Congratulations, It's a Tax Cut

It’s a tax cut:  Senate Trumpcare finally emerged yesterday and it’s hard to believe that thirteen men spent weeks in a secret Senate chamber birthing this baby because it walks, talks and looks a lot like the House’s tax cut.  Either those guys haven’t yet mastered cut and paste skills or they were doing something else in that room. Like the House plan, the Senate plan funds tax cuts for about two million people by taking insurance away from twenty million or so.  Immediately upon its release, Senate Trumpcare was already being referred to as a just a discussion draft and by the end of the day, the four most conservative and obstreperous Senators: Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson and Mike Lee, announced that Senate Trumpcare wasn’t mean enough for them. The more moderate Senators didn’t look happy either.  Majority Leader McConnell is back where he started, trying to come up with the changes needed to get him to fifty votes.  Since Cruz was one of the thirteen men who worked on the Senate draft, his wish list can’t be a surprise to McConnell.  Paul who had been excluded from the secret drafting sessions spent the afternoon going through his list of “must haves” with every reporter he could find.  It’s quite possible that if the conservative guys get just some of what Cruz and Paul want they will sign on.  It’s too early to say if any of the more moderate Senators can be persuaded to join in, particularly if Trumpcare is moved to the right to give Cruz and Paul their must haves.  Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins are still “thinking about it” but may be too put off by the defunding of Planned Parenthood to ever sign on.  Nevada Senator Heller and Arizona Senator Flake are up for reelection in 2018 and are likely trying to figure out which is worse, pissing off McConnell and Trump or risking their seats. Heller who is the more vulnerable of the two has already expressed his reservations. Ohio Senator Portman and West Virginia Senator Capito need Trumpcare to include more money for opiate addiction treatment.  Trump, who probably hasn’t read the bill, said that Trumpcare needs a little negotiation but “that it’s going to be very good” before adding that “Obamacare is dead.”  McConnell expects to receive his needed scoring report next week and still plans to force Trumpcare through by July 4th. The arm twisting has just begun.    

Trumpcare and Women’s Health:  Paul Ryan, thirteen senators in a room and Mitch McConnell.  Sounds like the punchline to a joke, except that this joke is not funny.  As currently written, Trumpcare defunds Planned Parenthood and removes tax subsidies for anyone buying an insurance plan that covers abortion.  The Senate version gives states the ability to opt out of Obamacare’s essential services, allowing insurance companies to omit contraceptive coverage from plans sold in “opt out” states.  Planned Parenthood has around 650 clinics around the country serving 2.4 million people and in many places it is the only provider of women’s health care services. Since 60% of Planned Parenthood’s patients receive Medicaid reimbursements for non-abortion services, Trumpcare would seriously impair Planned Parenthood’s financial viability. The Senate Parliamentarian has still not ruled on whether or not these provisions can be included in a reconciliation bill but if she allows their inclusion, women will be left in the lurch.  And that’s no joke.  

Those Tapes:  Surprise, surprise, there are no tapes.  Outed by Newt Gingrich’s early morning comments that he claimed to have tapes just to rattle former FBI Director Comey, Trump finally admitted that he didn’t tape his Comey meetings.  Of course he did his big reveal via twitter, the same way he started the whole tape drama. He left open the possibility that someone had tapes by tweeting that “with all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaks of information, I have no idea…whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations… but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings.”  Though he will never admit it, Trump must regret that he ever made the tape claim.  His threat to release the phantom tapes led to Comey releasing his “contemporaneous” notes and that led to the appointment of Special Counsel Mueller, the man who is now investigating all things Russia and following the Trump money trail.  Trump’s tape deception also highlights his problem with the truth, giving more credence to Comey’s testimony.