June 18-23, 2017: Everybody Hates Congress - Trumpcare Going Nowhere

 

6/18/17: A poll shows that Congress has an approval rating of 12%. In other words, Trump isn’t the least popular denizen of the swamp. In no poll during the two-and-a-half years since the GOP took control of both houses of Congress has that esteemed body had an approval rating above 23%.

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6/19/17: Trump enjoys tweeting so much he decides to tweet the same message twice. He’s excited about the special election in Georgia for Tom Price’s old seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. At 3:29 p.m. he gets his thumbs limbered up with: “Karen Handle’s opponent in #GA06 can’t even vote in the district he wants to represent....” and “On Tuesday, #VoteKarenHandel.” 

God, what fun! At 3:34 he goes with “Karen Handle’s opponent in #GA06 can’t even vote in the district he wants to represent....” again. 

At 3:35 Trump clinches the deal: “....because he doesn’t live there! He wants to raise taxes & kill healthcare. On Tuesday, #VoteKarenHandel.” 

Handel does win the special election by a margin of 52% to 48%. Handel issues a special thanks to President Trump. 

Trump then brags about his great victory – ignoring the fact that the same district went for Price in November 2016 by a margin of 62% to 38%. Still, for Democrats, a loss is a loss.

 

BLOBBER’S NOTE: When Handel runs for reelection in 2018, she goes down in a narrow defeat with 49.5% of the vote to her opponent’s 50.5%. 

Trump decides to brag about something else.

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6/20/17: Trump hogs credit for bringing Otto Warmbier home from North Korea. He says Obama failed for eighteen months. The young man “should have been brought home that same day” he was arrested. 

Trump works his magic and brings Warmbier back, whereupon the unfortunate young man dies. No one on the right notices that North Korea still holds three other Americans – and Trump can’t pry them loose. Normally, we would give a president a pass regarding complex foreign policy. 

Trump, however, never misses a chance to attack Obama or simplify daunting challenges. (See: 6/3/18.)

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6/21/17: Ford Motors announces plans to build its popular Focus model in China, not Michigan.  

 

Cheap labor = more money for CEO’s. 

Meanwhile, the top five executives at Ford pull down $50 million combined in just one year. 

The New York Times also notes that “veteran union workers in the United States” earn $28 per hour building cars for Ford. Most Chinese workers earn around $270 a month. 

Cheap labor = more money for CEO’s. 

In related news, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner continue to profit from their far-flung business empire. This includes shoe factories in China where Ivanka-brand shoes are made. Ivanka and Jared’s income for 2016: $195 million.

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6/22/17: Clearly, the man in the Oval Office is cogitating. On the first day of summer, the president realizes he can build the Great Wall of Trump and turn a profit! This is the kind of brilliance that made him such a success in the casino business. 

Fox News reports on his plan to include solar panels. “Think of it,” Trump tells amazed fans at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “The higher it goes, the more valuable it is. Pretty good imagination, right? This way, Mexico will have to pay much less money, and that’s good. A solar wall. Makes sense.” 

(No telling why Sean Hannity doesn’t accuse the president of turning traitor and joining the “War on Coal.”)

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6/23/17: The latest iteration of the GOP Senate healthcare plan allows insurance companies to offer plans that drop coverage for maternity care, emergency services and mental health treatment. 

The Association of Medical Colleges warns that the plan “will leave millions of people without health coverage, and others with only bare-bones plans that will be insufficient to properly address their needs.” 

Senator Rand Paul still believes the plan is too generous. If he had his way, he’d cut coverage for bandages, splints, and blood transfusions. Who needs nurses? Give yourself your own damn shots!

June 26, 2017: Trumpcare - Primum Non Nocere

 

6/26/17: The American Medical Association joins a long list of organizations condemning Trumpcare. 

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“The draft legislation violates that standard on many levels.” 

American Medical Association

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In a letter to Senator Mitch McConnell, the head of the AMA warns, “Medicine has long operated under the precept of Primum non nocere, or ‘first, do no harm.’ The draft legislation violates that standard on many levels.” 

 

A list of groups opposed: 

The American Hospital Association, which represents 5,000 hospitals

The American Association of Medical Colleges

The American College of Physicians

The American Academy of Family Physicians, which warns that the plan would do “great harm to patients”

The American Academy of Pediatrics which states flatly: “The bill fails children by dismantling the Medicaid program, capping its funding, ending its expansion and allowing its benefits to be scaled back.”

 

Just for fun, these groups also denounce Trumpcare: 

The National Association of Medicaid Directors

The American Psychiatric Association

The Federation of American Hospitals

America’s Essential Hospitals, which warns: “Senate leaders…have put ideology ahead of lives with a plan that puts health and home at risk for millions of working Americans.”

The American Heart Association, which says the bill is “literally heartless”

The American Lung Association

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, which warns: Anyone who votes for this bill “cannot claim to be committed to ending the opioid epidemic.”

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network

AARP, which advocates for 38 million Americans over the age of 50

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

 

Ironically, the Koch brothers, Charles and David, don’t think the Senate bill goes far enough to reduce access to healthcare. 

Can you really expect those poor gentlemen – worth more than $40 billion each – to pay higher taxes?

July 28-30, 2017: Trumpcare is Still Dead; North Korea Can Hit the West Coast

 

7/28/17: GOP Senators stay up way past Mitch McConnell’s bedtime to put the finishing touches on their latest Trumpcare plan. The “replace” part of “repeal and replace” is finally ready. John McCain has made a special trip back from Arizona, following an operation for a cancerous tumor behind his left eye. 

Trump himself has called him – finally – a hero. 

At 1:24 a.m. McCain strides across the well of the Senate. His vote is called by the clerk – and McCain turns one thumb down. 

“No,” he says. 

Trumpcare is still dead. And Trump is back to hating the hero.

 

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NORTH KOREA caps a truly terrible day when it launches another long-range missile, this one capable of hitting the West Coast of the United States. Clearly, there are no good choices, moving forward. 

Trump blames previous administrations for leaving him to deal with a mess. With this guy, the buck never stops on his desk.

The buck stops in the past.

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7/29/17: The planet is burning. North Korean missiles threaten the continental United States. The Tweeter-in-Chief responds in a powerful Twitter rampage. Ten times he taps away furiously. At 6:07 a.m. he begins his day with another complaint about the Russian “witch hunt.” 

Trump also insists that the Senate must go to a 51-vote rule on everything so the GOP can pass any legislation it wants. He doesn’t like the 60-vote rule required to pass various bills in the upper house. 

At 6:39 a.m., he’s riled and ready to get down to running the country exactly the way he wants. The Republicans have a 52-48 margin in the Senate. So do the math, people! He complains: “....8 Dems totally control the U.S. Senate. Many great Republican bills will never pass, like Kate’s Law (see: 6/25/17) and complete Healthcare. Get smart!”

Later, Trump complains about “our foolish past leaders” because they couldn’t get China to help rein in North Korea. At 6:35 p.m. he brings a long tweeting day to an end, admitting his disappointment with China: “...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue.”

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7/30/17: The steamy bromance between Putin and Trump, making headlines as recently as July 7, reaches a sad denouement. In the face of new congressional sanctions, Putin expels 755 American diplomats.

Trumpcare: Terrible for Your Heart, Lungs and Spleen

IF IT FEELS LIKE BAD GOP HEALTHCARE PLANS keep cropping up like drug-resistant bacteria, you’re not imagining it.

Having discovered that repeal and replace wasn’t as easy as he thought, President Trump is desperate to get any bill passed, declare himself tired of winning and get back to doing what he does best. Tweeting insults.

The latest Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, reduce money spent on healthcare, but still miraculously cover everyone covered now, is wobbling along in the U.S. Senate.

Meanwhile, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, with an assist from Trump—have managed to do what President Barack Obama could never do. No. I don’t mean take away all our guns. Remember how that was going to happen! Last we checked everyone still had the guns they had on Inauguration Day in 2009. In fact, gun sales boomed while Obama was seated in the White House.

Paranoia, I think it was. (Conservatives probably thought you needed more guns to stop gay weddings.)

As I was saying, GOP leaders have made Obamacare more popular than ever. We liberals readily admit the law is imperfect. And, as sure as you mention thermometers (climate change) math (monthly job growth) or polls (pretty much every approval poll taken since Trump sat down in the Oval Office), this one will probably not be believed by our friends glued to Fox News.

Here are recent polls on the favorability of Obamacare in graphic form:

HAVING VENTED A LITTLE, I feel better—which is good, because we’re going to have to take better care of ourselves once this new Trumpcare plan goes into effect. We don’t know exactly how many Americans will lose coverage, or exactly when the worst features will fully take hold.

We just know the Graham-Cassidy bill currently being discussed by the Senate is decidedly unloved.

Sponsored by Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, this looks like the Republicans’ last chance to repeal and replace. Cassidy, for one, has been insisting his bill passes “the Jimmy Kimmel test.” That is: it will ensure that less-fortunate Americans whose children are born with severe health problems receive the care families require. Kimmel, the late night talk show host, has a young son with serious heart problems. In his case, he makes clear he has good coverage himself. He can pay. He’s rich. But Kimmel worries about families whose resources are slim.

Or none.

Senator Cassidy claims the latest Trumpcare plan passes that test.

Kimmel says, emphatically, it does not. He says Cassidy “lied right to my face” when he told him it did.

How bad is this plan?

Let’s try a test (not covered under the new Republican plan). Imagine you have a parent or grandparent suffering from long-term effects of Alzheimer’s disease. They need fulltime help.

Wouldn’t the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) support a good healthcare bill?

AARP hates this plan.

Okay. Babies might not be covered. (The American Academy of Pediatrics calls Graham-Cassidy “dangerous” and “ill-conceived.”)

And grandpa and grandma might be screwed.

How about this? You have a heart problem and bills are piling up. The American Heart Association blasts the GOP plan.

“I think the odds have improved,” Senator John Thune told reporters yesterday. He thinks this bill can pass. “I just told Bill Cassidy he’s kind of the grave robber,” Thune added. “This thing was six feet under, and I think he’s revived it.”

Mentioning Trumpcare and graves in the same breathe might not be the best metaphor one could select.

Take cancer. The lobbying arm of the American Cancer Society is opposed.

Got a six-year-old with type-1 diabetes? The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation believes the plan is a mess.

Are you an overweight or obese adult? Ha, ha. Of course you are. Seven in ten American adults weigh way too much. Suffering from type-2 diabetes, are you, now? The American Diabetes Association says vote “no” on the bill.

Your husband has lung cancer? The American Lung Association is opposed.

Your cousin is suffering the terrible effects of Lou Gehrig’s disease? The ALS Association considers the plan a joke.

The list (several are combined and linked below) goes on and on—with groups interested in pretty much every part of the body, from our heads to our toes, calling for the Senate to vote down the plan. These groups have come out against this last ditch Trumpcare-don’t care plan:

American Academy of Family Physicians

American College of Physicians

American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

American Osteopathic Association

American Psychiatric Association (“this bill harms our most vulnerable patients”)

American Public Health Association (the bill would “devastate” Medicare)

America’s Essential Hospitals

American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (“this bill will undermine care for vulnerable seniors and individuals with disabilities”)

Arthritis Foundation 

Association of American Medical Colleges

Catholic Health Association of the United States

Children’s Hospital Association
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
Family Voices

Federation of American Hospitals

HIV Medicine Association
Lutheran Services in America
March of Dimes
National Health Council 

National Council for Behavioral Health

National Institute for Reproductive Health
National Multiple Sclerosis Society
National Organization for Rare Diseases

Planned Parenthood
Volunteers of America
WomenHeart

Who else hates the GOP bill? The American Medical Association, speaking for 200,000 professionals, opposes the Graham-Cassidy plan. They say it violates the first principle of all medical care: “First, do no harm.”

The American Hospital Association: They don’t like it at all.

Maybe nurses? Maybe…good grief…the American Nurses Association wants the plan defeated too.

Blue Cross Blue Shield? They don’t like either. “The bill contains provisions that would allow states to waive key consumer protections, as well as undermine safeguards for those with pre-existing conditions,” says the company president. “The legislation reduces funding for many states significantly and would increase uncertainty in the marketplace, making coverage more expensive and jeopardizing Americans’ choice of health plans.” But, hey, other than that, the plan isn’t bad.

I talked to my daughter recently. She’s head of Newborn Screening at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D. C. I asked how work was going since she just returned from a medical conference in Brazil. She mentioned meeting doctors from Egypt, Uganda and Rawanda, now that she’s back, to talk about what her hospital does to help children born with serious, life-threatening genetic problems. She mentioned one drug that costs $1,000,000 per day. We can all argue about what to do about ballooning drug costs. (Prices are expected to increase 11.6% in 2017.) But if Senator Cassidy and Senator Graham and Senator Mitch McConnell and President Trump truly want to help, they can get on the stick and start fighting to reduce costs today.

Until that day comes—which probably never will—we know leading professional healthcare groups consider this last GOP hope a contemptible mess.

Medicare Part D (passed under the last Republican president, has helped balloon healthcare costs.

Of course we all remember, during the 2016 campaign, how Candidate Trump promised to protect us from all those illegal immigrant rapists and murderers, pouring across the border from Mexico.

What we didn’t realize then, once the GOP was in full control, was that if loved ones developed skin cancer, required kidney transplants, or suffered catastrophic injuries in automobile accidents, they’d be pretty much screwed.