BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI

& CROOKED MEDIA

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

—President Donald "Best Words" Trump

EITHER VOTE OR DON'T GET SICK

President Trump has all but guaranteed that health care—and specifically the Republican goal of kicking millions of people off of their insurance plans—is the central issue of the 2020 election. Interesting choice!

How did he achieve this? By promising that Republicans will a) introduce a replacement for the Affordable Care Act and b) pass it if they win in 2020.

“I was never planning a vote prior to the 2020 Election on the wonderful HealthCare package that some very talented people are now developing for me & the Republican Party,” Trump tweeted. “It will be on full display during the Election as a much better & less expensive alternative to ObamaCare. This will be a great campaign issue.”

Indeed it will be. But for whom? But. For. Whom.

Of course, Obamacare alternatives are a lot like Apple charging pads: long promised, rarely delivered. Republicans have been promising to replace Obamacare for nearly a decade and every time they’ve told voters they had a plan to do so, they were lying. But Trump’s promise that he will take another stab at health care if Republicans gain political power makes the stakes of the election crystal clear.

Every failed Republican Obamacare alternative has proposed gutting or repealing pre-existing conditions protections and tossing tens of millions of people off of their health plans. By contrast, Democrats will run, again, on protecting people’s health care from Republicans, and on covering the remaining uninsured population, by expanding Medicare to most or all Amreicans.

That is favorable terrain for Democrats, to put it MILDLY. Obamacare remains popular. Voters believe Democrats are better stewards of the health-care system than Republicans. And they just put Democrats in control of the House after Democrats campaigned relentlessly on this issue.

Trump settled on this promise to replace Obamacare in 2021 after the Justice Department, on his orders, asked federal courts to throw out the entire ACA. Now, whether the courts heed his request, or Republicans win big in 2020, Obamacare is on the chopping block again. Republicans in Congress could put a stop to this by shoring up Obamacare against this legal challenge and telling Trump their war on the law is over. Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave them a chance to vote on a resolution condemning Trump’s legal assault on people's health care, and nearly every Republican voted against it.

Georgia Republicans want to create an “ethics board” to fine news outlets that refuse to turn over source materials to subjects who request them. Their plan is almost certainly unconstitutional, but it’s a reflection of how hostile the right has become to democratic institutions. To wit: this anti-democratic move may be aimed at CNN—the outlet President Trump singles out for abuse more than any other—which is headquartered in Atlanta. The First Amendment! Can’t live with it, can destroy democracy without it.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal has formally requested six years of President Trump’s personal tax returns, as well as tax returns for eight of his businesses, and though the administration is likely to deny the request, that would be illegal. The Treasury Department is obligated by law to turn the returns over, and will have to defend anything other than full compliance in court. Finally. Finally! FINALLY.

The House Judiciary Committee has authorized chairman Jerrold Nadler to subpoena Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s unredacted report, as well as several witnesses who have been stonewalling his document requests. Here’s why he should issue those subpoenas right now. Or now. Or…. now.

The FBI reportedly “turbo-charged” a counterintelligence investigation of Chinese-led efforts to infiltrate Mar-a-Lago, after Secret Service agents arrested a woman named Yujing Zhang who tried to enter the president’s for-profit club with a bunch of electronics, including a malware-infected thumb drive. Wait ‘til they find out that thumb drives were in the charity tournament gift bag.

The House intelligence committee wants one of Melania Trump’s friends, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, to turn over documents related to the enormous, shady contract she got to manage Trump's inaugural festivities, which were awash in illegal foreign cash. Winston Wolkoff has been cooperating for months with federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who are also investigating the Trump inauguration committee, and who reportedly obtained a court order to keep the fact of her cooperation a secret. Total exoneration!

A Koch-backed conservative has apparently defeated a Democrat-backed candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in the first state-wide election there since the midterms. Just one race, but an ominous sign ahead of 2020, when the state is expected to be a bellwether for the presidential election. GET YOUR HEADS IN THE GAME PEOPLE! ESPECIALLY YOU, WISCONSIN.

Republicans changed the Senate rules to significantly accelerate the confirmation process, so Mitch McConnell can spend the months before the next election filling court vacancies without delay.

Joe Biden has released a video statement in which he acknowledges that “social norms are changing,” and says he will be “more respectful of people’s personal space,” but offered no apology, after two more women accused him of touching them in ways that made them uncomfortable.

Elizabeth Warren has proposed changing the law to expand criminal liability to corporate executives who “negligently oversee a company that causes severe and widespread harm to families.” Her policy shop is ON IT.

Chicago’s new mayor is former assistant U.S. attorney Lori Lightfoot, who campaigned on reforming the city’s widely-criticized police force. Lightfoot is the first black woman to be elected the city’s mayor, and, as an openly gay woman, the first LGBTQ person to serve as the mayor of a major U.S. city.

We aren't giving up the fight to protect our environment. Inaction on climate change is trash -- but climate activists sure aren't.  For a limited time, make a gift of $25 or more, and we'll send you your very own "Don't Be Trash: Protect Our Planet" tee.

President Trump told House Republicans on Tuesday that they should question the results of elections by falsely alleging widespread voter fraud, and also that the sounds wind turbines make cause cancer. He almost certainly would not have said these ludicrous things if Democrats didn’t generally get more votes than Republicans nationwide, and if coal—the source of energy he prefers, because the industry’s executives give him and his party money—weren’t known to be carcinogenic. Don’t let yourselves grow numb to this stuff.

Patagonia will no longer co-brand vests with certain corporate clients, and will partner instead with companies that are committed to causes, charities, the outdoors, and activism. Standing up for your values is great. Letting finance and tech bros freeze in their over-air-conditioned offices—also great.

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