House Passes Obamacare Replacement, Trump Signs Religious Freedom Order, Prince Phillip Retiring from Public Life: P.M. Links
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Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom The House's vote on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) possibly replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is really 90 percent of what any news discussion is about right now. Here's Peter Suderman describing the situation. The House has voted to repeal and replace. It heads now to the Senate. Here are the Republicans who voted no.
- But will the Senate even vote on it?
- President Donald Trump this morning signed an executive order on religious freedom that doesn't do a whole lot considering all the outrage it inspired. It vaguely calls for the IRS to maybe ease off on enforcing the Johnson Amendment, which stops churches and non-profits from endorsing candidates. And it requests "regulatory relief" for organizations with religious objections over being forced to fund birth control for its employees. It doesn't actually indicate any significant changes in policies or regulations, though.
- Prince Phillip, the 95-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II, will be retiring from public life. An emergency meeting at Buckingham Palace had led to rumors that he (or somebody else) had died, but that was not the case.
- Pentagon officials said today they're still considering whether to recommend sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. They plan to send recommendations to Trump within a week.
- A pack of bounty hunters in Tennessee descended on a car in a Wal-Mart parking lot and opened fire, killing one man and wounding another. It wasn't the car or the people they were actually supposed to be looking for and now they've been charged with murder.
- Apparently today is Star Wars Day, but in the circles I run in, every other goddamn day is Star Wars Day. It gets on my nerves when I'm trying to watch livestreams online of people playing Magic: The Gathering.
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