COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Biden pledged Tuesday that his $1.9 trillion rescue package would build on the promise of the Affordable Care Act, the hallmark legislation of Barack Obama’s presidency that became law 11 years ago.
Biden’s COVID-19 relief law pumps up “Obamacare” premium subsidies to address longstanding problems of affordability, particularly for people with middle-class incomes. More taxpayer assistance means, in effect, that consumers who buy their own policies through HealthCare.gov will pay hundreds of dollars less out of their own pockets.
“We have a duty not just to protect it, but to make it better and keep becoming a nation where health care is a right for all, not a privilege for a few,” Biden said at the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “Millions of families will be able to sleep a little more soundly at night because they don’t have to worry about losing everything if they get sick.”
Biden’s speech in the capital of a political battleground state is part of a miniblitz by the White House to highlight the relief package.
The numbers suggest that consumers’ fears about medical costs could be eased by the new rescue package.
The COVID-19 legislation cuts premiums paid by a hypothetical 64-year-old making $58,000 from $1,075 a month to about $413, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates. A 45-year-old making $19,300 would pay zero in premiums as compared with about $67 on average before the law. People who have even a brief spell of unemployment this year can get a standard plan for zero premium and reduced copays and deductibles.
“The ACA is over a decade old and this is literally the first time that Democrats have been successful at improving it,” said analyst Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. “Democrats have succeeded politically by selling the ACA’s protections for preexisting conditions, but affordability has always been a challenge. And now Democrats have successfully improved the premium help available under the law.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Congress to review contested Iowa House race
Three months after its count of the presidential election results set off a riot at the Capitol, Congress has plunged once again into a red-hot dispute over the 2020 balloting, this time weighing whether to overturn the results of a House race in Iowa that could tilt the chamber’s narrow balance of power.
At issue is the outcome of November’s election in a southeastern Iowa district, where state officials declared Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican, the winner in one of the closest contests in American history. Miller-Meeks prevailed by only six votes out of nearly 400,000 cast in the state’s 2nd Congressional District; in January, she took the oath of office in Washington.
But her Democratic opponent, Rita Hart, has refused to concede the race, pointing to 22 discarded ballots she says would have made her the winner if counted. Now Democrats, who hold the majority in the House and spent months pushing back on President Trump’s falsehoods about a stolen election — including his claim that Congress had the power to unilaterally overturn the results — are thrust into the uncomfortable role of arbiters of a contested race.
Hart has appealed to the House, including in a new filing Monday, to step in to overrule the state and seat her instead, sending Miller-Meeks back to Iowa.
“This was not something I sought, believe me,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat from Calif., the chairwoman of the panel looking into the race.
Lofgren and other Democrats say they have little choice but to take the appeal seriously under a 1960s law Hart has invoked. In recent weeks, Lofgren’s panel, the House Administration Committee, has opened a full-scale review into the contest that lawmakers say could lead to impounding ballots, conducting their own hand recount, and ultimately a vote by the full House to determine who should rightfully represent the Iowa district.
Reversing the result would give Democrats a crucial additional vote to pad one of the sparest majorities in decades. The House is divided 219 to 211, with five vacancies.
That prospect has rapidly reignited tensions in a chamber that has scarcely begun to heal from the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob trying to stop Congress from formalizing President Biden’s victory. House Republicans — more than half of whom voted that day to discard state certifications and overturn Biden’s win — are accusing Democrats who ostracized them of a screeching, 180-degree turn now that flipping an election result would be to their advantage.
“One hundred percent, pure partisan politics,” said Representative Rodney Davis of Illinois, the top Republican on the Administration Committee. “It wasn’t too long ago that many of my Democratic colleagues were saying a certificate of election by state officials were sacrosanct.”
NEW YORK TIMES
Cuomo impeachment investigation could take ‘months’
ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York Legislature’s impeachment investigation of Governor Andrew Cuomo is likely to take “months,” the chair of the Assembly’s judiciary committee said Tuesday.
Cuomo, a Democrat, has resisted calls for his resignation after multiple women accused him of sexual harassment. He’s also facing outrage over his administration’s decision to withhold information about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
Judiciary Committee chair Charles Lavine, a Long Island Democrat, said the legal team hired to investigate Cuomo’s actions will meet with witnesses and examine documents to “assess whether there’s evidence that the governor has engaged in conduct that justifies articles of impeachment.”
“Given the breadth and seriousness of the issues under investigation, we expect that the timing will be in terms of months rather than weeks,” Lavine said in a Judiciary Committee meeting.
New York has only impeached a governor once, in 1913.
It isn't clear yet how much of the Assembly's investigation will be transparent to the public. The Judiciary Committee hasn't said yet whether it will hold public hearings.
Cuomo faces allegations that he sexually harassed or behaved inappropriately toward several women, including two current members of his staff. The accusations range from groping under a woman’s shirt and planting unwanted kisses to asking unwelcome personal questions about sex and dating.
The governor has denied touching anyone inappropriately and apologized if he made anyone feel uncomfortable. He has said his administration should have released complete data about nursing home deaths earlier but withheld some fatality statistics because they needed to be verified.
A faction of lawmakers who want Cuomo to quit now have complained that the investigation is buying time for Cuomo. Others have said he deserves thorough due process.
"We are dealing with life, liberty, reputations, legacies, et cetera,” said Assembly member Latrice Walker.
Attorney General Letitia James is also investigating the sexual harassment allegations.
ASSOCIATED PRESS