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Columnist Dana Milbank is halfway to the bank to sell off his Treasury bonds after chronicling this week on the Hill, where “nobody is in charge” and the true “threat to America’s full faith and credit may be incompetence.”
But there’s one element of Republicans’ train wreck bill that might win the public’s support. Of course, columnist Catherine Rampell reminds us, that doesn’t mean it’s not also a mess.
Catherine writes that while generally popular, the GOP’s proposal to add work requirements to Medicaid is “a solution in search of a problem.” Most people on Medicaid already do work, and most of those who don’t have good reasons — which would exempt them from the GOP’s new requirement.
That leaves very few people whom a requirement would compel to find work. But new requirements would leave a lot of Medicaid recipients with the cumbersome new burden of reporting their employment. That, Catherine writes, is how thousands of people could be — wrongly — kicked off the program.
An unvarnished accusation
E. Jean Carroll testified Thursday in her defamation case against former president Donald Trump, who she says raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s — and then maligned her when she came forward during his presidency.
The testimony was “searing and raw,” columnist Ruth Marcus wrote. Just a sliver of Carroll’s statement:
“I’m here because Donald Trump raped me. … His fingers went into my vagina, which was extremely painful — extremely painful. It was a horrible feeling because he curved — he put his hand inside of me and curved his fingers. As I’m sitting here today, I can still feel it.”
There’s an instinct to tune out old reminders, or even new details, of Trump’s barbarities. We’ve heard it all already, haven’t we?
But Ruth writes we should resist that instinct and really wrestle with every allegation, as unpleasant as it is. Because, she says, “this is the person who wants to return to the presidency.”
Chaser: Columnist Jen Rubin presents another woman’s horrifying testimony: Amanda Zurawski, speaking before the Senate on how Texas’s abortion restrictions nearly cost her her life.
Plenty of today’s pieces had enlightening statistics and quotes in them, but today you get a picture of a halberd instead, because it figures in a great little piece about Swiss neutrality by former diplomat Thomas Borer.
Basically, Borer writes, the halberd served the Swiss well for centuries, and so did neutrality. But times change. Neutrality “no longer fulfills many of its traditional functions and is even harmful to Switzerland.”
The piece breaks down what those functions were — stability, security, internal peacekeeping, external peacemaking — as well as how different strategies today better serve each of those goals. So, Borer says, it’s time the Swiss pick sides.
Chaser: The Editorial Board observed this month how the war in Ukraine has made it hard for all of Europe’s neutral countries to keep up their “denial of reality.”
In the left lane, President Biden. In the right lane, former president Donald Trump. What about the middle lane that’s “as broad as today’s space between progressivism that politicizes kindergarten … and ‘conservatism’ that politicizes beer”?
Columnist George Will sees it wide open for a more palatable nominee, as does No Labels, the political group that is the subject of his column. They’re trying to get an independent candidate on as many states’ ballots as possible.
Contributing columnist Jim Geraghty thinks that candidate could be disgruntled Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), who’s been burned plenty by Biden, especially over the Inflation Reduction Act.
But won’t anyone who jumps in just be a spoiler? Objection. George asks: How is it even possible “today’s politics could be spoiled”?
Chaser: Where’s Kamala Harris in all this? Columnist Eugene Robinson says the veep can be an asset to Biden’s campaign — perhaps most of all by showing she’d make a fine president.
- Jack Kent Cooke built a dynasty at the Washington football team, writes former sports columnist Dave Kindred. Dan Snyder destroyed it.
- Book-banners decided Nora Roberts is too “adult” for kids. Columnists Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman interviewed her, and she’s not happy.
- Biden’s economic diplomacy push with China is high risk, low reward, columnist Josh Rogin writes.
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
You miss out on the flowers
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. Have a great weekend!
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