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The on-again, off-again threat from the White House to shatter the Affordable Care Act appeared to be on again Friday, as Politico reported that President Trump told aides in a Tuesday Oval Office meeting that he wants to end subsidies for people who buy health insurance on the state and federal exchanges.

The theory is audacious: Despite marking his fourth month in office, and despite the control his party holds over Congress, the plan from the president, party leaders and Republican campaign groups is to blame any increase on premiums on the Democrats. But so far, Republicans have stayed on message and Democrats have struggled to draw attention to tremors in the insurance market that can be traced to the White Houses shaky management.

Its very clear that President Trump and Republicans here in Congress are not interested in improving the exchanges, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said at a news conference this week. President Trump said, The best thing, politically, is to let Obamacare explode. Heres the thing: Theyve been doing the detonating from Day One.

At issue are several vital components of the ACA, and the response of insurers to the White Houses on/off signaling. In his first week as president, Trump signed an executive order neutering the individual mandate, absolving the IRS from trying to collect a penalty from people who declined to buy insurance. The White House also briefly canceled advertising ahead of the ACAs winter enrollment period analysts argued that the decision cut down on new enrollees, even after the advertising started up again.

But the subsidies fight has always been seen by Republicans as a way to make the ACA unaffordable, thereby kick-starting the death spiral that the current funding system prevents. Out of power, Republicans sued to stop the subsidies, arguing that they were illegally paid out because Congress had not specifically appropriated the money that the Obama administration was distributing. Today, the subsidies could be stopped by that lawsuits success or by the presidents decision.

The wrinkle: Republicans are portraying any market failure not as a result of their management but as the basic ACA structure self-destructing. When the American Health Care Act was resurrected, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) led Republicans in citing the decision of Medica to pull out of Iowas exchange as proof of the ACAs collapse.

Iowa is down to one insurer, Ryan said. Now that one insurer is saying that it will have to pull out of 94 of 99 counties. This is happening right now! This is a crisis, and it is happening right now!

In an interview with The Washington Post before the vote, Medica Vice President Geoff Bartsh cited the uncertainty over the governments commitment to the ACA as unknown risks influencing the companys decision. Yet since their push for repeal began in January, Republicans have talked about a rescue mission, portraying any market failures as inevitable. The urgency to pass the bill which does not provide subsidies to people on the exchanges is packaged as a response to the natural progress of the ACA.

Whatever they do, they need to act, because more people are losing their health care, premiums are continuing to rise, said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in a Fox News interview this week, referring to the Senate.

Not for the first time, the two parties are engaged in political messaging that assume alternative realities. Democrats clutch to polling that has universallyfound voters readyto blame Trump and Republicans if the health-care system spins out of control. In a Kaiser poll released last month, three-quarters of all voters including 51 percent of Republicans said that the president and Congress should make sure the current law works. A majority of Democrats and independents said that any further problems would be the fault of Republicans.

Yet in that poll, just 34 percent of Republicans said that health insurance setbacks, such as higher premiums, would be the fault of Trump and Congress. Republican messaging plays not to the skeptics but to the base and to a sense that Democrats would be hypocrites if they blamed anyone but themselves for a staggering ACA.

Last year, Democrats blamed the insurance companies. Now, theyre blaming Republicans, wrote Republican Nationial Committee rapid-response director Michael Ahrens in a Friday email to reporters. Not surprisingly, no one is buying it.

That messaging email, however,provided just three pieces of evidence. Two were CNN interviews in which Democrats were reminded that insurers were leaving before Trump won. One was a 2016 campaign clip of NBC reporting on higher premiums posing a risk for Democrats.

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Democrats accuse White House of causing ACA tremors, then shifting blame - Washington Post

Democrats also need to beef up their foreign-policy analyses.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker. (Olivier Douliery / Abacapress.com; Charles Sykes / AP Photo)

The Center for American Progress, the Democratic establishments premier think tank, gathered luminaries and potential 2020 candidates this week for what it billed as an ideas conference. Their goal was to focus not what could have been, as CAP Vice President Winnie Stachelberg said, but on new, fresh, bold, provocative ideas that can move us forward.

In the basement of Georgetowns Four Seasons Hotel, the posh watering hole for Washington lobbyists, lawyers, and visiting wealth, the conference was at turns a debate about the future, and a demonstration of the difficulty in talking about a positive agenda when Trump looms over everything.

Virtually every speaker dutifully invoked the theme of the day: Resistance is not enough; Democrats must propose what they are for. Each then proceeded to rail at one Trump folly or another, and called on progressives to join in defending what was achieved over the last eight years.

There was a vigorous competition on who had the best Trump putdown. Instead of the sign on Harry Trumans desk that read The buck stops here, Senator Cory Booker offered, Trumps should read The ruble stops here.

Do you get the feeling that if Bernie Madoff werent in prison, Elizabeth Warren said, hed be in charge of the SEC right now? Representative Maxine Waters topped them all by calling for Trumps impeachment: We dont have to think impeachment is out of our reach, she said.

The first sessions of the day on the economy revealed that Bernie Sanderss agenda is gaining ground among mainstream Democrats. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti described his success in passing a $15 minimum wage, a large infrastructure program, and tuition-free community college. Senator Jeff Merkley, the sole senator to support Sanders in 2016, indicted the trade and tax policies that give companies incentives to move jobs abroad, and called for major investments in infrastructure, renewable energy, and education. Medicare for All still appeared to be off the table, however, with most speakers focused on defending Obamacare against the Republican assault.

Senator Elizabeth Warren used her presentation to present a broader argument for Democrats. She argued that concentrated money and concentrated power were corrupting our democracy, and noted that Trump did not invent these problems. On concentrated money, she argued not simply for overturning Citizens United and moving to publicly financed elections but also for taking on the revolving door between Wall Street and giant companies and government, the bought and paid for policy experts, and the armies of lobbyists that distort our politics. She also argued for picking up the anti-trust stick to break up monopolies and the big banks, and revive competitive markets.

Investor and environmentalist Tom Steyer, one of the Democrats billionaire benefactors, provided a clear agenda for addressing catastrophic climate change, as well as savvy advice on the coalition needed to bring reform about. Since Republicans are hopeless and business wont lead, Steyer called for building a coalition around a green-jobs agenda that offers jobs that pay a decent wage, reaching out to labor, people of color, and businesses that will gain in the transition in a bold plan to rebuild the country.

The foreign-policy discussion, in contrast, was virtually bereft of new ideas or serious analysis. The United States is mired in wars without end and without victory. Its war on terror has succeeded in spreading violence and minting terrorists. Its humanitarian intervention in Libya has produced a failed state. Its globalization strategy has been devastating to Americas working class. Were facing rising tensions with both Russia and China. Both parties are pushing for spending more on the Pentagon, which already consumes 40 percent of global military spending. The clear and present danger of climate change doesnt get suitable action, but we can commit $1 trillion to a new generation of nuclear weapons.

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Surely progressives ought to be at least considering a fundamental reassessment. Instead, Susan Rice, Obamas former national security advisor, offered platitudes. She called for the US to sustain its mantle of global leadership. Instead of Trumps vow to bomb the (bleep) out of ISIS, we should use our full arsenal. She called for a balanced approach, including strong defense (able to respond to any threat at a moments notice), skillful diplomacy, smart development and domestic strength.

On the foreign-policy panel, Senator Chris Murphy, who is seen as a leader of progressive foreign-policy thinking, criticized Trumps foreign policy by improvisation and delivered a strong defense of diplomacy and the State Department. Bizarrely, with the US headed into its sixteenth year of war in Afghanistan, the only mention of the debacle came tangentially from Representative Adam Schiff, who invoked disgraced former General David Petraeus on the importance of US aid in building a competent government in Afghanistan. Apparently pouring over $100 billion in that feckless effort is not yet enough.

The national press treated the event as an early audition of potential 2020 presidential contenders. Senators Kirstin Gillibrand laid out her national paid family leave plan. Senator Kamala Harris took apart Attorney General Jeff Sessions revival of the failed war on drugs. Virginia Governor McAuliffe warned about gerrymandering and the importance of winning gubernatorial races before the 2020 census and state-level redistricting. But Senator Merkley and Representative Keith Ellison, the only Sanders supporters present, were placed on panels, and Sanders wasnt even invited.

The most interesting contrast was between Warren and Senator Cory Booker, who were both given star turns. Warren was full of fire and brimstone, while using her speech to put forth a clear analysis and reform agenda that pushed the limits of the Democratic debate. Booker closed the conference with a passionate address, invoking the progressive movements that have transformed America, concluding that Democrats cant merely be the party of resistance, but must reaffirm Americas impossible dream. It was a speech brutal on Trump, replete with good values, sound goals and uplifting oratory, and unfortunately devoid of concrete ideas.

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How Can Democrats Form an Agenda When Trump Looms Over Everything? - The Nation.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota addresses the Tennessee Democratic Party on Friday, May 19.(Photo: Joel Ebert/The Tennessean)Buy Photo

Led by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Tennessee Democrats on Friday seized on the latest controversy surrounding President Donald Trump in an effort to energize their base ahead of the 2018 election.

An estimated 800 peoplegathered at the State Fairgrounds in Nashville on Friday while attending the Tennessee Democratic Party's annual Jackson Day Dinner.

Despite the uphill battle that the party faces in the state legislature where Republicans control 101 out of 132seats optimism was in the air as Klobuchar andprominent Tennessee Democrats spoke to theirparty members.

Klobuchar, who briefly addressed the latest news surrounding Trump, said last year's election provided some lessons to Democrats.

"We left a lot of country behind," she said.

The Minnesotan said the party needs to acknowledge that American businesses need incentives to invest in the country while also catching more foreign countries that are breaking trade laws.

She also stressedthe need for improving the nation's infrastructure and health care system.

Noting that there have been protests throughout the country over a variety of issues, Klobuchar said, "We need to turn this outrage that we feel ... into legislative races in Tennessee, your congressional races in Tennessee, to win elections."

Among the handful of times she mentioned Trump, Klobuchar said Democrats were the ones that provided the pressure that led to this week's appointment ofa special prosecutor to continue looking into the Russia's potential influence on the Trump campaign and in last year's election.

Unlike in previous Jackson Day Dinners, some of the energywas in part due to the looming 2018 gubernatorial race, whenDemocrats are hoping they canmounta significant challenge to whoever becomes the Republican nominee.

Former Nashville mayor Karl Dean, who announced his candidacy in February, and House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh, who has been mulling a run, each addressed the crowd taking markedly different approaches.

Dean, who asked for support from those in the audience while reasserting his candidacy, spoke about his accomplishments while mayor.

"What we need to do in Tennessee is concentrate on public education that's the number one issue we have to invest in," he said. Dean also said the state also needs to see economic development beyond the big cities that are experiencing prosperous times.

During his four-minute speech, Dean also called attention to the fact that he was the first mayor to publicly support the marriage equality act and his work with President Barack Obama's administration to encourage people to sign up for the Affordable Care Act.

"I really believe we live in a special state ... but our best days are still ahead," Dean concluded.

Fitzhugh, who introduced himself as the leader of the House Democrats, relied less on his own accomplishments while praising his fellow House members and party colleagues.

"If you give us 10 more members in the House and the Senate, give us a Democratic governor and we will improve this state like nobody's business," Fitzhugh said, during his eight-minute speech.

Among the more receptive moments of Fitzhugh's speech was when he mentioned that Trump, who he said made his name by firing people on television, might be looking in the mirror soon and saying the same thing to himself.

After noting that he thinks the country frequently calls upon Democrats to correctmistakes made whenRepublicans maintainpower, Fitzhugh said, "I think in 2018 we should do it on the state level."

Fitzhugh, who made no mention of his interest in running for governor, said it was time a Democrat controlled the executive branch in Tennessee.

Although Friday's event did not provide any concrete answers about whethertheparty will see a competitive gubernatorialprimary next year, what was clear is that Democrats are looking forward to a bounce-back election in light of Trump's presidency.

Trump's administration has been mired in controversy over a variety of issues, including the ongoing investigation into Russia's involvement in the 2016 election.

Throughout the evening, Klobuchar and other speakers, includingCongressman Jim Cooper, offered occasionalbarbs to Trump.

Other speakers to address the audiencewere Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, state party chairwoman Mary Mancini, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan, as well as actor Ed Asner.

Reach Joel Ebert atjebert@tennessean.comor 615-772-1681andon Twitter@joelebert29.

Read or Share this story: http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2017/05/20/dean-fitzhugh-minnesota-senator-seek-energize-tennessee-democrats/333835001/

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Dean, Fitzhugh, Minnesota senator seek to energize Tennessee Democrats - The Tennessean

Sacramento Bee

Nurses heckle Democratic leader, threaten legislators over health care Sacramento Bee State Democrats' three-day convention had a raucous start Friday, as liberal activists booed and heckled Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez after marching from the state Capitol to promote a universal heath care program. The leader of the ...

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Nurses heckle Democratic leader, threaten legislators over health care - Sacramento Bee

Democrats are outnumbered in Washington, and that may leave them little leverage to stop Republicans intent on dismantling net neutrality rules that were a signature Obama-era regulation.

But they say they will keep trying.

I never believe all is lost, said Mignon Clyburn, the sole Democrat at the Federal Communications Commission.

Clyburns two Republican colleagues on the commission out-voted her Thursday to begin formally considering weakening the rules, which prohibit broadband providerssuch as AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. from blocking or slowing some web traffic in favor of other content -- their own or a paying customers. The action begins months of consideration leading to a second, conclusive vote after a comment period that ends in August.

The prospect of changing the rules has produced a public outpouring, demonstrating the populist appeal of an issue that has pitted Silicon Valley and its Democratic backers against long-established telecoms. The FCC has registered more than 2 million emailed comments -- many after TV comedian John Oliver urged viewers to act. When the rules were put in place by a Democratic-controlled FCC in 2015, some 4 million people offered comments.

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It seems unlikely the rule supporters can win over Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Michael ORielly, the Republicans who make up the agencys majority and gave full-throated endorsements to the change. Pai said the action marked the beginning of repealing utility-style regulation, and ORielly told reporters he has raised concerns with all of the rules and the need for any rules to enforce net neutrality, or equal treatment web traffic.

Related story: Divided U.S. FCC Votes to Begin Net Neutrality Rule Rollback

Under Pais proposal the agency will consider lifting bans on blocking web traffic, and against building fast lanes that favor those willing to pay more for faster service. The agency also will consider whether to keep a ban against impairing or degrading web traffic, known as throttling.

Democrats also hold a minority of both chambers of Congress and havent been willing to take up Republican lawmakers offers to write a law that would supersede the FCCs efforts out of suspicion the legislation would weaken protections.

On Thursday, Democrats called for resistance. Senator Maggie Hassan, of New Hampshire, said she will continue fighting and Senator Kamala Harris, of California, said she will fight to protect the net neutrality rules.

The movement to defend net neutrality will not stop, said Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. I will oppose any legislative efforts that weaken or undermine the Open Internet Order -- the formal name for the 2015 rule passed while President Barack Obama was in office.

Republicans asked for a negotiated peace to end a debate thats raged for more than a decade.

We need a statute offering clear and enduring rules, said Senator John Thune, the South Dakota Republican who is chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that oversees the FCC. Unless grounded in legislation, partisan policy changes through administrative action can be fleeting.

Why Republicans Want to Nix U.S. Net Neutrality Rules: QuickTake

Pai,a Republican appointed chairman by President Donald Trump, wants to remove strong legal authority that critics say over-regulates telephone and cable providers, and that defenders say is needed to enforce fair treatment of web traffic.

Republicans say the regulation discourages investment and hamstrings broadband companies. The rules were passed at the urging of President Barack Obama, and Democrats say theyre needed to prevent unfair treatment of web traffic by companies that control access to homes and smartphones.

NCTA-The Internet and Television Association, a trade group with Comcast among its members, said the vote appropriately begins the agencys efforts to restore a modern regulatory framework that will promote internet freedom.

USTelecom, a trade group for broadband providers including AT&T and Verizon, said in a news release the vote moved policy toward a modern, constructive policy framework.

The Internet Association, with members including Alphabet Inc.s Google, Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Netflix Inc., said it opposed to Pais changes. Broadband providers should not be able to use their position as gatekeepers to prioritize their own content over others, Michael Beckerman, president of the group, said in an emailed statement.

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Outnumbered Democrats Say They'll Still Fight for Net Neutrality - Bloomberg