On Thursday, while Office of National Drug Control Policy director Michael Botticelli was making an appeal on behalf of President Obama for $1.1 billion in funding to fight the country’s opioid and heroin epidemic, the president himself continued to blur the line between elected office and reality TV by teaming up with rapper Macklemore and MTV, the reality show network once known for playing music videos.
Honored to be at @WhiteHouse with @MTV to talk to @POTUS about opioid addiction. Really excited for this project. pic.twitter.com/feb7AfoHqn
— “SHADOW” OUT NOW (@macklemore) May 12, 2016
It was just short of a month ago that President Obama met with a host of rappers and musicians at the White House, including Busta Rhymes, Common, J. Cole, Ludacris, Nicki Minaj, Alicia Keys, Janelle Monae, Chance the Rapper, DJ Khaled, Wale, Pusha T, and Rick Ross, to enlist their help in furthering one of his many No. 1 priorities, criminal justice reform. It looks like Macklemore will have to do the heavy lifting on this one himself.
In addition to whatever the president is doing with Macklemore, his administration will be holding Twitter chat Friday afternoon to discuss the opioid epidemic.
Join us tomorrow at 3pm ET for a Twitter chat on the need for additional funding to address the #OpioidEpidemic pic.twitter.com/K3wyW1Bc1H
— US Drug Policy NARA (@ONDCP44) May 13, 2016
On closer inspection, it looks as though the White House might be stinging from a judge’s ruling that the president’s funding of “cost sharing reduction payments” through Obamacare is unconstitutional, as Congress holds the power of the purse. The original Tweet announcing the online chat, which has since been deleted, called for congressional action on funding, not additional funding:
It looks like someone’s leaving the door open …
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