WASHINGTON
— President Trump said that there is no chaos in his administration as
his new chief of staff reports to the White House for his first day on
the job, but he continued to threaten Congress that he would cut
lawmakers’ health insurance plans in a series of tweets on Monday
morning.
After
a week of White House turmoil spilling into public view, Mr. Trump
insisted there was “No WH chaos!” just an hour before he swore in a
retired four-star Marine Corps general as his new chief of staff. He
said the unemployment rate, at 4.4 percent, is the lowest in 17 years.
(It was 4.3 percent in May, and 4.4 percent 10 years ago.)
Highest Stock Market EVER, best economic numbers in years, unemployment lowest in 17 years, wages raising, border secure, S.C.: No WH chaos!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2017
Mr. Trump’s new chief of staff, John Kelly, has been serving in the president’s cabinet as secretary of Homeland Security.
“What
he’s done in terms of Homeland Security is record-shattering,” Mr.
Trump said after Mr. Kelly’s swearing in. Mr. Trump said he looks
forward to an even better job — “if it’s possible” — as chief of staff.
“The country is optimistic, and I think the general will just add to
it,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr.
Kelly is Mr. Trump’s second chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus,
the former head of the Republican National Committee. Mr. Trump and Mr.
Priebus never completely meshed in the Trump White House, where a
typical chain of command has been leveled by family members and close
advisers with equal access to the president and influence over policy.
Mr.
Trump also continued his threats to Congress in the wake of a failed
effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Over the weekend, Mr. Trump
made similar warnings to lawmakers in tweets and pushed them to revive
the seven-year effort that appeared to meet its end in the Senate during
a dramatic vote early Friday morning.
If ObamaCare is hurting people, & it is, why shouldn't it hurt the insurance companies & why should Congress not be paying what public pays?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2017
At issue are two lingering controversies involving the Affordable Care Act. When the health law passed in 2010, it included a Republican amendment that forces members of Congress and their staff to purchase their health insurance on the law’s new online marketplaces. But unlike individuals purchasing their insurance on the exchanges, Capitol Hill customers would receive subsidies from their employer, the federal government, the way millions of other workers do who receive employer-sponsored health insurance. On occasion, conservatives such as former Senator David Vitter of Louisiana have pushed to end those subsidies for members of Congress. Now Mr. Trump has picked up that cudgel. Likewise, Mr. Trump is continuing his threat to cut off subsidies to health insurance companies that offer low-income customers help in covering out-of-pocket medical expenses, like deductibles and co-payments. His threats to end such payments have contributed to instability on the individual insurance market.
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