Democratic ‘Face Off’ In Iowa

Democratic presidential candidates were in Iowa for the first face-off of the 2016 primary, a contest that remains dominated by Hillary Rodham Clinton, writes the Vermont publication Times Argus.  The event took place on Friday, according to the Kansas City Star.

Besides Hillary Clinton, the forum included Senator Bernie Sanders, former Maryland Governor (and mayor of Baltimore) Martin O’Malley, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb, and former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee. Each candidate will deliver 15 minutes of remarks.

All five Democratic primary candidates were on the program for a dinnertime fundraiser sponsored by the state party in Cedar Rapids, creating an opportunity for her challengers to confront Clinton before more than 1,200 influential party activists in the crucial caucus state.

Three months into what seems like an “all-but-inexorable” march to the nomination, Clinton has already built a vast campaign infrastructure, establishing a multistory headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, and placing hundreds of staffers across the country, according to Times Argus.

An Associated Press-GfK poll released this week found her standing falling among Democrats, with about 70 percent of Democrats giving Clinton positive marks, an 11-point drop from an April survey. Nearly a quarter of Democrats now say they see Clinton in an unfavorable light.

“I don’t like seeing that, obviously,” Clinton said of the poll, speaking to reporters on Thursday. “But I think people know that I will fight for them. I’ll fight for their jobs, I’ll fight for their families, I’ll fight on behalf of better education and health care.”

She added: “I’m very pleased with the support I have.”

Just 17 percent of the $47 million that Clinton has raised since announcing her campaign came from contributions of $200 or less. In comparison, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has fueled his insurgent challenge to Clinton with small donations, pulling in three-quarters of his more than $15.2 million haul from smaller amounts.

In recent weeks, Sanders has filled arenas with voters eager to hear the message of the self-described “socialist,” who’s become Clinton’s chief rival.

So far, he’s refused to directly criticize Clinton, though he’s questioned her positions on issues like trade, Wall Street regulations and the Keystone XL pipeline.

“I like her. I respect her,” Sanders said on Tuesday, after joining his fellow Senate Democrats at a luncheon with Clinton on Capitol Hill. “It is not necessary for people to dislike each other or attack each other just because they’re running for office.”

(Updated report)

http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article27472261.html

Republicans Can Still Go After Obamacare

According to Mother Jones, now that Republicans control Congress, they’re again threatening to end Obamacare. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader-elect Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vowed to hold a repeal vote when Republicans take over the upper chamber in January, adding that GOPers “will go at that law…in every way that we can.”

Obamacare is not going anywhere as long as President Barack Obama is in office. But there is a sneakier way GOPers could deal a blow to the health care law in the next two years: They can make the law look more costly than it is, boosting the case for dismantling it.

In 2012, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)—which produces official budget projections—calculated that the combined effect of the tax increases and spending cuts in the Affordable Care Act will reduce the deficit by $109 billion over the next decade. (This is the CBO’s most recent estimate.)

Conservatives cried foul, saying that the CBO double-counted savings in the law and ignored billions in health care spending in order to make the economic effects of the law seem rosier than they were. They charged that Obamacare actually adds billions to the deficit.

But how does health care spending affect the deficit? Only the Medicaid expansion is government run insurance. The insurance on the exchanges is from private companies, so that wouldn’t affect the government budget.