It’s Been A Long Time Coming: Trump wasn’t built in a day.

The Mueller Hearing, July 24, 2019, laid bare the current differences between the modern renditions of Republicans and Democrats in a stark flash illuminating what’s been going on since 1964 (at least) and why there are no silver bullets to resolve the Constitutional issues.  The hearings took 7 hours, the problems it highlighted are freighted with 65 years worth of history. Viewed from this perspective, Trump isn’t the disease, he’s the major symptom.

If there’s a handy label for the current political shape of the Republican Party I’m not aware of it, but what we are looking at is an amalgam of revitalized Dixiecrats and long range planning by the National Association of Manufacturers as described in the 1971 memo authored by Lewis Powell.

There are more than enough tomes on both the rise of corporate power, and the insidious spread of racist political foundations, to fill library shelves.  All we need do is see the spectacle of GOP apologists for Russian interference in our elections as another mile marker on an already paved road.

Part of the pavement is composed of the vestiges of those states where the decision in Brown v Board of Education was not well received, and those states where the battle flag went back up when it was discovered that they really were going to have to integrate their schools and public accommodations.  Does anyone believe it’s an accident Senate Majority Leader McConnell is jamming through judicial appointments of those who are hedging on whether Brown was correctly decided?  Does anyone cling to the fiction that the anti-abortion culture war alliances don’t trace back to school desegregation orders? Does anyone doubt the blatant racism of Stephen Miller’s immigration proposals?

Trump hasn’t changed the racist nature of modern Republican political ideology, he’s just said the quiet part out loud.

The other part of the mixture recalls the days when the National Association of  Manufacturers decided to move their headquarters to Wasington DC.  The road map was drafted in Lewis Powell’s 1971 memo, the “American economic system is under broad attack.” Powell advocated a long term, gradual but steady, advance of corporate interests.  It wasn’t too difficult to combine the residual McCarthyism with the call for “less government” to achieve the unlikely scene of so-called populist ultra-conservatives avidly supporting a racist president against the Commies and Socialists in a hearing room; it just took time and patience.

Please give latitude to my cynicism. Impeaching Trump would be a very constructive activity, but it won’t solve the problem. The GOP will simply find another, possibly less boorish, model who will be all the more dangerous for being better able to keep his (And it will be his) thumbs and mouth under control, one who won’t say the quiet part at decibel levels associated with aircraft engines.

The better view may be to take a longer approach, and one which draws from their own playbook. Hit’em where they think they’re strongest. In this instance, hit Trump on the very issue he intends to ride to a 2020 victory…immigration.

He’s already doubled, perhaps tripled, down on the racism embedded in his approach as he angles toward a base turnout election.  When an opponent is digging himself into a hole, hand him a larger shovel.  It shouldn’t be too difficult to brand Trump’s policies as racist, which they patently are. Nor should it be too much effort to clothe him in these soiled philosophical garments. “Yes, the stock market is doing well, but what are we to make of the fact that some children are being detained away from their parents in squalid conditions?”  Some message discipline required, but if Democrats can tag every interview with a brief inquiry about children in cages, US citizens being detained, or why the Republicans won’t discuss DACA recipients, the frog may start to boil?

Then we can add the health care issue. There is no GOP plan to replace the ACA.  Add one measure of immigration attack (Why won’t the GOP listen to Dreamers? Why are children locked away?) to one measure of specifically what is your plan to cover those with pre-existing medical conditions?  What is your plan to provide maternity care? Mental health and addiction abatement care? Why can’t we address gun violence as a question of public health and safety?

As once members of the left avoided the term liberal because the right wing talkers besmeared it, let right wingers know how the racist, heartless, radical label grates?

We could strengthen and broaden the Democratic message, and take an opportunity to begin a longer phased approach to reclaiming the social contract binding citizens to their government.  Patience. Discipline. Progress. It’s possible. A pendulum swings both directions.

 

Things That Go Bump In The Night and Things That Are Making More Noise Than Sense

Another week of the Trumpster Fire, another week of news from a fire hose, and another week during which we, as news consumers, are required to filter wheat from chaff, and the relevant from the nearly irrelevant.  What things bumping in the night should be attended to? Which can be set off to the side and safely ignored for the moment.

Bumps With More Noise Than Significance

Preliminary public polling results.  The Press/Media is enamored of the latest rendition of The Great Blue Wave.  This is one of the least informative ways of filling one’s air-time.  First, national preference polling is interesting, but all elections are local.  While some members of the punditry are beginning to mouth the words “vote suppression,” and “gerrymandering,” not enough information and analysis has been shared about the effects of these GOP efforts to maintain control of the Congress, and of state elections. Secondly,  there are no national elections for Congressional seats — to state the perfectly obvious.  Those elections will be determined by candidate recruitment and quality, personnel and monetary resources, and campaign competence.  None of these, with the possible exception of shared mailing lists and big donors (monetary resources) is national in scope.  Third, some campaigns will be assisted by the efforts of third party groups. For example, are Union members out canvassing? Are students out doing registration drives?  Are small groups of activists providing services like rides to the polls? The extent and nature of these ancillary groups and their activities will have an impact, we just don’t know the extent to date.  None of this will be “news” to anyone who’s been paying attention to American civic life for the last few decades.

Just because it’s on the news doesn’t necessarily mean it’s important.  The occupant of the Oval Office and some members of the media are still playing the DC parlor game, “Who is Anonymous?” Or anonomus or anamonomous or whatever.  I’m still working on why this might be important.  For my money we still have staff in the executive branch who are willing to explode the national debt in service to tax cuts for the top 0.01% of American income earners, at ease with putting 12,000 children in “detention” facilities for an indefinite period, and quite pleased to allow health insurance companies to charge people with pre-existing medical conditions more for their premiums.  That these people will occasionally arise on their hind legs and proclaim the Great One has gone too far doesn’t impress me.  What would impress me?

How about more attention paid to this nugget:

“Besides family, one of the only people Trump continues to trust is Stephen Miller. “The op-ed has validated Miller’s view, which was also Steve Bannon’s, that there’s an ‘administrative state’ out to get Trump,” a Republican close to the White House said. “There is a coup, and it’s not slow-rolling or concealed,” Bannon told me. “Trump believes there’s a coup,” a person familiar with his thinking said.”

And thus our Oval Office Occupant (Or Triple Zero if spelled 0val 0ffice 0ccupant) is more heavily reliant on a blatantly racist, far right wing conspiracy fabulist, who stokes the Occupant’s most divisive tendencies?  This seems to call for more analysis, and yet the punditry still grasps the Who-Done-It? segment, or pontificates upon the “effect” of the infamous Op-Ed on the President’s “mind set.”  Clue number one a White Nationalist was influencing the 000 might have been the initial Muslim ban?  More clues — no DACA agreement  by Congressional Democrats was ever going to be satisfactory — no one ‘would care’ that there might be children separated from their parents at the southern border — it’s considered acceptable to move funds from FEMA and the Coast Guard to pay for more ICE detention facilities —  it’s supposed to be all right for asylum seeking families to be kept in these detention facilities indefinitely?

Things Not Making So Much Noise But Nevertheless Important

Health care and health insurance.  There is nothing the GOP would enjoy so much as repealing the last semi-colon and comma of the Affordable Care Act.  We’ve heard the “more competition” argument currently coming from the House Speaker before.  It doesn’t make any more sense now than it did then.  Health insurance is not a product analogous to purchasing a motor vehicle or any other consumer product.  One doesn’t choose to get hit by a bus, or hit with a cancer diagnosis, or hit with a complicated pregnancy — or even an uncomplicated one for that matter.

Consumer protection.  While the great fire hose emits its inundation of noise about all things Trumpian, consumer protections enacted to prevent yet another Wall Street melt down are under attack.  The student loan market is being “deregulated.”  Not a good thing.  The smaller issues involved in the Dodd Frank Act have been resolved with some bipartisan legislation, but the administration wants to go further — and the assortment of Goldman Sachs alums in the administration are being ever so helpful in this regard.  Left unchecked we’re going to see another round of de-regulation, which didn’t work out so well for us the last time.  Caveat Emptor American consumer — be careful before voting for any candidate who vows to cut red tape and diminish the “burdens” of regulations — like those preventing the next melt down in the Wall Street Casino.

It’s the Stupid Economy.   Yes. Wall Street has been doing quite nicely thank you very much. I maintain my position that the worst business news is readily available on most broadcast networks.  If a person believes that the DJIA represents the state of the American economy then they’re in for more surprises like the ones which emerged in 2007-08.   Information like real median household income trends is available from FRED, but before we get too excited note median household income numbers may be obscuring other figures like wages adjusted for inflation for full time employees.   Further, what’s being added in to the mix as “income?”  All income includes everything from unemployment benefits to returns on investments.  It’s those returns on investments that have made some very nice progress over the last ten years…wages maybe not so much.  We’re on our own to dive more deeply into the wage issues and income distribution data.  There’s some good news, some bad news, and some news to think about like the 16 straight quarters we’ve had of increasing domestic household debt.  So, it’s time for the question:  Are we seeing candidates for Congress who acknowledge the need for common sense controls on Wall Street casino operations? Who are aware and concerned for wage and salary workers and their economic security?  Are we getting more noise from the highly generalized pie in the sky theoretical visionaries who want us to believe that those with great wealth are going to buy all the homes, cars, washing machines, shoes, movie tickets, and restaurant meals necessary to keep the US economy rolling on?

I could use a little more light on these subjects, and perhaps a bit less bump in the night stuff about a “crisis on the border” (manufactured by the current administration) or “The Press Is Out To Get Me,” from Orange Blossom.   And, I’m looking for Congressional and Senate Candidates who will speak to me about how to fix problems, rather than shout at me about how to fix the blame for them.  I’d like for political discourse to make more sense than noise.

There Never Was Any Plan: The Story of the entire Orange Blossom Administration

Return with us now to those days of yesterday, if not exactly yesterday, when the Trump declared his health care plan would be wonderful — “No one will lose coverage. There will be insurance for everybody. Healthcare will be a “lot less expensive” for everyone — the government, consumers, providers.”  [Politico]  That was March 13 2017.  Well now, some people have lost coverage, it isn’t going to be any less expensive to get health insurance. In fact, health insurance premiums are expected to increase in California, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, and it is just as bad elsewhere:

Rate filings to date show that many insurers are requesting large premium increases for 2019. The average requested rate increase was 30.2 percent in Maryland and 24 percent in New York state. Most insurers have specifically cited the repeal of the individual mandate in their actuarial memorandums. In New York, insurers attributed about half their large requested increases to mandate repeal. Even in states with small rate increases or overall decreases, insurer filings state that premiums next year would be significantly lower in the absence of federal sabotage. For example, BlueCross BlueShield of Vermontrequested a relatively small 7.5 percent increase for 2019 but said that its request would have been 2.2 percentage points lower if not for mandate repeal. Peter V. Lee, the director of Covered California, said that his state’s average rate increase of 9 percent “could—and should—have been much lower.” [CAP]

Let’s be serious here. There wasn’t a health care plan, not one with any specifics. There was a ton of “repeal and replace” rhetoric.  Trumpian campaign slogans never translated into much more than the continual erosion of Affordable Care Act provisions in favor of the insurance industry.  There never was a comprehensive plan to deal with market problems, industry sector issues, and the health care needs of some 330 million people in this country.  This administration doesn’t PLAN.

But wait, wasn’t there an “infrastructure plan?”  It would seem there should be since we keep having infrastructure weeks?   On February 11, 2018 the administration rolled out its grand infrastructure proposal [CNN] albeit without any suggestion about how this would be paid for;

“At the Conference of Mayors in January, Gribbin explained that the Trump administration would not be proposing a specific funding mechanism for the infrastructure plan, saying that will be a conversation with Congress. But that discussion just got a lot harder following the passage of a tax plan that is expected to expand the deficit by over a trillion dollars over ten years.” [MoneyCnn]

So, we got “conversations with Congress” about how to implement the “infrastructure plan,” but no infrastructure plan with much of anything except sops to for profit job training centers, lowered work rule and environmental permitting standards, and precious little else.  There never was a real, a comprehensive, plan in place such that the negotiations (or conversations) with Congress would ever be on a firm foundation. Surprised? We shouldn’t be.

Perhaps we should have been impressed with the trade plan?  After all, isn’t this supposed to put America First?  However, our friends and trading partners have been reduced to using color coded cue cards to explain high school level trade concepts to an American president [Marketwatch] and he doesn’t give any appearance he understands  fundamental concepts.  Reason sums up one area of dissonance:

“As Veronique de Rugy noted here a couple of weeks ago, “This is one policy area where he’s been remarkably consistent over the years.” Even when Trump pays lip service to free markets, she observed, it’s with the aim of increasing exports and reducing imports so as to bring down the number he thinks crystallizes our failure and lack of resolve. Trump is not talking like a mercantilist in service of free trade; he is talking like a free trader in service of mercantilism.” [Reason]

Let’s just operate on the simpler assumption — he doesn’t understand the subject; he doesn’t really have a plan; and, all the “motion” that passes for “action” in this administration’s trade policy is tantamount to economic and monetary plate juggling.  As long as he can make grand announcements about vague promises to eventually do something, and none of the plates fall, he’s all good.  Witness the EU deal:  “In reality, the Europeans gave up little except their prior refusal to negotiate under threat. Juncker’s pledge that the E.U. would import more U.S.-grown soybeans, for instance, formalized something that was likely to happen anyway.” [NewYorker]  Always assume: There is NO Plan.

And, about that Immigration enforcement policy which was supposed to have a plan to reunite children with their parents?   As of June 22, 2018 the Trump Mis-administration had to admit it had NO PLAN to reunite all children with their parents. [NYMag]  Really?  Well, not really completely opaque since the policy was all about punishing people who had the temerity to appeal for asylum in the United States who happened to be people with slightly darker skin than their Caucasian cohorts.   Thus if the policy didn’t meet the needs of the children and their parents, then the children could be conveniently re-categorized as “ineligible”  meaning the mis-administration might side step any accountability for their plight. [MSNBC]

Pick a topic, any topic.  Speak of environmental protections, clean drinking water, the protection of wildlife, or the protection of consumers from banking institution predation.  Speak of plans to provide better housing for married members of the US Armed Forces? Speak of plans to offer better, more efficient educational, medical, or dental services to Veterans?  Speak of plans to insure more cities are not plagued with lead in their water supplies?  Speak of how to provide long term assistance to American ranchers and farmers, and to promote the global trade in the crops and animals they raise for sale? Speak of how to research, study, and restrain the levels of gun violence in this country so that we are a safer place for ourselves and our children?  Speak of how we address matters of election security? To address Russian infiltration and attacks on our political institutions?  Pick a topic. Any topic.  Then rest unassured, this administration HAS NO PLAN.

Dear Congressman, Why Are You

From the Department of Thanks A Bunch But Don’t Do Me Any More Favors —

“Nevada’s premiums on the health-care exchange are likely to increase by about $843 next year as a result of Congress’s repeal of the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and a new Trump administration rule on short-term health insurance plans, according to a new report from the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress.

The report, released Friday, found that annual premiums nationwide will increase from an average of about $6,176 to $7,189 for the average 40-year-old, which is about a 16.4 percent increase. In Nevada, average premiums using the same benchmark are projected to rise from about $5,547 to $6,390, or an increase of about 15 percent.” [NVIndy]

All right, I’m not 40 years old and haven’t been for quite some time, but I can empathize with younger people trying to run households, raise kids, pay the bills, and keep it together.  What they don’t need is a 15% increase in their health insurance premiums.  And who does this help?  It doesn’t help promote the best practices of established health insurance corporations.  It doesn’t help those families who are facing rising costs for groceries and transportation.  It doesn’t help young people to sell them junk insurance that won’t actually cover expenses for major medical expenses for illness or injury.  It seems to primarily help the fly by night scam artists who want to sell insurance policies which barely deserve the name.  You can read the full report ?here.

From the Department of Questions to Ask Congress Critters which Don’t Include Why Are You An A–hole?

Dear Congressman ____ why is it impossible for you to vote in favor of a bill to require universal background checks for gun sales and transfers?  (It’s not like this doesn’t have massive support from the American people.  It’s not like this wouldn’t help to keep firearms out of the hands of individuals who shouldn’t have them in the first place.   And while we’re about it, what’s so impossible about limiting the size of magazines, or keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers?)

Dear Congressman ____ why, when banks had their most profitable quarter EVER, would you think it important to roll back the consumer protections of the Dodd Frank Act? [MoneyCNN] [Vox] [WaPo]

Dear Congressman ____ in what perverted universe is it considered acceptable to bait bears with donuts and bacon in order to kill them? To kill hibernating bears? To kill wolf pups? [NYMag]

Dear Congressman ____ Just what purpose is served by vilifying a Central American street gang and conflating its members with ALL immigrants to this great nation?  Criticizing a violent gang is laudable, conflating these people with ALL immigrants is inexcusable.  Since I’m not 40 years old and haven’t been for some time, I recall a time when this nation was recovering from a major war against a state which called Jews “vermin,” dehumanized them, and then used the appellation as an excuse to exterminate them.  Perhaps it’s time to have people, especially politicians, read (or re-read) Elie Wiesel’s Night.

Where does this lead?

“Wiesel’s prose is quietly measured and economical, for florid exaggeration would not befit this subject. Yet, at times, his descriptions are so striking as to be breathtaking in their pungent precision. He writes through the eyes of an adolescent plunged into an unprecedented moral hinterland, and his loss of innocence is felt keenly by the reader. His identity was strained under such conditions: “The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded – and devoured – by a black flame.” Night.

When bad things are done by bad people, bad things happen to innocent people.

Or maybe it would simply be easier to ask, Dear Congressman ____ why are you an A-hole?

It’s Official: GOP Hates Women — Scamcare Edition

In case there’s anyone left who thinks the Republican Party is representing the needs of women in this country, the contradiction is right in front of us in the form of the Graham-Cassidy+Heller (tagging along) bill.

Amy Friedrich-Karnik, senior federal policy adviser at the Center for Reproductive Rights, pointed to a statistic from progressive think tank the Century Foundation that estimates 13 million women will lose access to maternity care services if the ACA is repealed. Friedrich-Karnik explained that the bill also blocks Medicaid patients from using Planned Parenthood, which bars access to essential preventative care like birth control, cancer screenings, and STD testing and treatment. “It also slashes Medicaid overall and into the future, and so really impacting particularly low-income women and women of color who rely on Medicaid broadly for their health care,” she said. According to the Kaiser Health Network, Medicaid pays for nearly half of all births in America and covers family planning services for 13.5 million women. [Jez]

Not only is the bill a golf ball shot to the back of the head for Nevada women, it could cost the state some $250 million in funding:

Specifically, the proposal would eliminate the marketplace subsidies and federal dollars that states that chose to opt-in to Medicaid expansion under the ACA, like Nevada, currently receive, replacing them with block grants to be doled out to states, which would be left with the responsibility of deciding how to spend that money. It also converts almost the entire Medicaid program to a per capita cap, under which the federal government would set a limit on how much it reimburses states per enrollee, and allows states to waiver certain provisions from the ACA that require insurance companies to cover certain services and bars them from placing annual or lifetime caps on coverage. [NVInd]

Got that? Nevada gets a per capita cap, AND insurance corporations could refuse to cover pre-existing conditions, maternity care, family planning, women’s health care services, AND the corporations could revert to that wonderful old scam — the lifetime limit on coverage.  This isn’t as bad as the former “skinny” bill — it’s worse.

Senator Heller might have wanted to give this version some thought before he inked his name on the paperwork to co-sponsor the bill, but he didn’t.

It’s understandable that Nevadans are tiring of calling, writing, and sign making, but if Republicans are nothing else they are persistent.  They’re counting on public apathy, ignorance, and fatigue.  Not this time. Not on American health care. Not on our watch.

Senator Heller’s Washington DC office number is 202-224-6244.  Calls are tallied, and at some point the number of calls opposing this iteration of scam-care needs to impinge on the amount of money Republicans are counting on from the Koch Brothers and other right wing radicals.

The Moderate Heller Myth: Health Insurance Edition

Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) has cultivated his “moderate” image to the point that this adjective is attached to him with remarkable consistency — when if a person does even a perfunctory piece of research on his actual voting record what emerges is the model of a hard line conservative.  There is a pattern.  The Senator expresses “concerns” with a bill; then announces with ranging degrees of fanfare his opposition to a bill “in its current form,” then when the rubber grinds on the road surface the Senator votes along with the Republican leadership.

Why would anyone seriously believe he would support fixing the Affordable Care Act’s problems and not ultimately support what is now being called the “skinny repeal” version in the Senate based on the following voting record:

In 2007 then Representative Heller voted against the Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (HR 4).  Then on August 1, 2007 he voted against HR 3162, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program reauthorization.  The next day he voted against HR 734, the Prescription Drug Imports bill.  On March 5, 2008 he voted against HR 1424, the Mental Health Coverage bill.  Further into 2008 he voted “no” on HR 5501, the bill to fund programs fighting AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis, and “no” again on the concurrence version of the bill in July.   If he had a ‘flash’ of moderation during this period it happened in the summer of 2008 when he voted in favor of HR 5613 (Medicaid extensions and changes), HR 6631 (Medicare), the latter including a vote to override the President’s veto.  By November 2009 he was back in full Conservative mode.

He voted against HR 3962 (Health Care and Insurance Law amendments) on November 8, 2009, and HR 3961 (Revising Medicare Physician Fee Schedules and re-establishing PAYGO) on November 19, 2009.

In March 2010 Heller voted against HR 4872 (Health Care Reconciliation Act), and HR 3590 (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act).  He also voted against the concurrence bills.

January 19, 2011 he voted in favor of the Repealing the Health Care bill (HR 2).  He also signaled his stance on Planned Parenthood when he voted in favor of H.Amdt. 95 (Prohibiting the use of Federal funds for Planned Parenthood) on February 18, 2011.    He was in favor of repealing the individual mandate (HR 4), of repealing the Prevention and Public Health Fund (HR 1217).  May 4, 2011 he voted to repeal funding of the construction of school based health centers (HR 1214).

There was another “soft” period in some of his initial Senate votes in 2011, especially concerning the importation of medication from Canada (interesting since many prescription drugs are manufactured in other overseas sites).  See S. Amdt 769, S. Amdt 2111, and S. Amdt 2107 in May 2012.  On March 31, 2014 he voted in favor of HR 4302 (Protecting Access to Medicare).

He was back riding the Republican rails in September 2015, supporting an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood, (S. Amdt 2669) which failed a cloture vote.   Then on December 3, 2015 he voted in favor of another ACA repeal bill (HR 3762).    If we’re looking for patterns in this record they aren’t too difficult to discern. (1) Senator Heller can be relied upon to vote in favor of any legislation which deprives Planned Parenthood of funding for health care services, (2) Senator Heller can be relied upon to vote in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act, and (3) Senator Heller’s voting record, if it illustrates any ‘moderation’ at all, comes in the form of dealing with prescription drug prices, but even that is a mixed bag of votes.

Thus, when he makes comments like the following:

“Obamacare isn’t the answer, but doing nothing to try to solve the problems it has created isn’t the answer either,” the statement read. “That is why I will vote to move forward and give us a chance to address the unworkable aspects of the law that have left many Nevadans — particularly those living in rural areas — with dwindling or no choices.

“Whether it’s my ideas to protect Nevadans who depend on Medicaid or the Graham-Cassidy proposal that empowers states and repeals the individual and employer mandates, there are commonsense solutions that could improve our health care system and today’s vote gives us the opportunity to fight for them. If the final product isn’t improved for the state of Nevada, then I will not vote for it; if it is improved, I will support it.”

We should examine them with some caution.   If he is referring to rural Nevada voters as ‘victims’ of the Affordable Care Act he might want to note that before the ACA there was one insurer in the northern Nevada rural market and if there is only one now that’s really not much of a change, much less a “nightmare.”  Nor is he mentioning that the proposed cuts to Medicaid will have a profoundly negative effect on rural Nevada hospitals. [DB previous]

That Graham-Cassidy proposal isn’t exactly a winner either:

“The new plan released Thursday morning and written by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (La.) would block grant about $500 billion of federal spending to the states over 10 years to either repeal, repair or keep their ObamaCare programs.”

We have no idea if the number is an accurate estimate of what would keep the health care systems of all 50 states afloat — no one seems to want to ‘score’ anything these days.  Additionally, Americans should be aware by now that when Republicans chant “Block Grant” they mean “dump it on the states, wash our hands, and walk away” while the states struggle to keep up with demands to meet needs and provide services, operating on budgets which cannot function on deficits.

Then, there’s that perfectly typical Hellerian comment: “If it is improved, I will support it,” leaving the issue entirely up to Senator Heller’s subjective assessment if “it” has improved his re-election chances enough to go along with it while not upsetting his very conservative base.  Meanwhile, the media persists in repeating the “Moderate Heller” mythology, and we haven’t even begun to speak of his actions to thwart and later repeal any common sense regulations on the financial sector.

 

Heller at the President’s Right: Lunch Time At The White House

Nothing like watching Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) sitting next to POTUS, smiling and applauding as the remarks from the President replicate every standard talking point made by every Republican since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.  Including such wonderful clichés as:

You’ll pay lower premiums (Oh, such lower premiums you won’t believe) — Any fool can sell low premium policies, the ones with high deductibles and co-pays, limited benefits, and caps.  Worse still, these junk policies will be sold across state lines so that consumer standards and protections of the worst level of protection will be the standard.

The states will have control over Medicaid (smaller units will be better for individual needs)  Nothing like blowing a big wide ‘beautiful’ hole in the Nevada budget!  Cutting $770B from Medicaid will have effects far beyond Nevada’s capacity to support its elderly, its children, its rural health care facilities, its support for low income working families.  That was the point of Medicaid — expenses far beyond the capacity of individual states could be shared nationwide, allowing medical care and services for the greatest good for the greatest number.

Some counties only have one insurance corporation offering policies in the individual market.  Did the president recall that before the ACA there were some counties that had no insurance corporations offering policies in the individual market.  There’s a solution to this problem — one the president didn’t mention — establish a public option.

Then there flowed the usual barrel of platitudes and campaign rhetoric, freedom and flexibility, low cost with high coverage,  everyone can get better insurance, reduce burdensome taxation, burdensome regulation….

And there was Senator Dean Heller, smiling as though siding with the president isn’t going to be a major political problem for him in the 2018 campaign season.  It makes a person wonder.

Senator Heller can be reached at 202-224-6244, 775-686-5770; 702-388-6605

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It, Instant Summer Reading Recommendations

The Nevada Independent has several excellent articles about the health insurance ‘reform’ battle in the state,  I’d recommend starting with ‘Senator Cortez-Masto’s denunciation of the Senate health bill,” and move on to ‘Dispatches from Washington.’

The Reno Gazette Journal reports (video) on Rep. Jacky Rosen’s (D-NV3) decision to run for Senator Dean Heller’s seat.

Please note TPM’s report from the conference of Secretaries of State concerning election data security.  If this conclusion doesn’t disturb us, it should:

“But both Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State, who are responsible for carrying out elections in many states, said they have been frustrated in recent months by a lack of information from federal intelligence officials on allegations of Russian meddling with the vote. They say that despite the best efforts by federal officials, it may be too late in to make substantive changes.”

Interestingly enough, vote suppression advocate Chris Kobach was a no-show at the meeting.  Perhaps this is because some election experts have identified major flaws in Kobach’s “election integrity” plans.

And, now we get to “muddle time” during which the current administration tries to muddy the waters about the  other election problem — Russian interference.  Spokespersons and advocates are on the air-waves saying that “Gee, it’s not 17 intelligence agencies, it’s actually just a handful of people who reached the conclusion that the Russians meddled,”  which is one tactic to discredit the reports that are unequivocal in their assessment that, yes, the Russians interfered.   Following this comes the Gee Whiz moment in which the apologist who says that “we’ve not actually seen the evidence of this.”  A statement such as this is simply a variation on the previous talking point:  We’ve investigated this enough, there’s nothing there, move along please.

Speaking of elections, please take a look at the bill introduced by Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV2) HR 2101, the Prior Approval Reform Act:  To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to expand the ability of trade associations to solicit contributions from the stockholders and executive or administrative personnel of their member corporations, and for other purposes.  The effective date, January 1, 2018, would allow more “corporate” money in politics just in time for 2018 campaign season.   The Associated General Contractors would be pleased to see this enacted. [pdf]  Those disturbed by the dark, and darker money, flowing into our campaigns should track this bill.

It Ain’t Over Until The Fat Golfer Sings

Senator McConnell’s Secret Health Insurance Shop is still working, with the Lobbyists/Elves seeking a way to offer goodies acceptable to the wavering and the wanton.  Keep calling!  and if you’d like more information to substantiate your comments there are some excellent sources.

Kaiser Family Foundation:   Your one stop center for research and analysis on health insurance issues.  Definitely a “bookmark this” recommendation.  Today, KFF notes that before the implementation of the ACA individual insurance plans for health care did not cover delivery and maternity care  in 75% of the policies; 45% of the policies didn’t cover substance abuse treatment; and 38% failed to cover any mental health care services.

If terms like “risk adjustment,” “re-insurance,” and “risk corridors” seem like something written in Minoan Linear A, the KFF has an excellent summation of these technical terms in easily understood American English.

There are also some analytical pieces on the impact of Republican suggestions for health care insurance “reform” as they relate to rural health care in the following:

Human Rights Watch — Senate Health Care Bill A Swipe At Rural United States.

MSNBC/Scarborough – Rural Health Care Would Be Savaged By This Bill.

There’s a narrative going around that Democrats haven’t brought anything to the table, which depends on whether we’re taking the long or short term view.  In the short term this would be true — because the McConnell Secret Health Insurance Shop didn’t invite any Democratic participation,  for that matter there seems to have been some Republican Senators who were left in darkness.  The longer view would note some of the following:

Senator Franken’s “Rural Health Care Quality Improvement Act of 2016” (pdf) S. 3191 (114th Congress) was introduced in July 2016 and “died” in the Senate Finance Committee.  The bill would have amended two titles of the Social Security Act to improve health care in rural areas of the United States.

There is Representative Jan Shakowsky’s CHOICE Act, H.R. 635, which would establish a public option under the ACA.  See also S. 194, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s CHOICE Act.  There’s Rep. Gene Green’s HR 2628 to stabilize Medicaid and the Children’s Insurance program.  Rep. John Conyers introduced his form of “single payer” in his Medicare for All bill, HR 676.  On the topic of making pharmaceuticals more affordable:  Senator Sanders – Affordable and Safe Prescription Drug Importation Act S. 469.  Senator Klobuchar has a bill “… to allow for expedited approval of generic prescription drugs and temporary importation of prescription drugs in the case of noncompetitive drug markets and drug shortages.” S. 183. Rep. Kurt Schrader introduced H.R. 749 to increase competition in the pharmaceutical industry.  Senator Ron Wyden introduced S. 1347, RxCap Act of 2017.

Senator Klobuchar has also introduce a bill supporting Alzheimer’s caregivers in S.311.  Rep. Derek Kilmer’s bill, H.R. 1253, seeks to improve access to treatment for mental health and substance abuse issues.   This is by NO means an exhaustive list of what can be gleaned from Gov.Track, but it does illustrate that the Democrats are not without suggestions — negotiating drug prices for Medicare, stabilizing the current system, public options, single payer — it’s just that these bills won’t get out of Republican controlled committees and they didn’t make it into Senator McConnell’s Secret Shop.

Indulge in no victory dance, we’ve seen this movie before … don’t believe that some minor blandishment won’t be enough to lure Senator Heller from his current position …don’t think that the products of McConnell’s Secret Shop have stopped coming off their assembly line.

Senator Heller can be reached at 202-224-6224;  702-388-6605;  775-686-5770

48 Hours: The Health Care Bill

If a person hasn’t found the reason to call Senator Heller’s office and advise him to vote NO on the Republican version of a health care bill, consider the following:

(1)  One in three residents of skilled nursing facilities in Nevada are supported by Medicaid. Now, apply a simple calculator test — if a person was born in 1946 (the beginning of the Baby Boom) he or she will hit 80 in 2026.  In short, the Baby Boomers will be in the age range to need such care just as the major cuts to Medicaid kicks in.  About 65,000,000 children were born in this country between 1945 and 1961.  Cuts to the Medicaid program in this context is essentially create a crisis which we could easily have avoided.

(2) The Republicans are fond of focusing on “premium increases.”  That’s only a part of the story.  Anyone can devise insurance policies with low premiums — raise the deductibles, cut the coverage, increase co-pays,  insert lifetime benefit limits, and Voila! lower premiums.   The problems begin when a person tries to use the insurance — the reason the person bought the policy in the first place — “We’re so sorry, but this policy doesn’t cover immunizations. Or, mammograms, or prostate cancer screening, or the expenses related to the birth of your first child…”

(3) Speaking of lower premiums,  if a person has insurance from an employer then there should be no surprise when the coverage decreases compliments of the waivers included in the Senate bill — “We’re sorry, but we no longer cover wellness screenings for men and women, maternity care, or other elements that used to be included as Essential Benefits.” If a person thought that employer sponsored policies were “safe” from “reforms,” please think again.

(4) This isn’t a health care bill, it’s a tax cut bill.  Those whose income is in the top 0.1% level would receive a lovely $250,000 tax savings gift in 2026. Those earning more than $875,000 (top 1%) would get tax savings of $45,500.  [CNN]  All this at the expense of working Americans.

(5) The buzz word “patient centered” is nonsense.  At bottom, it’s a euphemistic way of saying “You are On Your Own.” A person can “choose” to buy what he or she can afford — and for lower income Americans this means lower coverage and higher out of pocket expenses.  The problem with applying classic market principles to health care is that much of what is covered isn’t a matter of Choice.  No one chooses to be in a traffic accident, any more than a person chooses to get cancer or have a heart attack.   The Republican argument seems to boil down to “live a perfect life and make excellent choices” and you are ‘worthy’ of having insurance.  This argument only works IF a person has no familial risk factors, IF a person isn’t exposed to other people (who might have an infectious disease), and IF a person can afford to build a residence in which there are no places to fall and no way to have an accident with a garage door.  In short, it’s fantasy land.

The next few hours are crucial — that’s right — HOURS. Please call Senator Heller’s office at 702-388-6605;  or 775-686-5770; or 202-224-6244.  Your health care services are at stake.