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MILTON, Fla. -- At Grover Ts Barbecue in Milton, Florida, Congressman Matt Gaetz was grilled before he even got inside.

I want to know if the president is bought and paid for by the Russian oligarchy! one woman said to him.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, right, meets constituents

CBS News

We should know that about everyone not just the president, Gaetz replied.

President Trump was also a prime topic in New Jersey, home to Republican Congressman Leonard Lance.

I would like to know what you plan to do when he makes delusional statements one attendee asked at a town hall event.

When I believe the president hasnt spoken the truth, I will give my point of view, Lance responded.

The challenge for Republicans: how strongly to defend the president when theyre already dealing with Democratic anger over plans to repeal Obamacare.

Protesters gathered outside Congressman Dave Reicherts Washington State office on Thursday, and laid into Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton Wednesday night.

My husband with dementia, Alzheimers, multiple other things, and you want to stand there with him at home and expect us to be calm, cool and collected? Well, what kind of insurance do you have? one woman asked Cotton.

A woman grills Sen. Tom Cotton about health care at a Wednesday town hall

But the uprisings from coast to coast have not swayed Republicans like Cotton or Gaetz when it comes to a top GOP priority.

I will fight with every fiber of my being to repeal Obamacare in 2017, Gaetz said.

Former House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, was skeptical about that on Thursday. At a speech in Florida he said Republicans have never been able to agree on how to replace the Affordable Care Act and at the end of the day are more likely to tweak it than repeal it.

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Republicans wrestle with how much to defend Trump when facing protests at home - CBS News

It was only two months ago that Governor Sam Brownback was offering up the steep tax cuts he enacted in Kansas as a model for President Trump to follow. Yet by the time Republicans in Congress get around to tax reform, Brownbacks fiscal plan could be historyand itll be his own party that kills it.

The GOP-controlled legislature in Kansas nearly reversed the conservative governors tax cuts on Tuesday, as a coalition of Democrats and newly-elected centrist Republicans came within a few votes of overriding Brownbacks veto of legislation to raise income-tax rates and eliminate an exemption for small businesses that blew an enormous hole in the states budget. Brownbacks tax cuts survive for now, but lawmakers and political observers view the surprising votes in the state House and Senate as a strong sign that the five-year-old policy will be substantially erased in a final budget deal this spring. Kansas legislators must close a $346 million deficit by June, and years of borrowing and quick fixes have left them with few remaining options aside from tax hikes or deep spending cuts to education that could be challenged in court. The tax bill would have raised revenues by more than $1 billion over two years.

The Brownback blowback has been a long time coming. Though he won reelection in 2014, the governor has presided over one budget mess after another since then, and all but his staunchest conservative allies have blamed the crisis on reductions in personal tax rates and a provision that exempted 330,000 owners of small businesses from paying income taxes. Brownback has resisted efforts to undo the policies, preferring instead to raise taxes on tobacco, fuel, and other consumer goods. His relationship with Republicans in the legislature deteriorated, and in primary and general elections last year, a wave of Democrats and centrist Republicans defeated many of the conservatives who had stood by him.

The GOP may retain a majority in both chambers, but Brownback most definitely does not. What were having is a standoff with the governor holding on to the old days where he had all these people elected, said Senator Barbara Bollier, a moderate Republican who voters promoted from the state House last year. They arent there anymore, and he cant let go and follow the will of the people.

As for Brownbacks legacy, Bollier said: Its going down in flames.

The governor has fiercely defended the tax cuts, arguing that they stimulated job creation while it was the decline in oil and agriculture pricesthe rural recession, as he calls itthat caused the budget shortfall. They worked! Brownback told my colleague Emma Green at the D.C. March for Life last month when she asked if he regretted signing the tax policies in 2011 and 2012. The target of the tax cuts was job creation and new business formation. That was the target. And that it has done, the governor said. Weve had record new business filings in Kansas and we hit record employment last year in spite of a commodity crisis.

The left media lies about the tax cuts all the time, Brownback added. (His critics note that Kansas still lagged behind all but five other states in job growth last year.)

But its no longer merely journalists or even elected Democrats who criticize the governor in Kansas. Many Republicans have turned on him, too. When I spoke to Bollier and another GOP state lawmaker, Representative Stephanie Clayton, by phone on Thursday, both of them brought up the governors unpopularity without prompting. The people cant stand him here, Clayton told me.

The backlash against Brownback is extending far beyond tax policy. The Kansas House this week passed bills to restore teacher tenure and expand Medicaid, and it blocked an amendment to deprive state funds to Planned Parenthooda longtime target of the governor and other conservatives. The measures still face hurdles making it into law, but their approval by wide margins in a chamber controlled by Republicans illustrates just how much the political terrain has shifted away from the staunch conservatives who won decisive victories in 2010 and 2012. All of those had been way off the agenda for the last four years, said Burdett Loomis, a political scientist at the University of Kansas. Basically the far right had controlled the legislature for the last four years, and now its back to a moderate Republican-Democratic coalition, which is the way it operated in the 80s, the 90s and into the 2000s.

The stakes for Brownbacks fiscal policy were always high, because the governor himself had set them there. The original tax plan, he said, was a real live experiment in conservative fiscal policythe kind small-government Republicans in Washington had dreamed about but had never fully implemented. The goal in Kansas was to phase out the income tax entirely over time in favor of levies on consumption. As revenues shrunk, so, too, would the size of government.

But the revenues dropped immediately, and dramaticallymuch faster than legislators could, or would want to, cut spending. The income tax had accounted for 50 percent of the states revenue, said Haley Pollock of the group Kansas Action for Children, which is part of a coalition pushing to reverse Brownbacks tax cuts. When his tax plan went into effect, there was an immediate structural revenue imbalance, she said. What followed were nine rounds of budget cuts over four years, three credit downgrades, missed state payments, and an ongoing atmosphere of fiscal crisis. Its really hard to argue that the income tax cuts weren't the source of our problems when most of our problems started at the same time that they took effect, Pollock said.

Voters began to take notice, particularly when the budget ax fell on core state functions like education and the upkeep of roads and bridges. They reelected Brownback after a stiff challenge in 2014, but rank-and-file Republicans rebuked him by ousting his legislative allies two years later. All of a sudden they realize, Well you know what? We want government, Clayton told me. People in Kansas tend to want the trains to run on time, proverbially. And they're not, because we cut too much.

With encouragement from Trump, Republicans in Congress are drafting the most far-reaching tax reform in 30 years, built around cutting rates for individuals and businesses. Party leaders insist, as Brownback did, that the tax cuts will pay for themselves through larger economic growth. But Democrats and many economists say the plan would explode a deficit thats already trending back up toward $1 trillion.

Theres a lesson in the Kansas experience, Clayton said, for Republicans in Washington, where the party has built a majority in the U.S. House that has, because of gerrymandering and poor Democratic turnout, seemed impenetrable. The real example here is that the voters will get angry with you, and it doesnt matter how solid-red your state is, Clayton said. If your voters get angry, then they will throw you out. And if you dont run government functionally, they will go to the polls and get rid of you.

Emma Green contributed reporting.

More:
Kansas Republicans Sour on Their Tax-Cut Experiment - The Atlantic

President Donald Trump, in fulfilling what was one of his most consequential campaign promises, said earlier this month that his administration is preparing to repeal and replace Obamacare by the end of March.

Obamacare is a disaster folks, its a disaster. Were doing Obamacare. Were in the final stages.So we will be submitting sometime in early March, mid-March, Trump told reporters Feb. 16 during his first solo White House news conference.

But the task ahead is a daunting challenge, as Republicans on Capitol Hill are reportedly grappling with what a new plan might entail.

Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., told TheBlaze during an exclusive interview Thursday that Republicans are not only grappling with the issue, but that they are also confused about what Senate rules will allow them to repeal, having just a simple majority.

Theres a lot of confusion about Senate rules regarding what they have the votes to do about whether the plan theyre talking about right now would actually repeal Obamacare or just sort of rename it, Cannon said.I believe the House is operating under this presumption the Senate requires 60 votes to repeal the ACAs regulations so the House is proceeding under the assumption they wont be able to repeal those regulations.

Cannon cited House Speaker Paul Ryans plan, which he called Obamacare lite. But, as Cannon noted, he isnt the only one calling it that.

I would say that the Republican establishment position is that theyre going to keep parts of Obamacare. I dont think Obamacare lite is what we should do, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said during a Feb. 15 interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto.

Idaho Republican Rep. Raul Labrador used the same phrase while referring to top Republicans reported plan to replace the health care overhaul.

Im hearing a lot of members say that they want Obamacare lite, Labrador said Jan. 31 during a Bloomberg interview.

Thats not what we promised the American people. Im very concerned about the things Im hearing in the conference because theyre different than the things Ive heard over the last six years, Labrador added.

Cannon said that Republican leadership is discussing keeping in place core provisions of Obamacare, such as requiring everyone in a particular insurance pool to pay the same premium regardless of the individual risk they pose, taxpayer subsidies for health care insurers and perhaps even the individual mandate that requires all Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

Cannon said that Republicans wouldnt impose a penalty on uninsured Americans exactly how Obamacare does but that, instead, tax credits would be offered to the millions of insured Americans while uninsured Americans would be ineligible for the same credits. That, according to Cannon, is the same sort of financial penalty as is imposed under the current law.

But what Republicans are planning, Cannon said, is to get rid of many of the Obamacare taxes, such as taxes on premiums, certain medical devices, health insurance companies and high earners who receive Medicare. Those sources of revenue could all be gone if top Republicans have their way.

But Cannon said that model likely wont work if Republicans end up keeping many of the subsidies and tax credits.

So I dont think that approach really has legs. I think theyre going to try that until they realize that doesnt work, Cannon told TheBlaze.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) agreed. During an interview with The Hill back in December, he said,There needs to be some source of revenue.

Cannon pointed to a Congressional Budget Office analysis from last year, when Republicans were attempting to repeal Obamacare, which found that repealing the taxes in Obamacare without getting rid of or altering its tax credits and subsidies could have catastrophic effects.

It would essentially destroy the individual market, Cannon said.

On the other hand, if Republicans do decide to keep Obamacares taxes to pay for the credits and subsidies, it could very well be political suicide.

For six years, Republicans campaigned on repealing Obamacare. In 2014, after taking back control of both the House and Senate, Republicans made multiple attempts to repeal what many consider to be former President Barack Obamas signature domestic achievement. All of this,not to mention the numerous promises Trump made throughout the 2016 election cycle to repeal and replace Obamacare on day one.

And to add insult to injury for Republicans, at least one recent poll suggested that a growing number of Americans oppose repealing Obamacare.

A Politico/Morning Consult poll released before Trump took office in January found that just 41 percent of voters approved of Obamacare, while a majority 52 percent disapproved. Now, only one month into Trumps presidency, the same poll conducted a second time found that the country is evenly divided, with 45 percent saying they approve of Obamacare and 45 percent saying they disapprove.

The recent uptick in public support, however, hasnt stopped a number of other Republicans from continuing to advocate for the laws repeal.

Its going to happen, Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas told the Daily Signal Thursday. What [the 2015 bill] demonstrated to me was that if you got the right president in the White House, you could send that bill back down to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, and you could repeal large pieces of the Affordable Care Act.

Burgess was referring to a bill, passed by both the House and Senate last year, which Obama later vetoed. The legislation aimed to repeal parts of Obamacare, including Medicaid expansion, the medical device tax and the so-called Cadillac tax for expensive plans, according to Politico.

Tim Phillips, president of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, also said Republicans would be mistaken to go back on their promise.

Obamacare repeal has been litigated in four consecutive national elections, and the result has been the most devastating losses for the Democratic Party since the 1920s. The greatest peril for Republicans in Congress will be if they break their word,Phillips said, according to Real Clear Politics.

FreedomWorks, another conservative grassroots organization, is slated to hold a rally March 15 in Washington, D.C. where they will urge lawmakers to keep their campaign promises. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is scheduled to attend that event.

Will conservatives attempts to remind Republican lawmakers of their repeated promises to repeal and replace Obamacare actually work, though?

It might, Cannon told TheBlaze, but it looks like Republicans are determined to exhaust every alternative first.

Continued here:
Republicans 'grappling' with whether to keep Obamacare 'core provisions' - TheBlaze.com

By Jamie Riley By Jamie Riley February 23 at 5:35 PM

Virginia Republicans arent big fans of drama.

At least not of the political sort. In a Republican Party of Virginia press releaseissued Thursday, the RPV said the antics on display at various congressional town hall meetings and the calls for even more such events are more about drama than electoral discontent.

This ignores just how much Republicans relied upon congressional town hall drama and voter discontent during the Obama presidency.

Lest we forget, consider the town halls then-Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) held during the height of the debate over the Affordable Care Act. According to the New York Times, they were marathon affairs, reportedly lasting an average of five hours, often ending well after midnight.

Perriello lost his reelection bid that year. Maybe it was the drama that wore him down. Or perhaps it was the discontent in his congressional district that pushed him out of office in 2010. He is trying to stage a statewide comeback this year.

Or consider another Democratic incumbent from 2010, congressman Glenn Nye (D-Va.).

Nye avoidedholding town halls in his Hampton Roads district in 2010. According to Politico, this was evidence of a clear enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats, with public polls and anecdotal evidence showing the GOP is fired up for the midterm election and Democratic voters are not.

Nye lost his reelection bid in 2010.

At one time, Virginia Republicans embraced drama with both arms and stoked discontent as furiously as possible because it suited their electoral goals.

And 2010 was a very good year for the GOP. Nationwide, Republicans retook control of the House, helped in part by victories over Perriello, Nye and long time 9th District Rep. Rick Boucher.

So its no mystery Democrats hope to use the very same tactics to push them to victory in 2018. It would be political malpractice or them not to do so.

It makes even more sense that Democrats would seek to push 10th district Rep. Barbara Comstock (R) to hold a town hall event. Putting Comstock on the defensive, even for a moment, with the cameras rolling, would make priceless 2018 campaign fodder.

The Democrats problem, though, isnt their energy they seem to have plenty of that. Its not even their anger or perceived bad manners. If politicians cant endure the wrath of their constituents (and others who happen to show up), they probably arent suited for the job.

Their problem is that unlike Republican activists seven years ago, they dont have a single issue they can point to as a focus for their discontent.

Yes, President Trump gets them agitated, and they are eager to resist him. But is that enough to sway anyone else to join them on the electoral barricades?

Christopher Newport Universitys Quentin Kidd told me that if the resistance theme is used simply to mobilize a group of voters who otherwise wouldnt engage, but the issues on which Democrats campaign are the standard fare of education, transportation, taxes and so on, then Republicans are going to be in an okay position.

But if the anger on display in town halls, street protests, social media and elsewhere is on a par with what Republicans mustered in the 2010 congressional elections with opposition to Obamacare leading the charge Kidd said then Republicans are going to be on the defensive across the board.

Democrats will choose just how much of a resistance candidate they want in their gubernatorial candidate in the June primary.The states Republican members of Congress should watch those results closely.

They will cast votes on the Trump agenda between now and 2018. If Democrats opt for full-bore resistance in 2017, and its successful in November, then enduring a little drama at town hall meetings will be the least of the GOPs worries.

Norman Leahy is a political reporter for the American Media Instituteand producer of the Score radio show.

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Virginia Republicans dislike the drama - Washington Post (blog)

(Youtube/Springdale Public Schools)

GARNER, Iowa When a voter here asked whether Sen. Charles E. Grassley supports a probe of President Trumps tax returns, the Republican gave a qualified yes. In Virginia, asked about Russian interference in the presidential election, Rep. David Brat said an investigator should follow the rule of law wherever it leads. And in Arkansas, Sen. Tom Cotton told 1,400 people sardined into a high school auditorium that the Affordable Care Act has helped Arkansans.

This weeks congressional town halls have repeatedly found Republicans hedging their support for the new presidents agenda and in many cases contradicting their past statements. Hostile questions put them on record criticizing some of the fights Trump has picked or pledging to protect policies such as the more popular elements of Obamacare. And voters got it all on tape, promising to keep hounding their lawmakers if they falter.

Theres more of a consensus among Republicans now that youve got to be more cautious with what youre going to do, Grassley said after an event here, referring to efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. That didnt mean much to me in November and December. But it means a lot now.

No Republican could say that the raucous town halls surprised them. Since December, a growing number of liberal organizations and activists have shared strategies for getting public answers from members of Congress. More than a thousand local groups have been founded to organize around the Indivisible Guide, an organizational how-to manual drafted by former Democratic staffers. Many thousands more have shown up of their own volition at town halls in their districts.

At every town hall, some activists have followed Indivisible advice, spreading themselves around the rooms to avoid looking like a clique, holding up signs with simple messages such as Disagree and synchronizing their chants.

The efficiency of the protests has led some of their targets, including Trump, to question their legitimacy.

The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists, Trump tweeted Tuesday.

[In N.J., record crowd at town hall presses Republican to get tough on Trump]

Fox News, which frequently covered 2009s protests against Democrats and lent several of its hosts to tea party rallies, has largely ignored the town halls. Other coverage in conservative media has focused on the role of veterans of Barack Obamas political campaigns and the Obama-founded Organizing for America in promoting the Indivisible Guide.

Obama told them to get in our faces, Rush Limbaugh told listeners of his radio show on Wednesday. Well, theyre in our faces now, and hows it working out? People are starting to get tired of it.

A number of Republicans have refused to hold town halls and courted ridicule. In California, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, local Indivisible groups held empty chair town halls where activists could meet and note the absence of their legislators.

In Pennsylvania, activists propped up an empty suit to symbolize Rep. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.); in other states, following the guide, they posted dummy Have You Seen Me? ads. In New York, they derided Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for canceling town halls just a week after publishing a report, Millennials & the GOP, urging more members of Congress to hold them.

It is unfortunate and counterproductive that a small number of activists believe the best way to address the very serious issues facing our country is to hijack and ambush community events for the sole purpose of political theater, Stefanik wrote on Facebook.

[Republicans are facing the ire of the anti-Trump movement this week. Will it last?]

Its true that organization has boosted attendance at town halls.

If youve got a personal connection to what this member of Congress is trying to do, youve got a great story to tell and a lot of legitimacy to ask that question, said Indivisible Guide co-author Ezra Levin on a Sunday night conference call, which more than 30,000 activists dialed in to hear. Its really important to be polite, but dont be scared of being firm.

But other Republicans who held public events this week have pushed back against Trumps characterization of protests, and his attack on the media as an enemy of Americans.

No American is another Americans enemy, Cotton said on Wednesday night. He also said: I dont care if anybody here is paid or not. Youre all Arkansans.

They are our fellow Americans with legitimate concerns, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) tweeted on Tuesday, referring to the protesters. We need to stop acting so fragile.

[At a town hall in Trump country, an America thats pleading to be heard]

While the National Republican Congressional Committee warned of possible violence at town halls, this weeks events have been peaceful. The harshest treatment has been loud heckling at answers voters didnt like, for instance when lawmakers struggled to defend the new secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, or to provide details on how the Affordable Care Act could be replaced.

In Iowa, Grassley was booed over his vote for DeVos, and he pointedly defended it only by saying that a president deserved to pick his Cabinet. In Louisiana, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) was laughed at for saying he had not stayed for the entire DeVos hearing.

Cassidy, a medical doctor, is also the author of an ACA replacement bill that Republicans like Grassley have tentatively endorsed. If passed, it would allow states to keep the structure of the ACA, including its Medicaid expansion, even if other states opted out. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, has derided that solution. If you like your Obamacare, you can keep your Obamacare, is how Meadows described it a wry reference to an Obama pledge about individual plans that was belied when the ACA went into effect.

[Dave Brat: I thought it was going to be worse]

The Republicans whove had the neatest escape from town halls had already promised to save major portions of the law. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), one of 23 Republicans whose districts voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump, told an audience Wednesday night that he would go for a replacement plan only if it saved popular parts of the ACA.

I do not favor repeal without there being a replacement in place, he said. Instead, he explained to a patient crowd that he wants to protect coverage for people with preexisting conditions, allow people under 26 to remain on their parents plans and ensure no lifetime caps on coverage. I want to assure the public that the majority in each house of the present Congress, I believe, will make sure these provisions continue.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a staunch Trump supporter from a deep red district, told constituents on Wednesday that preexisting conditions and 26-year-olds were the two Republican provisions that made it into the bill, and would obviously be part of a replacement.

But in 2009, it was Democrats, not Republicans, who introduced those provisions of the ACA. And the replacement framework from Republican leadership promises continuous coverage for people with preexisting conditions and also current health care plans; only the Cassidy plan, co-sponsored by moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and derided by conservatives, goes further.

Republicans have also struggled to answer constituents who took advantage of the ACA provision that allowed states to expand Medicaid to some people over the poverty line. In Cottons state, where a Republican-run government has maintained a version of the expansion called Arkansas Works, more than 300,000 people are estimated to have received coverage since the ACA went into effect.

Those results, and the stakes of repeal, were less clear when Cotton won his seat. The ACA, he said during a town hall meeting in 2014, was nothing but a churn operation designed to grow the power of the federal government. That year, he defeated an incumbent Democrat by 17 points.

Kim Kavin in Branchburg, N.J., contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost

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Republicans distance themselves from Trump's agenda at rowdy town halls - Washington Post