August 31, 2017

Kasich, Hickenlooper release plan to stabilize ObamaCare markets

Source: The Hill




BY NATHANIEL WEIXEL - 08/31/17 11:16 AM EDT

Congress should retain ObamaCare’s individual mandate until there’s a better replacement, according to a proposal released Thursday by a bipartisan group of governors.

The compromise plan, which is spearheaded by Govs. John Kasich of Ohio (R) and John Hickenlooper of Colorado (D), is meant to help lawmakers find common ground to help stabilize the insurance markets. The governors acknowledged that the mandate, which requires people to purchase health insurance or pay a fine, is unpopular.

“But for the time being it is perhaps the most important incentive for healthy people to enroll in coverage,” they wrote to House and Senate leaders of both parties. “Until Congress comes up with a better solution — or states request waivers to implement a workable alternative — the individual mandate is necessary to keep markets stable in the short term.” Governors of six other states also signed onto the plan: Alaska, Nevada, Louisiana, Montana, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The plan’s release comes ahead of a series of bipartisan Senate hearings starting next week on how to stabilize and strengthen the individual insurance market. Hickenlooper is expected to testify along with other governors at one of the hearings.



Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/health-reform-implementation/348695-kasich-hickenlooper-release-plan-on-obamacare

August 31, 2017

Since Trump's Mideast visit, extrajudicial killings have spiked in Egypt

By Sudarsan Raghavan August 30 at 4:17 PM

CAIRO — Two months after Sabry Mohammed Said vanished, his body turned up at the morgue. He had been shot three times and severely beaten, his family said.

The 46-year-old accountant and father of five was a rank-and-file member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement. Egyptian authorities claimed he was also a terrorist who was killed in a June gun battle with police. But Said’s daughter Sara Sabry said he hadn’t been politically active in three years and had never been arrested. When relatives went to get a police report, the precinct had no record of the incident.

Now, Sabry is convinced that her father died in the custody of Egypt’s notorious state security forces.

“They killed him because he opposed the government,” said Sabry, her face somber and framed by a lime-green headscarf. “Anyone in the opposition is at risk of having this happen to him these days.”

Said’s death is part of a spike in extrajudicial killings and other forms of state abuses that have been committed in recent months under President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, according to activists, victims and their families. They date the dramatic rise to President Trump’s visit to the Middle East in May, in which he urged Arab leaders to take a tougher stance against Islamist extremists and made clear that human rights would not be a high priority for his administration in its dealings with regional allies.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/since-trumps-mideast-visit-extrajudicial-killings-have-spiked-in-egypt/2017/08/30/62bf48c0-8200-11e7-9e7a-20fa8d7a0db6_story.html

August 31, 2017

Will the divider in chief strike again? - By the Washington Post Editorial Board

By Editorial Board August 30 at 8:35 PM

PRESIDENT TRUMP has outdone himself in dividing America — over banning Muslims, pardoning a racial profiler and spotting “very fine people” among the neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen in Charlottesville. Now he is reported to be on the brink of dividing families by rescinding deportation protections enjoyed by nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children and raised here to believe in the American Dream.

The president once described the so-called dreamers as “incredible kids” and, saying he’d handle their predicament “with heart,” urged them to “rest easy.” It will be instructive to see if he sticks to that stance in the face of pressure from his nativist attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who has counseled Mr. Trump that he regards the program shielding dreamers from deportation as unconstitutional and indefensible in court.

For Mr. Trump to heed that advice would be in keeping with his own record of pandering to hard-liners in his base by beating up on foreigners. But it would go beyond his usual rhetorical toxicity by upending lives en masse, immiserating huge numbers of people striving to make good.

Dreamers registered with the government starting in 2012 under a program, launched by President Barack Obama, that enabled many of them to attend college, get jobs and driver’s licenses, start businesses, open bank accounts, pay taxes, buy homes and cars, and live ordinary and open lives. All had lived in the United States since at least 2007; none had committed a serious crime. Each signed up for the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, by trusting the government with their names, addresses and other information marking their emergence from the shadows.

Since Mr. Trump’s inauguration, they have continued registering for two-year permits and renewing them. By doing so, they have hurt no one; to the contrary, they have contributed their energy, ambition and labor to the country and communities where they have spent most of their lives.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/will-the-divider-in-chief-strike-again/2017/08/30/cd4db8e4-8cef-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html

August 31, 2017

A hurricane of conservative hypocrisy - By E.J. Dionne Jr.

By E.J. Dionne Jr. Opinion writer August 30 at 8:34 PM

One of the barriers to sensible politics is the opportunism that so often infects our debates about what government is there for, where we want it to be energetic and how we can keep it from violating the basic rights of citizens.

The muddled nature of our discussions of these matters has been brought home by two unfortunate events: the mass suffering unleashed by Hurricane Harvey and President Trump’s pardon of former sheriff Joe Arpaio.

In the case of the vicious storm, we are reminded that some politicians think government is great when it helps their own constituents and wasteful if it helps anyone else.

We also regularly assert that government is better when it prevents problems than when it focuses primarily on cleaning up after the fact. But when environmentalists suggest that development can be carried out in more sustainable ways or that climate change is worth dealing with, they are mocked as “anti-business” or “crisis-mongers.” Then a crisis comes, and we wonder why the politicians were so shortsighted.

As for the Arpaio pardon, it is seen as technically legal because presidential authority in this area is almost unlimited. But it may be the most dangerous act of Trump’s presidency. The occupant of the White House has claimed the power to permit government agents to violate the constitutional rights of Americans and to override the courts if he doesn’t like what they’re doing. This is the largest single step toward autocracy Trump has taken.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-hurricane-of-conservative-hypocrisy/2017/08/30/403536ac-8dbd-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html

August 31, 2017

Republicans slip into a 'predictable spiral' - By Dana Milbank

By Dana Milbank

Hurricane Harvey has devastated Texas. Now board your windows, evacuate the low ground and watch the damage it is poised to unleash on the nation’s finances.

Harvey makes landfall in Washington as soon as next week, when President Trump is expected to ask for what could be tens of billions of dollars in storm relief. And paying for storm recovery — probably with few offsetting spending cuts — will be but the first blow to fiscal discipline in what looks to be a particularly active, and calamitous, spending season.

After Harvey comes the debt ceiling, and there are rumblings that the vote to raise the limit could actually be used to increase spending. (In the past, such votes were used by fiscal hawks to cut spending.) At the same time come negotiations to fund the government for fiscal year 2018, and indications are that lawmakers will try to avoid a shutdown with a short-term spending deal that will include a Pentagon slush fund worth tens of billions of dollars.

Then, still forming over the Treasury Department is a fiscal Category 4: Trump and Republicans have given clear signs they are moving away from tax reform (a simplification of the tax code that doesn’t necessarily reduce revenue) toward all-out tax cuts, financed by deficit spending.

Trump, who came to power promising to eliminate the $20 trillion debt, or at least to cut it in half, is poised to oversee an exponential increase in that debt. Republicans, who came to power with demands that Washington tackle the debt problem, could wind up doing at least as much damage to the nation’s finances as the Democrats did.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/republicans-slip-into-a-predictable-spiral/2017/08/30/5ae52a22-8dcf-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html

August 31, 2017

Trump has made big promises to Texas, but can he deliver?

The president says 'it's going to go fast,' but it's taken several years to clean up after Katrina and Sandy.

By STEVEN SHEPARD 08/30/2017 07:48 PM EDT

President Donald Trump has made bold promises on Texas’ recovery from Hurricane Harvey, saying that the state will come back “bigger, better, stronger than ever before” and that Congress will deliver “rapid action” on an aid package to meet all of the state’s needs.

Following through is another matter.

Rescue efforts and recovery from Harvey — expected to come with a multibillion-dollar price tag — are likely to be far more complex and laborious than Trump’s rhetoric lets on. The floodwaters in and around Houston are only just starting to recede. And it’s still raining in southeast Texas, where rainfall totals are just as high as in Houston.

The Trump administration can look at the nation’s last two major weather disasters as examples of how long the process can take. New Jersey is still trying to recover five years after Superstorm Sandy roared ashore. And after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, it took the city nearly a decade to get back on its feet.

“The whole rebuilding process — it’s not going to happen overnight,” said former Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.), who represented a New Orleans district during part of the recovery. “It’s going to take place over the span of years. After Katrina, it took [New Orleans] around eight years in order to recover on a sufficient level.”

more
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/30/hurricane-harvey-trump-recovery-texas-242190?lo=ap_a1

August 31, 2017

WH Photo Claiming Trump Witnessed Harvey 'First Hand' Shows the President Staring at a Screen

by Caleb Ecarma | 9:32 am, August 31st, 2017


https://twitter.com/ashleyfeinberg/status/903099180276731904

After Donald Trump claimed he witnessed the “horror and devastation” of Harvey “first hand” in Texas, a photo was posted to his Instagram account that shows the president staring at a screen with a map — an exact opposite of what one would describe as “first hand.”

As the internet is known to do, Twitter roasted the president in snarky fashion by posting their own “first hand accounts” of historical events:

https://twitter.com/ashleyfeinberg/status/903102164377239552
https://twitter.com/libbycwatson/status/903099575229140992
https://twitter.com/crulge/status/903100072669446144

The hilarity of Trump’s Instagram post only increases, considering the president did not in-fact witness the “horror and destruction” of Harvey first hand — which matches his photo choice perfectly and disproves the caption.

more
https://www.mediaite.com/online/wh-photo-claiming-trump-witnessed-harvey-first-hand-shows-the-president-staring-at-a-screen/

August 31, 2017

Amidst Calamitous Harvey Flooding, Pence Speaks To A Racist, A Hurricane Conspiracy Theorist, And...

Amidst Calamitous Harvey Flooding, Pence Speaks To A Racist, A Hurricane Conspiracy Theorist, And Other Right-Wing Radio Hosts

Sanam Malik & Madeline Peltz

August 30, 2017 4:36 am

In the ongoing efforts to mitigate the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, Vice President Mike Pence appeared on several right-wing radio programs in Texas to give updates on the recovery and rescue efforts. According to the transcripts posted on the White House website, the vice president appeared to limit his radio outreach mostly to conservative shows, including Rush Limbaugh and Michael Berry, who is notorious for mocking black victims of gun violence in Chicago and other racist programming.

Limbaugh has a history of using hurricanes to attack Democrats and further his fringe conspiracy theories. During Hurricane Matthew in October 2016, Limbaugh stated that “it’s in the interest of the left to have destructive hurricanes because then they can blame it on climate change” and that the National Hurricane Center is “playing games” to convince people of climate change. Limbaugh also told his listeners that “there is politics in hurricanes” because “there are votes.”

During Tropical Storm Isaac, Limbaugh questioned the National Hurricane Center’s forecasting, pointing out “the degree of coincidence” that the storm was headed for Tampa, the location of the National Republican Convention. Limbaugh implied, according to The Atlantic, that “the weather service was collaborating with the liberal media to invent narratives that are unpleasant for the GOP.”

In 2016, Limbaugh attacked Hurricane Katrina victims as “liberals” on welfare who lacked “self-reliance.” He also compared the Katrina disaster to “a reality show.” In 2008 following significant flooding in the Midwest, Limbaugh minimized the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina relative to the floods and accused Katrina victims of “waving guns at helicopters,” “shooting cops,” and “raping people on the street.”

more
http://www.nationalmemo.com/amidst-calamitous-harvey-flooding-pence-speaks-racist-hurricane-conspiracy-theorist-right-wing-radio-hosts/

August 31, 2017

On Voting Reforms, Follow Illinois, Not Texas - NYT Editorial Board

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD AUG. 31, 2017

In the face of America’s abysmal voter participation rates, lawmakers have two choices: They can make voting easier, or they can make it harder.

Illinois made the right choice this week, becoming the 10th state, along with the District of Columbia, to enact automatic voter registration. The bill, which could add as many as one million voters to the state’s rolls, was signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner, a Republican who had vetoed similar legislation last year.

Under the new law, all eligible voters will be registered to vote when they visit the Department of Motor Vehicles or other state agencies. If they do not want to be registered, they may opt out.

“The right to vote is foundational for the rights of Americans in our democracy,” Mr. Rauner said at a bill-signing ceremony on Monday. “We as a people need to do everything we can to knock down barriers, remove hurdles for all those who are eligible to vote, to be able to vote.”

These are incontestable propositions, and yet for most officials from Mr. Rauner’s party, showing even mild support for them is apostasy.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/opinion/voting-reform-illinois-texas.html?emc=edit_th_20170831&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284

August 31, 2017

Trump Administration Wants to Stabilize Health Markets but Won't Say How

By ROBERT PEARAUG. 30, 2017

WASHINGTON — A Trump administration official said Wednesday that the administration wanted to stabilize health insurance markets, but refused to say if the government would promote enrollment this fall under the Affordable Care Act or pay for the activities of counselors who help people sign up for coverage.

The official also declined to say whether the administration would continue paying subsidies to insurance companies to compensate them for reducing deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income people. Without the subsidies, insurers say, they would sharply increase premiums.

The administration, the official suggested, will do the minimum necessary to comply with the law, which Mr. Trump has called “an absolute disaster” and threatened to let collapse.

“I don’t think we can force people to sign up for the program,” the official said.

The official said the Trump administration had not set any numerical goals for sign-ups under the health care law, and the official did not know if the administration would do so. President Barack Obama used such goals to motivate a small army of counselors, “navigators” and assistants who helped millions of people sign up for insurance in the last four years.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/us/politics/trump-obamacare-enrollment-markets-subsidies.html?emc=edit_th_20170831&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=57435284