memeorandum: I Did Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Workout. It Nearly Broke Me. (Ben Schreckinger/Politico)

4:10 PM ET, February 27, 2017

Top Items:

Eun Kyung Kim / TODAY.com:

George W. Bush opens up on Trump's war with the media, Russia and travel ban — In his first in-depth interview since Donald Trump's inauguration, former President George W. Bush gave his take on the current commander in chief's first month in office, addressing Trump's attack on the media …

Discussion: The Hill, NPR, Western Journalism, Fox News Insider, Talking Points Memo, Politicus USA, Washington Post, AOL, Hot Air, The Week, IJR, TheBlaze, The Slot and Althouse

Louis Nelson / Politico:

Bush breaks with Trump, calls media ‘indispensable to democracy’ — Former President George W. Bush said Monday that the media is “indispensable to democracy,” a break from the position of his fellow Republican, President Donald Trump, who has called the press “the enemy of the American people.”

Discussion: Salon, ABC News, Associated Press, Shakesville and Hullabaloo, more at Mediagazer »

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Trump: 'I haven't called Russia in 10 years' … President Trump on Monday appeared to dismiss a question about his aides' alleged ties to Russia by saying he hasn't spoken to the country in a decade. — “I haven't called Russia in 10 years,” he told a reporter who asked him whether …

Discussion: ABC News, Politico and RedState

Jeff Poor / Breitbart:
Bush 43 on Trump Travel Ban: ‘A Bedrock of Our Freedom Is the Right to Worship Freely’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Madeline Conway / Politico:

Trump: ‘Nobody knew that health care could be so complicated’ — President Donald Trump on Monday claimed that “nobody knew that health care could be so complicated,” and again flirted with the idea that Republicans should let Obamacare “implode” so that Democrats shoulder the blame.

Discussion: Political Wire and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Wall Street Journal:

GOP's New Plan to Repeal Obamacare: Dare Fellow Republicans to Block Effort — GOP lawmakers gamble that setting bill in motion to strike Affordable Care Act will help break through intraparty disagreements — WASHINGTON—Republican leaders are betting that the only way for Congress …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Mother Jones, ACASignups.net, The Week, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, CNBC and Washington Post

MJ Lee / CNN:

Freedom Caucus chair would vote against draft Obamacare repeal bill — Trump: health care is ‘unbelievably complex’ — Washington (CNN)Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told CNN on Monday that he will vote against a draft of the GOP Obamacare repeal bill that was leaked last week.

Discussion: Fox17 and KFOR-TV

Matthew Yglesias / Vox:
Trump says “nobody knew that health care could be so complicated”

Discussion: Daily Kos, ACASignups.net, The Week and Axios

Oren Cass / National Review:
No, Obamacare Has Not Saved American Lives

Discussion: Instapundit

Tierney Sneed / Talking Points Memo:
Trump: ‘Nobody Knew That Health Care Could Be So Complicated’

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

CBS News:
Ohio Gov. Kasich says House conservatives may cause “problem” passing Obamacare replacement

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Axios and BizPac Review

Heather R. Higgins / Wall Street Journal: To End ObamaCare, Be Bold

Axios:

Exclusive: Spicer arranged CIA, GOP intelligence push-back — White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer personally picked up the phone and connected outside officials with reporters to try to discredit a New York Times article about Trump campaign aides' contact with Russia …

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Sean Spicer is losing his grip — Never let it be said that President Trump and his underlings don't work hard, especially when it comes to initiatives aimed at smearing and stymieing the White House press corps. Let's look at this crew's throughput over just the past three days.

Discussion: IJR, Hit & Run, Fox News, Politico, Raw Story, Vox, The Federalist, The Root, Washington Free Beacon, Washington Examiner, The Week, BizPac Review and CNN, more at Mediagazer »

Karoun Demirjian / Washington Post:
House Intelligence chairman denies evidence of Trump team's ties to Russia

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, emptywheel, Daily Kos, Mother Jones, Mediaite and Politico

Bloomberg:

Trump to Propose 10% Defense Increase in Budget Plan, Aides Say — Officials say other discretionary programs to face cuts — Mnuchin said Sunday that entitlement programs won't be touched — President Donald Trump will propose boosting defense spending by $54 billion in his first budget plan …

Discussion: Vox, The Daily Caller, Reuters and Axios

Abby Phillip / Washington Post:
Trump to propose 10 percent spike in defense spending, massive cuts to other agencies

Discussion: Bloomberg, ThinkProgress, Wall Street Journal and Common Dreams

Steve Holland / Reuters:
Trump seeks ‘historic’ increase of 9 percent in U.S. military's budget

Discussion: Western Journalism and Eduwonk

Jeremy Herb / Politico:
White House calls for $54B bump in defense spending, sharp domestic cuts

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

New York Times:
Trump to Ask for Sharp Increases in Military Spending, Officials Say

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Reuters, Politico, Fox News, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, The Resurgent, Hot Air, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, RedState, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, TheBlaze, NBC News, Axios and Mother Jones

Variety:

Oscars: Australian Producer Jan Chapman Devastated by Mistaken In-Memoriam Photo — Another Oscars Gaffe: In Memoriam Video Included Photo of Living Woman — Leading Australian producer, Jan Chapman was “devastated” by another mistake in the Oscars telecast.

Discussion: TIME, Mediaite, AOL, Hot Air, The Guardian, Washington Post, TheBlaze, New York's PIX11, IJR, The Week, WCMH-TV, Fox News Insider, CBS Miami, 6abc.com and WREG-TV

Alice Ollstein / Talking Points Memo:

The Sessions Effect: Trump DOJ Reverses Course In Major Texas Voter ID Case — For the last six years, the Justice Department has sided with the citizens and civil rights groups fighting Texas' voter ID law, which a federal judge at one point found to be intentionally discriminatory against black and Latino voters.

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Monthly, RedState, The Daily Caller, Common Dreams and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Associated Press:
Lawyer: White House to no longer contest Texas' voter ID law

Discussion: Politico

USA Today:

Here's how the worst flub in Oscar history went down — Oscar got it wrong, wrong, soooo wrong. The presenters announced the wrong Best Picture; Moonlight was the winner, not La La Land. — It was the biggest, most embarrassing, most awkward mistake in the history of the Academy Awards …

Discussion: Washington Post and Taylor Marsh

James Poniewozik / New York Times:
Review: Politics and an Upset Finish in the Oscars Broadcast

Discussion: Snopes.com, Althouse, The Federalist, Political Wire, France 24 and Washington Post

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:

Donna Brazile: ‘I was scared’ — ATLANTA — Donna Brazile has been through a lot — but nothing like the last eight months. — More than taking over a Democratic National Committee in crisis, more than seeing the party collapse from cruising victory to crushing defeat all in one night …

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Hot Air and TheBlaze

Allison Sherry / Star Tribune:
New DNC chairman Perez wants to make Ellison ‘the face of the Democratic Party’

Discussion: National Review

Monica Davey / New York Times:

He's a Local Pillar in a Trump Town. Now He Could Be Deported. — WEST FRANKFORT, Ill. — Ask residents of this coal-mining crossroads about President Trump's decision to crack down on undocumented immigrants and most offer no protest. Mr. Trump, who easily won this mostly white southern Illinois county …

Discussion: Raw Story, Mediaite and Eschaton

Olivia Solon / The Guardian:

Scraping by on six figures? Tech workers feel poor in Silicon Valley's wealth bubble — But workers claim the high cost of living in the Bay Area has them feeling financially strained — didn't become a software engineer to be trying to make ends meet," said a Twitter employee in his early 40s who earns a base salary of $160,000.

Julie Kelly / The Federalist:

Why I've Decided To Break Up With Bill Kristol — The first political campaign I volunteered for was the Bush-Quayle race in 1992. I had graduated from college a few years earlier and had big dreams of someday being the White House press secretary (I'm still available!).

Timothy Noah / Politico:

Puzder says ‘tsunami of fake news’ defeated him — Former labor secretary nominee Andrew Puzder on Monday blamed “a tsunami of fake news” and a campaign by Democrats and the left for ending his nomination. — Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, which owns Hardee's and Carl's Jr. …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Soumya Karlamangla / Los Angeles Times:

With Obamacare in jeopardy, California considers going it alone with ‘single-payer’ system — Michelle Klein-Hass, who lives in Panorama City, was newly insured under Medi-Cal when Obamacare expanded it in 2014, and is also a supporter of a single-payer system. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times)

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Instapundit