- Moderate Collins and Democrat Murphy decry cut to low-income help
- Trump responds to healthcare critics with claim ‘millions’ will benefit
A day after Steve Bannon seemed to confirm Donald Trump’s intent to destroy the Affordable Care Act (ACA), saying the president was “gonna blow that thing up”, a Republican senator who helped dynamite two Republican replacement bills said Trump was hurting American citizens.
Related: Steve Bannon renews call for war on Rep...
US politics
Saturday Night Live: here come the Harvey Weinstein jokes – a week late
Kumail Nanjiani was likable and Kate McKinnon shone as usual. But in the dispiriting America of Harvey and Donald, the best tactic was to keep it surreal
Kumail Nanjiani – The Big Sick, Silicon Valley – is in charge tonight. But first: Alec Baldwin as Donald Trump giving an address in a hangar. This week, he explains, he’s been reversing everything Obama did: Obamacare, the nuclear deal with Iran … and ‘We’re ripping out all of the vegetables in Michelle Obama’s garden and planting M...
Trump responds to critics of healthcare order with claim ‘millions’ will benefit
The president tweeted Saturday that he’s ‘very proud’ of executive order, despite analysts, politicians and others saying millions of people would in fact suffer
Donald Trump on Saturday heralded his latest moves to undermine Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, tweeting that “millions of people” would benefit from his executive order on access to cheaper insurance and his scrapping of federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Related: 'He is failing': Trump strikes out solo as friends worry and enemies circle
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Trump plants bomb, says Obamacare ‘imploding’
• President ends subsidies for poor … opens door for flimsy insurance plans … threatens Iran deal … vows love for Puerto Rico
• Get the day’s politics news in 60 seconds every weekday. By Tom McCarthy
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Trump planted a time bomb under the Affordable Care Act by scrapping vital federal subsidies that help insurers extend quality coverage to low-income recipients. Then Trump said Obamacare was “imploding”.
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Trump chief of staff John Kelly: ‘I’m not quitting, I’m not getting fired’
- Chief of staff makes surprise appearance to deny he’s about to leave
- ‘Although I read it all the time pretty consistently, I’m not quitting today’
Donald Trump’s chief of staff has made an extraordinary public appearance to deny that he is about to resign or be fired.
Related: Trump accused of sabotage after signing executive order to weaken Obamacare
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Repealing and replacing Obamacare ‘off the table’, says Chuck Schumer
Senate minority leader addresses Affordable Care Act after tweet from Trump saying the two discussed measure and possibility of ‘great’ new bill
Repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is “off the table”, Chuck Schumer said on Saturday, after Donald Trump tweeted that he had spoken to the Senate minority leader to see if Democrats were interested in helping pass “great” healthcare legislation.
Related: The Trump-Russia dossier: why its findings grow more significant by the day
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Jeff Sessions issues directive undercutting LGBT protections
The Sessions directive effectively lifts a burden from religious objectors to prove their beliefs about marriage or other topics are sincerely held
The attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on Friday issued a sweeping directive that undercuts federal protections for LGBT people, telling agencies to do as much as possible to accommodate those who claim their religious freedoms are violated.
Related: Trump substantially weakens Obamacare contraception mandate
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The Resistance Now: joy at Republican health defeat – but there’s still work to do
In this week’s resistance news: protesters jubilant as effort to repeal Obamacare officially declared dead, while activists in Flint, Michigan target Nestlé
It took thousands of phone calls, nearly 200 arrests, and a belated show of courage from a small number of Republican senators, but the GOP’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act finally failed – for the time being – on Tuesday.
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What Trump did this week: health bill fails (again) and NFL row flares up
The president kicked off the week with a spat over black NFL players’ protests, while Republicans bungled their final (for now) attempt to repeal Obamacare
- Each week Trump seems to make more news than most presidents do in a lifetime. The Guardian is keeping track of it all in this series every Saturday
Having whipped up a national row over black NFL players’ protests in a Friday-night speech in Alabama, Trump, clearly convinced he was on to a winner, continued to poke at the wound all weekend. Players hit back in unprecedented numbers by kneeling, locking arms or staying in the tunnel during the national anthem. Whether the president chose to spark the controversy as a distraction from difficulties with North Korea or the Republicans’ flailing healthcare bill, or to shore up his rightwing base following doubts among the faithful about his attempts to cut an immigration deal with Democrats “Chuck and Nancy”, the effect was to drown out the original reason for the protests – racism and police brutality – and reframe the issue as one about patriotism. Trump planted himself cynically and effectively on the side of the flag, the military and The Star-Spangled Banner.
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