Progressive Breakfast: Would a Berniecrat Have Won Ossoff's Georgia Race?

MORNING MESSAGE

Richard Eskow

Would a Berniecrat Have Won Ossoff’s Georgia Race?

Do you have to run like a Republican to win in a district like the Georgia 6th? The answers lie in the Census Bureau's free database, which very few seem to notice. We mined the data, and found the answers for you.

Health Care Showdown

GOP ObamaCare fight faces do-or-die procedural vote. The Hill:“Time is ticking away on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s hopes of passing ObamaCare repeal legislation before the July 4 recess. A CBO score that found the legislation would leave 22 million more people without insurance in the next decade has raised the stakes on a procedural vote that could come as soon as Tuesday. At least four Republicans say they may vote against their party on the motion to proceed, underscoring the opposition to McConnell’s bill. A loss on the procedural vote would certainly end work on the measure this week, and it could be a brutal blow to getting the legislation through the Senate on a later timeframe.”

Senate health bill reels as C.B.O. predicts 22 million more uninsured. NYT:“The Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act was edging toward collapse on Monday after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said it would increase the number of people without health insurance by 22 million by 2026. Two Republicans, Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky, said Monday that they would vote against even debating the health care bill, joining Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, who made the same pledge on Friday. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin hinted he, too, would probably oppose taking up the bill on an expected procedural vote as early as Tuesday, meaning a collapse could be imminent.”

The most devastating passage in the CBO’s report on the Senate health bill. VOX:“Here is what the CBO is saying: The BCRA’s subsidies are too small to make the silver plans affordable for low-income people, and the plans it is trying to make affordable — the ones that cover 58 percent of expected costs — carry such high deductibles that low-income Americans won’t buy them because they won’t be able to afford to use them. This, then, is what the BRCA actually does: It makes health insurance unaffordable for poor people in order to finance a massive tax cut for rich people.”

Kellyanne Conway says people who lose Medicaid should just find better jobs. ThinkProgress:“White House counselor Kellyanne Conway suggested that, for the people who lose Medicaid coverage because of the more than $800 billion in cuts included in the Senate’s health care bill, the solution is as simple as finding a better job… But Conway’s talking point mischaracterizes the life circumstances of most Medicaid recipients, a majority of whom work low-income jobs that don’t offer health insurance and that keep them near the poverty line.”

SCOTUS Takes a Break

Supreme Court allows limited version of Trump’s travel ban to take effect and will consider case in fall. WaPo:“The Supreme Court on Monday permitted a scaled-back version of President Trump’s ban on travelers from six mostly Muslim countries to take effect, deciding to hear the merits of the case in the fall but allowing Trump for now to claim a victory in the legal showdown. The court’s unsigned order delivered a compromise neither side had asked for: It said the government may not bar those with a “bona fide” connection to the United States, such as having family members here, or a job or a place in an American university.”

SCOTUS allows church to receive state funds, will hear gay cake case in October. AP:“The last day of the Supreme Court’s term was notable not only for what was announced but also for what wasn’t… In a highly watched religious liberty case, the court sided with a church that had sought a grant to put a soft surface on its preschool playground. And the justices said they’ll take on a new clash between gay rights and religion in a case about a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in Colorado.”

More from OurFuture.org:

AHCA Would Make Rural America’s Health Care Worse. Claire Snell-Rood, Cathleen Willging:“The Republican Congress is inching closer to repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a feeble alternative that greatly weakens rural health care access. We believe this will have disastrous consequences for rural America.”

Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action.more »