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Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel doesn't think the AHCA will pass through Congress and shares his ideas about how Obamacare could be improved, rather than repealed. He speaks with Susan Page, USA TODAY Washington bureau chief, on Capital Download. USA TODAY

People rally in favor of single-payer healthcare for all Californians outside the office of California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, June 27, 2017 in South Gate, California.(Photo: Robyn Beck, AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON Its not just the GOP thats divided on health care.

Legislation Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to introduce soon highlights a wedge issue for Democrats and is emerging as the Republican retort to their own problems with repealing and replacing Obamacare.

While defending the Affordable Care Act, the Vermont independent says the way forward in the long term is a Medicare-for-all single-payer system, a federally-administered program that would eliminate the role of private insurers in basic health care coverage.

Medicare-for-all...will be saving middle class families substantial sums of money, and it will be guaranteeing health care to every man, woman, and child in this country, said Sanders, who is part of the Senate Democratic leadership team, Sunday on CNNs State of the Union.

Single-payer health coverageis becoming increasingly popular with Democrats. But such proposalsgofurther than the Democratic Party platforms call for universal health care which could still include private insurers and beyond the fixes most other Democratic Party leaders are currently discussing for Obamacare. They are attempting to focus attention, instead, on the perils of the deeply unpopular GOP plans that would increase health care costs for middle-class and working-class families and raise the number of uninsured Americans by more than 20 million people.

Despite her prior support for single-payer plans, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said at a June 25 forum that right now we have to support the Affordable Care Act and defeat what the Republicans are doing, which she called grotesque.

But Republicans are pointing to the Sanders plan as Democrats only alternative to Obamacare, raising the specter of a government takeover of insurance that will cost trillions and be financed on the backs of taxpayers. An Urban Institute study of Sanders proposal during his presidential campaign said it would increase federal expenditures by $32 trillion over 10 years, though a Sanders aide says the forthcoming bill will cost less than the campaign plan.

The president believes that its completely unaffordable and creates a one-size-fits-all government approach to health care, said White House principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at "The People's Summit" in Chicago on June 10, 2017.(Photo: Jim Young, AFP/Getty Images)

Support forsingle-payer health coverageis growing, with 33% of the public favoring this approach to health insurance compared to 21% in 2014, a Pew Research Center poll found in June. The share of Democrats (52%) supporting a single national program to provide health insurance is up 19 points since 2014.But nearly two-thirds of liberal Democrats (64%) support single-payer health insurance while only 42% of conservative and moderate Democrats favor that approach.

In the House, a record 113 lawmakers all Democrats, including about half of the leadership team have signed onto Rep. John Conyers single payer bill.The Michigan Democratattributes the support to the success of Sanders presidential campaign message and Republican overreach with a truly sadistic bill.

By proposing to slash Medicaid and put poor people's lives in jeopardy to finance a tax cut for millionaires, they've defined the terms of the debate, frankly, better that we've ever been able to, said Conyersin a statement. Americans now understand they've got a stark choice between a Republican vision where healthcare is a privilege available only for those who can afford it, and a Democratic vision where healthcare is a right of all people that we collectively guarantee.

But the centrist think tank Third Way sees talk of a single-payer plan as an effective strawman argument for Republicans and an obstacle to preserving Obamacare. Americans dont want to start from scratch and a massive expansion of government wont help Democrats connect with voters who just elected President Trump, said Matt Bennett, Third Way co-founder.

Discussion of single payer right now is irrelevant at best and at worst a serious distraction from the fight to save Obamacare, he said. All Democratic energy has to be directed at saving Obamacare. We do not understand why anyone would take their eye off the ball at this moment.

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., a Third Way co-chair, says its fine if states want to experiment with single-payer plans. But its premature to just drop everything at the federal level when there are fixes to save Obamacare. For instance, guaranteeing federal subsidies to insurers who offer reduced rates to working families would help stabilize the federal insurance marketplaces and drive down costs, he said.

Weve just gotten to the point where we know how to make this work, he said of Obamacare.

Some states have tried to implement single-payer plans, but none has succeeded yet. Vermont jettisoned its plans for a publicly financed health care system in 2014 after then-Gov. Peter Shumlin announced it was unaffordable, and the state is now in the process of implementing a different plan that pays medical organizations based on health outcomes. Meanwhile, single-payer health care legislation stalled in California after the assembly speaker blocked its passage last month.

Sanders supporter RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United, blames private insurers for the exorbitant cost of health care. A litmus test for the progressive community will be whether politicians can support eliminating private insurers role in the health care system.

People are really suffering and they cant afford the insurance industrys model, she said. People want reprieve from this and they want to just be able to have health care without having to worry about being bankrupt. If they can do it in every other country, why cant they do it here?

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Poll: Only 12% of Americans support the Senate health care plan

White House official: If Senate health care bill fails, pass simple Obamacare repeal

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United against 'Trumpcare', Democrats divided on next steps - USA TODAY

By now, comparisons between Watergate and Richard Nixon and the Russia investigation and Donald Trump have become stale.

Soon after Trump entered the White House, his national security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign after getting caught up in the investigation into Russian meddling in the last yearselection.

Then his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, recused himself from the probeafter it was revealed he had met with one of the Russian officials at the center of the investigation.

Concernsescalated after the president fired FBI Director James B. Comey in May, drawing comparisons to Nixons Saturday Night Massacre, whenhe fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

The cloud hanging overTrumps first five months in officehas motivated many upstart Democrats to consider running for Congress, both in special elections this year, and in the 2018midterms. That enthusiasm has drawncomparisons to 1974, when Democrats won 49 House seats and 5 Senate seats in the first election after the Watergate scandal and Nixons resignation.

But Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Minnesota Rep. Rick Nolan, the last remaining of theso-called Watergate Babies in Congress (Democrats who ran and won their first races that year) say there are important distinctions between 1974 and todays political environment.

Weve gotten too used to put -gate on anything, Leahy said. Back then, what you had was domestic political corruption. Now were talking about a major foreign country trying to subvert our democratic institutions.

Leahy said it was important for Democrats to tell [voters] what they believe in.

Former Rep. George Miller, who was also elected in 1974 and left Congress in 2015, said the Watergate hearings improved Democrats odds of winning and encouraged more to run.

You could draw a conclusion [that he was going to win]because the evidence is compounding, the California Democratsaid. That was the nature of the Watergate hearings.

But Miller cautioned that 2017 is different since the investigations havent reached their conclusions. We dont know the end of this story, he said.

Another major difference between then and now, Leahy said, was there was still widespread trust inthe mediaat the time.

Even the legitimate press, they get this constant drumbeat from the White House denigrating [them], Leahy said of the current climate.

Public opinion on the media is much more divided today. A Harvard-Harris poll from last monthshowed 51 percent of those surveyed thought the media was being unfair toTrump.

Nolan, who left office in 1981 before running again and winning in Minnesotas 8th District in 2012, pointed to one similarity between today and the Watergate era.

There is a tremendous amount of, quite frankly, anger and concern and awareness that is very similar to the 1974 election, hesaid.

But Nolan, like manyDemocrats, said other topics have taken precedence overthe Russia investigationamong voters back home.

I think they are more concerned about health care and the environment and the direction that our government and our economy has taken, he said. Particularly as it relates to jobs and wages and benefits and environment and health care.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmaker, who recently passed on running for governor, also said simply opposing Trump could not work in a district like his, which broke for Trump by 16 points.

What Democrats have to do is not run around complaining about the Republicans and the direction of their budget priorities, hesaid.

What Democrats should be talking about are aspirational things, Nolan said, likeimproving infrastructure, and not just defending the 2010 health care law but working to improve the system.

I strongly advocate for a single-payer, universal system, he said. Thats the kind of aspirational advocacy that resonates.

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Some Democratic lawmakers want Gov. Jay Inslee to veto a major business tax cut for manufacturers passed by the Legislature last week with little notice or analysis.

Seattle Times political reporter

Some Democratic lawmakers are pressuring Gov. Jay Inslee to veto a major business tax cut for manufacturers passed by the Legislature last week with scant public notice or analysis.

Twenty-three Democratic state representatives signed a public letter to Inslee asking him to veto the tax cut contained in Senate Bill 5977, which would slash the state business and occupation (B&O) tax rate for manufacturers by 40 percent over four years.

The cut would give manufacturers the same rate granted to Boeing and other aerospace companies in 2003 and extended in a record-setting tax-break deal in 2013.

Inslee will announce his decision on the tax cut Friday afternoon.

Republicans, who demanded the tax cut in last-minute budget negotiations, argued that it was a matter of fairness and could help manufacturers create family-wage jobs in rural areas of the state.

What is good for Boeing should be good for the little guy as well, said state Sen. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, during a Friday night debate on the proposal.

The measure would reduce state taxes paid by manufacturers an estimated $64 million over four years. Because the tax cut would be phased in, its value would grow to about $60 million a year by 2022 and $86 million annually by 2027. More than 10,000 firms could benefit.

The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce sent an email Wednesday urging members to write to Inslees office in support of the tax cut.

Chamber CEO Maud Daudon wrote it would provide much-needed relief to manufacturing employers, and support ongoing economic prosperity across our entire state.

But in the letter urging a veto, written by state Rep. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, Democratic legislators objected to the permanent change to tax policy made with little warning and noted that it came even as the Legislature raised property taxes.

The politics and policy of giving the business community a massive tax cut, while hiking property taxes on middle-class families to fully fund public schools, is unacceptable and dangerous, the letter said.

Although the tax break was reportedly insisted on by Republicans as part of an eleventh-hour budget deal last week, it was contained in a separate bill from the two-year, $43.7 billion spending measure signed by Inslee to avert a government shutdown.

The manufacturing tax cut was the largest of 13 tax breaks contained in SB 5977, worth nearly $100 million over the next four years. Among the other tax-break beneficiaries were solar projects, some commercial seed and fertilizer sellers, martial-arts studios and film-production companies.

Under his authority as governor, Inslee could veto some of those tax breaks while allowing others to become law.

The bill passed with bipartisan support: 33-16 in the Senate and 88-10 in the House, with some of the yes votes coming from some of the same Democratic lawmakers now urging Inslee to veto the manufacturing-tax portion.

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Democrats urge Gov. Inslee to veto tax cut for manufacturers - The Seattle Times

VOL. 132 | NO. 133 | Thursday, July 06, 2017

Attorneys David Cocke and Carlissa Shaw were co-chairs of the effort to reorganize the Shelby County Democratic Party that will get underway at a July 22 countywide convention. (Daily News/Bill Dries)

Shelby County Democrats will start the reorganization of the local political party July 22 at a countywide convention that will dramatically change its structure to a pair of groups totaling around 130 people.

This has been a long time coming, said attorney and former local party chairman David Cocke. He and attorney Carlissa Shaw were co-chairs of the reorganization committee appointed by the Tennessee Democratic Party following the state partys decision last August to dissolve the local partys charter.

I know there has been a lot of speculation about why it has taken quite so long. But we were given the instructions to try to do it as quickly as we could, but to do it right, Cocke said. Weve come up with kind of a unique way of organizing the party. But its designed for an activist party, not a party that just meets once a month and gets in trouble.

The partys charter was dissolved last August after years of dysfunction on the local executive committee capped by a dispute over Bryan Carsons finances during his tenure as chairman.

Despite having no local political party, Democrats carried Shelby County in the November presidential general election for nominee Hillary Clinton as Republican nominee and president Donald Trump carried the entire state and took its 11 electoral votes.

Shaw, who was on the old executive committee and found its dysfunction frustrating, said the goal of the larger party is to involve more millennials like herself who are interested in activism.

We dont really like the meetings. We dont like the business. We dont like the Roberts Rules of Order, she said. We want to hit the pavement. We want to knock on doors. We want to make sure Democrats in Shelby County are elected. We have causes. We have issues that we want heard.

Dave Cambron, who was also on the local executive committee and party vice chairman at one point, was also part of the reorganization group.

Over the last few years theres been a lot of people saying, Ive tried to get elected and I am shut out. I come to the meetings. Im shut out. It turns me off. Im not going to come, he said. We all know the world changed on Nov. 8. Theres a lot of people who got active. So we designed this new party to include the new activists.

The enthusiasm is something that Democrats focused on winning elections want to capitalize on.

Although Clinton carried Shelby County in November with 61 percent of the vote her vote total was nearly 24,000 lower than Barack Obamas Shelby County total in the 2012 general election and nearly 45,000 lower than Obamas local total in 2008.

The convention July 22 will elect a Democratic Grassroots Council of around 130 people divided up by the 13 Shelby County Commission districts. Then the caucus by county commission districts will select two of those grassroots council members one man and one woman for positions on the new 26-member executive committee.

The grassroots council will have five members per county commission district for a subtotal of 65 members. Each commission district also will be represented by seven to 15 more people on the grassroots council, with that number determined by the turnout in each district in the last Democratic primary for governor.

The party will also have five ex officio positions on the executive committee and grassroots council one each from the organizations Young Democrats, College Democrats and Democratic Women and two will be local Democratic state legislators and elected officials.

The full grassroots council will meet two to three weeks after the July 22 convention to elect a new local party chairman.

The executive committee will meet monthly. The grassroots council will meet quarterly.

The council is seen as a way of bringing together Democrats, both those whose primary goal is to elect as many Democratic nominees as possible, and those who say the issues come first.

The reorganization group heard from activists energized since the November presidential election who are, in many cases, new to political involvement. But they expressed misgivings about the pursuit of electoral wins at the expense of issues.

The main reason we have a party is to get Democrats elected to circle around certain core issues and values and work together, Cocke said. That means sometimes we have a bigger tent than we are comfortable with, but nonetheless we need a big tent because we need to win. Not everybody is in it just for the organization and hopefully not everybodys in it just to get elected. This is the tension the party has to deal with.

The dominant issue in public meetings that kicked off the reorganization process this spring was about who is a bona fide Democrat. The former executive committee took a hard line on the definition, censuring Democrats who supported Republicans over Democratic nominees for countywide office that, with the exception of Democratic Property Assessor Cheyenne Johnson and General Sessions Court Clerk Ed Stanton, have lost in every other countywide race in the last seven years.

The local partys new bylaws use the state partys definition of a bona fide Democrat as: an individual whose record of public service, actions, accomplishment, public writings and/or public statements affirmatively demonstrate that he or she is faithful to the interests, welfare, and success of the Democratic Party of the United States and of the state of Tennessee. The State Party or a county party may make exceptions to this rule for requesting individuals in the spirit of an inclusive and a growing Party.

Shelby County Young Democrats president Danielle Inez, who was also part of the reorganization committee, said that means more than the traditional measure of looking at which primaries someone has voted in.

Well also be looking at a demonstration of their values, she said. Its 2017. We can go on social media. We can see their Tweets. We can see their Facebook posts. We can see their organizations that they are engaged in in the community. We can see where theyve donated their dollars, whose fundraising committees theyve served on.

Cocke said its a process that will not be resolved overnight.

We do think that if you are going to take a leadership position in the Democratic Party you have to be loyal to the party; you have to be loyal to the brand, he added. But on the other hand, weve got to be open to a broader tent if we are going to win.

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Local Democrats Set Reorganization Convention - Memphis Daily News

As Republicans return to their home districts to sell a flailing health-care bill, liberal groups are using the congressional recess to build opposition. They believe tens of thousands of phone calls, emails and in-person pushes will force on-the-fence senators to reject the legislation for good.

The fresh activism is coming with encouragement from Democratic lawmakers who are mired in the minority and have been mostly left to watch as Republicans struggle to reshape the nations laws to their liking. After starting the year on the defensive with their own base, party leaders and House and Senate Democrats are finally taking cues from these groups, believing that tactics honed far outside Washington could help scare Republicans into abandoning long-standing promises to upend Obamacare.

Ahead of the recess, while Republican senators toiled over details of their health-care overhaul behind closed doors, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, did whats become natural for Democrats lately: He lashed out on Twitter.

This thing is a %#$@ sandwich, he tweeted shortly after the release of the Congressional Budget Offices report that estimated 22 million more Americans be uninsured under the Senate GOPs plan. He tweeted later that the lefts fight against the legislation is a test of the morality of our country. We have to win this one.

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Democrats can see with their eyes where the energy is in American politics right now, said Ben Wikler, the Washington director of MoveOn.org, a liberal group initially launched to oppose the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

Its to abandon politics as usual and put up a bare-fisted fight. Thats really sinking in.

Schatz won re-election last year with more than 70 percent of the vote and acknowledges he did so by airing really pretty ads and taking advice from expensive consultants. It might have worked for him in Hawaii, but Donald Trump won the White House and Democrats failed to win back control of the House or Senate.

So now he admits to being a recent convert to the tactics used by Wiklers group and other organizations such as CREDO Mobile, the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, and the fast-growing Indivisible movement. The groups have organized protests or sit-ins at congressional district offices and urged followers to flood Capitol Hill phone lines in opposition to Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss confirmation or President Trumps travel ban. Neither pressure campaign stopped DeVos or the Trump ban, but Schatz said they signaled to Democratic lawmakers that the groups could quickly mobilize Americans against Trump.

Our playbook needs a refresh. Its predictable and its stale, Schatz said. That refresh is not just new language or a new standard-bearer, but a recognition that for Democrats to win, we need to fight for Democrats - and then theyll fight for us.

For Schatz, that has meant firing off quick stream-of-consciousness tweets that have earned him headlines and 30,000 more followers so far this year. Its also meant marching in the streets for the first time in his life as he did last week with activists who opposed the GOP health-care plan. And it means providing counsel to constituents or activists who still want a little guidance from an elected official.

The senator who once chastised Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Twitter for calling Hawaii an island in the Pacific said his change in tone is a recognition that people dont want to be sold soap.

They dont want a prepackaged product, they want to know that were people and that we respond to outrages in the same way that they do.

Democrats willingness to fight, particularly on health care, has not gone unnoticed by progressive activists who say they deserve credit for drawing in even wary moderates.

Sens. Joe Manchin III, W. Va., Heidi Heitkamp, N.D., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. - who are all up for re-election in states Trump handily won - have all been eager to speak out. They joined a protest-turned-photo-op on the Senate steps with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Democrats, with each senator holding a portrait of a constituent who had benefited from Medicaid.

The way theyve coalesced around the health-care issue has been better than expected; theyve done so because of how many people were demanding it, said Winnie Wong, the co-founder of People for Bernie and an Occupy Wall Street veteran.

Schatz was one of only a handful of Democratic lawmakers to actually march in last weeks health-care rally - other party leaders just showed up to give speeches. He waited restlessly as Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Schumer addressed the crowd.

They have lots of powerful wealthy people on their side, Schumer said of Republicans. Who do we have? You!

Schumer especially has seen his fortunes change with the far left. In February, hundreds of protesters marched to Schumers Brooklyn home to demand resistance to Trumps Cabinet nominees; some chanted What the f ---, Chuck.

The infighting has largely stopped since then. Schumer has been a regular presence at protests, thanking activists for having Senate Democrats back. Theyve returned the praise. Schumer is both speaking out at every opportunity and keeping the caucus aggressive, said Wikler, whose group helped organize the Capitol protest.

After Schumer spoke, Schatz stepped on stage and called the GOP health-care bill literally an $800 billion cut in Medicaid and literally an $800 billion wealth transfer to people who dont need it.

He offered some advice for the recess: Dont wait for instructions from any organization. Whatever you think you can do in that moment, just do it.

Six months ago, everyone in that building thought that repeal of the Affordable Care Act was a done deal, Wilker said, pointing to the Capitol. Since then, he said, Democrats had learned to take some cues from the resistance.

Weve mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to participate in our democracy, and thats taught us something crucial about the resistance to Trump: its working, said Faiz Shakir, national political director for the ACLU.

In many ways, Schatz is an ideological counterweight to conservative foot soldiers such as Sens. Mike Lee. R-Utah, James Lankford, R-Neb., or Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, other senators in their 40s with no obvious White House dreams, who could find themselves in the Senate for decades to come. While many of his Democratic colleagues ponder a run for president, Schatz said he intends to stay in the Senate.

Somebody has to not run for president, Schatz quipped.

Schatz came to the U.S. Senate in late 2012 as the appointed successor of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who died after 49 years in the Senate just as Congress was in the throes of the fiscal cliff fight. The day after Christmas, Schatz flew to Washington aboard Air Force One with then-President Barack Obama, who cut his annual Hawaiian vacation short to avert a financial disaster.

As he prepared to travel from Washington to Honolulu Thursday, a trip he makes nearly every weekend to see his wife and two young children, Schatz admitted that despite doling out advice on how progressives should pressure Republicans during the upcoming recess, he hadnt determined what he will do. Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., have urged Democrats to hold news conference, rallies with progressive groups and submit op-eds to newspapers.

Schatz said thats not good enough.

You cant fill a calendar and think thats a plan, he explained, meaning that he will avoid a strategy that dictates, Im going to use Facebook on Tuesday and use Twitter on Wednesday and then Im going to send an op-ed in and hold a news conference on Friday.

Its a pretty chaotic environment out there, he said. We need to be a little more flexible.

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