GOP Moves to Kill Exemption for Congress in Healthcare Bill and More in Politics Today

It’s difficult to stay up-to-date on what’s happening in this country and to break through the clutter, so we’re here to make it easier. Here’s what we at Countable are reading today:

1. GOP moves to kill exemption for Congress in healthcare bill

Republican leadership has moved to cut controversial language from its healthcare bill that would exempt Congress and their staff from changes to ObamaCare.

GOP staff and lawmakers said the exemption was originally added to comply with Senate rules but acknowledged that it was politically problematic.

Because the healthcare bill is being done through reconciliation — a special budget bill immune to filibuster — its language must have an effect on the budget to comply with Senate rules.

Read more at The Hill.

Read more about the exemption for Congress at Countable.

2. Puerto Rico Emerges as Sticking Point in Government Funding Showdown

President Donald Trump’s criticism of a "bailout" for Puerto Rico is disrupting a bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill to send the struggling U.S. territory more federal Medicaid dollars, according to people familiar with the matter.

Puerto Rico is projected to exhaust a $6.4 billion Medicaid grant before the end of the year and has been struggling without replacement funding in place to complete annual renewals of its contracts with managed-care organizations, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Almost half of Puerto Rico residents are covered by its Medicaid program, which Washington funds on a different formula than U.S. states.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.

3. U.S. chief justice alarmed at Trump administration immigration case stance

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts took issue on Wednesday with the Trump administration's stance in an immigration case, saying it could make it too easy for the government to strip people of citizenship for lying about minor infractions.

Roberts seemed particularly concerned that the government was asserting it could revoke citizenship through criminal prosecution for trivial lies or omissions….Roberts described the administration's interpretation as inviting "prosecutorial abuse" because the government could likely find a reason for stripping citizenship from most naturalized citizens.

Read more at Reuters.

4. This Democratic bastion flipped for Trump. After 100 days, voters have no regrets

The anger and aggrievement that fueled Trump’s unlikely election, the sense of abandonment by a self-interested political establishment and sneering condescension from the know-it-alls, hasn’t faded in the months since Trump took office.

If anything, it has deepened here in Pueblo County, a longtime Democratic stronghold that Trump narrowly won in November. In nearly three dozen interviews with Trump voters — Democrats, independents and Republicans who had their doubts — not one said they regretted supporting him.

They see a president besieged and beset not just by Democrats, a hostile media and haughty academics — all, they say, fashioned from the same cloth — but by his fellow Republicans in Congress, who seem more interested in clinging to office than helping bring about the change Trump promised.

Read more at LA Times.

5. House Democrats know they will lose the fight for Trump to release his taxes. Here’s why they are still doing it.

House Democrats plan to force a floor fight with Republicans on Thursday over legislation that would require President Trump to disclose information about his personal taxes, business holdings, ethics waivers, and visitors to the White House and his vacation properties.

Knowing that the legislation will be blocked by Republicans who control the House, Democrats are hoping to squeeze the majority party so they can claim that GOP incumbents in competitive reelection fights are standing with a president who remains deeply unpopular. The move comes as Trump nears the 100th day of his presidency on Saturday, a milestone that he has mocked but that his administration has used as an opportunity to tout early accomplishments.

Read more at the Washington Post.

5. The Drumbeats Don’t Add Up to Imminent War With North Korea

President Trump summoned all 100 members of the Senate for a briefing by his war cabinet on the mounting tensions with North Korea. An American submarine loaded with Tomahawk missiles surfaced in a port in South Korea. Gas stations in the North shut down amid rumors that the government was stockpiling fuel.

The drumbeat of bellicose threats and military muscle-flexing on both sides overstates the danger of a clash between the United States and North Korea, senior Trump administration officials and experts who have followed the Korean crisis for decades said. While Mr. Trump regards the rogue government in the North as his most pressing international problem, he told the senators he was pursuing a strategy that relied heavily on using China’s economic leverage to curb its neighbor’s provocative behavior.

Read more at the New York Times.

— Asha Sanaker

(Photo Credit: torange.biz / Creative Commons)