Spin Cycle

No Bueno:  In private, officials are now acknowledging that the Trump administration was too slow to react to the severity of the impact of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico.  Facing huge amounts of criticism, the administration has finally started to take the devastation seriously. Yesterday, in response to calls for military resources,  Lt Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, an Army commander, was put in charge of the relief effort.  When asked why he wasn’t deployed earlier, Tom Bossert, the homeland security spokesman, said the situation in Puerto Rico “didn’t require a three-star general eight days ago,” which is government speak for we screwed up big time by not treating Puerto Rico with the care and respect that the island deserves, besides Trump  just figured out Puerto Ricans are Americans.  Trump also temporarily lifted the Jones Act restriction banning non-US ships from carrying cargo from other parts of the US to Puerto Rico after getting criticized for his earlier decision not to lift the ban because affected US shipping companies didn’t think he should.  With distribution capability severely diminished due to the destruction of roads and trucks, many of the supplies arriving in Puerto Rico are stuck at the docks so lifting the Jones Act won’t result in an immediate improvement but the optics of leaving it in place when it had been lifted for Texas and Florida was dreadful.  People have been living at San Juan airport, lining up to get on one of the flights leaving the island.  Trump’s visit, planned to take place on Tuesday, will lengthen departure waiting times since the airport will be shut to accommodate his photo-op.  Many of those leaving Puerto Rico are expected to move permanently to the mainland feeding Republican worst fears and Democratic pipedreams that states such as Texas and Florida, likely destinations, could turn blue.      

The State of Health:  With Obamacare repeal efforts dead for now, the Trump administration is doing its best to hinder enrollment because increasing participation by healthy people is the key to the program’s continuing success. Health Secretary Price has cut funding for enrollment groups and advertising, shut down the enrollment website for hours a week and halted the participation in enrollment events.  Asked for comments on why they had pulled out of assisting enrollment efforts in Mississippi, a Health department spokesperson responded “Obamacare continues to collapse, HHS is carefully evaluating how we can best serve the American people who continue to be harmed by Obamacare’s failures.”  Health Secretary Price has been “best helping Americans,” by diverting funds to pay for his private flights.  Already under criticism for spending $300,000 on domestic private flights, yesterday added attention was focused on his international travel.  He ran up an additional $500,000 using military transport to cities well served by commercial carriers.  Despite the fact that the international flights were approved by someone in the White House, Trump is furious about the attention that the cost of Price’s travel has received.  When asked if he still supported Price, he walked away without answering the question.  Price, who complained about tax-funded travel when he was in Congress is now planning to reimburse the government but only for $50,000, the cost associated with his “tickets.”  He has no plans to cover the cost of his entourage.  Price isn’t the only Cabinet member who has questionably commandeered military flights, Interior Secretary Zinke has also gotten in on the action and EPA’s Pruitt has racked up $58,000 on “military air.” Suddenly, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s ill-fated attempt to arrange for a military plane to take him to his honeymoon location looks like the norm for Trump’s swamp denizens.  As to Obamacare, with Price busy raising cash by selling stocks from his insider trading portfolio, the portfolio that should have derailed his confirmation as Health Secretary in the first place, Republican Senator Alexander and Democratic Senator Murray have gone back to work on their Obamacare “fix,”  Senate Minority Leader Schumer reports they are close to finalizing their plan.               

Unsocial Media:  Yesterday was Twitter’s turn on Intelligence Committees hot seats. They revealed 201 Russian  “bot” accounts spent $291,000 on twitter ads during the 2016 elections.  After their presentation to the Senate committee, Senator Warner, the Senate panel’s top Democrat, said that Twitter’s presentation was inadequate.  It was his impression that the information they presented was “derivative, based upon accounts that Facebook had identified, showed an enormous lack of understanding of how serious this issue is, the threat it poses to democratic institutions and again begs more questions than they offered.” Adam Schiff the Congressional Committee’s ranking Democrat agreed that the Twitter information was derived from Facebook’s analysis, saying it’s “clear that Twitter has significant forensic work to do to understand the depth and breadth of Russian activity in the campaign.”  Facebook’s earlier disclosure about Russian activity on their platform only tracked ads purchased in Rubles, to date neither Facebook or Twitter have disclosed Russian funded ads purchased in other currencies so their findings represent just the tip of what may be a very big and nefarious iceberg.  Trump’s lawyers have responded to all this by requesting information about anti-Trump ads and the Russians have responded by continuing to stir the pot with more football inspired #takeaknee ads intended to foment more political discontent.    

Tax Reform Tidbits:  Remember when Republican deficit hawks were concerned about the growing budget deficit and burgeoning federal debt.  Not anymore, Republican Representative Mark Walker disingenuously explained away the likelihood that the new Tax Reform plan will dramatically increase the federal debt by saying such concerns make for “a great talking point when you have an administration that’s Democratic-led.  It’s a little different now that Republicans have both houses and the administration.”  Walker’s comments aside others are very concerned about some of the components of the administration’s tax reform proposal.  Democrats and Republicans from states with high state and local tax burdens are pushing back against the plan’s elimination of state and local tax deductions.  To pass tax reform through the House, Speaker Ryan will need to get most of the thirty-three Republican Representatives from high tax “blue” states to vote for tax reform and many of them are unlikely to support a provision that puts their seats in jeopardy so expect some changes in this provision.  Economic advisor Cohn refused to say that the plan favors the wealthy and that no middle class payers would end up paying higher taxes.  He then went on to say that the average American family who he said earns $100,000 would get a $!000 tax cut that could be used to remodel a kitchen or buy a new car. It’s not clear who wrote his talking points, he misstated the average American household income which is somewhere around $70,000 and that’s the average, not the median.  Does anyone know where you can buy a new car for $1000 or remodel a kitchen for $1000, even HGTV can’t do that.  Cohn’s credibility declines daily, he needs to work on his spin, stop lying, or leave and start rebuilding his tarnished reputation.

Have an easy fast and whether your fasting or not enjoy a break fast bagel and lox!