NATION/WORLD
Thursday, January 25, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Trump open to DACA ‘morph’
AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger, File
n this Jan. 5 file photo, Idaho State Insurance Director
Dean Cameron speaks to reporters about a health in-
surance executive order at the State Capitol in Boise.
Idaho: No Obamacare
needed for some new
insurance plans
BOISE, Idaho (AP) —
Concerned about soaring
health care costs, Idaho on
Wednesday revealed a plan
that will allow insurance
companies to sell cheap poli-
cies that ditch key provisions
of the Affordable Care Act.
It’s believed to be the
first state to take formal
steps without prior federal
approval for creating policies
that do not comply with the
Obama-era health care law.
Health care experts say the
move is legally dubious,
a concern supported by
internal records obtained by
The Associated Press.
Idaho Department of
Insurance Director Dean
Cameron said the move is
necessary to make cheaper
plans available to more
people. Otherwise, he said
he fears the state’s individual
health insurance marketplace
will eventually collapse as
healthy residents choose
to go uninsured rather than
pay for expensive plans that
comply with the federal law.
“There are other states
that have been talking about
it, but we may be out in
front,” Cameron said. “They
may look to follow us should
be we successful.”
Many states have seen
annual double-digit increases
in health insurance premium
costs. That is expected to
continue — and perhaps get
worse — under the recently
signed Republican tax plan.
The new tax law ended the
Affordable Care Act provi-
sion that required people to
buy health insurance or pay
a tax penalty. Without the
threat of a penalty, health
care experts predict that
younger and healthier people
will go without policies. That
will leave sicker patients in
the marketplaces, forcing
insurers to raise costs.
The Idaho plan would
make it possible for insur-
ance companies to offer
cheaper plans that might be
more attractive to people
who have to buy their own
insurance and do not benefit
from the federal premium
subsides offered under the
Affordable Care Act. The
catch is that those plans
would be skimpier.
Cameron on Wednesday
offered details of the plan
that was first announced by
Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter,
a Republican, earlier this
month.
Under Idaho’s guidelines,
insurers can offer plans
that deny coverage for
pre-existing conditions for
up to 12 months unless the
customer had continuous
prior coverage.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Donald Trump said Wednesday he’s
open to an immigration plan that will
provide a pathway to citizenship for
hundreds of thousands of young people
who were brought to the country as
children and are now here illegally.
“We’re going to morph into it,”
Trump told reporters. “It’s going to
happen, at some point in the future,
over a period of 10 to 12 years.”
But immediately after Trump spoke,
a senior White House official cast
doubt on Trump’s assurances, saying
a pathway to citizenship for so-called
Dreamers was “maybe” an option.
“That’s a discussion point,” said
the official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because there was no autho-
rization to discuss the issue publicly.
The official added that Dreamers could
immediately be given “legal status, as
long as they behave themselves.”
Trump’s pronouncements — and
the senior official’s addendum — came
as the White House announced it would
be unveiling a legislative framework
on immigration next week that it hopes
can pass both the House and the Senate.
The president’s remarks amounted to
a preview of that framework. He said
he’ll propose $25 billion for building a
wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and $5
billion for other security measures.
Trump told reporters he had a
message for the Dreamers: “Tell ‘em
not to be concerned, OK? Tell ‘em
not to worry. We’re going to solve the
problem.”
But Trump has said repeatedly that
any deal to protect those immigrants
from deportation is contingent on
money for the border wall and other
security measures.
Trump was talking about the young
immigrants who had been protected
from deportation and given the right to
work legally in the country under the
Obama-era Deferred Action for Child-
hood Arrivals program, or DACA.
Trump announced he was ending
DACA last year, but he has given
Congress until March to come up with
a legislative fix.
Trump said he was confident that
a deal can be reached on the issue.
White House press secretary Sarah
Huckabee Sanders said the framework
to be unveiled Monday “represents
a compromise that members of both
parties can support.”
The White House was trying to take
control of the process amid criticism
that the president had taken too much
of a back seat during recent negotia-
tions and had sent mixed signals that
repeatedly upended near-deals.
BRIEFLY
Congress members urge
President Trump to ease off
legalized marijuana states
the firing of FBI Director James Comey and
discussions over the ouster of White House
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts Sen.
Elizabeth Warren and Colorado Rep. Jared
Polis are leading a bipartisan push urging
President Donald Trump to reinstate an
Obama-era policy discouraging federal
prosecutors from targeting individuals
involved in the marijuana trade in states
that have legalized the drug.
The Democrats and 52 other members
of Congress have written a letter dated
Thursday to Trump, after Attorney General
Jeff Sessions lifted the policy earlier this
month. Sessions said he would leave it up
to prosecutors whether to crack down.
In the letter, the members say lifting
the policy puts businesses, consumers and
patients at risk.
Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine,
Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont,
and Washington and the District of
Columbia have legalized the recreational
use of marijuana by adults.
Others have decriminalized marijuana or
legalized its medicinal use.
Senate narrowly approves
Brownback for ambassador
for religious freedom
Trump: Would ‘love to’ face
Mueller — under oath
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Donald Trump declared late Wednesday
he’s “looking forward” to being questioned
— under oath — in the special counsel’s
probe of Russian election interference and
possible Trump obstruction in the firing of
the FBI director.
Trump said he would be willing
to answer questions under oath in the
interview, which special counsel Robert
Mueller has been seeking but which
White House officials had not previously
confirmed the president would grant.
“I’m looking forward to it, actually,”
Trump said when asked by reporters at the
White House. As for timing, he said, “I
guess they’re talking about two or three
weeks, but I’d love to do it.”
He said, as he has repeatedly, that
“there’s no collusion whatsoever” with
the Russians, and he added, “There’s no
obstruction whatsoever.”
The full scope of Mueller’s
investigation, which involves hundreds
of thousands of documents and dozens
of witness interviews, is unknown. And
there have been no signs that agents aren’t
continuing to work on ties between Trump’s
campaign and a Russian effort to tip the
2016 election.
But now that Mueller’s team has all
but concluded its interviews with current
and former Trump officials, and expressed
interest in speaking with the president
himself, the focus seems to be on the post-
inauguration White House. That includes
WASHINGTON (AP) — The
Republican-led Senate on Wednesday
narrowly approved Sam Brownback’s bid
to be U.S. ambassador for international
religious freedom, setting the stage for him
to resign the governorship in Kansas after
seven contentious years in office.
With two Republican senators absent,
Vice President Mike Pence traveled to
Capitol Hill to cast the tie-breaking vote to
confirm Brownback, a favorite of Christian
conservatives for his views on same-sex
marriage and abortion. The vote was along
party lines, 50-49, underscoring the narrow
margin Republicans hold. Pence’s vote
also was needed earlier in the day to get
Brownback’s nomination over a procedural
hurdle.
Fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer
will be elevated to governor in Kansas once
Brownback submits his resignation. That
could come as early as next week.
“I’m glad to have the vice president in
my corner,” Brownback told reporters after
a meeting with Kansas legislative leaders at
the statehouse in Topeka.
In Davos, European leaders
try to counterbalance Trump
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — European
leaders came to the defense of free trade
and global cooperation on Wednesday,
laying out a vision to counterbalance what
many perceive as a rise in the more brash,
nationalistic policies of U.S. President
Donald Trump.
Trump’s expected arrival to the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,
on Thursday overshadowed the event and
many government leaders rushed to stand in
contrast with Trump’s policies, particularly
his move to revise free trade deals and drop
out of a climate change pact.
“We believe that isolationism won’t take
us forward,” German Chancellor Angela
Merkel told the elite gathered in the snowy
Alpine town. “We believe that we must
cooperate, that protectionism is not the
correct answer.”
Merkel stressed there is too much
“national egoism” at the moment and that
the World Economic Forum’s motto of
“creating a shared future in a fractured
world” was “exactly right” for 2018.
Concerns that the U.S. is turning its
back on globalization were accentuated this
week, when Trump backed new tariffs on
imported components and large washing
machines.
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
President Donald Trump speaks to a gathering of mayors in the East
Room of the White House on Wednesday.
“After decades of inaction by
Congress, it’s time we work together
to solve this issue once and for all,”
Sanders said.
The senior official added that
the White House planned to notify
Congress on Wednesday night “exactly
what the president’s position is. Cause
that’s what they’ve been asking for.
Cause they haven’t been able to come
up with their own workable positions.”
Senators from both parties were
making a fresh search for their own
compromise immigration legislation,
but leaders conceded that the effort
wouldn’t be easy and were already
casting blame should it falter.
Around three dozen senators from
both parties met privately Wednesday,
and two top lawmakers said they’d
try crafting a compromise bill based
on colleagues’ suggestions. The goal
is to produce consensus legislation
that would be the starting point for
Senate debate on immigration, which
is expected to begin Feb. 8, said Sens.
John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Dick
Durbin, D-Ill., their parties’ No. 2
leaders.
“We’re the Senate, we have our own
responsibility under the Constitution
and we decided in this room to move
forward,” Durbin said afterward. “If
the president has some ideas he’d like
to share, of course we’ll take a look at
them.”
When asked if he knew what would
be in the White House proposal, Sen.
Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he didn’t know
and added, “But they’re not writing the
bill.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, D-N.Y., vowed not to “let
those who are anti-immigrant, who call
giving the Dreamers hope ‘amnesty,’
block us. Because then we will fail, and
it will be on the other side of the aisle
that made that happen.”
Schumer spoke about 12 hours after
Trump put the onus on him. “Cryin’
Chuck Schumer fully understands,
especially after his humiliating defeat,
that if there is no Wall, there is no
DACA,” the president tweeted late
Tuesday. “We must have safety and
security, together with a strong Mili-
tary, for our great people!”
Sanders said the White House
framework is based on dozens of
conversations Trump and his staff have
had with members of both parties and
that “it addresses all of the different
things that we’ve heard from all of the
various stakeholders” during the past
several months.
Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said
Trump called him Wednesday morning
and wants to provide “dependability
for these kids,” but still expects a deal
to include money for border security
and his promised southern wall, to
limit immigrants’ ability to sponsor
family members and to end a visa
lottery aimed at diversity.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell, R-Ky., has said if senators
cannot produce a compromise plan
by Feb. 8, he would open a debate on
immigration legislation that would be
“fair to all sides.” That suggests both
parties would be allowed to offer
amendments.