1/ Trump pledged to have a plan “far better than Obamacare� if the Supreme Court strikes down the entire Affordable Care Act, saying “I understand health care now.� Trump did not provided details about what health care plan would replace the ACA, but reiterated his baseless claim that the Republican Party will now be the “party of great health care.� A district judge in Texas ruled that the entire law was unconstitutional after Trump’s tax law eliminated the Affordable Care Act’s individual insurance mandate penalty. Yesterday, the Justice Department took the position that the entire ACA should be overturned. The ACA insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansion provide health care coverage from more than 20 million people. (Politico / CBS News / New York Times / NBC News)

2/ House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Trump he disagrees with the administration’s attempt to get the entire Affordable Care Act thrown out in court. McCarthy reportedly told Trump that the decision made no sense without a plan in place to replace the ACA heading in the 2020 elections. Republican officials are privately blaming Mick Mulvaney, domestic policy chief Joe Grogan, and acting director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought for engineering Trump’s new position. (Axios / Washington Post)

3/ Betsy DeVos defended her proposal to eliminate $17.6 million in federal funding for the Special Olympics, calling it a “difficult decisions� because she thinks “that the Special Olympics is an awesome organization,� but “the federal government cannot fund every worthy program, particularly ones that enjoy robust support from private donations.� About 272,000 children would be affected from the funding cut to the Special Olympics. Overall, DeVos’ proposed budget would eliminate 29 programs covering arts, civics and literacy for an annual savings of $6.7 billion – or about a 12% cut to the Education Department’s budget. Meanwhile, DeVos has proposed creating a $5 billion federal voucher system for private schools. It was the third year in a row that DeVos called for eliminating funding for Special Olympic events at schools. Devos blamed the media and some members of Congress for “falsehoods and fully misrepresenting the facts.� (