The White House’s new Medicare salvo

By Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels and Ryan Lizza

With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross

LATEST SANTOS WHOPPER — Rep. GEORGE SANTOS (R-N.Y.) falsely claimed during his congressional campaign that he was a producer on the infamous Broadway musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” per Bloomberg’s Laura Davison.

The White House is singling out a bill just filed by freshman Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) that would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — President JOE BIDEN and the White House are launching a new offensive against House Republicans, blasting the party for eyeing Medicare cuts in a bid to paint the GOP as trying to harm seniors.

This morning, the White House will issue a release singling out a bill just filed by freshman Rep. ANDY OGLES (R-Tenn.) that would repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. The White House notes that the Democratic bill allowed Medicare to negotiate lower drug costs, which AARP cheered as a “historic measure” that would save seniors money. It also limited annual out-of-pocket drug costs to $2,000 and capped co-pays for insulin at $35 for those on Medicare.

Repealing the bill, the White House says, would “provide a handout to Big Pharma” and “be one of the biggest Medicare benefit cuts in American history.” They’ll be releasing state-by-state data indicating how this would affect constituents in different areas.

The move comes in the context of the debt ceiling fight, with Democrats eager to highlight any suggestion inside the GOP that the party favors cuts to Medicare and Social Security in order to address the national debt. Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY has backed away from such ideas, suggesting he knows how toxic they could be with older voters his party relies on. But other GOP lawmakers — who note that Medicare in particular is the biggest single driver of budget deficits — haven’t given up.

White House statement: “At a time when the President is fighting to make our economy work from the bottom up and the middle out, House Republicans are trying to slash lifelines for middle class families on behalf of rich special interests,” said White House spokesperson ANDREW BATES. “Who on earth thinks that welfare for Big Pharma is worth selling out over a million seniors in their home state?”

Good Saturday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.

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THIS MORNING’S TOP READS …

1. WHO’S AFRAID OF RON DeSANTIS? Turns out, Democrats at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.: Bloomberg’s Nancy Cook and Christian Hall report this morning that “Biden allies privately worry that DeSantis’s record could appeal to the same set of independent, female or suburban voters who Biden needs to court to win.” He’s also almost half his age. “At 44, DeSantis offers a more energetic and youthful alternative to [DONALD] TRUMP, 76, and Biden, 80.” That’s why, as the pair write, the White House is already looking for ways to undercut him in case he runs and beats Trumpin a primary.

2. JORDAN’S SUBPOENA SALVO: House Judiciary Chair JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio) issued his first of what is likely to be many, many subpoenas yesterday. The Daily Caller’s Henry Rodgers scooped Jordan’s demand for records from Education Secretary MIGUEL CARDONA regarding a National School Boards Association letter calling for a federal crackdown on violent threats. Jordan also subpoenaed AG MERRICK GARLAND and FBI Director CHRISTOPHER WRAY for documents related to GOP allegations that officials “targeted” parents, Jordain Carney and Kyle Cheney report. Democrats say the probe is rooted in debunked conspiracy theories, but it will be an early test of the Biden administration’s oversight response.

3. SCOTUS ‘BURN BAGS’: CNN’s Ariane de Vogue has a rather eye-popping peek inside the Supreme Court’s lax security practices — with justices using personal emails for official business and other personnel leaving “burn bags” filled with sensitive documents open and unattended. Such embarrassing findings were not included in the 20-page report the court issued last month on the Dobbs opinion leak: “The report and the new revelations of weak protocols come as the court is trying to protect its own legitimacy after an embarrassing leak and allegations (prompted by the recent rash of high profile cases breaking along familiar ideological lines) that it has simply become another political branch.”

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PHOTO OF THE DAY

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro arrives at a Turning Point USA event at Trump National Doral Miami yesterday. Bolsonaro told Charlie Kirk he'll return to Brazil soon. | Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo

9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US

1. UP IN THE AIR: The Chinese surveillance balloon that postponed Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN’s Beijing trip could put a damper on the countries’ efforts to mend ties and lower the diplomatic temperature, Reuters’ Michael Martina, Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom report. On the flip side, the embarrassment for China could also give Blinken new leverage to extract concessions many had seen as unlikely, Phelim Kine and Nahal Toosi write. China’s response “suggests Beijing is in damage control mode.”

Still, as the issue ballooned into a top news story in the U.S., new comments from Beijing “suggested China’s leaders believed the Biden administration had blown the incident out of proportion,” NYT’s Edward Wong, Helene Cooper and Chris Buckley write. Bloomberg adds that the Biden White House initially hoped to keep the balloon news away from the public, until the Billings Gazette published a picture of it.

Meanwhile, a second Chinese spy balloon was spotted above Costa Rica, the Pentagon confirmed first to Alex Ward.

Important context: “The Chinese spy balloon floating over the continental United States generated deep concern on Capitol Hill in part because it came on the heels of a classified report to Congress that outlined incidents of American adversaries potentially using advanced technology to spy on the country,” NYT’s Julian Barnes and Edward Wong report this morning.

The Onion: “Nation Surrenders To Chinese Balloon”

2. TRUMP AND THE COURTS: It was a big day for the former president’s many lawsuits and investigations yesterday. A roundup of the latest developments:

• Revelations are emerging from former Manhattan prosecutor MARK POMERANTZ’s new book, “People vs. Donald Trump” ($29.99). He writes that he had planned a potentially wide-ranging criminal racketeering case and explored other charges against Trump, saying the former president was comparable only to JOHN GOTTI, per the NYT. “To rebut the claim that Trump believed his own ‘hype’ … we would have to show, and stress, that Donald Trump was not legally insane,” Pomerantz writes, per The Daily Beast. Pomerantz blames Manhattan DA ALVIN BRAGG for dragging his feet. But, but, but: A New York state prosecutors’ group said the book is an ethics violation, per WaPo.
  
• A federal judge tossed out the Trump 2020 campaign’s defamation lawsuit against WaPo, saying one piece had failed to evince “actual malice” and another was a protected opinion column, per Bloomberg.
  
• Trump and his lawyer ALINA HABBA suggested posting $1 million bond to appeal a judge’s $900,000 fine for suing HILLARY CLINTON in a case the judge deemed frivolous, per Bloomberg.
  
• Trump’s 2016 campaign agreed to a settlement with a former staffer over non-disclosure agreements, paying out nearly half a million dollars, per Bloomberg.

3. TOP-ED: NYT columnist Zeynep Tufekci, who’s often been right early about big things in the pandemic, has a new column to keep you up at night: The H5N1 strain of bird flu could turn into an even deadlier pandemic threatening humanity, she writes. “The world needs to act now … We have many of the tools that are needed, including vaccines. What’s missing is a sense of urgency and immediate action.” Tufekci calls for improvements to surveillance networks, the shutdown of mink farms, stepped-up testing capability and an expansion of efforts to create an mRNA vaccine.

4. THE ALL-BUT-REELECTION BID: Biden and Harris went to Philly yesterday in a preview of what their reelection campaign and messaging could look like. They highlighted infrastructure investments and efforts to improve clean water — and then arrived to a “pep rally-like atmosphere” at the DNC meeting, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jonathan Tamari and Julia Terruso report. “Democrats, we are delivering — actually we are delivering big time,” Harris declared.

“It’s Biden or bust” for just about everyone at the DNC meeting in Philly, as Trump’s weakened stature helps Democrats fall in line behind their standard-bearer, NYT’s Lisa Lerer, Reid Epstein and Katie Glueck report.

Happening today: “Democrats set to shake up start of 2024 presidential primary,” by AP’s Will Weissert in Philadelphia

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Learn more about API’s plan to Make, Move and Improve American energy.

5. KNOWING KATHY CHUNG: “The longtime Biden aide at the center of classified documents furor,” by WaPo’s Matt Viser, Carol Leonnig and Tyler Pager: “Chung, who had a top-secret security clearance at the [end of Biden’s vice presidency], oversaw a small team and helped pile the folders into boxes — not sifting through them, but making sure they were quickly stowed in about a dozen containers to be carted away … The move [to join Biden’s team] would launch Chung into the upper reaches of American politics and make her among Biden’s most trusted aides. She dealt with some of the most sensitive aspects of his life, often working at the nexus of his relationship with his children and other members of his family.”

6. GENTLER JIM?: “From MAGA flamethrower to powerful committee chair: Jim Jordan’s effort to rebrand draws skepticism on Capitol Hill,” by CNN’s Annie Grayer, Sara Murray, Alayna Treene and Zachary Cohen: “Jordan allies have gone out of their way in recent weeks to claim the usually hyper-partisan attack dog wants to take a more methodical approach in turning up the heat on his primary target – the Biden Justice Department. … But around Washington, skepticism abounds.”

7. WRITING ON THE WALL?: “North Carolina Supreme Court will rehear redistricting, voter ID cases that GOP had lost,” by CNN’s Ariane de Vogue and Tierney Sneed: “The North Carolina Supreme Court, which flipped to a Republican majority with last year’s elections, said Friday it would rehear a redistricting case and a voter ID case.”

8. HOW WASHINGTON WORKS: “The Pentagon Saw a Warship Boondoggle. Congress Saw Jobs,” by NYT’s Eric Lipton in Jacksonville, Fla.: “A consortium of players with economic ties to the ships — led by a trade association whose members had just secured contracts worth up to $3 billion to do repairs and supply work on them — mobilized to pressure Congress to block the plan, with phone calls, emails and visits to Washington to press lawmakers to intervene. … Within weeks, lawmakers offered amendments to the 2023 Pentagon spending authorization law that prohibited the Navy from retiring four of the eight ships in Jacksonville and the one in San Diego.”

9. LOOK WHO’S TALKING: “House GOP embraces mainstream media after years of bashing ‘fake news,’” by WaPo’s Paul Kane: “On any given day now, the new GOP majority posts a half-dozen or more members on CNN and MSNBC — two networks that increasingly became no-go zones for conservative lawmakers in the Trumpian era of ‘fake news’ attacks. Republicans have appeared on streaming network news shows online and done interviews on those nightly news shows for cable.”

CLICKER — “The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics,” edited by Matt Wuerker — 15 funnies

Siers - Charlotte Observer

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Ryan Lizza:

— “The Logic Behind Biden’s Refusal to Negotiate the Debt Ceiling,” by The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein: “The president’s current posture on the issue has a history.”

— “When Hackers Hobbled Ireland’s Hospitals, They Took Themselves Down, Too,” by Ryan Gallagher in Bloomberg Businessweek: “A 2021 ransomware attack froze the country’s biggest health system, showing some cybercriminals the line they didn’t want to cross.”

— “In 1946, a Black Pilot Returned to the Cockpit After a Double Amputation,” Smithsonian Magazine: “Neal V. Loving, whose memoir will soon be released by Smithsonian Books, built his own planes, ran a flight school and conducted research for the Air Force.”

— “Off His Royal Tits,” by Andrew O’Hagan in the London Review of Books: “[Prince] Harry’s truth is a cartoon strip of saucy entertainments and shouty jeremiads masquerading as a critique of the establishment, and it simply couldn’t be more riveting.”

— “The Far-Right Bounty Hunter Behind the Explosive Popularity of ‘Died Suddenly,’” by Mother Jones’ Kiera Butler: “How Stew Peters parlayed conspiracy theories into viral documentaries and a massive following.”

— “When Law Enforcement Alone Can’t Stop the Violence,” by Alec MacGillis in The New Yorker: “Amid a murder crisis in America, community-based solutions have received a flood of funding. How effective are they?”

— “The Long Twilight of the Islamic Republic,” by Ali Vaez in Foreign Affairs: “Iran’s Transformational Season of Protest.”

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Jill Biden is going to the Super Bowl.

Mitch Daniels is the new namesake of Purdue’s business school.

SPOTTED: Donald Graham and George Will having dinner with their spouses at La Ferme.

IN MEMORIAM — “Allan A. Ryan, who hunted down Nazis hiding in America, dies at 77,” by WaPo’s Michael Rosenwald: “Mr. Ryan served as director of a Justice Department unit designated to find and expel anyone in the United States who had assisted the Nazis.”

WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE — Analysse Escobar has been hired by the VP’s office to work on public engagement. She most recently was White House liaison at HUD, and is a Biden campaign alum.

WHITE HOUSE DEPARTURE LOUNGE — Connolly Keigher is now senior adviser for strategic engagement in the director’s office of the Peace Corps. She most recently was director of presidential advance at the White House and a special assistant to the president.

TRANSITIONS — Isaiah Wartman and Luke Mahoney have launched a new digital firm, WAMA Strategies. Wartman runs the political and digital operation for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). Mahoney previously was chief of digital strategy at Olympic Media, and is an Elise Stefanik alum. … Colin Yokanovich is now legislative assistant for Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas). He previously was legislative correspondent for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). … Nick Fox is joining Stagwell to lead its risk and reputation unit. He previously was chief comms officer for Virgin Group.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Scott Kosanovich, a partner at Statecraft Digital and a Mike Bloomberg presidential campaign alum, and Adrienne Bogen, who recently served as senior adviser to the Florida Democratic Party, welcomed George Lawrence Bogen Kosanovich on Jan. 28. Pic

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Fed Chair Jerome Powell … Hunter Biden … Reps. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.) and Michael Guest (R-Miss.) … Adrienne Arsht … former VP Dan Quayle … CNN’s Shimon Prokupecz … Eric Garcetti … POLITICO’s Annie Rees and Mike Soraghan … Nicolle Wallace … John Czwartacki … Vox’s Sean Illing … Matt McDonald … DoD’s Ilan Goldenberg … Nissa Koerner … former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson … Robert Buckley … Susanna Billings … John LaBombard … Shantanu Tata … Eli Woerpel … Thad Inge of Van Scoyoc Associates … Zachary Mitchiner of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office … Seth Michaels of the Union of Concerned Scientists (44) … Dan Berger … Morgan Rako … CTV’s Will Dugan … Ann Liston … Taimoor Shah … retired Adm. Dennis Blair … Amelia Chassé Alcivar … Stan Settles of Sen. Bill Hagerty’s (R-Tenn.) office

THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here):

CNN “State of the Union”: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg … Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) … Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.). Panel: Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Jonah Goldberg, Karen Finney and David Urban.

NBC “Meet the Press”: Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) … Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) … Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Panel: Cornell Belcher, Lanhee Chen, Andrea Mitchell and Amy Walter.

Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures”: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) … Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) … Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) … Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) … John Ratcliffe.

CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) … Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) … Gary Cohn. Panel: Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Zach Nunn (R-Iowa), Summer Lee (D-Pa.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.).

ABC “This Week”: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg … Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) … New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu … retired Adm. Mike Mullen. Panel: Mary Bruce, Chris Christie, Donna Brazile and Jonathan Martin.

FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) … Jared Bernstein. Panel: Reince Priebus, Gianno Caldwell, Gillian Turner and Juan Williams.

MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) … Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) … Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas).

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Correction: Wednesday’s Playbook incorrectly stated the date of President Joe Biden's yearly physical.

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