First Run News

Posted at 9:00 pm on July 27, 2017 by Jim Jamitis It’s never a good feeling when you’re in the middle of a catastrophe and no one in charge knows what to do or—even worse—knows what needs to be done but lacks the courage to do it.

Posted at 9:30 pm on July 27, 2017 by Patterico I saw this clip this evening and flew into an apoplectic rage. When I become this angry, blogging becomes therapeutic. My fury is now your problem. It all started with this statement by Sen. Lindsey Graham: Lindsey Graham starts the clip with a valid point criticizing the so-called “skinny repeal” bill — noting that it is, of course, no repeal at all. Then he got to the part that set me on fire: When I saw that — and I do not exaggerate — I started screaming at my phone: “IT ALREADY IS YOUR #$@&%* PROBLEM!!

Posted at 1:34 am on July 28, 2017 by Joe Cunningham

Posted at 4:00 am on July 28, 2017 by Joe Cunningham It appears that any chance of repealing (and replacing?) the Affordable Care Act died last night as Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins were joined by John McCain in opposing the Senate’s “skinny repeal” bill. Here’s how it went down. Yesterday afternoon, the Senate voted against a straight repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Sen. MORE (R-S.C.) ws hit in the head by a reporter’s notebook after it fell from the press gallery during the Senate’s late-night session to vote on their “skinny” ObamaCare repeal bill. Scott, who was sitting next to Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), can be seen jumping after the notebook falls on his head in a video posted to Twitter. “I accidentally dropped my notebook. It's been a long day. (I'm sorry @SenatorTimScott and @BenSasse.

Senate Majority Leader

President Trump early Friday morning blasted lawmakers for failing to pass the Senate GOP's "skinny" ObamaCare repeal bill, doubling down on his past call to "let ObamaCare implode." "3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!" Trump tweeted just before 2:30 a.m.

Senators walked off the floor around Friday after the stunning defeat of a seven-years-long pledge to repeal and replace ObamaCare, leaving the lawmakers to face one inevitable question: whats next for healthcare reform? Three main answers emerged — bipartisan committee work, stabilizing the insurance markets and administration action to change the healthcare law. One track is letting the Senate health committee’s chairman, Sen. MORE (R-S.D.). “We're not adverse to that,” Thune, the No. 3 Republican, said.

Sen. MORE (D-Mass.) says Democrats in 2018 and 2020 should campaign on a national single-payer healthcare plan. “President Obama tried to move us forward with health-care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts,” Warren told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “Now it’s time for the next step.

The staff at The Wirecutter and Sweethome, The New York Times’s product evaluation sites, seem just a little obsessed with coffee. They have evaluated a lot of brewing and grinding equipment, so I spoke with Michael Zhao, senior editor at The Wirecutter, about their findings. Does the equipment make a difference to the coffee? That depends on the type of coffee drinker you are. Running a $20 bag of freshly roasted single-origin coffee through a blade grinder and a $30 drip machine is like listening to a symphony through a cellphone speaker.