It does have the distinct smell of the broadband subsidies: "Give us money if you want us to roll out high-speed broadband."

"Thanks for the check. Oh, BTW, we decided high-speed broadband wasn't really working for us, so we nixed it."

Aetna deal goes through: "Shockingly, we're still losing money on exchanges, so we're not going to do that anymore. Thanks for letting that merger go through, though."