| | | |  | | By Zack Stanton | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Garrett Ross and Bethany Irvine
| | | Happy Friday. This is Zack Stanton. Get in touch: zstanton@politico.com. SIGN UP NOW: POLITICO has relaunched West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government — a new daily briefing providing blow-by-blow updates on Donald Trump’s dramatic moves to overhaul federal agencies. From the actions of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency to the strategy of Russ Vought’s Office of Management and Budget — as well as the resulting conflicts playing out in the courts and on Capitol Hill — our reporters will be your guide to the unprecedented disruption hitting Washington. Sign up now to get it straight to your inbox.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | | 
A growing number of Congressional Republicans are starting to flee the blowback of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency’s slash-and-burn approach. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | TRUMP’S FRIDAY: 11 a.m.: The president addresses the Governors Working Session (more than 40 govs are in town for the NGA winter meeting) … 1 p.m.: Lunch with VP JD Vance … 2:30: President Trump swears in Howard Lutnick as secretary of Commerce … 3:30: Signing executive orders. FRIDAY ON THE HILL: Vote-a-rama is over. Early this morning, Senate Republicans passed their $340 billion budget framework along a mostly party-line vote, 52-48. (Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul opposed the bill.) Latest from Inside Congress DOGE BITES ELEPHANTS? As Elon Musk brandished a chainsaw onstage at CPAC yesterday, it wasn’t just those with front row seats running for cover. A number of Congressional Republicans are starting to flee the blowback of his Department of Government Efficiency’s slash-and-burn approach to federal budget cuts, driven by growing evidence of a groundswell of concern among groups of ordinary voters. And if you think this is only a dynamic in moderate swing seats, consider this morning’s newsletter a wake-up call. In an R+18 district: Speaking at a business luncheon yesterday in Westerville, Ohio, GOP Rep. Troy Balderson “described President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders as ‘getting out of control’ …. [and] expressed some pushback to the idea of sole decision-making power lying with Trump and billionaire advisor Elon Musk,” the Columbus Dispatch’s Samantha Hendrickson reports. “‘Congress has to decide whether or not the Department of Education goes away,’ Balderson asserted. ‘Not the president, not Elon Musk.’” In deep-red Georgia: Last night in Roswell, Georgia, an overflow crowd packed into a town hall forum for GOP Rep. Rich McCormick, barraging him with pointed questions and accusatory comments about DOGE’s cuts. His staff “seemed caught off guard by the massive crowd of hundreds that gathered,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein. (This is a district Trump carried by 22 points just three months ago.) How it went: “Attendees set the tone early, with one accusing McCormick of ‘doing us a disservice’ for supporting the budget-slashing initiatives by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency that have torn through all corners of federal government,” Bluestein reports. “‘You don’t think I’m going to stand up for you?’ asked McCormick, as the crowd responded with loud boos.” Video from the scene Beware the town hall: As Playbook’s resident geriatric millennial, your author’s mind immediately flashed back to the raucous town hall forums that preceded the 2010 midterm wave election, when an angry and energized electorate propelled Republicans to victory and smashed through Democratic control of Congress — only this time, the parties would be reversed. (It is, of course, way too soon to be making any serious predictions about what might happen in 2026.) But consider the broader context: The scene comes as a growing number of congressional Republicans desperately try to back-channel with White House officials about DOGE’s cuts, POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill reported in a must-read story last night. Behind the scenes: “GOP lawmakers unleashed a frantic flurry of calls and texts after federal agencies undertook the latest firings this past weekend, with Republicans particularly worried about cuts affecting public safety and health roles,” Meredith writes. And though Republican members are publicly cheering the Trump-Musk push to cut the federal government, in private, “many are feeling helpless to counter the meat-ax approach that has been embraced so far, with lawmakers especially concerned about the dismissal of military veterans working in federal agencies as well as USDA employees handling the growing bird flu outbreak affecting poultry and dairy farms.”
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance: More than 34 million Americans choose Medicare Advantage for better care at a lower cost than Fee-For-Service Medicare. But two straight years of Medicare Advantage cuts have left seniors feeling squeezed, with millions experiencing plan closures, higher costs, and reduced benefits. Seniors are already struggling with high prices for everyday necessities; they can't afford to pay more for health coverage and get less.
Protect seniors' affordable health care. Protect Medicare Advantage. Learn more at SupportMedicareAdvantage.com. | | | And now there’s this: FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Fears at the FAA: “The first wave of White House-ordered firings at the Federal Aviation Administration included employees who play important roles in the safety of air travel — despite the Trump administration’s assurances that no ‘critical’ staff had been axed,” POLITICO’s transportation reporters Oriana Pawlyk and Sam Ogozalek report in a big scoop this morning. “More than 130 of the eliminated workers held jobs that directly or indirectly support the air traffic controllers, facilities and technologies that the FAA uses to keep planes and their passengers safe,” unions reps tell POLITICO. Comforting thoughts: “These cuts “certainly [are] not going to improve safety — it can only increase the risk,” says Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety consultant who was a longtime official at both the FAA and NTSB. … An aeronautical information specialist who was among those fired adds: “Without our team ... pilots would quite literally be flying blind.” Reminder: Public confidence in air travel is already falling following a series of air disasters, AP polling found this week. Similarly politically volatile … are DOGE-inspired changes afoot at the IRS and Social Security Administration. At the IRS, the Trump White House and Treasury has eventually agreed to “prohibit the U.S. DOGE Service from accessing personal taxpayer data,” WaPo’s Jacob Bogage reports. His story says Musk’s team had requested access to America’s “most sensitive IRS data systems,” which would have granted “the ability to see and in some cases edit detailed information — including bank accounts, payment balances, Social Security and other personal identification numbers and, in some instances, medical information — on virtually every individual, business and nonprofit in the country.” Meanwhile at the SSA: Leland Dudek, a fairly anonymous bureaucrat, bucked orders, cooperated with DOGE and was fired … and now, he’s back as the acting commissioner of the entire organization, WSJ’s Ken Thomas reports. Also reinstated at the SSA: Marko Elez, the DOGE staffer who had posted online advocating for “eugenic immigration policy,” per Bloomberg’s Emily Birnbaum, Jake Bleiberg and Dana Hull. The political fallout: A new poll from CNN/SSRS found narrow majorities of Americans saying Trump has gone too far in using his power, cutting programs, shutting agencies and giving Musk a big role. WaPo/Ipsos find that 57 percent think Trump has overstepped his authority. Thought bubble: Much has been made (in this newsletter and elsewhere) of Trump 2.0’s use of “flooding the zone” to overwhelm its perceived opponents and implement its policy agenda. But the flip side of flooding the zone is that it can be difficult to drive a coherent message; you’re trying to occupy the same zone you’ve already overstuffed with news. Inasmuch as the glut of news itself presents Trump as a man of action, that can be helpful to his agenda. But if those cuts are instead seen as simply chaotic and haphazard, or contribute to a sense that Trump is not actually in control and that Musk has been left to free-agent his way through the government, it carries real political risk for their entire project. There’s an important distinction between controlled chaos and just, well, chaos. A chainsaw can cause either; it just depends how it’s wielded. WHAT FRONTLINE REPUBLICANS ARE READING: Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio and his partner Bob Ward are out with an essential memo for Building America’s Future outlining how vulnerable House Republicans can most effectively address voters’ concerns about their financial situations. Read the memo NOT AT ALL UNSETTLING: “Elon Musk’s private security detail gets deputized by US Marshals Service,” by CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz and Whitney Wild: “Now that members have been deputized, they have more rights and could be authorized to carry weapons on federal grounds. … Some people close to Trump’s White House have been taken aback by the scale of security that has surrounded Musk since he became a regular presence in Trump’s orbit last year. The detail rivaled only that of the president himself, the sources observed.” MEANWHILE AT CPAC: After putting down his chainsaw, Musk gave a truly bizarre interview onstage yesterday, during which he donned sunglasses and paraphrased J. Robert Oppenheimer’s famous invocation of the Bhagavad Gita after detonating the first atomic bomb: “I am become meme.” Throughout, Musk occasionally seemed at a loss for words. (Trump he is not.) But he also made news: Musk endorsed the idea for so-called “DOGE dividend” checks for taxpayers, and said that President Trump “is supportive” of the idea, too. That likely came as something of a surprise to Speaker Mike Johnson, who in his own CPAC appearance earlier in the day, pumped the brakes on the proposal. While conceding it would be politically popular, Johnson said he would prefer to use any savings from DOGE to pay down the federal debt, as the Daily Beast’s Juliegrace Brufke reports. You can expect CPAC to generate more headlines today. Today’s highlights: 9:55 a.m.: National security adviser Michael Waltz … 11:05: Sebastian Gorka … 1:20 p.m. POLITICO’s Dasha Burns interviews Richard Grenell … 3:15: Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) speaks, one day removed from Trump’s surprise endorsement of him as a Florida gubernatorial candidate despite the fact he’s not yet running … 5:10: White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt … 7:30: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem will be the featured official at tonight’s Ronald Reagan dinner.
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance:  
Millions of seniors are experiencing higher costs and fewer benefits due to Medicare Advantage cuts. Seniors can't afford to be squeezed more. Protect Medicare Advantage. | | | THE MAGA REVOLUTION THE PURGE: The Trump administration’s mass firing of civil servants is expected to continue rolling out today, after federal judge Christopher Cooper rejected labor unions’ legal bid to stop them, per CBS. Cooper’s rationale was one of jurisdiction rather than merits: He said their claims need to go to the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The latest sweeping layoffs: Roughly 6,700 probationary IRS employees began to get the boot yesterday across the country, as was anticipated, per NYT’s Alan Rappeport and Andrew Duehren. At the TSA, 243 employees were fired, Bloomberg Government’s Ellen Gilmer scooped. Other cuts are more politically targeted: Dozens of officials who fight foreign interference in U.S. elections were reassigned or axed at the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, alarming experts who worry about new vulnerabilities, NYT’s Steven Lee Myers, Julian Barnes and Sheera Frenkel report … AG Pam Bondi pushed out Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives general counsel Pamela Hicks, per WaPo’s Perry Stein, as other DOJ general counsels have resigned ... And CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky report that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti are on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s list to potentially get booted. THE NEXT POWER GRAB? Trump intends to sign an executive order soon to seize control of the U.S. Postal Service, fire its leaders and place it under the Commerce Department, WaPo’s Jacob Bogage scooped. Experts say that would likely break the law, as Trump seeks to bend yet another independent agency under his power, and the current governing board is already planning to sue. But the White House denied that any such EO is coming. CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS WATCH: The Trump administration’s efforts to continue freezing funds and dismantling agencies, in spite of judicial rulings telling them to stop, are getting close to “the red line of openly flouting court orders,” legal experts tell WaPo’s Justin Jouvenal, Leo Sands and Ann Marimow. The situation came to a head yesterday when federal judge Amir Ali said the administration had ignored his directive to restart foreign aid, per AP’s Ellen Knickmeyer and Lindsay Whitehurst. Ali again ordered Pete Marocco et al to start complying now — but he didn’t go so far as to find them in contempt. Right after Ali’s latest ruling, aid groups filed new evidence of not getting paid, POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney report. How it’s working: NYT’s Stephanie Nolen reports that crucial health initiatives worldwide are still blocked from funding, despite receiving nominal waivers from the State Department, because the administration has choked off the USAID payment system. Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall reports on similar conundrums in the world of medical research grant funding: “[T]he grant-approval system which the courts believe they have unfrozen remains at least mainly frozen.” The policy fallout: From tariffs to HUD workforce cuts, the housing industry fears that Trump will worsen the housing crisis by ramping up costs and erecting new obstacles to financing, POLITICO’s Katy O’Donnell reports. And thousands of military families could reel from layoffs, CNN’s Brianna Keilar writes. BEYOND THE BELTWAY IMMIGRATION FILES: DHS Secretary Noem’s CPAC speech tonight will cap off another week of big moves to crack down on both illegal and legal immigration — including Noem’s decision yesterday to yank Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, the Miami Herald’s Syra Ortiz Blanes and Jacqueline Charles report. The rollback could leave more than half a million people vulnerable to deportation come August. It will likely face legal challenges first — two lawsuits have newly been filed over the similar TPS decision for Venezuelans, NBC’s Daniella Silva reports. A trendline the White House will love: On the U.S.-Mexico border, illegal crossings are now down 94 percent year over year, Border Patrol head Mike Banks told CBS’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez. It’s a truly remarkable plunge that reflects the early success of Trump’s crackdown, as well as, some will argue, policy moves by Joe Biden and Mexico. You can expect Team Trump to be shouting loudly about figures like these for months — and potentially years — to come. The latest flights: The 178 migrants being detained at Guantánamo Bay were abruptly cleared out yesterday, NBC’s Courtney Kube and Julia Ainsley scooped. Nearly all were deported to Honduras, en route to Venezuela. One official said more people will be sent to Gitmo, but other sources tell NBC that DHS and DOD are looking at alternatives like Fort Bliss. TO RUSSIA, WITH LOVE: The Trump administration continues to distance the U.S. from Ukraine as Trump warms to the Russian framing of the war. In G7 talks, the U.S. objected to a statement blaming Russia as the “aggressor” and urged a neutral tone instead, the FT scooped. Over at the U.N., the U.S. is refusing to co-sign a draft statement supporting Ukraine, Reuters’ Tom Balmforth, Emma Farge and Sabine Siebold scooped. Down to rare earth: At the same time the U.S. is working to put the squeeze on Kyiv to accept a deal for the U.S. to get Ukrainian rare earth minerals. National security adviser Mike Waltz ramped up the public pressure for Ukraine to return to negotiations, while the U.S. offered a sweetened draft proposal, Axios’ Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo scooped. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the initial U.S. proposal couldn’t be serious. But now Ukraine supporters in D.C. are urging Zelenskyy to get to a deal, saying it’s crucial to get back on Trump’s good side, POLITICO’s Robbie Gramer reports. The pushback: Europe, of course, is still reeling from Trump’s about-face. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed the shift in the U.S. stance in private calls with European officials, offering them reassurances, NYT’s Michael Schwirtz and Adam Entous report. Those officials weren’t sure what to make of the disconnect. British PM Keir Starmer — who visits the White House next Thursday — intends to propose to Trump a plan for 30,000 European troops to keep the peace in Ukraine, The Telegraph’s Joe Barnes reports. WHAT’S IN A NAME: As Arab leaders meet today in Saudi Arabia to strategize on what will happen to Gaza, Christian conservatives are urging Trump to rename the West Bank to Judea and Samaria, Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana, Yonat Shimron and Jack Jenkins report. The pro-Israel groups are hoping Trump will continue his “Gulf of America” trend here. Meanwhile, Steve Witkoff said he and Jared Kushner are talking about a possible real estate White House summit on rebuilding Gaza, WSJ’s Deborah Acosta and Josh Dawsey report.
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance:  
More than 34 million Americans rely on Medicare Advantage for affordable health care. Learn more. | | | BEST OF THE REST PAGING BILL CASSIDY: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is planning to oust members of outside advisory panels that weigh in on vaccines and other public health matters, POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn, Lauren Gardner and David Lim report. Any such move — framed as a clampdown on conflicts of interest — would be an apparent violation of a commitment RFK gave Cassidy to secure his vote during the confirmation process. People on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are already checked for conflicts of interest. Related: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services nominee Mehmet Oz’s ethics filing shows that he’s earned or invested tens of millions of dollars in for-profit health care companies, AP’s Amanda Seitz and Brian Slodysko report. But Oz said he’ll divest from them and recuse himself from related decisions in the meantime. ICYMI: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’ll work to hem in NYC Mayor Eric Adams and put up guardrails around him after the Justice Department moved to drop its Adams corruption prosecution — but she won’t remove him from office, per ABC. Doing so would be anti-democratic, Hochul said. Speaking at CPAC, AG Bondi insisted the case against Adams had been “incredibly weak” and claimed, without evidence, that it had been a political prosecution that was really about immigration policy, per the NYT. NEERA TANDEN RETURNS: The prominent Democrat and recent director of the Domestic Policy Council is heading back to the Center for American Progress for another stint as chief executive, NYT’s Reid Epstein reports. That will once again position her as a principal Trump opponent, just as she was during his first term. She insists CAP will “develop an alternative, not just a critique.” And another old Trump enemy is back: Roberta Kaplan, who represented E. Jean Carroll in her successful sexual abuse/defamation lawsuits against Trump, is now working for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority as it fights the effort to kill congestion pricing, POLITICO’s Ry Rivard and Erica Orden report. THE THIN BLUE LINE: A Justice Department national database that kept track of misconduct by federal police officers was originally Trump’s idea in his first term. But his administration has now deleted it, WaPo’s Tom Jackman and Elizabeth Dwoskin report. THE PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW: To resist Trump or work with him? Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis says you can do both. He sat down with Chief Playbook Correspondent Eugene Daniels yesterday to talk through that and more. You can hear their conversation on today’s episode of “Playbook Deep Dive.” Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
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| CALIFORNIA STEAMING: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he’ll probe federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project, the L.A. Times’ Colleen Shalby reports. SPORTS BLINK: “Seeking Golf Deal, Trump Meets With Tiger Woods and Saudi Wealth Fund Chief,” by NYT’s Lauren Hirsch, Alan Blinder, Kate Kelly and Sharon LaFraniere THE WEEKEND AHEAD TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Peter Baker, Susan Glasser and Jonathan Lemire. TV TOMORROW — Lara Trump’s new show on Fox News, “My View with Lara Trump,” premieres tomorrow night at 9 p.m. Her first episode will feature AG Pam Bondi, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. More from Axios SUNDAY SO FAR … Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent … national security adviser Mike Waltz … EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin … Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin … Mollie Hemingway. CBS “Face the Nation”: Special envoy Steve Witkoff … Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) … Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) … Scott Gottlieb. ABC “This Week”: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem … Chris Christie. Panel: Donna Brazile, Reince Priebus, Rachael Bade and Nancy Youssef. NBC “Meet the Press”: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer … Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.). Panel: Lanhee Chen, Jeh Johnson, Jonathan Martin and Melanie Zanona. FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) … Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.). Panel: Cal Thomas, Michael Allen, Marie Harf and Julia Manchester. CNN “State of the Union”: Special envoy Steve Witkoff. Panel: Adam Kinzinger, Shermichael Singleton, Xochitl Hinojosa and Kristin Davison. MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) … Sabrina Singh. NewsNation “The Hill Sunday”: Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.). Panel: Meridith McGraw, Domenico Montanaro and David Drucker.
| | TALK OF THE TOWN | | Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush are launching a monthly show on Zeteo. Richard Grenell said the Jan. 6 defendants choir has been invited to perform at the Kennedy Center, according to Steve Bannon. IN MEMORIAM — “David Boren, a former Oklahoma governor and veteran US senator and university president, dies at 83,” by AP’s Tim Talley and Sean Murphy: “The son of a Democratic congressman, Boren quickly followed in his father’s footsteps into elected office and oversaw a dramatic downsizing of government in Oklahoma, where over decades in legislative corridors and university offices he became one of the state’s most influential figures. … Boren served in the U.S. Senate between 1979 and 1994 and was the longest-serving chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.” OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at a National Governors Association winter meeting welcome reception at the Apple Carnegie Library last night: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein. — BGR Group’s Jonathan Mantz and Patrick Dolan helped raise more than $75,000 for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro at BGR’s offices yesterday evening. SPOTTED: David Lieberman, Kevin Seabaugh, Peter Kyte, John Mangan, Luke Entelis, Michael Daniels, Matt Nicholson, Ankit Desai, Bradley Beychok, Ken Jarin, Emma Fisher, Fred Turner, Keiffer Mitchell, Andy Lewin, Raghav Aggarwal, Mark Tavlarides, Jen Brown, Maya Seiden and Keaghan Ames. MEDIA MOVES — WaPo Opinion is adding Benjy Sarlin as an editor (previously at Semafor) and Joanna Shan as a video producer (previously at the White House). … Jackie Padilla is now a digital director at NewsChannel 5 Nashville. She previously was a senior video producer at POLITICO. TRANSITIONS — Ami Copeland is now partner and head of public affairs at Gray Space Strategies. He is an APCO, Resolute Public Affairs and Business Forward alum. … Ryan Arant has been named director of the N7 Initiative at the Atlantic Council and the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation, which is also launching an N7 Research Institute. He is a State Department, Defense Department and Trump White House alum. … Leora Hanser is joining Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund as chief development officer. She previously was chief development officer at NPR and president of the NPR Foundation. … … Rachel Reisner is joining Platform Communications as director of public relations. She previously was director of national comms for the RNC and is a Trump 2024 campaign alum. … Matthew Thurlow is joining Morgan Lewis as a partner in its environmental litigation practice. He previously was national co-chair of BakerHostetler’s environmental team. ENGAGED — Amber Ferguson, a senior video journalist at WaPo, and Jecky Gourgue, an optician at Georgetown Optician, got engaged Feb. 12 in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico — a special place for the couple because Jecky’s late father used to live there as an artist. Pic … Another pic HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) … Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) … Allen Dickerson … Maya MacGuineas … Paul Teller … Jeremy Gaines … Kevin Sheridan … Kristie Greco Johnson … former Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) … Ashley Etienne … former Reps. Charles Boustany (R-La.), Phil Hare (D-Ill.), John Shimkus (R-Ill.) and Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.) … Ryan Rudominer of Red Horse Strategies … Lee Powell … Holland & Knight’s Beth Viola … Reuters’ Ross Colvin … POLITICO’s Mona Zhang and Jaime-Lee Reichman … Kilmeny Duchardt ... Tricia Nixon Cox … Purple Strategies’ Stephen Smith … Bob Chlopak … David Wessel … Scott Kelly … Daniel Yim of House Oversight … Marcus Davis-Mercer of the Herald Group … LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner … Alanna Paul … Zach Volpe of Senate Armed Services … Georgetown’s Alejandro Werner … Ron Pollack … Jacob Trauberman of Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office (32) … Lucas Gomez-Acebo … Alex Terr of the Progressive Policy Institute … Jordan Zaslav Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us at 202-556-3307. Playbook couldn’t happen without our deputy editor Zack Stanton and Playbook Daily Briefing producer Callan Tansill-Suddath. Correction: Yesterday’s Playbook misspelled Kait Unger’s name.
| | | | A message from Better Medicare Alliance: Medicare Advantage is now the primary form of Medicare coverage in the United States. Over 55% of Medicare beneficiaries — more than 34 million seniors and people with disabilities — choose Medicare Advantage for comprehensive care that delivers better health outcomes at a lower cost than Fee-For-Service Medicare.
But for two years in a row, Medicare Advantage has been cut even as medical costs and utilization have been going up. Now millions of seniors who rely on Medicare Advantage are feeling squeezed, with widespread plan closures, higher costs, and reduced benefits.
President Trump and his Administration can keep their promise to protect Medicare for seniors by ensuring adequate funding for Medicare Advantage moving forward.
Seniors need affordable health care. That means protecting Medicare Advantage.
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