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Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE / the national interest July 18, 2017 07/18/2017 10:11 am By Jonathan Chait Share Republicans celebrating the House health-care vote in May. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

In 2009, David Frum, the former Bush administration speechwriter whose ideological apostasy was in its formative stages, met with conservative intellectuals to discuss the policy response to the great recession. Faced with evidence that only massive government action a financial rescue coupled with fiscal stimulus could have prevented a complete economic meltdown, one conservative made a startling confession: Maybe it was a good thing we werent in power then because our principles dont allow us to respond to a crisis like this.

The financial crisis is hardly the only issue for which conservative principles turn out to be incompatible with the practical demands of governance. (Climate change leaps to mind.) The collapse of the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare is an especially vivid demonstration of the broader problem. The cohesion Republicans possessed in opposition disintegrated once they had power, because their ideology left them unable to pass legislation that was not cruel, horrific, and repugnant to their own constituents.

Donald Trump promised during the campaign that he would quickly and easily replace Obamacare with an alternative everybody would love. Youre going to have such great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost, he said. Its going to be so easy.

One might dismiss this kind of rhetoric as a typical Trumpian boast. But the candidate was merely translating into the vernacular the somewhat more carefully hedged promises his party had made for years into terms in which they were meant to be understood. Paul Ryans A Better Way road map offered what it called a step-by-step plan to give every American access to quality, affordable health care. more choices and lower costs. And why wouldnt Republicans believe this? After all, Obamacare was, supposedly, a train wreck, a complete failure of design. It therefore followed that they could easily replace it without significant harm to anybody.

In truth, it was never possible to reconcile public standards for a humane health-care system with conservative ideology. In a pure market system, access to medical care will be unaffordable for a huge share of the public. Giving them access to quality care means mobilizing government power to redistribute resources, either through direct tax and transfers or through regulations that raise costs for the healthy and lower them for the sick. Obamacare uses both methods, and both are utterly repugnant and unacceptable to movement conservatives. That commitment to abstract anti-government dogma, without any concern for the practical impact, is the quality that makes the Republican Party unlike right-of-center governing parties in any other democracy. In no other country would a conservative party develop a plan for health care that every major industry stakeholder calls completely unworkable.

Every attempt to resolve the contradiction between public demands and conservative ideology has led the party to finesse it instead. That is why Republicans spent years promising their own health-care plan would come out very soon. It is why their first and best option was repeal and delay. And it is why they are returning to that option now.

The Trump administration might lash out at Obamacare by continuing to sabotage its functioning markets. They will find, however, that sabotaging the insurance exchanges will create millions of victims right away, as opposed to the luxury of delaying the pain until after the elections. The power to destroy remains within the Republican Partys capacity. The power to translate its ideological principles into practical government is utterly beyond its reach.

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Ike Kaveladze is an American businessman who represents the Russian real-estate development company associated with the Agalarov family.

Its been quite a ride, hasnt it?

He makes deals. Thats what he does.

If there really is nothing to the Russia collusion allegations, the editorial posits, transparency will prove it. But, uh, what if not?

If you tell students over and over and over again that certain types of speech are harming them, dont be surprised when they feel harmed.

Now that Trumpcare is all but dead, McConnell will give conservatives their straight repeal vote, and then move on to tax and budget legislation.

Were not laughing, youre laughing.

The House GOP wants the president to break his promise not to cut Medicare, for the sake of funding regressive tax cuts.

Thats 13 years to get a little less than 250,000 women on the ballot.

It was never possible to reconcile public standards for a humane health-care system with conservative ideology.

Sometimes government is complicated because life is complicated, and sometimes compromise requires policies that just arent so simple.

A new book claims Trump didnt want to use the governors phone for his congratulatory call from Obama.

He had to be talked into it, and warned them that he wont keep the deal indefinitely.

After two more GOP defections, McConnell said his bill will not be successful but Obamacare is still in danger.

Obamacare repeal is in big, big trouble.

This is why he wanted a really fast vote.

Watch out Jeb!

Riiiight.

Someone broke into Dean Hellers Las Vegas office and left the threatening message.

The press secretary took the presidents picture in a big-boy fire truck.

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Trumpcare Collapsed Because Republicans Cannot Govern - NYMag - New York Magazine

The donations were a kind of unintentional gift to the de Blasio campaign: It has made tying Ms. Malliotakis, who represents parts of Staten Island and Brooklyn in the Assembly, to the national Republican Party and specifically to Mr. Trump a centerpiece of its strategy since she became the Republican front-runner last month.

Their pockets have no bottoms, Mr. de Blasios campaign said of the Mercers in an email sent to supporters on Monday. The email linked the Mercers to Mr. Trumps chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, and the right-wing website Breitbart News. The email also referred to Ms. Malliotakis as a Trump acolyte.

Ms. Malliotakis, speaking at a news conference in Queens to attack the mayors handling of crime and police issues, dismissed concerns about the donations as irrelevant and said she believed the mayor had also accepted money from people whom he does not see eye-to-eye with all the time. She added, It has nothing to do with Trump.

Sal Albanese, a lawyer and former city councilman who is the most prominent Democratic challenger to Mr. de Blasio, brought in more money than in previous two-month periods, with $41,000 this time around, but he spent it just as fast. He remains far from his goal of qualifying for the citys matching program; a candidate for mayor must raise $250,000 to receive matching funds.

Mr. Albanese could still qualify for the Democratic primary debate with Mr. de Blasio next month. With his current contributions, he would have to collect roughly another $50,000 by Aug. 11 to meet the threshold for the debate.

Bo Dietl, who is running for mayor as an independent, raised $245,266 during the two-month reporting period. Notably, he raised only $38,020 after Mr. Massey dropped out a development that might have been seen as a boost to his bid as well. Mr. Dietl spent more than he raised over the last two months, including more than $150,000 on television advertising.

Mr. Dietl, a former police detective who runs a private investigation company, had hoped to challenge the mayor in a Democratic primary but made a mistake filling out his voter registration form and wound up without a party affiliation. He then lost a court case in which he sought to run as a Republican. (Filings show he paid $10,000 to a lawyer, Martin Connor, who assisted in that effort.)

Another independent candidate, Roque De La Fuente, a millionaire real estate developer and California transplant, continued to put his own money into a campaign that has raised little from outside donors. Mr. De La Fuente lent his campaign $350,000 and raised a little over $8,400 in contributions.

One of the City Council candidates who raised the most money over the two-month reporting period was Mark Gjonaj, a Democratic assemblyman who is running for a seat in the Bronx. He raised $180,040 during the period, the majority of it from outside New York City. Mr. Gjonaj, one of several state lawmakers who are running for the City Council a job that would result in a considerable increase in pay is seeking a seat in a district in which no incumbent is running because of term limits.

A version of this article appears in print on July 18, 2017, on Page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: De Blasio Keeps His Fund-Raising Lead, but a Republican Makes Some Gains.

Link:
De Blasio Keeps Fund-Raising Lead, but a Republican Makes Some Gains - New York Times

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.

Go here to see the original:
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.

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

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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.

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