GOP 52-48 majority threatened by four conservatives and five moderates


Developments on Day 156 of the Trump Administration:

Senate GOP Leader McConnell Fights to Ensure Passage of ObamaCare Repeal

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell struggles to gather the votes needed for quick adoption of the GOP bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

McConnell is hoping for a vote by Friday and the July 4 recess; however, he can only afford two Republican defectors from the GOP’s 52-48 Senate majority.

Four conservatives — Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Ron Johnson — have criticized the legislation for being “ObamaCare Lite”, and Dean Heller of Nevada is the first of several uncertain moderates to come out publicly against the bill if it is not amended.

Heller cites cuts to Medicaid, ending its expansion in Nevada and 30 other states and restricting federal government spending from 2025. Describing some of the 200,000 Nevadans who have gained health coverage under ObamaCare and may now lose it, he summarized, “[This] is simply not the answer.”

America First Policies, a group run by many of President Donald Trump’s top campaign advisers, has started an advertising blitz to threaten Heller’s re-election in 2018 if he does not back down. Digital ads were set to begin last Friday, and television and radio spots for early this week.

Four other moderates — all from states which have expanded Medicaid coverage — are considering their positions. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska tweeted on Saturday:

A poll released Friday found that 3/4ths of the public, including 6 in 10 Republicans, have a positive view of Medicaid. Only 1/3 of those polled said they support a reduction in federal funding or limits on how much states receive for beneficiaries. Even among Republicans, only about half favor pulling back federal money for Medicaid expansion.

The Congressional Budget Office will issue its projection as early as Monday on the bill’s impact, but both proponents and critics say the Senate proposal will lead to greater reductions than the version passed in the House of Representatives in early May.

Under the House’s American Health Care Act, 19 million people will lose coverage by 2020 and 23 million by 2026, according to the CBO.


Angry Trump Rails About Obama and Russia’s Election Intervention

An angered Donald Trump rails on Twitter about the latest revelations of Russia’s interference — possibly in collusion with Trump’s associates — in the 2016 election:

Reacting to a detailed Washington Post article (see separate entry), Trump tweeted, “Since the Obama Administration was told way before the 2016 Election that the Russians were meddling, why no action? Focus on them, not T [presumably himself]!”

Trump apparently did not read or failed to comprehend the Post report, which showed months of efforts by the Obama Administration to gather intelligence on the extent of Russia’s intervention — the “crime of the century” — to tilt the election against Hillary Clinton and in favor of Trump, and of a response to Moscow. President Obama finally announced additional sanctions in late December on the Russians — a step immediately challenged by Trump advisor Michael Flynn, who spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak five times on the same day — and approved plans for cyber-operations, dependent on his successor’s approval, against Russian systems.

Nor did Trump seem to recognize his ongoing contradiction: having proclaimed since autumn 2016 that there is no evidence of Russian interference, he is now acknowledging the influence operations.


Trump Proclaims Putting “Minors” Back Into Work

Donald Trump’s Facebook post apparently celebrates the repeal of child labor laws:

TRUMP MINORS

However, when numerous readers on social media pointed out that Trump probably meant coal miners, the entry was deleted.