Top Items:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
A Bill So Bad It's Awesome — It has long been obvious to anyone following health policy that Republicans would never devise a workable replacement for Obamacare. But the bill unveiled this week is worse than even the cynics expected; its awfulness is almost surreal.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Daily Kos and Washington Post
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Nate Cohn / New York Times:
Trump Supporters Have the Most to Lose in the G.O.P. Repeal Bill — The people who stand to lose the most in tax credits under the House Republican health plan tended to support Donald J. Trump over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, according to a new Upshot analysis.
Discussion:
Vox, Common Dreams and Daily Kos
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Republican Health Care Crackup — The Republican health care bill could represent the moment when the old order of American politics completely cracks up, the end of a certain era in American politics. — That era began around 1974, when Ted Kennedy introduced a bill …
Discussion:
Vox and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Natasha Bertrand / Business Insider:
Top Democrat sent letter to Mike Pence in November warning of Michael Flynn's Turkey lobbying — President Donald Trump was not aware that his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was being paid to lobby for Turkish interests in the months before the US election, the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said Thursday.
Discussion:
New York Times, RedState, Daily Wire, Daily Kos, The Daily Beast, Betsy's Page and IJR
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Damian Paletta / Washington Post:
Treasury calls on Congress to raise debt limit, begins steps to delay default
Treasury calls on Congress to raise debt limit, begins steps to delay default
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Tim Hains / RealClearPolitics:
Paul Ryan PowerPoint Presentation: “This Is The Closest We Will Ever Get” To Obamacare Repeal
Paul Ryan PowerPoint Presentation: “This Is The Closest We Will Ever Get” To Obamacare Repeal
Veronica Stracqualursi / ABC News:
The Note: Health care disconnect
The Note: Health care disconnect
Discussion:
Associated Press and Washington Post
Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:
Speaker Ryan, this is not what conservative reform looks like
Speaker Ryan, this is not what conservative reform looks like
Discussion:
Power Line and Hot Air
Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:
Amash cries after missing first vote in Congress — Rep. Justin Amash has long boasted about not missing a single vote since he arrived in Congress in 2011 — 4,289 in a row, give or take a vote, if you're counting. — But on Friday, as he was railing against the GOP's Obamacare replacement bill off …
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Political Wire and The Daily Caller
Toluse Olorunnipa / Bloomberg:
Trump Points to Drudge's ‘Great Again’ Praise of New Jobs Report — President has primed his supporters for a huge jobs report — Donald Trump used the first federal jobs report reflecting a full month of his presidency to send a message: He's already making America great again.
Discussion:
The Rush Limbaugh Show, Media Matters for America, New York Times, CNBC, Business Insider and Shot in the Dark
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Patricia Laya / Bloomberg:
America's Labor Market Is Getting Better by Almost Any Measure
America's Labor Market Is Getting Better by Almost Any Measure
Discussion:
The Last Refuge, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and New York Magazine
Ben Casselman / FiveThirtyEight:
Don't Let Trump — Or Any President — Take Credit For Strong Jobs Numbers
Don't Let Trump — Or Any President — Take Credit For Strong Jobs Numbers
Discussion:
Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Breitbart, Politico and Freedom Partners
Sharon Begley / STAT:
House Republicans would let employers demand workers' genetic test results — little-noticed bill moving through Congress would allow companies to require employees to undergo genetic testing or risk paying a penalty of thousands of dollars, and would let employers see that genetic and other health information.
Discussion:
New York Magazine and Political Wire
Patricia Cohen / New York Times:
Sean Spicer's Quick Twitter Reaction to Jobs Report May Break a Rule — The enthusiastic reaction of Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, was understandable on Friday when the Labor Department reported a gain of 235,000 jobs. “Great news for American workers,” he proclaimed, “in first report for @POTUS Trump.”
Discussion:
USA Today, Talking Points Memo, TVNewser, Mashable, NPR, Mediaite, Politicus USA, CNBC, New York Magazine and Washington Free Beacon
RELATED:
Lindsey Bever / Washington Post:
Sean Spicer wore an upside-down flag pin. The Internet lost its mind.
Sean Spicer wore an upside-down flag pin. The Internet lost its mind.
Discussion:
Mashable and Politicus USA
CNN:
The super-secret division in charge of the Russia investigation — Washington (CNN)Somewhere in the halls of the J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington, a closely held number of FBI agents face the daunting task of determining how the Russian government sought to manipulate the US presidential election.
Discussion:
The Week
Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Pelosi: Trump is ‘making fools’ out of GOP — Don't expect Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to accept any bowling invitations from the White House. — The House minority leader said Friday that President Trump is making a mockery of Republicans by bringing conservative skeptics …
Discussion:
The Week, Daily Wire and Raw Story
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Heather Caygle / Politico:
Pelosi: I would have retired had Clinton won
Pelosi: I would have retired had Clinton won
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Washington Free Beacon, The American Mirror and Townhall.com
Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
In major shift, White House privately backing earlier rollback of Medicaid expansion
In major shift, White House privately backing earlier rollback of Medicaid expansion
Discussion:
MSNBC, Vox, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog, Politico, New York Magazine, Morning Consult, The Nation, Daily Kos and RedState
Tracy Wilkinson / Los Angeles Times:
Mexican foreign secretary goes straight to the White House, skips usual channels — Mexico's top diplomat came to Washington Thursday for meetings with the U.S. government, sidestepping the normal channels and heading straight for the White House. — Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray met …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, US Department of State, The Guardian, New York Magazine, Axios, Taylor Marsh and Political Wire
RELATED:
Carol Giacomo / New York Times:
Why Is Mr. Tillerson in a Perpetual State of Duck and Cover?
Why Is Mr. Tillerson in a Perpetual State of Duck and Cover?
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Just Security, New York Magazine and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
There Really Was A Liberal Media Bubble — This is the ninth article in a series that reviews news coverage of the 2016 general election, explores how Donald Trump won and why his chances were underrated by most of the American media. — Last summer, the United Kingdom voted to leave …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Washington Times, The Week and Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »
John Sexton / Hot Air:
Something good came out of Samantha Bee's attack on ‘Nazi hair’ — Something good came out of Samantha Bee's show this week. Kyle Coddington, who was mocked in a segment about CPAC and described as having “Nazi hair,” has received tens of thousands of dollars to support his treatment for brain cancer.
Discussion:
Townhall.com, Fox News Insider and OUTSET
Bloomberg:
Trump's Leading Candidate for FDA Is Scott Gottlieb, Sources Say — Likely nominee was senior FDA executive under George W. Bush — Choice would represent mainstream pick for drug industry — Scott Gottlieb, a former deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration …
RELATED:
Toni Clarke / Reuters:
Trump poised to nominate Scott Gottlieb to head FDA: sources
Trump poised to nominate Scott Gottlieb to head FDA: sources
Discussion:
Common Dreams
Financial Times:
White House civil war breaks out over trade — ‘Fiery meeting’ in Oval Office between economic nationalists and pro-trade moderates — Read next … A civil war has broken out within the White House over trade, leading to what one official called “a fiery meeting” in the Oval Office …
Discussion:
Axios
Alexandra Rosenmann / Raw Story:
Trump supporters call for ‘liberal genocide’ and deportation of Jews at Arizona Rally — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — Maricopa County burnished its reputation as the Trumpiest in America last weekend as hundreds of locals, including heavily armed militiamen …
Discussion:
CANNONFIRE and Hullabaloo
Nikita Vladimirov / The Hill:
State Dept. seeks to keep Russian diplomat's cause of death private — The State Department asked the New York Medical Examiner not to publicly release information about the cause of death of Russia's ambassador to the United Nations. — Vitaly Churkin died unexpectedly in New York last month, one day before his 65th birthday.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Alphabet's Waymo asks judge to block Uber from using self-driving car secrets — The case of the stolen self-driving car is heating up — Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving spinoff from Google, is formally asking a judge to block Uber from operating its autonomous vehicles …
Katie McHugh / Breitbart:
7 Reasons Why Obamacare 2.0 Is All But Guaranteed to Impose Crushing Costs on Voters, Hurt Trump's Base, And Hand Power Back to the Democrats — If passed in its current form, the GOP's Obamacare 2.0 bill will impose brutal costs Americans still struggling to make it through a great recession …
Discussion:
The Daily Beast and Daily Wire
Beth Reinhard / Wall Street Journal:
Contender to Run Civil Rights Post Can't Be Pigeonholed — Harmeet Dhillon, a trial lawyer from San Francisco, has ties to both the ACLU and Heritage Foundation — A media-savvy Indian-American leader of the California Republican Party who sang a Sikh prayer at last year's national convention …
Discussion:
RedState
Carlos Garcia / TheBlaze:
Jorge Ramos says the ‘Trump effect’ is scaring away illegal aliens — Univision anchor Jorge Ramos believes he has found the explanation for the recent drop in illegal border crossings reported by immigration officials: fear or what he calls the “Trump effect.”
Discussion:
Breitbart, RealClearPolitics, Washington Times, Hot Air and BizPac Review
Jennifer Haberkorn / Politico:
Conservatives want to blow up Senate rules to kill Obamacare — House Republican leaders narrowly tailored their Obamacare repeal bill to avoid violating Senate rules, but conservatives are pushing back with advice of their own: tear up the rulebook. — A growing number of conservative lawmakers …
Zeynep Tufekci / New York Times:
The Truth About the WikiLeaks C.I.A. Cache — On Tuesday morning, WikiLeaks released an enormous cache of documents that it claimed detailed “C.I.A. hacking tools.” Immediately afterward, it posted two startling tweets asserting that “C.I.A. hacker malware” posed a threat to journalists …
Discussion:
BGR, Lawyers, Guns & Money and claytoonz, more at Mediagazer »
USA Today:
‘Innocent until proven guilty’ should mean what it says: Column — Every state should join Nebraska and New Mexico in repealing civil forfeiture. — CONNECT — Gerald and Royetta Ostipow had no idea what civil asset forfeiture was until sheriff's deputies arrived at their farm …