Trump Touts His Economy, Grades It an A+++++

Trump spoke to reporters en route to Pennsylvania.
Reuters
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Happy Tuesday! President Trump is in the Poconos tonight, testing out a political message on the economy and affordability. Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, are trying to decide on a strategy on healthcare legislation. Here's your evening update.

Trump Touts His Economy, Grades It an A+++++

President Trump is road-testing his message on the economy and affordability this evening in a speech at the Mount Airy Casino Resort in a swing district in eastern Pennsylvania. The political world is watching to see how he responds to economic anxieties and continued cost-of-living concerns - whether he can stay on message and convey some empathy or winds up once again downplaying those voter fears and insisting that his economy is golden.

Trump has made clear that he thinks much of the problem lies in GOP messaging rather than financial reality. "We're bringing prices way down," Trump said Monday. "You can call it 'affordability' or anything you want - but the Democrats caused the affordability problem, and we're the ones that are fixing it."

Voters don't yet see the progress. Polls have found Americans to be unhappy about the state of the economy, upset about the high cost of living and displeased with Trump's handling of both. A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released Monday found that 55% of voters say the economy is on the wrong track, 57% think the economy is shrinking, 57% say Trump is losing the battle against inflation and 55% say his policies will make inflation worse. A Politico poll last week found that 46% say the cost of living is the worst they can remember it being.

Yet in an interview with Politico on Monday, Trump gave himself sky-high marks on the economy. "A-plus," he said when asked to grade himself. Then he amended his answer: "A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus."

Since Democrats scored election wins last month by running campaigns focused on affordability, Trump and Republicans are trying to respond to those cost concerns and mitigate further political fallout ahead of next year's midterm elections - though they are struggling to decide how best to address economic anxieties and have not been able to coalesce behind a plan to deal with healthcare costs.

Trump on Monday announced a $12 billion bailout for farmers hurt in large part by his trade policies, and he continue to defend his tariffs and insist that they are working as planned. But the president has also been on the defensive about the affordability issue, alternately dismissing it as a Democratic "hoax" and "con job" and calling it a problem he inherited from the Biden administration.

"He finds himself in roughly the place Mr. Biden did in early 2024: Telling the American people that they are doing great, when many don't feel that way," David Sanger writes in The New York Times. "He has dismissed talk of high prices at grocery stores, insisting they are coming down."

But Americans know full well what they're paying for their ground chuck, gallon of milk, tank of gas or utility bill. Prices for many goods and services have risen since Trump returned to office in January. Overall, inflation stood at 3% for the 12 months through September, the latest government data available. That's the same annual rate as in January.

Still, Trump and the GOP's new focus on affordability - whether the president embraces the word or not - might be starting to pay off: A new Reuters poll found that Trump's approval rating edged up from 38% late last month to a slightly less dismal 41% over the past week, helped by stronger numbers from Republicans.

"Trump's performance on the cost of living, where he got a 31% approval rating, is among his weakest popularity scores. But that was up from 26% in late November," Reuters reports. "A 10-percentage-point gain among Republicans boosted his number, and 69% of Republicans rated him favorably on the issue."

The bottom line: The White House is reportedly planning to have Trump talk about his economic agenda at events across the country starting early next year. Tonight's event may illustrate whether that's a wise strategy or not.

Senate to Vote Thursday on Dueling Healthcare Plans

As pressure grows on lawmakers to address the looming increase in costs for insurance plans sold under the Affordable Care Act, Senate Republicans say they will vote Thursday on a healthcare proposal from Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

Following a closed-door lunch with his caucus Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune reversed course from comments yesterday that indicated Republicans would not put forth their own healthcare plan. Thune told reporters that he now plans to offer the Crapo-Cassidy bill as an alternative to a Democratic plan that would extend for three years the enhanced ACA subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.

Both bills are expected to fail.

Under the Crapo-Cassidy plan, the enhanced ACA subsidies would expire as scheduled. The federal funding that would have gone toward the subsidies would be redirected to personal health savings accounts attached to high-deductible bronze or catastrophic Obamacare plans. Enrollees would receive either $1,000 or $1,500 in their accounts, depending on age.

Savings for some, more costs for others: The Republican proposal could save some people money, Larry Levitt of the healthcare research foundation KFF said Tuesday. Although ACA premiums will increase, in some cases significantly, younger and healthier people could spend less on catastrophic coverage while gaining a health savings account.

However, sicker people - and those who become sick or injured without warning - would likely be worse off. "People who are sick would face big premium increases or a deductible they can't afford," Levitt wrote.

At least there's momentum? Some lawmakers are reportedly optimistic that the votes Thursday, even if they fail, could spark a new round of bipartisan negotiation over a new plan that could eventually pass muster. Politico reports that some lawmakers are beginning to see their real deadline as January 30, the day the short-term government funding bill runs out and the threat of another shutdown reappears.

Still, given the severe time constraints - the enhanced ACA subsidies expire in three weeks, lawmakers are aiming to pass the annual defense policy bill next week and the holidays are coming up fast - it's looking more and more like the enhanced ACA subsidies are going to expire on December 31.

The one person who could apply decisive pressure in the situation is President Trump, but in an interview with Politico, he gave no indication that he plans to step in to save the expiring subsidies and instead hinted that he preferred something like the Crapo-Cassidy plan.

Asked if he would tell Congress to extend the tax credits while working on other reforms, Trump said: "I don't know. I'm gonna have to see. I'd like to get better health care. I'd like to have people, uh, buy their own health care, get much better health care, and, uh, what I want to do, for example, I want to give the money to the people, not to the insurance companies."

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