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The Republican health-care bill drama actually boosts, not hurts, the chances of tax cuts occurring before the end of the year, two-time GOP presidential candidate Steve Forbes told CNBC on Monday.

Facing opposition within the party, Republican leaders have been trying to round up enough votes to pass their overhaul of the U.S. health-care system. Then, on Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced the Senate would delay consideration of the bill after Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., had surgery to remove a blood clot above his eye.

"Certainly this soap opera has not helped the Republican party," Forbes told "Closing Bell."

"They are going to be eager to pass a big tax cut, ignore the Congressional Budget Office and figure if we don't get something big to help spur this economy, get out of its 1.5, 2 percent rut, they know they're going to get shellacked next year," he added, referring to the mid-term elections.

In fact, he thinks that not only will Republicans get "something" on tax cuts before the end of the year, they can even make them retroactive.

Last month, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC that "massive tax reform" will get finished this year. House Speaker Paul Ryan and Vice President Mike Pence have also said that the GOP aims to have tax reform passed by the end of the year.

When it comes to health care, Forbes advised his fellow Republicans to look at it as a step-by-step process. In fact, he doesn't like the current bill, "but something is better than nothing."

"This is a long journey. This is the beginning of a journey, not the end," Forbes said.

And he's not concerned about any implications to the U.S. deficit.

"The only way to cure the deficit long term is with a vibrant economy. Weak economy always begets financial problems."

CNBC's Jacob Pramuk and Jeff Cox contributed to this report.

Excerpt from:
GOP health-care 'soap opera' will spur tax cuts before year-end, Republican Steve Forbes says - CNBC

We members of the media probably sound a little self-serving when we complain about constant attacks on press freedom.

Press freedom is a sacred democratic value, enshrined right there in the Constitution!we huff to whoever will listen.

Needless to say, lots of Americans remain unconvinced.

As Inotedlast week, a recent NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll found that 4in 10 Republicans believe the United States has too greatly expanded freedom of the press. Since then, an American Press Institutesurveyfound that 6in 10 Republicans believe news organizations primarily just prevent political leaders from doing their jobs.

Fed a steady diet of media vilification (served up by both left and right), Americans are apparently unmoved by citations of political texts that feel far removed from their daily lives. Maybe, they think, efforts to open up our libel laws, dismissals of the lamestream media as fake news and even threats of violence against journalists could do the country some good.

To those indifferent to abstract political ideals, let me offer a more practical reason to be alarmed by assaults on media freedom: the fact that the government can, and inevitably will, screw up.

Events over recent weeks suggest that Republicans war on the media should not be viewed in isolation. Its part of a broader strategy to discredit and disempower any independent voice trying, however imperfectly, to hold politicians to account.

Take, for example, the relentless attacks on the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan federal agency created in 1974 precisely so that Congress and the public could rely on technical expertise from independent analysts with no dog in the fight.

The CBO issues dozens of bill scores and reports each year, and no score has higher stakes right now than the assessment of Republicans Obamacare repeal plan. Sensing that the news will be bad, though, Republicans have done everything they can to smear the character, motives and competence of the agency.

In March, asked about a CBO score forecasting that the GOP health-care bill would cause tens of millions of Americans to lose their insurance, former House speaker and Trump surrogate Newt Gingrich called the federal agency corrupt and dishonest.

White House officialsramped up their own attacksover subsequentmonths. This past week the White House criticized the accuracy of the CBO in avideothat misspelled the word inaccurately. (You cant make this stuff up.)

The last straw came in anop-edpublished by The Post over the weekend, when two Trump officials preemptively declared thatwhateverthe nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports in its latest assessment of the Senate Republicans health-care bill, the CBOs estimates will be little more than fake news.

That is, now the CBO is being slurred with the nastiest comparison of all: to the media.

The nations independent federal statistical agencies have lately found themselves in similar crosshairs. They have been praised when their numbers reflect favorably upon Republicans but mercilessly attacked when their data show otherwise.

The nonpartisan Office of Government Ethics, the internal watchdog tasked with helping executive-branch officials avoid conflicts of interest, has also been repeatedly and unfairly accused of partisanship under this administration. The neutering of this agency has made it much harder to ensure that federal officials are making decisions in the best interests of the country an embarrassment at home and abroad.

I think we are pretty close to a laughingstock at this point, Walter M.Shaub Jr., the departing head of the agency,toldthe New York Times over the weekend.

And then theres the Trump administrations unrelenting attacks on an independent federal judiciary, the last best hope against government excess and impropriety.

The common message from Trump officials and co-partisans on Capitol Hill through all these actions: Trust us, and us alone. Anyone who contradicts us is spouting #fakenews.

Maybe this plan will buy Republicans some time, but they cant outrun bad news forever. At some point, presumably, members of the public will notice if they, oh, lose their health insurance. Just because President Trump declares a Russia story or the unemployment rate fake doesnt make it so.

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The practical reason to be alarmed by Republican cries of 'fake news' - Washington Post

We profiled two others at that meeting: Rinat Akhmetshin, who has shown himself to be skilled in the muscular Russian version of what in American politics is known as opposition research, and Aras Agalarov, a property developer known as a fixer for the Kremlins toughest jobs.

Our reporters also investigated a $17 million payment to Paul Manafort, Mr. Trumps former campaign chairman, from a Kremlin-linked political party in Ukraine.

Skidding off the rails.

Before Cosmo DiNardo confessed to killing four young men in Bucks County, Pa., there were signs of a volatile, bullying personality getting worse over time.

Iran sentences U.S. student to 10 years.

Xiyue Wang, a graduate student at Princeton, was sentenced on spying charges, an action bound to aggravate relations between the two countries.

Qatars open doors sow resentment.

The small country with a welcome-all attitude has become the freewheeling hub of the Middle East. But thats precisely what has plunged the region into one of its most dramatic showdowns.

The Daily, your audio news report.

Today we discuss Kris Kobachs quest to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the U.S.

Listen on a computer, an iOS device or an Android device.

Big pharma has been spending on share buybacks and dividends, but research and development? Not so much.

After the death of a Silicon Valley lawyer, his ex-wife found a web of drug abuse in his profession.

In urban China, cash is rapidly becoming obsolete.

The Dow and the S.&P. 500 closed at record highs on Friday. Heres a snapshot of global markets.

Items under $50 that might improve your life, and more, in our weekly newsletter.

Saving for college? Heres what you need to know.

A quick dinner need not lack flavor. Try shrimp in yellow curry.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, marched to commemorate the anniversary of last years failed coup.

Columbia University settled with a student who was cast as a rapist in a performance art piece involving a mattress.

Game of Thrones is back. Read our review of the season premiere, and sign up here for exclusive interviews and explainers.

Separately, Doctor Who is breaking the mold with a female lead.

War for the Planet of the Apes was No. 1 at the North American box office, taking in $56.5 million.

Taking flight in Peru.

Take a ride in 360 degrees with the paraglider Ricardo Mares, who is a regular over Limas cliffs.

In todays 360 video, soar with a paraglider over Limas cliffs.

A hefty toll.

The U.S. spent more than $1 trillion and lost about 4,500 service members in Iraq. Today, Irans influence there is paramount, our correspondent writes.

Turning the corner.

As the U.S. prison population drops and the number of parolees increases, a Connecticut man learns that getting out of jail isnt the same as being free.

Eight and counting.

Roger Federer defeated Marin Cilic to win an eighth Wimbledon singles title, a record in the mens tournament.

Garbie Muguruza took the womens title, crushing the hopes of Venus Williams.

In memoriam.

Maryam Mirzakhani, the only woman and only Iranian to win a Fields Medal, the most prestigious honor in mathematics, died of breast cancer at 40.

Martin Landau, who appeared in the 1960s TV show Mission: Impossible and won an Oscar for Ed Wood, died at 89.

Quiz time!

Did you keep up with last weeks news from around the world? Test your knowledge.

Quotation of the day.

That thumb I have left helps me a lot. I thank God for it.

Razak Iyal, a Ghanaian who lost every finger and his left thumb to frostbite when he and a fellow refugee walked across the U.S.-Canada border in December.

Sixty-two years ago, the first Disneyland opened in Anaheim, Calif., on what had once been an orange grove. Walt Disney himself greeted the very first of that days estimated 15,000 guests.

The opening was covered on television on a par with the dedication of a national shrine, The Times wrote, and later explained the appeal: Children see their old friends from nursery songs and fairy tales impersonated by local characters.

Perhaps the best-known of those childhood friends, Mickey Mouse, turns 90 next year.

The Mickey phenomenon first swept across the world during the Great Depression. Some reacted with skepticism, some countries banned it, but most found solace in the story of an irreverent mouse.

Perhaps it is the bitterness of the struggle to earn a living in Europe this year that has brought Mickey Mouse such tremendous success Mickey who is forever gay, Mickey who is only made of ink and cannot possibly be hungry, cold or weary, read a report from Germany in 1931.

And the characters popularity endures. When the latest major Disney theme park opened last year in Shanghai, mouse ears were one of the biggest sellers.

Patrick Boehler contributed reporting.

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Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated on the web all morning.

What would you like to see here? Contact us at briefing@nytimes.com.

You can sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox. Check out our full range of free newsletters here.

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Republican Party, Wimbledon, 'Game of Thrones': Your Monday Briefing - New York Times

CARACAS, Venezuela Opponents of Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro on Monday pledged to defy the government with escalating protest tactics, a day after showing their strength in an unofficial referendum that they said drew more than 7million votes condemning his rule.

Leaders of the Democratic Unity coalition say they will bring the country to a halt with a 24-hour general strike Thursday, urging workers to stay home and businesses to shut their doors to protest Maduros controversial plan to overhaul Venezuelas constitution.

They also invited Venezuelans who remain loyal to Hugo Chvez but dislike Maduro, his hand-picked successor, to join them in a unified front to stop the government from moving forward with a July 30 vote to elect delegates for a constituent assembly empowered to rewrite the 1999 constitution. Critics see the maneuver as a naked power grab that would amount to a death sentence for democratic rule.

This is the zero hour, opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara said Monday, characterizing upcoming protest measures as a last-ditch effort to save the country from full-blown dictatorship.

The U.S. government intensified the pressure on the Maduro government on Monday, with President Trump vowing in a statement to take strong and swift economic actions if the July 30 vote took place. He called Maduro a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator and praised Sundays referendum.

Maduro opponents likened the Sunday vote to an act of mass protest. Of the nearly 7.6million Venezuelans said to have participated in the balloting organized by opposition leaders, not election authorities more than 98percent voted to reject the governments plan to draw up a new constitution, opposition leaders said. The vote also urged Venezuelas armed forces to uphold the existing constitution and support early elections.

Buoyed by those results, Guevara said, opposition lawmakers this week will also name new supreme court justices in a repudiation of the current court, which Maduro has stacked with loyalists. The move seems likely to deepen the standoff between Maduro and the opposition- controlled parliament, with the two sides on a path to developing competing legal systems.

[Stripped of their powers, Venezuelan lawmakers accuse Maduro of a coup]

On Monday, Socialist Party officials who back Maduro dismissed the 7.6 million vote tally as wildly inflated, claiming that opposition supporters voted multiple times and that the organizers of the referendum did not bother to actually count the ballots. They did not offer any proof to substantiate their claims.

But Flix Seijas Rodrguez, director of the independent Delphos polling agency, said he was amazed by the results of the referendum, given that it was organized in only three weeks and faced significant challenges. The Maduro government blasted the exercise as illegitimate and hurled threats at organizers while attempting to enforce a news blackout.

Anti-Maduro voters also faced the threat of violence. In one Caracas neighborhood, gunmen opened fire outside a polling station, killing one and injuring four.

On July 30, the Maduro government will ask Venezuelans to elect representatives for the constituent assembly. Government opponents see Maduros effort to rewrite the constitution as potentially a fatal blow to what remains of Venezuelan democracy, particularly if the assembly allows the unpopular Maduro to remain in office beyond 2019, when his term is set to expire.

[Things are so bad in Venezuela that people are rationing toothpaste]

At least 92 people have been killed in more than three months of unrest and near-daily clashes between security forces and protesters. Opposition leaders said Monday that Venezuelas democracy had reached a tipping point, requiring an intensification of street demonstrations and defections from within the government.

We interpret [the results] as a message from the people telling us to keep doing what we have been doing, plus much more, said Juan Andrs Meja, an opposition legislator who organized the referendum. We will respond to that call accordingly.

Some opposition supporters said they were disappointed that the referendum fell short of the 11million votes they were hoping for. The final reported tally of 7.6million votes was also lower than the 7.7million who voted for the opposition in 2015 parliamentary elections.

But analysts pointed out that the referendum was only symbolic, lacking the logistical support and infrastructure of an official election. Only about 15,000 polling stations were set up for the referendum, compared with more than twice as many during ordinary elections.

This wasnt a presidential election, said John Magdaleno, a political consultant and the director of the Polity polling firm. Its just an unofficial consultation.

Activists and analysts compared the turnout with the numbers of votes Chvez obtained when he held similar referendums.

Chvez never got more than 6.5million people to vote in his favor in the referendums, analysts noted, and when Venezuelas economy was humming and he was reelected president in 2012, he obtained just over 8million votes.

He died of cancer in 2013, and Maduro, his Socialist Party successor, has fared poorly in his shadow.

[Government supporters attack Venezuelan congress, injure opposition lawmakers]

Despite the latest demonstration of opposition to his plans, few believe that Maduro is willing to change course. Dismissing the referendum results as inconsequential, he called on his opponents to sit down to start a new round of dialogue with his government.

Maduros opponents are boycotting the July 30 vote, and in recent surveys, 85percent of Venezuelans say they reject changes to the constitution.

People will be disappointed if they expect the government to react directly to the results [of the referendum] or change anything, said Luis Vicente Len, a political analyst and the director of the Datanalisis polling agency, adding that the large turnout was important nonetheless.

More than 7million people participated actively in an act of civil disobedience and ignored the governments allegations that it was an illegal one, he said.

Read more:

Venezuela may be sliding into a civil war

How a new kind of protest movement has risen in Venezuela

Stuck in a death spiral, Venezuela is borrowing money at any cost

Venezuelas paradox: People are hungry, but farmers cant feed them

Venezuelans are storming supermarkets as food supplies dwindle

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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After protest vote, Maduro's foes warn of 'zero hour' for Venezuela's democracy - Washington Post

Joseph Pennington Published 6:01 p.m. ET July 17, 2017 | Updated 6:05 p.m. ET July 17, 2017

Iraqi federal police member in Old City of Mosul on July 9, 2017.(Photo: Ahmad al-Rubaye, AFP/Getty Images)

The Iraqi victory over the Islamic State in Mosul is something that both Iraqis and Americans can celebrate. Iraqis from all sects and ethnicities fought together bravely for months to liberate the city from a truly barbaric enemy.

We have many reasons to be optimistic about Iraqs future. Just as the Iraqis are leading the way on the battlefield, they are leading the effort to stabilize their liberated communities. An Iraqi-led, United Nations-supported stabilization program has enabled nearly two million internally displaced Iraqis to return home, including nearly one million in Anbar Province.

We have seen this in Tikrit, Ramadi, Fallujah and, most recently, East Mosul. Communities are coming back to life. Mosul University students are now pitching in to clear debris so classes can start in the fall. In East Mosul, 350,000 children have returned to school.

OUR VIEW

Winning the peace in Mosul

Prime Minister Haider Abadis steady leadership and empowerment of local officials has been a key reason for Iraqs success against ISIS. By giving provincial and local leaders the authority and resources to rebuild communities, he has built trust across communal lines and set the stage for long-term stability.

There are still battles left to fight in ISIS-controlled Tal Afar, Hawijah and al-Qaim. With time and continued U.S. support, we are confident that Iraqis will liberate these areas.

Optimism about Iraqs future shouldnt blind us to the considerable challenges it faces. The country needs to heal and overcome sectarian divisions. Iraqs economy, after years of war and low oil prices, needs reform. Corruption discourages private sector initiative. ISIS will persist as a terrorist threat long after it no longer controls territory.

But these problems can be addressed now that the ISIS caliphate has been defeated. Iraq boasts the worlds second largest oil reserves and has shown itself to be a resilient democracy.

With the continued support of the United States and international community, Iraq is positioned to emerge in the post-ISIS era stronger and more unified than ever before.

Joseph Pennington is the State Departments deputy assistant secretary for Iraq.

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Iraq's democracy shows resiliency - USA TODAY