Tuesday News: “22 million reasons we need to fight back”; GOP “Rejects Conservatism,” “Can Only Defend Itself by Lying”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, June 27.

• CBO analysis could make it harder for Senate GOP to secure votes for health bill (“The bill would leave 22 million more people uninsured by 2026, the Congressional Budget Office projects, only about a million fewer than the House’s health bill. The measure also would lower federal spending by $321 billion over the decade, far more than the House version, the analysis said…The forecast seemed to worsen the bill’s prospects. At least four GOP senators, including Susan Collins of Maine, have signaled that they would vote against starting debate on the bill in its current form.”)
• The Supreme Court splits the baby on Trump’s travel ban — for now (“The compromise is no victory for the president.”)
• U.S. threatens Syria, says Assad is planning chemical weapons attack
• Want to know the worst thing about the GOP’s health-care bill? (“The huge losses of coverage are entirely unnecessary, the CBO finds.”)
• Is the GOP trying to repeal and replace itself? (That entire party desperately needs to be repealed and replaced with the type of GOP it was in the 1930s-1970s period.)
• How the Republicans’ health-care plan betrays Republicans’ own principles (“When all’s said and done, there’s just one major Republican health-care principle this bill remains loyal to: tax cuts for the rich.”)
• GOP ObamaCare fight faces do-or-die procedural vote
• Poll shows the United States’ image abroad has tumbled under Trump (WINNING! Yeah…or not.)
• Defense officials ‘caught off guard’ by White House statement on Syria chemical weapons prep: report
• The Latest CBO Report Shows Republicans Are Incapable of Crafting a Humane Health Care Bill
• White House threatens to sabotage insurance of low-income people if Trumpcare isn’t passed (“The Trump administration is putting poor people in a lose-lose situation.” Evil.)
• Senate Obamacare repeal on brink of defeat (“At least four Republicans could oppose a key procedural vote to call up the bill. And the party remains deeply divided after a CBO report estimating 22 million fewer Americans would have insurance under the plan.”)
• The ‘international man of mystery’ linked to Flynn’s lobbying deal (“David Zaikin made Russian energy deals, advised Eastern European parties, brokered condos at Toronto’s Trump Tower, and teamed up with the man who hired Michael Flynn.”)
• The GOP Can Only Defend Itself by Lying (“Because the truth of the Republican health care bill is unbearably cruel.”)
• The Senate Health Care Bill Is Stalled. What Now?
• Kaine, Warner comment on CBO score
• Senate Health Bill Reels as C.B.O. Predicts 22 Million More Uninsured
• A Cautious Court Sets a Modern Record for Consensus (“The high level of agreement within the Supreme Court was a consequence of a lack of divisive disputes on social issues and hard work by the justices.”)
• Democrats aim to blast Trump for favoring wealthy (“In a polling memo circulated by the Democratic group Priorities USA, Democrats say they have seen a significant shift in the last two months in the number of people that believe the president sides with the wealthy and big corporations over average Americans. Democrats plan to turn that message into a prominent sales pitch for their candidates and surrogates, and could make it the theme of ads as well.”)
• The G.O.P. Rejects Conservatism (“Because Republicans have no national vision, they seem largely uninterested in the actual effects their legislation would have on the country at large. This Senate bill would be completely unworkable because anybody with half a brain would get insurance only when they got sick. Worse, this bill takes all of the devastating trends afflicting the middle and working classes — all the instability, all the struggle and pain — and it makes them worse…This is not a conservative vision of American society. It’s a vision rendered cruel by its obliviousness.”)
• A Vote of Conscience and Courage (“There is little precedent for a bill like this one. That’s why Mitch McConnell kept it secret for as long as possible. Americans have often fought bitterly about how large our safety net should be and about the precise forms it should take. But once the country commits to a fundamentally more generous, decent safety net, it becomes an accepted part of society. Poverty, disease and misfortune that had been accepted as normal became rejected as cruel.”)
• The most devastating passage in the CBO’s report on the Senate health bill (“The CBO says ‘few low-income people would purchase any plan’ under GOP health bill.” Republicans: fighting for a nastier, harsher, crueler America.))
• The New CBO Report On Health Insurance Didn’t Do Republicans Any Favors
• Three CNN employees resign over retracted story on Russia ties
• E.P.A. Official Pressured Scientist on Congressional Testimony, Emails Show (Appalling and unacceptable.)
• Field of Democrats competing to challenge Comstock grows by two (“Alison Kiehl Friedman, an expert in combating human trafficking, and Deep Sran, founder of the Loudoun School for the Gifted, join an already-crowded field.” The more candidates, the better for State Sen. Jennifer Wexton.)
• Equality Virginia PAC endorses AG Mark Herring for re-election
• Richard Spencer’s white-nationalist think tank broke Virginia nonprofit law
• Gillespie mum about Senate health bill in Woodbridge campaign stop (Zero leadership,
  finger in the wind, pathetic, cowardly — that’s Ed Gillespie.)
• State GOP panel overrules Spotsy party leaders, says supervisor can seek re-election as a Republican
• Loudoun supervisors advance 62 percent pay hike proposal
• Virginia Medicaid program estimates $1.4 billion hit from Senate health care bill over seven years
• Make democracy great again: Rep. Don Beyer’s revolutionary bill could transform how we elect Congress (“Multimember districts and ranked-choice voting? Virginia congressman thinks it could actually happen — someday”)
• Editorial: Should GO Virginia take a more assertive role in Southwest Virginia?
• Chesapeake will become Virginia’s second-largest city by 2020, new data show
• Virginia Beach City Hall should stay put, not move to Town Center, residents say at public forum
• Editorial: Public should have role in hiring city manager
• More clouds today, but comfortable through tomorrow; Heat hits back by late week