The Graham-Cassidy bill is dead, at least for now, but some Republicans appear to be threatening to allow the ACA markets to further destabilize in the hopes that it will hurt Democrats in 2018. “I personally think it’s time for the American people to see what the Democrats have done to them on health care,” Orrin Hatch told the Washington Post. “They’re going to find they can’t pay for it, they’re going to find that it doesn’t work. . . . Now that will make it tough on everybody. Maybe that’s what it take to wise people up.” Are you fucking kidding me? [Washington Post]
Trump has congratulated himself for a tremendous response to the ongoing disaster in Puerto Rico, giving himself “really good marks for what we’re doing.” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, meanwhile, who was in San Juan yesterday, has issued a more dire diagnosis, urging the government to avoid a Katrina-like disaster. “If you have a stroke or heart attack right now in some remote part of Puerto Rico, you’re probably going to die,” he said. [Politico, Politico]
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), a Trump critic, will retire in 2018. Corker said he believes “the most important public service I have to offer our country could well occur over the next 15 months.” [New York Times]
Current head of the DEA Chuck Rosenberg is resigning at the end of this week. According to anonymous officials, he is doing so because he believes Trump doesn’t respect the law. [New York Times]
The EPA, always looking to save federal dollars, is spending nearly $25,000 to install a “soundproof communications booth” in Scott Pruitt’s office. [Washington Post]
Here are some tweets the president was allowed to publish:
