Vulnerable House Republicans are worried that Obamacare subsidies set to expire in December may dent their midterm chances and are introducing a bill, together with moderate Democrats, that would extend the tax credits for a year, Punchbowl News reports.
But at this point, Republican party leaders seem less than eager about extending these subsidies.
“I’ll say it, it’s rigged in favor of me and my children. And so I used to spend a lot of time unrigging, trying to unrig it. My attitude now is, ‘No, I want to keep it rigged. I’m just going to rig it for you against the powerful interests. It’s going to stay rigged, but we’re going to rig it on behalf of the working class, the middle class of America that struggle every day against great odds and great headwinds.’”
— Rahm Emanuel, in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
“Democrats are taking a much tougher stance on the looming deadline to keep the government open than they did earlier this year, warning there will be a shutdown if Republicans attempt to jam them with another partisan stopgap funding measure from the House,” The Hill reports.
“Spurred on by disgruntled progressives who want to see them fight, Democrats are breathing fire after President Trump thumbed his nose at Congress last week by proposing a pocket rescission, which would allow his White House budget director to rescind $5 billion in previously appropriated funding without any input from Capitol Hill.”
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“On the campaign trail last summer, President Donald Trump promised to swiftly cut electricity and energy prices in half if voters returned him to the White House,” CNN reports.
Said Trump: “We intend to slash prices by half within 12 months, maximum of 18 months. You will never have had energy so low as you will under a certain gentleman known as Donald J. Trump.”
“Although gasoline prices have been low during the first year of Trump’s second term, electricity costs are rising uncomfortably fast for a variety of factors, including the insatiable power needs of massive data centers that serve as the backbone of the artificial intelligence boom.”
“As of the end of July, electricity prices had surged 5.5% over the prior 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s just over twice the pace of overall inflation, which remains elevated despite Trump’s promises to make prices tumble.”
Ankush Khardori: “Donald Trump is making a last-ditch effort to salvage his beloved, beleaguered tariff policy, heading to the Supreme Court in hopes that the Republican appointees will come to his rescue. The desperation is both palpable and warranted given the conspicuous weakness of the administration’s legal arguments, as underscored by a series of lower court rulings against him. That has in turn led the president and his aides to make increasingly histrionic public claims about what will happen if the Supreme Court does not cave and side with Trump.”
“Call it The Chicken Little Defense: If the courts do not sign off on the administration’s tariffs, it ‘would be a total disaster for the Country’ and ‘would literally destroy the United States of America,’ Trump said on Friday after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the bulk of the president’s tariffs are illegal. He doubled down on those claims on Tuesday while tacking on the transparently ridiculous assertion that the U.S. is ‘taking in $17 trillion … because of tariffs.’”
“More missiles. Fewer arrests. President Trump’s war on drugs is officially a war, not a mere law enforcement action,” Axios reports.
“The U.S. has entered a new era in which narcotraffickers are classified as terrorists — and Trump is claiming the right to kill them before they or their drugs reach this country.”
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most prominent vaccine skeptic, courted the votes of senators considering whether to confirm him as health secretary by promising, repeatedly and in writing, to do nothing ‘that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines,’” the New York Times reports.
“Seven months have passed since he took office. In that time, Mr. Kennedy has delivered a lukewarm endorsement of the measles vaccine; dismantled a panel of experts who make vaccine recommendations to the government; taken steps that will effectively restrict access to Covid-19 vaccines; canceled $500 million of grants and contracts for the development of mRNA vaccines; and, just last week, forced out the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because she disagreed with him on vaccine policy.”
“On Thursday, Mr. Kennedy will come before the Senate again with his department in turmoil.”
“China has hacked into American power grids and companies for decades, stealing sensitive files and intellectual property such as chip designs as it seeks to gain an edge over the United States,” the New York Times reports.
“But a sweeping cyberattack by a group known as Salt Typhoon is China’s most ambitious yet, experts and officials have concluded after a year of investigating it. It targeted more than 80 countries and may have stolen information from nearly every American.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) warned that Jeffrey Epstein survivors could be sued for “naming names” if they compiled their own list of his clients.
Instead, Massie said he and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are “willing to name names in the House of Representatives under Constitutional ‘speech or debate’ immunity.”
Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball is changing its predictions for three closely watched gubernatorial races in 2025 and 2026. Virginia’s race this November moves from “leans Democratic” to “likely Democratic.”
Meanwhile, next year’s open-seat races in Iowa and Maine have both become more competitive: Iowa moves from “likely Republican” to “leans Republican,” and Maine’s goes from “likely Democratic” to “leans Democratic.”
“President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he may deploy federal troops to New Orleans next, not Chicago, and is waiting for governors to ask for help — a shift in his rhetoric about moving into major U.S. cities uninvited,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “We are making a determination now: Do we go to Chicago? Or do we go to a place like New Orleans where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that has become quite – quite tough, quite bad?”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is willing to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Moscow, CNN reports.
Said Putin: “Donald asked me if it was possible to hold such a meeting. I said yes, it is possible. In the end, if Zelensky is ready, let him come to Moscow. Such a meeting will take place.”
President Trump told CBS News on Wednesday that he remains committed to pursuing a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, despite mounting uncertainty over the prospect of face-to-face talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Said Trump: “Something is going to happen, but they are not ready yet. But something is going to happen. We are going to get it done.”
“President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to quickly decide whether he has the power to impose broad tariffs under a law designed for use during times of emergency,” NBC News reports.
“The Justice Department is appealing a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Aug. 29 that said Trump had exceeded his authority.”
Former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) is preparing to run for Florida’s 19th congressional district seat, Axios reports.
“Cawthorn, who once said the House Republican conference is full of degenerates, appears eager to rejoin his old colleagues. If elected, he’d almost certainly create fresh headaches for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).”
“Rep. Ronny Jackson announced that the Navy has restored his retired rank of rear admiral, overturning a 2022 demotion that followed a scathing investigation that found major issues with his behavior while he was the top White House physician,” the AP reports.
New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani called reporting Wednesday that the White House is considering administration jobs for Mayor Eric Adams and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa an “affront to our democracy,” ABC News reports.
Said Mamdani: “Today, we have learned what New Yorkers have long suspected — that Andrew Cuomo is Donald Trump’s choice to be the next mayor of this city.”
“President Trump on Thursday will host two dozen high-profile tech and business leaders for the first event in the newly renovated White House Rose Garden, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI founder Sam Altman,” The Hill reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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