DC Deciphered

To top off his first 100 days in office, President Trump gave a long interview to CBS’ John Dickerson this past Sunday on Face the Nation.  Like all Trump interviews, this one was full of odd, conversation-provoking moments – including the moment where Trump ended the interview with a wave of the hand when Dickerson tried to press him on whether he stood behind his claims that Obama wire tapped him.  But out of all of it, of most interest to me is the portion where Dickerson asked Trump about the latest iteration of the GOP health care plan.  This part of the interview generated numerous articles the next day, many of which offered up a similar thesis: Trump doesn’t understand what’s in his own health care bill. Continue reading →

Guess who’s becoming buddies with Donald Trump? Here’s a hint: If you were counting on Senator John McCain to lead the resistance, don’t hold your breath.  Back in late February there was a whole lot of excitement because McCain gave a speech in Germany that – while never mentioning Trump’s name – was a pointed rebuke of the new President. That speech topped off a month in which McCain had made a series of fairly sharp criticisms of Trump. Continue reading →

It’s the final week of Trump’s “first 100 days” as President, and the White House has been aflutter, trying to rustle up some big accomplishments for Trump to point to.  So there’s been a whole lot of “activity” this week without much actually getting done.  The news has been filled with reports of a possible vote on a revised GOP health care plan (there will be no vote), a giant Trump tax “plan” (which was really just a single sheet of paper with some bullet points), a Trump demand for border wall funding (there will be no funding), a full Senate briefing on North Korea with no apparent purpose, and talk of the U.S. pulling out of NAFTA and then a last minute reprieve as Trump was convinced to remain in NAFTA (for now).

Alongside all of that fluff coming out of the White House, the other big story this week was news that the Department of Defense Inspector General is looking into General Michael Flynn’s payments from foreign governments (e.g. Russia & Turkey) and the fact that he appears he did not get the proper permissions.   But what else happened this week that you might have missed? Continue reading →

There’s been a lot of frantic action in D.C. this week as Trump tries to get something –  anything – done in time to have a significant accomplishment to show for his “first 100 days” in office.  One area that’s seemed particularly frenetic this week is health care. Nothing of substance has actually happened yet, but as has become the norm with this administration, we’ve had all sorts of dribs and drabs of news coming out the last few days about things that might be happening or that could, maybe be on the verge of happening. Continue reading →

For anyone who missed it or hasn’t had time to read it yet, below are links to DC Deciphered’s entire 3-part Obamacare Wars post from last week and early this week.  These 3 pieces are crucial (IMHO!) for understanding what is happening in Washington right now with respect to Obamacare. I know the pieces are on the long side and there’s a lot to digest, so that’s why I’m not posting anything new right now & instead giving readers some more time with these.  Part 3 in particular is key if you want to understand how the decisions Trump and the GOP are making right now could make or break Obamacare.  Continue reading →

Welcome to Part 3 of DC Deciphered’s Obamacare Wars trifecta.  It’s been nearly a week since I posted Parts 1 and 2, so here they are again for those who missed them or need a refresher:  Obamacare Wars – Part 1 and Obamacare Wars – Part 2.

In Part 1 of this post I talked about the new “stabilization” rules (PDF) the Trump administration recently announced for the Obamacare exchanges for 2018.  But I wondered whether the administration’s goal with these new rules is truly to stabilize the Obamacare markets.  So I wanted to look at the broader context of Trump & the GOP’s behavior surrounding Obamacare for help answering that question. After explaining in Part 1 exactly what these new Obamacare rules are, in Part 2 of this post I looked at a couple of actions taken in the past by the GOP and/or Trump with respect to the implementation of Obamacare that were clearly intended to (and did, in fact) weaken Obamacare as it was being implemented during its first few years.

In today’s post, Part 3, I’ll talk about a couple decisions regarding Obamacare implementation that the GOP and Trump still have ahead of them.  These are questions about how they will handle: (1) the individual mandate; and (2) Obamacare’s “cost-sharing reductions.”  Continue reading →

 

Here are some stories you might have missed this week:

1.It’s almost a cliché by now to point out how Trump is failing to live up to his famous campaign promise to “drain the swamp.”   But this report from the New York Times about how the Trump administration is just swirling with potential conflicts is still eye opening.  Continue reading →

Part 3 of my Obamacare Wars post (about the various ways the GOP is chipping away at Obamacare short of repeal) will be coming soon.  But I’m interjecting with this post, because news broke last night that the GOP is back with a new effort in their frontal assault on Obamacare.  Several members of the GOP House are working on a new “compromise” bill that will supposedly be able to get both the conservative “Freedom Caucus” and the more moderate “Tuesday Group” on board. The compromise was put together by House Freedom Caucus chairman Mark Meadows and Tuesday Group co-chairman Tom MacArthur.

Continue reading →

In yesterday’s post I talked about the new “stabilization” rules the Trump administration just announced for the Obamacare exchanges for 2018.  But I questioned whether Trump’s goal is really to stabilize Obamacare, especially considering his recent remarks about letting Obamacare explode.  So I wanted to look at the broader context of Trump & the GOP’s behavior surrounding Obamacare for help answering this question.

Today I’ll look at couple of actions taken in the past by the GOP and/or Trump with respect to Obamacare that were clearly intended to (and did, in fact) weaken Obamacare as it was being implemented during its first few years.* Continue reading →

Did Democrats win the Obamacare fight last month when Speaker Ryan was forced to pull the GOP replacement bill without even letting it go to a vote?  Obamacare supporters and Anti-Trumpers all over the country rejoiced at the bill’s failure, and plenty of fun was had on Twitter over Trump’s inability to get his own party to pass a bill.  But unfortunately, Democrats can’t really declare victory in this fight just yet.  While Democrats won that particular battle, the years-long war over Obamacare is still being waged. Continue reading →