The politics behind Democrats' use of 'Trumpcare,' risks rise as the reservoir at Oroville fills up, and a preview of fun events this weekend in Southern California
State of Affairs: GOP lawmakers react to proposed Obamacare replacement
Republicans in the House continue to push forward a new healthcare bill, even as some of their colleagues in the Senate urge them to slow down.
Meanwhile, GOP leaders in California choose their stances on the bill carefully.
Also on this edition of State of Affairs:
- LA Mayor Eric Garcetti's possible gubernatorial ambitions
- Former CA Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger eyes Dianne Feinstein's senate seat.
Click on the blue bar above to listen to the entire interview.
Unemployment in California
This week the nation got a dose of some good news, unemployment figures fell a bit to post at 4.7 percent. But, what does that mean for local jobs and the California economy?
We talked abut it and got a bit of a economic forecast with Robert A. Kleinhenz, Executive Director of Research with Beacon Economics.
Crews hurry to repair Oroville Dam spillway before rains return
Up at Lake Oroville, crews are working furiously to repair the badly damaged spillway– the same one that sparked the evacuation of a couple of hundred thousand people back in February.
There's more rain in the forecast and with the lake level already rising due to spring runoff, officials may have to release more water into the spillway in the next few days.
To boot, the Climate Prediction Center is giving it a 50 percent chance of El Niño reappearing as early as July, making a functioning outflow at the lake even more critical.
Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Lauren Bisnett for an update on what's happening at Oroville to prepare for the rains. Bisnett is a public information officer for California's Department of Water Resources.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Could Donald Trump be the best thing that ever happened to Mexico?
Last January, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was scheduled to visit the new administration in Washington. Then, he had a phone conversation with President Trump. The US President told his counterpart if Mexico was willing to pay for a border wall, then maybe he shouldn't bother coming to Washington.
Nieto, whose approval numbers in Mexico were pretty dismal, cancelled his trip. Immediately, he was embraced and applauded by Mexicans across the political spectrum.
Taking not of this, long-time Mexico observer Sam Quinones came up with a theory. Writing in Foreign Policy ($), he explains that the acrid distaste for Trump might be exactly what Mexico needs to put infighting aside and address some of the country's long-standing problems.
Expanding on that contrarian view, Quinones believes a large-scale deportation of Mexicans in the US will be a huge plus. He notes that many Mexicans who came to the US have developed a wide variety of skills, and a broader world view that could energize Mexican institutions and its economy. That is, if, he says, that energy can be properly channeled by Mexican businesses and government.
Click on the blue bar above to listen to the full interview with writer Sam Quinones.
Republicans coined 'Obamacare,' now Democrats are coining 'Trumpcare'
Yesterday on "Take Two," we talked with California's Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones about the new GOP proposal on health care.
It's officially called the American Health Care Act.
But Jones – who's a Democrat – referred to it as "Trumpcare," which is what people who don't like it are calling it.
And he didn't like it. A lot.
He used the phrase "Trumpcare" 10 times in our 9 minute interview.
"This [phrase] is something that we've seen roll out slowly since the release of the plan Monday night," says Roll Call reporter Simone Pathé. "Pretty early on Tuesday morning on the Senate, you heard Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer call it 'Trumpcare,' and it was a slow trickle after that."
It's since appeared on other Democratic congressmembers' written statements, press releases and more.
"The idea here is to stick Republicans and particularly Donald Trump with this plan," she says. "Democrats think it's going to be vastly unpopular."
There are other nicknames out there, too – liberals are saying Republicare and Ryancare , and conservatives who think it doesn't go far enough dubbed it Obamacare 2.0 and Obamacare Lite.
Of course, it's not new when opponents to a health care bill call it something different – you know, like how the Affordable Care Act morphed into Obamacare.
"It started out as a very pejorative way to describe an unpopular piece of legislation, " says Pathé. "After time, you did see Democrats start to embrace that."
But by then, the semantic switch had worked: in a recent poll, one-third of people did not know the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare were the same thing.
"If they had, they might have made some different choices at the voting box," says Pathé.