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PBC News & Comment: It’s GOP vs. GOP in Healthcare Struggle, As House Committees Ram “Replacement” Through in All-nighters

Best chance to derail draft American Healthcare Act comes from Tea Party hardliners, who think current plan is “Obamacare lite”…..–distortions drive GOP effort to scuttle Obamacare—only 3% of Americans faced major spikes in premiums under Obamacare

–following Trump tweets blaming Obama for alleged wiretaps, White House is in chaos and not in sync with Justice Dept and other agencies

NY Times editorial scolds Trump for smearing Obama, and dreams of principled Republicans who will confront him

WikiLeaks promises more from CIA’s Vault 7, and Assange offers to share vulnerabilities found by CIA with the related tech companies

–FBI director and others tell us to forget about privacy, but your humble host will not trade false sense of security for unrestrained spying on innocent citizens

–GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell gloats about blocking Obama’s court pick, and blurts out the truth—Mexico won’t pay for Trump’s wall

–Trump claims corporate tax reform will stimulate economy, but new study confirms that many big corporations pay zero tax already (like Trump?)

–bible-thumping morons in Texas legislature ignore court rejection, and considers new bill to require burial after miscarriage or abortion

–Never Mind: federal judge’s order for CIA torturers to testify is blocked by assertion of state secrets privilege

–Trump recruits John Huntsman for ambassador to Russia, and picks hawkish critic of Russia for NATO ambassador

–at DeSmogBlog, Steve Horn watches the “reverse revolving door” and finds many oil & gas lobbyists populate staff of key committees