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The Screaming Moderate

So, Mr. President, how are you enjoying the play so far?

7/19/2017

2 Comments

 
With this President, Harry Truman’s desk sign stating “The Buck Stops Here” is has been replaced with “Every man and woman for him/herself!”.

President Trump’s first reaction to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell raising the white flag on “repeal and replace” was not just to point a finger but to imply he won’t lift a finger to make Obamacare work for the millions who depend on it for their health care. After all, his appointees are in charge of the executive branch. Does that mean they will begin ignoring their responsibilities and obligations to oversee administration of the law so they can ensure it fails? Or is it simply to send messages to the insurance industry that “we expect failure, so go ahead and do what you will – raise premiums, abandon markets. Let's see what harm a sixth of our economy can do to our overall economy."

Ironic that that the medical profession's oath of "first, do no harm" Trump has morphed into "first, point a finger of blame."

It is jaw-dropping to hear a President say: “Let Obamacare fail. It will be a lot easier.” One thing to say that when you are a candidate, another to say it while you are responsible for administering the laws of the country and protecting the  health and welfare of out citizens.

I assume the people it will be “a lot easier” for is you, Mr. President, because it isn’t easier for those folks – men, women and children – who depend on Obamacare to deal with their maladies from broken bones to potentially life-saving cancer treatments.

Everyone but Trump owns this failure, according to Trump.  

Tell me again, why was he elected President? He not only displays no leadership ability or desire but his self-proclaimed skills as a master deal-maker have been nowhere to be seen. In fact, the Republicans in the Senate all but said, “go, Mr. President, enjoy your golf resorts but don’t mess with our dealings on the Hill.” And when he did engage, like Monday night at a dinner in the White House for himself and about a dozen senators, he didn’t roll out a strategy for success, but talked about his travels, leaving senators wondering where his head is.

Six months in, and this is a presidency that has done nothing visible, except get a Supreme Court nominee approved. And that only when the Senate changed its rules to accommodate the votes the GOP already had.
  
One thing he is doing, but most of us don’t really know what is going on, is pulling back executive orders by his predecessor and overseeing regulations being changed in the various Cabinet departments, but most of these don’t make the news so we don’t know what harm (or maybe good?) he may be doing there. Besides, the news briefings his underlings hold have become all but worthless as they hide from the cameras and answer to question directly.

In his mind, though, he has accomplished more in his first six months on the job than anyone in our history! Oh to live to Trump's mind. It is indeed a glorious place.

Clearly, the Republicans failed on health care. They have sufficient votes in the Senate to pass it … but they couldn't even get 50 votes from their own caucus.

Seven years of chanting and promising “repeal and replace” … maybe now they’ve learned that a political slogan does not a government policy make. Heck, Trump thought Obamacare could be repealed and replaced on his first day in office!  We're halfway through his first year and it is defeated.

We should begin to see more peeling away of his support, such as that support is (36 to 40 percent of the voting public thinks he’s doing a good job).

The people who voted for him wanted him to change Washington and do things FOR them, not take things AWAY from them.

Personally, if it were me, I likely would have put infrastructure reform up on the Hill first. That would create lots jobs and improve our failing highways, railways and more. Hard to be against that, especially with a new President wanting it. Could have been a nice first success for Trump.

He had to do health care before tax reform because health care reform is where he was saving the money to pay for his tax breaks for the wealthy. With health care dead, hard to see how tax reform gets done.

So, Mr. Trump, so far how are you liking this job you figured was “so easy?”


2 Comments
Marcia Lane
7/22/2017 03:05:21 pm

B. Jay, I've begun to think he has some dementia. The transcript from the recent Times interview sounds like someone who has no grasp on reality. Can the president be compelled to submit to a medical exam, including a mental evaluation? No joke, I think he's ill.

Reply
B. Jay
7/22/2017 04:38:26 pm

Presidents are not required to take such exams. My guess is AFTER this president that could change. I don't think it's dementia but I agree he has some issue(s). The only way I think to get him out is impeachment if he commits a high crime or misdemeanor. If he tries to fires mueller I think his Hill support will melt.

Reply



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    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

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