MORNING MESSAGE
The American Health Care Act Is a Wealth Grab, Not a Health Plan
It’s
not a “health” plan. It’s a wealth grab for the already wealthy. Its benefits
will go, first and foremost, to billionaires who make more money from
investments than from work. The 400 highest-earning households in the country
will get an average tax break of $7 million per year under the Republican plan.
Who will benefit the least? Teachers, nurses, firefighters… pretty much anyone
who works for a living.
Trump Prepares To Shift Blame
Trump
prepares to blame Dems for GOP health care fail. Politico: “In a private
Oval Office meeting with conservative activists Wednesday, President Donald
Trump sold Paul Ryan’s health care bill as strong and necessary. But minutes
later, his top aides offered some willingness to consider changing some of the
core provisions, even as Trump himself suggested a fallback position — that they
could try again in two years, and Obamacare will fail on its own, leaving
Democrats to take the blame.”
GOP
Sen. Tom Cotton says “start over” in tweetstorm. Washington Examiner:
“[Cotton] said the House bill will never pass in the Senate without ‘major
changes.’ … ”No excuse to release bill Mon night, start voting Wed. With no
budget estimate!’
Doctors
and hospitals oppose House bill. The Hill: “Major hospital groups, including
the American Hospital Association and a larger coalition of hospitals called
America’s Hospitals and Health Systems, have written letters to Capitol Hill
slamming the legislation and urging members to oppose it. Doctors, through the
American Medical Association (AMA), joined that chorus on Wednesday morning,
calling the bill ‘critically flawed.’ Other major players — including seniors
advocacy group AARP and health organizations from the advocacy arm of the
American Cancer Society to the March of Dimes — have also panned the bill.”
Bill
clears first House committee. The Hill: “The House Ways and Means Committee
on Thursday advanced GOP legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare on a party
line vote … The committee markup lasted over 16 hours, stretching until after 4
a.m. … The measure now goes to the House Budget Committee, with plans for a vote
in the full House within weeks.”
Trump
meets with Dems about drug prices. Politico: “… two liberals who’ve been
critical of the president, Reps. Elijah Cummings and Peter Welch, left a White
House meeting on curbing drug prices Wednesday feeling good about their chances
for buy-in from Trump. Democratic lawmakers also are holding out modest hopes
that he might meet them in the middle on infrastructure investment, which was
the focus of a lunch meeting Wednesday.”
GOP Rips Apart Regulations
GOP
forges ahead on deregulation. Politico: “The Senate sent a bill killing an
Obama administration education rule to President Donald Trump’s desk Wednesday,
making it the sixth in a series of regulations that GOP leaders plan to overturn
using an obscure 20-year-old law that allows them to avoid Democratic
filibusters. House Republicans have lined up eight more rifle shots at Obama-era
rules for the Senate to consider, giving the GOP a chance to stay in sync
despite the civil war over health care.”
Republicans
struggle with Dodd-Frank repeal. Bloomberg: “The Senate Banking Committee,
led by Mike Crapo, on Thursday is scheduled to consider a measure about
publishing research on exchange-traded funds, and a collection of other narrow
bills with bipartisan support. In the House, the Financial Services Committee
will hold a hearing about flood insurance, further stalling the rollout of
Chairman Jeb Hensarling’s plan to eliminate laws enacted in response to the
financial crisis of 2008. Reality is setting in on Capitol Hill that rolling
back the Dodd-Frank banking law won’t be quick or easy.”
SEC
nominee rife with conflicts. NYT: “[Jay] Clayton, a longtime partner at the
law firm Sullivan & Cromwell who is President Trump’s pick to lead the
Securities and Exchange Commission, has represented big banks like Goldman Sachs
and Barclays as well as prominent hedge funds and corporate executives,
according to a financial disclosure form made public on Wednesday … the filing
reveals a number of previously unadvertised assignments, including work he has
done for companies facing intense government scrutiny: Deutsche Bank, UBS and
Volkswagen.”
Iger Grilled On Trump Ties
Disney
CEO under fire at shareholder meeting. LAT: “[CEO Bob] Iger fielded
unusually pointed questions over his decision to remain on [Trump’s business]
council. But he defended his position on the panel, calling his participation a
‘privileged opportunity.’ … Mehrdad Azemun of Chicago had taken to the
microphone to tell Iger that as an immigrant from Iran who ‘grew up in the U.S.
being raised on Disney,’ he felt that the CEO’s participation on the council ran
counter to the company’s values … Azemun [is] a shareholder proxy who is a
community organizer with People’s Action…”
More
from Orlando Sentinel: “‘This relationship is functionally bad for your
bottom line,’ said Robel Worku, a community organizer with the Colorado People’s
Alliance. He cited hundreds of thousands of signatures on electronic petitions
asking Iger to sever ties with Trump.”
Can Trump Coalition Be Broken?
Some
analysts see Trump coalition as enduring. NYT: “One of the mainstays of
Democratic optimism is the conviction that a growing body of young voters — more
liberal than their elders — will soon dominate elections, just as the baby
boomers did before them. In point of fact, however, millennials are slowly,
incrementally becoming a less reliable Democratic constituency.”
“Can
Trump Divide Organized Labor?” asks The Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein: “AFL-CIO
President Richard Trumka snapped heads across the Democratic coalition when he
appeared on Fox Business Network last week to assess President Trump’s first
speech to Congress … With his surprisingly warm appraisal, Trumka—who also met
privately with Trump on Tuesday—captured how the administration’s disruptive
agenda is accelerating the class inversion reshaping American politics …
President Richard Nixon famously promoted affirmative-action programs for
construction projects partly to split the Democratic coalition by pitting
organized labor against African Americans. The unions could soon face another
such wedge: While the AFL-CIO has opposed Trump’s plan to build a wall at the
U.S.-Mexico border, it has not moved to pressure unions to boycott the
project.”
Progressive
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