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Rep. Leonard Lance on town hall protests, president's agenda |
Congressional lawmakers begin returning to Washington on Monday after
a tense week-long recess in which Republicans got an earful about
ObamaCare and other issues and ahead of President Trump’s first speech
to a joint session of Congress.
With the GOP controlling both chambers of Congress
and now the White House, Republican lawmakers’ first trip home this
session could have been a victory lap. They were instead accused in the
media of having done little in roughly their first three weeks. And
several were confronted at town hall meetings about plans to replace
ObamaCare if and when it’s dismantled.
The president will have his say Tuesday night.
Majority Republicans in the House and Senate will be closely watching
the prime-time address for guidance, marching orders or any specifics
Trump might embrace on health care or taxes, areas where some of his
preferences remain a mystery.
Treasure Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday told Fox
News that the speech will include Trump’s plan for corporate and
individual tax reform. He also suggested that the president is not sold
on House Republicans’ so-called “border tax adjustment plan” to tax
exports to essentially offset proposed tax cuts.
Trump is expected to deliver his fiscal 2018 budget to Congress in mid-March.
Congressional Republicans insist they are working
closely with the new administration as they prepare to start taking
votes on health legislation, with the moment finally upon them to make
good on seven years of promises to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
House Republicans hope to pass their legislation by
early April and send it to the Senate, with action there also possible
before Easter.
Republicans will be "keeping our promise to the
American people," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said as he sent
lawmakers home for the Presidents Day recess armed with informational
packets to defend planned GOP changes to the health law.
However, the recess was dominated by raucous town
halls in which Republicans -- including Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., and Virginia Rep. Dave Brat, a favorite of the Tea
Party movement -- faced tough questions about their plans to replace the
far-reaching law with a new system built around tax credits, health
savings accounts and high-risk pools.
Among the important, unanswered questions are what will be the overall cost and how many people will be covered.
There's also uncertainty about how to resolve
divisions among states over Medicaid money, with at least a couple of
GOP plans circulating, including one by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and
South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford.
The lack of clarity created anxiety among voters who
peppered the lawmakers from coast to coast with questions about what
would become of their own health coverage and that of their friends and
family.
It has forced Republicans to offer assurances that
they don't intend to take away the law and leave nothing in its place,
even though some House conservatives favor doing just that.
"I think we have a responsibility in Washington to
try to make the system better,” GOP Rep. Leonard Lance told an overflow
crowd last week in his politically divided New Jersey district.
Many Republicans say that how they will handle health
legislation will set the stage for the next big battle, over taxes. And
the GOP's early plans for major infrastructure bill do not appear on
the table.
Senators also will be weighing the nomination of
federal appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch, Trump's pick for the Supreme Court.
Hearings soon will get under way in the Senate Judiciary Committee;
floor action is expected before Easter.
Despite Gorsuch's sterling credentials, Democrats are
under pressure from their liberal supporters to oppose him, given
voters' disdain for Trump and the GOP's refusal last year to allow even a
hearing for Obama's nominee for the high court vacancy, federal appeals
Judge Merrick Garland.
Yet some Democrats are already predicting that one
way or another, Gorsuch will be confirmed. Even if he doesn't pick up
the 60 votes he needs, McConnell could use a procedural gambit to
eliminate Democrats' ability to filibuster Gorsuch, an outcome that
Trump has endorsed.
The Senate has confirmed 14 Cabinet and Cabinet-level officials, fewer than other presidents at this point.
Next up will be financier Wilbur Ross for Commerce
secretary, Rep. Ryan Zinke to lead the Interior Department, retired
neurosurgeon and 2016 GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson to be
Housing secretary and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry at the Energy
Department.
How Democrats vote will be telling, given the extreme pressures on them to oppose Trump at every turn.