God bless Manchester and God bless us all.
Other news and punditry below the fold.
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NY Times:
President Trump plans to unveil on Tuesday a $4.1 trillion budget for 2018 that would cut deeply into programs for the poor, from health care and food stamps to student loans and disability payments, laying out an austere vision for reordering the nation’s priorities.
The document, grandly titled “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” encapsulates much of the “America first” message that powered Mr. Trump’s campaign. It calls for an increase in military spending of 10 percent and spending more than $2.6 billion for border security — including $1.6 billion to begin work on a wall on the border with Mexico — as well as huge tax reductions and an improbable promise of 3 percent economic growth.
The wildly optimistic projections balance Mr. Trump’s budget, at least on paper, even though the proposal makes no changes to Social Security’s retirement program or Medicare, the two largest drivers of the nation’s debt.
Politico:
Trump's budget hits his own voters hardest
The president's proposal for next year's federal spending calls for more than $1 trillion in cuts to social programs, including farm aid.
WaPo:
President Trump on Tuesday will propose cutting federal spending by $3.6 trillion over 10 years, a historic budget contraction that would severely ratchet back spending across dozens of programs and could completely reshape government assistance to the poor.
The White House’s $4.094 trillion budget request for fiscal 2018 calls for cuts that hit Medicaid, food assistance and other anti-poverty programs. It would cut funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides benefits to the poor, by roughly 20 percent next year.
All told, the budget would reduce spending on safety-net programs by more than $1 trillion over 10 years.
Details of the budget circulating in Washington on Monday drew outrage from Democrats and a mix of anxiety and praise from Republicans, illustrating the political minefield that policymakers face as they debate whether to turn the proposals into law.
Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the spending plan, titled “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” is focused on protecting taxpayer money and cutting spending on programs that are ineffective or encourage people not to work.
Catherine Rampell/WaPo:
Want to know what Trumpcare would do to the country? Look at the implosion in Iowa.
Nationwide, nearly all people who bought their insurance on the individual market are enrolled in plans that meet certain Obamacare requirements. For example, these govern what health benefits must be covered, how much patients can be forced to spend out of pocket, and whether or how much insurers can charge based on age and preexisting conditions.
This is not true in Iowa. There, most individual market enrollees are in plans that have been exempted from these federal requirements.
These non-Obamacare-compliant plans are allowed to stick around because they were created before the Affordable Care Act exchanges launched, and Iowa’s state regulators have been more than willing to let them linger.
Because these noncompliant plans offer relatively skimpy coverage and, back in the day, were allowed to effectively screen out older and sicker patients, they’re cheap. As a result, they have siphoned off many of the healthier, younger people in the state.
That means the pool of people left buying more generous Obamacare-compliant plans has been sicker, older and more expensive — a problem known as “adverse selection.” This drives up premiums and causes even the relatively healthy people on the ACA exchanges to drop coverage.
Trumpcare, in the name of promoting “choice,” would basically replicate Iowa’s adverse-selection problem on a much larger scale.
Health care will be the election issue the Democrats run on for now.
The Hill:
Jon Ossoff, the Democrat running in Georgia’s 6th congressional district, slammed his Republican opponent in a new attack ad over her time at the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
The ad features an OBGYN from Cobb County, Ga., who notes that early screening for breast and cervical cancers are essential to saving lives.
“But Karen Handel cut off funding for Planned Parenthood cancer screenings when she was an executive at Susan G. Komen,” Dr. Mindy Fine says in the ad.
“I don’t usually get involved in politics, but as a doctor and a breast cancer survivor myself, what Karen Handel did is unforgivable.”
Atlanta Business Chronicle:
Poll shows Ossoff with 7-point lead
Survey USA analysts said the race is very close, “though clearly Ossoff is in a better position than Handel.”
Emory University Political Science professor Andra Gilespie agrees, saying, "This race is too close to call in this survey given the sample size."
Ossoff released this statement in response to the poll:
"This race is neck and neck and my team and I are going to continue working as hard as we ever have, reaching out to every voter and making the case for fresh leadership and accountability in Washington."
Later as we get closer to 2018, there is this:
NY Times:
Michael Flynn Misled Pentagon About Russia Ties, Letter Says
WaPo:
Flynn takes 5th on Senate subpoena as a top House Democrat alleges new evidence of lies
WaPo:
Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence
WaPo:
The three most damaging paragraphs from the revelation about Trump pushing back against the FBI
Trump doesn't care or doesn't know about the rules. He's abusing his power in a Nixonian way. He's deliberately trying to muddy the waters. These are startling comments about the president of the United States, and some of them are coming from inside Trump's own administration.
It sounds like the alarm bells are ringing among those in-the-know in Washington.
WaPo:
Trump close to choosing outside counsel for Russia investigation
The world via Spiegel:
A Danger to the World: It's Time to Get Rid of Donald Trump
Donald Trump has transformed the United States into a laughing stock and he is a danger to the world. He must be removed from the White House before things get even worse.
America via Jill Lawrence/USA Today:
Donald Trump to America: Please impeach me
Donald Trump is doing an excellent impression of a president who desperately wishes to be impeached. Congress should grant that wish, or figure out an even quicker way to bring this tragicomedy to its inevitable end. If there aren’t enough smoking guns quite yet, just wait a day or two. They're coming at us faster than rounds from a Kalashnikov on full auto.
Could Trump's signals be any more clear? He's not even having fun.
and don’t forget this guy, via TPM:
What Did The Vice President Not Know And When Did He Not Know It?
An anonymous source close to the administration complained to NBC on Friday about a “pattern … vis a vis Pence, that he was never, either intentionally or unintentionally, made aware of the facts.”
“It has to be intentional,” the source said of Pence’s repeated exclusion.
But the narrative that Pence’s hands are clean strains credulity. In some cases, it is contradicted outright by reports and documents establishing that the Vice President was in fact involved in the key moments that have defined the first four months of the Trump administration.
Tired of winning yet?