Follow the money

The Senate is currently on their third....or is it their fourth or fifth....iteration of a "Repeal and Replace ObamaCare" attempt, and this one is no better than the ones that came before it.  As bad as ObamaCare supposedly is, all their attempts to date have been giant steps BACKWARD.  The highlight of the current Republican bill is to give each state a "block grant", essentially a pot of cash, and then tell them to figure out what to do with health care.  "Not my circus, not my monkey" the Feds can then say.

Polls show less than 20% of Americans like this giant step backwards.  Neither does AARP, or the American Medical Association, or the various hospital associations, or the insurers, or the drug makers, or the American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association, the Diabetes Foundation, or any other group advocating on behalf of people with health issues.  So why are Republicans so hellbent on ramming this "reform" down our throats?  Who wins in this deal?

FOLLOW THE MONEY

The only logical explanation I can come up with is that, to Republicans, "Repeal and Replace ObamaCare" is simply a means to a greater goal.  They have told their ultra-wealthy mega-donors that they will deliver to them a giant tax cut, but before they can do that, they first have to come up with a pile of cash from somewhere.  That "somewhere", they have decreed, will be from the Federal healthcare kitty....cut a few hundred billion here, transfer it on to there.  But if they can't realize big savings via a repeal/replace bill, their promised wealth transfer, their REAL goal, is dead in the water.  

If you can think of another reason why congressional Republicans are pushing so hard to pass such a supremely unpopular bill, please let me know.

If they should ever succeed in achieving this goal, hold on!  Their next target will be Medicare and Social Security.  Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has already (correctly) labeled them as the two most expensive Federal programs that can be looted...er..."reformed" in order to realize great savings.  He just never tells us where those savings will go.

So, as is always the case, FOLLOW THE MONEY.  That will show you who is pulling the strings, and who the big winner will always be.

S

Is "covfefe" President Trump's vision for America?

Strategy is an overall, general plan to get us from where we are to where we want to be.  Tactics are the specific zigs and zags and actions needed in order to get there.

Leaders have goals that (often) come to fruition after strategies and tactics are developed and executed.  Lincoln preserved the Union, FDR (and allies) defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, Reagan saw the US prevail over the USSR, etc.  Can someone please tell me what President Trump's goals are?  Where does he see America's place in the world?  Does he have a strategy to get us there?

During his campaign he said he wanted to repeal/replace ObamaCare.  It appears doubtful that he can pull that off.  He promised a big tax cut.  To do that he needed to slash spending (which meant a new, cheaper healthcare plan), but his proposed budget cuts will likely hurt too many constituencies to get through Congress.  

He promised more jobs, saying those would come when his (now DOA) tax cuts spurred the economy.  All of his announced goals seem to be interdependent, and so far none of the pieces have fallen into place.  This while his party controls both houses of Congress.  That may not last much longer.

Internationally, President Trump seems to have some sort of fascination with Russia, while our closest traditional allies are circling their wagons in response to Russia's increased aggressiveness.  He seems to have something he wants to convey to the Russians, as evidenced by his Attorney General, his son-in-law, and his disgraced National Security Adviser all making clandestine contacts.  For some reason he doesn't want our own intelligence agencies to know what it is he wants to convey, yet wants to use encrypted Russian communications sources to convey it, which are completely compromised.  What gives?  What is his end game?

President Trump has publicly chastised many NATO members for not contributing more.  While that case can be made, there are discrete diplomatic channels that could have been used to make his argument.  Now, feeling humiliated, our NATO allies are taking one step back from us.  Germany's Angela Merkel has gone so far as to say Europe can't depend on us like they once could, and France's President Macron has said he won't obediently fall in line, either.  And now it looks like President Trump will pull the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement, joining Nicaragua and Syria as the only other environmental pariah.  How can we be leaders if we're increasingly self-isolating ourselves?

It seems like President Trump has metaphorically done little more than bounce little steel balls around inside a pinball machine, hoping something good will happen.  So far all he has to show for it is a big TILT!  How long can this go on?  Show us his vision and a strategy to "Make America Great Again".  If he has one, it's incoherent.

S