So without a clue how much it might cost, or how many Americans will ultimately be left uninsured, the US House of Representatives passed a slap-dash repeal of the Affordable Care Act yesterday, flogged and cajoled by a red-faced Donald Trump. It’s not all that different from the former plan—the one that would ease costs for the rich and make care harder to pay for for poorer Americans—but does include new provisions to satisfy hard-right members.
As you probably heard, Democrats in the house began singing, “na na na na, hey hey hey goodbye” as the votes for passage trickled in. We’ll see about that, I guess, but the New York Post seems to have it pretty well summed up.
The important thing: The law passed yesterday, whatever the hell it is, doesn’t have a chance of passing the Senate, meaning if this goes forward at all, it will almost certainly look very, very different.
Reminder: Oregon’s lone Republican congressman, Greg Walden, is at the center of pushing this law.
Meanwhile, as Megan reports, the Trump administration is gleefully preparing to allow employers to refuse to pay for birth control because of their religious convictions.
Onto more local stuff. We wrote yesterday about an unusually tense interaction between Mayor Ted Wheeler and County Chair Deborah Kafoury. Kafoury has been prodding Wheeler to put more money toward homelessness in the next year, and the mayor has pointed out Portland is contributing as much as the county. So this happened.
How long has it been since Portland Public Schools has seen a worse day of headlines? First, the district announced its choice for superintendent has fallen through, after a background report that landed Monday revealed…something.
Also: PPS’ human resources director is resigning.
Oh, and by the way: A jury just awarded two PPS maintenance workers a total $1 million for having to put up with a racist work environment.
Things are getting interesting in the legislature’s frantic scramble to close a $1.6 billion budget shortfall. Democrats yesterday revealed a new plan for taxing corporate sales, a new spin on a plan presented by a joint tax reform committee recently. Both plans bear resemblance to last year’s Measure 97, but with tweaks lawmakers argue should offset negative effects. And the business organizations that hated Measure 97 and pleaded to have a discussion about taxes during the legislative session? SURPRISE! They don’t want to talk about taxes during the legislative session.
BTW: The NYT notes that Uber is facing a criminal probe for its use of “Greyballing”—and that the probe has ties to Portland.
Lastly: The O‘s editorial board calls Portland anarchists “punk fascists.” I bet they’ll just love that.
Now THIS is a forecast. HA CHA CHA CHA!
