Tag: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

Buy Photos I give you fair warning: This is largely a lecture. One given often, but always desperately needed. The president recently vowed that the United States would never be a socialist country. Regardless of your own political orientation, that statement is the kind of idiot, superlative claim that I constantly warn students against. Both of these propositions are nonsense without nuance. : “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it.” Making this statement was stupid on its face regardless of the content of the ACA. To my second point, guess what, people: as much as capitalism is here, socialism is also in large degree already here and not going away. Many people in American, and also global, political economies in the developed world seemingly prefer the provision of certain goods and services through public funding as opposed to private venture. I will work to that end.” Nuance is not a sexy sell however, and no amount of grammatical nagging by an educator will change much about that. Sponsored

Good Wednesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • President Trump backed off plans to introduce a Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act after Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, warned him that the Senate would not revisit health care before the election. The about-face all but ensured that health care would take a central place in the 2020 campaign, elevating an issue that Democrats consider one of their strengths. • Two more women told The Times that Joseph R. Biden Jr. touched them in ways that made them uncomfortable, more evidence that the former vice president’s style of politicking is proving to be a liability in the #MeToo era. • Despite calls for the resignations of Virginia’s governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general over scandals involving blackface and sexual harassment, they are all still in office — and the state is trying to muddle on. The president’s economic team said it was looking for ways to limit the damage from such a move. • Mr. Trump has vowed to cut aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador over migration. He was reacting after the Senate blocked billions of dollars in disaster aid for Midwestern states, in part because Democrats said a proposed $600 million in nutritional assistance to Puerto Rico fell short of its needs. • Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, sat very stiffly next to Mr. Trump on Tuesday, two days before the 70th anniversary of the alliance, as the president criticized German military spending and predicted the United States would get along with Russia.

Sarah Silbiger/The New York Times WASHINGTON — President Trump backed off plans to introduce a Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act after Senator Mitch McConnell privately warned him that the Senate would not revisit health care in a comprehensive way before the November 2020 elections. Reversing himself in the face of Republican consternation, Mr. Trump said his party would not produce a health care plan of its own, as he had promised, until after the elections, meaning he will only try to fulfill his first-term promise to repeal and replace his predecessor’s signature program if he wins a second term. “He did say, as he later tweeted, that he accepted that and that he would be developing a plan that he would take to the American people during the 2020 campaign.” The president’s last attempt to replace Mr. Obama’s health care program blew up in 2017 when his party controlled both houses of Congress. Mr. Trump had surprised allies by ordering his administration to ask a federal court to invalidate the entire Affordable Care Act and then promised a Republican replacement. Democrats, consumer groups, doctors, hospitals and insurance companies have said that 20 million people could lose health coverage if courts accept the administration’s argument. Hours later, Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter, “The Republicans are developing a really great HealthCare Plan with far lower premiums (cost) & deductibles than ObamaCare.” “In other words it will be far less expensive & much more usable than ObamaCare,” he said in a string of three tweets posted Monday night. “I see what the Democrats are doing; it’s a disaster what they’re planning and everyone knows it,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday at the White House. Soon after the president decided last week to intervene in a Texas court case on the side of invalidating the entire Affordable Care Act without a Plan B, Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence held a conference call with Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and Brad Parscale, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager. Mr. Trump denied on Tuesday that Mr. McConnell asked him to back off, saying, “I wanted to delay it myself” because Republicans do not control the House. Mr. Trump has basically commissioned four Republican senators to devise a replacement for the Affordable Care Act.

Good Wednesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today. _____________________ • A new fight over the Affordable Care Act broke out on Tuesday, as Democrats denounced the Trump administration for asking a federal appeals court to invalidate it. The surprise decision, which could leave 21 million people without health insurance if the court agrees, gave Democrats a chance to move past impeachment and discuss kitchen-table issues like health care. • The most enduring legacy of Robert S. Mueller’s investigation may be his decision not to take action on President Trump’s norm-shattering interventions in the law enforcement system. • As the Trump administration celebrates Mr. Mueller’s finding that the president did not conspire with Russia, a darker theme is emerging: a message that Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies will pay. • Scientists at the Interior Department spent years examining the threat that pesticides present to hundreds of endangered species. “We’re not focused on impeachment,” said one. • Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Tuesday that he regretted his role in the 1991 hearings over Anita Hill’s sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas, who became a Supreme Court justice. That episode could be a vulnerability if Mr. Biden runs for president.

He had lost to Bobby Rush by 30 points in a race for Congress and was at a crossroads. Now I look back and realize there were actually more important things I needed to do, and the fact that I didn’t make time for those things is a source of embarrassment and shame. From the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep, I was thinking: Did I miss something? Is there a call I haven’t made? A lot of skills I learned were essential to my work in politics, the first of which is narrative. Campaigns are about telling a story of who you are and where you want to lead. Two years after getting married, we had a daughter, Lauren, who had very serious epilepsy. When I was Obama’s political adviser and we were working on the Affordable Care Act, the best political advice was, “Don’t do this because it’s risky, and we have a lot of things going on right now. Seven have failed.” But the other part of me had almost gone bankrupt when I was a young reporter and insurance wouldn’t cover Lauren’s medications and other things she needed. And that made everything real.

(CNN)Just 24 hours removed from arguably his best day as President, Donald Trump picked a political fight he cannot win. That decision, which caught even many Trump allies by surprise, again thrusts the health care issue to the center of the political debate, and virtually ensures that the 2020 election -- like the 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012 and 2010 elections before it -- will turn on the ACA. Switching the spotlight of the national debate from Russia to health care so quickly would be risky under any circumstances but is particularly problematic given that a) the past five elections have shown that people care deeply about and vote on the issue of health care and b) getting rid of Obamacare is not a broadly popular view with the American public. Since May 2017, according to Kaiser data, more people have approved of Obamacare than disapprove -- a sea change from most of the previous five years, when the law was consistently underwater in terms of approval. "Republicans will do absolutely anything to divert attention away from their votes to take away Americans' health care," then House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said in the days leading up to the midterms. And, following Democrats' takeover of the House in 2018, Pelosi was just as clear; "Health care was on the ballot, and health care won," she said. More than 4 in 10 voters in 2018 said that health care was their top priority in the election, according to exit polling. In the 2016 presidential election, Trump ran explicitly on a plan to repeal and replace the ACA. By 2018, Democrats were able to capitalize on the fact that House Republicans had approved a repeal and replace package that never became law because it failed in a late-night vote in the Senate. Trump has spent the entire first two years of his presidency playing to his hardcore base -- and, seen through that lens, the decision to re-litigate the ACA fight makes some sense.

President Donald Trump’s administration is back on the attack against the Affordable Care Act, squarely weighing in on the side of a Texas judge’s ruling that would strike down the entire health-care law. In new court filings, the Justice Department said it would not fight the district court decision on appeal. This shift on the part of the administration — if its position prevails in higher courts — could strip away health care for millions and void the expansion of Medicaid in most states. [CNN] [WaPost] Topping the news: Gov. Gary Herbert signed 119 bills on Monday, including one to outlaw abortions after 18 weeks of gestation, assuring a legal challenge. He also signed legislation delaying the effective date of all future voter-approved ballot measures to give the Legislature time to change them. His one veto was a bill aimed at limiting voter participation in special election candidate nominations. [Trib] [Fox13] [DNews] -> A group of medical marijuana supporters took to the state Supreme Court on Monday to ask justices to restore the original voter-approved initiative. [Trib] [Fox13] [KUTV2] [DNews] -> Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, is floating a possible three-way split of San Juan County — one that puts most of the area’s majority Navajo population into one county. [Trib] -> @tribjazz: “Jimmer checks in and the crowd goes wild ... presumably cuz they’ve seen him play defense before and are anticipating the Jazz lead expanding.” In other news: Business entrepreneur Dave Bateman likely saved the Utah Republican Party from bankruptcy but he keeps pushing an issue that has deeply fractured the ruling party.

Neutralize industry opposition At the start of the health care fight, Obamacare architects faced challenges from across the political spectrum. The Green New Deal faces a steeper challenge, and some energy companies will fight it hard. Control the narrative One early challenge for the Obama administration was dealing with the false claim that its health care plan would lead to "death panels." One is finding out "who in the climate debate people trust the most" and putting them out front, she said. It's a vacuum that some of ACA's designers regret. The Green New Deal includes several far-reaching pillars that might take time to get working, like a jobs guarantee or 100 percent renewable energy generation. Quickly getting those checks into people's hands could make it harder for opposition lawmakers to dislodge the program, Spiro said. Design a backdoor plan to fix mistakes Democrats had planned to polish their health care bill until the final roll calls, but then-Sen. Scott Brown's (R-Mass.) "It was one-and-done because Republicans weren't going to do anything," Slavitt said. The Green New Deal might benefit from building in a way to fix those kinds of hiccups without going back to Congress, he said.

Former President Barack Obama’s nonprofit political organization is teaming up with his former Attorney General to launch a campaign against gerrymandering. The “All On The Line” campaign - which will also work to protect the Affordable Care Act, reduce gun violence, and expand voting rights – is part of a push in recent years by high-profile Democrats to curtail the use of gerrymandering across the country. “For too long, politicians have been able to pick their voters, instead of allowing voters to choose their representatives,” Eric Holder said in a statement. Gerrymandering has become a hot topic in recent years. State legislatures in Wisconsin and Michigan have been heavily criticized after Republicans have moved to curtail the powers of Democrats elected in November. “Our mission is to restore fairness to our democracy and ensure every American has an equal say in our government,” Holder said. “There is not a moment to waste,” Holder said in his statement. “With the census in 2020 and redistricting in 2021, we have to start building our movement now.” The Supreme Court is also plunging back into the issue of whether electoral districts can be too partisan. The court took up the issue of partisan gerrymandering last term in cases from Wisconsin and the same Maryland district, but the justices failed to reach a decision on limiting political line-drawing for political gain. Fox News' Kelly Chernenkoff and Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers Wednesday walked back a vow he made to withdraw the state from the Affordable Care Act lawsuit less than 24 hours after making the commitment in his first State of the State address. “The governor has not directed the attorney general to take any specific course of action, he has simply withdrawn his authority for this lawsuit,” Evers spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff said in a statement. Evers’ reversal comes after the release Wednesday of a memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau that splashed cold water on the governor’s plans to withdraw Wisconsin from an ongoing multi-state lawsuit seeking to invalidate the ACA. The memo, sent to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, states there is no legal way for the new governor to fulfill his campaign promise to withdraw the state from the suit. “It is only the Joint Committee on Finance that has the authority to approve any compromise or discontinuance of an action in which the attorney general’s participation was requested.” Evers in Tuesday’s State of the State address clearly stated he would seek to end the state’s participation in the lawsuit. Evers’ proposal drew immediate ire from Republicans, who described the potential move as an illegal action. “This was the story statewide today and now after it’s found to be illegal they are saying they never said it?” he wrote on Twitter. Evers used different wording in a letter to Kaul, stating, “I am immediately withdrawing the authority previously provided under (state law) for Wisconsin to participate in litigation over the Affordable Care Act.” Under previous law, Evers would have had the authority to withdraw the state from the suit. A Kaul spokeswoman did not respond to a request seeking comment on whether Kaul is still reviewing options to get out of the lawsuit.