To Your Health: House Republican leaders say they have the necessary votes to pass their healthcare bill and they’re putting it up for a vote today. They wouldn’t do it if they weren’t certain.

Some Republicans who were against the bill were won over by the addition of an $8 billion provision to help people with pre-existing conditions pay for their health insurance. Under the Affordable Care Act Republicans want to replace, insurance for people with pre-existing conditions is guaranteed, but the new law would put them in high-risk pools.

  LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik describes the federally subsidized high-risk pools as a scam and says, “Like every program for the economically or socially needy, a federally-funded high-risk program would be first on the chopping block every time a House or Senate committee decided that government needed to shrink.”

Republican leaders insist that Obamacare is collapsing, which it is not, but it is troubled in some states. Iowa’s last Obamacare insurer is threatening to pull out, but that’s in part because of the uncertainty created by healthcare politics. A lot of players in the health industry hate the replacement bill, and some Senate Republicans aren’t thrilled either. Passage in the House doesn’t guarantee that it will get through the Senate.

 Mildly Nauseous: FBI Director James Comey told a Senate committee that the thought that he may have influenced the outcome of the 2016 election makes him “mildly nauseous.” Comey said he revealed the re-opening of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email because to do otherwise would have been an “act of concealment.”

“Concealment, in my view, would have been catastrophic,” Comey said, and he told the senators that given the same situation today, he would do the same thing.

California Democrat Diane Feinstein castigated Comey for revealing the investigation without knowing whether a newly discovered set of emails would lead anywhere. In the end, they didn’t and Comey’s announcement is widely believed to have damaged Clinton’s prospects.

No Problem: President Trump met with President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday and declared that his administration will get peace in the Middle East. They’ve been at war over there since World War II. Trump said, “It is something that I think is frankly, maybe, not as difficult as people have thought over the years.”

So easy.

I Like to be in America: The government of Puerto Rico has moved to enter bankruptcy, making it the largest government entity in US history to seek refuge in court from its creditors.

Puerto Rico has been in recession since 2006 and its government has borrowed to keep up with operating expenses. The island is about $120 billion in debt.

Death Be Not Proud: The president of the University of Texas at Austin has written to the University a touching letter about the student who was killed in a knife attack Monday.

Gregory Fenves wrote about speaking with the parents of Harrison Brown. “They told me about Harrison’s passion for music and how he loved being a Longhorn. They told me that he had an incredible voice, and after speaking with housing staff, I learned that many in Jester East got to know him by hearing his music from a distance, then stopping to listen. Harrison sang everywhere — in stairwells, bedrooms and hallways. His voice was magical, and his gifts and talents touched students throughout campus.
Just last week, a fellow Jester East resident tweeted, ‘There is a guy that always sings U smile…when I pass by & it makes me smile.’ That was Harrison Brown.”

Made in Heaven: “Morning Joe” co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who less than a year ago were denying they had a thing going, got engaged during a weekend in Paris. They have on-air chemistry and conflict. He’s a Republican and she’s a Democrat. The engagement came just days after Joe called Mika “snotty” and “rude” for interrupting him. They’re both divorced … twice for Joe. Stay tuned.

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