Despite a strong showing by Donald Trump in Illinois’ 17thCongressional District, local Republicans still see defeating Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, D-Moline, as a tough task.
I wrote about it for Illinois Radio Network/Illinois News Network. Check out the story here.
Michael Koolidge was kind enough to invite me to fill in on his show again this week, which gave me a great excuse to catch up with some of my favorite guests.
I’ve been talking with Phil Kerpen of American Commitment for years about Obamacare, both before and after it became law. Now, with Republicans putting forward their own plan, Phil and I talked about what’s in and out of the bill and whether it’s a marked improvement from the status quo:
Tim Alberta is one of the very best writers/reporters in D.C. and also a pretty darn good radio guest. He was frequently on my old show in Rockford and still makes an appearance with Hugh Hewitt on a weekly basis.
Tim is in between jobs at the moment, but in a good way. He just left his spot at National Review and will be starting as national political corespondent at Politico Magazine in the next week or so.
Tim was visiting Hillsdale’s campus this week and I grabbed him for an interview. Below we talk about his final piece for NR, a look at how Republicans in the House and Senate will deal with a President Trump and if any branch will serve as a check on ideas that might not meet the definition of “conservative.”
I’m filling in this week on The Michael Koolidge Show and took the opportunity to connect with an old friend, Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas. Sessions also serves as part of the leadership team in the House as Rules Committee Chairman.
I struck up a friendship with the Congressman while he was Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and in the midst of helping to engineer the big GOP wave election of 2010. A part of that effort was in Illinois’ 17th Congressional District, where Bobby Schilling would go on to victory. Sessions joined the show often and just hasn’t stopped since. He always does well enough to be invited back.
This time we talked about how the House leadership team plans to work with President Trump. Specifically, we discussed the path forward on health care reform. Last May, Sessions introduced the only bicameral piece of legislation to overhaul Obamacare with Senator Bill Cassidy. It’s called The World’s Greatest Healthcare Plan. Really, it is. You can read about it here.
During the interview we also touched on tax reform and how the GOP can avoid the electoral wipeout that greeted Democrats after they pushed forward a number of liberal proposals from 2008-2010.
Here’s the full audio:
Scot Bertram 