Here’s a selection of articles the Federal Relations Office is enjoying this week. Election Day is November 8th!!!
Marketplace Crunch – One of the most popular pieces of ObamaCare could be hurting the administration’s push to attract more young people into the wobbly marketplace. Because of the healthcare law, the White House says nearly 3 million young people under the age of 26 have been able to stay on their parents’ insurance plans and don’t have to shop for coverage on HealthCare.gov. That’s double the number of young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who are currently covered through the exchanges. An increase in enrollment is much needed by this group. The administration is staging campus enrollment drives and pouring money into Facebook and Instagram ads this year in an attempt to boost ObamaCare enrollment among young adults. Read more in The Hill.
Cool Your Jets – Congressman Darryl Issa (R-CA) says Republicans need to knock off the impeach Clinton talk. Read more in Roll Call.
Why Tuesdays – Americans vote on Tuesdays. It’s inconvenient – people have to work, polls are crowded in the few hours they’re open before and after work. How did elections get this way? Read more at NPR.
Who’s In? – The vote is a mere weekend away, but the race for House Leadership is already on. Who is running for such vaunted positions such as Republican Conference Vice Chair or Democratic Policy and Communications Committee Chair? What gavels will be moving with the House Republican Caucus’s self-imposed term limits on chairmanships? Roll Call has the scoop.
Civil War – The future of the Republican Party doesn’t look pretty after this election as deep schisms have revealed themselves down to the Republican base. How does the GOP move forward and what does forward look like? Read more in Politico.
Moral Minority – For the last several election cycles, Southern evangelicals, specifically Southern Baptists, have been staunch voting block for the Republican party, but things could change with new church leadership . Read more in The Atlantic.
Down Ballot Boom – With one week to go before Election Day, Republicans are using the FBI’s decision to review emails found via an investigation of former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s computer as a last-second boost in the race for the House and Senate. Read more at The Hill.
It Could Happen – Yes, Trump has a path to victory with electoral votes. It depends on how close the popular vote is in certain states to how they break in the electoral college. Read more in 538.
FBI & Emails – The FBI got permission on Sunday to look through 650,000 emails discovered on a laptop used by (current target of an underage-sexting investigation) Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife/Hillary Clinton confidante Huma Abedin, to see if any of those emails might be relevant to its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server. Read more in Slate.
I Voted – Susan B. Anthony fought for equality for women for over 60 years and laid the foundation for the legal right to vote that American women enjoy today. Now, over 100 years after her death, admirers of the suffrage icon came to her grave with a different kind of tribute—dozens of “I Voted” stickers. Read more at Smithsonian Magazine.
Brex-not-so-much – The UK Court has ruled that the British plan to leave the European Union has to be approved by Parliament. One problem, most MPs were against leaving. Read more in The New York Times.
Coffee, Tea, Me? – One silver lining in Brexit…it has raised the profile of the British so that they are now exporting tea to China. Read more in Marketplace.