Tag: Dean Heller

CNN's John Avlon breaks down the GOP's claims that they will protect key parts of Obamacare, despite their efforts to repeal it in recent years.

LAS VEGAS ? Former President Barack Obama warned Nevadans on Monday that staying home during November’s midterm elections “would be profoundly dangerous to our democracy,” saying in a speech that these elections are “more important than any I can remember in my lifetime, and that includes when I was on the ballot.” “We have a chance to restore some sanity in our politics,” Obama said at a packed rally at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus. “Ultimately there is only one real check on abuses of power, there’s only one real check on bad policy and that is you and your vote.” “Don’t boo. All that stuff is nice to do. Just vote!” he said, reprising a favorite line from his days on the presidential campaign trail. While he never called out President Donald Trump by name, Obama directly criticized some of his successor’s most controversial rhetoric and policies on issues like health care, immigration and the deficit. “I know you can bet on anything here in Vegas, but you don’t want to bet that Republicans are actually going to protect your health care,” Obama said at the event following an introduction by some Democrats on the ballot here, including Senate candidate Rep. Jacky Rosen and gubernatorial candidate Steve Sisolak. The former president urged the audience to “remember who started” the ongoing economic recovery Republicans are touting ahead of the November elections, noting that Democrats had to deal with a recession upon his election 10 years ago when the GOP ran “things into the ground.” And he poked fun at GOP deficit hawks who opposed his proposals then turned around and blew a hole in the nation’s budget by passing tax cuts that disproportionately benefited wealthy Americans. “I never knew if I was 100 percent Democrat before, but I feel that I know what I’m definitely not,” she added. The focus on turning out Hispanic voters was evident at the rally, which took place in a state with a rapidly growing Latino population. “Republicans right now are trying to say, ‘Democrats don’t think like you, look like you, or believe in the same things as you,’” he said.

WASHINGTON — It was a brutal summer for President Trump. Discussions about Woodward, Anonymous and the latest developments in the 2018 midterms will get pushed to the side. But Trump can’t put politics — and grievances — aside Of course, that doesn’t mean that President Trump will hit the pause button himself. The first three races here are *slight* advantages for the challenger party. An important note: These rankings are based on where we see these races RIGHT NOW, and not based on what we think will happen two months from now. But when an incumbent is at 41 percent, he’s in big, big trouble (Previous ranking from May: 1) 2. Florida (D): The most recent Quinnipiac poll of this race also feels right – a tied race between incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and term-limited Republican Gov. Texas (R): Texas — yes, Texas — is the final takeover opportunity on our Top 10 list. (Previous ranking from May: unranked) Other races to watch (in alphabetical order): Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, Wisconsin. Meanwhile, former state Sen. Molly Kelly won the Democratic gubernatorial primary last night, and she’ll face incumbent Republican Gov.

As the only incumbent Republican senator running in a state that Hillary Clinton won in 2016, Heller would much rather focus on tax reform and the economy than immigration or repealing Obamacare -- which Republicans have so far failed to do. The Denver Post reports, "With just weeks left in the race, Tillemann has doubled down on that outsider approach by trying to position himself as the true progressive in the Democratic primary — arguing that he, not Crow, would pursue the impeachment of President Donald Trump." In New York's 24th District, a similar fight is playing out to see who will challenge Republican incumbent John Katko in the fall. Republicans continue to use Pelosi as a foil, with Mr. Trump arguing in Nevada yesterday that a vote for Jacky Rosen is a vote for Nancy Pelosi. Max Rose is expected to win Tuesday night's Democratic primary to run against Rep. Daniel Donovan or Michael Grimm in the fall. House primaries The Democrats need to flip 23 Republican-held districts to take control of the House of Representatives this fall, and CBS News rates 5 of the House districts facing primary elections on Tuesday as "very likely" or "probably" competitive in November (CO-6, NY-11, NY-19, NY-22, and UT-4). Senate primaries Maryland, New York and Utah each have one Senate primary election on Tuesday. In New York, incumbent Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a potential 2020 presidential hopeful, has no primary challenge and is expected to easily win re-election in the fall. In Utah, Mitt Romney is expected to win the Republican nomination. Voting changes/Ballot initiatives Tuesday night marks the first time that Colorado's 1.2 million unaffiliated voters can cast ballots in the primary elections.

Today in 5 Lines White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Chief of Staff John Kelly has reassured West Wing staffers that there will be “no immediate personnel changes at this time,” despite media reports that National-Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, among others, will be replaced. Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, said the adult film star was “physically threatened to stay silent” over her alleged affair with Trump, but did not provide further details. Representative Louise Slaughter of New York, one of the longest-serving Democrats in Congress, died at the age of 88. Nevada Republican Danny Tarkanian announced he will run for a House seat instead of challenging Senator Dean Heller in the GOP primary, a move that Trump encouraged in a tweet. Florida officials said the death toll in the collapse of a pedestrian bridge has climbed to six. The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into the cause of the collapse. Today on The Atlantic Lacking Leadership: In the month since the Parkland, Florida, shooting, a growing number of Republican lawmakers have demonstrated a willingness to tackle gun violence. But some voices remain silent. If corporations can be people, can they be good citizens?

Graham-Cassidy Returns Control of Health Care to States and Individuals. But the current law is a disaster – premiums and deductibles are spiraling upward while the latest official estimates show 1,478 counties, over 45 percent of the counties in America, will have just one insurance company in 2018. Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ) is the last train leaving the station. All aboard. It repeals the individual mandate, which is imposing harsh tax penalties on people who can't afford Obamacare's sky-high premiums. GCHJ also repeals the employer mandate, which is holding small businesses under 50 employees. Unlike previous Republican bills, GCHJ retains the rest of the Obamacare taxes, and uses them starting in 2020 to fund a formula-based block grant to the states that replaces both Obamacare's expansion of Medicaid to able-bodied working-age adults and the vast subsidies that flow through Obamacare's exchanges. That means a cut in federal funding for Massachusetts, which receives a vastly disproportionate share of all Obamacare spending, and to a lesser extent California and New York. Unlike previous health care bills that sought to replace a failed Democratic one-size-fits-all national vision of health care with a single Republican vision, GCHJ takes a more modest approach that repeals Obamacare's most grievous injuries to constitutional freedom and then uses a block grant to allow the states to sort out the specifics for themselves. President Trump welcomed the bill's introduction, saying: "inaction is not an option, and I sincerely hope that Senators Graham and Cassidy have found a way to address the Obamacare crisis."