| Victory is Short And Sweet
Victory was in the House this week for President Trump as Republicans in the lower chamber passed a repeal/replacement of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama's signature health-care law.
RealClearPolitics' James Arkin reports that "the vote was the result of seven weeks of intense negotiations within the conference and with the White House, bringing hesitant members on board through a combination of arm-twisting and amendments to the legislation."
And, at RealClearHealth, Ford Carson looks at how mental health services would be affected by the GOP health care plan.
Now the legislation goes to the Senate, where a tougher battle is expected and its future is uncertain. Because of the rules of the upper chamber, which require a score from the Congressional Budget Office before a measure can be considered, the bill isn't expected to come to the floor until June.
But Trump has taken his victory lap, as RCP’s Alexis Simendinger reports; he brought House Republicans to the Rose Garden to declare: “We won.”
Meanwhile Trump’s job approval is at negative 7.9 points in the RealClearPolitics Average.
And approval of the ACA is at plus 7.5 percent in the RCP average.
Topics du Jour
French voters will choose their new president on Sunday. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen were the two candidates who advanced to the run-off. Macron leads by a 22.2 percent margin in the RealClearWorld polling average. Additionally, RealClearWorld is running its series on China’s influence in America and abroad: John Calabrese, the director of the Middle East Institute's Middle East-Asia Project, writes on how “China’s investments in the Middle East have grown, as has its economic, diplomatic, and security footprint.” José R. Cárdenas, a former Bush administration official, looks at how China has established itself in Latin America. And Matt Sheehan, who runs the weekly Chinafornia Newsletter, examines how the East is meeting the West in California.
In Other Originals
RCP’s Trump Administration Priority Tracker will help you keep track of where various policy reviews stand in the administration.
And RCP’s Caitlin Huey-Burns begins a new podcast, “Politics Is Everything,” that examines how, in the era of Trump, politics is affecting industries, people, companies and issues in new ways.
RealClearEducation editor Christopher Beach writes on how online education courses are helping fill a speciality job market.
At RealClearEnergy, Mark Mills details the growth in energy demand created by cloud computing. In an accompanying podcast, RCE editor Bill Murray interviews Mills on the issue.
James Varney, in RealClearInvestigations, looks at how “American taxpayers spend millions of dollars on portraits of government bureaucrats.”
RealClearMarkets editor John Tamny critiques the New York Times’ lament over falling prices of goods.
Molly Wilkinson, the executive director of the Electronic Payments Coalition, in RealClearPolicy urges Congress to eliminate price controls on the fees retailers pay for debit card purchases.
Redesigned RealClearLife launched a new "Flashpoints" column. The first edition looks at what experts fear about North Korea.
American Enterprise Institute’s Nat Malkus, in RealClearEducation, asserts that the U.S. News & World Report rankings of schools are flawed.
In RealClearPolicy, Rep. Francis Rooney spotlights the stabilizing influence religious freedom has on society. In Part II, he looks at religious freedom and the Islamic society.
RealClearScience editor Ross Pomeroy tells the story of several rare human beings whose blood became priceless to science.
In RealClearReligion, Case Western University Professor Steve Pinkerton writes that blasphemy laws are enjoying a resurgence in some corners of the supposedly secular West.
A report in RealClearHealth examines whether cooler temperatures can lead to weight loss.
And Cory Gunkel of RealClearSports looks at the Top 10 NFL Draft Busts.
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