May 05, 2017 11:54 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Friday (May 5)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Remember, kids: Don’t put the guacamole in your tortilla-chip hat until just before you are ready to leave the house. It’s time to Get More Smarter! If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► As you may have heard, Congressional Republicans finally passed a bill on Thursday related to the repeal and destruction of Obamacare. Republicans toasted to the (poor) health of Americans at the White House last evening, but the political blowback is already underway. From CNN:

The Cook Political Report, a non-partisan campaign handicapping service, changed the ratings on 20 GOP-held districts Friday morning — all of them moving in Democrats’ favor in advance of the 2018 midterm election…

…Two of the 20 changes affected members who actually opposed the AHCA: Leonard Lance of New Jersey and Mike Coffman of Colorado. Of Coffman, Wasserman wrote: “Coffman ended up voting against the AHCA, but his hesitation to announce his position likely won’t assuage voters who want to send a message to President Trump next year.” [Pols emphasis]

Think about the changes the Cook Report made this way: To win back the House majority, Democrats need to gain 24 GOP seats. Twenty Republican seats just moved toward Democrats — in less than a day and with a single congressional vote.

That’s a big deal.

Aurora Republican Mike Coffman did indeed vote “NO” on Trumpcare 2.0 on Thursday, but it doesn’t appear as though Coffman is going to get any real political cover from the decision. Coffman’s vote on Thursday won’t extinguish the memory of his longstanding support for repealing Obamacare, including the fact that he was one of the biggest cheerleaders of the failed Trumpcare bill in March of this year.

► The healthcare legislation now moves to the U.S. Senate, and its future is as uncertain as ever. Republican Senate leaders are already questioning the wisdom of the House passing a bill that many members never even had a chance to read first.

Check out this video of a reporter asking Republican Members of Congress if they had read the healthcare legislation — that’s Rep. Ken Buck (R-Greeley) who walks quickly away from the question near the end of the clip.

► Other than Mike Coffman, Colorado’s Congressional delegation voted along party lines on Trumpcare 2.0. Congressman Scott Tipton (R-Cortez) had been coy about his support for the latest healthcare bill, but as the Grand Junction Sentinel reports, Tipton is drinking all of the GOP Kool-Aid:

The most recent version of the American Health Care Act passed the House on Thursday with U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Colo., saying it met his test of making insurance more affordable.

“As the House developed the American Health Care Act, I was adamant that the replacement plan needed to ensure people with pre-existing conditions would have access to affordable health insurance,” Tipton said in a statement after the vote. “The bill provides these assurances.”…

…Critics took immediate issue with Tipton, among them ProgressNow Colorado, whose executive director noted Tipton’s comment to The Daily Sentinel in February that, “Every policy is still going to be in effect. People are not going to be left without coverage.” Tipton broke his promise to constituents with his vote, said Ian Silverii.

Tipton’s comments are complete and utter nonsense. It has been widely reported that the GOP healthcare bill would all but eliminate the requirement that insurance companies don’t penalize people with pre-existing conditions.

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► It may have been overshadowed by the healthcare legislation news on Thursday, but the Colorado legislature has finally reached agreement on a measure to re-classify the “Hospital Provider Fee” — though not before Democrats made a strange concession demanded by Republicans. The agreement will prevent a $528 million cut in hospital funding that likely would have doomed several rural hospitals in Colorado.

► Senator Michael Bennet (D-Denver) is sponsoring legislation intended to make it more difficult to deport immigrant farmworkers. From the Colorado Springs Gazette:

“Colorado’s $40 billion agriculture economy relies on an experienced workforce,” Bennet said in a statement. “The failure to fix our broken immigration system has had real economic consequences for our farmers and ranchers. This bill serves as a necessary step until we can enact a long-term solution by passing comprehensive immigration reform.”

Under the act, farmworkers who have worked in agriculture for at least 100 days in each of the past two years could get a “blue card.” Those maintaining a blue card for three or five years, depending on the total hours they worked, would be eligible to adjust to a green card that allows legal residency.

Bennet was a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight in 2013 that passed comprehensive immigration reform out of the Senate, then watched it wither on the vine in the Republican-led House.

► Donald Trump pledged during his campaign for President that he would protect the rights of LGBT Americans if elected to the highest office in the land. So, of course, Trump signed an Executive Order on Thursday that theoretically makes it easier for religious groups to discriminate against people based on their “beliefs.” Or, maybe not, as NPR reports:

The American Civil Liberties Union, which was planning to sue over the order, changed course after reading the text, declaring the event “an elaborate photo-op with no discernible policy outcome.”

Trump did open the door to future policy shifts. He directed the attorney general to “as appropriate, issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.”

But the White House had previously said Trump would urge the IRS to use “maximum discretion” in enforcing laws regarding religious organizations and offer “regulatory relief” to religious objectors to contraception coverage. Neither of those policy changes was directly brought into effect by the order.

► Legislation on so-called “construction defects reform” is on its way to Governor John Hickenlooper’s desk for final approval, but homebuilders are still bellyaching about the agreement.

► State Sen. Owen Hill (R-Colorado Springs) tried to hijack a school funding bill with a quiet amendment that would have provided significantly more money for charter schools than Hill led Democrats to believe. From Chalkbeat Colorado:

When state Sen. Owen Hill proposed an amendment to Colorado’s annual school funding bill, he told his colleagues on the Senate Education Committee no less than three times that the language was a carbon copy of another bill, currently stalled, that would benefit charter schools.

It wasn’t.

The amendment, which the Republican-controlled committee approved along party lines, does more for charter schools than what Hill led lawmakers to believe…

…State Sen. Nancy Todd, an Aurora Democrat who sits on the education committee, received a copy of the amendment before the committee voted on it. During the hearing, Todd said she did not compare the amendment’s language to Senate Bill 61. She asked Hill if it was verbatim.

He nodded.

“It’s deceptive,” Todd said Thursday after learning the amendment contained the additional money for the charter schools. “It’s disappointing that you can’t trust someone to speak the truth.”

Owen Hill is seeking to unseat Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn in a CD-5 primary next summer, leaving Colorado Springs voters with no good options on the GOP ballot.

► The two final candidates seeking to be elected President of France are spending their last day campaigning before Saturday’s vote. Emmanuel Macron, considered the early favorite, has received the endorsement of former U.S. President Barack Obama, while challenger Marine Le Pen is looking to pull off a Trump-like upset.

► Politico explains why the White House was so insistent that Congressional Republicans pass a healthcare bill — no matter the costs.

OTHER LINKS YOU SHOULD CLICK

► The City of Boulder is not overflowing with “stoned zombies.” There are a few, though.

► Republican gubernatorial candidate George Brauchler is pro-vouchers. This could be a problem for him in a General Election, should he ever make it that far.

ICYMI

► President Trump says that America needs a good old federal government shutdown!

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