memeorandum: Senate GOP floats two-year Obamacare fix (Politico)

9:15 PM ET, June 17, 2015

Top Items:

Donald Trump Campaign Offered Actors $50 to Cheer for Him at Presidential Announcement — Donald Trump's big presidential announcement Tuesday was made a little bigger with help from paid actors — at $50 a pop. — New York-based Extra Mile Casting sent an email last Friday to its client list …

Discussion: Raw Story, CBS DC, Mediaite, ThinkProgress and Business Insider

Kevin D. Williamson / National Review:

Witless Ape Rides Escalator — Donald Trump is in the race. — Donald Trump may be the man America needs. Having been through four bankruptcies, the ridiculous buffoon with the worst taste since Caligula is uniquely positioned to lead the most indebted organization in the history of the human race.

Angelo Carusone / Medium:

Donald Trump Hired Paid Actors To Attend Presidential Launch Event — “I am officially running for president of the United States and we are going to make our country great again,” proclaimed Donald Trump in the lobby of Trump Tower. And with that, Trump ended his decades long flirtation …

Discussion: Daily Mail, Business Insider, Mediaite, BuzzFeed, Twitchy, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Politico, New York Times and Bloomberg Business

Sarah Palin / Facebook:

@realDonaldTrump - Mr. Trump should know he's doing something right when the malcontents go ballistic in the press! There is no denying Donald J. Trump's accomplishments and drive to create opportunity for every willing American to succeed. His own success is testament to the job-creating achievements …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Fact checking Donald Trump's presidential announcement speech — Businessman Donald Trump is a fact checker's dream ... and nightmare. He spouts off so many “facts,” often twisted or wrong, that it takes a lot of time to hack through the weeds. So here are some of the highlights …

Discussion: Mediaite, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Daily Caller

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg Business:
Donald Trump: Club For Growth is Attacking Me After Seeking $1 Million Donation

Discussion: Business Insider, Slantpoint and Mother Jones

Alex Griswold / Mediaite:
Donald Trump's First Speech Was Basically Filled With Lies

Discussion: Washington Post, The Daily Caller and Daily Kos

Adam B. Lerner / Politico:
Donald Trump names his favorite prez: Bill Clinton

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Bloomberg Business, Hot Air and People.com

Dan Balz / Washington Post:
The Trump circus comes to Iowa

Discussion: BuzzFeed

Daniel W. Drezner / Washington Post:
Why Donald Trump will be good for the Republicans in 2016

Discussion: Independent Journal Review, The Huffington Post, The Week, Slate, Wall Street Journal, Outside the Beltway, Fox News Insider and Booman Tribune

Chris Good / ABC News:
Trump Says He'd ‘Win Easily’ If He Ran With Oprah

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, CBS DC, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Daily Mail and Washington Post

Politico:

Senate GOP floats two-year Obamacare fix — Senate Republicans are coalescing around a plan to extend Obamacare subsidies for up to two years if the Supreme Court strikes them this month. — The court is due to rule within days on whether the president's health care law allows …

Discussion: The Hill, ThinkProgress, Slantpoint, Daily Kos and Hullabaloo

Brian Beutler / The New Republic:
A Victory for Obamacare's Challengers Will Be a Disaster for Republican Candidates

Discussion: Politico, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Slantpoint

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Roger Ailes's Demotion Signals Power Shift Within Murdoch Empire — Rupert Murdoch issues a stinging rebuke. — Shares — For much of the past 15 years, Roger Ailes has operated with virtual impunity inside Rupert Murdoch's media empire. Nothing, it seemed, could induce Murdoch …

Discussion: CNNMoney, Hollywood Reporter, The Huffington Post, Poynter., Talking Points Memo, Politico and Mediaite

Sophia Tesfaye / Salon:
Fox News as we know it may be screwed: Roger Ailes' stunning rebuke could spell the end

Discussion: Slantpoint

Jeb Bush / Guardian:

Jeb Bush joins Republican backlash against pope on climate change — Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush joined forces with the coal industry and climate deniers in a gathering conservative backlash against the pope, lashing out against a leaked draft of the spiritual leader's letter on climate change.

Discussion: The Atlantic, Grist, US News, Washington Post, Spectator, Raw Story, New York Times, Crux, Common Dreams, EcoWatch and USA Today

Coral Davenport / New York Times:
Pope's Views on Climate Change Add Pressure to Catholic Candidates

Discussion: msnbc.com, The Gateway Pundit, Daily Kos, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, No More Mister Nice Blog and Talking Points Memo

Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Confidence in Religion at New Low, but Not Among Catholics

Discussion: Religion News Service, Raw Story and Washington Post

German Lopez / Vox:

Police seized his life savings without charging him for a crime. Now he's fighting back. — Charles Clarke entered the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport last February eager to go back to his mother after a months-long visit with relatives.

Laura Maurice / The Institute for Justice:
Innocent College Student's Life Savings Seized by Feds

Discussion: Hit & Run, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Hot Air

New York Times:

Trade Deal Comments Put Hillary Clinton at Odds With Her Former Boss — WASHINGTON — If there was one moment recently in which President Obama could have used Hillary Rodham Clinton's help, it was on Sunday as the president scrambled to salvage his trade deal, which had been halted by congressional Democrats.

Discussion: US News, Politico, Business Insider and NBC News

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:
Bernie Sanders surge forms backdrop for Hillary Clinton S.C. visit

Discussion: PoliticusUSA and Bloomberg Business

Politico:
GOP leaders hatch trade workaround

Discussion: ABC News, Firedoglake, The Hill, CNBC, The Huffington Post, RedState, Hullabaloo, US News and Common Dreams

Brian Fung / Washington Post:

AT&T just got hit with a $100 million fine after slowing down its ‘unlimited’ data — The Federal Communications Commission slapped AT&T with a $100 million fine Wednesday, accusing the country's second largest cellular carrier of improperly slowing down Internet speeds for customers who had signed up for “unlimited” data plans.

Discussion: WATE-TV

Robert Pear / New York Times:

Top Plaintiff in Health Subsidies Case Awaits Edict Unperturbed — FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — Millions of people are waiting anxiously for the Supreme Court to decide the fate of President Obama's health care law with a ruling this month on health insurance subsidies. But David M. King, a plaintiff in the case, is not among them.

Robert Pear / New York Times:
G.O.P. Is Wary That Health Care Win Could Have Its Own Risks

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Daily Kos

Alison Griswold / Slate:

A California Labor Ruling Just Said Uber Drivers Are Employees. That's Uber's Worst Nightmare. — In what could be an explosive decision, the California Labor Commission has found that a driver for Uber in San Francisco is an employee of the company. That's from a ruling filed in state court …

Discussion: Medium, Portside, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Hill and The Verge

Rebecca Harshbarger / New York Post:
496 Uber cars seized amid crackdown on illegal pickups

Discussion: Consumerist, Gothamist and Daily Mail

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

We Crashed Jeb Bush's Super PAC's Donor Call, And Here's What They Said — Right to Rise PAC says its raised $17 million in the New York-area so far, and its July fundraising report will give Jeb Bush's opponents a “heart attacks.” — ANDREW PATRON / Getty Images

Discussion: Guardian

Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:

Encryption “would not have helped” at OPM, says DHS official — Attackers had valid user credentials and run of network, bypassing security. — During testimony today in a grueling two-hour hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Office of Personnel Management …

Discussion: RedState

Lanny Davis / The Hill:

Hillary Clinton: Then and now — As I watched Hillary Clinton deliver her formal announcement speech Saturday at Roosevelt Island in New York City, I went through kind of a time warp. What year is this? — I remembered the first time I met her: It was in September of 1969 …

Discussion: Progress Pond

Jose Martinez / Americans for Tax Fairness:

The Walmart Web: How the World's Biggest Corporation Secretly Uses Tax Havens to Dodge Taxes — A groundbreaking report reveals that Walmart has built a vast, undisclosed network of 78 subsidiaries and branches in 15 overseas tax havens, which may be used to minimize foreign taxes …

Discussion: Guardian, Common Dreams and Daily Kos

Bloomberg Business:
Wal-Mart Has $76 Billion in Undisclosed Overseas Tax Havens

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Consumerist, Raw Story and The Bob and Chez Show

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

Brian Williams expected to stay at NBC — Brian Williams is down, but not out. — NBC and Williams have come to a tentative agreement that will keep Williams at the network after his six-month suspension ends in August. — The decision, described by people with knowledge of the plan …

Discussion: WOOD-TV, Mediaite and Poynter., more at Mediagazer »

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:

For immediate release — Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that economic activity has been expanding moderately after having changed little during the first quarter. The pace of job gains picked up while the unemployment rate remained steady.

Discussion: Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, US News, Guardian, NPR, Telegraph, The Week and Calculated Risk

Scott Eric Kaufman / Salon:

A brief history of liberal musicians who were horrified when conservatives appropriated their songs — Neil Young suing the Donald is just the latest reason why right-wingers should just stop using music at rallies — When Donald Trump announced his presidential bid yesterday …