Trump May Sabotage ACA
Trump threatens critical ACA subsidies for insurers. ABC: "In an interview with the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, Trump suggested the federal government would hold back key subsidy payments made to health insurers offering insurance to low-income Americans. 'Obamacare is dead next month if it doesn’t get that money,' Trump said. 'I haven’t made my viewpoint clear yet. I don’t want people to get hurt.' ... Trump’s comments come two days after the Department of Health and Human Services told The New York Times the cost-sharing subsidy payments will continue. A White House spokesman said Wednesday night that no decision has been made..."
Trump using subsidies as negotiating leverage, reports Politico: "Two administration officials said the HHS rebuttal was personally ordered by an incensed Trump, who feared that the Times story hurt his negotiating position ... 'POTUS wants to use [the subsidies] as leverage,' the senior official told POLITICO. 'When Obamacare fails on its own, the Dems will want to come to the table.'"
GOP Rep. Mike Coffman hammered at town hall over health care. Politico: "... not a single [brought up health care] to thank Rep. Mike Coffman for backing the beleaguered House GOP Obamacare replacement. Instead, dozens of local inhabitants in this swingiest of swing districts — both Democrats and Republicans — pummeled the Colorado Republican for supporting legislation they believe would harm their community."
Rep. Dave Brat predicts ACA repeal bill coming soon. USA Today: "[Brat] says White House and congressional negotiators are close to a compromise that he predicts will pass the House in the next three weeks."
Trump Flip-Flops on China Currency
"Trump Reversals Hint at Wall Street Wing’s Sway in White House" reports NYT: "President Trump made three startling economic policy reversals on Wednesday ... Mr. Trump said he no longer wanted to label China a currency manipulator ... the president said he no longer wanted to eliminate the Export-Import Bank. And he said that he might consider reappointing Janet Yellen as chairwoman of the Federal Reserve when her term ends next year ... he [also] threw cold water on the border adjustment tax that is the linchpin of the [House] tax reform plan ..."
Breaking promises is not new. Bloomberg: "President Donald Trump’s declaration that he won’t label China a currency manipulator stands as the clearest example of the difficulty he’s having delivering on big campaign promises ... his promises to renegotiate NAFTA, slap tariffs on Chinese goods and repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in his first days have been stymied, delayed or abandoned ..."
Pro-CO2 Figure May Run Enviro Policy
Climate science denier may get prominent enviro role. Politico: "Kathleen Hartnett White, who says carbon emissions are harmless and should not be regulated, is a top contender to run the Council on Environmental Quality, the White House’s in-house environmental policy shop ... Adding White to the administration would be a major win for Steve Bannon..."
Trump moves to prevent coal plant closure. The Hill: "Trump administration officials met with Navajo Nation and Hopi leaders Wednesday to discuss what the government could do to stop a major coal plant on the Navajo reservation from closing ... likely by finding a buyer ... Navajo President Russell Begaye said in his own statement that his tribe wants to keep the plant open until 2029. But if the plant must close before then, he’s asking Interior for access to the agency’s transmission lines to enable the tribe to generate wind, solar and other renewable energy sources."
CA solar prices go below zero. Yahoo! News: "California’s solar installations are feeding so much power into the grid that they have driven wholesale electricity prices at times as low as zero — or even below, meaning the companies that generate power pay utilities to take it. It is an environmental success story that is beginning to pose unexpected technical and financial challenges."
Trump Ramps Up Deportations
"To Detain More Immigrants, Trump Administration to Speed Border Hiring" reports NYT: "The Trump administration has begun the detail work of stiffening the country’s immigration infrastructure, according to an internal memo from the Department of Homeland Security, moving to speed the hiring of border agents, to find space to detain thousands more immigrants and to hasten deportation cases ... Beyond removing the polygraph hurdle, the memo discusses eliminating a part of the entrance exam that tests the Spanish language skills of prospective hires ... The administration also wants Mexico to agree to hold would-be immigrants while their cases go through American immigration courts."
Anti-immigrant figures take Homeland Security jobs. CNN: "Jon Feere, a former legal policy analyst for the Center for Immigration Studies, or CIS, has been hired as an adviser to ... the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ... Julie Kirchner, the former executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, has been hired as an adviser to [the] Customs and Border Protection acting Commissioner ... The two organizations were founded by John Tanton, a retired Michigan ophthalmologist who has openly embraced eugenics..."
TX landowners may stop wall. TNR's Rachel Monroe: "...the reason why many Texans oppose the wall boils down to one simple fact: It will require them to give up their land. Private property is central to Texas mythology, and there’s a lot of it ... Texas is the only state in the nation with a Landowner’s Bill of Rights, which makes seizing property via eminent domain a costly and time-consuming prospect."
Breakfast Sides
Progressive groups accuse Democratic Party of abandoning Kansas' fourth congressional district race. McClatchy: "'To the Washington Democratic insiders who wrote this race off before it began, it’s time to wake up and realize that the grassroots expects this resistance effort to be waged unflinchingly in every single county and every single state across the country,' said Jim Dean, president of Democracy for America ... Bernie Sanders’ former presidential campaign team, now running a group called Our Revolution, piled on: 'The Democratic Party can no longer ignore districts that they consider ‘safe’ for Republicans.' ... Democratic allies of the DCCC have argued that running TV ads in the Kansas district would do more harm than good because Republicans could have used them to argue that Thompson was a tool of the national party."
SEIU tightens budget in anticipation of Supreme Court ruling. W. Post: "Judge Gorsuch, who was sworn in this week, could cast the deciding vote in a case that concerns whether public sector unions can collect 'agency fees' from workers who don’t want to bankroll the union’s political activities ... For the SEIU, which represents about 2 million government, health-care and service workers — half of whom are employed in the public sector — lost member fees would create a significant income hole."
