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