A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep

If you're confused by the news reports and you're wondering how the pieces fit together and where things stand, I'll try to keep this page updated as events unfold. ACA repeal: what happens next? Politico reporter Dan Diamond posted this ACA repeal checklist on Twitter. I've modified it slightly to better reflect the full scope of what's happening when. But don't forget, "ACA repeal" in this context is only a partial repeal, which will set up a "death spiral" in health insurance markets and raise costs for all of us. (Read my backgrounders on what the GOP can and can't do through reconciliation here and on the politics of their replacement plans here .)   ☑  Senate vote-a-rama on amendments to budget outline   ☑  Senate passes budget outline   ☑  House passes budget outline   ☐  House drafts reconciliation bill repealing parts of the ACA, cutting taxes on the .01% wealthiest Americans, and blocking women with Medicaid from g...

I’ve been asked what I think is going to happen in the House now that Kevin McCarthy has pulled out of the running for speaker. The answer is... complicated. But first… If you haven’t been following the tumult in the U.S. House of Representatives with a bowl of popcorn and an ear-to-ear schadenfreude grin… well, let’s just say you don’t live in our home. Here’s the thirty-second recap:  In late September current House Speaker John Boehner was facing a likely coup attempt and an imminent government shutdown unless he caved to the demands of ~40 whackjobs to "defund" Planned Parenthood. As a devout Catholic, he had also just fulfilled his lifelong dream of bringing the pope to speak to a joint session of Congress. So, with little warning even to his closest allies, he announced that he would bring a “clean” short-tern funding bill (i.e. one free of partisan non-starters such as the defund language) up for a vote to prevent a government shutdown. Then he would step...