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WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. President Donald Trump (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)Win McNamee Getty Images

President Donald Trump hinted that he may end a key Affordable Care Act subsidy that makes insurance accessible to poorer Americans, a move that may critically destabilize health-insurance exchanges.

The administration has previously floated the idea to halt subsidies that help insurers offset health-care costs for low-income Americans, called a cost-sharing reduction, or CSR. In a tweet on Saturday, Trump hinted at ending that program.

If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon! the president said in a tweet on Saturday.

It was unclear if Trumps message means he also plans to directly target subsidies that are available to health insurance policies for some Congressional staff members. The White House declined to comment further on Trumps tweet.

A months-long effort by Senate Republicans to pass health-care legislation collapsed early Friday after Republican John McCain of Arizona joined two of his colleagues to block a stripped-down Obamacare repeal bill. McCains no vote came after weeks of brinkmanship and after his dramatic return from cancer treatment to cast the 50th vote to start debate on the bill earlier in the week. The skinny repeal bill was defeated 49-51, falling just short of the 50 votes needed to advance it. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also voted against it.

For more on the efforts to repeal the ACA, click here.

Ending the CSR subsidies, paid monthly to insurers, is one way that Trump could hasten Obamacares demise without legislation, by prompting more companies to raise premiums in the individual market or stop offering coverage. The administration last made a payment about a week ago for the previous 30 days, but hasnt made a long-term commitment.

Responding on Twitter, Andrew Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the Obama administration, said the impact of cutting off subsidy payments will be felt by the middle class who will pay more to subsidize low income.

The next payments are due Aug. 21. On Friday, health-care analyst Spencer Perlman at Veda Partners LLC said in a research note that theres a 30 percent chance Trump will end CSR payments, which may immediately destabilize the exchanges, perhaps fatally.

Americas Health Insurance Plans, a lobby group for the industry, has estimated that premiums would rise by about 20 percent if the CSR payments arent made. Many insurers have already dropped out of Obamacare markets in the face of mounting losses, and blamed the uncertainty over the future of the cost-sharing subsidies and the individual mandate as one of the reasons behind this years premium increases.

Moments after the Senate voted down the Republican bill on Friday morning, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called on Democrats to offer their ideas for moving forward with health care. But he warned, Bailing out insurance companies, with no thought of any kind of reform, is not something I want to be a part of.

A survey in April by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation showed that 61 percent Americans believe Trump and Republicans are responsible for future problems with the ACA, while 31 percent said President Barack Obama and Democrats would be at fault.

Excerpt from:
Donald Trump Hints at Ending Subsidy That Gives Health Care to the Poor - Fortune

One Long Island lawman who definitely would have been cheering when President Trump told cops in Suffolk County on Friday to be rough and please, dont be too nice with those they arrest is former Suffolk County Chief of Police James Burke.

Burke was unable to attend the speech because he is presently Inmate 87450-053 at the Allenwood Federal Correctional Complex, having been sentenced just before the 2016 election to a 46-month term on charges that began with battering a handcuffed prisoner who had stolen a duffle bag of porn and sex toys from the trunk of his department car. The beating had turned savage when the prisoner, Christopher Loeb, had the temerity to call Burke a perv.

Burke also admitted to conspiring to obstruct justice by mounting a cover-up. He pressured the cops who were present to commit perjury and he became so worried about anybody else blabbing to the feds that he pulled three uncommonly skilled, knowledgeable and effective Suffolk County detectives from the joint Long Island Gang Task Force just as it was making considerable progress against MS-13.

By one count, the trio was instrumental in locking up 27 gang members in connection with 12 murders, along with numerous assaults and robberies over two years period before Burke removed them from the task force in 2012.

Detective John Oliva, widely viewed as the most knowledgeable of the three regarding MS-13, was transferred to a local precinct. He went from working a gang homicide to investigating the theft of a gumball machine from outside a shop.

Another of the detectives was Robert Trotta, who has gone on to become a Republican county legislator. He firmly believes that if he and his two comrades had just been allowed to continue their work in the task force, MS-13 would have been decimated on Long Island long before Trump was prompted to come.

One hundred per cent, Trotta told the Daily Beast on Saturday.

Trotta was at Fridays speech, seated in the second row. He had the wrenching knowledge of what might have been as Trump introduced the parents of teens who had been murdered my MS-13.

A lot of people would still be alive today, Trotta told the Daily Beast. Most if not all of those people's kids would still be alive today. No doubt in my mind.

Perhaps because anybody who was a cop for a quarter century has encountered a well-heeled civilian buff who tries to be one of the guys, Trotta did not take Trump as seriously as others might have when he spoke of being rough with prisoners.

While I dont in any way condone beating prisoners, I think it was more tongue in cheek than serious, Trotta said.

Trotta did allow that the former fiefdom of James Burke was not the venue to make light of such matters.

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Clearly it was the wrong spot for him to say it, Trotta said.

Of course, Trump might have been tipped to that if his Long Island born-and-raised new communications director had bothered asking around rather than calling up a New Yorker writer to talk about a person in the White House having oral sex with himself. Any number of Anthony Scaramuccis fellow Long Islanders might have told him to call Trotta.

Even so, Trump should not have needed anybody to alert him that the message carried a danger, whether or not it was half in jest.

I do think that some overzealous cop might take it as, Oh, the president said I can do it, Trotta said.

One person who should have been at Trumps speech was Oliva, who knew more about MS-13 than anybody. He was forced out of the Suffolk County Police Department altogether after his removal from the task force.

John Oliva should have been sitting next to me, Trotta said.

Meanwhile, a federal investigation continues into a range of other possible crimes by Burke and others. Burke also refused to let his detectives cooperate with the FBI in the hunt for a serial killer who has left at least 10 bodies alongside Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County, among them a child. One question is whether Burke was worried about the feds in general as he seems to have been in pulling the three detectives from the gang task force or more particularly concerned that he might somehow be associated with the killings. Conspiracy theories abound.

What is clear is that three detectives demonstrated five years ago that they knew exactly how to take on MS-13, and that it has nothing to do with getting rough when you put a prisoner in the back of what Trump calls a "paddy wagon or not placing your hand over a prisoner's head so he will not bang it against the door frame when you are putting him in a patrol car.

Imagine the speech Trump could have given if Scaramucci or somebody else on his staff had spoken to his fellow Republican Trotta beforehand.

Imagine if along with introducing the still grieving parents of the murdered teens, Trump had also introduced the detectives who might have prevented the killings in the first place. Imagine the cheers if Trump had then announced that the third member of the trio, Detective William Maldonado, is still on the job and back on the task force.

Imagine if we had a president who learned and thought before he spoke, rather than trying to be of the guys the way as his new hire, Scaramucci.

Instead, we have a president who sounds like as much of a mook as the Mooch.

More here:
Did Donald Trump Know the Police Chief Was One of Long Island's Nastiest Criminals? - Daily Beast

Donald Trump has made late-night TV great again, daypart writers came to TCA to discuss.

Even so, they, like late-night show hosts, seemed squeamish celebrating, and insisted they take no particular joy in the banquet of material served up each morning, noon and night by the former reality-TV star.

The President Show head writer Christine Nangle, for instance, said her typical first response to a Trump tweet is, Were all going to die.

I dont want this job, Nangle joked.

Full Fontal with Samantha Bee writer/correspondent Ashley Nicole Black said she reacts to Trump with a day-long stomach ache, adding that, for the option of poking fun of Hillary Clintons pantsuits and policies I would give anything.

I find it exhausting, chimed in The Jim Jefferies Show writer Jason Reich.

The panel included no one from any of the broadcast late-night programs because it was taking place on one of the cable days at TCA.

Trump has been a positive in that he has put a spotlight on part of our culture and part of our country that a lot of people did not know existed, Nangle said, playing into the long-held belief by, say, everybody else, that media would be well served spending more/any time outside of New York, Washington, and Los Angeles.

When Trump won on television, and everyone was, How did this happen?! this is how, she said, explaining media ignored a whole segment of people who feel this way.

What satirists can do is go deeper into that part of country a lot of people did not even think existed, she told TV critics, some of whom write for outlets in that part of the country.

This man did not come out of nowhere, Nangle said, adding, That has been valuable.

On the other hand, there is a certain amount of preaching to the choir going on, they acknowledged. We are not going to put a Full Frontal with Samantha Bee ad on Fox, Black said, taking up the media talking point that the real problem with the country is that media diets are so separated.

But, the writers insisted, they do, when called for, call out MSM Trump love to bash. The panel reminisced about breathless press reports of a previously undisclosed second meeting of Trump and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin at G20.

Late-night writers were not so undie-bunched as, say, CNN and MSNBC, when they learned Trump walked over to where Putin was sitting, next to Melania Trump, at the G20 dinner party. He spoke to Putin for nearly an hour with only Putins translator present, Trump having not brought his Russian translator with him to the clambake. Its our job to continue to challenge even people we agree with, The Daily Show writer Hallie Haglund said.

Asked if they make an effort not to be All-Trump-All-The-Time, Full Frontals Black said, Its tough to do a segment on the impact of a bit of legislation that happened in the distant past, for instance, when Trumps new White House Communications director just said, Someone wants to suck their own dick.

View post:
Late Night Writers Love/Hate That Donald Trump Has Made Their Daypart Great Again TCA - Deadline

Given the president's childish, churlish behavior, perhaps it's time for him to go into political timeout for a few months and figure things out. Case in point: his recent outburst where he indicated he can pardon anyone he wants to because, well, as president he can do that.

That represents a fascinating bit of illogic, namely that if his staff or cabinet have done something stupid, whether they admit it or not, it's OK, because he'll pardon them.

Admittedly there are forces at work, whether they are the media, adversaries such as Russia abroad, and even political factions at home, who don't like Donald Trump and want him out. However, that doesn't mean the president can act like a smug, spoiled brat.

Instead he's got to figure how best to work with both sides of the aisle while at the same being more judicious in choosing his staff and Cabinet and passing his legislative agenda. It's clear that the president has gotten off on the wrong foot regarding his staff, Cabinet and closest advisers. No president in recent memory has made so many bad choices about those he wants to help him govern the nation.

Of course, all of us could be wrong. In a month or a year or the end of his term in office, we might find he's smarter than we thought and done a fantastic job governing the nation. I think I'll check Las Vegas and see what the odds are that will happen.

Dean Dranias, Plainfield

Here is the original post:
Donald Trump needs a 'political timeout' - Chicago Tribune

On late-night shows, in stand-up routines and scripted sitcoms, the opposition to President Donald Trump is more intense than a rally full of pink pussy hats. Hes an endless source of material for joke-writers, but also a five-alarm crisis, with barely a voice in mainstream or alternative comedy that isnt against him. Punchlines morph into earnest manifestos about diversity or health care. The jokes and jeremiads give Trump opponents the release they neednever mind how they might alienate Trump supporters on the receiving end. And they drive Twitter rages from a president who once felt all publicity was good publicityuntil he became pop cultures No. 1 whipping boy.

Maz Jobrani, the stand-up comedian and actor, has been trying to channel his own experience hating and protesting Trump into his work. Marching at LAX against the travel ban becomes one bit. Arguing with his mother about her saying she likes that Trump speaks his mind becomes another. But its hard to be funny when you feel like your country is going to hell, and everything starts to sound more shrill than amusing.

Story Continued Below

He has emboldened racists. I say that. Theres no joke. Theres no punch line, Jobrani told me, in an interview for POLITICOs Off Message podcast. But I think if you do that, you better have a punch line coming soon.

But he quotes a line from the comedian D.L. Hughley: Comedy is like giving people their medicine in orange juice. They dont taste it.

Stephen Colbert, who since the election dropped the pretense of playing it down the middle in his new role at CBS, has turned non-stop mocking Trump into skyrocketing ratings. Jimmy Kimmel turned a monologue about Obamacare into what amounted to a viral ad denouncing Republicans perceived cruelty. Weekend Update is coming back early, ahead of the new season of Saturday Night Live, which will have Alec Baldwin back in his Trump wig, though Sean Spicers departure will probably mean fewer Melissa McCarthy cameos behind her rolling podium.

Appearing on Colberts show on Wednesday night, satirical filmmaker Michael Moorea cartoon of the left himself who nonetheless predicted Trump would win last yearargued that McCarthy should get the credit for taking down Spicer. We need an army of satire, he said. A few minutes later, James Corden opened his CBS show following Colbert in a top hat and tux, singing a parody mocking Trumps tweeted transgender ban for the military.

Jobrani knows its all deepening the chasm between conservatives and the entertainment worldbut he doesnt care.

Trump supporters or people on the right, whenever Ive doneeven under Bush, when I would do jokes, they felt like I was attacking them. And Im not attacking you, Im attacking this politician, he said. If youre going to take it personally, like its yourlike Im making fun of your mother, then thats an issue you have.

Jobrani says that people who cant laugh at Trump are just too invested in the president, and not invested enough in the free speech and critical thinking that to him is the whole point of democracy. Hes heard the response that comes back: Well, then, why dont you make fun of Obama? Because he just didnt do a lot of stuff that was funny to me.

Jobrani arrived in America when he was six, on a visa he may or may not have overstayed illegally: His father brought him and his sister on what was supposed to be a two-week trip for their winter break in 1978, but decided in the face of the Iranian Revolution not to go backon such short notice that theyd left his baby brother behind with relatives. He recorded his new comedy special out on Netflix next week, Immigrant, on stage at the Kennedy Center in April with a giant photo of his Iranian passport picture projected above him, inspired by his reaction to Trump.

Raised near San Francisco, Jobrani was in a political science Ph.D. program at UCLA before dropping out for a performing career that started out with many roles as a terrorist. But its the stereotyping hes seeing going on now, in real life, that has him worried.

No matter how American I amIve been here for most of my lifethere are people that still dont consider me American, Jobrani said. Its like, OK, if youre going after green card holders, whats next?

His routine about the travel ban centers around how differently he and other darker-skinned marchers at LAX in February reacted to the police, compared with the white people who were there. In his joke, everyones in it together, marching, chanting, yellinguntil the police show up, and he says the white people got right in their faces, while he and the other non-white people in the crowd quietly edged away.

That feeling is real, he said, accentuated by a climate Trump has encouraged.

I feel, somewhere in the back of my mind, I would feel like they could take my citizenship away, and send me back to Iran, Jobrani said. I honestly do feel that there is a thing in my mind that my rights could be taken away at any minute. And not just my rights; anybodys rights.

Jobrani has been profiled by casting agents and TSA agents alike, but he said he doesnt mind how thats played into his current big role. On the CBS sitcom Superior Donuts, the Iranian-born actor plays an Iraqi, and one with a much stronger accent in English than he has in real life. He asked the writers about making the character, a dry cleaner, Iranian, offering to bring knowledge and a little Farsi to the role, but they saw the humor in lines that referenced living through a war. He noted to them that the Iran-Iraq War could provide that material, but they told him they didnt think most Americans would be familiar enough with that.

Its an awkward fact that playing around with ethnic stereotypes has boosted Jobranis career, as with so many comedians of color. Does that make him uncomfortable? Not really, he insistsbut hes thought about comedian Aziz Ansaris plea to non-white actors to avoid playing up their accents and other stereotypes (a big theme of Ansaris first season of Master of None). Jobrani sees his Faz as in the tradition of Danny DeVitos Louie DePalma on Taxi and Rhea Perlmans Carla on Cheers.

To have a character with an accent making people in middle America, or wherever it is, laugh, I actually think thats progress, because whether hes like, saying ludicrous stuff, or some of his stuff is like sexist or whatever, I still feel that we are taking a step in the right direction, Jobrani said. It reminds you that there are peopleimmigrantsthat are just businessmen, that are going to say stuff that is ridiculous. But I think its a drop in this big pond that goes in the right direction.

Others in Hollywood have pushed for more. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a recent speech at the Creative Artists Agency, urged the crowd to channel their frustration with Trump and whats happening into scripts and other ways of shaping the popular imagination.

I want them to know that they have power, Schwarzenegger said in his own recent Off Message podcast interview. If they go out and they rally and they go and let their frustration be heard and go and join a movement or whatever it is, be involved and don't just sit there and look at the news and look at the news and look at the television and then complain. Thats not good enough.

Like most comedians, Jobrani is easily boredso hes left most of the material recorded in his special behind and is working on new bits. Hes trying to tell jokes about being a father, about his son and daughter, but up on stage, its the political stuff that ends up getting most of the laughs in spite of his best efforts.

Even though Im not trying to do Trump jokes, I end up doing Trump jokes, he sighed. But Im exhausted of Trump jokes.

Read the original:
Is Donald Trump Funny? - Politico