DAILY NEWS
Health care liars, minimum wage liars, deficit liars
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
HEALTH CARE
EDITOR’S NOTE — After the GOP suspended bipartisan efforts to shore up the health insurance market, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) released a statement saying, “I am disappointed that Republican leaders have decided to freeze this bipartisan approach and are trying to jam through a partisan Trumpcare bill, but I am confident that we can reach a deal if we keep working together — and I am committed to getting that done.”
ALSO at The Stand — Call Congress to stop latest health care attack — CALL 202-224-3121 TODAY and leave messages for both Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and also for your Representative, particularly if it’s one of the four Republicans from Washington state: Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Dave Reichert, Jaime Herrera Beutler, and Dan Newhouse. Tell them to OPPOSE the Graham-Cassidy “health care” bill.
► From The Hill — Study: New ObamaCare repeal would cost states $215B — The newest legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would slash federal funding to states by $215 billion through 2026 and cut more than $4 trillion over a 20-year period, according to a new analysis by a nonpartisan consulting firm.
► In today’s Washington Post — Under latest health-care bill, red states would benefit disproportionately — Fourteen of the 15 states that would stand to gain from block grants are run by Republicans; Democratic megastates including California, New York and Massachusetts would lose billions of dollars, a feature both Graham and Cassidy have talked up to conservatives.
EDITOR’S NOTE — That’s right. In their attempt to sell this POS to their colleagues, Republicans are bragging that more people will lose health care in Democratic-leaning states (like Washington) than Republican-leaning states. Welcome to their United States.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Really, Cathy? Really?
► MUST-READ from Vox — I’ve covered the GOP repeal plans since day one. Graham-Cassidy is the most radical. (by Sarah Kliff) — The bill takes money from states that did a good job getting residents covered under Obamacare and gives it to states that did not. It eliminates an expansion of the Medicaid program that covers millions of Americans in favor of block grants. States aren’t required to use the money to get people covered or to help subsidize low- and middle-income earners, as Obamacare does now. Taken together, these components add up to a sweeping proposal sure to upend the American health care system. Because the Senate hasn’t seen an independent analysis yet from the Congressional Budget Office, I can’t even say for sure how sweeping, and neither can any of the Republicans who have come out in support of it.
► In today’s Washington Post — Jimmy Kimmel gets heated about health-care bill, says Sen. Bill Cassidy ‘lied right to my face’ — “They’re counting on you to be so overwhelmed with all the information you just trust them to take care of you, but they’re not taking care of you. They’re taking care of the people who give them money, like insurance companies. And we’re all just looking at our Instagram accounts and liking things while they’re voting on whether people can afford to keep their children alive or not.”
LOCAL
► In today’s Seattle Times — First delivery of Boeing’s KC-46 Air Force tanker slides into next year — Following new development problems, Boeing won’t be able to deliver its first KC-46 air refueling tanker to the Air Force this year as previously expected.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Punching the Nazi was actually the least dramatic free-speech showdown this week (by Danny Westneat) — C’mon, folks, if by chance you run into a wayward Nazi downtown, or an outspoken professor saying something you don’t like, or even of all things, a college Republican, don’t punch, threaten violence or censor. All this gets you is the thing you’re supposedly against — more intolerance.
THIS WASHINGTON
EDITOR’S NOTE — Two years ago, the Washington Policy Center (a corporate-funded think tank) was warning us that raising Yakima’s then-$9.47/hour minimum wage “will not encourage employers and entrepreneurs to create more jobs. It will, of course, do the opposite.” Today Yakima’s minimum wage is $11/hour and the local unemployment rate has, of course, dropped from 7% to 5.8% in the past year.
► In today’s Olympian — Uh-oh: Dueling carbon initiatives (editorial) — There is a case to make that all parties working on a climate initiative should work together on a single proposal for 2018. Differences between climate-action groups helped sink I-732.
ALSO at The Stand — Momentum builds for Alliance’s climate change campaign
THAT WASHINGTON
► From Politico — Price’s private-jet travel breaks precedent — In a sharp departure from his predecessors, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price last week took private jets on five separate flights for official business, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars more than commercial travel. Price, a frequent critic of federal spending who has been developing a plan for department-wide cost savings, declined to comment.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.