On Tuesday, Tom Price made his first major public speech since he was fired by President Donald Trump. What he said won't make many Republicans happy.
The former Georgia congressman and health secretary told a conference of health care professionals in Washington that the GOP’s decision to effectively repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate without a replacement plan ready will likely raise costs on consumers.
"You'll likely have individuals who are younger and healthier not participating in that market, and consequently, that drives up the cost for other folks within that market," Price said, according to the Washington Times.
Price's comments were pretty darned extraordinary, considering that he'd long argued the mandate was ineffective and driving up health care costs while in Congress and leading the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Indeed, Price’s remarks mirrored those long made by Democrats who advocate for keeping the Affordable Care Act in place. Many were quick to pounce, including the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who blasted out a key quote from Price’s speech with this emailed subject line: “Did former Trump HHS Secretary Tom Price really say this about the GOP and health care?” “We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves,” the email stated.
Republicans had tried to repeal all of Obamacare’s mandates as part of their efforts to replace the 2010 health care law. But after that effort collapsed in the Senate they used the tax bill to eliminate the penalties designed to push people to buy health coverage, effectively removing the teeth from Obamacare’s individual mandate. Meanwhile, a GOP effort to stabilize Obamacare’s markets fell short of the needed support in the Senate. On Tuesday, Price expressed support for that plan, which would have repealed Obamacare’s mandates and sent health care money to the states so they could set up their own health care systems.
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Some Republicans in Washington are wondering whether Nick Ayers, a Georgia political operative who's now top aide to Vice President Mike Pence, could get swept up in the maelstrom surrounding Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens. From CNN:
Multiple officials in President Donald Trump's administration have privately put out feelers with Missouri Republican leaders in recent days to gauge whether Ayers would be interviewed as part of the state House committee investigation into Greitens, according to two sources familiar with the conversations.
Ayers signed on with Greitens in 2015, but it is unclear exactly when the two men severed ties. Greitens' campaign fund has continued to pay the firm Ayers founded, C5 Consulting, into 2018, according to a Missouri Ethics Commission filing. Ayers stepped away from the firm to work in the administration.
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The Augusta Chronicle this morning has more information on that group of hackers threatening to cause online mayhem in Georgia should Gov. Nathan Deal sign into law a measure that would create the new crime of unauthorized computer hacking.
A hacker who identified himself to the newspaper as "Dave" said the group is calling itself SB315, after the bill in question -- Senate Bill 315. Officials with two large institutions the group says it has infiltrated -- Georgia Southern University and the city of Augusta -- said their networks haven't been touched.
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The Energy and Policy Institute, which bills itself as a watchdog over the fossil fuel industry, says Tricia Pridemore and Chuck Eaton, the two Republican incumbents on the state Public Service Commission up for re-election this year, have each collected roughly two-thirds of their campaign contributions from "people or companies associated with regulated entities such as Georgia Power."
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On Tuesday, we told you that the Marietta Daily Journal, as part of a Q&A, had asked Stacey Abrams to engage in a bit of self-criticism. She did. This morning, the newspaper asked Stacey Evans, her Democratic rival for governor, to do the same thing. Here's the one thing Evans said she got wrong:
"I think the opportunity school district vote — not fully appreciating the exacerbation of the distrust that that would create. What I've learned from it is just that we need to talk to each other more and communicate more, and for me, when I'm writing any education policy, I want the education community at the table while the legislation is being written, not after the fact, after I've written it. … I want them to be there during the drafting process. And so, I think bringing stakeholders in earlier is a lesson that was learned from that situation."
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Today’s endorsement report:
-- Democrat Stacey Abrams has picked up the support of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat often seen as a potential presidential candidate.
-- Rayna Casey, a key Georgia GOP fundraiser who chaired Donald Trump's Georgia campaign, on Wednesday rolled out a pair of endorsements. She's backing Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle for governor and state Sen. David Shafer for the No. 2 job. Read her full statement here.
-- Shafer, one of several GOP candidates for lieutenant governor, also reports receiving the endorsement of former Arizona congressman Barry Goldwater Jr.
-- NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia, an abortion rights group, endorsed nine candidates for the state Legislature on Wednesday: state Sen. Jen Jordan and Senate candidates Zahra Karinshak and Sally Harrell; and House candidates Shea Roberts Shelly Hutchinson, Erick Allen, Donna McLeod, Matthew Wilson and Mike Wilensky.
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The Atlanta Press Club debate between the four Democrats vying to take on U.S. Rep. Karen Handel in the Sixth District lacked fireworks, as we mentioned in our wrap-up story. But there was an eyebrow-raising moment in Georgia Public Broadcasting studios when former newscaster Bobby Kaple asked gun control advocate Lucy McBath why she didn't vote in Georgia in 2016 and 2017.
McBath said she was living in Tennessee at the time. When pressed by GPB’s Bill Nigut, McBath divulged that her husband is a permanent resident in the Volunteer State and that she lived there during 2016 and mid-2017 to help take care of her sick father-in-law. (Her campaign said she changed her legal residency during that period.) She says she’s now back in Marietta, where she has spent the bulk of the last three decades.
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State Sen. Josh McKoon of Columbus, a Republican candidate for secretary of state, went all "Office Space" on old voting machines in his latest campaign ad. The ad, which will soon be adapted for TV, features McKoon and two others taking baseball bats to the outdated machines. (No, "Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta" does not play in the background.). Watch the ad here:
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Republican Clay Tippins on Tuesday rolled out his third TV ad in his campaign for governor, featuring the same Casey Cagle impostor used in the other two spots. The newest 30 seconds knocks the lieutenant governor for supporting the 2015 legislation to levy new fees to pay for infrastructure improvements, while using public funds to fly to public events around the state. Cagle's campaign didn't comment. Watch the ad here:
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We told you earlier this morning that Hunter Hill has endorsed a state takeover of the Atlanta-owned Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
At a campaign stop in Rome on Tuesday, the Republican candidate for governor was also asked what he would do to rein what one questioner described as a liberal takeover of higher education. The former state senator said he would start by changing the makeup of the Board of Regents with his picks to the influential group.
“People love the thought of diversity. They forget we need diversity of thought,” said Hill. “That’s going to be a big part of our effort -- to appoint reform-minded members of the Board of Regents.”
