Category: Politics

Koch Influence In The Trump Administration…

The long reach of the Koch bothers into American conservative/libertarian politics now reaches to the Trump administration.  They have been actively involved in exerting influence on politicians for years. Their primary goals are to strip regulation on business and reduce tax responsibilities on the wealthiest of Americans.

They must certainly be pleased with “brother” Trump.

The Intercept – IF THE BILLIONAIRE Koch brothers turn to the White House for favors, they will see many familiar faces.

Newly disclosed ethics forms reveal that a significant number of senior Trump staffers were previously employed by the sprawling network of hard-right and libertarian advocacy groups financed and controlled by Charles and David Koch, the conservative duo hyper-focused on entrenching Republican power, eliminating taxes, and slashing environmental and labor regulations.

Some of the relationships were well-known. Marc Short, for instance, now Trump’s chief liaison to Congress, previously led Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, the dark money nonprofit used by the Koch brothers and their donor cohort to dispense money to allied groups. Freedom Partners, which maintains an affiliate Super PAC, was at the center of the Kochs’ $750 million election effort during the campaign last year.

But the ethics forms, made available to the public on Friday evening, reveal a number of previously undisclosed financial ties between the Koch network and Trump’s inner circle of political aides.

Donald McGahn, Trump’s campaign attorney turned White House counsel, provided legal services to a range of outside Koch groups working to influence the election. McGahn, through the law firm Jones Day, advised Freedom Partners, as well as i360, the Koch’s big data firm set up to identify and target voters, and Americans for Prosperity, the election advocacy and grassroots lobbying organization run by the Koch brothers. Ann Donaldson, McGahn’s chief of staff, came to the White House from McGahn’s law firm. Her financial disclosure shows that she also provided legal services to Freedom Partners and i360.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former campaign manager turned close White House advisor, consulted over the last year for Americans for Prosperity’s national foundation, as well as for the Michigan and Ohio chapters of the group. Conway served as a board member for the Independent Women’s Forum, a Koch-backed group whose goal is “increasing the number of women who value free markets and personal liberty.”

Article conrinues BELOW THE FOLD.

“1984” And The Rise Of Trump…

Image result for images of George Orwell's 1984
“In particular, this undermining of the concept of facts and the demonization of foreign enemies [by the Trump administration] really resonate in ‘1984″

“No one is suggesting that we’re living in Orwell’s world. But the road to that world is people just becoming disengaged and allowing their government to do whatever it wants.”

This Tuesday close to 200 movie theatres worldwide will be showing the film adaptation of George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984”. For those who have read Orwell’s depiction of a society controlled by  totalitarian single party rule in which government surveillance of its citizens is commonplace (Big Brother is Watching You) and truth is whatever the government wishes it to be can’t help but see parallels with the Trump administration and the conservative movement in America today.

We applaud the efforts by Dylan Skolnick, and Adam Birnbaum in organizing the event and hope it cast more light on the insidious trend of conservative politics woldwide and the Trump administration in particular.

Find the complete article from THE HILL right here.

Trump May Be In The Mood To Compromise With Dems To Get A Healthcare Deal…

“If we don’t get what we want, we will make a deal with the Democrats and we will have — in my opinion — not as good a form of healthcare, but we are going to have a very good form of healthcare and it will be a bipartisan form of healthcare.” 

Whether or not President Trump actually means what he said remains to be seen. He has been all over the road meandering his way to little success thus far. So, maybe the reality show host has finally learned that being wealthy, a braggart, and a whiner just cut it in politics or governing. Not in a democratic republic anyway.

If in fact Trump can convince enough congressional republicans, forget about the hardheaded/knuckleheads of the so-called Freedom Caucus, to work with democrats in a truly bipartisan way that results in a healthcare system that works for all Americans we’ll be on board and pulling hard for Trump to succeed. Because if he is true to his word this time America will succeed.

We’re gonna hold our breath for a bit and give Trump a chance to put his “famed” deal making expertise at work on this one. Hopefully he won’t disappoint.

From THE HILL:

President Trump will “make a deal with the Democrats” if Republicans can’t get their way on healthcare.

In an interview published Sunday in the Financial Times, Trump said negotiations on healthcare are ongoing, just a week after Republican measures to repeal and replace ObamaCare failed to get a vote in the House.

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The GOP measures that failed last month were met with skepticism from both conservative lawmakers and centrist Republicans. Members of the House Freedom Caucus argued in favor a clean repeal of ObamaCare, while moderate Republicans expressed concern over the new plan’s dismantling of ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion.

Since Republicans pulled the bill from the House floor last month, Trump has criticized several Freedom Caucus members over their vocal opposition to the GOP proposal.

In the interview with the Financial Times, Trump said if he works to recruit Democrats, then the “Freedom Caucus loses so big.”

“Well I will get the Democrats if I go the second way. The second way, which I hate to see, then the Freedom Caucus loses so big and I hate to see that, because … our plan is going to be a very good plan. When I say our plan, not phase one just: phase one, two and three added up is a great plan …” said Trump.

Of course there is no certainty Democrats will be in any mood to work with a man who has spent his time do little if anything to build trust and respect.

Hoping for a sea change resulting in cooperation that finally yields a win-win outcome that sets America on real change and AFFORDABLE heath insurance for all. Middle America needs some help here.

GOP and Health-Care Mandates

 

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“You’re just looking for a handout,” mothers! Photo: Universal Pictures

America’s conservatives and republicans are interested in ideology and selfish interests. Not the he general welfare of the American people. They haven’t been for the last 40 years. It’s just becoming more pronounced.

BTW, selfish interests are NOT the same as rational self-interest.

The single most unifying idea to change Obamacare among conservatives is to eliminate the law’s “essential health benefits.” These burdensome mandates of which treatments insurance has to cover make Obamacare too expensive, conservatives say. Their problem is that the list of required essential health benefits includes actually only, well, essential ones. If the list did include any frivolous treatments, like cosmetic surgery or some goofy alternative-medicine quack scheme, that’s all you’d hear about. But it doesn’t. So the single example conservatives come up with, over and over, is maternity care. Today it appears in Charles Krauthammer’s column:

Even more significant would be stripping out the heavy-handed Obamacare coverage mandate that dictates what specific medical benefits must be included in every insurance policy in the country, regardless of the purchaser’s desires or needs.

Best to mandate nothing. Let the customer decide. A 60-year-old couple doesn’t need maternity coverage. Why should they be forced to pay for it? And I don’t know about you, but I don’t need lactation services.

The thing to understand is that mandating covering maternity care doesn’t affect the total cost of insurance. It only changes the distribution of the costs. It’s not like Charles Krauthammer’s insurance forces him to actually go through childbirth. It merely means that his premiums help pay for other people’s maternity care.

If health insurance could sell plans that did not cover childbirth, then young women of childbearing age would be the only people who bought plans that covered it. And having a baby would be extremely expensive. Indeed, in the unregulated market that existed before Obamacare, it was common for women to buy insurance they believed covered their childbirth but in fact did not. In 2009, Sarah Wildman described her not-atypical experience of getting a $20,000 bill from her insurance company for a standard delivery.

And it is true that, if we let Krauthammer buy insurance that didn’t cover maternity care, that change would, on its own, reduce Krauthammer’s premiums. That reform would make sense if you think of having a baby as some kind of yuppie extravagance. This notion was, not long ago, considered so self-evidently absurd that it could be the premise of a Simpsons joke:

Homer Simpson: I can’t fake an interest in this, and I’m an expert at faking an interest in your kooky projects.

Marge Simpson: What kooky projects?

Homer Simpson: You know, the painting class, the first-aid course, the whole Lamaze thing.

Now the entire Republican Party is Homer Simpson.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Continue reading HERE.