Right and Left on the Future of the Senate Health Care Bill
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Version 0 of 1. The political news cycle is fast, and keeping up can be overwhelming. Trying to find differing perspectives worth your time is even harder. That’s why we have scoured the internet for political writing from the right and left that you might not have seen. Has this series exposed you to new ideas? Tell us how. Email us at ourpicks@nytimes.com. • Guy Benson in Townhall: “Republicans have been handed a crucial chance to modestly scale back the bloated, unaccountable and unsustainable federal leviathan.” Mr. Benson urges Republican senators to fulfill their promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act or risk “betraying” their voters. He warns against joining with Democratic leaders for a bipartisan deal, or succumbing to “paralysis” and rendering the very idea of a Republican Party obsolete. Read more » _____ • Dr. Deane Waldman in The Hill: “The big lie says health insurance is what we need. The bigger lie presumes that insurance leads to care. The biggest lie is that government-provided health insurance can provide timely medical care for all Americans.” Dr. Waldman, who is a retired pediatric cardiologist and director of the Center for Health Care Policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, accuses both parties of accepting the notion that the government should be in charge of health care and that more insurance equals more care. Instead, he writes that the “cure” to these “lies” is to release health care from the control of the federal government. Read more » _____ • Karol Markowicz in The New York Post: “What’s the alternative to the ban from the left? What’s the plan to stop terrorist attacks? Literally nothing.” When it comes to stopping terrorism, Democrats are losing the war of ideas, at least according to Ms. Markowicz, who is a frequent critic of the president. Though, as she writes, the Trump administration’s travel ban was not “wisely crafted,” she sees in the ban a will to do something about the threat of terrorism beyond empty words. “Virtue signaling and posturing isn’t enough.” Read more » _____ • Brian Beutler in New Republic: “It is probably more useful for observers to think of the bill as a widget working its way through a machine that Republicans are struggling to keep in working order.” Mr. Beutler believes that the Republican leadership is attempting to “lie Trumpcare into law,” misleading constituents about protections for pre-existing conditions and the number of people who will be left uninsured under the new legislation. Supporters of the Affordable Care Act can hope, he writes, that “the linchpin of the Trumpcare blitz is the persuasive powers” of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, whom he characterizes as “one of the most hated members of the Senate, even within the G.O.P. conference.” Read more » _____ • Andrew Kahn in Slate: “Sexual politics aside, our glee in calling Trump gay says more about us than it does about him.” Mr. Kahn objects to liberal commentators who denigrate President Trump by imagining him as a gay man. In part a response to Frank Bruni’s Op-Ed column, “Donnie and Vlad: A Love Story,” Mr. Kahn’s view is that “the joke is not that old, but it feels ancient.” Regardless of the intentions of the person making the joke, it nevertheless reinforces a “visceral kind of homophobia” and “weaponizes an older, less contemporary, and therefore less taboo kind of bigotry.” Read more » _____ • Paul Waldman in The Washington Post: “The time has come for Republicans to cut their losses and do the right thing. It won’t be easy, but there are no easy options left for them.” As they return from their July 4th recess, Republicans should “cut their losses and do the right thing” when it comes to health care. Mr. Waldman offers some policy proposals that may put off the G.O.P.’s “goal of destroying Medicaid,” but promises to show the American people “that they’re capable of seriously addressing a policy challenge.” Read more » _____ • The Editorial Board in USA Today: “Moderate views might have been hollowed out of an increasing partisan Congress in recent decades, but a moderate electorate thrives across the American landscape.” President Emmanuel Macron of France says “he’s willing to steal ideas from both the left and the right to solve France’s most challenging problems.” Perhaps the United States can steal something from Mr. Macron, writes the editorial board of USA Today, and embrace the “radical centrism” of France’s new leader. All America needs is a charismatic leader in the style of Bill Clinton. “The votes are out there,” the editors say. Read more » _____ • Benjamin Wittes in Lawfare: “Given the circumstances of your appointment, your predecessor’s dismissal, and the President’s behavior toward him, why do you want to be director of the F.B.I.?” President Trump’s nominee for F.B.I. director, Christopher Wray, is set to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Mr. Wittes, who is a friend of the former head of the agency, James B. Comey, enumerates 20 questions he would like senators to ask Mr. Wray before they confirm his nomination. The first question? “Have you ever met privately with President Trump?” Read more » _____ • Michael Linhorst in Politico: “Artificial intelligence could make America’s big, complicated decisions better than any person could, without the drama or shortsightedness that we grudgingly accept from our human presidents.” Do androids dream of electric ballots? Mr. Linhorst reports on a group of scientists who think they can engineer a computer to run the country, a robot president who would be immune to the human weaknesses “that most often upends presidencies.” As one proponent explains, “An A.I. president cannot be bought off by lobbyists.” Read more » _____ Want the Partisan Writing Roundup in your inbox? Sign up for the Morning Briefing Newsletter or the What We’re Reading Newsletter. Have thoughts about this collection? Email feedback to ourpicks@nytimes.com. |