| PRESENTED BY CONSERVATIVES FOR LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS | |
|
|
1. Donald Trump won Medicaid recipients in 2024
2. Republicans increasingly favor concessions to Russia
3. Elon Musk’s DOGE isn’t tarnishing Tesla’s U.S. reputation
4. What we’re tracking
5. What we’re reading |
|
|
1. TRUMP WON MEDICAID RECIPIENTS IN 2024
|
2024 presidential vote choice among Medicaid recipients: |
Yesterday the president reiterated that Republicans will not cut Medicaid benefits to pay for an extension of the party’s 2017 tax cuts, and our data helps explain why: Recipients of the program helped carry the president to his first popular-vote victory last November. Data from Morning Consult’s Audience platform shows 49% of Medicaid recipients who voted in 2024 backed Trump, compared with 47% who supported Harris. (By comparison, our data from 2021 shows Biden won the group by 19 percentage points in 2020.) Speaking on his podcast earlier this month, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said “a lot of MAGAs are on Medicaid,” tacitly urging the GOP to tread carefully with the program. Looking at our data another way, 18% of Trump voters said they use the federal insurance program designed to provide health coverage for low-income people — similar to the share of Harris voters who said the same. The Republican budget passed this week directs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid and Medicare, to find at least $880 billion in cuts, as The New York Times detailed. Notably, in echoing Trump’s previous comments on the subject, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told CNN last night that Medicaid funding will not be touched, though Republicans will “go into those programs and carve out the fraud, waste and abuse, and find efficiencies.” What that audit ends up amounting to in practice remains an open question, but if their response to the House GOP budget’s passage is any indication, Democrats will spend lots of time, energy and advertising dollars to try to make sure the public interprets any changes to the program as cuts. And while voters have proved willing to buck their self-interest in the past, as our data makes clear, any tinkering with Medicaid risks threatening the longer-term viability of the GOP’s new electoral coalition. |
|
|
2. REPUBLICANS INCREASINGLY FAVOR CONCESSIONS TO RUSSIA |
Shares of voters who said the United States should … |
As it looks to end the three-year war in Ukraine, the Trump administration has been more open than its predecessor to territorial concessions to Russia, and that appears to have filtered down to the Republican base. According to our latest survey, Republican voters are now more likely than not to say the United States should push Ukraine to let Russia keep some territory it gained after its full-scale invasion in 2022 than to oppose territorial concessions even if it means lengthening the war. This marks a notable shift from December, when voters of the president's party were more likely to say Ukraine should hold its ground. The rest of the country, however, has moved in the opposite direction as peace talks have geared up, which means the larger electorate remains nearly twice as likely to say that America should not push Ukraine to accept Vladimir Putin’s terms. For Trump, voter views about his handling of foreign affairs have declined more than any other issue except the economy. That’s come as what they report hearing about global matters and international affairs has become more negative since he took office, our weekly tracking shows. Foreign policy typically doesn’t weigh heavily on voter behavior, but this data is the latest reminder of Trump’s penchant for polarizing public opinion and increasing divides between his base and the rest of the country. And unfortunately for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the feedback loop between Trump and his base looks likely to leave him more isolated from America than ever. |
|
|
A MESSAGE FROM CONSERVATIVES FOR LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS |
Reject the Big Pharma Money Grab From the American People and Reject Government Mandates in the Private Health Care Market Big Pharma's self-serving agenda would increase health care costs for Americans to boost drug company profits. Their plan to undermine market-based incentives in the private health care market would also eliminate employers’ freedom and flexibility to design pharmacy benefits that work best for their needs and the needs of their employees and families. Lawmakers must protect solutions that secure savings and lower costs for Americans, including on prescription drugs. Reject the Big Pharma money grab. |
|
|
3. MUSK’S DOGE ISN’T TARNISHING TESLA’S U.S. REPUTATION |
Net favorability of Tesla among U.S. consumers compared with other major automotive brands |
As Tesla Motors’ brand has declined across Western Europe and Canada following Elon Musk’s elevation in Trump’s governing orbit, the picture is less clear here at home. As Sonnet Frisbie writes, “Tesla has seen its reputation decline relative to traditional automakers in the United States, but by a smaller amount than in Canada and Western Europe and without the sharp post-election drop.” The brand’s reputation saw a notable decline among Americans since the billionaire's acquisition of Twitter in early 2022, so there was less responsiveness to his controversial cost-cutting role. But more broadly, the share of consumers saying they want to buy an EV has declined in recent years, as Sonnet noted, “hyper competition is eroding Tesla’s first-mover advantage in the U.S. market, in addition to the other factors noted above.” In other words, Musk-related damage to Tesla’s brand may already have been baked in. The problem for Tesla now may not be its top boss’s political action but other competitors' growing market share and a declining interest in electric vehicles.
Read more from her here.
|
|
|
A MESSAGE FROM CONSERVATIVES FOR LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS |
Big Pharma opposed President Trump’s efforts to lower drug prices, and now they are at it again. Their latest scheme? A huge money grab – at least $22 billion in increased profits – that would undermine pay-for-performance incentives in the private market, driving up health care costs for American employers and families. President Trump and Congress have an opportunity to hold big drug companies accountable, increase competition and lower costs for the American people. Learn more. |
|
| Happening today As we mentioned in Tuesday’s newsletter, Trump is set to meet today with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as he presses for a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Politico’s headline this morning says, “Starmer warns Putin will ‘come again’ as he flies into Trump tornado.” And, Senate committees will meet to consider former Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination to be Labor secretary and to hear from a slate of Trump’s financial nominees, including Jonathan McKernan to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Trump address to Congress Trump is set to deliver an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday. These speeches had only mild effects on public opinion during Joe Biden’s term, but Trump’s showmanship offers a bigger chance to impact public opinion. Tariffs Trump is set to finally impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico next week. The "fentanyl-related” tariffs, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick dubbed them, have been on hold and could go into effect on March 4 depending on how the Trump administration sees the border issue going, per Axios. There may be another delay for separate "reciprocal" tariffs, while 25% levies on foreign steel and aluminum are expected as soon as March 12. Spending talks Lawmakers are turning their attention from Trump’s domestic policy agenda to the more urgent spending issue ahead of the March 14 shutdown deadline. According to Punchbowl News, Johnson is said to be pushing for a yearlong continuing resolution that includes anomalies to account for DOGE spending cuts, something that’s unlikely to get Democratic support. |
|
|
|
