TRUMP AGENDA: Here’s what’s in the House GOP health-care bill
Republicans unveiled their health care plan last night. Here’s NBC’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Alex Moe with what’s in the bill.
And here’s more analysis from NBC’s Maggie Fox: “A new Republican health care plan keeps much of the basic framework set up by Obamacare, but with a conservative twist, analysts say.”
The Wall Street Journal notes: “Households at the top of the U.S. income ladder would see taxes on their wages and investments drop under the House Republicans’ new health-care proposal. As expected, the bill repeals a 3.8% tax on investment income and a 0.9% tax on wages. Both levies affect only the highest-earning households, those individuals making at least $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000.”
And the New York Times, on a new mandate? “People who let their insurance coverage lapse, however, would face a significant penalty. Insurers could increase their premiums by 30 percent, and in that sense, Republicans would replace a penalty for not having insurance with a new penalty for allowing insurance to lapse.”
Here’s Kevin Brady and Greg Walden in the Wall Street Journal, describing the bill which they say “will rescue those hurt by ObamaCare’s failures and lay the groundwork for a patient-centered health-care system.”
But, via POLITICO: “Some House Freedom Caucus members dismissed the bill as creating a new “entitlement program” by offering health care tax credits to low-income Americans. A Republican Study Committee memo sent to chiefs of staff, obtained by POLITICO, echoed those comments and blasted the bill’s continuation of the Medicaid expansion for three years.”
The Associated Press reviews the rollout for Trump’s revised travel ban. “When President Donald Trump signed his first travel ban with scant warning and little planning seven days into his presidency, he meant to signal he was a man of action. After the lawsuits, chaos at airports and international criticism, Trump's rewritten travel ban sent a different message: The White House has learned some lessons.”
Ari Melber lays out what’s different about the new immigration order.
From the Washington Post: “White House aides struggle to defend Trump wiretap claims”
And from POLITICO: “D.C.’s toughest gig: Defending Donald Trump”
The Wall Street Journal looks again at how Trump’s tweets keep derailing his progress.
The latest on the Sessions recusal, from the New York Times: “Known as a no-nonsense, even-keeled prosecutor, Rod J. Rosenstein was expected to sail through Senate confirmation to be the Justice Department’s second-in-command. But that process has become enmeshed in the drama surrounding questions about President Trump’s campaign ties to Russia.”