The Manic Depressive State

Washington Roller Coaster:  The week that began on a promising high note with the election of Doug Jones in Alabama ended with some depressing reminders that not much has changed. Trump is still president and is making progress in his war against Special Counsel Mueller and the Russia investigation.  Yesterday, as he left for a speech at FBI headquarters, he called the Russia investigation a “hoax, perpetrated by the Democrats that “everybody knows” hasn’t come up with any evidence of collusion, he slammed the “sad,” “really, really disgraceful” FBI and then when asked whether or not he would pardon former security advisor Michael Flynn, he responded “I don’t want to talk about pardons…yet.”   His efforts to discredit Mueller are getting an assist from some complicit Republican members of Congress, several of whom sit on the House Judiciary or House Intelligence Committee, and his very, very good friends at Fox News, the organization that increasingly appears to be Trump America’s official state TV.  Both groups have spun and twisted the “facts” surrounding the two FBI officials who texted Trump maligning comments to each other into a story about FBI incompetency and pro-Clinton bias, an irony that Hillary Clinton who is not president must find particular horrifying.  As to those texts, the story about their release has grown more and more suspicious as have the misinformation about the number of texts and their content.  Someone at Justice leaked the texts to the Trump friendly press before they were more formally released to any members of Congress.  After the leak, the Justice Department then provided the texts to Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee before providing them to any Democrats. Though he didn’t come out and say it, it sounds like Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein may have had his hand forced by someone more senior at Justice, someone like Attorney General Sessions perhaps.  Once the texts were released to the press, Rosenstein had no choice but to release them more broadly.   Fox reported that there were more than 10,000 texts, in reality there were a few hundred.  Fox only reported on the texts that slammed Trump, failing to mention that many criticized Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder and Senator Bernie Sanders who was described in one text as “an idiot like Trump. Figure they cancel each other out.” Mostly the texts reveal that like many FBI agents, the two romantic texters held all politicians in low regard.  Trump now seems to be employing a two pronged strategy:  continue trying to fire Mueller and failing that, discredit the investigation so much so that the Trump base disregards Mueller’s  conclusions even if they reveal he and his team committed a litany of crimes, including collusion, obstruction and money laundering.  As to the investigation, Jared Kushner seem very, very nervous, his lawyers are seeking to add a crisis management firm to his team, an indication that they are expecting some bad news in the not too distant future. An indictment perhaps?  Despite all of the noise, the indefatigable Mueller keeps plodding along, it’s been reported that he has obtained a trove of emails from Cambridge Analytica, the data mining firm that reportedly reached out to WikiLeaks about the “missing” Hillary Clinton emails on behalf of the Trump campaign.   

Tax Legislation:  In another piece of truly depressing news, late Friday Republican leadership announced that they’ve finalized their tax legislation and that both Senator Rubio and Senator Corker have moved into the “yes” column, giving the Senate enough votes for passage.  Rubio’s move wasn’t all that surprising, he had been holding out for an increase in the child care tax credit from $1100 to $2000, the tax writers fell short of his ask, but did increase the credit to $1400, enough for Rubio to claim success.  He will now position himself as the champion for families everywhere, no doubt a claim that will grow in magnitude when included in all of his future campaign ads.  Corker’s move was more surprising and totally inexcusable.  He had previously stated that he would vote against any tax plan that increased the deficit by one penny.  Apparently the hypocritical Corker has concluded that the difference between one penny and $1.5 trillion dollars is just a rounding error.  Corker may not be running for reelection to the Senate but he is clearly running for something and he wants to make sure that those Republican billionaire donors continue filling his coffers.  Though she hasn’t confirmed that she’s on board, Maine Senator Susan Collins’ website brags about all of the middle class friendly amendments that she got included in the tax legislation while ignoring the negative impact that the elimination of the individual health insurance mandate will have on premiums and the number of people covered going forward. Arizona Senator Flake,  the other possible holdout who said that he wants a promise on DACA legislation in exchange for his vote hasn’t said much lately either.  Odds are that both are fully on board. The plan is to bring the tax legislation to a vote first in the House and then in the Senate with the hope that the conditions of the ailing Senators Thad Cochran and John McCain will improve enough for them to show up and vote.  In one minor win for Democrats, the Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that a provision repealing the Johnson Amendment, a change that would have allowed religious institutions to endorse political candidate, can not be included in the bill.  Religious groups also got hit with another setback when a federal judge in Pennsylvania temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s recent ruling allowing any company with a moral or religious objection to exclude birth control coverage from their insurance policies.  Though that ruling may have left them distressed, they are probably finding some solace from the new rules at the Center for Disease Control where officials are now prohibited from using a list of seven words and phrases, including fetus, transgender, vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, evidence-based and science-based.  It’s long past time for the rest of us to start shouting George Carlin’s seven dirty words, loudly!

Human Resources:  Though he denies it, Politico reports that Paul Ryan is seriously considering retiring from Congress at the end of his term, cashing in his chits and taking a high paying job with one of his appreciative donors.  Assuming the tax legislation is passed next week, he will have achieved one of his life time goals and sadly will also have set in motion the achievement of his other goal, the dismantling of the social safety net, Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.  The increase in the deficit attributable to the new tax legislation is expected to trigger the budget “paygo” rule that requires that tax cuts be covered by cuts in mandatory spending. Ryan doesn’t have to stick around, paygo will accomplish his master plan with or without his presence.  Besides in the off chance that the Democrats manage to retake the House in 2018 he’d get demoted to Minority Leader and what’s the fun in that?   Republican Congressman Blake Farenthold is still in Congress despite the payments that were made by the House slush fund on his behalf to women he harassed and despite his acknowledgement that his office is a hostile work environment. He will not be seeking reelection.  Alabama child molester and failed Senatorial candidate Roy Moore still hasn’t conceded, instead he is trying to raise funds for a recount, citing the will of the Lord as his inspiration.   

And so it goes…..