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Senate Health Bill Unveiled

Obama Rips The Senate GOP Health Care Bill. HuffPost: "'The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill,' the former president wrote in a Facebook post. 'It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else.'"

Shifting Dollars From Poor to Rich Is a Key Part of the Senate Health Bill. NYT: "The draft Senate bill, called the Better Care Reconciliation Act, would jettison those taxes while reducing federal funding for the care of low-income Americans. The bill’s largest benefits go to the wealthiest Americans, who have the most comfortable health care arrangements, and its biggest losses fall to poorer Americans who rely on government support. The bill preserves many of the structures of Obamacare, but rejects several of its central goals."

Chart: Who Wins, Who Loses With Senate Health Care Bill. NPR: "The plan keeps some popular parts of Obamacare. It allows parents keep their kids on their policies until they turn 26, and requires insurers to cover people with preexisting conditions.But it then allows states to opt out of that requirement... waivers would allow state to drop benefits required by Obamacare like maternity coverage, mental health care and prescription drug coverage."

Arrests of Trumpcare Protesters, Some in Wheelchairs, Outside McConnell's Office. Common Dreams: "Soon after a draft version of the Republican's Senate version of their Trumpcare care bill was released Thursday morning, Capitol Hill Police were systematically arresting people who staged a dramatic sit-in outside of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office. Amid chants of "Don't Touch Medicaid!" and signs suggesting the same, many of those protesting the Senate bill were either elderly or in wheelchairs, offering a stunning visual as police tried to remove them from the hallway."

Environmental Impact of DAPL

Federal judge orders environmental review of DAPL. The Hill: "a federal judge decreed that the Army Corps of Engineers had done an insufficient job reviewing the environmental impact of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The decision threatens to shut down the pipeline. Pushing forward on the pipeline was one of the early accomplishments touted by President Donald Trump. Under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), agencies are required to conduct analyses of environmental impacts for a wide range of government decisions including ones like allowing DAPL."

Cover It Up

Lawsuit Accuses Donald Trump Of Illegally Destroying White House Records. HuffPost: "Two watchdog groups have sued Donald Trump over White House records, accusing the president of illegally destroying communications that must be preserved by federal law. The suit — filed Thursday against Trump and the Executive Office of the President by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the National Security Archive — focuses on an “auto-delete” app reportedly being used for messages sent from the White House that erase messages after they’re read.

More from OurFuture.org:

The Lessons We Learned From Jon Ossoff’s Defeat. Bob Borosage: "For the activist base of the party the lessons of the special election are clear. The efforts to build an independent capacity to recruit, train, and support populist candidates up and down the ticket should be redoubled. The push to crystallize a bold agenda for change and debate it across the country is vital. Mobilization to resist Trump but also to challenge Democrats is needed."

Mainers Angry Over Health Care Repeal Find Rep. Poliquin in Boston. Sam Portera: "Second-District Representative Bruce Poliquin has mostly been avoiding public appearances in Maine following his vote in favor of the Republican health care repeal bill last month, but several dozen of his constituents managed to find him in Massachusetts on Monday, where he was giving a speech to a regional business lobby."

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