Tweet Decree

Sick Health Care:  Majority Leader McConnell continues to shepherd his health care legislation through the Senate employing a Byzantine process that no one understands.  Tuesday night his attempts to pass the Senate’s most recent version of Trumpcare failed when Senators Collins, Corker, Cotton, Graham, Heller, Moran, Murkowski and Paul abandoned ship.  Notably Senators Portman and Moore Capito voted yes, enticed by an extra $100 million to help people losing Medicaid pay for their insurance.   Wednesday his attempt to pass a straight repeal of Obamacare failed when a different mix of Senators this time including Moore Capito, Heller, Collins, Portman, Murkowski, Alexander and McCain voted no.  McCain’s “no” was a surprise, an indication that he meant what he said on Tuesday when he called for a return to a regular way legislative process involving Democrats.  McConnell is now moving towards some form of a “skinny repeal,” a last ditch effort which would hasten Obamacare’s demise by stripping away some taxes and skewing the insured population towards sicker people.  If a skinny repeal option passes, the Senate would then go to a conference committee with the House where a final Trumpcare plan would be negotiated behind closed doors.  Some, though not all, of the naysayers would likely vote for a skinny plan so the battle goes on.   

Tweet Decree: Wednesday morning, Trump who asserted he was a better friend to the LGBTQ community than Clinton, sent out a series of tweets saying “After consultation with my Generals and military experts please be advised that the US Government will not accept or allow …….Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military.  Our Military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgenders in the military would entail.  Thank you.” So much is wrong with this tweet. With a delay between the first and second tweet, many at the Pentagon initially thought that Trump was declaring war on North Korea.  Trump did not consult with the Pentagon, the Secretary of Defense or the Head of the Department of Veterans Affairs.  They all had no warning that this policy change was imminent and few of them believe that transgender soldiers are disruptive.  Estimates put the number of active transgender service people somewhere around 6,300, a small percentage of the 1.3 million active duty soldiers but a significant number of people whose lives have just been turned upside down. As to Trump’s claim that costs associated with transgender soldiers are huge, they are not.  Total annual medical costs for transgender soldiers are $8.4 million, 0.1%  of what is spent on military health care.  By comparison the military spent $84 million on Viagra and Cialis during 2014.  Lastly, transgender soldiers have no problem putting their lives on the line to achieve decisive victory.  Ask Kristen Beck, before she was Kristen, she was Chris a member of Seal Team Six. Encouraged by Pence and Steve Bannon, Trump made this decision to free up a stalled spending bill which includes some funds for his Mexico wall.  The bill was being held up by an amendment prohibiting military spending for sex reassignment surgery. He thought his overreaching decision would be popular with his base and with conservatives and no doubt some in his base are happy but a significant number of conservatives have come out in opposition including Utah’s Senators Hatch and Ernst, Iowa’s Senator Grassley and Arizona’s McCain, the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee who said “There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy  to leave the military, regardless of their gender identity.”  Commanding officers have told their transgender soldiers to stay put, for now, while they figure this one out.

Bully Sessions:   Trump continues to bully Attorney General Sessions in an effort to force his resignation so that he can move towards firing Special Counsel Mueller.  Wednesday morning he tweeted “Why didn’t AG Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife’s political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives.”  Again, everything was wrong with this tweet.  First, if Trump wants to replace McCabe, he can do it without Sessions and he knows that since he fired Comey, the last FBI Director.  Second, McCabe was not involved in the Clinton investigation.  Third, when McCabe’s wife was running for office she received money from a Democratic PAC, not from Clinton. Trump’s efforts to rid himself of Sessions so that he can get one step closer to firing Special Counsel Mueller are raising the hackles of Republican leadership who are uncharacteristically calling him out.  Majority Leader McConnell took time from his devious efforts to tank Obamacare to say that Sessions made the right decision when he recused himself from the Russia investigation and Senator Grassley, the head of the Judiciary Committee issued a warning that he would not allocate time to confirm any new attorney general by tweeting “the agenda for the Judiciary Committee is set for the rest of 2017.  Judges first, subcabinet second, AG no way.”  Sessions is holding firm, continuing to implement his Trump approved small minded policy objectives, this week he took on funding for sanctuary city police forces.  Sadly, Trump is like a dog with a bone, he has already discussed the possibility of a dismissal followed by a recess appointment for a Sessions replacement with his legal advisors.  Even though he has been told that firing Sessions would be a bigly problem for him, a dismissal by tweet remains a real possibility.  A truly bizarre strategy for a guy who insists neither he nor any of his staff and family have anything to hide.       

Russian Sanctions Bill:  The Russian Sanctions bill passed the House by a vote of 419 to 3.  As soon as the Senate and House work out their differences over whether or not North Korean sanctions should be included at this time, the bill will be sent to the White House for Trump to sign.  He’s not happy about having decisions about sanctions taken away from him and Putin is threatening to retaliate but Trump’s options are limited.  Both the House and the Senate have more than enough votes to override his veto. 

Smooch Attack:  Trump’s mini me Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, picked a tweet fight with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus last night by accusing him of leaking his personal financial information.  He’s asked the FBI to investigate the felonious leak which isn’t really a leak because the information, filed more than thirty days ago, is publicly available.  White House dysfunction continues.