- One of the big blocs opposed to the bill is highly conservative (the Freedom Caucus), and so the Republican leadership extended them an olive branch by making a bad bill worse. Note that a bunch of old white men were the only people discussing removing maternity care from insurance plans. Great optics, guys.
- Trump responded late Thursday night by delivering a childish ultimatum: vote on the bill tomorrow, or he'll move on. I laud this decision: I look forward to celebrating the demise of this terrible bill this weekend.
- The congressional budget office rescored the bill based on changes as of Monday night. Their prediction: same number of people lose insurance as the previous iteration, and a further $200 billion in deficit. Disgusting.
- Note that public support for this bill is at 17%.
In other news:
- Democrats will force a cloture vote on the Gorsuch nomination, according to Schumer. Republicans are naturally threatening to go nuclear. I love this quote: “If this nominee cannot earn 60 votes — a bar met by each of President Obama’s nominees and George Bush’s last two nominees — the answer isn’t to change the rules. It’s to change the nominee.”
- The senate voted 50-48 to significantly weaken internet privacy rules. Everybody should be up in arms about this.
- The State Department has started making it significantly harder for people to get visas to visit the US, implementing the beginning of "extreme vetting". An immigration lawyer has pointed out the irony of attempting to implement "extreme vetting" in a 5-minute visa interview.
- Trump gave an interview to TIME magazine on "truth and falsehoods". It was ludicrous. This is the only version of the interview worth reading, where every unsubstantiated claim has been redacted. Trump's basic claim? "I'm President and you're not."
No comments:
Post a Comment