Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[hack]

All this talk about the FBI turning Flynn into an informant is quite something. There's an ongoing investigation and we don't know who it is targeting, but if Flynn can lead to a bigger target...

[Dr. Strangelove]

The night before his appearance at the White House, Nunes was traveling with his staffer in an Uber car. He received something on his phone, didn't tell his staffer what it was, but abruptly got out of the car. The next day, without informing anyone on the Committee or his own staff of what he was doing, he ran to show Trump what he had learned because he thought the media was being mean to him.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/24/devin-nunes-vanished-the-night-before-he-made-trump-surveillance-claims.html

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'm sure everyone has heard by now that yesterday Trump suggested everyone watch "Justice With Judge Jeanine" on Fox that night. She led off the show with a blistering attack on Paul Ryan and demanded his immediate resignation for letting down our heroic President in such spectacular fashion

"No one expects Mr. Trump, an amazingly successful businessman, to know the ins and outs of Congress or the bill" was her excuse for why Trump shares not the slightest blame.

It should be remembered that the Freedom Caucus was eventually turned off by Trump's visits because it became clear he didn't know what was in the bill, and didn't actually care about their concerns. He wanted something to pass for PR reasons and that's the only justification he could ever really comment on.

On another note, Judge Jeanine is a truly abominable show and she has one of the most grating voices on television. She gives Hannity a run for his money in terms of being a Trump sycophant so, sorry, Eric Bolling, you're now bumped down to #3 at Fox. It's also worth researching Judge Jeanine's political career and especially her now ex-husband and his rumored mob ties. I guess she and Trump have known each other for decades as well.

[Jeff Buchanan]

While Trump is no doubt a clown, there is some validity in his position that the president understand the big picture while his principal advisers know the details.

FDR had a guy by the name of Harry Hopkins, He was the principal adviser and front man for Roosevelt on the New Deal. He was effective in getting legislation through Congress, bypassing FDR's political enemies in the process. Hopkin's advantage? A united Democratic Party .... resistance to New Deal legislation was coming from a disorganized Republican party.

Trump is battling probably the most dysfunctional republican party in its history. It is not entirely inappropriate for Trump to orchestrate the lampooning of it's principal leader, Speaker Ryan.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Even if you're a 'big picture" guy, you need to be able to argue for something beyond just the political upside of something. Dismissing details as "little shit" also demonstrates that you aren't really interested in learning about the subject. The President doesn't need to be a policy wonk but when crafting legislation needs to present an argument beyond politics. It sounds like Trump would not be able to put together a coherent explanation as to why this bill would've been better than Obamacare on the substance.

On the Republican Party...I saw a quote somewhere (will try to find it) that argued that the Republicans are united in what they oppose/hate, but completely disorganized when it comes to governance. As they're learning, being the Opposition Party is significantly easier.

[Dr. Strangelove]

And to follow up on that...I said it a few days ago, the House took over 50 symbolic votes to repeal Obamacare back when Obama was still President. They did so with the comfort of knowing Obama would veto it every time. Taking all these votes was a way of saying to their voters that they were tough, committed, and it was only the Tyrant Obama holding them back.

Well, today they know that whatever they pass will become law and THEY will be the ones responsible. It's a lot tougher to show the same guts in that situation.

Likewise, the more it looked like the bill would fail, the more Republicans suddenly flipped to being opposed. It's all well and good if the whole party gets on board the sinking ship together, but a lot of moderates didn't want to be on the record as having supported this turkey if it didn't pass.

And not to drone on, but keep hearing from Trumpkins that Congress should have listened to the American voters (who put Trump in the WH) and passed this bill. I would ask: who was it really that was ignoring the American voters? The Congressmen or the White House? Because poll after poll, no matter the group, showed this bill as being enormously unpopular. Perhaps this went on in the Obama years too (I don't remember it for Bush), but I'm hearing an awful lot of pro-Trump talking heads act as if Congress exists to carry out Trump's wishes; they aren't meant to have a mind of their own.

[froot loops]

Some of these report and rumors of Flynn/Russia/Turkey/FBI are hitting all the beats of a Grisham novel. When we start seeing bylines of Gray Grantham and Darby Shaw, we know shit is getting real.

The thing about the health care bill and listening to the voters in nobody in the GOP campaigned on anything remotely like the AHCA. Certainly not Donald Trump, he was going to replace it with something much better for patients, there was no constituency besides the wealthy that really got anything out of it. It might have favored the young and healthy because premiums could go down but they weren't the Trump voters for the most part.

[AlabamAlum]

Make no mistake, Obamacare is not a great scheme. It was hastily made, contradictory in many places, and put a huge burden on the lower middle and middle class to pay for it. Further, in the coming years, you will see more insurers opt out of the exchanges, and more doctors that refuse these patients or extremely limit the number of exchange patients they accept.

If the ACA is going to work long-term, it needs some major re-working and adjustment. The issue now is that Trump and the R's will let it sit there so they can use the plan's negative impact as a political poker chip.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Tweets that haven't aged well. Newt's is especially good

[ame]https://twitter.com/newtgingrich/status/310167482142978049[/ame]

[ame]https://twitter.com/KellyannePolls/status/517504718722318336[/ame]

[ame]https://twitter.com/Reince/status/502836350975229952[/ame]

[entropy]

DSL... I think you need a hobby.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Make no mistake, Obamacare is not a great scheme. It was hastily made, contradictory in many places, and put a huge burden on the lower middle and middle class to pay for it. Further, in the coming years, you will see more insurers opt out of the exchanges, and more doctors that refuse these patients or extremely limit the number of exchange patients they accept.

If the ACA is going to work long-term, it needs some major re-working and adjustment. The issue now is that Trump and the R's will let it sit there so they can use the plan's negative impact as a political poker chip.

I agree with this ......reimbursement from HC policies gotten through the ACA exchanges in GA is pitiful; well below the actual cost of the encounter including salaries and overhead. Out-patient surgery clinics that I know of (small sample size) are not going to be able to keep the doors open. Costs in a family practice type setting, like I work in, are lower but still, margins are extremely thin. This environment is no more sustainable than that of the perceived high cost of public programs like Medicare and Medicaid or the single payor systems that have been talked about.

So what next? I think AA is right about the ACA needing some re-working. There are both good and bad parts about it ..... in my view the political deal making to get it passed made it pretty terrible as it is now but still, there are some good ideas in it.

The only way something good is going to eventuate is if a certain degree of politics is eliminated - and you'll never be able to eliminate the deal making - from the process of developing an effective and financially sustainable plan.

My view is that it is imminently doable. Hard? Of course it is. A hybrid of HC delivery mechanisms that blend free market principals with government paid for programs is obtainable. The reality is that the current leadership appears to be incapable of taking charge and hammering out a plan like this. Let's hope for a short Trump presidency and burial of The Freedom Caucus's hard line stance that stands for an unrealistic disconnect between Federal government and the provision of reliable and affordable health care for US citizens.

Fer-God's sake, this is America!

[SeattleLionsFan]

You are right Jeff. This is America, where everything everyone else in the world does is impossible.

[Jeff Buchanan]

SLF, well, yes.

I'm a glass half full kinda guy. On balance, the thing that America has going for it is innovation ..... in the form of ideas and applications.

I think it critical to avoid oppressive regulatory environments that stifle (or make innovation less appealing - profitable, actually) for entrepreneurs.

At the same time, Government has some role, albeit a limited one, IMO, to regulate to the extent that free enterprise is a desirable thing yet not so desirable that class conflict eventuates.

I believe there are ways to do this. My biggest concern is that effective governance is only achievable through exceptional leadership; I'm not sure government in general is attracting the best and the brightest these days and it is a bit unsettling to think that some major crisis for our country is the only thing that will deliver it.

[Dr. Strangelove]

This story comes from the British press so it's to be approached with caution, but believable...Trump had a bill for $300 Billion pounds be printed up and handed to Merkel when they met a couple weeks ago. The meeting didn't go so well

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-angela-merkel-nato-bill-defence-ignore-usa-germany-spending-a7650636.html

Edit: Merkel's party just won a big victory in Saarland state elections today, expected to outperform there the last election in 2012

[Dr. Strangelove]

At least 700 people arrested in Moscow alone as nationwide protests against corruption took place