Why are so many Republicans reluctant to pass Republican versions of healthcare reform? It seems they’re learning the same thing that Democrats learned when they tried to pass Obamacare: In legislation this complicated, there’s something for nearly everyone to hate. Here’s a list of objections from the potential Senate dissenters. Via The Atlantic.
As Senate Republicans announce that they will delay the the health care vote until John McCain is able to return, The New York Times writes that McCain’s surgery may be more serious than first thought. And that the recovery time could turn into weeks.
Will a $1.8 billion Kodiak Kickback in the new Senate healthcare bill be enough to persuade Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski to vote for a bill that will gut Medicaid and strip nearly $1 trillion in medical spending? Via Vox.
Garry Kasparov: Whatever happened between the Trump campaign and Russia won’t be nearly as dangerous as where Vladimir Putin takes Trump’s presidency. Via The New York Daily News. And whatever else you say about the Don Jr.-Russia meeting, it sounds exactly like what a Russian espionage feeling-out meeting should sound like. Via The Washington Post.
What does the Don Jr.-Russia meeting mean? It depends on what, or whom, you’re reading. For many outlets on the political right, it’s not a sign that the Russians were trying to get close to the Trumps in order to influence the 2016 election, but rather a full-blown attempt at a coup d’etat. Via The New York Times.
Adam Gopnik writes in The New Yorker that there’s no mystery as to why Emmanuel Macron was being so nice to Trump. He believes he can manipulate him by flattering him. But as Gopnik writes, that’s not really how narcissism, or Trumpism, works.
Fake news goes international (as if it hadn’t already): The regional split with Qatar, in which Trump and his Secretary of State seem to be on opposing sides, was apparently provoked by a hacked Qatari email account. Via The Washington Post.
Mixed messages from Trump administration on DACA leave Dreamers and anti-Dreamers equally confused and, in many cases, frustrated. Via The Los Angeles Times.
Joe Scarborough predicts that Donald Trump is killing the Republican Party. And he thinks that may turn out to be a good thing. Via The Washington Post.
From The National Review: Why Trump’s handshakes with other world leaders seem to matter even though they don’t.
Photo by Medill DC, via Flickr: Creative Commons
Despite having supermajorities in both houses of the California legislature Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) decided to shelve the proposal for a single-payer healthcare system. Gov. Jerry Brown, who argued for a single payer healthcare system during his 1992 presidential campaign, signaled wariness about the proposal’s costs, Via The Los Angeles Times.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-assembly-speaker-calls-single-payer-1498261105-htmlstory.html
In a Facebook rant Maine State Rep. Scott Hamann, D-South Portland demonstrated the kinder, gentler side of politics in the great Northeast by suggesting he may harm President Trump if got “within 10 feet of that p—-y”. In a written statement Rep. Hamann later said, “This is not language I typically use”. Via The Bangor Daily News.
https://bangordailynews.com/2017/07/12/politics/maine-state-rep-suggests-in-profane-facebook-rant-he-would-kill-trump/
And here’s the latest fight news from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). She has threatened to “take (HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson’s) a** apart” because, according to her, Secretary Carson does not care about public housing residents. Via The Hill.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/340574-maxine-waters-ben-carson-doesnt-care-about-people-in-public-housing
American factories have experienced the biggest production advances in three years. Via bloomberg.com
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-03/manufacturing-pickup-in-u-s-signals-boost-to-economic-growth