Two years ago, plus one day, this Apprentice assumed office in spite of losing the popular vote nationwide. In 3 states alone, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, less than 40,000 voters pushed the electoral college to him. He had said all along that the system was rigged.

He said it so many times, combined with a clear message that he would not accept the results, that the Obama Administration sought the cover of no one less than Mitch McConnell when they had irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling. He refused, and promised to skewer any announcement of tampering. I doubt Obama knew of all the things going on, independently at Putin’s direction, or in concert with Trumpettes. But they knew Putin didn’t want Hillary to win, and wanted to embarrass America by showing us how fragile our election system is. He never forgave Hillary for calling the Russian elections a farce while she was in Red Square when the comical election of Putin was taking place.

If you’ve read this far, you’re likely thinking “Wow, Peter has some sour grapes to dole out”. And you’d be partially right. Partially. I was not a Hillary fan. I supported Obama from the start of the primaries in 2008, and found her campaign then to be void of inspiration. But I thought she handled herself with grace and class once it was clear that Obama would gain the nod. And I thought she was as effective Secretary of State as one could be. So, yes, I was all in with her two years ago, and once it was clear Trump would be the nominee, broadcast warning bells from the spring onward that he would win if we let our guard down. So I was more personally invested in a campaign since I left Connecticut in 1993.

Clearly, the animosity many felt towards Hillary made him viable. And the venom many people felt toward her, friends and relatives included, was, in my humble opinion, misguided and based on spin the Repuglicants had woven around her for two and a half decades.

I do understand the anger and reality many feel towards being left behind during the last 30 years. Our economy transformed from making things to doing things. The blue collar jobs my parents generation thrived on, and which motivated my grandparents to emigrate here are gone. As are the labor unions that brought them safety net benefits and a pathway to the middle class. You just can’t raise a family working as the greeter at WalMart, or the cash register at Acme.

And as importantly, we lost the sense of hope that our kids would have it a little easier, a better way of life perhaps than we would. Once hope is lost...

So, in retrospect, I understand why the would be a undercurrent of backlash towards Obama policies that attempted to shore up the safety net through things like Obamacare, or lay the groundwork for seamless economies world wide through trade agreements. He published “The Audacity of Hope”, and Bill Clinton was the man from Hope. They both sowed hope when Hope was dwindling. What they failed to realize that hope does not put food on the table, pay the mortgage, or send someone to college. The policies they did espouse were more visible to those on the bottom rung. Those a few steps up, but falling behind, didn’t see anything tangible.

It’s no coincidence that Bill and Hillary failed in 1994 to achieve their national health insurance program, and Obama took intense heat and and was tarred and feathered forever by passing a modest version of one.

What I don’t understand is how Trump got and gets a free pass. Confirmed misogynist and degrader of women all his life. That’s ok, they said. Everyone does it. A con artist who ran shell games with other people’s money, and created a mystique with smoke and mirrors. They looked the other way. Tax evader and embezzler. “He’s a genius” was Giuliani’s rebuttal.

“I’m the only one who can do it. Only I can drain the swamp. And only I can bring you better health insurance for less cost. It’s going to be beautiful!”

“I’m the deal maker! The most brilliant and successful businessman in the world! Yeah, I got a small loan from my father, but I paid him back, and it really wasn’t a lot of money!”

And in spite of the facts we knew, yes we did, he garnered enough votes and just enough votes in key states to have the pretense of the Electoral College place him in an office he was unfit for. The very electoral college written into our constitution to prevent the very type of candidate from becoming president: a despot controlled and installed by a foreign power.

Claire McCaskil, in one of her final interviews before vacating her senate seat, said Trump was an aberration. That this will pass, that we will survive this. She is right, I think. But much of the damage is already done. Rules that protect us from financial peril inflicted by faceless banks and corporations have been loosened or repealed or not enforced. We jump started global warming on so many levels it’s mind boggling. We’ve given huge tax cuts to those who didn’t need it, further concentrating wealth in the elite. And we’ve let them stack the judiciary with activist judges who have a clear agenda. Yes, activist judges who would like America to be great again. America of 1952, that is. And we’ve not only abandoned our allies and forfeited our leadership of the world, but we’ve spit in their eye doing so.

And Russia. He’s lied about his relationship from the start. He was and is in bed with the oligarchs and autocrats. And shown out democracy to be available to the highest bidder.

He lies, cheats and steals.

I doubt we will ever find out about how incestuous he and his family have been with the Russians. But let’s be clear: there are lots of smoking guns here.

I hope the Democrats won’t impeach unless it rises above high crimes and misdemeanors. The Repuglicants simply are not going to convict. His “Art of the Deal” skills, always a farce, hopefully will open the eyes of the 40%. And what’s up with the evangelicals? Seriously!

We can throw this despot and wannabe dictator out in less than two years. We can. We must.

I don’t know which of the Democrats will emerge from the field of 50 currently assembling. But I’ll be going all in again. We we’ve seen the results. We are better than this. My advise to those Dems: tell the truth. Embrace the progressive cause. Tell us we need higher taxes on the rich, that it’ll fund a strong public education and public works infrastructure. Have an honest discussion of the safety net FDR hoped for, and the one LBJ started to put in place. And the one Repuglicants have been chipping away at since.

It’s not magic. Trump slid in on a message of dividing us and tearing things down. It’s easy to tear things down. Far harder to build and achieve.

At the end of the 4 years, as he departs office having been severely rejected, perhaps history will reuse him to a catch phrase:

“Nobody knew {insert text} could be so complicated!”

Oh, we knew, Donny. We certainly knew.

Yes!

My guess is that Slimy Sean is going to hail The Apprentice's European Vacation as a rousing success. Let's keep a couple things in perspective: -The Donald has embraced autocratic regimes that restrict free press, violate human rights, and coddle the wealthy. Witness his warm embrace of Russia, Turkey, the Philippines. He gushes over the monarchy in Saudi Arabia, which has no free press and where women can't even drive, promising them and similar dictators that the US will look the other way on human rights abuses. In Israel, Bibbi virtually offers to perform oral sex on him while the policies of his administration are approaching an apartheid state with the treatment of the Palestinians. -At The Vatican, a clearly distressed Pope goes the politically correct route in not lecturing him publicly but makes the point by giving him a copy of the widely respected Vatican Encyclical on global warming. -In Brussels, he lectures our ALLIES about his factually incorrect and misinformed position about underfunding NATO, and refuses to endorse the mutual defense provision. Note that the only time the provision was actually activated was after 9/11 in support of the US. -He pushed aside leaders of allied countries like a school yard bully trying to get to the front of the line, and all the body language of virtually every leader in attendance suggests repulsion at having to be anywhere near him in public. Meanwhile, back in the States, another Republican candidate physically assaults a reporter, is defended by the right wing fake news peddling media pretenders, and wins election. His son in law is now identified as being a target of the FBI investigation into collusion with the Russians. The Senate Committee investigating said collusion votes to empower its chair to issue subpoenas without further authority needed. The CBO, now being run by Republican appointees, confirms that the House "health care" legislation will throw 23 million Americans off insurance. And the FCC relaxes regulations that will allow right wing media giant Sinclair to purchase more television stations that will bring its ownership to over 200 reaching 60% of the US population. The same Sinclair media group that the same Kushner son in law bragged about during the campaign after striking a deal that had Sinclair stations broadcasting Trump campaign events gavel to gavel uninterrupted and without commentary. Scared yet?

In fact, the real lesson of Watergate is not that the Constitution worked. It is that it failed spectacularly. Contrary to the myth, Nixon’s resignation was anything but the inevitable consequence of a powerful constitutional juggernaut. Rather, it was the consequence of a bizarre, highly improbable series of events that was more reminiscent of Rube Goldberg than James Madison or Alexander Hamilton (Goldberg being the cartoonist who drew elaborate machines that performed the simplest task by setting off a long, complicated chain reaction). So if you’re thinking (dreaming) that crazy King Donald will be deposed by our vaunted checks and balances, consider first that if the political system really worked, a narcissistic man-child like Trump could have never gotten to the presidency, and second, that the Constitution is a shoddy and inadequate contraption unsuitable for ridding us of narcissistic man-children.

Don’t Count on the Precedent of Watergate to Help Depose Trump. We Got Lucky. (via azspot)

With news breaking every hour, and the administration changing positions even more frequently, I suppose this was inevitable. We kinda saw it coming, but even I doubted that we would be in such disgrace not even four months into his tenure. Donald Trump has always lied and gotten away with actions that few of would. When he first started thinking politics 8 years ago, he latched onto the 'birther' movement. Even after it was irrefutable that Obama was born in the US, he wouldn't let go. He has always believed the 'alternative facts' he is now famous for, and his lack of anything political left him ill prepared and essentially unfit for this office. The problem with guys like him is that he has always had people around him that boosted his ego. He was rich. He was famous. Tell him what he wants to hear so you can hang around with him, and maybe some of that rubs off on you. And he was never held responsible for his words or his actions. So here we are, and Mr Trump can't help himself from spewing lies. And he can't help making capricious decisions. Why would he? For him, this is just another reality show. It about the ratings and deals. I've said in many of my posts that if he continued down this path, he would eventually cross a line that even Repuglicants wouldn't be able to tolerate. There hasn't been a rush of them to the door, but I think his firing of Comey this week crossed that line. The shoving down the throats of what is a HORRIBLE health care bill, one which violates the few principles he held out to his supporters, one which will throw millions off of insurance and give tax cuts to the wealthy, has set the stage. Every group that has an interest in health care, good and bad, opposes this bill. And if you've been watching the coverage of the few Repuglicants willing to meet with constituents, the hostility directed at them has been toxic. They are defending the indefensible and lying about the content. But Trumps need for a "big win" forced him to concede to the most right wing element of the party without realizing the implications or the fall out. He's never read history, doesn't care about policy, and operates in his environment where there are no consequences. But he's no longer in his environment. He was surprised by the reaction to the firing just as he was amazed at health care: who thought it could be so complicated. I don't think he can recover from this, and he's proven he can't change. His ego won't allow it. He's just going to get more hostile and dismissive, because in his mind, he doesn't understand why we don't just trust him and believe him. And in case he hasn't noticed, EVERYONE around him is leaking info. The Washington Post yesterday referred to THIRTY unnamed sources in the administration. 30! They won't stop because they see what's happening on the inside. And I hate to use the word crazy, but that's what he is. He is digging in deeper on the Russian collusion issue, which suggests that he has a reason to not want any investigation. The FBI views this as a significant investigation that requires substantially more resources. So they've found enough things to suggest we have a significant problem. For now, it will be nearly impossible to do anything else in DC. His poll numbers continue to head south, and the white men who voted for him are starting to abandon him. And they are being very vocal at those town hall meetings. And soon, they will start turning against their congressmen and senators. And that is wear the tide turns. Repuglicants tolerated The Apprentice because he ensured power. And as long as he didn't do anything stupid, they would go along because they like the power and the money that follows. But he has gone stupid, with no hope of anyone being able to reign him in. And when they realize that he has the potential to bring them all down, they will stop it. Because they see in Mike Pence one of their own. It won't happen tomorrow or next week or perhaps even next month, but Donald Trumps days as president are numbered, but not by the end of his term. I wasn't sure it would happen, but I am now convinced that he has started down the road that ends outside of the White House. Resist. Insist. Persist. Enlist. We ARE the resistance, established 2017

Just a few of the reasons why The Abomination is #notmypresident and never will be: -452 false or misleading claims in his first 98 days. -Accusing a former president of illegally wiretapping without any evidence. -Willfully attempting to influence and interfere with the measly attempt of the House Committee going through the motions of investigating collusion with the Russians. -Ethical issues so severe that had they been committed by a Democrat, the very same people who voted for him would have encircled the White House by now and overthrown the president. Just a couple examples: Ivanka dining with the Chinese leader the day before China grants her product line exclusive patents in China; Donald's failure to divest his business interests or release his taxes, and spending nearly every weekend at a Trump branded for profit entity. -Hypocrisy that will forever diminish the office of the presidency. -Abandonment of virtually every campaign promise made, most egregiously including the willingness to throw 24 million Americans off of health insurance after saying over and over again that all of us would have better insurance at lower cost. "It will be beautiful. Believe me." -Failure of Congressional Republicans to protect our republic by earnestly investigating the clear Russian interference with our presidential election and what appears to be collusion in those efforts by Trump campaign officials and now members of the administration. -Dismantling of environmental protections that will have grave consequences for your grandchildren and great grandchildren. -Appointing people to cabinet positions who have no subject matter expertise or experience as leaders, compounded by the willful intention to leave key undersecretary positions vacant, thus setting up hundreds of programs to fail the American people. -Advocacy of a tax cut proposal that will clearly favor the 1% of obscenely rich elite like himself while creating deficits so large that it will bankrupt the government, destroy our standing in the world as the most safe investment, and dismantle our safety net. And yes, this DOES ensure that Social Security as we know it will fail to survive. Any one of these reasons should cause concern. Taken together, this man is the most dangerous thing that has ever happened in our country. And I don't make such a statement lightly. He dismisses history. He lies. He flaunts the law. His ego does not consider he does not know what he is doing or that there might be others who know better. The saddest part of what is happening and what will happen is that we knew this. Jeb Bush told us. Mitt Romney told us. George W and his father told us. Hundreds of people he had screwed over, both financially and as a sexual predator told us. Barack Obama and Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders told us. We heard him say it himself in recordings he made on the Howard Stern show or on a bus waiting to make a celebrity appearance. And when we found out that he claimed hundreds of millions of dollars in business losses, his cronies told us he was a "genius". The most successful businessman in America does not lose hundreds of millions of dollars every year. He refuses to release his returns for two reasons: his losses are staggering, and he contributes nothing to charity. A good friend pointed out last night that it will take at least two years before we really start to FEEL the consequences of his actions. He is right, and it helps explain why 96% of his voters believe he is doing great and would vote for him again. You will someday regret that vote. I've reached the conclusion that the divisions in our country will not be healed in my lifetime. I do believe our system is broken and that neither party will repair it. Power and money corrupt absolutely. And the illusion of each has permeated and our system to its core. So I do not seek dialogue with Trump voters. They seek no dialogue with me. We had a choice; they knew it and chose this. But let us not forget that someone else did win three million more votes in the election. Let us not forget that the antiquated notion of the Electoral College failed the first time it was called upon to fulfill its true purpose: to prevent the ascendency of a demagogue controlled by and advanced by a foreign power. So I will indeed attempt to follow Hillary's advice and resist, insist, persist and enlist. And hope that he resigns. I doubt impeachment as the Repuglicants don't have a clue about good government. And I'll take the risk of a Mike Pence, even though he believes I can be "cured". For the danger of Donald Trump is real, and the danger is now amongst us.

I've written a few posts wondering how the Democratic Party finds its soul on a national level, connecting that identity crisis to the local level. In Philly, the party stands for nothing except allowing lifetime holds on seats and fostering a climate of corruption. It's far worse than I described...

What more can I add?

I’m noticing a trend in political news stories trying to humanize Trump voters and make everyone feel sorry for them. 

LOL. They’re racists, xenophobic, antisemitic, and Islamophobic. Guess what? I have zero sympathy for any of the racists who voted for Trump (and would probably still vote for him in 2020)

I posted this here the other day, but was hesitant to post this on my Facebook page as I do find it offensive, but given that Trump had the audacity to proclaim April "Sexual Assault Awareness" month, and was the one at the podium announcing it, I felt like I had no choice. Again, I ask those that voted for this man, what do you say to your daughters and granddaughters, to your mother or wife, to all the women in your life that have made a difference?

The Illegitimate President I've reached the point where I wear my political feelings without reservation when I travel. If it makes someone uncomfortable, so be it. I will continue to be in the face of Trump voters until they acknowledge the mistake they have made. We've given him a chance. He failed to make any attempt to bring us together, in fact doing all he can to divide us even further. He has backpedaled on the few lunatic ideas he had, admitted he knows nothing about policy, encouraged hate crimes against anyone who is not a white, straight male Christian, and will do far more damage by leaving key policy positions vacant throughout the federal government. He has already set us back a full generation by abandoning our position of leadership by example around global warming. I don't have children, but I've always had a belief in interconnectedness, and accepted my responsibility to leave the world a better place when my molecules are returned to the universe. For those of you with children and grandchildren, do you really feel more secure now that the US will essentially be accelerating global warming? As humans, we are about to abdicate our responsibility to the only planet we know of capable of sustaining our type of life form. Others in the galaxy are watching, I'm sure, and shaking their heads at our failure to learn from our own history. The illegitimate president is now vowing retaliation against members of the party he hijacked to stroke his ego. Is that going to bring us together? Or reduce the hate crimes being committed across the country? I said last spring that we could not let this happen. The misguided animosity towards Hillary, fostered and accelerated we now know, by the Russian fake news propaganda machine, convinced some of you that she was evil incarnate. In fact, they did a great job of diverting your attention away from the real evil that was lurking as the Republican nominee, who is now being uncovered as the real Manchurian Candidate. I will not relent. I will resist. I will be outspoken. And I will not attempt to engage a Trump voter until they express regret. One at a time. And when they do, as they surely will as this travesty consumes our republic, I will willingly and happily sit down with any of them to share coffee and rational conversation so one by one we can come together. Until then:

""For the good of the country". I come from the generation that was inspired by JFK and his belief that we should not ask what our country should do for us, but what we can do for our country. I've deplored the lack of a bipartisan approach to governance, and did not believe that the McConnell Doctrine of complete and utter opposition to everything proposed by the president the last 8 years benefited our republic in any way and would be rejected by the country. Clearly, I was wrong. But this polarization has been in the making for quite some time, and is one, just one, of the reasons I walked away from elective office, politics and government service in 1989. After this last election, there were many calls to give him a chance, even as he himself continued a campaign of polarization during the transition period and hate crimes increased across the country, including two very close to my accepting block. I waited for a token outreach of reconciliation that never happened, but I was still conflicted as to whether my party, now in the minority across most of the country, should do the right thing and look for ways to contribute to a better approach, or if we should just adopt the just say no tactic Republicans employed for 8 years. The latter of which runs against the very core of what I believe. Today, I realized that the Republicans will never do what is right for the country. Every day, we learn some new dark and shady connection between Trump campaign officials and Russians clearly connected to Putin. I see the a White House deflecting attention from the issue but making outrageous claims of illegal and criminal activity by the previous president, something that has never happened before, and to which there is not one shred of evidence to support. We see Congressional Republicans look the other way when the Attorney General lies under oath. We see them dismiss suggestions that the chair of the House Committee charged with superficially looking into Russian interference and potential collusion with Trump step aside when he has crossed every ethical standard by tipping off the White House with evidence. We see the press secretary denigrate reporters who attempt to hold him and his boss accountable for the lies being promulgated by our commander in chief. And we see the President visiting one of his profit making enterprises every third day he has been in office. Nothing may have happened between Trump and the Russians, but what we know suggests otherwise. And if they believe that nothing happened, why is Trump and virtually the entire party apparatus doing everything possible to cover tracks and avoid a complete and thorough investigation into this? Thou doest protest too much. The Republican Party has now crossed the line of colluding and being complicit in this atrocity. And the only way to stop this will be to turn them out of power once and for all, at every level of government. So I say to our elected Democrats in Congress and in every state house: say no. Say no to everything. Point out every line of every bill or executive order that benefits the elite and wealthy at the expense of those who get up every day to labor to pay the bills. Shout as loud as you can every time they take away another link in our safety net, the net that the richest country in the world can well afford. Do not be complicit and cooperate with this illegitimate president or the hypocrites that now control the Congress. For they are evil incarnate and will not stop until we stop them.

Congress CANNOT Investigate Russian Interference! It must be a select committee!

Just watched Trey Gowdy, Republican Congressman from South Carolina and member of the House Intelligence Committee embarrass himself and promulgate more 'fake news' on Face the Nation. He was arrogant and lied, and for the first time in this process, convinced me that Republicans are now in collusion with Trump to hide all evidence of Trumps collusion with Putin and his thugs during the campaign. There's only one way I can put this. Trey Gowdy is an asshole if he thinks that we believe that the chair of his committee went to the White House on Monday to brief Trump on intelligence matters unrelated to the Russian investigation. In fact Nunes told the press outside the White House that he shared evidence with Trump that he claimed showed that Trump campaign officials were 'surveiled' by the Obama Administration. Evidence he has now refused to release, even to his own committee. This is bullshit. Gowdy went on to say that no independent investigation is needed because the most independent of bodies is already investigating Russian interference. Really? You're hanging your hat on the FBI? The same FBI that your leader has thrown under the bus since forever? The same FBI that violated its own policy by revealing a nonsensical reopening of the Clinton Email goose hunt ten days before the election, thus helping to swing the election against her? And by the way, that investigation has produced NOTHING. EVER. And let's not forget that Mr Gowdy headed up the select committee that investigated the Benghazi tragedy, trying to pin incompetence on the part of Mrs Clinton, including her emails, and came up with NOTHING. How is it that the FBI couldn't handle that investigation? This is Republican hypocrisy in its purest form. During Watergate, Republicans were respectful of Nixon and did support him until the disclosure of the truth overwhelmed all of them. But they supported finding out exactly what happened because it represented a threat to our republic and our democracy. A foreign power intrusion into our electoral process was envisioned and feared by our founding fathers, and was one reason why they created the electoral college, which failed their constitutional obligation. The evidence of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign mounts almost daily, and is a greater threat than Watergate was. If Gowdy and his cronies prevent the truth from being revealed, history will eventually discover what happened and show the Republican Party contributed to a cover up that protected the most unqualified and unfit person who has ever held this office.

By ALL accounts, Trump had no clue what Trumpcare would do, has little grasp of policy with even less desire to do so, and doesn't understand the legislative process. He kept asking his aids "is this a good bill?", even as all media outlets, including FOX, talked about what a disaster it would be. His eagerness to blame Democrats on Friday does not bode well for a bipartisan approach to anything, but it's clear that there is a coalition lurking in Congress that excludes the extreme right wing, Tea Party "Tuesday" group that will just say no to everything except tax cuts. I mentioned on Friday that the defeat of the Repeal and Replace movement takes us a step closer to a single payer system. This article talks about that. Trump is at a fork in his road: align with the Tuesday group and risk being a disaster of a president, or realize that he has a chance to rise to the level of a Ronald Reagan. Reagan knew little about policy, but worked with a Demicratic Congress to achieve a significant rewrite of the tax code (that actually raised taxes on the wealthy!), and fostered an environment that brought down the Soviets. Not a fan of Mr Reagan, but he did cross the aisle quite effectively. We'll see where this goes...

Today's events in DC have been widely discussed on all news outlets, and I'm sure that most of us have at least heard the highlights, so I won't repost what is already widely available. I am overwhelming saddened for our country. I must make a couple of points. First, let us suppose that Hillary had won and just one tenth of what Trump has done or said was Hillary. Does anyone think that the Republicans would not be screaming bloody murder on Capital Hill and already shut down the government or empaneled a select committee? If you think that they wouldn't be leading chants of "lock her up" in every nook and cranny of this country, I'd like to hear your thoughts. In 1973, I was 11 years old and already a political junkie having worked on several campaigns, including George McGovern's. I watched the Watergate hearings that summer as Congress began to unravel what was a stupid burglary attempt followed by a stupid cover up. The question that was asked over and over again was "What did he know, and when did he know it?". I posit this question on the 60th day of what is already a disastrous presidency: When will we stop this, and which Republican will be the first to stand up and demand that it be stopped? It is clear that Mr Trump is unfit for office. The Russian conspiracy to determine the outcome must be investigated, but the Trump Team is determined to do anything to prevent an honest and thorough investigation. It is now consuming the presidency like a cancer consumed the Nixon presidency. If there was nothing to hide, he would welcome the investigation in order to clear the air and govern. And his attempt to smear Obama with illegal actions, accuse the British of collusion, and draw in allies like Germany will make it impossible to gain their support when a true international crises occurs, as it surely will. This abomination must end before more people are slandered or, more tragically, American lives are lost because we have a delusional commander in chief. Only the Republicans can stop this. And today, we crossed the line where failure to take action now makes them complicit. Donald Trump has intentionally lied to the country. We cannot trust him on anything from this point forward. He must exit from the presidency.

Our Broken Political System

Most of us on here are paying close attention to the "Repeal and Replace" effort underway in Congress, referring of course to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Like most Americans, you're probably thinking "What the ?!?? is he talking about?" Interesting how conveniently the then minority Republicans got most of us to derisively call it ObamaCare. It ignored the protection and affordable part, conveniently, but that's the way of the world. There's been a lot written on how this will reduce the number of Americans with health insurance by 24 million and reduce the deficit by 300+ billion, and I won't get into the rotten policy issues our Republican friends are trying to sell us as a good deal. I'm following all of that closely, of course, but I'm struck by how Republican leadership is being forced down a worse path than perhaps they would have gone were it not for a small group of arch conservatives affiliated loosely with their Tea Party faction. They are essentially going to make a bad bill even more horrible by ending the reimbursement for Medicaid expansion even sooner, reducing eligibility for Medicaid in general, and adding yet another work requirement onto recipients that has been in play since Bill Clinton ushered in welfare reform. By doing so, they may win a small majority in the House and squeak by lousy bill that is really more about splintering our safety net than it is about repealing the ACA. And with the changes being made this week in their barter with the Devil of their party, they should ensure that the legislation never makes it out of the Senate. Trump has already reneged, ignored, decided against, or broken most of the few promises he made on the campaign trail. Let's not forget that he has repeatedly said that EVERYONE would be able to get BETTER insurance at lower cost, and that he would not touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid. But then again, all the "bad hombres" were to be gone by now, and the wall would have already been built if he had any intention of doing the things he said he would. But he knew long ago that he could shoot people on 5th Avenue and not lose support, and he was right. His approval rating basically stays in the low 40% area, essentially what he got on November 8th. As for the Paul Ryan's and Mitch McConnell's, they're boxed in. They thought they knew how to govern, but have found that it's pretty hard to do when you have to actually put forth legislation that tries to align what your philosophy is and what you want your policy to be when the most extreme elements of your party can pretty much stop anything. They have only themselves to blame. Newt Gingrich ended the good government era when he ushered in a Republican House back in 1994 and told his members NOT to move their families to DC, but to stay in DC as little as possible. He encouraged that by shortening the Congressional work week so they got on planes and trains back to their districts every weekend. What's that got to do with the price of milk? Well, previously, members of congress and their families got to know one another as people by doing simple things like having lunch, going to parties, meeting each other at PTA meetings, etc. Simple stuff that made connections and that made dialogue and compromise possible. Mr McConnell took that to another level by convincing his discouraged party that they could succeed simply by saying no. That they shouldn't risk alienating anyone by suggesting an alternative. And he, too, was right in the sense that anyone who opposed anything for any reason, no matter how diverse in their opposition, gravitated to the Party of No. It's essentially why "ObamaCare" polled in the low numbers until recently, but the individual components of the ACA were endorsed in polling numbers. We've gotten to the point where zero attempt is made to gain opposition support for anything. Obama tried and was roundly criticized for trying, and in the end never got bipartisan support for anything. Compromise was labeled a dirty word and unacceptable in our political system, but our system was built for compromise. It's why this legislation will, hopefully, fail. The House Republican Freedom Caucus, loosely around 20 members, will force a rigid approach that hurts millions of people simply because they need to make a point. The Senate Republican moderates will reject that bill because of that, and the two bodies will be unable to compromise. Even with Trump the Dealmaker intervening. Ironically, the same thing happened to the Democrats exactly 7 years ago this week when they passed the PPACA on a straight party line vote using the same budget reconciliation process that is the only hope of Republicans getting any legislation passed. First, Obama was determined that good government practices would prevail, and he was willing to compromise to gain Republican support. Don't forget that the original legislation was debated for over a year, with the administration engaging all stakeholders in the health care and insurance industries. He tried hard to gain consensus on this, and while he did to a certain degree, the conservative members of his own party, those coming from districts that leaned Republican, were worried about their reelection and forced the public option off the table and watered down the penalties for non participation. And guess what! They lost their seats anyway, and the relatively low penalties are one reason why ObamaCare is struggling right now. Paul Ryan was wrong. Insurance is built on the notion that bad risk is balanced by good risk. We always needed the young and healthy to buy insurance and knew from the start this would fail if they didn't. So at the end of the day, a small group of misinformed doctrinaire conservatives in both parties ended up dictating policy and the end result was NOT better legislation, which used to be the case when both parties accepted responsibility for good government. The PPACA that passed could have been far better were it not for the failure of Republicans to even consider participating in the legislation, and the current attempt will either fail because compromise and bipartisanship are now considered evil, or we will get a bill that will fail to provide quality insurance for all at an affordable price. In my next post, I'll speak a little more about how broken the system is, how we got here, and if there's a way back. I'm an eternal optimist, but.....