Medicare, Medicaid, Whatever

Zombie Trumpcare:  Senate Majority Leader McConnell hasn’t given up yet. He plans to send a revised Trumpcare plan to the budget scorers by Friday in the hope that he can get a slightly better score, bringing it back for another attempt at a vote after the July fourth break. McConnell is slicing and dicing his $188 billion slush fund, figuring out how to get the most bang out of his buck.  A slower reduction in Medicaid spending, more money for opioid addiction, and a little more deregulation, he is knocking himself out searching for a solution that will induce the requisite number of Senators to join his healthcare cabal.  He spent part of yesterday sequestered with two of the moderate dissenters, West Virginia Moore Capito and Nevada Heller, no doubt promising them the moon, stars, some more Medicaid and a few more detox sessions, just enough to avoid alienating any conservatives.  So far all forty-eight Democrats are being kept in the dark.  Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for an all hands bi-partisan health care summit.  McConnell is holding the possibility of cooperation with the Democrats as a threat over the heads of the Republicans telling them if he has to resort to working with Chuck, then repeal will go out the window and all they’ll get is a fixed Obamacare and Trump just said “that guy Schumer isn’t serious.”  Nevertheless, a number of Republican Senators including Collins, Murkowski, McCain and Graham have gone on record saying that they want to bring the Democrats to the table.  At least for now, that’s not happening.

Medicare, Medicaid, Whatever:  Trump still doesn’t know what’s in Trumpcare, in fact, it’s not clear that he knows the difference between Medicare and Medicaid: old people, poor people, whatever.  A number of Senators walked out of his White House meeting on Monday convinced that he hasn’t focused on any details and is just now learning that the only way to free up a trillion dollars in taxes for a tax cut is to take health care away from a significant portion of his base.  Nevertheless, Trump is committed, yesterday he promised “healthcare that will be a fantastic tribute to our country. It will be a great health care, less expensive, but great.” Asked about the Medicaid cuts, he illogically said Trumpcare “will be great for everybody.” He also teased that everyone will be really surprised, very soon.  That last part is a bit unnerving because Republican leadership has spent some time meeting with the budget department’s scoring team trying to come up with a way to game the scoring methodology.  The optics of few million less people getting kicked off the insurance rolls may be all it takes to get a few more reluctant Senators on board the Trumpcare train. Whatever happens, Fox News commentator Lisa Kennedy Montgomery told her viewers not to worry if they lose their health care coverage since “we’re all going to die” anyway.

The Russians Are Still Coming:  Yesterday the Senate Intelligence Committee heard testimony from Nick Burns, a former Ambassador to NATO, and two European experts.  They confirmed that the Russians have been interfering in European elections even trying to engineer a coup in Montenegro to disrupt their 2016 election.  All the experts agreed that Putin was behind the interference and that his continuing efforts are growing more effective. Ambassador Burns said that it was Trump’s duty to be skeptical of the Russians and that it would be a dereliction of his responsibility to ignore the threat.  However, Trump still never discusses the Russian meddling subject with his staff or cabinet members.  During her meeting with the House Foreign Affairs Committee, UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said that though she believes that the Russians interfered in the 2016 elections, she hasn’t discussed it with Trump because “it’s not something that’s on her radar.”  Haley joins Jeff Sessions, Sean Spicer, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and intelligence chiefs Coats and Rogers as Trump team members who have somehow or other never discussed Russian election meddling with Trump. Trump who still wavers between calling the Russian story a hoax and blaming it on Obama, has been exerting his influence on the House of Representatives to stall voting on Senate passed legislation imposing stricter sanctions on the Russians as punishment for the election meddling.  Trump’s hoax accusations notwithstanding, the House and Senate Intelligence Committees are keeping busy.  On Tuesday the House committee met with Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager John Podesta about the hacking of the DNC emails and next month they will meet with Trump’s sometime friend Roger Stone, the guy who bragged about communicating with Guccifer 2.0, the infamous Russian hacker persona, and who has admitted to cozying up to WikiLeaks.  The Senate committee expects to receive copies of former FBI Director Comey’s famous Trump meeting memos shortly.    

Internet Insecurity:  Earlier this week FBI Agents visited the homes of more than ten US employees of Kaspersky Lab, the Moscow based internet security and antivirus firm.  Kaspersky is a private company with offices around the world whose founder, Eugene Kaspersky, attended a KGB-run university.  Kaspersky insists that it has no ties to any country, but given current events, the FBI is concerned that it may have been compromised by the Russian government and the Department of Homeland Security has issued guidelines for US government entities to avoid using their services.  While the FBI was interviewing the Kaspersky techs a massive ransomware attack caused by the Petya virus disproportionately affected computers in Ukraine raising suspicions of additional Moscow directed cyber warfare.   

Another Stupid Trump Tweet: Yesterday morning, reacting to an article in the Washington Post about ersatz Trump Time Magazine covers  hanging in a number of his properties, Trump tweet swiped “The #AmazonWashingtonPost, sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should) is FAKE NEWS!”  Everything is wrong with this tweet.  First, shouldn’t Trump have better things to do like learning the difference between Medicare and Medicaid and brushing up on science and international affairs?  Second, the Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, but is not owned by Amazon.  Third, there is no such thing as an Internet tax, though Amazon does pay sales taxes. Fourth, like it or not a news item can slam Trump without being fake because the US press is still free, at least for now.   

The Travel Ban: Trump’s modified six country travel ban goes into effect this evening.  US citizens, green card holders, current visa holders, and foreign nationals with “bona fide” family, educational or business ties to the US will all be exempt from the ban but some travel disruption is still expected.  Refugees without the wherewithal to gin up any family connections will be excluded but nefarious players from countries with terrorist track records can come and go as they please.  Trump who gets to check this one off his “to do” list is happy.