Do Something !

IQ45 has become increasingly deranged as the FBI investigation of his collusion with Russia closes in. In a desperate attempt at distraction, he resurrected a discredited conspiracy theory accusing Hillary Clinton of handing-over US uranium to the Russians.

On Sunday, he tweeted: 

...are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017

It is unclear who Trump is desperately begging to "DO SOMETHING !" It is equally unclear what he expects them to do. However, I have a suggestion for somebody in Washington who really should do something.

Congress has much that they should deal with before the end of the year. They must do something to allow the Dreamers to remain in America, after Trump ended DACA. They must do something to authorize payment of Affordable Care Act cost-sharing subsidies, after Trump ended those payments. They must do something to reauthorize the expired Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). They must do something to increase the debt limit in December, so that the Government can actually stay open.

But instead of doing something on these four critical tasks, what has the House of Representatives done since the first of October? They voted to criminalize abortion after twenty weeks (Sensenbrenner, Grothman voted for). They named three Post Offices. They jammed through a sham budget in a procedural scheme targeting huge tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy. They passed a bill allowing clear cutting of National Forests with no environmental review or public comment (Grothman for, Sensenbrenner against).

Most importantly, the House passed the South Carolina Peanut Parity Act of 2017. This all-important bill will allow South Carolina to appoint members to the Peanut Standards Board.

With only twelve in-session days remaining in November and nine in December, we should worry about the ability of the House to act on the critical matters waiting for them. However, all we seem to hear from House leaders is the importance of gigantic tax cuts.

The American people are not clamoring for tax cuts. We have been here before. We realize that the unwise move will balloon the deficit in order to give huge tax breaks to profitable corporations and the ultra-rich. These cuts, that Republican politicians are hell-bent on jamming-through by the end of the year, are a callous pay-off to wealthy political contributors.

Failure of Congress to implement a new Dream Act will affect over 700,000 young people. Since Trump killed the DACA program two months ago, the lives of these kids have been a Kafkaesque nightmare. Paul Ryan has not promised any plan of action on the issue.
 
It has been 33 days since Congress allowed the Children's Health Insurance Plan to expire. The program provides healthcare to 8.9 million children through state-run Medicare and CHIP plans. The House GOP is attempting to attach poison pills to this must-pass bill. States are scraping to keep their programs going, but can't continue emergency funding efforts forever.

It has been 21 days since Trump announced that he was ending cost-sharing subsidies, a provision of the Affordable Care Act. This cost-sharing program helped low-income families afford health insurance. Last year, nearly six million people received assistance. Trump timed his announcement for maximal disruption of the insurance markets. His decision means that millions will be unable to afford insurance, the government will pay billions more, and fewer insurance companies will participate in the exchanges. Neither Paul Ryan nor Mitch McConnell appear to be interested in a bipartisan solution negotiated in the Senate.

The 700,000 Dreamers, and the 6,000,000 poor getting cost-sharing insurance subsidies, and the 8,900,000 children on CHIP do not seem to be a priority with this Congress. Their piece-of-mind does not concern Paul Ryan or Mitch McConnell or Donald Trump. Calls for Congress to "Do Something!" on these issues fall on deaf ears. The problems of millions of Americans will be addressed, maybe sometime, at a future date, in the not-too-distant future.

No, the number one priority of the Republican Congress is tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. Everybody else will just have to wait their turn. After all, there are only twenty-one Congressional work days left in 2017.