It’s been pretty much nonstop since the conventions last year, so I’m off for one week of vacation, hopefully totally off the grid. We will try to keep you up to date with the very latest links in the editors blog to our team’s essential reporting on Obamacare repeal, as well as the latest developments Trump/Russia and the seemingly limitless number of other stories we are tracking.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already, please wish me a good send off by signing up for Prime. It is critical to our whole operation. And we have big things coming this spring.
I’ll see you in a week.
It would appear that Paul Ryan still lacks the votes to pass the Obamacare repeal and replace bill (that also ends Medicaid as we know it) tomorrow. Reports are he will be putting the squeeze on individual members this evening, but in the meantime a deal of sorts is apparently being worked out to win over recalcitrant conservatives by promising to gut Obamacare’s 10 essential health benefits, the bare minimums insurance plans must cover – not now, but later in the Senate. Alice Ollstein has the details.
CNN digs in on what James Comey meant when he told Congress this week that the FBI is investigating whether there was “coordination” between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The very latest from our two reporters on the Hill about where things stand this morning on Obamacare repeal. Could be a very late night.
A few minutes ago, TPM’s Alice Ollstein asked Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) if he supports scrapping Obamacare’s 10 essential health benefits (more here on that). Roberts deadpanned: “I sure don’t want my mammogram benefits taken away.”
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) quickly apologizes for his crack about mammograms to TPM’s Alice Ollstein.
Reports coming out that the vote on the House GOP’s Obamacare repeal vote will be postponed. Nothing official yet. But it’s looking mighty unrealistic that this is happening today. Here’s the latest from TPM’s Tierney Sneed.
The CBO has re-scored the Obamacare repeal bill taking into account the so-called managers amendments.
The potentially historic vote to end Medicaid as we know it and repeal Obamacare was postponed today, in a devastating setback for Paul Ryan and Donald Trump. But we’re still closely monitoring the ongoing negotiations on the Hill this evening, with Tierney Sneed and Alice Ollstein on the ground.
Here’s a rough outline of what we’re expecting:
White House demands vote Friday on Obamacare repeal, come hell or high water. No CBO score. Still no bill! But from what we know if it, it’s an objectively terrible piece of legislation, whether you’re a purveyor of sane health care policy or a conservative looking for ideological purity. Ryan is going along with the Trump plan to ram it through. Do Republicans have the votes? Our latest dispatch after a long evening on the Hill.