Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price used to say the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate was ineffective and drove up health costs.
But Price, who was fired by President Donald Trump, came out early last week with a a second opinion.
Consumers will probably see their health care costs rise, the former congressman from Roswell said during a speech in Washington, because when his fellow Republicans overhauled the federal tax code, they struck down Obamacare’s individual mandate without producing a replacement plan.
"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 at a conference of health care professionals, according to The Washington Times.
Naturally, that caught some attention because it’s the case Democrats made to keep the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wanted to make sure Price’s message got out. So he sent out an email blast with the following subject line: “Did former Trump HHS Secretary Tom Price really say this about the GOP and health care?”
The email, itself, stated, “We couldn’t have said it any better ourselves.”
Price responded by saying that’s not what he said, or at least not what he meant to say.
Days later in an op-ed in The Hill newspaper, he said his comments were reported out of context.
The former orthopedic surgeon then returned to the original diagnosis.
Price called the effective elimination of the mandate a “major victory for tens of millions of Americans struggling to pay inflated health-care costs.”
It worked in 2017. Will it work in 2018? Voters can expect to hear U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's name frequently as soon as Republican candidates across the nation shift their campaigns into general election mode.
Why?
Because the party was delighted with the results of its field test last year in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District special election. In the political petri dish stretching from East Cobb County to North DeKalb County, mentions of Pelosi were nearly as abundant as those of the actual Democratic candidate, Jon Ossoff, in ads supporting the eventual winner, Republican Karen Handel.
You can also expect to hear a lot about President Donald Trump, said U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, the head of the U.S. House GOP campaign arm.
“We know how to use him to motivate our voters, and I think we can use him in almost any district in this country because of the fact that there are people that love him everywhere,” Stivers said of Trump while talking recently to regional newspaper reporters.
A recent pair of Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Channel 2 Action News polls offer a glimpse at Trump’s powers of motivation. In one, likely voters in the upcoming Republican primary gave the president an 80 percent approval rating. But a similar poll of Democratic voters, put Trump at 7 percent.
Stivers’ Democratic counterpart, U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, has urged his party’s candidates to focus less on the president and more on policy issues.
Candidates told to pull their weight: Stivers chastised 41 Republicans in the U.S. House, including U.S. Rep. Rob Woodall of Lawrenceville, over their meager fundraising heading into November's congressional midterm elections.
“I don’t have money to come in and save people who can’t save themselves,” Stivers said.
Talking to reporters, Stivers said that “if somebody’s in a seat that has a pretty good (Republican advantage), it’s their job to do the work.”
Woodall raised about $155,000 in the first quarter, while one of several Democrats challenging him in the 7th Congressional District, Carolyn Bourdeaux, took in $219,000.
Taking aim at airport: Former state Sen. Hunter Hill called for the state to take on oversight of Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, saying such a move could be both a barrier to corruption and a pathway to a second major airport in Georgia.
Hill, a Republican running for governor, said a state board should oversee the world’s busiest airport in the same manner that state panels now watch over ports and the Georgia World Congress Center.
During a campaign stop in Rome, the candidate said the airport was “too weighty for one mayor to oversee,” and he cited the ongoing federal investigation into corruption in Atlanta’s City Hall.
He also said state control could help spur growth in Georgia’s rural areas.
“Georgia doesn’t reach its economic potential if it continues to be a one-city state,” Hill said, adding: “Georgia struggles to put additional cities on the map, and you can do that if you have a state approach to this juggernaut of economic development.”
The idea is not a new one. State lawmakers have threatened for decades to give the state more control over the airport. Republican state Sen. Burt Jones pushed such an effort during the past legislative session. But, like previous attempts, it never got off the ground, drawing opposition from both Gov. Nathan Deal and House Speaker David Ralston.
He's got his committee's back: Georgia U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, is defending the panel after a flood of rumors sank the nomination of Dr. Ronny Jackson, the White House physician, to become secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The ranking Democrat on the committee, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, has drawn the scorn of President Donald Trump and his allies for publicly sharing some allegations about Jackson, including claims that he mistreated White House medical staffers and improperly dispensed medications.
Isakson didn’t seem to have a problem with it.
"Every senator exercises their options under the confirmation process to do what they think is right, individually," the senator told CNN, "and that is the way it should be."
Isakson has not said who he’d like to see fill the hole that opened up when Trump dismissed Dr. David Shulkin, whom Isakson had supported.
“We have a good interim acting director right now,” Isakson said, “and we’re going to let everything settle down because of the turmoil this week and we’ll get to work and do that.”
Candidates, endorsements, etc.:
— Former state Sen. Vincent Fort has formally endorsed former state Rep. Stacey Evans in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor. The endorsement gives her another high-profile African-American supporter that could offer significant help to Evans in the May 22 primary because her opponent, Abrams, is aiming to become the first black female governor in the nation. Other African-American leaders backing Evans include Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young.
— Abrams has drawn the support of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, a California Democrat whose name now pops up on lists of potential presidential candidates.
— Rayna Casey, a major GOP fundraiser and chairwoman of Trump's Georgia campaign, has endorsed Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle's bid for governor and state Sen. David Shafer in the lieutenant governor's race.
— Shafer has also picked up the support of Ed Meese, best known as the U.S. attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, former Arizona Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. and Haley Barbour, the former governor of Mississippi. Barbour was chairman of the Republican National Committee when Shafer was the executive director of the state GOP.
— NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia, an abortion rights group, is backing nine candidates for the state Legislature: 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.
— One of Georgia's most noteworthy Republicans, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, used a television ad to endorse Ken Shigley in a nonpartisan race for the state Court of Appeals. Shigley's opponent is Ken Hodges, a onetime Democratic candidate for state attorney general.
— State Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, is backing John Hitchins in the GOP race for a seat on the state Public Service Commission.
Capitol Recap
Here's a look at some of the political and government stories that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's staff broke online during the past week. To see more of them, go to http://www.myajc.com/georgia-politics/.
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