Future Senator and grandson of Robert Kennedy:

“I was struck last night by a comment that I heard made by Speaker Ryan, where he called this repeal bill ‘an act of mercy.’ With all due respect to our speaker, he and I must have read different Scripture,” Kennedy said as the House Energy and Commerce Committee dove into the details of the GOP effort.

Boston Globe story or watch the video:

Dems face an uphill battle to replace Tom Price in the upcoming special election but Jon Ossoff has raised $3 million. NY Times writes about the 30 year old candidate who interned for Rep. John Lewis. 

The Republican candidate I’d be worrried about is this one:

“Mr. Gray appears to naturally share some of Mr. Trump’s populist, Master of the Universe vibe: He pulled up for a recent interview in a late-model convertible Jaguar XK with a license plate frame that said, “Follow me to Waffle House.”

You have to respect a man who knows the way to Waffle House

 Kellyanne Conway violated federal guidelines when she told Americans it was their patriotic duty to buy Ivanka Trump’s clothing line- very questionable from both a legal and a fashion perspective.

According to Time, the lead government official for ethics chastised the White House for not doing anything about it. “Not taking disciplinary action against a senior official under such circumstances risks undermining the ethics program,” Walter Shaub, director of the Office of Government Ethics. Something tells me that Walter will be making a lot of these statements over the next few years….

In yet another example of a Republican Congressman who struggles with how insurance works, Rep. John Shimkus asks: ““What about men having to purchase prenatal care?”

The whole concept of insurance is that you are pooling risk. If someone in your insurance pool gets typhoid and receives treatment, do you feel cheated? Washington Post article chronicles more of the head shaking conversation.

NPR reports that the Chinese government has approved a large number of trademarks for Trump in the last few weeks. These trademarks had been held up for years prior to his election. Perhaps the Chinese are trying to catch up to the Russians with this attempt to curry favor. They surely realize he is determined to use the Presidency to make himself as much money as possible.

Prince dies and purple counties are disappearing. 538 explores the country’s continued polarization and it is hard to see how that changes in the next four years. 

“Of the nation’s 3,113 counties (or county equivalents), just 303 were decided by single-digit margins — less than 10 percent. In contrast, 1,096 counties fit that description in 1992, even though that election featured a wider national spread.”

It must be a lot of fun working for Trump- in addition to dealing with all kinds of crazy, you also know that at some point he will jettison you because you’ve outlived your usefulness. From the Atlantic: “But Trump built his success on his willingness to toss aside mentors, friends, and family members during moments of frustration and chaos—and as aides and appointees now bet their careers on his willingness to reciprocate their loyalty, they’re also gambling that at 70, he’ll suddenly change.”

A wide range of groups are opposing Trump’s effort to take health coverage away from millions of Americans. A Fortune article talks about three huge groups opposing it: the AARP, the American Medical Association (AMA), and the American Hospital Association (AHA). Politico writes about conservative groups opposing it, probably because it doesn’t take healthcare away from enough people.

Matt Bors cartoon

The fine folks over at the National Park Service put out a whole bunch of photos proving that the crowd at Obama’s Inauguration was much larger than the one at Trump’s. Perhaps all the Trump supporters were home watching reruns of the Apprentice. Photo from the Vox article:

Representative Jason Chaffetz, chair of the House Oversight Committee, suggested that with the awesome new Republican healthcare plan people might need to choose between having health coverage or buying that shiny new iPhone. This brings back fond memories of Ronald Reagan attacking welfare queens driving around in shiny new Cadillacs.