Progressive Discussion - Friday 1/27

I'm starting to really warm up to Lindsey Graham. Hope he won't decide to just fall in line like the other lemmings. At least he has a sense of humor.

And Go Bernie, telling it like it is!

Donald Trump spoke at the biennial Republican retreat yesterday and made an unexpected acknowledgement. The new president said he recently spoke to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) about “just doing nothing” with health care policy “for two years,” ignoring possible reforms to the Affordable Care Act, in the hopes that the system would struggle and hurt Democrats in the 2018 midterms.

Trump said he ultimately decided against that route, but as the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman noted, the remark was nevertheless instructive: according to the president himself, he’s open to playing politics with Americans’ lives.

Keep that in mind when reading this Politico scoop from last night.
The Trump administration has pulled the plug on all Obamacare outreach and advertising in the crucial final days of the 2017 enrollment season, according to sources at Health and Human Services and on Capitol Hill.

Even ads that had already been placed and paid for have been pulled, the sources told POLITICO…. It is also halting all media outreach designed to spur signups in the days leading up to the deadline. Emails are no longer being sent out to individuals who visited HealthCare.gov, the enrollment website, to encourage them to finish signing up. Those emails had proven highly successful in getting stragglers to complete enrollment before the deadline.
The point, obviously, is to try to sabotage the Affordable Care Act. The enrollment deadline isn’t until Tuesday, and because so many consumers wait until the last minute, the last few days are crucial.

The Trump administration, however, has decided to stop letting Americans know about their options – not to save money, since the ads were already bought and paid for, but because the White House doesn’t want people to participate and get covered.

Vox’s Sarah Kliff added, “For Obamacare to work, it needs a lot of young people to sign up. Young adults typically have lower health care costs, so they can help balance out the hefty medical bills of older enrollees…. With less outreach at the very end of the open enrollment period, former Obamacare officials expect they’ll have fewer sign-ups from young adults.”

For Trump World, this is, of course, the point. The White House doesn’t want the system to work, so the president’s team is taking deliberate steps to undermine the system – in order to then complain that it doesn’t work.

For the record, Americans can still sign up through Jan. 31. You might want to let people in your life know about the looming deadline – it’s a detail their Republican-run government is trying to keep under wraps.

Hope you feel much better very soon, Pat/Birdgirl! Good to see you post again.

Per Linda's post, "For Trump World, this is, of course, the point. The White House doesn’t want the system to work, so the president’s team is taking deliberate steps to undermine the system – in order to then complain that it doesn’t work."

Typical . . . Tweety has to work to make it fail so that no matter what the Rs put forth he can tout it as better. They desperately do not want to provide healthcare coverage to all Americans. In fact, they want to get rid of Medicare and Medicaid. After all, Tweety and Congress are all well taken care of with healthcare. This business of health savings accounts is a farce. Sure, they work pretty well if you DON'T get sick and actually need healthcare. But if you actually have a hospitalization or anything requiring more than a few doctor office visits, you are in big trouble with an HSA. They sound good to younger people who think they are invincible and never get sick, but my tax clients who had them were invariably not happy with them in the long run, and ended up with some big medical bills that were far more than their HSA covered.

Just stopping by with my two cents on the speech about getting the Keystone and DP pipelines back on track "to be built with American materials!" I also have seen the photos of the stockpiled pipes (I don't know for sure but the odds are they were made in China).  

My sister is so depressed over it all she has been repeatedly sick and is not leaving the house. She is in ill health to begin with, but this administration and the daily news bytes and lies and bluster and bravado have her laying under a blanket on the couch all day. The spark of life has gone out of her. I can at least muddle through the day and find bits of joy when I go for a walk, or read, etc., but she has completely given up. 

 
NatureLover-I feel as if Trump is going to destroy everyone's health.

 DH and I have called our representatives in D.C. about our immediate concerns.

Going pro active here.

1) Bomb- Rescind Trumps authority to launch a bomb. He should not be able to launch without congressional approval.

2)No Wall- Ridiculous.....use more agents and drones.

3) pipeline- No pipeline through Indian lands/no pipeline at all. There will only be jobs for a finite amount of time.

4)Planned Parenthood-take away PP and you take away healthcare for so many woman who cannot afford it.

 5) Hold him accountable for the laws he is breaking. (That has already been started/ Hotel in D.C.)

AND #6

A forward from a friend:

"Dear friends,

Donald Trump is pressuring the Senate to approve Jeff Sessions as our attorney general -- the nation’s “top cop” to defend the rights of all Americans.

Jeff Sessions is a nightmare. He:

Opposes laws to protect women from violence.
Co-sponsored a bill to legalize LGBT discrimination.
Has a long history of racism, using the N word.
Pushes policies to weaken voting rights.
Opposes legal immigration.
Supported the death penalty for people who dealt marijuana.

The Senate is voting on Sessions Tuesday. A critical mass of senators is on the fence and they are paying close attention to constituent voices. Let’s hit them with a flood of calls to make sure they vote no. It only takes a minute.

Call your Senator now: 202-224-3121

If Sessions becomes our attorney general, he will destroy basic rights for millions of people. His colleagues tell us how he referred to a white civil rights lawyer as “a disgrace to his race”, told a black co-worker “be careful what you say to white folks”, and said the KKK was “okay, until he learned that they smoked marijuana.”

There’s no excuse for Jeff Sessions.

He could be confirmed on Tuesday and a significant number of senators haven't decided how to vote. Let’s demand that they reject Jeff Sessions.

 
Only days in, and Donald Trump is shaping up to be the most extreme president in US history. His agenda defies logic, science, rights, and decency. But we know our power to change what seems impossible when we come together. If any moment demanded our action and resistance, this is it. .

In solidarity and resistance,"

Thanks for the list , Anne....Heidi Heidcamp, a democrat knows she won't win in 2018 because ND is a Consevative state, so, I've seen her slowly crossing the line over to the GOP....I won't vote for her again if this continues. She's thinking of herself & career & not the state Democrats who voted her in ...I hope I'm wrong about her.

Healing thoughts, mentally & physically, for Nature Lovers sister & for Pat. I've taken my frustration out with binging & yes depressed at times. But, I decided that just gives Tweety more power over me & that is just is not acceptable. So, trying to dig myself out of that hole.