Apr 11, 2017

Freedom Caucus member wants to go bipartisan

Carlos Osorio / AP

File this under "did not see this coming": Rep. Justin Amash, who has called Trumpcare "Obamacare 2.0," told a town hall meeting last night that the best fix for the health care system would be bipartisan. Here's what he told the audience in Cedar Springs, Michigan, per MLive:

"Let's start over in a bipartisan way ... We should have worked with Democrats from the very beginning. At the end of the day, you cannot pass legislation ... that affects so many people and not have it be bipartisan."

Why it matters:

It shows how unpredictable the Trumpcare opponents can be — and hard for GOP leaders to satisfy. (Amash argues that the GOP bill didn't repeal enough of Obamacare, which could make it difficult to find common ground with Democrats.)

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Dave Lawler

10 mins ago - World

Nuclear free-for-all: The arms control era may be ending

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

The mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki have remained unreplicated for 75 years in part because the U.S. and Soviet Union — after peering over the ledge into nuclear armageddon — began to negotiate.

Why it matters: The arms control era that began after the Cuban Missile Crisis may now be coming to a close. The next phase could be a nuclear free-for-all.

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Rashaan Ayesh

2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Pelosi, Schumer demand postmaster general reverse USPS cuts ahead of election

Schumer and Pelosi. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Thursday calling for the recent Trump appointee to reverse operational changes to the U.S. Postal Service that "threaten the timely delivery of mail" ahead of the 2020 election.

Why it matters: U.S. mail and election infrastructure are facing a test like no other this November, with a record-breaking number of mail-in ballots expected as Americans attempt to vote in the midst of a pandemic.

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Alison Snyder

2 hours ago - Science

CRISPR co-discoverer on the gene editor's pandemic push

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos: Brian Ach/Getty Images for Wired and BSIP/UIG via Getty Images

The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating the development of CRISPR-based tests for detecting disease — and highlighting how gene-editing tools might one day fight pandemics, one of its discoverers, Jennifer Doudna, tells Axios.

Why it matters: Testing shortages and backlogs underscore a need for improved mass testing for COVID-19. Diagnostic tests based on CRISPR — which Doudna and colleagues identified in 2012, ushering in the "CRISPR revolution" in genome editing — are being developed for dengue, Zika and other diseases, but a global pandemic is a proving ground for these tools that hold promise for speed and lower costs.