NATION
Thursday, June 29, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Little progress evident as GOP hunts health bill votes
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell explored
options for salvaging the
battered Republican health
care bill Wednesday but
confronted an expanding
chorus of GOP detractors,
deepening the uncertainty
over whether the party
can resuscitate its bedrock
promise to repeal President
Barack Obama’s overhaul.
A day after McConnell,
short of votes, unexpectedly
abandoned plans to whisk
the measure through his
chamber this week, fresh
GOP critics popped forward.
Some senators emerged from
a party lunch saying potential
amendments were beyond
cosmetic, with changes to
Medicaid and Obama’s
consumer-friendly insurance
coverage
requirements
among the items in play.
“There’s a whole raft
of things that people are
talking about, and some of
it’s trimming around the
edges and some of it’s more
fundamental,” said Sen. Bill
Cassidy, R-La. “Right now,
they’re still kind of, ‘Can
we do it?’ and I can’t answer
that.”
Yet while this week’s
retreat on a measure McCo-
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump speaks during an energy
roundtable with tribal, state, and local leaders in the
White House, Wednesday in Washington.
nnell wrote behind closed
doors dented his reputation
as a consummate legislative
seer, no one was counting
him out.
“Once in Glacier National
Park I saw two porcupines
making love,” said Sen.
Pat Roberts, R-Kan. “I’m
assuming they produced
smaller porcupines. They
produced something. It has
to be done carefully. That’s
what we’re doing now.”
Having seen the House
approve its health care
package in May six weeks
after an earlier version
collapsed, Democrats were
far from a victory dance.
“I expect to see buyouts
and bailouts, backroom deals
and kickbacks to individual
senators to try and buy their
vote,” said Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer,
D-N.Y. “What I don’t expect
to see, yet, is a dramatic
rethink of the core” of the
bill.
A day after McConnell
prodded Republicans by
saying a GOP failure would
force him to negotiate with
Schumer, the New Yorker set
a price for such talks — no
Medicaid cuts or tax reduc-
tions for the wealthy. No
negotiations seem imminent.
Facing a daunting equa-
tion — the bill loses if three
of the 52 GOP senators
Trump rakes in $10 million
at first re-election fundraiser
WASHINGTON
(AP)
— President Donald Trump
was whisked a few blocks
from the White House to the
Trump hotel on Wednesday
night for his first re-election
fundraiser, where he raised
an estimated $10 million
behind closed doors.
Some 40 months ahead of
the 2020 election, the presi-
dent held court for about two
hours at a $35,000-per-plate
donor event at the Trump
International Hotel. About
300 people were expected
to attend the event, which
was expected to raise about
$10 million, said Lindsay
Jancek, a spokeswoman for
the Republican National
Committee.
Security was tight at the
hotel, where guests in long
gowns and crisp suits began
arriving around 5 p.m. But
the event also drew critics.
The president’s motorcade
was greeted by dozens of
protesters, who hoisted signs
with slogans like “Health
care not tax cuts” and chanted
“Shame! Shame!”
Among the fundraiser’s
attendees: Longtime GOP
fundraiser-turned
televi-
sion commentator Mica
Mosbacher and Florida
lobbyist and party financier
Brian Ballard were among
the fundraiser’s attendees.
Breaking the tradition
of his predecessor, Trump
didn’t allow reporters into
the event — despite an
announcement earlier in the
day that a pool of reporters
would be allowed in to hear
the president’s remarks.
“It’s a political event
and they’ve chosen to keep
that separate,” White House
deputy press secretary Sarah
Huckabee Sanders said when
asked why the event is closed
to the media.
After
reporters
complained,
Sanders
announced that the presi-
dent’s remarks would be
opened to the press — only
to reverse herself hours later.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Protesters yell at patrons in the outdoor seating area
at the Trump Hotel, Wednesday in Washington. Presi-
dent Donald Trump is hosted a fundraiser at the hotel.
Sanders said there was
nothing unusual about raising
political cash so early.
“He’s raising money for
the party,” she said. “I don’t
think that’s abnormal for any
president.”
Sanders’ statement that
Trump is raising cash for the
GOP told only part of the
story, though.
The first cut of the money
raised goes to Trump’s 2020
re-election campaign. The
rest gets spread among the
RNC and other various
Republican entities. Having
multiple beneficiaries is what
allowed Trump to ask for
well above the usual $5,400
per-donor maximum for each
election cycle.
Those contribution limits
are likely to change because
this fundraiser is so early
that new donation limits for
2020 have not been set by the
Federal Election Commis-
sion.
Trump’s hotel has become
a place to see and be seen
by current and former
Trump staffers, as well as
lobbyists, journalists and
tourists. Several Washington
influencers popped into the
hotel’s lobby even though
they didn’t plan to attend the
event.
Several bar patrons also
expressed enthusiasm about
the unusually lucrative fund-
raiser so soon after the last
election.
Trump’s decision to hold
a fundraiser at his own hotel
again raised issues about his
continued financial interest
in the companies he owns.
Unlike previous presidents
who have entirely divested
from their business holdings
before taking office, Trump
moved his global business
empire assets into a trust that
he can take control of at any
time. That means that when
his properties — including
his Washington hotel — do
well, he stands to make
money.
Trump technically leases
the hotel from the General
Services Administration, and
profits are supposed to go to
an account of the corporate
entity that holds the lease,
Trump Old Post Office LLC.
It remains unclear what
might happen to any profits
from the hotel after Trump
leaves office, or whether they
will be transferred to Trump
at that time.
Under campaign finance
rules, neither the hotel nor
the Trump Organization that
operates it can donate the
space. It must be rented at
fair-market value and paid
for by either the Trump
campaign, the RNC or both.
In the first three months
of this year, the Trump
campaign had already raised
more than $7 million.
TOM SKERRITT
oppose it — the list of
Republicans who’ve publicly
complained about the legis-
lation reached double digits,
though many were expected
to eventually relent. Sen.
John McCain, R-Ariz., said
“of course” his support was
uncertain because he wants
to ease some of the measure’s
Medicaid cuts, and Sen. Ben
Sasse, R-Neb., told The
Omaha World-Herald that
the bill was not a full repeal,
adding, “Nebraskans are
dissatisfied with it and so am
I.”
McConnell,
R-Ky.,
wants agreement by Friday
on revisions so the Senate
can approve it shortly after
returning in mid-July from
an Independence Day recess.
Several senators scoffed at
that timetable, with McCain
saying, “Pigs could fly.”
At the White House,
Trump continued his peculiar
pattern of interspersing
encouragement to GOP
senators trying to tear down
Obama’s 2010 statute with
more elusive remarks.
Trump told reporters that
Republicans have “a great
health care package” but said
there would be “a great, great
surprise,” a comment that
went without explanation. On
Tuesday, he said it would be
“great if we get it done” but
“OK” if they don’t, and two
weeks ago he slammed as
“mean” the House version of
the bill that he’d previously
lionized with a Rose Garden
ceremony.
The GOP’s health care
slog has highlighted discord
between moderates who say
the bill cuts Medicaid and
federal health care subsidies
too deeply, and conservatives
eager to reduce govern-
ment spending and shrink
premiums by letting insurers
sell policies with scantier
coverage than Obama’s law
allows.
GOP support for the
measure sagged this week
after a report by the nonpar-
tisan Congressional Budget
Office estimated that it
would produce 22 million
fewer insured people by
2026 while making coverage
less affordable for many,
especially older and poorer
Americans. It wasn’t helped
when an NPR/PBS News-
Hour/Marist Poll said that 17
percent of people approved
of the Senate bill.
McConnell showed no
signs of abandoning his push
for the legislation.
“We’ll continue working
so we can bring legislation to
the floor for debate and ulti-
mately a vote,” he said as the
Senate convened Wednesday.
To succeed, McConnell
must balance demands from
his party’s two wings. It’s a
challenge that’s intricate but
not impossible, with some
saying an eventual compro-
mise could include elements
both want.
Centrists from states that
expanded Medicaid health
insurance for the poor under
Obama’s law are battling to
ease the bill’s cutoff of that
expansion, and to make the
measure’s federal subsidies
more generous for people
losing Medicaid coverage.
These senators, including
Ohio’s Rob Portman and
West Virginia’s Shelley
Moore Capito, also want
expanded funds to ease the
death toll from the illegal use
of drugs like opioids.
Conservatives including
Ted Cruz of Texas, Utah’s
Mike Lee and Kentucky’s
Rand Paul want to let insurers
sell policies with fewer
benefits. Some would further
trim Medicaid spending and
the health care tax credits,
with Paul seeking to erase
the package’s billions to
help insurers contain costs
for lower-earning customers
and protect the companies
against potential losses.
Each group has been
trying to grow its numbers to
boost clout with McConnell.
New visa rules for 6 mainly Muslim nations
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The Trump administration
on Wednesday set new
criteria for visa applicants
from six mainly Muslim
nations and all refugees that
require a “close” family or
business tie to the United
States. The move came after
the Supreme Court partially
restored President Donald
Trump’s executive order
that was widely criticized as
a ban on Muslims.
Visas that have already
been approved will not be
revoked, but instructions
issued by the State Depart-
ment say that new applicants
from Syria, Sudan, Somalia,
Libya, Iran and Yemen must
prove a relationship with a
parent, spouse, child, adult
son or daughter, son-in-law,
daughter-in-law or sibling
already in the United
States to be eligible. The
same requirement, with
some exceptions, holds for
would-be refugees from all
nations that are still awaiting
approval for admission.
Grandparents, grandchil-
dren, aunts, uncles, nieces,
nephews, cousins, broth-
ers-laws and sisters-in-law,
fiancees or other extended
family members are not
considered to be close rela-
tionships, according to the
guidelines that were issued
in a cable sent to all U.S.
embassies and consulates
late on Wednesday. The
new rules take effect on
Thursday, according to the
cable, which was obtained
by The Associated Press.
On Monday, the Supreme
Court partially lifted lower
court injunctions against
Trump’s executive order
that had temporarily banned
visas for citizens of the six
countries. The justices’
ruling exempted applicants
from the ban if they could
prove a “bona fide relation-
ship” with a U.S. person or
entity, but the court offered
only broad guidelines —
suggesting they would
include a relative, job offer
or invitation to lecture in
the U.S. — as to how that
should be defined.
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