Support Combating Climate Change Urge Trump To Stay In Paris Deal - HuffPost

THE PROGNOSIS

President Trump thinks he's found just the remedy for the Senate's health-care ills.But the presidents antidote to the current lack of legislation to do away with the legislative filibuster shows he doesnt understand whats crippling Republicans from moving forward on health care, or how to heal the party's problems without causing a harmful side effect in the process.

You could almost picture Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) banging his head against a wall (or at least taking a long swig of Kentucky bourbon) when Trump tweeted this yesterday morning:

Trump was referring to the so-called nuclear option -- a tacticthat McConnell could choose to employthat would allow the Senate to pass all legislation with just 51 votes instead of what's become the more customary 60. As the Senate has become more partisan, more and more of the minority party's rights have been eroded -- first, in 2013, when under then-Majority Harry M. Reid(D-Nev.)the chamber moved to allow approval of executive branch and judicial nominations by a simple majority; and againmore recently, under McConnell's stewardship, by applying that standard to Supreme Court nominations, once considered untouchable.

But with his policy agenda in trouble in Washington,Trump wants to go even further.

If youre thinking of just the here and now, dropping the legislative filibusterwould give Republicans the best of both worlds.They could repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act without any help from Democrats. And they could do it through the normal legislative processinstead of having to maneuver through arcane and limiting rules accompanying the budget bill theyre currently using.

I think he wants to see action, thats what he wants, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday when asked about Trumps tweet. He wants to see things move through the House and the Senate. He wants people to stop playing games.

Its not the first time Trump has suggested going nuclear.In another tweet earlier this month, the president called for action on legislation with 51 votesor else:

And Trump told Fox News in an April 28 interview that the filibuster concept is not a good concept to start off with ... Youre really forced into doing things that you would normally not do except for these archaic rules," Trump complained.

McConnell has shut down the idea of ditching the legislative filibuster before. And he again rejected the idea yesterday, real fast, when his office responded to Trump by noting that Republicans can already pass health care with a 51-vote majority by using the budget process.

Senator McConnell agrees that both health care and tax reform are essential and that is why Republicans in Congress are using the reconciliation process to prevent a partisan filibuster of these two critical legislative agenda items, said McConnell spokeswoman Antonia Ferrier in response to Trump's tweet.

Why is McConnell dead-set against widening his own partys unilateral ability to pass legislation? Because he knows it would hurt Republicans in the long-term. And it wouldnt help them that much inpassing a health-care bill now.

To state the obvious, at some point Democrats will probably regain control of the Senate. But the reasons that McConnell is resistinggo deeper than that. Many conservative thinkers feel that doing away with the legislative filibuster would benefit Democrats more than Republicans. Thats because progressives are generally more interested in passing new government programs whereas conservatives are hesitant to broadenthe government's role in just about anything.And the GOP is finding that eliminating government programs -- especially entitlements -- is no simple task, even when they're in themajority.

Ending the filibuster would make the consequences of any future Democratic victories much more punishing for conservatives and Republicans have never proven the ability to significantly roll back expansions of the welfare state that took place when Democrats were in power, the Washington Examiners Phil Klein wrote back in 2015.

It would become much easier for Democrats to enact theirpriorities if they needed only 51 Senate votes. But Republicans probably wouldnt have equal ease in rolling back their own wish list. Just look at how theyre struggling to pull back on the ACAnow that millions of Americans have federally-subsidized insurance plans because ofit.

Trump didnt just show a lack of foresight with his tweet. He also demonstratedhe doesnt fully understand just how hard it is for Senate Republicans to agree among themselves on a health-care bill. The GOP hasalready given itself a simple-majority threshold by using budget reconciliation. And the party isstill in real danger of hitting an impassable roadblock of its own makingwhen lawmakersreturn to town after the Memorial Day recess. There are plenty of ideological differenceson health care within the 52-vote Senate GOPconference itself.

At the end of the day, we have the power of 51 and are struggling so it seems like a false choice, a former Senate GOP staffer told me.

Nearly every senator even many who most want to ditch the ACA -- seems to feelthat abolishing the legislative filibuster wouldbe foolhardy. Senate Finance Committee ChairOrrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) has said he would get Trump back in line on the issue. Even Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) sides with McConnell on the matter. We want to keep the current Senate rules, a Lee spokesman told The Health 202.

The outlier may be Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). A spokesman pointed to comments the Texas senator made back in Aprilwhen he indicated he could be open in the future to going nuclear on legislation but wanted to wait and see how the facts develop.

At this point, there is not a majority for ending the legislative filibuster, Cruz said on April 6. My hope is that Democrats will stop their unreasonable across-the-board obstruction and allow the Senate to operate. If they continue an unmovable blockade, I suspect the votes will shift on that question as well.

But there may beenough health-care explosions on Capitol Hill without Republicans going nuclear too.

AHH, OOF and OUCH

AHH: Trump's appointee to lead the agency overseeing Medicare, Medicaid and Obamacare said Tuesday that the GOP health-care bill is "outdated" and what's more important is legislation in the Senate,when asked to respond to the CBO's projection that it would cost 23 million people their health insurance. Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, also raised questions about the CBO's ability to accurately score the bill, the Washington Examiner's Kimberly Leonard reports.

"We disagree with some of the premises that they are indicating in this report," Verma said, speaking to USA Today in a live-streamed interview.

OOF: Police arrested 32 people yesterday in North Carolina's legislative building for holding a sit-in to protest Republican lawmakers' refusal to accept the ACA's Medicaid expansion. Among them was North Carolina NAACP leader William Barber, a leader in the protests, which have resulted in 1,000 arrests since2013.The protesters, whoface charges of second-degree trespassing, were arrested after marching through hallways to the offices of legislative leaders and sitting outside them.

OUCH: The ousted executive of Molina Healthcare is blaming premium hikes under Obamacarenot on faults in the law itself, but on Republicans and their efforts to sabotageit. In a U.S. News and World Report piece, J. Mario Molina blasts Republicans for their narrative that the health-care law is in a "death spiral" that will inevitably "explode."

"That narrative is patently false," Molina writes."In fact, most of the instability driving up premiums in the marketplace can be directly traced to Republicans' efforts to undermine the health care law for their own political purposes."

Until he was fired a few weeks ago, Molina was CEO of the health-insurance company, which had invested heavily in the state marketplaces but suffered deep and unexpected losses last year. While the company has said Molina was let go over disappointing financial performance, Molina has suggested it's partly because of his public statements about the health-care law.

HEALTH ON THE HILL

--Congress is on recess all week, but the word on the street is that Senate staffers are busy craftinglegislative text of a health-care billso senators have something to consider when they return to town next week.

They better be working fastbecause Trump faces "anincreasingly narrow path to achievemajor legislative victories before the looming August recess, with only two months left to revive his health-care or taxinitiatives before Congress departs for a long break," the Post's Damian Paletta and Mike DeBonis report. "White House officials plan to push Senate Republicans in June to vote on a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and they want to spend the rest of the summer whipping up support for major tax cuts."

But there's a lot that could get in the way. "Congress also faces an increasing number of legislative distractions that could further imperil Trumps agenda," my colleagues write."There is a big divide among Republicans over whether they can vote to pass a budget resolution in the coming months, and failing to do so could make it much more difficult to change the tax code. In addition, White House officials are now demanding that Congress vote to raise the debt ceiling before the August break pressing members to take a difficult vote before they head back to their districts."

In the meantime, insurersare trying to get a word in edgewise.They want the GOP health legislationto contain adequate funding for Medicaid, repeal all of the ACA's taxes and base subsidies on income, not just age, according to letters sent to Hatch.

The influential insurerassociation, America's Health Insurance Plans, especially urged that aGOP plan includeimmediate steps to stabilize the individual market that"faces immediate and significant challenges, especially for the 2018 plan year." AHIP blamed the problems partly on"structural issues and policy decisions" made in the early years of ACA implementationand partly on uncertainty fromTrump's indecision on whether to keep funding extra cost-sharing subsidies. They are also concerned aboutthe likelihood that the administration won't enforce the individual mandate.

UnitedHealth Group, which pulled out of AHIP a few years ago, was even more critical of the Obamacare marketplaces. The major insurer wants themdisbandedentirely beginning in 2019 andoversight of the individual market returned to states, according to a letter to Hatchobtained by The Health 202. UnitedHealth also wrote that Congress should eliminate the ACA's essential health benefits andits metallic actuarial value-rating system, allow insurers to charge older people five times more than younger people instead of just three times and restore the ability of insurers to sell short-term and limited coverage policies.

Getting rid of the ACA's Health Insurance Tax (called HIT) is a biggie for UnitedHealth. The insurer says it is pricing the tax into 2018 policies, arguing that itwill cause annual premiums to rise by $210 for small employers and $530 for families buying coverage on their own. "Full repeal of the Health Insurance Tax (HIT) is one of the quickest and easiest ways to lower health care costs, prevent further disruption, and ensure market stability," the insurer wrote.

--Watch out if you happen to be Reps. Todd Rokita(Ind.), Luke Messer (Ind.), Lou Barletta(Pa.), Evan Jenkins W.Va.), Alex Mooney (W.Va.), Kevin Cramer (N.D.), Vicky Hartzler (Mo.) or Ann Wagner (Mo.). These Republican representatives running for Senate seats, or at least eyeing them,are top targetsof the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, according to a memo the DSCC is releasing today. The memo also names Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Dean Heller of Nevada, both facing tough reelection battles next year.

Here's how the DSCCplans toattack these Republicans, who have either voted for theACHA or expressed support for it. Itstopline messages include this messaging on health care:

1. Republicans will raise out-of-pocket costs with higher premiums, deductibles, and the cost of prescription drugs.

2. People with preexisting conditions will lose protection and can lose coverage.

3. Republicans impose an age tax on older Americans, forcing them to pay premiums as much as five times higher than what others pay.

Meanwhile, some lawmakers held town halls -- or were afraid to? -- in their states and districts, where health care was inevitably a topic:

From GOP congressman Darrell Issa'sDemocratic foe in California in 2018:

Issa pushed back:

One reporter made a funny comparison to The Office's Michael Scott:

CHART CHECKER

--A new poll confirms the GOP health-care plan isprettyunpopular, even when compared toObamacare, which itself hasn't always enjoyed the public's smile. Anew Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds that just 31 percent of Americans hold favorable views of the ACHA, while 49 percent view the ACA favorably. And asthe Senate considers its own version of a bill overhauling the ACA,a majority of the public wants the upper chamberto either make major changes to the House bill or not pass it all. Fewer want the Senate to pass the billwith only minor changes or in its current form.

Here are the survey's threemostinteresting takeaways:

1. For both the ACA and the GOP bill, the poll founda deep, partisan divide inhow respondents felt about them.Democrats favor the ACA over Republicans by a 6.5 to 1 ratio, while Republicans favor the AHCAover Democrats by a ratio of 8.3 to 1.

2. Many more people are blaming President Trump and Republicans in Congress than Democrats forproblems with the ACA moving forward. Sixty-three percent said it's Republicans' fault if the ACA continues to have problems,more than twice the share who say President Obama and Democrats are responsible.

3. The four top elements Republicans want in a health-care bill are: Allowingstates to have Medicaid work requirements; providingfunding for state high-risk pools;changingMedicaid funding to a block-grant system and stoppingfederal Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood.

Here are some more interesting reads about Capitol Hill and beyond:

Here are some more good reads about how health care is playing during recess:

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is confident in his chances in 2018, even as Democrats prepare a rare challenge.

David Weigel

Patrick Soon-Shiong has faced questions about possible conflicts of interests.

Politico

Two key Iowa senators say any repeal of Obamacare is unlikely.

Press Herald

Officials at the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Barack Obama wanted to take a more lenient stance on marijuana, with one former official telling HuffPost that staff pushed to ease federal prohibitions against the drug. But they never made that case directly to the public.

Huffington Post

DAYBOOK

Today

Coming up

SUGAR RUSH

Do you know what "covfefe" means? We sure don't. Trump tweeted out this early this morning: "Despite the constant negative press covfefe..." Then erased it. Then tweeted the below. Internet memes abound.

Watch Sen. Bernie Sanders blame "oligarchs" for attempts to change the Affordable Care Act:

This is hard to believe, but Keri Russell says her kids aren't impressed with her:

Continue reading here:
The Health 202: Why Republicans won't go nuclear even for Obamacare repeal - Washington Post

I think the President could be better served than hes been served, Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, said, of the officials in Donald Trumps Administration.CreditPHOTOGRAPH BY MARK PETERSON / REDUX

The unpopular New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (now at seventy-six-per-cent disapproval), who last year bowed and scraped his way into candidate Donald J. Trumps inner circle, has begun to emit hesitant signals that he wishes hed bet on another horse. Christie, who had briefly been considered for the Vice-Presidency and other Administration jobs,agreed in March to head a White House task force on opioid addiction. But, after the Times reported that Trump had urged James Comey, the F.B.I. director, to end the investigation of his national-security adviser, Michael Flynn, who may have been compromised by Russian agents, Christie was asked whether he thought that such an action would be appropriate. Next question, the governor replied. I dont answer hypotheticals. A few days later, though, after the Times reported that Trump had told Russian officials that Comey was crazy, a real nut job, Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, sounded as if hed had enough: I would disagree with the characterization of Jim as a nut job, he said. Ive known Jim for a long time. As for Flynn, he added, If I wasPresident of the United States, I wouldnt let General Flynn in the White House, let alone give him a job. Furthermore, Christie had said as much to Trump. I didnt think that he was someone who would bring benefit to the President or to the Administration, Christie told reporters. And I made that very clear to candidate Trump, and I made it very clear to President-elect Trump. As for those to whom Trump has given staff jobs, Christie said, I think the President could be better served than hes been served. I think that leads to a lot of the confusion and a lot of the tumult.

Perhaps this is making too much of one mans views, but, because its Christie, such an early, enthusiastic supporter, it means somethingperhaps an inclination toward personal redemption that has little to do with ideology and everything to do with the risk to the nation posed by a dangerous man (dangerous in his ignorance and arrogance) who, rather than growing in office, seems to be shrinking, and vandalizing, the office to fit his striking limitations. It will be instructive to watch others with ties to the Administrationthose who know betterif and when they begin to act in ways that honor their convictions and sense of patriotic duty.

One such person is Rod J. Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General. Rosensteins May 9th memorandum sharply criticized Comey for his handling of the Bureaus investigation of Hillary Clintons e-mail habits, and recommended appointing someone else to run the Bureau. But, once it became clear that Rosensteins words were being used as the justification for firing Comey, he found himself ensnared in the Trumpian universe of crisscrossing narratives and motives. As the Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer informed him in a letter, his reputation as an independent, apolitical actor throughout his three decades at the Department of Justice had been imperiled.

Rosenstein defended his assessment of Comey but, as it became obvious that he had been played by the President (whod wanted to get rid of Comey before reading any memos from anyone), and by Jeff Sessions, the malleable Attorney General, one could imagine a breakfast-nook conversation at the Rosenstein home. In this imagined dialogue, his wife, Lisa Barsoomian, who is also a lawyer, would have said, Rod, you only get one reputation per lifetime. Rosenstein may have rescued hisfor now, at leastby appointing the former F.B.I. director Robert Mueller, who had a long working relationshipwith Comey, as a special counsel to investigate whether Russia interfered with the 2016 election.

Even among congressional Republicans, one can see some glimpses of slouching toward redemption. While the House Speaker, Paul Ryan, has squirmed away from principled stands, Senator Richard Burr, of North Carolina, who chairs the Intelligence Committee, appears to be doing his job, which requires recognition of reality; so, as the Times reported, do some other Republicans on his committee. Burr certainly wants Trump to have a successful Presidency, but he also sounds eager to understand what possessed the American President when, as the Washington Post first reported, he offhandedly disclosed highly classified informationcode-word informationto the Russian Ambassador and foreign minister. In a joint press conference with the committees Democratic co-chair, Mark Warner, of Virginia, Burr urged the White House to tell him more. He said that hed been unable to get through by telephone (Maybe theyre busy) and insisted, My major concern right now is that I dont know what the President said. I know what Ive read. I dont go on anonymous sources orI want to talk to people who were in the room.

Senator Ben Sasse, of Nebraska, a Republican who was never a Trump supporter, sounds as if he no longer has any doubt about what the nation is confronting. In a recent appearance on CBSs Face the Nation, he said, We are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis of public trust. Of Comeys dismissal, and more, he added, We need a shared narrative about how we are as a people, what government can and cant do, and what the beating heart of the First Amendment and free press and freedom of assembly and speech and religion means to us. Other Sasse-ist Republicans, notably Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, have never concealed their dismay at having Trump in the White House.

There you have itmaybe. A mere four months into the Trump era, one can already hear stirrings of honorable intent, and conscience, and a recognition that many of todays actors will be sternly judged, as the novelist Kate Atkinson once put it, when we are safely in the future.

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Republicans and the Road to Redemption - The New Yorker - The New Yorker