ObamaCare Dead In The Water Cartoons

After golf with Trump, Paul says 'very optimistic' about ObamaCare repeal

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a top conservative critic of House Republicans’ failed plan to replace ObamaCare, concluded his golf outing Sunday with President Trump by saying party members are “getting closer” on a compromise repeal plan and that he remains “very optimistic.”
The president’s invitation for Paul to play at Trump National Golf Club is a sign that he is trying again to negotiate with congressional conservatives who failed to back the originial ObamaCare overhaul plan, after weeks of attacking them.
“We had a great day with the president,” Paul said after playing with Trump and White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney at the northern Virgina club. “We did talk about some health care reform. I think the sides are getting closer and closer together. And I remain very optimistic that we will get an ObamaCare repeal.”
Paul, an eye doctor and Tea Party favorite, has his own ObamaCare replacement plan, which he argues goes further than the Republican House leadership plan to fully repeal and replace the 2010 health care law, under which consumers are facing rising costs and fewer policy options.
White House official Stephanie Grisham said earlier Sunday that the threesome would discussing several issues at the club but that health care would be “a big topic.”
Mulvaney is a founding member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, which led the opposition to the Republican overhaul plan that failed last month in the GOP-controlled House.
Trump has been critical of the Freedom Caucus and the majority of its roughly 35 members who were influential in stopping a vote on House overhaul plan.
Trump warned caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., in a closed-door Capitol Hill meeting about not supporting the overhaul plan, saying, “Oh Mark, I'm coming after you.”
And in just the past few days, the president and the White House have singled out the Freedom Caucus and specific members for their non-support -- including Michigan GOP Rep. Justin Amash and South Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Sanford, who is sponsoring the House version of Paul’s overhaul plan.
On Thursday, Trump tweeted: “The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!”
Also that day, The Post and Courier newspaper in South Carolina reported that Trump dared Sanford to vote against the overhaul bill.
Sanford said that Mulvaney told him: "The president asked me to look you square in the eyes and to say that he hoped that you voted ‘no’ on this bill so he could run (a primary challenger) against you in 2018."
On Saturday, White House social media Director Dan Scavino Jr. tweeted: “Donald Trump is bringing auto plants & jobs back to Michigan. @justinamash is a big liability. #TrumpTrain, defeat him in primary.”
Trump in recent days has also expressed a desire to revisit repealing and replacing ObamaCare, one of his major campaign promises.
“Talks on Repealing and Replacing ObamaCare are, and have been, going on, and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck,” he tweeted Sunday before the golf outing.
Trump invited Meadows and Texas GOP Sen. Mike Lee, another influential Capitol Hill conservative, to his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago the weekend before the scrapped House vote in an effort to win their support.

Trump ready to address North Korea nuclear program with or without China

President Trump has said the United States is ready to act alone against North Korea’s nuclear program if China does not take a tougher stance, just days before he hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida.
Trump made the comments in a Financial Times interview posted Sunday on the newspaper’s website.
“We will talk about North Korea," Trump said. "And China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won't. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don't it won't be good for anyone."
Trump added that the United States could "totally" handle the situation in North Korea without China's help. While China provides diplomatic and economic support to its neighbor, it claims that its influence over Kim Jong Un's government is limited.
However, Trump also made clear again that he won’t reveal his foreign policy strategy through the news media.
"I'm not going to tell you (my plan). You know, I am not the United States of the past where we tell you where we are going to hit in the Middle East," he said.
Still, Trump attempted to make clear he’s not an isolationist opposed to alliances.
“I do believe in alliances,” he said in the interview. “I believe in relationships. And I believe in partnerships. But alliances have not always worked out very well for us.”
The relationship between the United States and China has been uncertain since Trump's election.
During his campaign he accused China of unfair trade practices and threatened to raise import taxes on Chinese goods and declare Beijing a currency manipulator, though it is unclear whether Trump will follow through with either threat.
Trump told the newspaper that he doesn't "want to talk about tariffs yet, perhaps the next time we meet."
Trump's ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, also offered tough talk on China, saying on ABC's "This Week" that the U.S. is pressing China to take a firmer stand regarding North Korea's nuclear program.
U.N. resolutions have failed so far to deter North Korea from conducting nuclear and missile tests. Last year, the North conducted two nuclear tests and two dozen tests of ballistic missiles.
"They need to show us how concerned they are," Haley said. "They need to put pressure on North Korea. The only country that can stop North Korea is China, and they know that."
Asked what the U.S. would do if China doesn't cooperate, Haley said: "China has to cooperate."
Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, however, said he doubted that Beijing will cooperate.
"I've been working on the North Korea problem since 1994," Carter said on ABC. "And we have consistently asked Chinese leaders ... because they uniquely have the historical and the economic relationship with North Korea to make a difference.
"They haven't used that influence, and so it's hard for me to be optimistic with that," he said.

Trump senior adviser Kushner travels to Iraq, White House aide says

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, is in Iraq and is traveling with the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford, a White House aide confirmed to Fox News Sunday.
Kushner was invited by Dunford to travel with him to the Middle East.
Other details about the trip have not been released. A senior administration official told the Associated Press that Kushner wanted to see the Iraq situation for himself and show support to Baghdad.
Kushner's West Wing portfolio is robust. He has been deeply involved with presidential staffing and has played the role of shadow diplomat, advising on relations with the Middle East, Canada and Mexico.
Last week he launched a task force meant to modernize government using lessons drawn from the private sector.
And though Kushner had no previous diplomatic or government experience, Trump also tasked him with trying to broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
"If you can't produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can," Trump told Kushner at a gala a few days before his inauguration.
His visit marked an early foray for the Trump administration into the situation in Iraq and came just two weeks after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said he was assured by the president the U.S. will accelerate its support for his country's struggle against the Islamic State.
Al-Abadi met with Trump and Kushner in Washington last month and said he had the impression that the Trump administration would take a more aggressive approach, although he did not say what that might entail.

McConnell vows Gorsuch will be confirmed this week, Schumer predicts he won't get 60 votes

The Senate's top Republican and Democrat were split on Sunday over the possibility of Judge Neil Gorsuch being confirmed to the Supreme Court ahead of a scheduled Senate vote this week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., vowed on "Fox News Sunday" that "we’re going to get Judge Gorsuch confirmed this week."
Gorsuch, President Trump’s pick to fill the high court seat of conservative Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, will almost certainly have enough votes to pass the GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee Monday, but will struggle to get 60 votes for final confirmation by Friday.
Should Democrats attempt a filibuster, McConnell was expected to seek a change in Senate rules allowing a simple majority to confirm the nomination.
On Sunday, McConnell did not tip his hand over whether he would use the so-called "nuclear option," telling "Fox News Sunday," "We’ll know through the course of the week ... It’s in the hands of Democrats."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., predicted on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Gorsuch would not pass the 60-vote benchmark and argued that Trump should huddle with Democrats and Republicans to "try to come up with a mainstream nominee."
"Look, when a nominee doesn't get 60 votes, you shouldn't change the rules, you should change the nominee," said Schumer.
Later Sunday, two Democratic senators split over whether to support Gorsuch. Joe Donnelly of Indiana said he would vote in favor of Gorsuch's confirmation while Sen. Jon Tester of Montana announced he would not back the federal appeals court judge based in Denver.
Donnelly became the third Democrat to break with the party as Republicans line up behind President Donald Trump's choice for the high court.
With 52 Republican senators, eight votes from Democrats or the Senate's two independents would be needed to advance the nomination and prevent a filibuster. So far, only Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — all representing states Trump won in November and all up for re-election next year — have said they will vote to confirm Gorsuch.
Tester represents a state won by Trump and faces re-election, too, but he said Gorsuch did not directly answer questions when the two met or during the confirmation hearing. Tester said he based his decision on the judge's past cases, noting that he found troubling Gorsuch's record on privacy and that he believes Gorsuch places corporations over people.
Donnelly called Gorsuch, 49, "a qualified jurist who will base his decisions on his understanding of the law and is well-respected among his peers."