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For six straight years, Republicans have been fulminating against ObamaCare. They greeted its passage as the "death knell of freedom," in the words of former Pennsylvania senator and two-time Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. And since the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in 2010, they have voted over 60 times to repeal the law in one way or another.

Now they have their chance to bring about the conservative health care utopia that they've been promising all this time. But some in the party are beginning to have second thoughts. President Trump said that he considered "doing nothing for two years," and blaming the ensuing chaos on Democrats. But that is a ludicrous evasion. Repeal or no repeal, the Republican Party now owns health care.

During the Obama presidency, Republicans got tremendous political mileage by exploiting the cracks in the antiquated American Constitution. The political structure it creates is designed to require compromise. But ordinary voters, whose grasp of anything about the Constitution is hazy at best, tend to simply blame the president when things aren't going well. So in times of divided government, that gives the party controlling Congress a strong incentive to refuse to compromise, so as to create gridlock and political chaos that will be laid at the president's doorstep.

That was the Republican strategy during the Obama presidency. They filibustered constantly, shut down the government to try to force the president to defund ObamaCare, and repeatedly threatened national default to try to extract spending cuts. That indeed created a lot of chaos, and harmed Democrats politically (while at the same time cratering the approval rating of the government as a whole).

But the shoe is on the other foot now. Donald Trump is president and Republicans control both houses of Congress, so there is no reason they couldn't get an ObamaCare replacement through. (If Democrats filibuster, the GOP could just abolish the filibuster.)

The problem, as myself and dozens of others have been pointing out for years, is that there is no possible policy framework that is better than ObamaCare while also more conservative. In fact, the most conservative "solution" here would be to just cut government provision of health insurance, as shown by the Heritage budget adopted by Trump, which gores Medicare and Medicaid in addition to ObamaCare. If passed, that budget would also kill tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, and drive millions into bankruptcy. That's what free markets do with medical treatment.

But that perspective is too brutal to state out loud for most people. It's also political suicide.

So more honest conservatives are beginning to realize that some sort of ObamaCare-esque policy is the inevitable endpoint. As American Enterprise Institute scholar James Capretta told Matt Lewis of his own health policy ideas: "You can look at this and say, 'Boy, doesn't this sound like the Affordable Care Act?' And the answer is 'yes.'"

This dilemma is beginning to dawn on some Republicans. As The Washington Post reported, a recent closed-door meeting of GOP lawmakers was rife with fear about their health care strategy. While some congressional Republicans are no doubt just scheming to come up with the best way to avoid being blamed for certain disaster if they repeal ObamaCare without an effective replacement, others seem to still have some shreds of empathy for their constituents. Tom MacArthur, a congressman from New Jersey, said in the meeting: "We're telling those people that we're not going to pull the rug out from under them, and if we do this too fast, we are in fact going to pull the rug out from under them."

Republicans have taken extensive steps to protect themselves from the voting public, gerrymandering themselves a 7-point handicap in the House and attempting to stop liberals from voting with voter ID requirements and other dirty tricks. But the United States is still a quasi-democracy, for the moment at least, and Republicans are going to walk into a buzzsaw of rage if they repeal ObamaCare without offering something better.

But even if they don't, health care is still their problem. They've got the run of government, and every chance to fix ObamaCare's supposed problems, which they have been moaning about for years. Whatever problems persist or new ones that are created are now stapled to the Republican hide.

Originally posted here:
Republicans are about to walk into a buzzsaw of health care rage - The Week Magazine

Republican support for Donald Trump began to waver on Sunday after the new president issued an executive order closing the nations borders to refugees and banning immigration from certain Muslim-majority countries. At least 20 G.O.P. lawmakers came out in opposition or declined to endorse what has been referred to as Trumps Muslim ban, amid a deepening crisis at airports around the country, where chaos and confusion over the legal status of hundreds of travelers sparked the administrations first constitutional conflict.

Democrats, many of whom joined protests over the weekend and tried to pressure U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to allow legal advocates access to detained refugees, were ready to pounce. Choking back tears at a Sunday morning press conference, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York said his party was drafting legislation to peel back the ban, and Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut said Democrats must force a debate this week. On Sunday night, Illinois Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security, demanding an investigation into the actions of the department and of Customs and Border Patrol. The United States Constitution means little if law enforcement agents disregard it, or if Americans are unwilling to defend its principles and respect foundational constitutional rights, from due process to equal protection under the law, Durbin and Duckworth wrote. Other top Democrats wrote a letter to D.H.S. Secretary John Kelly on Sunday night demanding an emergency meeting to discuss Trumps hastily written order, which they blamed for creating panic and disorder.

The highest-profile Republican dissenters, Senators John McCain and Linsdey Graham, came under fire from the presidents Twitter account on Saturday. It is clear from the confusion at our airports across the nation that President Trumps executive order was not properly vetted, the senators said in a joint statement. We are particularly concerned by reports that this order went into effect with little to no consultation with the Departments of State, Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security. Trump returned fire Saturday by derisively referring to the senators as former presidential candidates and calling them sadly weak on immigration.

Given that Republicans currently hold a slim 52 to 48 majority in the Senate, Trump directing vitriol at McCain and Graham is a risky moveone that could draw sympathetic Republicans to support a counter-measure put forth by Democrats.

Trumps insults couldnt stem the bloodletting of support from his party. By Sunday night, amid dozens of sizable protests across the nation, 20 Republicans in the Senate and House had objected in varying degrees to Trump's executive order.

Its not lawful to ban immigrants on basis of nationality, said Rep. Justin Amash of Michigans 3rd district. If the president wants to change immigration law, he must work with Congress.

This was an extreme vetting program that wasn't properly vetted, said Senator Rob Portman of Ohio. Senator Bob Corker of Tennesseethe chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a Trump whisperer who enjoys good relations with the administrationagreed, saying that the executive order has been poorly implemented, especially with respect to green card holders.

Still, Republican leaders in Congress mostly stayed the course. House Speaker Paul Ryan supported Trumps executive order, despite firmly criticizing the idea of a ban on Muslim entry during the primaries. President Trump is right to make sure we are doing everything possible to know exactly who is entering our country, Ryan said in a statement on Friday. A spokeswoman for Ryan on Saturday said Trumps order is not a religious test and it is not a ban on people of any religion, though the executive decree, if enacted as written, will prioritize Christians persecuted in Muslim-majority countries.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellwho during the primary race described a Muslim ban as completely inconsistent with American values, stopped just short of outright criticism on Sunday. I dont want to criticize them for improving vetting, McConnell said during an interview on ABCs This Week. I think we need to be careful. We dont have religious tests in this country . . . Ultimately, it is going to be decided in the courts as to whether or not this has gone too far.

Senators Marco Rubio and Tim Scott were similarly critical of the president, issuing a joint statement Sunday night that expressed their concerns over Trumps executive action, but stopped short of outright opposition. We are uneasy about the potential impact of these measures on our military and our diplomatic personnel abroad, as well as those who put their lives on the line to work with us, they wrote. We are both committed to doing what we must to keep America safe. We are equally committed to the defense of religious liberty and our tradition of providing refuge to those fleeing persecution.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which successfully obtained a partial stay of the order late Saturday night, said that more than 350,000 people had donated a total of $24.2 million to the organization over the weekend. The nonprofit group normally receives $3 million to $4 million in donations per year.

Despite claims to the contrary, the Trump administration appeared rattled by the protests. In addition to Trumps tweets, the president released a statement defending the ban by comparing it to a pause in Iraqi refugee resettlement by the Obama administration. (The two actions are dissimilar: President Barack Obamas was in response to a specific breach, affected only one nation, and did not affect refugees already traveling to or approved for entry to the United States.)

In another sign of retreat, the Department of Homeland Security on Sunday ordered that the ban not extend to permanent residents, or so-called green card holders from the seven Muslim-majority nations the Trump administration wanted blocked. As has become characteristic of Trumps young presidency, leaks were everywhere: CNN reported that D.H.S. had not been given a chance to review the order before Trump signed it, and that Steve Bannon, Trumps acerbic chief strategist, had personally overruled D.H.S., who initially believed the order could not restrict green card holders.

Refugee and immigrant advocates told The Hive late Sunday night that despite various court orders, legal permanent residents continued to be detained and interrogated for hours. And at Washingtons Dulles Airport, Customs and Border Patrol officials refused to even meet with several members of Congress, and appeared in violation of federal court orders compelling C.B.P. to grant detained individuals access to legal advocates.

On Monday morning, Trump tweeted, Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. That number seemed immediately dubious, given that the New York Immigration Coalition said as many as 52 were held at John F. Kennedy airport alone on Sunday evening. (The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that, in the first 23 hours of the ban, that 375 people had been detained on arrival in the U.S., prevented from boarding flights at their point of departure or intercepted while en route to the U.S.) Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage, protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer, Trump tweeted. The Delta outage, however, occurred on Sunday night, after two full days of nationwide protests of Trumps order.

If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the bad would rush into our country during that week, Trump said in a follow-up tweet. A lot of bad dudes out there! Thats also inaccurate: the refugee screening process can take up to two years, and new visas can already take weeks. The only individuals who could have immediately rushed back to the United States are permanent residents, whom the administration now says should not be affected by the executive order.

The New York Times reported that Trump had signed multiple executive actions with little or no legal review. According to the Times, neither D.H.S. Secretary Kelly nor Defense Secretary James Mattis were given the opportunity to offer input on the executive order. Reps. Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velzquez, both Democrats from New York, told the Hive on Saturday that customs agents at New Yorks John F. Kennedy airport were ill-prepared to carry out the order, having received scant guidance from Washington.

Also unclear was whether the controversy and walk-backs would exploit a schism in Trumps so-called team of rivals in the White House. Bannon and policy director Stephen Miller may have written the order, but White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, who had been internally critical of the executive order, was sent out to defend the administrations actions. In defiance of reality, Priebus insisted on Meet the Press that the implementation was going swimmingly, and denied that the White House overruled Homeland Security on the matter of legal permanent residents, despite admitting that moving forward, it doesnt affect them. Preibus then said legal permanent residents and citizens would be subject to further screening if traveling back and forth between the United States and one of the listed countries.

Priebus also attracted criticism when he insisted the White House had not erred by omitting any explicit reference to Jewish people or anti-Semitism in its statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day. I dont regret the words, Priebus said, while allowing that everyone's suffering in the Holocaust, including, obviously, all of the Jewish people affected, and the miserable genocide that occurred is something that we consider to be extraordinarily sad. Two major Jewish Republican groups criticized the Trump administration on Sunday for the statement, calling the failure to mention the specific suffering of the Jewish people an unfortunate omission.

Her greatest fear: That my education will be destroyed and I will no longer be allowed to attend colleges that I would like to, or that their quality will go down because of budget cuts, and stuff like that.

My greatest hope is for us to overcome.

I think that the womens movement is coming back and were getting better at being intersectional, and being conscious about bringing all women into the story.

We were appalled by the tone of the election and this is the beginning of us trying to do something.

Jemaire: If push comes to shove, you might find us running for office.

Oh. Like school board, or ... ?

Beyond school board. I'm looking for Congress. They need some real men in Congress . . . I have been an investment banker. I don't want to say I have sold some stocks to some high people that's up in the office right now, but I'm not going to touch any toes on that, but I know how that stock market work, and the way the stock market is working ... This is America. Donald Trump is a businessman now/he's the president. I give him weight. He made it. I don't take that from him, but you cannot run America as a business, despite it's an organization. You can't do that.

My greatest hope is that we survive the next four years, truly. And my greatest fear is that my rights, as an African-American gay male, being taken away from me, and the rights of my mother being taken away from her.

Im worried that my daughter is going to have to grow up hearing racist and sexist things, even though shes second generation, born here in the United States. I dont really have much hope for the country right here.

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Her greatest fear: That my education will be destroyed and I will no longer be allowed to attend colleges that I would like to, or that their quality will go down because of budget cuts, and stuff like that.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

My greatest hope is for us to overcome.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

I think that the womens movement is coming back and were getting better at being intersectional, and being conscious about bringing all women into the story.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

We were appalled by the tone of the election and this is the beginning of us trying to do something.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

I do a lot of refugee work, so I want to continue advocating with policy makers. I know that a lot of the Republican party is going to be taking a lot of different offices, so I want to continue to tell them that they are humans, just like us. They are seeking solace and seeking freedom.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

Him building a wall, separating families, inequality for women, just for everyone, and just separating the whole country. Everything that Dr. King built, I'm afraid he's going to try to tear it down, and everything that Obama worked for, he wants to reverse.

Im mostly here because I feel like I havent been very active and that I also have to own the fact that Ive been complacent, and Im here to say No more. The Serenity Prayer used to be kind of a spiritual thing for me, and Im done with the Serenity Prayer . . .Theres gotta be something we can do, and Im here to learn about that.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

They were cussing us out in front of our child wanting to fight my wife,while she's carrying my daughter, over our opinion. They don't even know our opinions.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

Lopez: Tolerance from our new president. For me, to be able to actually call him my president.

Baskett: That has been a really hard thing to do, especially in these last couple days, with it seeming realwell, its really real now. Its been hard to accept that hes our president.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

Im actually afraid that we might slip into law and order, which to me is a false form of fascism. It really is. And Im very frightened for our democracy, so my hope is with women in the lead, and with our allies, and with all of the other movements combined, that we will really defend the Constitution and expand the rights of women.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

Is this your first March?

No, my second March. We marched in 2004 for the Women's March in the Mall.

How does this compare to that March?

It's I think 180 degrees different. There's a lot more energy, a lot more people. I don't remember the rallies back then.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

Scarzella: You see some signs out here talking about [going] 100 years backit did feel like that, and it does still feel like that, unfortunately. But its good to see this many people have hope.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

I think I expected this many people, but I still feel like its a little overwhelming . . . Because we just got disappointed a little while ago. We all thought we had it, right? You come to this and youre like, uh, Im a little nervous with whats going to happen? So its surprising even though I hoped for it.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

We stopped at the Starbucks and this lady, she was like, Where are you guys coming from? And we said, San Francisco. And she's like, Please let me pay for your coffee and your breakfast. You came from so far. And she's a single mom with four kids. She's like, Thank you for marching with us. And it's just beautiful how many amazing women and powerful it's getting together to really make a difference and come together to change what's going on.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

I hope that I will not become like what I hate. I hope that I will stay positive and respectful, and work from love and not from hate. That's really important to me, and that this movement does the same. I think we did a pretty good job today.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

Im marching for the victims I served as an advocate [for sexual assault victims] at an Army base in Germany. Im marching for my son, whom I want to know a better future than whats being presented. Just for women.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

Jemaire: If push comes to shove, you might find us running for office.

Oh. Like school board, or ... ?

Beyond school board. I'm looking for Congress. They need some real men in Congress . . . I have been an investment banker. I don't want to say I have sold some stocks to some high people that's up in the office right now, but I'm not going to touch any toes on that, but I know how that stock market work, and the way the stock market is working ... This is America. Donald Trump is a businessman now/he's the president. I give him weight. He made it. I don't take that from him, but you cannot run America as a business, despite it's an organization. You can't do that.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

My greatest hope is that we survive the next four years, truly. And my greatest fear is that my rights, as an African-American gay male, being taken away from me, and the rights of my mother being taken away from her.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

Im worried that my daughter is going to have to grow up hearing racist and sexist things, even though shes second generation, born here in the United States. I dont really have much hope for the country right here.

Photograph by Gina LeVay.

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Republicans Break with Trump as Backlash over Muslim Ban Grows - Vanity Fair

New York Times

Trump Will Announce Supreme Court Pick Tuesday on Prime Time Television New York Times During the campaign, when Trump supporters unloaded vicious anti-Semitic invectives on journalists, the Republican Jewish Coalition condemned expressions of hate by supporters of all candidates. The Zionist Organization of America latched on to Mr. California's congressional Republicans hold their fire on Trump's refugee orderLos Angeles Times Donald J. Trump on Twitter: "I have made my decision on who I will nominate for The United States Supreme Court. It ...Twitter all 304 news articles »

Read more:
Trump Will Announce Supreme Court Pick Tuesday on Prime Time Television - New York Times

Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

Republicans plan to kill Obama regulations the Newt Gingrich way Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) Now with Obama gone and a friendly face in the White House, Republicans on Capitol Hill are digging deep into the playbook of former House Speaker and Georgia lawmaker Newt Gingrich to retroactively kill as many leftover policies as they can from the ... Social Security gun rule targeted for Republican repealWashington Times Republicans ready to eliminate Obama methane rule from oil fieldsSan Antonio Express-News (subscription) all 11 news articles »

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Republicans plan to kill Obama regulations the Newt Gingrich way - Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog)

SEATTLE -- Reaction to the President Trump's orders on immigration have been full of fierce resistance -- including from within his own party.

Chris Vance tried -- unsuccessfully -- to unseat Sen. Patty Murray in the November election, but he is most well-known for being the former chairman of the state Republican Party.

And he says the GOP is running scared.

"There are a lot of Republican politicians that are afraid of losing Trump voters." Vance said. "This is not about politics. This is about good and evil, right and wrong, our constitution, our values and who we are."

Vance goes on to say that Republicans who are remaining silent "should be ashamed of themselves."

His comments have made Vance persona-non-grata with his former colleagues.

"I find myself in a very weird position," he says, "but youve got to put your country first, and party is way down the list after that."

Vance then went and joined a large protest that had gathered in opposition of the Trump's executive order Sunday night at Seattle's Westlake Center.

KOMO News has reached out the Washington State Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, but as of Sunday night they have not responded to our requests for comment.

Read more:
Former State GOP chair: Republicans should be ashamed - KOMO News