REPUBLICAN AGENDA - Trumpcare 2.0 Update

"CBO score estimating 22 million uninsured adds to difficult math for Senate health care bill" PBS NewsHour 6/26/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Senate GOP's health care bill would lead to 22 million more uninsured Americans by 2026, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Monday.  That's slightly better than the CBO score for the House version of the bill.  But there's a rising tide of opposition that may make it difficult to get it passed.  Lisa Desjardins and Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News join John Yang.

"Conservatives are targeting the wrong things to bring down health care costs, says hospital system CEO" PBS NewsHour 6/26/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Every major hospital group has criticized the health care bill crafted by Senate Republicans, especially for deep reductions in Medicaid spending for the poor and those with disabilities.  At the Spotlight Health Conference at the Aspen Institute, Judy Woodruff talked to Kenneth Davis, president and CEO of the Mount Sinai Health System, to get his take on the health care bill and more.

"Sen. Blunt: Hard to get 50 senators to pass health bill" PBS NewsHour 6/30/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  With the July 4th recess hours away, Republican lawmakers are scrambling to draft a new version of their bill before leaving Washington.  Judy Woodruff speaks with Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo) about the chances of reaching a compromise on the Senate bill, as well as his reaction to President Trump's tweet attacks.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 5/26/2017

"Shields and Brooks on Trump's first trip, press bashing in Montana" PBS NewsHour 5/26/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss President Trump's first trip abroad and views on NATO, plus dramatic domestic cuts in the White House's budget proposal, a new CBO assessment of the Republican health care bill, and whether an alleged assault by a political candidate suggests growing hostility toward the press.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  But first to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

All right, let's start this week on the foreign front.  The president met potentates, presidents, prime ministers, and a Pope.  There were magical orbs.

(LAUGHTER)

HARI SREENIVASAN:  There were tweet-sized messages stuck into a Wailing Wall.  How did he do?

MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist:  B-plus.  No.

(LAUGHTER)

MARK SHIELDS:  Well, I'm not going to grade him.  I grade him on the curve.

I would say the visual highlight was with the Pope when he said, you know, the Pope is a very humble man, much like me, which he had tweeted earlier, and that's why I like him so much.

But just sort of they're polar opposites, of the two, one a champion of immigrants and refugees and almost disdainful of opulence and excessive wealth, and the other sort of the embodiment of it.

But I thought, quite frankly, the first part of the trip, he laid down the policy, and the policy is that we will stand on the side of Sunni autocrats against terrorism, and no questions asked.

And here, in addition, is a major weapons, a huge weapons sale that — and we're not going to ask how you use it or where you use it, and if people are killed in Yemen, and they're — made in the USA is on the weapon that kills them, and it's done indiscriminately, that's their business and not ours, because the operating and organizing principle of foreign policy is opposition to terrorism under Donald Trump.

DAVID BROOKS, The New York Times:  Yes, I thought Melania had a very good week.  I thought a lot of good moments for her.  There was a lot of good judgments, actually.

He, by the standards of some of the competence of the previous week, I would say you would have to say the trip was, by competence standards, a success.  He did what he wanted to do in Saudi Arabia, at NATO, at various other places.

I do think, as Mark suggested, the chief oddity of the entire trip is that we seem to be mean to our friends and kind to our foes.  And so, Saudi Arabia — Fareed Zakaria had a very good column on this — we're supposed to be against terrorism, and Trump loves to talk about Iranians — Iran's influence on terrorism, but the main source of terror funding for both the ideas and sometimes the organizations is Saudi Arabia.  It's not Iran.

And so — but, somehow, we're super nice to Saudi Arabia.  Meanwhile, we're super mean to Germany and France and some of our NATO allies.  And so there's just been a perversion of American foreign policy, which is sort of based on the idea that character doesn't matter, and you can — whether the leaders from Russia or the Philippines or Saudi Arabia, that people of bad character are people we can ally with.

And, somehow, I think there is a consistency between the government here and some of the governments the Trump administration likes around the world.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  There was a bit of that we just saw …

MARK SHIELDS:  Yes.  I'm sorry?

HARI SREENIVASAN:  There was a bit of that we just saw in the conversation that Judy had.

MARK SHIELDS:  That's exactly right.

I would just say that the NATO part of the visit, I found particularly disturbing, because there was nothing about the principles and values.  There was nothing about values and what we share and what animates us and what we respect and revere, whether it's individual rights or democracy.

That just seemed to be unimportant.  And all the criticism that the President had was stored up, as David pointed out, for these folks for somehow being welfare cheats or something.

DAVID BROOKS:  Yes.  And that's pure demagoguery.

He spoke as if we — they owe us money because they haven't been paying their dues, which is not true.

MARK SHIELDS:  Yes.

DAVID BROOKS:  That's not the way that the — the problem is that they sort of pledged to gradually get to 2 percent of GDP in defense spending.

MARK SHIELDS:  That's right.

DAVID BROOKS:  And some of the countries have, and a lot of the countries have not.  And that's a legitimate issue.

But he portrayed it as if we're bailing them out, and they owe us money, and they haven't paid their bills, which is just actually untrue.

REPUBLICAN AGENDA - Trumpcare Week

"Will the CBO estimate make the GOP's health bill harder to sell?" PBS NewsHour 3/13/2017

IMHO:  Trumpcare should be called 'American Health NO-Care Act'

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Congressional Budget Office numbers are out on the Republican health bill.  What's the political impact?  Judy Woodruff talks with Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and Tamara Keith of NPR about the difficulties of selling the American Health Care Act, plus the lack of evidence to back up President Trump's tweet allegation of being wiretapped by President Obama.

"Two views on the pros and cons of the GOP health care bill" PBS NewsHour 3/13/2017

COMMENT:  There is ONLY ONE view; if you are old, sick, or not rich, you die.  In affect Republicans say you are not worth the money.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Congressional Budget Office predicts that more people than who got health care under Obamacare will lose coverage under the repeal bill proposed by Republicans.  But the bill also shows cuts in federal spending and a smaller deficit.  John Yang gets reaction to the proposed law from Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel of the University of Pennsylvania and Lanhee Chen of the Hoover Institution.

"Freedom Caucus member Yoho thinks House health care bill will get amended" PBS NewsHour 3/14/2017

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SUMMARY:  From both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue came talk of amending the GOP health care bill on Tuesday.  New estimates released Monday from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office bolstered opposition from Democrats and had some Republicans warning that the bill needs work.  Judy Woodruff speaks with Rep.  Ted Yoho, R-Fla., a member of the House Freedom Caucus, about his reservations.

"Why a top physicians' group opposes the GOP health care plan" PBS NewsHour 3/17/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Although leading Republicans are pushing to pass their Obamacare replacement bill next week, its impact on millions of Americans remains a point of worry.  Some prominent interest groups directly involved in health care are expressing opposition to the plan.  Jeffrey Brown talks to Dr. Andrew Gurman, president of the American Medical Association, about the group's concerns.

ECONOMY - Debating Boosting the Minimum Wage

Humm.... Lets see:

• +900,000 people out of poverty
• +16,000,000 people get a raise
• -500,000 jobs lost
• Total:  +16,400,000

Note, this points out the problem of using terms like "half-a-million" rather than numbers.

"CBO report fuels debate on costs and benefits of boosting the minimum wage" PBS Newshour 2/19/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour):  The Congressional Budget Office, by definition, is considered a nonpartisan agency.  But the report it released yesterday about the effects of raising the minimum wage was seized upon by both sides of the debate.

Among its findings:  If the minimum wage were raised to $10.10 an hour, it could eliminate half-a-million jobs, but it would also lift 900,000 families out of poverty and raise incomes for more than 16 million people.  The report noted there could be significant variation in the numbers.

We join the debate with Thea Lee.  She’s the deputy chief of staff at the AFL-CIO.  And David Neumark is an economist at the University of California, Irvine.  He’s done extensive work on this subject.

LABOR - CBO Report Sees Decrease in Labor Supply Because of ACA

Of course Republicans see this as more proof that ACA is bad, but listen to the full video and you see that that is a miss-reading of what the CBO says.  Some workers will leave the labor force because the job they had are ONLY so they could get health coverage through their employer, in other words they were ready to  retire.  Which, by the way, would leave more jobs open for others.

On the whole, the report is bad news for Republicans.

"New report forecasts health care reform law will decrease U.S. labor supply" PBS Newshour 2/4/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  In the Congressional Budget Office’s economic outlook report for 2014, analysts predicted that as many as 2.3 million will stop working or work less as a result of the Affordable Care Act.  Gwen Ifill talks to NPR’s Julie Rovner about the findings and the political reactions coming from the White House and congressional Republicans.

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  So, there’s a distinction to be drawn between this affecting job supply and worker supply.

JULIE ROVNER, NPR:  That’s right.  This is all on the supply side, not the demand side.  These are fewer — in fact, I will read the line that the CBO said:  “The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses’ demand for labor.”

So these are fewer workers in the work force, not fewer businesses hiring.

ECONOMY - The Up-Coming Fiscal Cliff

"With Election Over and Time Running Out, Washington Shifts Focus to Fiscal Cliff" PBS Newshour 11/8/2012

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JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): With the election over, there's new talk in Washington about finally coming to grips with taxes, spending and the deficit. The mammoth problem has been hanging over Congress and the president for many months, and now time is running out.

In just five days, lawmakers troop back to the Capitol for a final, lame-duck session. And they are under mounting pressure to avoid going off the much-talked-about fiscal cliff. Come January 1, the Bush era tax cuts will expire, as will a 2 percent payroll tax cut that was passed in December of 2010.

At the same time, large automatic spending cuts would begin to bite, 10 percent less for defense in 2013, and an 8 percent cut in domestic programs.

The result, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, could be disastrous. He said this in July, citing the Congressional Budget Office.

BEN BERNANKE, Federal Reserve chairman: The CBO has estimated that if the full range of tax increases and spending cuts were allowed to take effect, a scenario widely referred to as the fiscal cliff, a shallow recession would occur early next year and about 1.4 million fewer jobs would be created in 2013.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Today, in a new estimate, CBO said that extending all tax breaks, other than the payroll tax cut, would boost growth by nearly 1.5 percent next year. And it said raising taxes just for individuals earning more than $200,000 a year wouldn't significantly hurt growth.

A deal on taxes and spending and deficits eluded the so-called congressional super committee a year ago, but now outside groups are pressing for a deal, as in this ad being run by Fix the Debt, an organization founded by former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles.

POLITICS - Our Economy and the Latest CBO Report

"Brooks, Marcus on Coming Economic 'Chaos,' New Recession Fears, Bain Debate" PBS Newshour 5/25/2012

Excerpt on CBO report

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): And what is more exciting to talk about than the Congressional Budget Office?

So, this week , there was a sobering report from the Congressional Budget Office, David, in which they warned the country could land in another recession if Congress does a couple of things, lets these -- doesn't let these Bush era tax cuts expire, and if there are serious cuts made in government spending.

And there are members of Congress who want both of these things to happen. So what do people think is really going to happen there?

DAVID BROOKS, New York Times columnist: Chaos, decline, apocalypse.

(LAUGHTER)

DAVID BROOKS: You know, it's all going to happen. . .

RUTH MARCUS, Washington Post columnist: Have a nice weekend.

(LAUGHTER)

DAVID BROOKS: Yes. Right.

No, the weekend will be fine. It is only going to happen in December. It will be after the election. And all these things come due, tax cuts, spending. All these automatic things start happening. And we hand this incredibly knotty problem on to a Congress which is unable to do the easy problems.

So dealing with a tough problem is going to be tremendously difficult. And so, is there any reason to be other than despairing?

I think there is a couple. And, again, this is silver lining land. One is, I think the Republicans have decided that what happened last summer wasn't good for them. They have taken the country to the brink. They are a little more chastened. They're a little more flexible on the idea that tax revenue, not tax rates, but tax revenues, should be allowed to rise, so long as the money can be thrown into the debt.

And so that is some flexibility there. But if you had to bet long-term will we do what we need to do, all these different things to get sort of a fiscal balance over the next year, I certainly wouldn't bet on that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Congress going to come to its senses?

(LAUGHTER)

RUTH MARCUS: Well, I don't think anybody should ever bet on that.

But David said that Republicans seem chastened. You certainly couldn't tell it from the comments of Speaker Boehner, who seems more than willing to do a replay of the disastrous, from my point of view, economically, and also disastrous politically for Republicans, replay of the debt ceiling showdown last time around , a year ago.

And what's going to happen is, all of this Taxmageddon, as we are calling it, is going -- because of the timing of it, we will probably kick the can down the road from the lame-duck, for maybe six months into the next Congress. And guess what? That is going to coincide with, collide with hitting the debt ceiling yet again.

So the CBO -- I just -- quick thing on the CBO report. CBO used the R-word, which is very, very scary, recession. If all of these things come to pass, they said, the economy would be in recession in the beginning of 2013.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Which is what got everybody's attention.

RUTH MARCUS: Which got everybody's attention, but in some ways, that wasn't really the message that CBO wanted to send, because, yes, that would be a very bad outcome.

But the second thing they said is that the alternative, if you filled that entire fiscal cliff and cushioned it, and you just dug the debt deeper, the debt hole that much deeper, that would also be a terrible outcome, just later.

And so they have been begging in their very quiet-sounding CBO language, please, members of Congress, you need to both avert the fiscal cliff now and come up with a plan that markets can understand that you really have to fill the debt hole later on.

Whether Congress can manage that. . .

JUDY WOODRUFF: So -- but, David, Congress this year is watching the election. Not a lot is going on over the summer. So does a warning -- does something like this that is said in the late spring, does it really have an effect?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I think they are taking it seriously. I know the Republicans are. They take the debt extremely seriously.

And how much they want to move is a matter of internal debate. So, publicly, Ruth is absolutely right, John Boehner is lining down these stark markers. Underneath, I really don't think those stark markers exist. I think there is some room for flexibility. There is some feeling, we need more revenue.

Now, the question is, you have got to disguise the revenue increases in a comprehensive tax reform. And the Republicans really want to do a comprehensive tax reform. They think it would allow them to secretly raise a lot of revenue, but also it would be good for the economy, it would create growth, more jobs, more tax revenues.

Democrats are -- and especially the Obama administration -- a lot less persuaded that tax reform would be a great thing. They don't think it would produce a lot of growth. They think, politically, it would be extremely tough to get rid of some of these big deductions.

And so it's very interesting to me to talk to people in the Obama administration and hear them being very tepid on the whole idea of comprehensive tax reform.