ND Dem-NPL Calls for Transparency as GOP Goes Crawling Back to Jaeger

Less than two months after nominating Window-Peeping Will Gardner for Secretary of State, Republicans plead with Al Jaeger to run as an Independent

(BISMARCK, ND) — After news broke last weekend that the North Dakota Republican Party-endorsed candidate for Secretary of State Will Gardner was arrested in a 2006 peeping tom incident, the GOP was left scrambling for a replacement. So, they decided to go back to the candidate they cast aside after 26 years in office: Al Jaeger.

While Republican Gardner backers issue denials of any knowledge of Gardner’s behavior, Jaeger is mounting an independent campaign with the help of his establishment friends to try and keep the job he’s clung on to for over two and a half decades. But many questions remain around how the campaign will work and how it will interact with the Republican party infrastructure, and North Dakotans deserve answers.

“The whole debacle has been embarrassing for North Dakotans,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the Democratic-NPL. “It’s a stunning reversal: the Republicans went from questioning Al Jaeger’s competency for yet another term in office to the unusual route of an ad hoc endorsement. Given the extraordinary circumstance this race is now in, voters deserve the utmost transparency from the ND GOP and the Secretary of State’s office. The North Dakota Republican Party, by not properly vetting their first choice and now supporting a candidate who has stood in the way of modernizing the office, have shown they are would rather hold onto power than better the lives of their constituents.”

ICYMI: Cramer’s Failure to Pass a Farm Bill, Support for Tariffs Could Cost Him

Cramer Deserves Blame on House Farm Bill Failure, “Wait-and-See” Attitude on Trade War

Jacobs: “The lesson for politicians is, in North Dakota, you can’t escape farm policy”  

 

(BISMARCK, ND) — Kevin Cramer’s strategy of tethering himself to the far-right flank of his party isn’t working out too well – especially when that ship sank the Farm Bill and still leaves the threat of a trade war looming over North Dakota soybean farmers during the height of their planting season – potentially costing them sales to Russia and Brazil.

Today, former Grand Forks Herald publisher and editor Mike Jacobs highlighted crucial points about how in a state that weights agriculture policy heavily in elections, Cramer’s failure to pass a Farm Bill, combined with his do-nothing approach on a potential trade war and sloppiness in the tax bill could spell trouble for him in November.

“Kevin Cramer bears responsibility for sinking the Farm Bill in the House not just for endorsing a hostage provision that killed the bill, but for lying to North Dakotans by working behind the scenes to eliminate the sugar program while publicly taking credit for the ultimate failure of that poison-pill policy,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the North Dakota Dem-NPL. “North Dakotans have a proud farming legacy, and they won’t forget his Farm Bill failure. They also won’t forget his repeated praise of the president’s threatened trade war that still looms large and while the administration has garnered no concrete promises from China. For soybean farmers who – at the end of planting season – have already lost sales to Russia, their ability to plan for the future has been severely compromised. If there’s one thing Kevin Cramer has proven time and again, it’s that what he’s demonstrated on ag policy: He can’t lead, he can’t achieve results, and he can’t say no to anyone who might help his career.”

Read highlights from the Grand Forks Herald.

Grand Forks Herald: Jacobs: Farm bill could mean shift in election outlook

  • This year’s election campaign in North Dakota has shifted, perhaps significantly. The issue had seemed to be Donald Trump and which candidate supported him while keeping North Dakota issues in mind.

  • This changed last week when the U.S. House failed to pass a farm bill. To be clear, the vote had little to do with farm policy, but that doesn’t change the fact that farm policy is placed in peril by the vote. No farm bill means no funding for farm programs. No funding for farm programs means more risk for farmers. More risk for farmers means more volatility in the electorate.

  • This has big implications for North Dakota. Farm policy is a perennial issue in the state, and has often been a decisive one. That could happen this year.

  • The House action last week creates a two-edged opportunity for Heitkamp. First, Republican leadership in the House can plausibly be blamed for the vote, and Cramer can be linked to the leadership, and by extension he can be blamed, too.

  • He’s said he wants to be there representing North Dakota when important decisions are made, and he was there when the vote was taken. He voted in favor of the bill, but that doesn’t exempt him from culpability. Whatever his role, the bill didn’t pass.

  • The same thing can be said about the potential consequence of the Trump administration’s threatened tariffs on imports from China. China is a major buyer of soybeans, one of North Dakota’s leading farm products. The tariffs have been suspended while talks proceed, but the threat of a trade war hasn’t vanished entirely. Cramer and House candidate Kelly Armstrong have adopted a “wait-and-see” attitude, evidently hoping that the president’s posturing will achieve the reforms in Chinese policy toward U.S. patents, a key issue for American innovators.

  • Another farm-related issue presents a similar opportunity to question Cramer’s influence in Congress. Tax reform originated in the House, and was passed in both chambers. The bill included a provision harmful to sugar growers and processors. The oversight was caught and fixed. A sharp eye for North Dakota’s interests might have caught it in the original draft of the bill.

  • The current farm bill expires in September, and last week’s vote means that work on the new bill likely will move to the Senate. This gives Heitkamp an opportunity to demonstrate leadership on farm issues just ahead of the election.

  • Another Washington policy debate also has implications for North Dakota farmers, the renewable fuels standards. This requires refiners to include bio-fuels in their refinery output. An exemption has been proposed for small refineries, one of which is in North Dakota, at Mandan.

  • In some ways, farm policy is a legacy issue; many North Dakotans come from farms a generation or two back. That showed up dramatically in the 2016 primary election, when North Dakotans voted on a measure that would have allowed corporate ownership of up to 640 acres of land used for dairy and swine operations. Three-fourths of voters said no; opposition didn’t dip below 70 percent in a single county. The point is that city voters remain attached to farms and interested in farm policy; they perceived a threat to farming.

  • The lesson for politicians is, in North Dakota, you can’t escape farm policy.

ICYMI: Experts Wonder Whether Trump Has Lost His Leverage to China to Avoid Trade War

(BISMARCK, ND) – Amid growing threats of a global trade war last week, this weekend the administration backed off tariffs against China, saying “we’re putting a trade war on hold.” After initially announcing a deal that promised $200 billion in U.S. commodity buys – which China denied and experts called actually achieving “a tricky task” – U.S. officials quickly backtracked, calling that figure as a “rough ballpark estimate.”

Now that no concrete deal is on the table, experts are questioning whether the administration’s tough talk on tariffs will actually yield results, one of those experts sayingthe U.S. will have to ask itself, “whether going through all this was worth it.” According to the New York Times, an expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute said “the United States’ response to China’s ‘predatory behavior’ had been put on hold ‘in exchange for things yet to occur, and Mnuchin won’t tell us what they are.’”

Here’s some analysis on what isn’t included as part of trade discussions with China:

Washington Post: China is winning Trump’s trade war

  • It was easy to miss the U.S.-China trade statement that the White House released Saturday, right in the midst of royal wedding mania. But it’s hard to hide that China looks as if it’s winning President Trump’s trade skirmish — so far.
  • Notice China didn’t agree to a specific amount. On Friday, Trump’s top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, was telling reporters that the Chinese had agreed to reduce the deficit by “at least” $200 billion. China quickly denied that, and, a day later, the official statement didn’t have a concrete number, a seeming victory for the Chinese.
  • What about the IP fight? The real battle against the Chinese was supposed to be over intellectual property theft, which the Trump administration says has been going on for years and costs the U.S. economy $225 billion to $600 billion a year. Trump was supposed to get the Chinese to stop stealing U.S. business secrets and technology. On this front, the statement was brief and lackluster, saying that both sides agreed to “strengthen cooperation” (diplomatic speak for not doing much) and that China would “advance relevant amendments” to its patent law.
  • Dan DiMicco, a former steel CEO who has been a big supporter of Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, tweeted shortly after the statement came out, “Not good enough. Time to take the gloves off.” He followed that up with: “Did [the] president just blink? China and friends appear to be carrying the day.” Fox Business host Lou Dobbs summed up the situation this way: “Chinese say ‘no deal.’”
  • Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted, “Why do U.S. officials always fall for China trickery?” Wall Street Journal trade reporter Bob Davis tweeted that the big takeaway is: “Trump administration gets rolled by the Chinese.”
  • It was always unlikely that the United States would get China to alter its marquee economic growth plan, but it’s yet another reminder that the Chinese gave a few concessions on things that aren’t sacrifices for China.

New York Times: U.S. Suspends Tariffs on China, Stoking Fears of a Loss of Leverage

  • The Trump administration has suspended its plan to impose sweeping tariffs on China as it presses forward with trade talks, a gesture that will temporarily ease tensions between the two nations but rapidly increase pressure on President Trump to secure the type of tough deal that he has long said is necessary to protect American workers.
  • “We’re putting the trade war on hold,” Mr. Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”
  • The reprieve came as many crucial details remained undecided, and trade experts warned that the suspension of tariffs could undercut Mr. Trump’s leverage and thrust the United States back into the kind of lengthy — and ultimately fruitless — negotiations with China that have bogged down previous administrations.
  • On Saturday, both countries released a joint statement that offered little detail about what had been agreed to, other than holding another round of discussions in China. Mr. Mnuchin said on Sunday that the countries had agreed on a “framework” under which China would increase its purchases of American goods,while putting in place “structural” changes to protect American technology and make it easier for American companies to compete in China.
  • And while Trump administration officials said last week that China was prepared to increase its purchases of American products by $200 billion by 2020, Chinese officials had pushed back on that claim, and the joint statement the two sides released lacked any such dollar figure.
  • Mr. Kudlow said on Sunday that the $200 billion number was a “rough ballpark estimate” that both sides had used.
  • “It certainly looks like President Trump is failing us on China,” said Daniel DiMicco, the chairman of the trade lobbying group Coalition for a Prosperous America and a former trade adviser to Mr. Trump during his campaign. “He is letting down all those who voted for him and rewarding those who didn’t. It appears the swamp got him.”
  • Some supporters of the administration’s tough stance on China now fear that the White House is pursuing a quicker deal that would reduce the trade deficit — a longtime goal of Mr. Trump’s — as well as forestall a trade war, butsacrifice more ambitious goals the administration had discussed for reforming the Chinese economy.
  • Derek Scissors, resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the United States’ response to China’s “predatory behavior” had been put on hold “in exchange for things yet to occur, and Mnuchin won’t tell us what they are.”

FARM BILL SABOTAGE: As Farm Bill Fails, Cramer Says Playing Politics with Farm Bill “Not Inappropriate”

#FlashbackFriday: Cramer attempted to hold the Farm Bill Hostage in 2014, touted his clout on Farm Bill as reason not to run for Senate

(BISMARCK, ND) — He’s at it again: After statewide criticism for his work to sink the Farm Bill in to 2014 over a political provision, Kevin Cramer again put his own party loyalties ahead of North Dakota farmers’ livelihoods by encouraging the House Freedom Caucus’ efforts to sink the Farm Bill over yet another political provision.

Last night – before the Farm Bill failed this morning – Cramer told KVLY’s Chris Berg made it clear he would not fight back against poison-pill provisions that could tank the bill, saying it was “not inappropriate” for the right-wing Freedom Caucus to insert completely unrelated immigration policies into this fight. Watch the full video of the exchange here.

Sound familiar? That’s because Cramer tried to pull a similar trick in 2014 through his efforts to hold up the Farm Bill over a similar political provision. Back then, his partisan games were admonished by editorial boards across the state – from the Grand Forks Herald which branded him an “ideologue who values purity above results,” to the Williston Herald, which said “We feel Cramer needs to take a lesson from Hoeven and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp in how to wield influence.“

Just a reminder, when Cramer first decided against asking for a promotion, he touted his influence on the Farm Bill as a reason not to run. Now North Dakotans want to know: Where was his influence today when the Farm Bill failed?

“This time, Kevin Cramer has gone too far. After jeopardizing the Farm Bill in 2014 Kevin Cramer once again held it hostage for political games that help him cozy up the D.C. swamp bosses. But this time, compromising the futures of North Dakota’s farmers will not stand,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL. “By defending a poison pill provision, Cramer once again abdicated his responsibility to North Dakota’s farmers and ranchers who depend on his lone voice in Congress to stand up for them. But just like in 2014, he was more than eager to throw them by the wayside. North Dakotans need a fighter who will have their backs in the Senate – who will build bridges to get a strong Farm Bill passed, instead of spending their time defending dangerous and petty politics as ‘not inappropriate.’ We’ve had enough.”

Dotzenrod: Defeat of Farm Bill in House a Serious Setback for Agriculture in North Dakota

Democratic-NPL Candidate for Agriculture Commissioner calls on House to pass Farm Bill with strong crop insurance and increased trade promotion

(WYNDMERE, ND) — Today, the House of Representatives failed to pass the Farm Bill. North Dakota Democratic-NPL candidate for Agriculture Commissioner and District 26 State Senator Jim Dotzenrod released the following statement:

“The defeat of the Farm Bill demonstrates how divided Congress has become in their role of supporting agriculture. The House of Representatives did not put farmers first today and failed to pass the Farm Bill in Washington, while here in North Dakota farmers are planting their crops and planning for the future. The Farm Bill is being used to create pressure and leverage to push forward issues that have nothing to do with agriculture. Between threatened tariffs, canceled sales, falling commodity prices, and the ongoing efforts to cut safety net programs, things look pretty dire for our agriculture producers.”

“As a farmer, I know the importance of a strong Farm Bill that ensures that farmers have access to affordable crop insurance while promoting trade at home and abroad. We have seen attacks on both of those pillars in the recent debates in the House. The Farm Bill debate that has unfolded in Washington shows that Congress is out of sync with the priorities of our farmers. We need leadership in Bismarck and Washington that recognizes the serious situation farmers are in and is willing to work to fix it. In the Senate, Heidi Heitkamp, who worked on the 2014 Farm Bill and is working on the 2018 version, has actively supported crop insurance and trade promotion. I hope our other federal and state elected officials will join in supporting these priorities.”

SHOT, CHASER: Cramer Calls Warnings of Harm to Soybean Industry “Exaggerated Hyperbole,” China Buys Record Amount of Russian Soy

AUDIO: Cramer Continues to Mislead Soybean Producers about Devastating Impact of the Tariffs He Supports

(BISMARCK, ND) — There he goes again: It looks like Kevin Cramer is back to whistling a ‘nothing-to-see-here’ tune to North Dakota soybean farmers. Just one day after feigning sympathy for their concerns over a looming trade war with China while refusing to denounce the president’s tariffs, Cramer’s back to the same old ‘ignore-the-facts’ song and dance.

Today, Cramer said he’s “quite confident” that warnings from his fellow Republicans of significant harm to the soybean industry are “exaggerated hyperbole.” According to Cramer, that’s because “China’s purchase of soybeans somewhere else means that that’s a new market for U.S. soybeans.” Listen to the full exchange here.

But according to a report in Bloomberg News today, after canceling several shipments to the U.S., China just bought a record amount of Russian soy, almost tripling purchases from last year. Brazil is also expected to take much of the market.

“Does Cramer really think he has any credibility with North Dakota ag producers anymore? After weeks of belittling their concerns on tariffs, he’s calling his fellow Republicans’ concerns for the soybean industry nothing more than ‘exaggerated hyperbole,’” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the North Dakota Dem-NPL. “Now that North Dakota is losing business to Russia, you would think Cramer would put his own self-promotion on pause and finally stand up for our farmers. But instead, he’s doubling down – telling our farmers he’s ‘quite confident’ soybeans will be fine, and this could open up new markets for them. But China isn’t buying – and neither are North Dakotans.”

SHOT:

THOMAS: Yeah and here he appeared before the Herald editorial board yesterday and according to their written report today, he says that he is going to be one of the, well the Herald says that he says, one of the first to say that a drawn-out trade war with China will kill – kill – the North Dakota soybean industry.

CRAMER: Well that would be very discouraging to a soybean farmer, I would think.

THOMAS: Well, absolutely. But I just want to know, do you think it’s true?

CRAMER: No. No, I don’t think it’s true at all. You know, I think the sentiment, I understand it might be a little bit exaggerated hyperbole. But no, I don’t think it’s true. In fact, I think that it’s clear that it’s not true. Soybeans, in my view, were always the wrong, they were the wrong poster child for why this negotiation with China is bad. Don’t get me wrong. China is an important purchaser of North Dakota soybeans. They purchase about 70 percent of the soybeans grown in North Dakota but North Dakota and the United States and North Dakota is the fifth largest producer in the United States. The United States, of course, the second largest producer in the world. The largest producer being Brazil and between the two countries, they produce 90 percent of soybeans in the whole world. The other 10 percent are largely from Argentina. So needless to say, soybeans are one of those products where there’s a very high demand and short supply. That means there’ll always be a you know a pretty good price for soybeans and whatever, you know, whoever displaces, whoever’s displaced, I guess, by China’s purchase of soybeans somewhere else means that that’s a new market for US soybeans. So no, it wouldn’t. It wouldn’t kill the industry, I’m quite confident.

Listen to the full exchange here.

CHASER:

Bloomberg: China Buys Record Amount of Russian Soy as It Shuns U.S. Growers

  • China, the world’s biggest soybean importer, almost tripled purchases from Russia amid a trade dispute with the U.S., the biggest producer.

  • Russia sold about 850,000 metric tons of soybeans to China from the start of the 12-month season in July through mid-May, according to Russia’s agriculture agency Rosselkhoznadzor. That’s more than during any season before and compares with about 340,000 tons sold during all of the previous period, Chinese customs data show.

  • China has already canceled several shipments from the U.S. in anticipation of tariffs on the country’s products. While Brazil is expected to take much of that market share, Russia is also benefiting.

POLITICAL DOUBLE-SPEAK: After Calling Farmers’ Concerns Political ‘Hysteria’ Cramer Fakes Sympathy, Still Supports Harmful Tariffs

Cramer softens his tone to try to fool farmers on his strong support for tariffs and advance his own career

(BISMARCK, ND) — After weeks of ignoring outcries from North Dakota farmers and ranchers – belittling concerns for their livelihoods in the face of backbreaking tariffs as nothing more than political “hysteria,” Kevin Cramer today played an elaborate game of political double-speak to advance his own career. While trying to fool North Dakota farmers into believing he’s finally standing up for them, Cramer said he’s staying “consistent with what I’ve been saying all along.”

Confused? So are we.

Ever since he deleted a tweet opposing the tariffs before posting a new tweet in support, Cramer has been doubling down on his support for the president’s tariffs, insisting that because “very few places in the world grow soybeans,” so China will eventually cave to U.S. pressure because China needs us “every bit as we need them.”

But yesterday, during his remarks at the U.S. Trade Representatives hearing, Cramer finally called the tariffs a “fairly blunt instrument” against farmers.

Sounds like a change of heart, right? Not so fast.

Cramer also said the president is “fighting for American agriculture” and that he hopes “this continues throughout the negotiation of our trade deals with China.”

So, what gives?

Acknowledging the pain the tariffs would cause farmers and ranchers, Cramer said he wished the president would soften the blow – but despite his softer tone, he still refused to denounce the tariffs and still passed the buck, asking Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to, as Patrick Delaney of the American Soybean Association put it, think about what repairs might look like after a car crash rather than preventing the wreck in the first place.

“Make no mistake: Just because Kevin Cramer – for once – wasn’t speaking down to farmers and ranchers, Kevin Cramer’s No. 1 priority is still Kevin Cramer. He still very much supports the president’s tariffs over farmers to help his own career – but now it’s worse, because he clearly understands they could break the back of our ag economy,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the North Dakota Dem-NPL. “This is the worst kind of Washington political double-speak – perhaps that’s why he said it in the D.C. swamp instead of to farmers’ faces back home – he knows there’s no farmer that’s going to buy that kind of evasive language over really, truly having their backs.”

Kevin Cramer’s extremist Republican Study Committee tries to sink the Farm Bill

Why is Kevin Cramer part of this anti-agriculture caucus?

More than 300 ag groups – including North Dakota Farm Bureau – write Congress opposed to partisan Farm Bill amendments  

(BISMARCK, ND) – During the debate over the last Farm Bill, the Williston Herald excoriated Kevin Cramer for politicizing what’s usually bipartisan legislation. But it looks like Kevin Cramer is putting partisan politics ahead of farmers and ranchers once again – the Republican Study Committee, which Cramer is part of, is trying to tank the Farm Bill and gut important programs North Dakota’s ag producers rely on.

Additionally, more than 300 agriculture groups – including the North Dakota Farm Bureau, North Dakota Corn Growers Association and the North Dakota Grain Growers Association – wrote to Congress opposing many of the radical ideas Cramer’s Republican Study Committee have proposed.

“Once again, Kevin Cramer is putting partisan politics ahead of North Dakota’s farmers and ranchers – joining a right-wing caucus with an extreme anti-agriculture agenda,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL. “Cramer has never served on the Agriculture Committee – now, his Republican Study Committee is pushing for severe cuts to crop insurance and farm safety net programs our ag producers rely on. The Farm Bill shouldn’t be partisan, and it’s a shame Cramer and his colleagues are using it as a vehicle to drive a destructive, anti-agriculture agenda.”

Politico: Freedom Caucus debates killing farm bill over immigration

  • That comes just a few hours after the more than 150 member-strong Republican Study Committee circulated a memo spelling out their own criticism of the agriculture text.

  • The RSC memo released Tuesday raised several concerns echoed by conservative outside groups such as The Heritage Foundation and Taxpayers for Common Sense. Despite the Trump administration’s backing of the proposal, they’ve criticized its failure to slash commodity subsidies paid to farmers and its proposal to expand state-run employment programs that are part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

  • Conservatives have been hounding GOP leaders to allow amendments on the legislation that would alleviate their concerns. One such proposal from Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) would revamp the U.S. sugar program in the bill that conservatives call “corporate welfare.” Another from Meadows would limit commodity payments to “actively engaged” farmers and permit only one farm manager per operation to claim subsidy payments.

  • The memo says that RSC members may be disappointed that the legislation doesn’t take steps to reduce government subsidization of agriculture or make changes to the federal crop insurance program — pointing out that the White House’s budget proposal for fiscal 2019 called for lowering the average premium subsidy for crop insurance to 48 percent, from 62 percent.

  • Last month, the RSC released a budget proposal for fiscal 2019 that called for heavy cuts to be made to a variety of farm bill programs.

Major Cramer Supporter: “Any Tariffs Are a Bad Idea”

One of Kevin Cramer’s top surrogates can see that tariffs would hurt the economy, so why doesn’t his candidate stand up for sensible trade policy?

(BISMARCK, ND) — As Kevin Cramer prepares to testify in the U.S. House of Representatives today on Chinese tariffs that could have a devastating impact on North Dakota’s ag economy and energy industry – it’s worth reminding: Not even one of Cramer’s biggest donors thinks these tariffs are a good idea – in fact, he flatly told CNN: “I think any tariffs are a bad idea.”

But since the day Cramer drew a line in the sand – saying voting against President Trump is akin to marital infidelity, and deleting a tweet in opposition to the tariffs he knows are a bad idea for North Dakota farmers and energy producers – he’s been towing the D.C. swamp’s party line ever since. Rather than stand up policies that would grow North Dakota’s economy, he’s chosen to put his own career first to the detriment of working families.

At today’s congressional panel, will Cramer finally listen to North Dakotans on tariffs – or even his own campaign surrogates?

Highlights from a CNN interview show the CEO of Colorado-based oil company Canary, LLC Dan Eberhart saying the tariffs “give me pause” on his support for President Trump’s trade policies.

“Dan Eberhart is the canary in the coal mine for Kevin Cramer – when your one of your biggest supporters knows the tariffs are a bad idea, you might have a problem,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL. “Instead of putting North Dakotans first, Cramer’s chosen toxic trade policy that pushes North Dakota farmers, ranchers, and energy workers to the back of the line behind big-shot Washington insiders. Cramer’s whole campaign knows the Chinese tariffs would be a one-two punch that could sink North Dakota’s economy. But now the question is, will he finally do the right thing?”

Slavitt: GOP’s War on Health Care Goes Underground

Cramer supports GOP-insider efforts to dismantle critical health care protections, strip millions of Americans of their health coverage

(BISMARCK, ND) — While Kevin Cramer describes that the disastrous American Health Care Act’s failure to become law as a “missed opportunity,” he and his Washington cronies have been busy behind the scenes working to limit access to affordable health care.

Former Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Andy Slavitt took to Vox to explain how the Republicans are working in the shadows to achieve the same goals laid out in the AHCA.

As a member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees health care legislation, Kevin Cramer should know 300,000 North Dakotans with pre-existing conditions are at risk of losing the ability to afford health coverage – he heard from many of them directly who begged him not to support ripping away their coverage last year. But instead, he decided to side with Washington power-players instead of them. Now, his actions will have made him responsible for skyrocketing premiums and rising uninsured rates:

Vox: The Republican cold war on the Affordable Care Act

  • The defeat of the Republican legislative push to repeal Obamacare was essential. Had it been passed by Congress, the American Health Care Act, which passed the House almost exactly a year ago, would have caused 23 million Americans to lose coverage by the middle of the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Most of those losing coverage would have been lower-income or older citizens.

  • The frontal assault was turned back, but Republicans this year pivoted to a more covert attack on the ACA. This cold war has the same aims as last year’s controversial legislation. All that’s different are the tactics.

  • In December, the administration finally achieved its goal of eliminating the individual mandate, tucking the provision into a package that cut rates for corporations, people with wealthy estates, and, to a lesser and varying degree, individuals.

  • The individual mandate was a central tenet of the ACA. The CBO concluded that eliminating it would increase health insurance premiums by about 10 percent almost every year over the next decade in the individual market.

  • Virginia became the first state to file preliminary insurance rates for 2019, and the numbers show the effect of these actions. The state will see rate increases of up to 64 percent, before factoring in premium subsidies to those who qualify. Insurers pointedly blame Trump policies for the rise. Other states that have released filings are showing similar effects.

  • Protections for people with preexisting conditions — as many as 130 million Americans, and growing every day — are also under attack. The Trump administration is using its executive authority to approve the sale of junk insurance plans that had been outlawed or severely limited under President Barack Obama.

  • The cold war on Obamacare is having an effect. The uninsured rate has begun to creep back up since Trump became president. After several years of major declines under Obama, the uninsured rate has grown from 10.9 percent to 12.2 percent, according to Gallup. It’s not hard to imagine, in just one Trump term, that we could see half of the gains made under the ACA, which led to 20 million Americans being newly covered, erased.

ICYMI: ‘Hamm-handed’ confession shows Cramer (R-Harold Hamm) running for all the wrong reasons

“Serving North Dakotans or the country might not have been a deciding factor for Kevin Cramer running for the United States Senate, but out-of-state billionaire Harold Hamm offering up big bucks definitely was.”

(BISMARCK, ND) – Kevin Cramer (R-Harold Hamm) is showing us what Washington swamp politics really look like. This week, he admitted that a desire to serve the citizens of North Dakota wasn’t what finally dragged Kevin Cramer into this year’s campaign for U.S. Senate – after initially backing out. According to Cramer’s interview with WDAY, it was an out-of-state billionaire who signed on to bankroll his campaign.

The admission is pretty startling – even for a politician widely known for his penchant to make careless and inappropriate remarks. His confession begs the question – is Kevin Cramer involved in this race for himself and Washington insiders or for the residents of North Dakota?

Watch Cramer’s Hamm-handed confession here. Highlights from the column below:

Forum: McFeely: Cramer’s admission is Hamm-handed

  • A public servant should be swayed by public service and the desire, regardless of political affiliation or ideology, to do good things for constituents, no matter how a candidate might define “good things.”

  • But those are not the worst reasons. No, that distinction, the absolute most miserably insufficient reason to run, is to have an out-of-state industrialist with a direct interest in having you elected be the person who finally persuaded you. North Dakota, meet Kevin Cramer. Oh, and Harold Hamm, who is important to this story, too.

  • According to Cramer, Hamm is the person who pushed him over the line to run for the Senate. He said so in an interview with WDAY-TV[.]

  • “It took months to get him to run. He said ‘no’ to other Republicans. ‘No’ to the president. He didn’t want to risk losing his seat in the House,” WDAY’s narrator said. “But it was a call from oil tycoon Harold Hamm, whose net worth is $18 billion, that finally tipped the scales.”

  • Not North Dakotans, not the country. A wealthy out-of-state oil man who promised to raise a lot of money. That’s the who and why that tripped Cramer’s trigger.

  • It’s always telling to know what compels people to make major decisions. Harold Hamm compelled Kevin Cramer. What does that tell you?

Cramer’s Caucus Targets Crop Insurance

After Telling Farmers They’ll Have to Tighten Their Belts on Crop Insurance in 2018, Cramer’s Republican Study Committee Calls for Crop Insurance Cuts

(BISMARCK, ND) — Make no mistake: North Dakota farmers hoping for strong crop insurance programs in the 2018 Farm Bill can’t count on Cramer.

In February, Cramer told North Dakota farmers not to look for crop insurance increases in the 2018 Farm Bill, saying they would have to “make the same amount of money go a little farther.” But last month, North Dakota farmers learned Cramer and his fellow D.C. swamp-buddies at the Republican Study Committee (RSC) have a lot more planned than a little belt-tightening – recommending significantly chopping the government’s share of crop insurance in half in their 2019 budget recommendation, in part by “eliminating the government’s reimbursement to crop insurance companies for administrative expenses.”

Cramer and his cronies certainly don’t think much of crop insurance – even quoting Farms and Free Enterprise to characterize the critical safety net as “less about insurance and more about providing subsidies to farmers.”

Over 93 percent of the farmland in North Dakota is covered by the Crop Insurance Program, but apparently Cramer thinks the vast majority of our farmers are living too high on the hog.

“Kevin Cramer has already shown his willingness to throw farmers under the bus to stay in the good graces of his DC Republican friends and advance his own career, but to take away a crucial safety net for North Dakota’s farmers is downright cruel,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the Democratic-NPL. “Crop insurance is a backbone program for North Dakota’s agriculture community, and cutting premium support in half puts farmers and other agricultural producers at risk of losing everything through no fault of their own. It’s clear: No program and no North Dakotan is too sacred for Cramer to betray when it comes to pleasing his Washington pals – and our farmers won’t soon forget it.”