No Pill For You

Baby’s R Us:  One-year to the day after the release of the Access Hollywood Tape that confirmed Trump’s true attitudes toward women, his administration announced that they will no longer require any company with a “moral” opposition to birth control to include its coverage in their health plans.  By moral, think any company that has a religious objection, is totally cheap, is run by people who failed grade school biology, who just don’t care about women’s rights or any and all of the above.  A number of states, women’s groups and the ACLU are now suing, so this one will end up in the courts for a while, still it’s reprehensible at best and in keeping with Trump’s efforts to assuage his fans on the religious right while chipping away at Obamacare through a combination of service cuts and impediments to plan enrollment.  Oddly enough, while sticking pins into his Obamacare doll, Trump freaked out Republicans with a morning tweet reporting that he called his good friend Chuck a/k/a Senator Schumer to see if they can come up with a “great HealthCare Bill” together.  Senator Schumer’s response is that he told him repeal and replace is “off the table” but that “if he wants to work together to improve the existing health care system, we Democrats are open to his suggestions.” Schumer then suggested that the stabilization plan currently under negotiation between Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray would be a good place to start.  If Schumer can get Trump to put his golf clubs aside for a minute this weekend, maybe he can push him to get the funding deal for the Children’s Health Insurance Program pushed through Congress, after all with contraceptives no longer funded, more needy children may follow.  CHIP is a twenty year old relatively non-controversial program that helps insure eight million children whose parents don’t qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford other types of insurance.  Right now its renewal is being held hostage in the House while leadership figures out how to placate the budget hawks who want another part of the social safety net cut to pay for both the CHIP renewal and the so called tax reform plan, the one that raises taxes for the middle and upper middle class while cutting taxes for Trump and his donor friends.  When discussing it with Trump, it would be best for Chuck not to mention that Hillary Clinton helped with the passage of the original program because the only thing that Trump hates more than something passed by Obama is something supported by Hillary.  As to tax reform, last week the House passed its $4.1 billion budget plan that paves the way for Republicans to begin rewriting the tax code later this year.  It calls for deep cuts to social programs and turns Medicare into a voucher-like program for future retirees, provisions that will probably never see the light of day once the plan gets to the Senate. 

The Madman Theory:  It’s not hard to figure out why Trump relates to the Madman Theory of foreign policy that former President Nixon liked so much, the problem is that while Trump shares a lot of Nixon’s more criminal attributes, he’s not as smart but is way crazier than Nixon ever was, even in those dark days leading up to his resignation.   Trump walked out of his Thursday night dinner with members of the military ending the evening with a cryptic comment that now “could be the calm before the storm.”  When asked if he was referring to Iran, North Korea, Tillerson or Hurricane Nate, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his very complicit Press Secretary refused to walk back or explain his somewhat chilling comment instead saying that “we’re never going to say in advance what the president’s going to do, and as he said… you’re going to have to wait and see.”   Trump has until October 15 to formally announce whether or not he will recertify that Iran is in compliance with their nuclear agreement, but all indications are that he won’t certify and will instead bounce it back to Congress for their review.  Congress will then be put in the position of having to decide whether to vote for recertification or not.  At the end of the day, they will probably opt not to pull us out of the agreement, but it won’t be pretty and it will use up valuable time that they would rather be spending on more pressing topics like tax reform.  As to Iran, Reuters reports that they have suggested they would be open to discussing their ballistic missile arsenal, one of the outstanding issues that Trump wants to address though expecting that they will commit to stop being regional disrupters and exporters of terrorism is not in the cards.  Trump’s plan to kick the responsibility for the Iran agreement to Congress despite Iran’s effort to diffuse tensions, may just be another way for him to get one of his campaign promises off of his to do list without doing something really substantive.  On the North Korean front, Russia reports that Kim Jong Un is planning to shoot off another long range ballistic missile on October 10, to celebrate the founding of the Korean Workers Party rather than as a belated bow to Columbus Day.  Could Trump’s comments about a storm to come relate to his reaction to another Pyongyang launch?  Or could Trump’s comments relate to Secretary of State Tillerson, whose very presence seems to agitate Trump beyond belief and whose effectiveness as Secretary of State is now in tatters?  Trump may be considering replacing Tillerson with either CIA Director Pompeo, who he’s bonded with during their daily intelligence briefings or with Ambassador Nikki Haley who seems to have figured out how to stay on his good side even when she strays from the party line.  Given that they’ve both already gone through one round of Senate approval, either could quickly step into the acting Secretary of State role because unlike the Health or Homeland Security Departments, the Secretary of State role, fourth in line for the presidency, can’t be left vacant for long.  If he’s given a vote, VP Pence will cast his for Pompeo because he views Haley as a potential rival in 2020 when he hopes to be running for president.  For his part, Nate is now a category 2 hurricane on target to hit Louisiana and Alabama, causing more destruction at a time when the administration has failed to adequately deal with the massive destruction of Puerto Rico, a place that VP Pence visited yesterday, another part of his 2020 presidential campaign.  After the storm, if they need aid Louisiana and Alabama are in a better position than Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands because they aren’t islands in really big oceans.   

Other Nefarious Deeds:  While Trump continues to deal with the aftermath of being called a moron by spouting ominous statements, his other least favorite but very busy cabinet member, Attorney General Sessions has been working hard to worm his way back into his good graces.  On Friday, Sessions instructed federal agencies to do as much as possible to accommodate those who claim their religious freedoms are being violated by “being forced to choose between living out his or her faith and complying with the law.”  In other words refusing to serve or hire LGBTQ people will be just fine go forward.  Some more legal challenges are imminent.