NEWS AND OPINION:
Newly minted White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon has been attacked by an unfriendly press since he joined then-candidate Donald Trump’s campaign team in mid-August — deemed a “right wing Rottweiler” by Vice and a “rogue and provocateur” by Politico, among other things. The descriptions now include “white supremacist,” “anti-Semite” and “misogynist,” all hurled by multiple critics.
But like his new boss, Mr. Bannon is a canny media guy with considerable inner mettle. He is a radio host, an independent filmmaker and chairman of Breitbart News; he knows the entertainment landscape and its diabolical dynamics. Mr. Bannon has produced and directed some 20 feature-length films, including “The Undefeated,” a 2011 documentary chronicling Sarah Palin’s political career that he placed into national distribution despite squawks and derision from press and punditry.
But wait, there’s more. Mr. Bannon has policy prowess, holding a master’s degree in national security studies from Georgetown University and an additional master’s from Harvard Business School. As a Navy officer, he served aboard USS Paul F. Foster as a surface warfare officer in the Persian Gulf and was special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon.
“The biggest asset Stephen Bannon brings to bear is that he’s actually in touch with the majority of American people, and it scares both establishment Republican and Democrats. It means he looks past the establishment in Washington, D.C. and goes directly to voters. He has a connection with what average Americans think.” Randy Evans, president of the Republican Lawyers Association, told CNN.
“The Steve Bannon I know is a guy that is really on the same page with almost everything that I agree with as far as advising President-elect Trump. He was a force for good on the campaign. He’s very wise and smart. I haven’t seen any of these things that people are crying out about,” incoming White House chief-of-staff Reince Priebus told Fox News.
VOTERS: JETTISON OBAMACARE FIRST
SEE ALSO: Anti-Trump protests meet Democrat silence
There are many things on President-elect Donald Trump’s to-do list. Voters, however, have their favorites.
“What should be the first thing President Trump deals with when he takes office?” a Rasmussen Reports survey asked 1,000 likely voters just two days after the election.
A quarter of the respondents said “repealing and replacing Obamacare” was the No. 1 priority. Another 22 percent felt Mr. Trump should fill the long-standing vacancy on the Supreme Court, 9 percent said doing away with President Obama’s executive orders should come first, and 8 percent say repealing the nuclear deal with Iran should be his first official act.
“Surprisingly, in last place on the list of five options we gave voters is building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, with just 6 percent saying the new president should move on it first,” the poll noted.
FOUR STEPS TO JETTISON OBAMACARE
There are ways to repeal the aforementioned Affordable Care Act. Here is the advice of Tevi Troy, CEO of the American Health Policy Institute and former deputy secretary of Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush administration, and Lanhee J. Chen, a Hoover Institution fellow, and director of domestic policy studies at Stanford University.
SEE ALSO: Steve Bannon selection by Trump shows his racism, liberals say
“We advise a four-step approach for repeal-and-replace. First, states should be given greater latitude through executive action to pursue aggressive reforms to Medicaid. Second, Republicans in Congress should move immediately to craft a budget resolution and pass it, thereby enabling the use of budget reconciliation legislation to repeal the law — as they did in 2015. Third, they should implement transitional reforms that would prevent potential disruptions in coverage gained under the Affordable Care Act, such as for those who benefit from subsidies for marketplace coverage. Finally, a more extensive replacement bill can then follow,” they write in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
The pair note there’s disagreement among Republicans about timing a replacement for the health care law, and Mr. Trump himself may want to preserve parts of it.
“These differences can be debated and resolved in the new Congress. But if repeal is successful, Republicans will be in a position to sort out those disagreements because of a carefully considered, and unfairly derided, strategy to keep ObamaCare on the political and policy agenda,” the gentlemen note.
TIME RUNNING OUT FOR OSS
World War II veteran and former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole is among the heavyweights supporting long-standing bipartisan legislation that would award the Congressional Gold Medal to members of the Office of Strategic Services, the heroic World War II predecessor of the CIA and U.S. special forces.
Sens. Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat, and Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican, introduced this bill in the Senate, where it was passed unanimously with 73 co-sponsors. The House bill has 320 co-sponsors — nearly 75 percent of the body’s members.
But the bill is languishing on Capitol Hill; pesky new rules requires a “waiver” to grant the award to a group, rather than an individual.
“The House has honored many other groups of World War II veterans, including the Doolittle Raiders, the Tuskegee Airmen and the 1st Special Service Force. There is no reason a waiver should not be granted for the OSS bill, too,” Mr. Dole wrote in a vigorous op-ed for Military Times. “Time is running out to pass this bill before Congress adjourns. If the gavel falls before the bill is passed, some of the greatest and unrecognized heroes of World War II will never be honored for their service. This would be a travesty.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 82 percent of U.S. servicewomen and female veterans say the entertainment industry does not portray them in an accurate and balanced way.
• 80 percent say they would recommend a career in their branch of service to other women.
• 68 percent would like the public to known more about their leadership and contributions.
• 66 percent say the media does not offer coverage on them that is accurate and balanced.
• 43 percent say they have faced personal challenges regarding assignment opportunities; 36 percent cite gender bias.
Source: A Service Women’s Action Network survey of 1,000 U.S. servicewomen and female veterans conducted Oct. 1-Nov. 11.
• Squawks and murmurs to jharper@washingtontimes.com.
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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