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President Donald Trump’s plans on artificial intelligence and health care are facing a delayed launch, a new development for a White House that trampled over Republican reservations on tariffs and bent Congress to its will on tax cuts.
The White House’s proposals to shore up expiring health care subsidies and ban state AI regulations leaked to the press; now, both proposals are suddenly in limbo. It’s not entirely clear what prompted the delays, but it’s no secret Republicans are divided over the ideas.
The most urgent matter is the expiring enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, which have split the GOP and generally unite Democrats. Details about a Trump-backed proposal to extend them dribbled out on Sunday and Monday, but Monday and Tuesday came and went without an announcement.
“We want to have an internal conversation,” Rep. Mike Haridopolos, R-Fla., told reporters Tuesday morning.
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Trump has made no secret of his wishes on AI: He wants Congress to put a moratorium on state regulations in the must-pass annual defense policy bill. That negotiation will ultimately be settled by congressional leaders, but if they leave it out, Trump may issue an executive order aimed at getting states to drop their state-specific AI laws.
Last week, details about that order came to light and reports said it could come out on Friday (it didn’t). The fate of the executive order, like the health care proposal, is now being unclear.
“We have a very thin majority, and there’s been a lot of proposals pushed out. Some members said, ‘Just rubber-stamp the current plan.’ There’s a lot of people who think that we can make some common-sense suggestions,” Haridopolos said of the health care talks. “I don’t think just rubber-stamping a broken system is the best idea.”
Trump said on Tuesday night that he’d rather “not extend” the subsidies at all, though he conceded “some extension may be necessary to get something else done.”
Democrats shut the government down for 43 days to call public attention to rising health care premiums, earning a vote by mid-December in the Senate. Without Trump’s direct engagement, though, it’s difficult to see a deal that can get sufficient GOP support in the Senate and House.
Extending the enhanced subsidies faces particular headwinds in the House, where many Republicans are dead set against propping up Obamacare. House Speaker Mike Johnson notably did not join his Senate counterpart in promising Democrats floor time next month.
Still, the prospect of defending spiking health care costs on the campaign trail has many moderate and blue-state Republicans scrambling for a short-term fix. Any health care reforms that do not involve the enhanced subsidies, like health savings accounts, are unlikely to materialize in time for midterms. Most lawmakers think it’s too late to do anything other than a clean extension of the subsidies for next year.
“Main Street supports President Trump’s ongoing efforts to address the ACA tax credit cliff with an extension,” Rep. Mike Flood, the Nebraska Republican who chairs the Main Street Caucus, said in a statement Tuesday.
Flood wants any extension to exclude recipients with higher incomes — like Trump’s plan might, if it’s ever released — and take steps to prevent fraud (like requiring recipients to pay a minimum deductible or copay).
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- Johnson told Trump administration officials on a call that his conference doesn’t “have an appetite” for extending the enhanced ACA subsidies, The Wall Street Journal reports.