Josh Kraushaar/National Journal (limited time view):
Why Republicans Are Losing the Health Care Fight
GOP leaders sound so unconvinced about the merits of their own proposed policy that they’ve stopped trying to make the case for reform entirely.
So McConnell will keep chugging along, desperately trying to craft some legislative compromise that can satisfy Republican moderates and conservatives alike. Don’t bet on it succeeding. Even the best-laid plans need some public support behind them. And McConnell isn’t getting any help from anyone—whether it’s the president, his own Senate, or even his party’s top communicators—in selling such wide-ranging reforms to an unaware electorate.
One thing @HotlineJosh gets right here: Rs were better at undercutting ACA than selling their own plan, in terms of persuasion.
The Hill:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Sunday said he doesn't think the Senate is getting anywhere on its plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
"I don't think we're getting anywhere with the bill we have," he said on "Fox News Sunday."
"We're at an impasse," he said. "So right now this bill, which is not a repeal, has become the kitchen sink.
Jay Rosen/PressThink:
Why the White House daily briefing is in such trouble.
"Wake up: Trump is not trying to win the support of anyone who is not naturally aligned with him."
Once you remove persuasion from the equation many things tumble out of place. Plausibility itself becomes superfluous. Adjusting the claims of the White House to any common measure of reality breaks down as a discipline. What matters is the strength of the bond with core supporters, not the ability of the Administration to answer questions, parry doubts, or mount a convincing case for its program. This is one reason that lying has become a White House routine.
And this is why the daily briefing is in such trouble. The whole premise of that event is that the White House ought to make a credible show before reporters because reporters are a rough proxy for the unconvinced.
But what if the people in power don’t care to convince the unconvinced? And what if reporters are seen, not as any sort of proxy for the voting public, but as avatars of an elite that has already been put down by the prior year’s election returns?
Jay could just as easily be talking about the health care plan. See the Josh Kraushaar article.
Mona Chalabi/Guardian:
America's broken healthcare system – in one simple chart
The US spends more money on healthcare than any other wealthy nation. But it hasn’t resulted in better health
Vox:
A new poll shows the health care bill could crush Senate Republicans
The poll found that, in a vacuum, voters in 10 battleground states are split almost evenly about Republican senate candidates — with 21 percent of voters viewing them favorably and 20 percent viewing them unfavorably.
But when told their Republican senate candidates supported the GOP’s health care bill, voters turned sharply against their representatives. In that case, the candidates’ unfavorability rating jumps from 21 percent to 52 percent, according to the new polling from Priorities USA and Senate Majority PAC.
The numbers are even more dramatic when the polling is mixed in with attacks on the GOP health bill. “After hearing criticisms of the Republican plan, voters in these Senate battlegrounds went from leaning toward voting the Democrat in 2018 by a healthy 48-38 margin, to leaning toward the Democrat by an even more robust 56-35 margin — an 11-point jump,” the poll stated.
McClatchy:
The health bill would have a big impact on women. And women may decide if it passes
ive Republican senators are women, and three have said they won’t support the bill as it is now. Maine Sen. Susan Collins took to Twitter on Tuesday to say she’d vote no, citing deep Medicaid cuts hurting the “most vulnerable Americans.”
“I want to work w/ my GOP and Dem colleagues to fix the flaws in ACA,” she tweeted. “CBO analysis shows Senate bill won’t do it.” Collins also told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” that “it makes absolutely no sense to eliminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood.”
West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said in a written statement on Tuesday that “as drafted, the Senate health care bill is not the right fix for West Virginia, and I cannot support it.”
And Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told CNN she “didn’t have enough information” to vote for the bill, but as a supporter of Planned Parenthood, she emphasized “concerns” about cutting Medicaid funding to the organization.
As Republican senators return home for the July Fourth recess this weekend, many will likely face questions and even protests from voters about the bill’s impact on care for the disabled – similar to a protest this week inside the U.S. Capitol that saw police pulling people out of their wheelchairs.
Some two-thirds of those caring for older adults and disabled family members are women, according to AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving.
The Hill:
Democrats go in for the kill on ObamaCare repeal
Democrats can’t block the healthcare legislation on their own, but are hoping public pressure will convince at least three Senate Republicans to vote against the bill.
Their messaging war got a boost from the Congressional Budget Office, which on Monday estimated the Senate bill would result in an additional 22 million uninsured Americans over a decade, including some low-income individuals who would be priced out of the market.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) tied the GOP’s struggle to secure 50 votes to the CBO’s findings, calling it the “hurdle they couldn’t overcome.”
There are signs that the Democrats’ message discipline is working.
“There are signs that the Democrats’ message discipline is working.” Hmmm. Queue up the “Dems are in disarray” and “Dems never win” stories.
Bruce Bartlett/BillMoyers.com
Why I’m Not a Democrat
A disillusioned veteran of the Reagan White House has some advice for liberals.
Another strength of the right that the left could learn is its self-confidence and aggressiveness. Turn on cable news at any hour and you will hear a right-winger expounding with bravado on some subject they have no clue about. If there is a liberal on for “balance,” he or she will waste all their air time futilely trying to explain why what their opponent said was complete nonsense. As a consequence, progressives never get their points across and appear feckless. I often joke that a Democrat is someone who won’t take their own side in a debate.
So true. Have the confidence of your positions, but remember: not being a jerk about it is a feature, not a bug.
Austin Frakt, from November:
Politics Aside, We Know How to Fix Obamacare
All of this — insurer withdrawals and sharply escalating premiums — was avoidable and is fixable. We know how to draw insurers into markets, keep them there, and limit premium growth. We can do so by subsidizing plans more and by limiting their risk of loss. We’ve done both before.
In the early 2000s, Medicare+Choice — then the name of what is now the Medicare Advantage program, which offers private plan alternatives to traditional Medicare — was struggling. The proportion of Medicare beneficiaries with access to a Medicare+Choice plan declined from 72 percent in 1999 to 61 percent in 2002. The number of plans offered dropped 50 percent, and enrollment dropped 21 percent. Insurance industry representatives said that the problem was that government subsidy payments to plans were not keeping up with costs.
After payments to plans drastically increased as part of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act — passed by a Republican Congress and signed by President George W. Bush — insurers flooded the market. This was controversial. Members of Congress from both parties expressed concern that plans were overpaid, wasting taxpayer resources.
By 2007, every Medicare beneficiary had access to at least one plan. The market stabilized, so much so that even as payments to plans were cut by the Affordable Care Act, plan enrollment continued to grow. Today, about one in three Medicare beneficiaries is enrolled in a private plan — a record high. Increasing the subsidization of Obamacare plans might have the same effect — reducing costs to consumers and drawing more of them, and insurers, into the market.
NY Times:
For Millions, Life Without Medicaid Services Is No Option
Frances Isbell has spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disorder that has left her unable to walk or even roll over in bed. But Ms. Isbell has a personal care assistant through Medicaid, and the help allowed her to go to law school at the University of Alabama here. She will graduate next month.
She hopes to become a disability rights lawyer — “I’d love to see her on the Supreme Court someday,” her aide, Christy Robertson, said, tearing up with emotion as Ms. Isbell prepared to study for the bar exam in her apartment last week — but staying independent will be crucial to her professional future.
“The point of these programs is to give people options and freedom,” said Ms. Isbell, 24, whose family lives a few hours away in Gadsden.
The care she gets is an optional benefit under federal Medicaid law, which means each state can decide whether to offer it and how much to spend. Optional services that she and millions of other Medicaid beneficiaries receive would be particularly at risk under Republican proposals to scale back Medicaid as part of legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Susan Chira/NY Times:
Who Likes Trump’s Tweets and Why
Social media offers another lens. It’s a medium Mr. Trump exploits brilliantly, and one that has fostered and amplified a toxic subculture of misogyny. Today on Twitter, there was glee about Mr. Trump’s tweet alongside the denunciations. Some piled on with more insults about women. Others were overjoyed that Mr. Trump was upsetting “snowflakes,” that derisive term of art for oversensitive liberals. Still others believed that the president was justifiably striking back against attacks on him from Ms. Brzezinski and her co-host, Joe Scarborough. Some insisted there was no sexism involved, that women aren’t exempt from criticism and have to learn to take it, just as men do.
I forgive Trump voters. I will never forgive Trump supporters. Well, if nothing else, Trump has exposed and brought to light those supporters of his who are as unhinged as he is. We told you. Now you see. For those who renounce him? Never too late to join the rest of humanity.