Subject: POLITICO Huddle: HEALTH CARE: A LITMUS TEST FOR DEMS? – One week away: Alabama Senate primary – PELOSI TALKS TAX REFORM – Man charged in Capitol Hill break in
From: "POLITICO Huddle" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2017 06:00:52 -0600
List-Id: <1376319_6898770.xt.local>

08/08/2017 07:58 AM EDT

By Heather Caygle ([email-masked] or @heatherscope)
 
With an assist from Bernie Becker and Daniel Lippman
 
A LITMUS TEST FOR DEMOCRATS? Sen. Bernie Sanders is preparing to relaunch the single-payer health care message that was the core of his presidential campaign. And allies of the Vermont independent say Democrats need to get on board with the idea or else, leading party leaders to fret about potential primaries upending their plans heading into the midterms. "Any Democrat worth their salt that doesn't unequivocally say Medicare-for-all is the way to go? To me, there's something wrong with them," said Nina Turner, president of Sanders' Our Revolution PAC. "We're not going to accept no more hemming and hawing."
 
The Medicare-for-all idea has gained popularity with Democrats but it's still a divisive issue for moderates and was notably excluded from Democratic leaders' "Better Deal" agenda a few weeks ago. So far, Sanders hasn't explicitly said he'll back primary challengers to Democrats who don't support his health care push. But his allies aren't backing off the idea too much. "Our view is that within the Democratic Party, this is fast-emerging as a litmus test," said Ben Tulchin, the pollster for Sanders' White House run. Gabriel Debenedetti with the report: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a4d2e912f1960b6d019e1d4ae9fa4394394ced28bfc46784023c969f4c4a15979d26828e06e8917a55a84eb1693b89d62c84b19acfa6e73e 
 
DON'T YOU FORGET ABOUT ME - We're one week away from the showdown down south-the Alabama GOP Senate primary. Sen. Luther Strange and his establishment allies are now training their fire on Roy Moore, the controversial former state Supreme Court justice, and away from Rep. Mo Brooks, a sign that Brooks' insurgent campaign may have already fizzled. "Next Tuesday's primary may just be a waypoint en route to the nomination; if no Republican candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers will advance to a September runoff for the GOP nomination. But it looks increasingly likely that Brooks will not be one of them," Daniel Strauss reports for Pros. More on the state of play: 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a4d2e912f1960b6d00bde859d4a1e06a47bd2fd9384447c03c8ec8579cb91eb227179a828fc9ba0505cdabdc9d9114f0df2399759e7a606f 

TALKIN' BOUT TAX REFORM - The White House is quietly courting some centrist House Democrats in hopes of ginning up support for a bipartisan tax overhaul, Rachael and Elana report. But top Democrats on the Hill have pretty much written off the idea, given that GOP leaders seem determined to pass a partisan tax rewrite this fall. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) even said as much publicly last week. 
 
While the White House has reached out to some left-of-center members, the administration hasn't been in touch with top Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee, lawmakers who would be key to a bipartisan push. And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is laying down her caucus' red line moving forward: "Although we hope to work in a bipartisan way, we cannot go forward with a Republican tax reform proposal which contains tax cuts for the rich," Pelosi wrote in a new letter to the Democratic conference Monday, adopting the rhetoric of "Not One Penny," the new progressive coalition fighting against the GOP's tax plans.
 
TURN DOWN FOR TUESDAY. Welcome to August 8 and thanks for tuning into POLITICO's Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill. 
 
MONDAY'S MOST CLICKED: The AP's story on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell being open to a bipartisan plan to pay for Obamacare subsidies won the day. 
 
BLUMENTHAL WON'T BE 'BULLIED' BY TRUMP -Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Monday he has no plans to back down from pushing the investigation into potential Trump campaign ties to Russia, even after a new round of Twitter attacks from the president. President Trump repeatedly targeted Blumenthal on Twitter Monday, calling the Connecticut Democrat a "con artist" for lying about his service in the Vietnam War several years ago. "I am not going to be distracted or bullied by these slurs," Blumenthal said Monday, adding it's important to keep the focus on the special counsel's Russia probe and not Trump's latest tirade. "There is an ongoing special counsel investigation. It is real. It is based on
 facts. That is the important issue." Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a4d2e912f1960b6dc99a21a0eef4414f427666c33003c4b842c118ea8cd98ee56790fe008c8c0bd0e356af0834e38326542b7ccc251abde7 
 
MAN ACCUSED OF CAPITOL HILL BREAK IN - A man has been charged with breaking into Rep. Markwayne Mullin's office and stealing personal items, including commemorative coins, from the Oklahoma Republican's desk. Mullin wasn't in his office at the time of the break in, which occurred around noon on July 26. Edgardo Javier Ramon has pled not guilty to charges of unlawful entry and theft, NBC4 Washington reports. Ramon has previously been ordered by the court to stay away from certain Washington landmarks, including the White House. Scott MacFarlane: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a4d2e912f1960b6d13ba3fdd9b27474ff34aaae45beed19e3f763e9bad941e1dca0c5388bd7cc9303b03a87bc7d6723454cb981cb639d254 
 
COMING ATTRACTIONS - Senate Judiciary Committee leaders are eyeballing late September for "what could be two public hearings" with Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort, Bloomberg's Steve Dennis reports. After threatening subpoenas, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) initially agreed to closed-door interviews with the pair about their meeting with a Russian lawyer last summer. But some Republicans, including Senate Intel Chairman Richard Burr (R-S.C.), don't seem too keen on Grassley ramping up his panel's Russia probe. "I'm not sure that I understand exactly what they're trying to do," Burr told Bloomberg, adding that Judiciary doesn't have access to classified
 documents. 
 
Quote du jour: 'We all have our ways' - "He is very honest, very direct, he is without artifice and he's basically a good man," Feinstein said about Grassley. "[He's] a little gruff sometimes but we all have our ways." More: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a4d2e912f1960b6dd24f5e079d0fa2bffa3f759b6ab2569e514c34f117983cf0022635fa4584d48e0ef86bbb1c2ce0d87617070943efdeb1 
 
#DRAINTHESWAMP - The Trump Hotel has become a hot spot for Republican lawmakers' fundraisers, according to a Washington Post deep dive about all the goings on at the property. "The hotel has hosted events for Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and nine other Republican members of Congress, according to campaign spending disclosures." Side note: As chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Shuster has jurisdiction over the GSA, the federal agency that oversees the Trump hotel. The agency has been heavily criticized by Democrats for how the GSA has handled the Trump hotel lease.
 
MOVIN' ON UP - Chris Armstrong has been promoted to chief oversight counsel for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). Jen Kuskowski has also been promoted to health policy director for the committee's majority staff. Jen takes over for Jay Khosla, who recently moved up to majority staff director. 
 
ENGAGED - Amanda Gonzalez, communications director for Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and House Oversight and Government Reform, got engaged Friday afternoon to William Thompson, policy analyst at the Charles Group, a small boutique firm. "We met through mutual friends in D.C. He proposed at Ambar where we had our first date." She posts on Instagram: "Completely overwhelmed with love and joy. We're engaged!" Pic: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=a4d2e912f1960b6de5c183d1daf4d491c0709e979557b47c8c394477a0ddf39a3a827fdf92d587c6de8f46aef4171bac6a84220f6f4feefe
 
TODAY IN CONGRESS - The House and Senate are out until September. 
 
AROUND THE HILL - It's all quiet on the Capitol front. Enjoy it while you can. 
 
MONDAY'S TRIVIA WINNER - Justin Arnold was the first to guess that Sen. James Byrnes, a confidant of FDR and Harry Truman, resigned from the Supreme Court after a little more than a year. Byrnes later went on to serve as secretary of State and governor of South Carolina. 
 
TODAY'S TRIVIA - Justin with today's question: It is very rare for a sitting president to testify before Congress. George Washington was the first, testifying before the Senate in 1789 about Indian treaties. Who was the last president to testify before a congressional committee, and what was he testifying about? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send answers my way: [email-masked] 
 
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