Tag: Republicans

Move fast and don’t let facts get in the way

Move fast and don’t let facts get in the way

I just ran across this article. It is a few days old but seems to capture the essence of the GOP congress: Move fast and don’t let facts get in the way.

The full title is The Republican tax bill is moving through Congress at light speed and the subtitle is
The GOP’s playbook: Move fast and don’t let facts get in the way. It was published in Vox a few days ago and is specifically about tax plans but does capture the general GOP approach in this Congress.

We have previously seen a similar approach fail on healthcare. My hope is that it fails again. i would like to see tax reform but I believe this is an important issue and deserves a full debate on the merits of various measures. Move slowly enough to consider the facts and possible consequences of your actions.

Senate tax plan to help the rich

Senate tax plan to help the rich

Both houses of Congress have their own tax plan. Each rushed through quickly with little of the input you would expect in major legislation.

The House version has already been passed. There will be a vote on the Senate version in the very near future. In my opinion, neither is good.

But here is one opinion on the Senate version. Of course, it could change before the vote but my guess is it will not be for the better.

Read it all, but here is just a small portion –

Surely, we will have other debates in the future with thoughtful arguments on every side. But not this time. The numbers are in and it’s clear: this tax bill helps the rich and hurts everybody else. Just ask the very people who wrote it.

Local Pennsylvania Republicans mislead

Local Pennsylvania Republicans mislead

The national Republican party has mislead us for years but it has grown especially intense recently (see my previous posts on Donald Trump). In general, my local Republican Party in Chester County, Pennsylvania seemed to me to be a fairly responsible bunch.

However, the recent “Chester County Republican Gazzette” seemed very misleading. Pennsylvania has a contitutional amendment on the ballot tomorow and I have not been able to make up my mind on it. But the recent “Gazette” seems highly misleading on this in my opinion. This makes me doubt the rest of what they say.
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A healthcare fraud and disaster and  Senator Lindsey Graham

A healthcare fraud and disaster and Senator Lindsey Graham

A healthcare fraud and disaster was prevented last week.

Now that is has been a few days since I last wrote about the disaster that was the Republican plan to break our health care system. Thankfully that plan was defeated. For now, millions of people who would have been thrown of Medicaid are safe. Hospital depending on Medicaid funds are safe. Planned Parenthood can continue providing low cost health care.
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Election integrity or voter suppression

Election integrity or voter suppression

Is it election integrity or voter suppression? That is the question about President Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

Over the past few years Republicans have championed stricter voting requirements which they claim are needed for election integrity. But Democrats claim these requirements are a form of voter suppression since they disenfranchise large numbers of voters, most of whom are members of groups more likely to vote for the Democrat.
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New legislative process: Teachers update your civics lessons

New legislative process: Teachers update your civics lessons

Mitch McConnell has devised a new legislative process. We’ll have to see how well it works but teachers of civics may want to think about updating their lesson plans. This could be the new normal or perhaps a political disaster which is never tried again. It’s a bit early to tell.

In the secret Republican plan to change our healthcare system which is currently being developed in the Senate, we may have a new model for legislation. We don’t know yet what the plan is or if this method will be successful. Continue reading “New legislative process: Teachers update your civics lessons”

The secret plan for your healthcare

The secret plan for your healthcare

It’s a secret plan. I don’t know anything about the Senate healthcare plan except that it is a closely held secret among Senator Mitch McConnell and and handful of other Republican Senators. I suspect a few other Republicans may know part of the plan, at least in broad outline. But I don’t think the majority of Republican Senators know much about it. It seem fairly certain that Democrats are not in on the big secret.

I suppose at some point the public may know about it but probably not until after (or maybe just before) the vote. Senators will probably be informed of the contents before voting. I think that is a rule but I could be wrong. The Senate under Mitch McConnell had surprised me before.

The secret healthcare plan in the Senate

The secret healthcare plan in the Senate

There is a secret healthcare plan somewhere in the Senate. I don’t know what is in it. You don’t know. In fact, most senators don’t know. Only a small group of Republican senators are drafting the bill. But the plan is to have a vote before the July 4 recess.

So it is coming soon with no hearings and no amendments.

Since the bill is unlikely to be made public much before the vote, there will be little (if any) time for comment and debate, even among the senators.

Distractions and the important stuff

Distractions and the important stuff

Distractions keep our attention off the important stuff. The problem many of us have is we can’t tell which are the distractions in President Trump’s administration and what is important.

Certainly the Russian interference in our election is important. We do not know yet if the president or perhaps part of his administration or campaign helped the Russians in some way. But it is clearly important to learn this. The apparent cover-up and attempts to interfere with this investigation are suggestive but not proof. Continue reading “Distractions and the important stuff”

BIG “R” win with runoff in Georgia

BIG “R” win with runoff in Georgia

Not a big win by any measure and very few would even call it a win. Coming in a distant second is not a win. The Republicans manage to narrowly avoid a big loss is more like it.

President Trump, or should I say the realDonaldTrump, tweeted that we had a “BIG “R” win with runoff in Georgia”. You’d think that might mean they had won the runoff in a big way. In reality it means that one of the Republican managed a distant second and qualified to be in the runoff. And this is in a very Republican district.

Democrat Jon Ossoff received 48.1% of the vote, failing to meet the 50% + 1 needed for outright victory with no runoff. Republican Karen Handel came in a distant second with 19.8% of the vote. And any second place, even a very distant second place, gets you in the runoff. Those Trump favored came in further back.

So hardly the big win the President would lead us to believe.

Protecting U.S.  Democracy from Russian  Election Interference

Protecting U.S. Democracy from Russian Election Interference

Our intelligence agencies agree that Russian election interference took place in 2016. President Trump and the Republican party clearly benefited and there is the possibility that the Trump campaign or others may have colluded with the Russians.

On January 6, 2017 a bill (HR 356) was introduced in the House of Representatives called the “Protecting Our Democracy Act”. The bill would establish an independent commission to look into Foreign Interference in the 2016 Election.

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Less privacy on the internet

Less privacy on the internet

There is not much privacy at all on the internet but soon there will be even less privacy. The Republicans and the Trump administration are doing their best to make sure of that.

Republicans are giving the little privacy you have to internet service providers. They will be free to sell your information on which websites you visit and what your do there. The bill has been passed by both the Senate and House. President Trump will sign it. (see Republicans Attack Internet Privacy).

More money for the big companies. Less privacy for us.
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Republicans against retirement saving

Republicans against retirement saving

Republicans often talk about individual responsibility and state-level innovation and things like saving for the future or retirement. But they seem to be against state programs that will help with retirement saving. Why?

Is it because this is directed toward workers without an employer retirement plan who tend to be poorer? Is it because this innovation was supported by a Democratic administration? Is it because Wall Street cannot make its share of profit off this?

I don’t know the motivation to prevent these retirement saving plans but Republicans in the House seem very intent on repealing the regulations that make this possible.

These plans make perfect sense to me and I wrote about the Republican opposition to them several weeks back (see Repeal but not replaced ). But I am not an economist so I was interested to read an article on this by a professor of economics.

This is not an academic or technical article on retirement saving.

So here is how it starts –

Thirty-nine million Americans work for an employer without a payroll-deduction retirement savings plan, and many of them are saving little or nothing. In the absence of a federal plan for this problem, states including California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and Oregon have taken it upon themselves to create their own solutions.

This flurry of state-level innovation might be cause for celebration, except for one major impediment: Congress may kill the nascent plans. Why? Republicans, who typically call for less regulation, say the state programs won’t be sufficiently regulated. You can’t make this stuff up.

See, not very dry at all. It is well worth reading the whole thing, so here is a link –

State I.R.A. Plans Are Ready, if Congress Doesn’t Interfere

Repeal but not replaced

Repeal but not replaced

I don’t understand why Republicans oppose these plans. But they have voted to stop them, “repeal but not replaced” .

Last year the Department of Labor made 2 rules to help people save for their retirement if their employer did not. You’d think Congress would want to encourage that but they repealed the rules and haven’t offered any substitute. So it was a repeal without the replace that many would hope to see.

Maybe they will get around to the replace part but I haven’t heard anything yet. So for now it is “repeal but not replaced”.
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Update on GOP stances on Trump’s travel ban

Update on GOP stances on Trump’s travel ban

This is an update on my GOP cowards post. A few more Republican lawmakers have have been brave enough to take a stance. Some positive, some negative, and some unclear.

But it is nice to know where these Republican lawmakers stand. It would be nice if others also had the courage to express a view.

Here is the latest from the Washington Post