A potentially very important development this evening on the Obamacare repeal front, as TPM’s Lauren Fox reports. HELP Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN), a key figure in internal GOP wrangling over repeal and eventual (if ever?) replacement, told reporters on the Hill that Obamacare repeal should come after a replacement is in place and “available” to consumers.
At the same time and in a similar vein, Alexander’s fellow Tennesseean, Bob Corker, was expressing his frustration that repeal as planned would wipe out the tax revenue to pay for an Obamacare replacement.
Just to emphasize the point: these comments, especially Alexander’s, are very much at odds with the McConnell-Ryan plan for immediate repeal.
The Russian Embassy in the UK just trolled Prime Minister Theresa May with a picture of Pepe the Frog, the alt-right/white supremacy mascot.
The statistics covering American manufacturing are complex. American manufacturing is by many metrics doing great. It’s American manufacturing jobs which have declined steeply. That’s a result of international competition but even more automation. Most of us know this broad story. What most don’t know is how recent the drop is.
Rep. Tom Price (R), arch-Medicare phase out supporter and Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, sought special treatment for industry donors.
I wanted to remind everyone (readers and potential reporters) we’re starting 2017 by building out our investigative team. Want to join us? Eager to dig and break big stories? See our listing here and apply.
Philip Klein has an important piece on the politics of Obamacare repeal in The Washington Examiner. It’s dressed up with a lot of digs at the law and the promises which were made on its behalf – not all of which are unfair. But the key point he makes is very much on the mark. Republicans are going to have a very hard time with Obamacare repeal as long as they claim that no one will lose their coverage in the process.
Klein puts it this way.
Here’s the letter Mitch McConnell sent to Harry Reid in 2009 laying out the rules he’d insist on for confirming presidential nominees. It seems like Trump really did change everything.
Kellyanne Conway: “You always want to go by what comes out of his mouth rather than look at what’s in his heart.”
Times of Israel: “The Palestinian truck driver who killed four IDF soldiers in a truck-ramming attack in Jerusalem on Sunday was reportedly motivated to act after hearing a sermon at his local mosque attacking US President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”