Tag Archives: republican

All Posts, donald trump, government ethics, Russia and Trump

Adlai Stevenson for President

originally published 1/19/2019

2019 has barely begun, but the first candidates for our 2020 Presidential election are already forming teams and making themselves heard around the nation.  While considering how to write about that, I came across quotations from Adlai Stevenson, a very thoughtful candidate that we didn’t elect.  Running as a Democrat, he lost twice to President Eisenhower, in 1952 and 1956.  Here are some of his thoughts.  (Women reading this, please forgive his exclusive use of masculine pronouns.  It was the manner of speech at the time.) Continue reading Adlai Stevenson for President →

All Posts, American Foreign Policy, budget, Congress, Constitution, donald trump, immigration

THE WALL IS INSIGNIFICANT

originally published 1/16/2019

Benjamin Franklin supposedly described our new form of government to a citizen as “a republic, if you can keep it”.  A republic is a sovereign nation where power resides in elected individuals representing citizens, and where government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law.  The debate over whether to build a wall along our border with Mexico is no longer about the wall.  It is about whether we are still a republic. Continue reading THE WALL IS INSIGNIFICANT →

All Posts, civil rights, donald trump, race, randolph county north carolina

LET’S MAKE RACISM UNACCEPTABLE

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The Washington Post recently published a story (READ IT HERE) that took place where I live , Randolph County, North Carolina.  It features local people but it is actually about President Donald Trump’s support of racism.  Similar stories can be found in towns, cities and rural areas

To enter our historic courthouse for a meeting of the County Commissioners, one must walk past an armed Confederate Soldier who fought to preserve slaveryi. It's perceived as a racist message by many descendants of slaves.
To enter our historic courthouse for a meeting of the County Commissioners, one must walk past an armed Confederate Soldier who fought to preserve slavery. It’s perceived as a racist message by many descendants of slaves.

all across America.  For reasons unknown to me, the writer picked the story of the Trogdon family and our community to make her point: overt racist activities are on the rise; and the President of the United States has encouraged it. Continue reading LET’S MAKE RACISM UNACCEPTABLE →

All Posts, Christianity, civil rights, donald trump, justice, taxes, war

Follow Dr King out of Trump’s shithole

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President Trump’s remarks about “Shithole” nations and his desire for more immigration from (white) Northern Europe are a perfect contrast to our January 15 national day of recognition for Dr. Martin Luther King Junior – born January 15, 1929.  Except for an assassin’s bullet, he might have celebrated his 89th birthday today.  Instead he was killed before reaching the age of forty.

Click below to hear singer-songwriter Patty Griffin’s reflection on Dr King’s final speech and what his final prayer might have been before he died

Dr. King is rightly remembered as a principal leader of the civil rights movement that brought legal equality for Americans of African descent, at least on paper.  The struggle to fully achieve the promise of equality under the law continues to this day.

Today, I think it is important to remember that in his final years, Dr King had expanded his mission and ministry to encompass two additional concerns: He supported and expanded the peace movement that sought to bring American troops home from our military incursions into the affairs of other nations, principally Vietnam.  The second new subject was economic justice.  He saw, even in the 1960s, the concentration of extreme wealth among a few privileged Americans while laborers were unable to support families.  On the day that he was killed, he was in Memphis to support the demands of sanitation workers for improved wages and working conditions.

Dr King was not abandoning his civil rights mission.  He was expanding it.  The war affected everyone, regardless of race, through unnecessary killing and through the waste of economic resources that could have been used to improve American lives.  Economic inequality and injustice to working Americans affected minorities disproportionately but it was abundantly clear that a permanent, generation-spanning economic underclass existed in every race.  Insulting labels from that era such as “poor white trash” and “nigger” have not lost or changed their meaning in the half century since Dr King’s death.  They still refer to people who have had few opportunities for economic and educational advancement.  They are the victims of an economy and a nation that has no need for their limited skills and little motivation help them find opportunities.  How different, really, are the problems of the white Appalachian coal miner, the rural southern black, and the small town and urban workers of all races who lost jobs to automation?

Dr King saw clearly that we can all succeed together by creating opportunities for personal and economic growth through education and social safety net programs.  How ironic is it that Norway (the nation from which President Trump would like to have more immigration) has done what Dr King suggested?  Proponents of creating those programs here in the US are often derisively  called “socialists”.   It is precisely because of those socialist programs that very few people want to leave Norway.  People like it there.  Not only do they share their wealth, they have more to share.  In Norway, the average economic output per person is $70, 392 compared to $57,436 for Americans.  What a surprise!  A nation that strives to provide opportunities for everyone is more productive than one which ignores the needs of its poorest citizens.

Americans have responded to our problems by forming a circular firing squad – shooting (sometimes literally) at each other rather than lifting each other up, as Dr King would have taught.  Now we have elected a President and a Republican congressional majority who have cut taxes on corporations at a time when corporate profits are at record highs; cut taxes on the wealthiest Americans at a time when they already own a greater share of our national wealth than at any time on record; and will borrow money that we all have to repay in order to fund their gifts to the wealthy.  They also plan to drastically increase military spending for the longest and arguably least justified wars in American history.

Unfortunately, I must agree with President Trump that there is indeed a “shithole”.  He and the Republican congress are pushing us into it.  We’ll have to climb out using the remaining resources that they haven’t wasted.  We can do that if we will quit blaming the victims of poverty for their condition and begin focusing our efforts on creating opportunity for every American to achieve her or his full potential.  Success in that endeavor will be the measure of a great nation.

 

 

All Posts, American Foreign Policy, budget, Congress, deficit, donald trump, medicaid, taxes

THE PRESIDENT OF CHAOS

The picture on my computer screen should be better so I tried adjusting it.  That made it worse so I’ll hit it with a sledgehammer and see if that helps.  Unfortunately, that foolish approach is being applied by President Trump to vital national interests like health care,  defense,  immigration, and budgets.

One of Trump’s competitors, Jeb Bush predicted the problem back in 2015 saying,  “Donald, you know, is great at the one-liners.  But he’s a chaos candidate.  And he’d be a chaos president.  He would not be the commander-in-chief we need to keep our country safe.”

Never a dull moment...
Never a dull moment…

President Trump promised to repeal and replace Obamacare with something better: “We’re going to have insurance for everybody…There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”…“I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid”.

As President, Trump never proposed a way to provide health care regardless of Americans’ ability to pay for it and he did support cutting Medicaid.  Obamacare has insured about 20 million Americans who had no benefits before the law passed; and at the same time it has slowed the growth of the nation’s healthcare spending.  It’s a success but it needs improvement.  When nothing that he or other Republicans proposed passed, Trump swung his sledgehammer at Obamacare’s most vulnerable spot, the individual markets.  He announced termination of the federal  subsidy to insurance companies for low-income subscribers.  That will damage the already fragile individual insurance markets in some communities – breaking our healthcare system without a plan to replace it.

Trump threatens to withdraw from our agreement with Iran, under which they shut down their nuclear weapons program and gave up 98 percent of their nuclear materials.  The agreement was designed with one goal in mind – don’t let Iran develop  nuclear weapons.  We managed to get Russia, all of Europe and China on the same page because they all agreed with that goal; and it was our combined power that made the deal possible.  Trump can’t persuade Iran to do other things that he wants so out comes the sledgehammer to break the Iran agreement.  If the deal falls apart and if China, Russia and Europe go their own ways, there will be nothing to restrain Iran’s nuclear ambitions.  By destroying the Iran deal without a plan to replace it Trump also tells other nations  that any President can ignore commitments made by his predecessors.  The USA will be seen as untrustworthy.

The DACA program for children brought to the US illegally is an imperfect solution to a problem that congress has been unwilling to address.  Trump promises to hit it with his sledgehammer – forcing law enforcement to round-up and deport children and young adults who have lived most of their lives as Americans.  Again, he has no plan for replacing what he will destroy.  Many young adults will be driven to hide in an underground economy where they have little opportunity for success.  That’s a breeding ground for dissension, hopelessness and crime.

Trump plans to hit your wallet with a sledgehammer too – by cutting taxes, mostly for the wealthy, while increasing military spending and  our national debt at even faster rates than his predecessors.  Americans will have to repay that debt at some future date.  Our ability to borrow money for a true catastrophe or war is already impaired because so much of our debt capacity has been used.  We currently owe $20 trillion.  That is about $62,000 for every American or $161,600 for every American who works at a full or part-time job.

Donald Trump again proposes the sledgehammer approach saying,  “I am the king of debt,”…”I love debt. I love playing with it.”  and “I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal”…”And if the economy was good, it was good. So therefore, you can’t lose.”  When he says “make a deal”, that means refusing to pay our debt, most of which is owed to Americans.  It’s not the same as letting one of his casinos go bankrupt.

If the Republican congress allows President Trump to deliver more sledgehammer blows to our nation, the resulting chaos will belong personally to Donald Trump and each legislator who supported him.  The GOP will own the chaos but the American people (including DACA kids) will pay a heavy price for it.

All Posts, Congress, economy, health, medicaid, north carolina

Congressional Legislative Malpractice

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The 13 Senators who drafted a bill to replace Obamacare are all Republican, male, white, over age 40, and prosperous.  California, Florida and New York, which together account for one-fourth of our population, were not in the room but there were two Senators from number fifty Wyoming.

Discussing diverse opinions is one way to identify and avoid unintended consequences of new legislation. Do Republicans think that women, middle class, minorities, young, poor, and other Americans left out of the process have no ideas worthy of consideration?

They did their work in secret meetings without input by experts in health policy or economics, out of the sight of the public and the press.  The result is a political bill to satisfy Republican ideology with little regard for facts or alternatives.

Previously, Republicans in the House of Representatives passed a similar bill that was designed behind closed doors without serious public hearings, expert testimony or debate.  They proceeded despite a Congressional Budget Office projection that it would cause 23 million Americans to become uninsured.  The CBO’s estimate of spending reductions from the bill  amount to $43 per month saved for each person who loses health benefits – not a good deal!

There’s no doubt that Obamacare has serious problems in the individual and small employer exchanges.  Republicans try to mislead us into believing that those troubles mean that the law is failing.  It isn’t.   Because of Obamacare 20 million more Americans are now insured and the rate of growth in total health care spending is lower than it was before Obamacare.  It is a successful law that needs improvements.

Bluntly, Republican lawmakers don’t believe that all Americans should receive basic health care regardless of their ability to pay and they’re willing to let other Americans die for that ideology.  Republican leadership intends to pass their bill before Americans understand that it will cause more people to lose health benefits,  more healthcare related family bankruptcies and more individuals suffering death or disability.

Rushing ill-considered bills through a legislature to satisfy an ideology is not limited to the congress.  North Carolina Republicans imagined an “emergency” when Charlotte passed a civil rights ordinance allowing transgender citizens to use restroom facilities consistent with their gender identity (and, in most cases, consistent with their physical appearance).  Rather than holding hearings and carefully considering what (if any) legislation was needed, they packed the infamous HB-2 with unrelated and controversial provisions then passed it as “emergency” legislation.  If standard legislative processes had been followed, a more appropriate response (or no response) to Charlotte’s ordinance might have been made.  HB-2 has been mostly repealed, but the damage to the state’s reputation remains and some economic losses will never be recovered.

Similarly, North Carolina Republicans gerrymandered the state’s congressional and legislative districts through secret processes.  They hired attorneys who hired consultants to design legislative districts that would give massive election advantages to Republicans.  Because the work was done through attorneys, they were able to claim attorney-client privilege as justification for refusing to let the public and the press see exactly how they instructed the consultants.  The US Supreme Court ruled that the result of their work was racial discrimination.  It again seems obvious that an open process with public hearings could have produced a better outcome.

If Republicans were practicing medicine rather than legislating, their negligence would be called malpractice.  They circumvented the rules and procedures  that  assure thoughtful deliberation before laws are passed. That violates American values, undermines trust in government and exposes us all to the negative consequences of ill-considered laws.

Senate Republicans plan to debate, amend and pass a healthcare bill back to the House of Representatives in 10 days, with no public hearings and no expert testimony.  As an example of the unanticipated consequences of doing that, unemployed Republican rural voters in the coal mining areas of the Kentucky mountains will probably lose their Medicaid benefits and see closure of clinics opened to serve them under Obamacare.  Health care has added more jobs than mining lost in the Kentucky mountains.  Similar outcomes are inevitable in other places.  The damage to the credibility of our legislative processes is severe.  Worst of all, Americans will die as a result of Republican legislative malpractice.

All Posts, donald trump, health, medicaid

DO YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO HEALTH CARE?

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The legendary American philosopher Yogi Berra supposedly said, “If you don’t know where you want to go, you’ll end up someplace else.”  That is the story of American health care.  We have not decided whether health care is a “right” for all Americans or a “privilege” for those who can pay.  It seems that health care is a right for some of the people all of the time and for all of the people some of the time but not for all of the people all of the time.  If you find that confusing, then you’re on the right track.  We haven’t chosen our destination and we have arrived at a place that confuses and frustrates us.

Health care with little or no out-of-pocket expense is a lifetime right for veterans and for prisoners serving life sentences.  I can’t think of any other large groups who have that benefit.  Medicare eligibility bestows a permanent right to most health care for those who pay their out-of-pocket share.  The rest of us have temporary and partial rights that depend on our employment, wealth, personal choices and luck.

Our national debate should be about who has a right to health care, which elements of health care are included, who will pay for it, and how the cost will be paid.  Arguments about whether or how to replace or repeal ObamaCare (the Affordable Care Act) are pointless and counterproductive until we make a firm national decision about whether health care is a right.  Where do we want to go?

Critics of ObamaCare point to extremely high insurance premiums in some of the exchanges where insurance is sold to individuals and small groups.  Some areas of the country have only one insurance company participating in exchanges.  Those problems are real but correctable.  They occur in local segments of the healthcare marketplace and are worst in states that resisted ObamaCare by refusing the Medicaid expansion.

Here’s a snapshot of what ObamaCare has accomplished.  The annual rate of increase in health care spending (both government and private) was 3.3 percent before ObamaCare.  It dropped to 2.7 percent after ObamaCare was implemented.  Simultaneously, the number of uninsured Americans decreased by 20 million.  That is a picture of success.

President Trump’s promises sound amazingly like President Obama’s.  For example, on January 15, 2017 Mr. Trump said, “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.” …People covered under the law “can expect to have great health care. It will be in a much simplified form. Much less expensive and much better.”  In the same interview, he claimed that the people covered by Medicaid expansion would continue to have coverage.

A credible replacement for ObamaCare should improve on its performance.  But according to the Congressional Budget Office (non-partisan and under Republican supervision) the bill that Republicans tried to rush through congress would have led to 52 million uninsured (4 million more than before ObamaCare).   Less thorough analysis from the highly respected Commonwealth Fund agrees.   The President and Congressional Republicans dispute the CBO estimates but they have produced no research to support their conclusions.  It’s all based on their opinions.

Two principles of ObamaCare are that basic health care is a right for all Americans and that everyone should be required to participate in the cost.  Those principles are implemented through the individual mandate to purchase approved coverage along with Medicaid expansion for the very poor.  Approved coverage includes  services for prevention and early diagnosis of health problems that often lead to premature death, disability and extreme expenses.  The Republican plan lacked similar features and would produce more late stage diagnoses of illnesses that were preventable but not curable once they occur.

Because there was no individual mandate in the Republican bill, there would be two options for care of those who don’t pay.  Either provide the care and build the cost into the bills of those who do pay or let those who can’t pay suffer or die without care.   The individual mandate is better than either of those alternatives.

What should we do?  I have asked for a meeting with my (Republican) Congressman.  I want to show him the evidence that I’ve found and I want him to show me any evidence that the Republican replacement would produce better results. What will you do?  Your answer will come to you after you decisively answer this question, “If the person that I love most in this world is sick and broke, does she /he have a right to health care?” ___________________________________________________________________________

Evaluate performance data from the US and other developed nations HERE using tools developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

This prior column  contains links to references and more evidence.

 

 

All Posts, economy, environment

A Republican Plan for Climate Change?

A group of conservative Republican leaders has published a credible sounding proposal for slowing climate change, a goal previously championed mostly by liberal Democrats.  The proposal, if scientifically and economically valid, could unite those who care about our climate across partisan and culture war divides. We face an increasingly urgent threat to mankind’s future.  This proposal deserves immediate objective study and all the collaboration we can muster.

The idea is called a “Carbon Dividends Plan”.   They have organized as “The Climate Council“.  You can click the link to see their work and hear them discuss it.  Here are the basics: Continue reading A Republican Plan for Climate Change? →

All Posts, civil rights, Constitution, justice, religion

WHO MAKES YOUR DECISIONS?

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There is a rising chorus of threats against the rights of Americans to make decisions about their own bodies.  Yes, I’m writing about abortion, not because I want to but because we now have a President and a Republican congressional majority who intend to impose their version of morality on every individual.  It’s un-American.  It’s dictatorial.  It’s patriarchal.  And they will absolutely do it unless freedom loving people stand up to them.

As preface, let’s acknowledge that consideration of abortion arises at a very difficult time in a woman’s life.  Our question is, “Who will make the decision, the woman or the government?”  Our judgments about her choice or her conscience are merely opinions.   Who decides?

For historical perspective, abortion is recorded in the earliest human histories.  Plato, for example, noted the ability of midwives to “…cause miscarriages if they think them desirable…”  Herbs, drugs and physical procedures for abortion have been generally known and widely used in every culture.  There is occasional documentation of moral or religious objections but historically, abortion was widely accepted without legal regulation or intervention.  The greatest concern was the risk posed by procedures and toxic herbs used to induce abortions.

In colonial and early America, abortion was common practice.  In the 19th century it was openly advertised and it was estimated that 20-25 percent of pregnancies were terminated by abortion.  Birth control options were limited; and at least half of abortions were among married women who had children and didn’t want or couldn’t afford more.

American religious objections evolved into attempts to ban abortion in the late 19th century, spurred by opposition to the emerging women’s rights and suffrage movements.  One notorious example of that radical religious movement is the Comstock Law of 1873.  It banned publication and teaching (even in medical schools) of any information regarding birth control, abortion or prevention of venereal disease.  Religious extremists had taken charge of the congress but clinics offering abortions continued to operate in many American cities.  Abortion continued to be available (often illegally and often dangerously) across the nation until the 1973 Supreme Court decision that overturned anti-abortion laws.

Since that time, misogynists and religious zealots have been fighting to re-impose their will on pregnant women.  Our Republican President and Congress are among them.  They certainly have the right to believe and teach whatever they choose; but they have no right to limit a woman’s full control of her own body.  That is where the battle line is drawn.

It is the nature of freedom that a person may do things – even make mistakes – which the majority of society disapproves.  For example, we allow parents to feed their children so much junk food that they are grossly obese, diabetic and destined for a life of disability before they start school. We don’t put the parents in jail for it.  Meanwhile religious zealots, obsessed with other people’s pelvic morality, insist on controlling one singular and personal aspect of a woman’s life – her pregnancy.

Among the zealots are those who put a velvet glove on the iron hand of tyranny by saying that they would allow abortion in cases of rape, or when the woman’s life would be endangered by the pregnancy. Their self-righteousness leaves them with no doubt that they know better what is right for her and her body than she does. They reserve to themselves the right to judge her motives and to require that if her sexual encounter was consensual then she will be denied an abortion.  Can you think of any other issue where laws might delve so intensely into personal matters?

Invariably we wish that whatever problem caused a woman to decide for abortion had not occurred.  With that in mind, we should acknowledge and celebrate the fact that the abortion rate in America is now at or near the lowest level in our history.  That success is due in large part to good information about birth control and inexpensive access to it.  But our nation is divided, even on that.

Abortions will continue because the reasons why some women choose them have not changed since Plato’s time.  But if Republicans have their way, abortions won’t be legal and safe.  If religious zealots are allowed to impose their will through force of law, they won’t stop with abortion, and you need not bother ask for whom the bell will toll.  It will toll for freedom.

All Posts, deficit, health, medicaid

Replacing Obamacare

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President Trump and our Republican controlled congress have promised to quickly repeal and replace ObamaCare.  President Trump says that coverage will be better, cost will be lower, and everyone will be covered.

We should consider where we were before ObamaCare and where we are today as a basis for judging proposed replacements.  Using the years 2004 – 2009 as a baseline for how we were doing before ObamaCare and 2010 – 2015 as a measure of its effectiveness, here are some facts.

Each of the following statistics is for five years of change before and after ObamaCare.   All spending is inflation adjusted to 2010 dollars.

Below is similar cost data from a different source and a link that will allow you to browse a wealth of relevant information.

The cost of employer sponsored health plans has been growing slower since ObamaCare.
The cost of employer sponsored health plans has been growing slower since ObamaCare.

Evaluate performance data from the US and other developed nations HERE using tools developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

 

 

Some other changes brought about by ObamaCare are:

  • Before ObamaCare, important screenings like colonoscopies and mammograms were unaffordable for many people.  Now they are covered without deductibles.
  • Insurance companies and employers can no longer deny coverage or charge more for pre-existing conditions.  Previously, cancer survivors, diabetics and others likely to need expensive care were uninsurable on most family budgets.
  • Lifetime limits on coverage were banned.
  • Mental health services are covered on the same basis as other medical and surgical services
  • Dependents can stay on parents’ coverage up to age 26.

ObamaCare is a success compared to what we had before it passed.  But health care costs are still rising faster than our economy is growing and we still have over 28 million uninsured Americans so more improvement is needed.

The ObamaCare insurance exchanges where individuals and small employers should be able to purchase affordable coverage are not consistently working well .  Millions of young, healthy Americans are not buying coverage as required by the law.  That leaves a disproportionate number of unhealthy and older people in these insurance pools.  In markets where that has happened, premiums have risen at double-digit rates and several insurance companies dropped out, leaving meager choices for consumers.

That problem leads directly to critical questions about replacing ObamaCare.  Will congress decide that it’s acceptable for some Americans to have no health benefits?  If everyone is going to have benefits, is there a less expensive alternative than Medicaid expansion?  If so, will it be included in the Republican replacement for ObamaCare?  If not, will it then be acceptable for doctors, hospitals and other health care providers to deny services to those who can’t pay?  To be very clear to free market friends, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”  If the ObamaCare replacement does not include a way to pay for care of the uninsured then either they will die without care or the cost will be built into your bills and insurance premiums.

There are proven ways to provide more care for less money while covering the entire population.  Every other developed nation has adopted one of them and they are all more cost-effective than ObamaCare.  They range from price controls to “medicare for all” or government operated health care similar to the British model.  All of them require a larger role for government and that seems to be the antithesis of Republican thinking.  President Trump said that no one should be required to buy health insurance.  At present it appears that he intends to provide something (health care) for everyone without requiring anyone to pay for it – a miracle of biblical proportion.

We can hope that the post-election hostility will wane in favor of intelligent consideration of how to replace or improve ObamaCare. It can be done if legislators and the President are willing to forego political rhetoric for what is practical.  If they are not, then both human and economic catastrophes are likely.