This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 22 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”
Donald Trump, the president of the U.S., is tearing down the White House — literally. Construction crews are demolishing the East Wing of the building, where the president lives as a servant of the American people who elected him to that office.
The entire wing will be destroyed, despite the president’s promise that it would not “interfere with the current building.” Trump has claimed that “over the years, many presidents have made changes” to the White House, and a ballroom is something his predecessors have wanted “for at least 150 years.”
Open enrollment begins next month for the millions of Americans who get their health care from the ACA marketplaces.
But there were no widespread calls for a giant, gold ballroom that dwarfs the White House. In fact, this is the first major construction project at the White House in basically Trump’s entire lifetime.
It’s important to note that no one gave him permission to do so. This is not the result of an act of Congress, and there was no preapproval from the group ostensibly in charge of these matters, the National Capital Planning Commission.
But according to Will Scharf, the Trump appointee who leads that commission, no approval was necessary. So, Scharf — who also happens to work in the White House and previously served as Trump’s personal attorney — has decided that there will be no oversight on the decision to tear down part of the historic building.
Trump solicited donations from several private companies, including Comcast, the parent company of MSNBC, to fund his efforts to tear down the People’s House and build himself a new, 650-person ballroom. It seems he wants more room to throw more lavish parties filled with billionaire donors, such as the kind he’s used to hosting at his Florida golf home, Mar-a-Lago.
Those are the president’s priorities, more than three weeks into a government shutdown.
It doesn’t appear that House Republicans are any more concerned with getting things opened up. There are no ongoing negotiations in the House. In fact, in a completely unprecedented move, the lower chamber has basically shut down since the start of the shutdown, and House Speaker Mike Johnson has abdicated any responsibility.
He has done that specifically so he can avoid swearing in Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, who won her special election a month ago. It appears he’s keeping Grijalva out to delay a vote on releasing the Epstein files. But as a result, the House is just not working. For what it’s worth, the state of Arizona is now suing the House to seat Grijalva.
Still, Johnson claims almost everyone in his conference is on board with his plan to keep everything shut down. The speaker said “almost 100% — probably 99.8%” of House Republicans are on board with his strategy.
But it doesn’t sound like 100% to me. Some members of Johnson’s conference obviously realize this is a bad look. On Tuesday, a group of front-line Republicans released a new letter urging him to pledge to negotiate with Democrats on Affordable Care Act subsidies as soon as the government reopens. Folks will lose their insurance. People will die. I think at least some Republicans recognize that reality. Those subsidies have been the key sticking point for Democrats in these negotiations, and it is clear some vulnerable Republicans recognize that the Democrats are on the right side of this issue. Those Republicans know that open enrollment begins next month for the millions of Americans who get their health care from the ACA marketplaces, and their premiums are about to skyrocket. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, if the health-care subsidies that Democrats are fighting for are allowed to expire, the average premium for someone who gets their insurance through the program will more than double from $888 a year to more than $1,900 a year. It gets even worse in some states. As The Washington Post reported, citing a study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “A 60-year-old couple earning $85,000 may have to pay $31,000 for a plan in Kentucky, $28,000 for a plan in Oregon and $44,000 [dollars] for a plan in Vermont.” That number is more than half the annual income in Vermont. That is an unsustainable situation. Folks will lose their insurance. People will die. I think at least some Republicans recognize that reality, which is why they appear open to negotiating on the issue when the government reopens. But, of course, the question then becomes: Should Democrats trust them?
Chris Hayes hosts “All In with Chris Hayes” at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday through Friday on MS NOW. He is the editor-at-large at The Nation. A former fellow at Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Hayes was a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation. His latest book is “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource” (Penguin Press).
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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