It’s Friday the thirteenth, and it’s also the day President Trump will announce his administration’s new Iran policy. That will come in a speech from the White House at 12:45 p.m., and Trump is expected to announce he will decertify that the sanctions relief afford to Iran under the nuclear deal. This wouldn’t undo the deal—certification is a provision of a federal law governing sanctions relief—but it would put the administration on a path to either renegotiating the terms of the deal or, eventually, scrapping it—though Congress will now also have a say in the matter.
I say “expected to” because it’s not a guarantee Trump will follow through on what his top advisers and Cabinet members are preparing for. At the previous certification deadline in July, Trump made a day-of reversal before switching back, as Steve Hayes and I reported in this week’s issue:
The White House has released a “fact sheet” documenting the new Iran strategy, which it says is “ the culmination of nine months of deliberation with Congress and our allies on how to best protect American security.” Here are what the administration considers its “core elements” of the new strategy:
- The United States’ new Iran strategy focuses on neutralizing the Government of Iran’s destabilizing influence and constraining its aggression, particularly its support for terrorism and militants.
- We will revitalize our traditional alliances and regional partnerships as bulwarks against Iranian subversion and restore a more stable balance of power in the region.
- We will work to deny the Iranian regime—and especially the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—funding for its malign activities, and oppose IRGC activities that extort the wealth of the Iranian people.
- We will counter threats to the United States and our allies from ballistic missiles and other asymmetric weapons.
- We will rally the international community to condemn the IRGC’s gross violations of human rights and its unjust detention of American citizens and other foreigners on specious charges.
- Most importantly, we will deny the Iranian regime all paths to a nuclear weapon.
One thing noticeably missing from the administration’s new strategy memo? A decision to designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
Mark It Down—“I would just offer to you that although I read it all the time pretty consistently, I’m not quitting today . . . So unless things change, I’m not quitting, I’m not getting fired, and I don’t think I’ll fire anyone tomorrow.” —John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, who conducted Thursday’s press briefing, October 12, 2017
On Thursday President Trump signed an executive order—flanked by sometime-rival Rand Paul—instructing health-insurance regulators to loosen rules on the short-term insurance market.
“It directs the Department of Health and Human Services, the Treasury, and the Department of Labor to take action to increase competition, increase choice, and increase access to lower-priced, high-quality healthcare options,” Trump said at the signing. “First, we aim to allow more small businesses to form associations to buy affordable and competitive health insurance. This would open up additional options for employers to purchase the health plans their workers want. I’m also directing Secretary Acosta to consider ways to expand these associations and these healthcare plans all across state lines.”
Writing at National Review Online, Yuval Levin says this executive order is a “significant” step for providing relief for those in the individual insurance market who face steep hikes if market goes into a down spiral.
Obamacare Watch—Meanwhile, Politico reported the Trump administration is preparing to cut out the monthly subsidies paid to insurance companies who cover Obamacare exchange plans. “Trump has threatened for months to cut off the payments, deriding them as a “bailout” for insurers. While Republican lawmakers complained the subsidies were never properly appropriated by Congress, many were wary of ending them suddenly,” writes Politico.
In response, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders released a statement late Thursday night confirming the story. “Based on guidance from the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services has concluded that there is no appropriation for cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies under Obamacare,” reads the statement in part. “In light of this analysis, the Government cannot lawfully make the cost-sharing reduction payments.”
Goodell’s Good Wife—National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell doesn’t have a lot of fans these days, but at least he’s got an important defender in his corner: his wife and her heretofore anonymous Twitter account. The Wall Street Journal has the scoop:
Against “Data”-Based Redistricting—Take a few minutes to read a WEEKLY STANDARD editorial on the “gobbledygook” behind the latest effort by Democrats to shore up their electoral deficiencies outside of urban areas. The solution? Fixing partisan gerrymandering through the magic of political science. The editors have a different view:
“Gerrymandering is no guarantee: Partisan redistricting is mostly guesswork on the part of people with outdated and incomplete data. Nobody understands why voters plump this way or that way in an election, and nobody can predict it with anything close to accuracy. Even after the election’s over, claims by pollsters and consultants to understand what happened consist mainly of blind conjecture and pretentious balderdash. ‘Data analytics,’ remember, told Hillary Clinton’s campaign she could count on Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania,” write the editors.
Read the whole thing here.
Song of the Day—”Join Together” by the Who.
