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What we’re looking for on the debate stage tonight
President Biden and former President Trump face off tonight for the first time this election cycle. While there is a long list of potential debate topics before them, here are a few things we at D.C. Diagnosis are hoping to hear more about this evening:
- Medicare: Former President Trump in particular has spun himself in circles about whether he’d be open to cuts to Medicare (though the program’s insolvency date was pushed further out in the most recent estimates). This could be a venue to at least nail down his current answer.
- Drug pricing: Both candidates have sparred over taking credit for reducing insulin costs for seniors recently. President Biden has laid out ambitious expansions to the Inflation Reduction Act’s provisions in his State of the Union address, and it would be telling which of Trump’s ideas he might choose to resurrect.
- Reproductive rights: We know where Biden stands and we know Trump backs states’ rights (except when they go “too far”). But between the recent mifepristone decision and the federal government’s clash with Idaho’s abortion law, where does Trump draw his line
- Anything Obamacare: Trump has railed repeatedly against the Affordable Care Act, but denied he’s looking to revisit the repeal fight. Biden will want to emphasize the law’s popularity and repeal-and-replace’s total failure.
- Their fortitude: Looming over tonight’s debate is the growing — and longtime — conversation about both candidates’ mental acuity given their age. A live debate appearance will offer both candidates a test of their ability to think on their feet.
Biden notches another SCOTUS win or two
A win? The Supreme Court appears set to allow emergency abortions in Idaho, delivering the Biden administration another, albeit narrow, win for abortion rights after the mifepristone decision earlier this month. But the court’s inadvertently posted 6-3 decision essentially dismisses Idaho’s lawsuit without tackling the thornier dilemma of state and federal clashes over abortion policy (though it’s not clear if this is the final version).
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