Welcome to the online version of Political officeAn evening newsletter that brings you the latest report and analysis of the NBC News Policy team from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign campaign.
Happy Friday! In today’s edition, Sahil Kapur notes that an imminent Obamacare period divides the Republicans on Capitol Hill. In addition, Kristen Welker breaks down the so far political benefits of the Jeffrey Epstein saga. And Scott Bland answers the question of this week’s reader on the Républicains of Texas Rédécoupage efforts.
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– Adam Wollner
The next major health care fight that divides the Republicans
By Sahil Kapur
After going beyond the radical megabill of President Donald Trump who included steep MEDICAIDS cuts, the Republicans have another big fight of health care on their hands.
GOP leaders face growing calls from their members to extend a finance bucket for the affordable care law which should expire at the end of this year while some seek to avoid increases in insurance premiums and millions of Americans losing their health coverage.
But the cause faces the opposition of the conservatives who hate Obamacare and do not want to lift a finger to protect it. Some maintain that it would be too expensive to continue premium tax credits, which cost more than $ 30 billion per year and was initially adopted as part of a COVVI-19 response.
The non -partisan congress budget office provides that around 5 million Americans will lose their insurance by 2034 if the money expires.
The ditch: Representative Brian Fitzpatrick, R-P-., Which represents a swing district that Trump lost in 2024, said the Congress should continue these ACA tax credits in order to avoid price increases.
“I think we have to do everything to maintain low costs at all levels-health care, grocery store, energy, all that precedes. I am currently working on the resolution of this when we speak,” he said.
But representative Andy Harris, R-MD., The president of the Hard-Right House Freedom Caucus, said that he wanted “absolutely” that this funding ends.
“It will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. I can’t afford it,” he said. “It was a policy of the time coche. Newsflash to America: Covid is over. “
For the moment, the best Republican leaders keep their powder to know if – or how – they will tackle the problem.
“I think it goes at the end of the calendar year, so we will have a discussion on the problem later. But that has not yet occurred,” said Chamber Mike Johnson, R-La. “But it’s on the radar.”
A mid-term warning: The veteran of the Gop Probe Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward recently published a memo Warning that the extension of health care tax credits is largely popular, even with “solid majorities of Trump voters and [s]Wing voters. They warned that the GOP would pay a “political sanction” in the competitive districts of the mid-term elections of 2026 if the funding expires on time.
The Republicans are preparing for the political impact of the Epstein saga
Kristen Welker analysis
Jeffrey Epstein’s saga is the political headache that will not disappear for President Donald Trump, as a drip of new reports on his past relationship with the condemned sex offender and the repeated attempts to divert have only feeded history.
This is the first time that we have really seen Trump’s base with him in this degree. Even if the impulse of rallying around their leader remains as each new story breaks, no matter how Trump tries to change the subject, calls for his administration to disclose more information from Epstein files are only forging stronger.
The problem transcends politics – it is a devastating reminder of the victims of the crimes committed by Epstein and those which allowed it.
Regarding the way it takes place on Capitol Hill, the Democrats and even some Republicans try to hold the feet of the Trump administration in fire. The two parties believe that the GOP could pay a political price on the issue as they seek to defend their majority in the congress in the middle of next year.
This includes the representative Thomas Massie, R-Ky., One of our guests on “Meet The Press” this Sunday.
“People will become apathetic again. They will say that we elected President Trump. We gave him a majority in the House and the Senate, and they could not even release proofs from a minor sex trafficking ring. They could not even be released this. I thought we were the family values party, and I suppose that we are not” Said this week on the podcast “Expected”.
And Democrats, including Rep. Ro Khanna from California – Another of our guests this Sunday – argue that the question has a protrusion on several fronts. They note that he divides Trump and his base while making a relatively popular appeal for transparency, an element of a wider democratic attack line than the administration is not open with the American people.
Although it is not surprising that Democrats are massively disapproving how the Trump administration manages Epstein files, according to a recent Quinnipiac University Survey71% of the self -employed also disapprove of. And the Republicans are roughly uniformly divided, with 40% approval and 36% of disapproval of the processing by the problem of the problem.
The political cost of the Republicans is not yet clear. Will this depress the enthusiasm of voters that the Republicans rush to motivate to reveal themselves with Trump and not on the ballot? Will he force the party to the defense at a time when he must consolidate the public feeling of his historic tax reductions and his expenditure invoices, what democrats are already arguing as a mid-term problem? Could Democrats survive their hand if that eclipses their message on the most important issue for many voters, the economy?
We will discuss it and even more about “Meet the Press” this Sunday. In addition to Khanna and Massie, the president of the room Mike Johnson, R-La., And Senator Lindsey Graham, Rs.C., will join us.
✉️ Mailbag: Even redistribution is larger in Texas
Thank you to everyone who sent us an email! This week’s reader’s question concerns the attempts of the Republicans to draw new Congress cards in Texas.
“Is it legal what Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Republicans want to do for Trump?”
To answer this, we turned to the editor -in -chief of senior policy Scott Bland. Here is his answer:
The redistribution occurs every decades after the decennial census, so that each state has a representation in the House of Representatives reflecting its official population and each district in a state has the same number of people.
But this is not the first time that someone has moved to change the cards in mid-December.
In fact, it is not even the first time that this has happened in Texas. In 2002, the Texas Republicans took total control of the state legislature, and they decided the following year to draw a new card to replace a which was imposed on the court which had been imposed during this decade – and to increase the advantage of the GOP in the State.
“I am the majority leader and we want more seats”, the representative Tom Delay, R-Texas, said journalists at the time.
What flies in Texas does not necessarily fly everywhere, however. The Republicans of Colorado also tried to redraw the cards in their state in 2003, but the Supreme Court of the State judged that the Constitution of the State intervenes the revision of the cards More than once by decade.
While Democrats are impatient to retaliate against GOP’s efforts to attract more red seats in Texas, such obstacles could stand on their way. As president of the New York Democratic Party Jay Jacobs told politico this week“I understand that those from New York who watch what’s going on in Texas and Ohio want to compensate for their unfair advantage.”
But, he added: “The [state] The Constitution seems fairly clear that this redistribution process must be carried out every 10 years. »»
🗞️ The other best stories today
- 🗣️Working for the weekend: The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that she will hold commercial talks with Trump in Scotland on Sunday. Learn more →
- ➡️ Santos Saga: Former representative George Santos, RN.Y., reported on the prison, starting a sentence of more than seven years after pleading guilty to a list of federal accusations including fraud by wire, identity theft and money laundering. Learn more →
- ⚖️ in the courts: The Trump administration continued the city of New York for its “sanctuary” laws, continuing an effort of several months to suppress the localities that try to protect immigrants in the United States illegally from federal detention efforts. Learn more →
- 🛣️ on the road again: Vice-president JD Vance should visit a steel factory in Canton, Ohio, on Monday as part of his efforts to promote the “big and beautiful bill”. Learn more →
- 🎰 Gamber remorse: Some high -level Republicans regret having inserted a tax increase in the players in the megabill of Trump, with several legislators who have supported the legislation now calling for a backduring this policy. Learn more →
- 🗳️ countryside: Trump published two new candidates in the Senate: the former representative. Mike Rogers in Michigan and president of the National Republican Committee Michael Whatley in North Carolina.
- 🚫 Act of high thread: The former collaborators of the White House of Barack Obama are struggling with the way of containing the accusations of unprecedented “betrayal”, the national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, level, even if they reject them as Asinines. Learn more →
- Follow the Updates of Live Policy →
It’s all of the political bureau for the moment. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Dylan EBS.
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