Bloomberg:
Four Republican Governors Come Out Against Obamacare Replacement Plan
Four Republican governors told top lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate that they oppose the current GOP plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, and that they want Congress to preserve an expansion of the Medicaid health program for poor Americans.
In a letter Thursday, governors from Ohio, Nevada, Michigan and Arkansas wroteSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan and said the legislation the House is considering “does not ensure the resources necessary to make sure no one is left out, and shifts significant new costs to states.” They said the bill “does not meet” goals set out by President Donald Trump about state flexibility and making sure people are covered.
Ariel Edwards-Levy/HuffPost:
Almost No One Likes The New GOP Health Care Bill
And many people hate it.
The top-line numbers alone aren’t good for the bill’s proponents: The public opposes the bill released by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and backed by President Donald Trump by a 21-point margin ― 45 percent to 24 percent ― according to the survey, with 31 percent unsure.
The GOP plan also is on the wrong side of a significant gap in intensity, with just 5 percent strongly favoring the bill, and 32 percent strongly opposed.
Leading the charge are voters who supported Hillary Clinton, nearly three-quarters of whom say they strongly oppose the bill. Seventy-nine percent expect that it would be worse than Obamacare, with 53 percent saying it would make things worse for them personally.
Democrats are already counting the issue as a potential campaign vulnerability for the GOP.
“The data shows that Democrats are well positioned to win back [Obama/Trump voters] in 2018 and 2020, particularly thanks to the debate over the controversial Republican healthcare plan to repeal the ACA,” the progressive group American Bridge argued in a polling memo released this week. Internal surveys for the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA found that Obamacare was a more “potent” topic than the fight over the Supreme Court, the group told CNN.
Vox:
In these 105 counties, Planned Parenthood is the only full-service birth control clinic
HHS Secretary Tom Price wanted to see a list of counties where Planned Parenthood is the only option for women who need subsidized birth control. Here’s that list.
Philip Klein/WashExaminer:
Frustrated conservatives are complaining that Congressional leadership isn't being straight about the latitude that exists to repeal and replace Obamacare, which is quickly turning the GOP's intraparty healthcare policy debate into a battle over the complex procedural rules governing the Senate.
At issue is a process known as reconciliation, which allows certain bills to pass through the Senate with a simple majority (rather than the typical 60 votes) as long as all of its provisions meet a certain series of tests, which were spelled out decades ago in a rule named after the late Sen. Robert Byrd.
Republican leaders have emphasized that they are working hard to get the best bill that they can through the Senate given the limitations, but conservatives argue that the current House bill favored by Speaker Paul Ryan doesn't go far enough in fully repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a true free market alternative. And they say the authors of the legislation are hiding behind the vagaries of the reconciliation process to justify some of the policy decisions that have angered conservatives.
STAT on the WV opioid problem:
Taylor Wilson’s parents fought for 41 days to get their daughter treatment. They couldn’t stop another overdose
Here in Huntington, population 49,000, health officials estimate a staggering 1 in 4 residents is dependent on opioids, from squalling newborns shaking with withdrawal symptoms to powerful lawyers immobilized by addiction. It’s so bad that the mayor carries around a naloxone injector in case he encounters an overdose victim. The city has tried setting up a needle exchange, hiring a drug czar, even suing the drug companies that brought pain pills to the state of West Virginia. None of those tactics have stopped the epidemic.
“There doesn’t seem to be enough emphasis on what we’re losing,” John Wilson said, fighting the tears falling down his face.
OTOH, Vann R. Newkirk has a nice antidote to the all-white view of front row and back row kids:
NY Times with the “f u, we won” philosophy of governance:
Trump Takes a Gamble in Cutting Programs His Base Relies On
Mr. Trump was elected on a promise to wage war against what he has frequently mocked as a bloated and ineffective federal work force, and he is betting that his first budget will help consolidate support by calling for a significant shift of resources away from established programs that aid the poor, the environment, foreigners and the arts.
To those who object to deep cuts in those programs, Mick Mulvaney, the president’s budget director, had a blunt message on Thursday: What did you expect?
He said that after-school programs had failed to help children in schools, that housing programs were “not well run,” that government health research had suffered “mission creep” and that grants to local communities “don’t do any good.”
James Pethokoukis/The Week:
What would a failed Trump administration look like?
It certainly doesn't need to involve President Trump's impeachment and removal from office. Rather, imagine this: As the 2018 midterm elections approach, Trump's only accomplishment is starting construction on the southern border mega-wall. No ObamaCare replacement. No big tax cut. No big infrastructure plan. And millions of American voters are starting to consider that handing total power in Washington to a party led by a short-attention-span novice was a cosmically bad idea.
It hardly seems like a far-fetched scenario right now.
First, repealing and replacing ObamaCare, the GOP's top priority, was just dealt a hammer blow by the Congressional Budget Office. Conservative Republicans will surely focus on the CBO finding that the American Health Care Act would reduce projected debt by $300 billion and cut taxes by $900 billion over a decade. But the more relevant numbers to many Americans will be the 14 million people losing health insurance coverage next year and the 20 percent rise in insurance premiums if the bill becomes law. Republicans may quibble about details and degree, but the CBO forecast is almost certainly correct directionally.
Priority two doesn't look a whole lot healthier. The GOP plan to deeply cut tax rates depends on the blueprint's controversial and deeply confusing border-adjustment provision, where imports would be taxed but exports wouldn't. Not surprisingly, the plan has split GOP business backers depending on whether they export goods (like Boeing) or import them (like Walmart). Dropping this provision — as seems highly probable — would blow a trillion-dollar revenue hole in a plan already counting on aggressive growth forecasts to avoid hemorrhaging red ink.
Alex Roarty/McClatchy:
Centrist Democrats struggle to draft a survival strategy
It was a secret meeting about an existential crisis.
Gathered behind closed doors in a Denver hotel, 30 conservative Democrats plotted a potential path forward for their party – an effort to devise a strategy that might help them avoid total annihilation in red states across America.
These political moderates had been called together by former Alaska Sen. Mark Begich, and they showed up out of fear that their party is growing more liberal by the day, and less interested in their centrist positions.
I think the time to offer a Democratic fix to ACA has not arrived yet. I’d rather throw them an anvil while they are floundering. But for later:
Pending Horizon blog:
No, really: Democrats should offer an ACHA alternative
But this is a good chance to highlight differences and drive home the problems with Trumpcare. While the ACA has gotten marginally more popular during this repeal fight, polling shows almost no one thinks the law is perfect, and most want to see it significantly improved.
Democrats could quickly and easily put out a package based on already-scored ideas that would reduce premiums, increase coverage, and lower the deficit. It would do all the things Trump promised to do during the campaign but is now planning do the opposite of with his current repeal-and-replace plan.