The big news today is the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has determined that the Republican health care plan would leave 24 million people uninsured who currently have insurance.
And don’t miss the “other news” and the “funnies” at the end of this update. JOHN
TrumpCare to hurt millions
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More from CBO. Under TrumpCare, 14 million more people would be uninsured next year, and 24 million more by 2026. Those are people who would otherwise have insurance under Obamacare.
14 million of the 24 million would come from Medicaid — meaning, 14 million poor people would lose coverage, and another 10 million not-poor people. So it hits everyone, poor and not.
The CBO report also found that the bill would reduce the deficit by $337bn over the next ten years, and that premiums would increase more than Obamacare in the first four years, and less than Obamacare thereafter.
President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act, via Wikimedia Commons
This is the latest bad news for the GOP “Repeal and Replace” plan to do away with Obamacare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Some other analyses were equally bad:
The CBO’s projections come days after the Brookings Institution estimated that the the bill would increase the number of uninsured Americans by more than 15 million, and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated it would cost the federal government an additional $600 billion over a decade.
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TrumpCare, RyanCare, or the Unaffordable Care Act, as I like to call it, was already in trouble even before the CBO numbers came out. Conservatives in Congress felt the proposal was too liberal, while mainstream Republicans felt it was too draconian. GOP Senator Tom Cotton even warned that the current GOP health plan could cost Republicans control of the House of Representatives next year. (As an aside, Trump, who puts his name on everything, really doesn’t want to call this TrumpCare. So we should probably call it TrumpCare.)
And remember, ACA-repeal was much of the impetus behind the angry townhall meetings Republicans have been facing, with growing trepidation, across the country. So Republicans were already nervous about this plan. The CBO numbers, alonside those from Brookings and the Joint Committee on Tax, are not going to put anyone’s mind at ease.
IN OTHER NEWS
– Top Trump aide Kellyanne Conway said last night that President Obama may have used microwave cameras to spy on Donald Trump during the campaign. No one has any idea what Conway is talking about, and she herself admitted that she had no evidence.
In related news, Donald Trump still refuses to offer any proof of his definitive claim that President Obama “tapped his wires” during the campaign. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said today that when Trump said Obama “wire tapped” him, he put the phrase “wire tapped” in quotes, which doesn’t really mean “wire tapped,” but rather “eavesdropped.” No one has any idea what Spicer or Trump are talking about.
In related news, John McCain basically told Trump to put up or shut up over his claims about Obama spying on him.
– GOP House member Steve King says that it doesn’t matter if the Republican Obamacare repeal plan leaves millions uninsured. While Donald Trump promised that TrumpCare would lower costs and offer bed coverage. Trump said nothing about millions losing their insurance.
– Steve King also has an issue with black and brown babies polluting America’s lily-white gene pool. Even Republicans were outraged by King’s white supremacy comments. Ana Navarro called King a “pathetic little racist.”
– An excellent appearance on PBS’ The NewsHour by conservative Washington Post writer Michael Gerson, who was more critical of Donald Trump on Russia than most Democrats. You can watch snippets of Gerson here and here.
– Donald Trump promised to donate his salary as president to charity. He hasn’t. And has refused to provide proof of any such donation. You’ll recall that not following through on promised donations has become a bit of a pattern for Trump.
– Senior Trump White House staffer Boris Ephsteyn has a recent mug shot. Because, who doesn’t?
– Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was getting paid to lobby for Turkey while attending intelligence briefings for Trump.
Can you believe that this is the news of just the past 3 days or so?
THE FUNNIES
– Scarlet Johansson did a hilarious fake commercial mocking Ivanka Trump on SNL this weekend.
– And SNL’s cold-open was equally funny, with Donald Trump leading the battle against an alien invasion of the world. Watch it, you’ll laugh.
– This boy worries me.
– And finally, baby octopi are kinda adorable.
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