Washington Post: Trump Flunks his First Foreign Policy Test

By David Ignatius:

This jousting over Taiwan wouldn’t be so worrisome if other aspects of the U.S.-Asia policy were intact. But Trump’s pledge to tear up the TPP in his first days in office has sent the other 11 nations that signed the pact scrambling for cover — with some talking of making new deals with a Beijing that is eager to fill the void.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the United States’ most important Asian ally, said last month that TPP members would consider joining a rival, Chinese-led trade agreement known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP. “There’s no doubt that there would be a pivot to the RCEP if the TPP doesn’t go forward,” Abe said. Peru and Australia, two other TPP signatories, also indicated they might join the RCEP.

“If you want to stand up to China, the last thing you should do is walk away from TPP,” said Michael Froman in an interview. He’s the U.S. trade representative Trump blasted during the campaign as an incompetent negotiator.

The Full Story (December 6, 2016)

[Special] Washington Post: Everything you want to know about the Trump Cabinet confirmation hearings

In a nice write-up by Elise Viebeck on January 6, 2017, the Washington Post has a handy guide to the big names Trump wants in his cabinet, following the format below:

WHO: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)

NOMINATED FOR: Attorney general

WHEN AND WHERE: 9:30 A.M. on Jan. 10, 11; Senate Judiciary Committee (Russell Senate Office Building, Room 325)

ARGUMENT FOR: Trump has praised Sessions, a longtime adviser and supporter, as a “world-class legal mind.” First elected in 1996, Sessions previously served as a U.S. attorney and attorney general for Alabama. He has earned praise from Democrats who work with him.

ARGUMENT AGAINST: Accusations of racism have dogged Sessions’s career. He was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 after former colleagues testified he used the n-word and said the Ku Klux Klan were “okay” until he realized they smoked marijuana.

You can read the Full Story.

[Special] The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold

During the craziness of the 2016 election cycle, one of the most prominent reporters to emerge in the public's mind was David Fahrenthold. Certainly, while I was posting snippets and links as part of this blog, he and Newsweeks' Kurt Eichenwald were names I saw with frequency, often sharing breaking news that was the highlight of the week.

Fahrenthold shared his thoughts about his coverage of Donald Trump, beginning with the president-elect's failure to comply with his own promises to donate to charity and winding into deeper and deeper absurdities, as can only come with the full Trump experience. The article shows how Fahrenthold used a mix of classic newspaper investigation and modern social media tools to get to the answers. It was almost as fun as watching Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Fahrenthold's predecessors, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, in All The President's Men (highly recommended film, of course).

Fehrenthold gives me hope for the next four years. I hope that there are journalists like him who will continue to dig and look for the truth in an administration that will try to obfuscate and misdirect. The story can be read here.

Urban Institute: Implications of Partial Repeal of the ACA through Reconciliation

By Linda J. Blumberg, Matthew Buettgens, and John Holahan:

Congress is now considering partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) through the budget reconciliation process. Since only components of the law with federal budget implications can be changed through reconciliation, this approach would permit elimination of the Medicaid expansion, the federal financial assistance for Marketplace coverage (premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions), and the individual and employer mandates; it would leave the insurance market reforms (including the nongroup market’s guaranteed issue, prohibition on preexisting condition exclusions, modified community rating, essential health benefit requirements, and actuarial value standards) in place. There is currently no consensus around alternative health policies to enact as the ACA is repealed; consequently, partial repeal via reconciliation without replacement is possible and merits analysis.

In this brief, we compare future health care coverage and government health care spending under the ACA and under passage of a reconciliation bill similar to one vetoed in January 2016. The key effects of passage of the anticipated reconciliation bill are as follows:

• The number of uninsured people would rise from 28.9 million to 58.7 million in 2019, an increase of 29.8 million people (103 percent). The share of nonelderly people without insurance would increase from 11 percent to 21 percent, a higher rate of uninsurance than before the ACA because of the disruption to the nongroup insurance market.

Washington Post: Trump’s Unpredictable Style Unnerves Corporate America

By Drew Harwell and Rosalind S. Helderman:

That style, including his opaque personal financial dealings and his sudden shots at certain companies, has helped unnerve a corporate America that traditionally craves stability. Some business leaders and economists have worried whether executives can speak their minds about the president-elect or his policies without fear of facing Trump’s rage.

“Twisting people’s arms is inherently problematic” for a president, said N. Gregory Mankiw, a professor of economics at Harvard who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush.

“The president has so much power, you always wonder if there’s some implicit threat to individuals, and that goes beyond what I think a limited government should do,” Mankiw said.

The Full Story (December 6, 2016)

Think Progress: Why is the Trump Team Requesting Security Clearances for Conspiracy Theorists? Pence Won’t Answer.

By Laurel Raymond:

This morning, Vice President-Elect Mike Pence went on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and stated that Michael Flynn Jr., the son of President-Elect Trump’s National Security Advisor, had no role “whatsoever” in the Trump transition.

Flynn Jr. is currently under scrutiny for promoting a conspiracy theory about a Washington DC pizza shop, what has now come to be called “Pizzagate.”

The conspiracy theory contends that the local DC restaurant is a front for a pedophilia trafficking ring with ties to high level Clinton aides. On Sunday, a man who believed the conspiracy theory entered the shop and threatened employees and customers with an assault rifle. Shortly after, Flynn Jr. used his Twitter feed to defend the conspiracy theory.

Flynn Jr. was involved with the transition. On Tuesday afternoon, Pence admitted to CNN host Jake Tapper that he was wrong earlier in the day.

“His son was helping him a bit with scheduling and administrative items,” Pence told Tapper. Trump team spokesmen stated Tuesday that Flynn Jr. is no longer part of the team. Tapper reported this afternoon that Flynn Jr. was asked to leave by President-Elect Trump, according to a source.

After Pence equivocated, Tapper followed up, noting that the transition team asked for security clearance for Flynn Jr.

Pence refused to answer.

Tapper asked again. Still no answer.

Tapper asked if you need a security clearance to do scheduling. Still no answer.

This pattern was repeated five times. Pence never answered the question.

The Full Story (December 6, 2016)

[Special] Ben Carson, HUD Secretary Nominee

I'll leave it to the Washington Post to give the rundown...

• Trump Nominates Carson to Lead U.S. Housing, Urban Policy by Elise Viebeck and Karoun Demirjian (December 5, 2016):

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development, an unconventional choice that underscores Trump’s willingness to forgo traditional policy expertise in some Cabinet positions to surround himself with allies.

Carson — who ran against Trump in the wide field of Republican presidential primary candidates and has never held political office — is the president-elect’s highest-profile African American supporter and confidant. A conservative political celebrity, the 65-year-old Carson recently cast doubt on his suitability for a Cabinet role, saying he would be “like a fish out of water” as a federal bureaucrat.

“I am thrilled to nominate Dr. Ben Carson as our next Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,” Trump is quoted as saying in a statement released by his transition team Monday. “Ben Carson has a brilliant mind and is passionate about strengthening communities and families within those communities.”

• Trump’s Pick of Ben Carson is Beyond Baffling by WaPo Editorial Board (December 5, 2016)

It less than a month ago that a spokesman for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson told reporters that the erstwhile GOP presidential candidate would not be serving the Trump administration in anything but an unofficial advisory capacity. “Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience,” Armstrong Williams said, “he’s never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.” On that basis alone, President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement Monday that Mr. Carson would be his choice to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development was baffling. Add the fact that Mr. Carson has no relevant expertise whatsoever (secretary of health and human services, the previous job for which the highly accomplished physician was mentioned, might have been a different story) and Mr. Trump’s pick goes well beyond baffling.

• HUD Job to Pit Carson Ideology Against Long-Standing Housing Policy by Lisa Rein and Elise Viebeck (December 5, 2016)

The biggest shifts under Carson could come in the area of fair housing, experts said. The Obama administration is just starting to implement a new rule requiring local communities to study and report on patterns of racial and income disparity in housing, with HUD overseeing the strategy. The federal government is giving these communities detailed data on poverty rates, school demographics, where minority groups live and whether they are segregated from white neighborhoods. Where segregation exists, HUD and local officials are supposed to come up with plans to reduce it.

Conservative critics have called the policy government overreach, and Carson wrote last year that requiring cities and towns to publicly report racial disparities in housing would “fundamentally change” communities by requiring affordable housing to be built in wealthier neighborhoods.