'BradCast' 10/19/2017 (Guest: Congressional reporter Alice Ollstein of TPM)
Donald Trump met with Puerto Rican Gov. Ricardo Rosello at the White House on Thursday, and gave himself a "10 out of 10" rating for his federal government's response to the disaster and ongoing humanitarian crisis following Hurricanes Maria and Irma striking the island of 3.5 U.S. citizens.\xa0 During the sometimes uncomfortable 30-minute press avail, Trump sought approval for the response from Rosello. The official death toll after Maria stands at 48, though independent analyses put the number at more than 400. The power grid is still down across the vast majority of the island, and many are still struggling for fresh running water, though CNN offers some good news today regarding the many desperate citizens who had been drinking from wells at toxic Superfund sites. Then, following Trump's announcement late last week that he was cutting off subsidy payments mandated by the Affordable Care Act (or 'ObamaCare') to help cover out-of-pocket health care expenses for low-income Americans, a bi-partisan agreement was struck in the U.S. Senate to pay those Cost-Sharing Reductions(CSR) subsidies. Trump lauded the deal announced between Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) on Tuesday, but has flip-flopped on that support in the 48 hours since. We're joined by TPM's Congressional reporter ALICE OLLSTEIN on Capitol Hill today for the latest on the measure, now supported by some 24 U.S. Senators from both parties, and what it would actually do; how members are reacting to Trump's roller-coaster responses to it; how each party is attempting to sell the bill to its members; and whether GOP leadership will even allow the legislation to come to the floor for a vote, much less whether it can be passed by the Senate or the even more rabidly-opposed right-wing members of U.S. House. Finally, Desi Doyen joins us for the latest 'Green News Report' on the new GOP scheme to allow drilling in the pristine Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to export oil to China; updates on the wildfires in CA and storm disasters in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, and some very good news indeed regarding electric vehicles...at least in Europe.