You did it! You beat back ACA repeal—again. I’d love to say “once and for all,” but repeal seems to be the Thing That Won’t Die. But for the third decisive time, public outcry kept the GOP from stripping millions of their coverage and kept Obamacare in place. Next challenge: to get the Republican party to put their efforts behind transparent bipartisan efforts to improve and strengthen the ACA.
Meanwhile, the personal-fiefdom mentality of the “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” (sorry, it’s not old yet) and his administration cronies is coming into sharp focus in recent financial investigations—Health and Human Services secretary Tom Price and his high-dollar charter flights, Stephen “Moochin’ Mnuchin and his (as well as his trophy wife’s snarky little commentary about her taxpayer-funded lifestyle), Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and his $12K private charter from Vegas to his Montana home (courtesy of us), Veterans Affairs chief David Shulkin’s wife and her taxpayer-funded vacation, and the EPA’s Scott Pruitt and the $25K Get Smart soundproof booth in his office have all come under fire lately for their profligate and inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars. Tom Price resigned over his $400K flying spree (he pledged to repay about one-eighth of that amount—and that was before his additional $500K in military flights came to light). Keep calling your MoCs to protest this abuse of taxpayer dollars and hopefully we can drain more of the swamp that’s sucking funds from public coffers.
After taking the weekend off at his golf course in New Jersey while hurricane Maria battered U.S. territory Puerto Rico, Donald finally bestirred himself to speak about the devastation in its aftermath.Despite initially refusing to waive the Jones Act that prohibits foreign shipping between U.S. territories, as he did for Houston and Florida, public pressure and outcry (as well as John McCain) pressed him to do so, offering much-needed relief supplies to the island. But true to childish, unproductive form, rather than help or offer support, he keeps attacking the mayor and the island’s people in Twitter tantrums.
Jared Kushner may be feeling some very familiar heat—directed his way now rather than at Hillary Clinton—for his use of personal email accounts for official White House emails. It’s not clear whether Donald will instigate calls to lock him up (though I have my doubts), but the revelation has shined a spotlight on this administration’s loosey-goosey use of private email use for government business:Ivanka Trump, Gary Cohn, Steve Bannon, and Reince Priebus also have been found to be using personal email for official correspondence. Whoopsie! Bet that’s embarrassing…. The White House claims to have launched an investigation (though that’s a bit like the fox investigating the chickens…), but we need to keep the heat on, demanding an actual investigation by proper (and unbiased) ethics organizations.