Warner weekly wrap up: Trumpcare

TRUMPCARE

The plan by House Republicans and the Trump Administration to replace The Affordable Care Act moved on a very fast track this week amid signs of some growing opposition from House and Senate Republicans. By Thursday, Speaker Ryan had dusted off his PowerPoint to make a hard sales pitch for the GOP plan.

Senator Warner is no fan of the Republican proposal. Here’s the statement he put out when it was unveiled on Tuesday: 

“Trumpcare will cover less and cost more, and lead millions of Americans to lose coverage altogether. Trumpcare cuts and caps Medicaid, which means a state like Virginia which did not expand Medicaid gets the short end of the stick. In addition, the taxes on very wealthy people which helped pay for the ACA are eliminated under Trumpcare, and the House is rushing this through without saying how much it adds to the budget deficit. Instead of improving what we have, Trumpcare seems designed to cover fewer Americans, and makes that coverage less generous and less affordable.” 

Watch Sen. Warner’s video on Twitter

The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Health Foundation has a great interactive tool with cost comparisons by county between the current ACA and the House Republican plan.

FUNNY NUMBERS AT THE V-A?

Senators Warner and Kaine are asking the Department of Veterans Affairs to explain a recent internal review which showed discrepancies between posted wait times and the real wait times for veterans to access services…

“JARRING CUTS” IN BAY FUNDING

… and the Virginia senators partnered on a letter to President Trump strongly urging him to reconsider steep budget cuts within EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program. Reports indicate the Trump Administration will recommend cutting the Bay program from $73 million annually to $5 million – a 93% reduction. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation 2016 scorecard gives the Bay a grade of C-,  and scientists say the Chesapeake and its rivers and streams remain dangerously out of balance.

RUSSIA PROBE MOVES AHEAD

As part of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, Senator Warner and several colleagues traveled to CIA headquarters on Tuesday to review source documents and other classified information.  Senator Warner provided an overview of the Committee’s work in a conversation with Robert Siegel of NPR’s All Things Considered on Thursday.

The New York Times describes this as a stand-and-deliver moment for Senator Warner:

“The responsibility seems to have seeped into most aspects of Mr. Warner’s professional life,” reporter Matt Flegenheimer wrote. “He has taken to deploying phrases like ‘personal cyberhygiene’ in conversation, and discusses Russian incursions into French politics with a fluency once reserved for Virginia budget skirmishes.”

WEEK AHEAD

The Senate is expected to vote next week on the confirmations of Seema Verma to head the federal Medicare and Medicaid agency and former Indiana Sen. Dan Coats’ nomination to serve as the Director of National Intelligence.

We expect to learn more about proposed Trump Administration budget cuts next week, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to publicly estimate how much the Republican health package will cost and how much it will add to the deficit.