What Happens After O'Care Mandate Repeal, Flynn’s Brother Demands Trump Pardon Flynn, And The Next Bechdel Test

December 27th, 2017 Top Stories --------------------------------------------------------------- [Congress Experiments With Millions Of People By Nuking The O’Care Mandate]( The Gist: Though there is an open debate among health care experts as to just how effective Obamacare's individual mandate and its penalty have been, nearly all agree that the repeal will be a severe blow to the nation’s health care system by driving up premiums, scaring away insurers, and swelling the ranks of the uninsured. While President Trump has repeatedly and inaccurately declared that by killing the mandate he has essentially killed Obamacare in its entirety, health economists predict that even in the worst case scenario, the ACA will manage to survive—bloody and bruised but very much alive. [Flynn’s Brother To Trump: It’s ‘About Time You Pardon General Flynn’]( The Gist: Joseph Flynn, the brother of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and campaign aide Michael Flynn, said Tuesday it is “about time” the President pardons his brother. “About time you pardon General Flynn who has taken the biggest fall given the illegitimacy of his confessed crime in the wake of all this corruption,” Joseph Flynn reportedly tweeted Tuesday afternoon and deleted 15 minutes later. [Obama Talks Social Media Dangers With Prince Harry In 1st Post-WH Interview]( The Gist: Former President Barack Obama would like to see people in leadership find ways for the public to “recreate common space” on the Internet, he said in his first interview since leaving the White House, broadcast Wednesday. While the former president did not once mention his successor President Donald Trump by name, he pointedly remarked on the importance of using the internet and social media to unite rather than divide. From The Reporter's Notebook --------------------------------------------------------------- Reports of Obamacare's death (even when they come from the White House) are premature. Since the tax bill was signed into law last week, President Trump has said in press availabilities and on Twitter that the bill "essentially repeals" Obamacare in its entirety. In fact, as [TPM's Alice Ollstein explains]( only the individual mandate has been repealed, and the Affordable Care Act looks like it will be able to survive without it. Agree Or Disagree? --------------------------------------------------------------- Josh Marshall: "For months pundits claimed that the success of tax reform, rather than cementing Trump’s political power in the GOP would actually be his undoing since Republicans would no longer have any need for him. [Republicans never ‘needed’ Donald Trump](. A big tax cut was probably easier – certainly no less difficult – with a Jeb Bush or a Marco Rubio or any other 2016 Republican on offer. Republicans rallied to Trump because their voters demanded it. The current moment confirms this. Republicans got their tax cut. Far from slackening, their loyalty to Trump, not just in conventional political terms but against the criminal justice system itself is intensifying." Say What?! --------------------------------------------------------------- "You’d have to be very new to Twitter Hatch to think this tweet was anything but tongue-in-cheek." - Sen. Orrin Hatch’s (R-UT) spokesman on Tuesday [insisting]( that Hatch definitely knew the "Utahn of the Year" article he tweeted was calling for his retirement, and that the senator was totally in on the joke. BUZZING: Today in the Hive --------------------------------------------------------------- From a TPM Prime member: "Putin sows discontent to his advantage and because he's not being raked over the coals for it, he is emboldened. I say, hit him with the UN just because that is sweet revenge and then cut him off and watch him shrivel at home. Putin is only what he is because of money and making those around him rich so they protect him." Related: [Kremlin Troll ‘Alice Donovan’ Reportedly Writing News As Recently As October]( Have something to add? Become a [Prime]( member and join the discussion [here](. What We're Reading --------------------------------------------------------------- Creating The Next Bechdel Test: Pitting 50 movies Against 12 New Ways Of Measuring Hollywood’s Gender Imbalance. ([FiveThirtyEight]( What’s A Wendy’s Doing There? The Story Of Washington’s Weirdest Traffic Circle. ([The Washington Post]( [unsubscribe from this list]( | [update subscription preferences]( | [view email in browser](