Day 47: Healthcare under siege

A lot of people talking today. Most of them saying that the Republican healthcare plan is crap. Either because it goes too far, or doesn't go far enough. I like Ezra Klein's observation: "In reality, what I think we’re seeing here is Republicans trying desperately to come up with something that would allow them to repeal and replace Obamacare." He points out that "repeal and replace" is a slogan, not a policy, and now that Republicans are attempting to carry out their promise, they're really finding it difficult. I will just note that by axing the individual and employer mandates, these cretins are guaranteeing that insurance premiums will skyrocket.

• Three balanced perspectives on why the new bill is terrible.
• A liberal perspective on why the new bill is utterly garbage.

(There's plenty of newsbites around on what people have said, but I like these three links as a summary of what the bills actually contain.)

In other news:

• Nations targeted by the new Muslim ban are vocally objecting, as is the UN. Hawaii looks to be the first state to file suit against it.
• Trump needs to pay for a wall. So, to fund a tiny fraction of the wall, he's proposing to cut funding to the TSA and the Coast Guard. A colleague put this nicely: "Sure, that makes sense. Cut programs deemed as effective in deterring terrorism in order to pay for 1% of a pointless physical barrier that addresses a fictitious problem."
•  Jason Chaffetz proposed that people "invest" in their healthcare by forgoing smartphones. Note: forgoing an iPhone will allow you purchase about a month of healthcare coverage. Also, "investing" implies that you have extra funds to use. This is straight up classism.
• Trump's continued use of Mar-a-Lago as an alternative base of operations is causing issues with people paying for access to his cabinet, a serious conflict of interest.