Good evening. President Joe Biden headed to Brussels Wednesday, the first stop on a European trip aimed at bolstering the NATO alliance and support for Ukraine as it continues to fight Russia’s invasion. Biden reportedly will pledge more humanitarian aid and new sanctions on Russia. Here at home, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson faced a second day of sometimes contentious questioning from senators considering her nomination to the Supreme Court. And Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state, died at age 84.
Here’s what else is going on.
Obamacare Turns 12 With Record Enrollment, but Trouble Ahead
When President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law 12 years ago, Vice President Joe Biden was famously overheard telling his boss that the occasion was a “big f—ing deal.”
Today, despite a rocky start, the ACA boasts record enrollment, thanks in no small part to President Joe Biden’s effort to expand coverage in the first year of his administration amid the Covid-19 pandemic. To top it off, Republican efforts to overturn the law seem to have run out of gas, a situation noted by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Larry Levitt, who wrote that there are “no meaningful political or legal threats to its existence for the first time since its passage.”
Biden celebrated the landmark legislation Wednesday. “Twelve years ago, I proudly stood beside President Barack Obama as he signed into law the most consequential expansion of health care in generations: the Affordable Care Act,” Biden said in a statement. “And because of my Administration’s efforts, including passing the landmark American Rescue Plan, we have lowered health care costs and made coverage more accessible than ever before — even amid a global pandemic.”
Obama noted the occasion, too, tweeting, “12 years ago today, I signed the Affordable Care Act into law. I’ve always believed that health care shouldn’t be a privilege for just a fortunate few, but a right for every American. Today, more than 30 million Americans have health coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act.”
Obama also noted the important role the ACA has played during the Covid-19 crisis. “During the pandemic, the Affordable Care Act helped make vaccines and COVID-19 tests available for free, covered emergency hospitalizations, and prevented insurance companies from denying anyone coverage based on a pre-existing condition," he wrote.
Clouds on the horizon: One big reason that a record 15.5 million people signed up for health care through the ACA marketplaces in 2022 is that Democrats provided additional subsidies to reduce the cost of coverage and expanded the sign-up window via the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, but those subsidies are temporary and scheduled to expire at the end of the year. The White House wants to make the subsidies permanent, but the Build Back Better bill that contained such a provision has stalled in Congress and is not expected to pass in anything like its most recent form.
Democrats reportedly plan to use the relatively popular ACA in their political campaigns this fall, highlighting the hostility to the program among Republicans — GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin recently cited overturning Obamacare as the kind of goal he’d like to see his party pursue — while claiming that a Republican victory would guarantee reduced support at best.
Republicans say they doubt the ACA will get much traction in the November election. Soaring gas prices, the war in Ukraine and worries about a recession are more likely to take center stage, leaving the 12-year old health care plan to keep chugging along quietly in the background.
Quote of the Day: The Fed Is Set to Get Aggressive About Inflation
“We need to be more aggressive earlier rather than later, because inflation is so much higher and because labor market conditions are very tight."
– Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, signaling an openness to interest rate hikes of half a percentage point and a preference to “front load” the Fed’s rate increases. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly also said Wednesday that she’s open to 0.50 percentage point increases.
Those comments echo remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell earlier this week in a speech at a conference of the National Association for Business Economics. “We will take the necessary steps to ensure a return to price stability,” Powell said Monday. “In particular, if we conclude that it is appropriate to move more aggressively by raising the federal funds rate by more than 25 basis points at a meeting or meetings, we will do so. And if we determine that we need to tighten beyond common measures of neutral and into a more restrictive stance, we will do that as well.”
IRS Investigations Find Nearly $2 Billion in Covid Fraud
The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday that its agents gave investigated 660 cases of alleged fraud totaling $1.8 billion related to Covid stimulus funds. “These cases included a broad range of criminal activity, including fraudulently obtained loans, credits and payments meant for American workers, families, and small businesses,” the IRS Criminal Investigation division said in a statement.
The agency said it had a 100% conviction rate for prosecuted cases, with prison sentences averaging 42 months.
At the same time, the Criminal Investigation division says it is underfunded and that its workforce has shrunk by 25% over the last decade, according to The Hill, which adds that the division received a $21 million budget increase in the annual spending bill passed earlier this month.
Poll of the Day: 73% Support Federal Gas Tax Holiday
A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that 73% of respondents favor the idea of a federal gas tax holiday, including 44% who strongly support such a suspension of the 18.4 cents per gallon levy. Similarly, 72% of respondents say they back a “temporary break from paying state taxes on gasoline.” While a gas tax holiday has some political and pocketbook appeal, many experts have warned that it would be unwise and could drain critical infrastructure funding.
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News
- Here’s Biden’s Plan to Aid Ukrainian Refugees and Why Advocates Want More – Politico
- Fed Officials Discuss More Aggressive Rate Hikes to Control Inflation – Washington Post
- Biden’s Covid Team Warns on Lack of Funds Ahead of Meeting – Bloomberg
- Administration Faces Risks in Decision on Public Health Emergency – Roll Call
- Pandemic Relief Money Spent on Hotel, Ballpark, Ski Slopes – Associated Press
- Biden Approval Rating Drops to New Low of 40%, Reuters/Ipsos Poll Finds – Reuters
- Buttigieg Opens Applications for Money to Build Large Infrastructure Projects – Washington Post
- Dimon Pushed White House for ‘Marshall Plan’ on Domestic Gas – Bloomberg
- Biden's Drug Czar Is Finalizing a Broad Strategy for the Addiction Crisis – Washington Post
- Democrats Press Biden to Extend Freeze on Student Loan Payments – The Hill
- Biden Administration Eyeing Booster Shot Recommendation Within Weeks – Politico
- Moderna Will Seek Emergency Authorization of Its Vaccine for Young Children – New York Times
- Newsom Gas Tax Relief Plan: $400 Debit Cards and No Tax Hike – Politico
- USPS Could Serve Nearly All Its Mail Routes in Electric Vehicles, Watchdog Says – Next Gov
- Trust in the Federal Government Is Low, but Views of Feds Are Mostly Positive – Government Executive
Views and Analysis
- Interest Rate Hikes Aren’t a Solution for Supply Shocks – David Dayen, American Prospect
- Only the U.S. Turns Gas Prices Into a Political Timebomb – David Fickling, Bloomberg
- What We Hope to See in the President's FY 2023 Budget – Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
- Joe Biden’s Never-Ending Campaign to Build on Obamacare – Joanne Kenen, Politico
- Consumer Despair Is Probably Worse Than We Realize – Jared Dillian, Bloomberg
- Rebating Tax Dollars Doesn’t ‘Cost’ a State Anything. It’s Your Money! – Mitch Daniels, Washington Post
- Biden’s Call for Minimum Corporate Tax Should Reignite Democratic Efforts – Jennifer Longdon, Real Clear Politics
- Covid’s Fifth Wave Shows Us How to Live With the Virus – Therese Raphael and Sam Fazeli, Bloomberg
- Why Does the CDC Keep Screwing Up? – Melody Schreiber, New Republic
- Bolstered Balance Sheets: Assessing Household Finances Since 2019 – Mitchell Barnes et al, Brookings Institution