By any objective standards, the Trump presidency has been a Grade-A clusterf**ck. The Administration's swamp full of "the best people" proves to be more corrupt every day. The number of uninsured Americans is rapidly ballooning. We have surrendered our leadership of the Free World. Dictators have a friend in the White House. The US has gone into deep hock in order to give billionaires a huge tax break. It couldn't get any worse, could it?
Well, maybe. A new Ebola outbreak has been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There have already been 34 confirmed or suspected cases. WHO has sent an experimental vaccine to the area. Volunteer medical personnel are trying to contain the emergency.
So far, the outbreak is nowhere nearly as large as the 2014-2016 epidemic in west Africa. In that tragic episode, which hit Guinea, Sierra Leon, Liberia, and Nigeria, 28,000 people were infected and 11,000 died of the disease. With massive financial help from the rest of the world and the efforts of thousands of brave medical workers, the epidemic was finally stopped.
The American response to this earlier epidemic was admirable. Over 3,000 US DOD and health workers were sent to the affected counties to provide training to local healthcare workers, construct fifteen Ebola treatment units, help track transmission routes, and distribute tons of medical and relief supplies. The US donated more than $2.4 billion in Ebola response activities.
Strong leadership from then-President Obama and quick action from Congress to provide emergency funds helped to make a potentially horrible scenario a lot less tragic. These actions show us how a great country responds to an international medical emergency.
At a time that today's new Ebola crisis cries-out for American leadership, we have the worst possible person occupying the White House. Given Trump's past statements, we can hardly expect that America will lead international efforts to stop the new epidemic.
As part of an effort to renege on a passed and signed spending bill, the Trump administration announced last week that they want to claw-back $252 million in money earmarked for combating Ebola outbreaks.
But cutting funding for fighting Ebola isn't all. During the 2014-16 epidemic, Trump clearly showed us how he feels about US leadership in fighting these outbreaks. In a series of 100 tweets, Trump showed us that he would have no intention of sending US troops to lead international relief efforts. He would abandon the heroic US doctors and nurses who risk their lives to help others. He would close the borders, cowering behind his little wall while the rest of the world is consumed by a global pandemic. Here are just a few examples of Trump's thoughts on how to deal with an Ebola crisis:
Tropical African countries are at the epicenter of the deadly Ebola outbreaks. These countries are poor and need resources to fight the Ebola scourge. The US can and should provide massive aid and personnel to help extinguish the outbreaks. Stopping the disease as soon as it appears is much preferred to waiting until it goes global.
However, we have a President who is attempting to cut monies allocated to battle Ebola. We have a President who dismisses the afflicted countries as "shit-holes". We have a cowardly President who thinks that we should abandon the brave healthcare workers who travel to help others. At a time that the world needs strong American leadership on this crisis, we have the paranoid, "America First" Trump. This is not normal. This is not right.
A good way to get a Trumpista's head to explode is to state the fact that there were no major scandals during President Obama's eight years in office. Obama recently stated that this is something of which he is especially proud. There were no grand juries investigating the executive branch. No FBI investigations of massive wrongdoing. No pardoning of White House aides. No indictments of Cabinet members.
Sure, there were many imaginary Obama "scandals" that only gained traction in the Fox/Breitbart/Red State/Newsmax/Alex Jones/Rush Limbaugh media bubble. Benghazi TM, Fast & Furious, Uranium One , and IRS-gate come to mind. But none of these were actual scandals. After careful examination by reputable reporters, none of these silly kerfuffles were found to merit the term "scandal".
But the lack of any actual scandals during the Obama Presidency did not keep the far-right media from generating false controversies. Let's compare some of the real scandals of the first fifteen months of the Trump Presidency with what happened during Obama's eight years in office:
Trump's Attorney General lied during a Congressional hearing about his contacts with Russia. In a letter, he lied about justifications for firing James Comey. Obama's Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, took intense right-wing heat for speaking to former President Clinton on an airplane.
Donald Trump, Jr met with Russians and corresponded with Wikileaks' Julian Assange. Ivanka Trump received coveted Chinese trademarks for her business on the day after she dined with the Chinese President. Obama's daughters were condemned for wearing their dresses way too high.
Trump had extramarital affairs with a porn star and a Playboy bunny and paid them to keep it quiet. Obama was ridiculed by the right for wearing "mom jeans".
Melania Trump worked in the US illegally before getting her work visa. A promised press conference on the topic never happened. Mrs. Trump posed for naked pictures (link NSFW) in British GQ Magazine. Michelle Obama suffered brutal attacks from the right because of her efforts to improve school lunches and for wearing sleeveless dresses.
Trump said some of the Nazi marchers in Virginia were "very fine people". Obama was accused by the right of inciting a "war on cops" when he spoke-out on the national problem of black people being killed by police.
Trump and his companies have been slapped with legal suits 3,500 times for stiffing contractors and non-payment of wages. Obama was derided for wearing a tan suit.
Trump has played golf at least 102 times since taking office. At his current rate, Trump would play golf 772 times over the course of an eight year (dear God, no!) period. The right wing media frequently criticized Obama for playing golf. Obama played only 333 rounds over eight years.
Trump claimed that John McCain is not a hero because he had been a POW. Trump proceeded to attack a Gold Star family. Obama was crucified by the right as unpatriotic for saluting a Marine while holding a coffee cup in his hand.
Trump leaked classified information to Russian dignitaries during an Oval Office visit. Trump's leak may have jeopardized the life of an Israeli intelligence operative. Obama sent shock waves through the right-wing world when he propped his foot on the Oval Office desk.
Trump defends dictator Vladimir Putin, no matter what. Just this week, he congratulated Putin for winning his county's Potemkin election. He refuses to criticize Putin for attacking one of our closest allies. He has ignored Congress' call for sanctions on Russia for interfering in our elections. Obama was bashed by the right for ceremonial bows to the Saudi King and the Emperor of Japan.
Trump was issued a court summons for violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Obama was lampooned by right wing pundits for spending too much time on his NCAA basketball brackets.
Trump's Cabinet is a herd of hogs at the taxpayer trough. His Treasury Secretary spent a million dollars on air fare in nine months. His HUD secretary spent $35,000 on an office dining room set. His EPA Chief spent $25,000 on a "cone of silence". His HHS head resigned in disgrace because he was too good to fly with the hoi polloi in commercial aircraft. Obama's Secretary of State used the wrong server for her e-mails.
We are now living in in a whole different world. The days that major presidential "scandals" involved the First Lady's wardrobe choices and the President's March Madness bracket picks are over. In just the first fifteen months, the Trump Administration has made serious scandal a daily occurrence. This is not normal.
I never thought that I would say this, but thank you, Mr. Trump ! Because of your recent actions to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, I will get my health insurance for free in 2018.
My wife and I can be considered an Obamacare success story. We are both retired, but not quite old enough for Medicare. For the last four years, we have purchased insurance through the Federal ACA Exchange. Each year, our retirement income was too high for cost-sharing subsidies, but we kept our IRA income low enough (<4 times the poverty rate) to qualify for tax credits at the end of the year .
Thanks to the ACA, our insurance costs have stayed comparatively low. The available tax credits are based on the Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan (SLCSP) for each county's exchange. In the interest of saving money, we have always bought one of the less-expensive, higher deductible Bronze Plans.
After tax credits, our monthly out-of-pocket costs for insurance for 2014-17 has averaged $400/month. That is substantially less than we paid for similar insurance before implementation of the exchanges. Thank you, President Obama!
Of course, we signed-up again for 2018 coverage. It was fast and easy to re-enroll online at https://www.healthcare.gov/. We did not need help, but telephone operators are available for those who do. But if you also plan to get your 2018 insurance through the Exchanges, please hurry ! Open enrollment ends on December 15 this year.
Several companies, including the carrier we used from 2014 through 2017, dropped out of our exchange for 2018. In Washington County, we went from a choice of 41 plans in 2017 to just 20 plans (offered by three companies) for next year. Both Anthem and Molina cited the "uncertainties" in Washington as their reason for exiting the Exchange. This was a polite way of saying that Trump and his HHS Secretary have been purposely sabotaging the law.
There are certainly fewer choices this year than in the past. Still, the Marketplace is thriving, despite the moronic "Obamacare is dead!" bleating from the Saboteur-in-Chief.
Trump has done everything he can to kill Obamacare. He refused to allow the Government to spend funds allotted for publicizing the Exchanges. He has cut the enrollment window in half. He has berated Obamacare at every opportunity, often confusing many into believing that the program no longer exists. Worst of all, he has played politics with the lives of Americans by reneging on the law's Cost Sharing subsidies (CSR) provision.
CSR helped especially poor people afford insurance. It remitted money directly to the insurance companies in exchange for lower rates on Silver plans they bought on the Exchanges. After Trump welched on the government's payments, the insurance companies were still legally required to provide the lower rates to poorer people. In order to stay out of a Trump-induced bankruptcy, most of the remaining exchange insurance providers drastically raised the prices of their Silver plans.
The huge Trump-caused price increases only affected Silver plans. For examples, the Bronze plan that we selected for 2018 is only 16% more than the similar Bronze plan that we had in 2017. In contrast, the Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan (SLCSP) for 2018 is a whopping 67% higher than the SLCSP for 2017.
With our Bronze plan increasing by just 16%, and the SLCSP, upon which federal tax credits are based, increasing by 67%, we will end-up paying zero dollars for our Bronze plan. That is correct. We will get free health insurance in 2018. Through his ham-handed efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act, Trump has inadvertently made insurance much cheaper, or even free for many of us. Thank you, Mr. Trump !
