Baskin Elected Chair of the Legislature

An analyst warns Thursday that GOP lawmakers "drunk with power" have made a major stumble amid the ongoing government shutdown, unleashing "Republicans' worst nightmare."

Salon columnist Heather Digby Parton writes about how Obamacare premiums are set to soar — something President Donald Trump had promised to replace — and now "appears to be one step too far" for Americans.

"Ten years of similar promises have shown that replacing the Affordable Care Act wasn’t so easy after all — and that the only health care plan the GOP ever truly wanted was one called 'you’re on your own,'" Digby Parton writes.

Republicans haven't introduced any alternatives, instead people are receiving notices that their healthcare premiums are set to rise, while they cut Medicaid and close a number of rural hospitals, add work requirements and deny care to millions. And although they've pointed to Project 2025, aiming to force people into a privatized version of Medicaid and "plan to open up the market to sell junk insurance plans which are worth virtually nothing," it's still a half-baked policy, the writer argues.

"But the GOP’s lack of strategy and success makes it clear the party is as flummoxed on this issue as they’ve always been, and they know it’s a loser for them," she writes.

Healthcare matters for Americans because it's something that effects their daily lives, she adds, and "it’s now on the front lines of this massive war against our social safety net."

As the Trump administration works to defund scientific research and following "the government's shambolic response during the first year of the pandemic and the damage being done every day by the administration to our scientific research community, I suspect a lot of people are feeling insecure about their actual health care these days."

That could leave room for Democrats to step in and hold the line.

"If Democrats can find the fortitude to hold out for their demands, they will have taken the first step in reining in this lawless administration and given the American people something to hold onto in these dark days," Digby Parton writes.

The public is rejecting President Donald Trump's "make-believe" approach to the current economy — and he's "going to be disappointed," according to a new report.

Americans are not convinced by the president's claims of an "economic renaissance," Steve Benen, producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show" writes on the MaddowBlog Friday.

In his post, Benen points to the results from the CBS News/YouGov poll released this week that reports 60% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s handling of the economy, as 51% say the president's economic agenda has left them worse off. Other polls and surveys indicate a similar tone, he adds.

"And yet, he acts as if he can bully Americans’ economic attitudes into submission through constant, reality-defying repetition," Benen writes.

During his White House cabinet meeting this week, Trump said "we have the best economy we've ever had."

Benen argues that things are not good — and 22 states could be heading to recession and economic downturn following the Trump tariff policies and aggressive immigration tactics, according to a new report this week from Axios.

"The idea that Trump, during his first term, delivered the greatest economy ever seen by human eyes is demonstrably absurd," Benen writes. "But the idea that our current economy has reached heights without precedent in the history of the United States is every bit as ridiculous."

The White House might not want to hear it, he adds, but Americans aren't happy.

"I don’t know whether Trump has genuinely convinced himself that Americans now have 'the best economy we’ve ever had,' or whether he was just peddling the latest in a series of lies. Either way, if he thinks such nonsense is persuading a frustrated public, he’s going to be disappointed," he writes.

President Donald Trump stood with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and announced a new ceasefire proposal and peace plan, but critics couldn't help but notice it's missing some critical pieces — namely, that a key party is missing.

Steve Herman, executive director at the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation, quoted Trump's comment, "Everyone else has accepted it."

"Except Hamas, according to President Trump, explaining his plan calls for a 'Board of Peace' to be headed by himself," said Herman.

It prompted national security lawyer Bradly P. Moss to remark, "So, you know, a peace plan missing a vital party."

"The new official Trump plan for Gaza. Quite a few things to parse out, including accountability mechanisms, who actually makes up the stabilisation force, and what mandate they would have," said Dr. H.A. Hellyer, a geopolitics and security expert on the Middle East and Europe at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.

Even senior Washington Examiner writer David Harsanyi had questions: "This plan has been tried more than once. Palestinians have never been able to meet #1."

Bloomberg's Washington Correspondent Josh Wingrove couldn't help but notice that the plan, "previously described as a '21-point plan,'" now "includes 20 points and an image of proposed withdrawals."

"The points include a call for Gaza's governance to be supervised by a 'Board of Peace' - chaired by Trump himself," added Wingrove.

White House columnist Niall Stanage, at "The Hill," also questioned, "It runs to 20 points but how will point 1 — upon which all else may hinge — be defined or verified and by whom?"

"If Trump is to be the head of the newly established transitional administration in Gaza, it means Gaza is becoming a mandate of the USA. Blair is the Mandate Governor," observed Tuğçe Varol, an academic working on Russian and Turkish foreign policy.