governors

The Republicans’ latest drive to repeal Obamacare is reminiscent of a poetry fragment from Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”: “Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why.”

Whatever happens with the bill likely slated to reach the Senate floor next week, it is hard to escape the feeling that this wild charge will end badly for the Republicans.

Updated at 8:40 a.m. | Donald Trump on Wednesday implored lawmakers to quickly send him a tax overhaul package a day after his top liaison to Congress said the president is frustrated by the often-plodding pace on Capitol Hill.

Trump and his top aides are busily discussing the contents of a bill that would slash individual and corporate tax rates, while also simplifying the federal tax code, with congressional Republicans and Democrats. Trump wants to sign a bill into law this calendar year.

Donald Trump’s message to Floridians likely in the path of Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful recorded Atlantic storms, is not one urging them to get to safety. Rather, the president used the hurricane Wednesday morning to laud his own team’s response to another major storm.

In short, the coming crisis is allowing the president to market his administration as disaster response experts — with him at the helm — for the second time in a few weeks.

Updated at 11:43 a.m. | Trump administration officials have informed congressional Republican leaders to expect an initial Hurricane Harvey emergency spending request perhaps as soon as Friday, according to administration and congressional sources.

The White House expects to ask Congress for about $6 billion dollars in its first disaster supplemental request for Hurricane Harvey recovery, an administration official told CQ Roll Call.

President Donald Trump expects the damage from Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Louisiana will require additional funding from Congress — and says he wants lawmakers to send him an aid bill “quickly.”

Trump echoed Vice President Mike Pence by saying he believes FEMA and other federal entities involved in immediate response efforts have ample funding. During an earlier television interview, Pence left the door open to needing extra funds — but Trump went much further.

In the wake of racial violence over the weekend in Virginia, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi renewed his call Monday to remove the Confederate battle emblem from his state’s flag.

The Republican senator advocated the change in light of the fact that an altered version of the Mississippi flag was displayed Saturday during the neo-Nazi rally in the central Virginia city of Charlottesville, The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger reported.

Trump administration policies — or the murkiness surrounding them — will increase millions of Americans’ health care premiums by double digits in 2018, a new nonpartisan study found.

In Wilmington, Del., for instance, consumers can expect a 49 percent hike on their rates.

A new poll found a third of Americans think a GOP health care policy would marginally affect their health care. Just 15 percent think their coverage would improve. So why are Republicans hellbent on dismantling the 2010 health care law before the August recess?

Nine out of every 10 respondents to a new Economist/YouGov poll agreed health care is an issue that is at least “somewhat important,” with seven out of 10 saying health care was “very important.”

Republican Rep. Steve Pearce is suing New Mexico’s Democratic Secretary of State to use his $1 million congressional campaign war chest for his gubernatorial bid. 

Maggie Toulouse Oliver told Pearce the state’s campaign contribution limits allow him to use only $5,500 from his federal campaign for his primary race, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.