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From The Reporter’s Notebook
Former Rep. Allen West (R-FL) met with top members of President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle on Monday, TPM’s Esme Cribb reported. He said that no particular position was offered to him. “I mean they know my reputation very well,” West told reporters. “I’m just a simple soldier.” West was elected to his first term in the House in 2010 buoyed by strong Tea Party support and often cited his record of military service when criticizing President Barack Obama’s leadership, though West was in fact forced out of the Army after presiding over an abusive interrogation during which he fired a pistol next to an Iraqi police officer’s head after having the officer beaten.
Agree or Disagree?
Josh Marshall: “The organizing principle of all Obamacare politics going back six years has been that Republicans oppose it, have no idea of what can replace it and are unwilling to openly say that they want the system to go back to how it was before 2010. That is how you get to ‘Repeal and We’ll Get Back To You.’ The Ryan/Trump plan seems to be to repeal the law, let the system collapse, with collateral damage for lots of people who were not directly affected by Obamacare and hope that somehow Democrats get blamed for it.”
Say What?!
“Too many mamby-pamby people in the foreign policy shop.”
– An economic adviser to Trump said he was glad the President-elect had spoken on the phone with the president of Taiwan: “If China doesn’t like it, screw ’em.”
BUZZING: Today in the Hive
From a TPM Prime member: “Even if the Republicans cram this through, which would be a policy disaster for millions of Americans, it will give the Democrats a super important point to argue all the way to 2018. There will be significant backlash, and the Democrats, including the vulnerable Senators who are up for re-election in 2012, can keep pounding home the message that they, the Democrats, voted against the Trump Republican plan to kill the system.”
Related: Paul Ryan said Congress will hold a repeal vote on Obamacare next year, but what comes next remains unclear.
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