The President vs. the Presidency - The New York Times · 10/12/2017  · times he tweets while...

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WASHINGTON — Around 5:30 eachmorning, President Trump wakes andtunes into the television in the WhiteHouse’s master bedroom. He flips to CNN

for news, moves to “Fox& Friends” for comfortand messaging ideas,and sometimes watchesMSNBC’s “MorningJoe” because, friendssuspect, it fires him up

for the day.Energized, infuriated — often a gumbo of

both — Mr. Trump grabs his iPhone. Some-times he tweets while propped on his pillow,according to aides. Other times he tweetsfrom the den next door, watching anothertelevision. Less frequently, he makes hisway up the hall to the ornate Treaty Room,

with 60 advisers, associates, friends andmembers of Congress.

For other presidents, every day is a testof how to lead a country, not just a faction,balancing competing interests. For Mr.Trump, every day is an hour-by-hour battlefor self-preservation. He still relitigates lastyear’s election, convinced that the investi-gation by Robert S. Mueller III, the specialcounsel, into Russia’s interference is a plotto delegitimize him. Color-coded mapshighlighting the counties he won were hungon the White House walls.

Before taking office, Mr. Trump told topaides to think of each presidential day as anepisode in a television show in which hevanquishes rivals. People close to him esti-mate that Mr. Trump spends at least fourhours a day, and sometimes as much astwice that, in front of a television, some-

sometimes dressed for the day, sometimesstill in night clothes, where he begins his of-ficial and unofficial calls.

As he ends his first year in office, Mr.Trump is redefining what it means to bepresident. He sees the highest office in theland much as he did the night of his stun-ning victory over Hillary Clinton — as aprize he must fight to protect every wakingmoment, and Twitter is his Excalibur. De-spite all his bluster, he views himself less asa titan dominating the world stage than amaligned outsider engaged in a struggle tobe taken seriously, according to interviews

President Trump’s difficult adjustment to the office, some close to him say, stems from an unrealistic expectation of its powers.DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

The President vs. the PresidencyIn Daily Battle, Seeking To Bend Job to His Will

This article is by Maggie Haberman, GlennThrush and Peter Baker.

Continued on Page 26

TRUMP’S WAY

A White HouseDisrupted

Having health insurance is sup-posed to save you money on yourprescriptions. But increasingly,consumers are finding that isn’tthe case.

Patrik Swanljung found this outwhen he went to fill a prescriptionfor a generic cholesterol drug. InMay, Mr. Swanljung handed hisMedicare prescription card to thepharmacist at his local Walgreensand was told that he owed $83.94for a three-month supply.

Alarmed at that price, Mr.Swanljung went online and foundBlink Health, a start-up, offeringthe same drug — generic Crestor— for $45.89.

It had struck a better deal thandid his insurer, UnitedHealthcare.“It’s completely ridiculous,” saidMr. Swanljung, 72, who lives inAnacortes, Wash.

In an era when drug prices haveignited public outrage and insur-ers are requiring consumers toshoulder more of the costs, peopleare shocked to discover they cansometimes get better deals thantheir own insurers. Behind theseemingly simple act of buying abottle of pills, a host of players —drug companies, pharmacies, in-surers and pharmacy benefitmanagers — are taking a cut of theprofits, even as consumers are leftto fend for themselves, critics say.

Although there are no nation-

wide figures to track how oftenconsumers could have gotten abetter deal on their own, one in-dustry expert estimated that up to10 percent of drug transactions in-volve such situations. If true na-tionwide, that figure could total asmany as 400 million prescriptionsa year. The system has become socomplex that “there’s no chancethat a consumer can figure it outwithout help,” said the expert, Mi-chael Rea, chief executive of RxSavings Solutions, whose com-pany is paid by employers to helpthem lower workers’ drug costs.

One Way to Slash Drug Prices: Leave Insurance Card at Home

By CHARLES ORNSTEIN and KATIE THOMAS

A website offered a better dealon a generic cholesterol drug.

EVAN McGLINN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 24

WASHINGTON — Census ex-perts and public officials are ex-pressing growing concerns thatthe bedrock mission of the 2020census — an accurate and trust-worthy head count of everyone inthe United States — is imperiled,with worrisome implications.

Preparations for the count al-ready are complicated by a seachange in the census itself: Forthe first time, it will be conductedlargely online instead of by mail.

But as the Census Bureauramps up its spending and workforce for the 2020 count, it is sad-dled with problems. Its two top ad-ministrative posts are filled byplaceholders. Years of underfund-ing by Congress and cost over-runs on the digital transition haveforced the agency to pare back itspreparations, including abandon-ing two of the three trial runs ofthe overhauled census process.

Civil liberties advocates alsofear that the Trump administra-tion is injecting political consider-ations into the bureau, a rigidlynonpartisan agency whose popu-lation count will be the basis forredrawing congressional andstate legislative districts in theearly 2020s. And there is broadagreement that the administra-tion’s aggressive enforcement ofimmigration policies will make iteven harder to reach minorities,undocumented immigrants andothers whose numbers have longbeen undercounted.

Taken together, some expertssay, those issues substantially

ACCURACY AT RISKAS CENSUS SHIFTSTO ONLINE COUNT

POLITICS MAY ENCROACH

2 Practice Runs Canceledat Agency Saddled by

Underfunding

By MICHAEL WINES

Continued on Page 20

JERUSALEM — This is a tensecity on a good day.

You feel it behind the wheel:The traffic signals turn red andyellow to alert a coming green.Hesitate a half-second before ac-celerating? A honking horn.Schoolgirls gesture at motoristsas they step into a crosswalk, fin-gertips bunched and faces scowl-ing: Will you wait, or what?

You see it in the crowding:Overstuffed apartments spillingonto one another, in teeming Pal-estinian neighborhoods, and inghetto-like ultra-Orthodox en-claves, a few blocks apart on ei-ther side of the Green Line, thepre-1967 boundary with the WestBank.

You hear it in the way peopletalk — “The Arabs,” “The Jews” —about people with whom theyhave been sentenced to share atiny patch of soil atop a ridge withno strategic value, over which theworld has been battling for thou-sands of years, and negotiating onand off for decades, with no end insight.

The world knows Jerusalem bythe Old City and its Golden Dome,its ancient wall from the time ofHerod, its Holy Sepulcher, itsrough-hewed stones flattered bybrilliant sunlight.

But Jerusalem is not just itspostcard vistas. A pilgrimage isnot the same as living here. Theday-in, day-out friction can bedraining. And when the conflict

abs make the most of.And the Israeli-Palestinian con-

flict, too, builds up a longer-termpressure, one that periodicallythreatens to burst out in episodesof violence.

With President Trump’s recog-nition of Jerusalem as Israel’s cap-ital roiling the West Bank andGaza, the city was braced for its

community. There’s no difference— we’re one country — but it’s Is-raeli Arabs, or Palestinians, or Is-raeli Jews.”

For Jerusalemites, stress issomething to learn to live with. Itbuilds up, day by day, culminatingin the release and rest of the Sab-bath — a one-day weekend that re-ligious Jews build their livesaround, and secular Jews and Ar-

bubbles up, even natives canquestion why they persist.

“We all believe there’s some-thing sacred in this city, but it’s toodifficult,” said Tomer Aser, 35, wholives in Beit Hanina, in East Jeru-salem. “You feel like you’re livingin jail here. The people are sotense. And you feel yourself sepa-rated: You have to be with eitherthe Israeli community or the Arab

Across Jerusalem, an Inescapable Tension, Day In and Day OutBy DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Israeli policemen chasing Palestinian youths during a clash on Friday in the Old City in Jerusalem.URIEL SINAI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page 16

In most places, a dollar is a dol-lar. But in the tax code envisionedby Republicans, the amount youmake may be less important thanhow you make it.

Consider two chefs workingside by side for the same cateringcompany, doing the same job, forthe same hours and the samemoney. The only difference is thatone is an employee, the other anindependent contractor.

Under the Republican plans,one gets a tax break and the otherdoesn’t.

That’s because for the first timesince the United States adoptedan income tax, a higher rate wouldbe applied to employee wages andsalaries than to income earned byproprietors, partnerships andclosely held corporations.

The House and Senate billsvary in detail, but both end up link-ing tax rates to a whole new set ofcharacteristics like ownership,day-to-day level of involvement,organizational structure or evenoccupation. These rules, mostlyuntethered from income level,could raise or lower tax bills byhundreds or thousands of dollarsfor ordinary taxpayers and mil-lions of dollars for the largest eligi-ble businesses.

“We’ve never had a tax systemwhere wage earners were sub-stantially penalized” relative toother types of income earners,said Adam Looney, a senior fellowat the Brookings Institution and aformer Treasury Department offi-cial.

So a decorator, an artist or aplumber would have a higher taxrate than an owner of a decoratingbusiness, an art shop or a plumb-ing supply store. A corporate ac-countant could have a higher ratethan a partner in an accounting

Same Income,But Not Taxes,In G.O.P. Plans

Rates Vary Based onHow Money Is Made

By PATRICIA COHEN

Continued on Page 29

Issues such as health care and educa-tion have often been forgotten duringthe Alabama Senate race between DougJones and Roy S. Moore. PAGE 18

NATIONAL 18-30

Overshadowed in AlabamaThe Fingerling, a plastic monkey thatgrasps your finger, is the must-have giftof the holiday season, thanks to market-ing, pricing and, well, scarcity. PAGE 1

SUNDAY BUSINESS

The Making of 2017’s Hot Toy Frank Bruni PAGE 3

SUNDAY REVIEW

U(D547FD)v+,!"!/!=!_

The Marlins agreed to trade GiancarloStanton, the reigning N.L. most valu-able player, to New York, teaming himwith the potent Aaron Judge. PAGE 1

SPORTSSUNDAY

Yankees Add Fearsome SluggerThe Heisman Trophy was won byOklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield,a walk-on who became one of collegefootball’s best players. PAGE 8

SPORTSSUNDAY

From Walk-On to Nation’s Best

Late Edition

VOL. CLXVII . . . No. 57,807 © 2017 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2017

Today, clouds giving way to sun-shine, high 39. Tonight, patchyclouds, low 30. Tomorrow, sunshineand clouds, still colder than average,high 39. Weather map, Page A28.

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