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Congress Ushers in New Era of All-Republican Rule: Associated Press by Donna Cassata—On Tuesday at noon, with plenty of pomp and pageantry, members of the 115th Congress will be sworn in, with an emboldened GOP intent on unraveling eight years of President Barack Obama's Democratic agenda and targeting massive legacy programs from Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson such as Social Security and Medicare....First up for Republicans is repeal of the health care law, expediting the process for scrapping Obama's major overhaul but holding off on some changes for up to four years. The only obstacle to the far-reaching conservative agenda will be Senate Democrats who hold the power to filibuster legislation, but even that has its political limitations. Twenty-three Democrats are up for re-election in 2018, including 10 from states Trump won, and they could break ranks and side with the GOP
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Dems, GOP Get Ready for Showdown on Obamacare: Politico by Jennifer Haberkorn & Rachana Pradhan—Republicans return to Washington with the power to make good on their nearly seven-year-old promise to repeal Obamacare. The long-standing fight over Obamacare's repeal is about to become a battle over messaging. Instead of doing a victory lap after they start dismantling the law in January, Republicans will not only have to rewrite a massive law, they'll have to quickly sell the public on the idea that their plan is cheaper and won't leave millions of Americans uninsured. An early look at the GOP's plans shows that they will be pushing the idea that "universal access" to health insurance is better than mandatory "universal coverage," which has been the foundation of Obamacare.
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These Coal Country Voters Backed Trump. Now They’re Worried About Losing Obamacare: Washington Post by Greg Sargent—Last night, CNN aired a terrific segment on people from coal country who voted for Donald Trump — but are now worried that his vow to repeal Obamacare will deprive them of crucial protections that enable them to stay afloat financially. This dovetails with other reporting that suggests a lot of Trump voters may be harmed by repeal of the law….The Wall Street Journal recently demonstrated that rural, aging, and working-class counties that went overwhelmingly for Trump also showed large drops in the uninsured rate. Similarly, Gallup-Healthways data shows that among non-college, lower income whites—a Trump demographic—the uninsured rate has dropped 10 percentage points.