The two big stories of this week are difficult to reconcile: Democrats won handily in nearly all of Tuesday’s elections, and so Senate Democrats surrendered Sunday night in the shutdown battle.
One thing the 40-something-day shutdown did accomplish was to frame healthcare as the major difference between the parties. Democrats either want to keep patching up ObamaCare or push for a more complete national healthcare system, while Republicans want to junk ObamaCare in favor of some “cheaper, better” care system that somehow never quite comes together into a proposal that could be voted on and implemented.
This week’s featured post takes seriously Speaker Johnson’s claim the Republicans have “pages and pages” of healthcare ideas, which were contained in a 2019 report by the Republican Study Committee in the House. I read that report and I’ll be abstracting what I see as the underlying principles: (1) You can save money on healthcare if you gamble with people’s lives, and (2) that gamble is OK if you incentivize people to place the bets themselves.
In order to make sense of the RSC report’s proposals, I’ll have to summarize a lot of context, including the pre-ObamaCare problems and how ObamaCare tried to solve them. It’s going to be a long read, but I hope you’ll find in illuminating. That post should be out between 10 and 11 EST.
The weekly summary will of course cover the elections and the shutdown. I’ll also look at what’s been happening in Chicago, the Supreme Court’s discussion of Trump’s tariffs, and a few other things. It should be out before 1.
The Weekly Sift 
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I wrote this last night (Sunday) to my daughter and others:
Apparently negotiations are underway to reopen government. Here’s my letter to Representative Breyer and Senators Kaine and Warner.
Dear Representative Breyer (Senator Kaine, Senator Warner) and Staff:
Today, Judge Mark L. Wolf has an article published in the Atlantic explaining his resignation so that he could not be so constrained about speaking out regarding the Trump Administration. Please read his thoughtful article.
With whom are you negotiating? These are largely the Republican Senators (and Representatives of Congress) who did not vote for or support impeachment of President Trump not once but twice. These are individuals who did not acknowledge the severity or even recognize what should be called an act of Insurrection as Trump could not honor the vote which removed him from office. Be very, very careful in any negotiation and do not retreat from your humanitarian condition to extend subsidies for ACA. How many millions will lose insurance, and how many lives lost as a result?
The recent election results, just a few days ago, bolster your position. Do not back down.
Very truly yours,
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