Category: Republican Party

Is what should be a “Trump Bump” at the polls already more like a “Trump Slump”?

~ jlpagano

On Tuesday, the Amercian people had their first chance to tell Donald Trump in a meaningful way what they thought of his overall performance so far.

He had appointed as director of the CIA Mike Pompeo, who had been a Republican member of the House of Repreasentives from the 4th district of the state of Kansas, and thus there needed to be a special election to fill his seat.

I’ll let the Kansas City Star tell you more…

Pompeo, a Republican who won by 31 percentage points in November, gave up his seat in the 4th Congressional District in January to serve as Trump’s director of the CIA.

GOP strategists warned in recent days that Democrat James Thompson, a civil rights attorney, was in striking distance against Estes, Kansas state treasurer from Wichita…

Trump made a personal push for Estes on his Twitter account Tuesday morning.

“Ron Estes is running TODAY for Congress in the Great State of Kansas,” Trump tweeted. “A wonderful guy, I need his help on Healthcare & Tax Cuts (Reform).”

In the end, Estes prevailed with 53 percent to Thompson’s 45 percent.

The fact that Trump got involved so late in the race (Pence did too…between them they did some “robo-calling“) shows how worried the GOP was.  And for a district that is so strongly Republican (Brits would call it a “safe seat”) to see a majority drop from 31 points to just 8 in the space of 5 months shows the fears were justified.

Many people ask me if there’s any point in bringing attention to all the crazy things that have happened in this administration…will there actually be any consequences?

Well if we’re hoping for impeachment then it’s only results like this that will help bring it about.  The Republicans currently control both the House and the Senate – the chances of either one flipping to the Democrats before the mid-terms in November 2018 are very slim.

BUT if enough results like this one in Kansas keep happening, there’s every chance a group of Republicans fearful of losing their own seats will see the benefit of speaking out against the sitting president.  And next week, there’s another special election which the Democrats might just win.

Tom Price was promoted from representing Georgia’s 6th district to being Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services despite numerous allegations of using his congressional office to personally profit from changes in legislation.  You may remember Price for standing beside the President as the Democrats were being blamed for the failure of Trumpcare.  Now his seat needs filling and the Democrats are confident they can overturn a 23-point deficit from last November.

Believe it or not, I’m not 100% excited by the prospect of the Democrats doing well right now.  Sure, anything that hurts Trump & the GOP is overall a good thing, but despite their having this much power, the Dems have done precious little to address their own failures in recent times.

It remains to be seen what changes will be made by new party chair Tom Perez but if more of these early special elections go his party’s way, he could be tempted to “sit tight” and do nothing, hoping the Repubicans implode so he won’t have to go the more “radical” (a word the MSM would probably use, I’d use “sensible”) route of giving more seats at the top table to the ever-growing Progressive wing.

We will still be following the events from “Georgia 6th” next week with much interest though.

#IANWAE

 

And so #Trumpcare is born…let’s be sure and call it that

~ jlpagano

“Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated”

Of course the President was referring to the “royal nobody” when he made that incredible statement!

What say we at least agree with him, since we all know it to be true.  My knowledge of a healthcare system is even more limited than his.

However, that does not mean I can’t have an opinion on the general aims of a health service.  And mine is that it our government should do all it can to ensure that it is accessible to all citizens.

When it comes to the nitty gritty of the new plan, I’m happy to let sources like Time magazine break  it down for me, like in this article titled “5 Things to Know Now About the GOP’s Obamacare Replacement Plan” :

The bill drastically cuts tax credits for the oldest and poorest Americans, while giving the upper class a major tax break. It also rolls back the Medicaid expansion and nixes the individual mandate, which requires everyone to buy health insurance. Crucially, it has not been scored by the Congressional Budget Office, so overall impacts are tough to gauge at this early point.

But even before we delve too deeply into all of that, can we make sure one thing happens.  We need to stop referring to this as an “Obamacare replacement”.

Both Donald Trump personally and the Republicans generally have done nothing but attack The Affordable Care Act since its inception.  In fact, they were responsible for some of the tweaks to the original legislation that brought about it’s current flaws.

Now, after six years of whinging and moaning and calling it a ‘disaster’, they have to be given ownership of this new plan.  And I don’t even think the GOP Congressfolk will have too many problems with my suggestion of a new name : #Trumpcare.

(note – I’m not saying I’m the first to think of it, I’m merely suggesting we all start using it!)

Let me be clear…I WANT it to work!!!  The only thing is…my definition of “work” doesn’t mean sustained or increased profits for insurance and pharmaceutical companies, rather it means, like I said previously, affordable care for as many citizens as possible.

But as we assess whether or not it will work, let us at least be sure to call it something that signifies who now owns it.