Nobel-Prize winning economist Paul Krugman asks a simple question:
“Would you be willing to take health care away from a thousand children with the bad luck to have been born into low-income families so that you could give millions of extra dollars to just one wealthy heir?
“You might think that this question is silly, hypothetical and has an obvious answer. But it’s not at all hypothetical, and the answer apparently isn’t obvious. For it’s a literal description of the choice Republicans in Congress seem to be making as you read this.
“The Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, is basically a piece of Medicaid targeted on young Americans. It was introduced in 1997, with bipartisan support. Last year it covered 8.9 million kids. But its funding expired more than two months ago. Republicans keep saying they’ll restore the money, but they keep finding reasons not to do it; state governments, which administer the program, will soon have to start cutting children off.
“What’s the problem? The other day Senator Orrin Hatch, asked about the program (which he helped create), once again insisted that it will be funded — but without saying when or how (and there don’t seem to be any signs of movement on the issue). And he further declared, “The reason CHIP’s having trouble is that we don’t have money anymore.” Then he voted for an immense tax cut.”
Maybe children’s health is “the Civil Rights issue of our time,” not school choice.
Any chance we could persuade Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump, DFER, billionaire Daniel Loeb, Ted Cruz, and the rest of the school reform gang to agree?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And he further declared, “The reason CHIP’s having trouble is that we don’t have money anymore.” Then he voted for an immense tax cut.”
Where is the outrage at this terrible bill? Are people really buying into the thought that it will benefit Americans? I hear that a majority of Americans do think it is a give-away to the wealthy and are against it. If this is true, why doesn’t it matter to the Repubs? They must believe that there will be no repercussions. Since so much garbage has been happening, perhaps they are right.
Will there be outrage when there are cuts to Medicare and Social Security? I can’t believe that this is the next step in their planning. Just how far can Trump and the GOP go before Americans revolt in anger? It seems that the populace is so slow in responding that just about anything, no matter how hideous, can be passed.
One of the GOP leaders said that we have to take care of the people who sent us here. I don’t think he meant the voters.
“My donors are basically saying, ‘Get it done or don’t ever call me again,’” Rep. Chris Collins said earlier this month. Many have already closed their checkbooks, and Republicans are keen to see them reopened.”
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Repubs are blatantly saying they are passing this tax reform bill because they want money from their donor class. This is what should be reported LOUDLY in the media. Put the blame where it belongs.
There will be no money for any services that Americans need to help survive. The media is focused on sexual predators and not on the abuse the GOP is foisting on America.
YES.
Where’s the outrage? Good question.
This country is really SICK right now.
Antidote: Read good books.
What I am not hearing and the only thing I want to hear is a total rejection from the democrats and a promise that this will not stand . Walter Mondale proposed a small tax increase in the 84 election and got trounced. Is there a Democrat standing up to say this is not what the American people want . Is there a Democrat saying in order to pay for the things that matter to the American people, taxes have to levied
No if there was he would be dismissed as some sort of crazy naive socialist who would not stand a chance against the right. All the smartest people including Paul Krugman would be tripping over themselves to discredit him and his proposals.
Wake me when a Democrat says that a bus driver a teacher or a doctor should not pay a higher rate than an an investor. A concept that was not foreign to us in 1986. But one that did not fit in well with contributions to the Democratic party. So William Jefferson Clinton eliminated it.. Even though it would always benefit Republicans far more . Wake me when the reduced rate on capital gains is going to be removed . Wake me when a Democrat proposes raising the rates and restoring progressivity to the tax code especially for the highest earners . Somebody explain to me what contribution any person could have made to society that they should have a billion dollars in assets no less 45 or 60 billion .Would Jobs or Gates have that wealth if not for the US congress who creates patent protections. Would the Waltons have that wealth if Labor law did not hinder the creation of Unions, right down to limiting free speech rights and the right of free association. If you don’t believe it does than you better ask Truman., If the police state did not exist to maintain that wealth. If we truly believe that “they didn’t do it on their own ” then we should also believe that they owe a debt to society and make them pay it.
Wake when Democrats have the guts to propose tax increases and run on them .
It is just criminal and utterly sadistic that the CHIP program is not going to be fully funded or restored. What is the matter with us? Oh, that’s right, we have had a far rightwing/libertarian coup d’etat. The GOP goal is to utterly destroy the US from top to bottom.
SADISTIC is RIGHT.
If you want to see the future rich folks in this country envision, check out Sao Paolo, Brazil. Private estates, private security, private schools, private infrastructure, secured high-rises with helicopter decks so that the owners of corporations never have to leave the buildings or set foot in the street with the poverty- and crime-ridden riff raff. All for “us,” nothing for “them.” Gated communities are the gateway drug.
…envision the future.
Until the private security walks away when the rabble comes with pitchforks and nooses . As always seems to be how that story ends . Of course that seldom has solved the problem, but it has never worked out for the oligarchy either.
We ARE outraged. Hatch had the Fng balls to say that there wasn’t “money” to help people who don’t help themselves, like kids are supposed to go out & get jobs to pay for their own healthcare … I suppose after school & homework & chores around the house. OH .. their ALLOWANCE will pay for it. He’s a real piece of work. YES, A LOT OF US ARE OUTRAGED. WE ARE OUTRAGED EVERY DAY OF THE FNG WEEK.
Hatch is 83. He is considering another run for the Senate. Romney, a critic of Trump, wants to run for Hatch’s seat in Utah. Trump is encouraging Hatch to run again.
Voters have bought into the narrative that “government is the problem” and the short-term thinking that the GOP sells them. As Dr. Krugman notes, the payback for CHIP and food stamps takes years… but in the final analysis programs like CHIP and food stamps should not rely on economic analysis: they should rely on “simple decency”.
Until a narrative based on “simple decency” replaces the narrative that “government is the problem” we will continue to see an ever widening gap between the .1% and the rest of America and a widening gap between those who want to treat people humanely and those who want to retain as much as they can. https://wp.me/p25b7q-216
Just by coincidence we went to see Dicken’s Chistmas Carol at a nearby theatre. Dicken’s, of course, was a part of the Victorian debate about roughly the same issue, the distribution of wealth. Squalid tenements packed with multiple families had become the rule in countries which were still expressly oligarchical in nature. Lives torn from their traditional moorings were the rule across the globe. The chestnuts roasting on the street corners in London were picked up in the Appalachian forest by hardscrable descendants of the Celtic British isles, unaware that they were a small part of a giant machine that left some wealthy beyond kings and others destitute.
Perhaps today the machine has grown too big for many voters to understand. Smart people still hold to a sort of faith that the diligent are always able to overcome and the impoverished are to blame for their own misfortune. Anybody can get a job if they were just willing to work. It is a mantra of the right in political thought. If you pay people to be poor, you will have a lot of poor people. People will aspire to poverty. These talking points spew forth from media designed to give the rapacious the space to pursue a return to economic domination not seen since Dicken’s wrote his protest against the stolid British financier. Where will it all end?
No money for CHIP but some money for this worthless project. This just came in from an email from the WH:
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Customs begins testing border wall prototypes
– The Hill
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol began physical testing on prototypes for the U.S.-Mexico border wall this week. “Physical testing of the samples includes efforts to scale or breach the walls, using tools such as jackhammers and saws,” The Hill reported.
First comes the cut-off for disadvantaged children’s healthcare, then comes the slashing of Medicare and Social Security in the form of COLA arrests, means testing, and reduced allowances.
With all this groovy, really cool giveaway to the uber rich in America, it will be the first time in about 3 years or sooner from now when the GOP will finally be telling the truth when they say very accurately , “We don’t have enough revenues to fund these programs, and if we are going to preserve them for younger and future generations, we are going to have to make sacrifices now so that EVERYONE may continue to benefit from them! We don’t want to do away with the programs, but we are going to have to slash them dramatically or else there will be nothing left for those who currently receive benefits and those who are slated to!”
Or they can create a two tier system, like Chile, in which you can invest your tax dollar in a government fund that contracts out to several major investment firms with the hope of great returns OR you can continue with the dwindling allowances that are on life support from the conventional Social Security and Medicare models the once upon a time were healthy when wealth was distributed appropriately in a then democratic America.
Mark my words: this is the trajectory for the United States.
It is hard to imagine having a president who gets his information from watching TV four to eight hours a day and then has to get away from the stress of the office by golfing on weekends. He is over and over again proving that he is narcissistic, insecure, weak, misogynistic, ignorant and is an unparalleled liar who doesn’t know the line between truth and fiction. He is totally unfit for the office. He abuses Muslims, immigrants, foreign allies and actively works to sign any bill that is put before him. He doesn’t understand what he is signing but wants to prove just how ‘great’ he is. He actively works to destroy our environment, our democracy, our healthcare and all safety nets that America needs while making sure he and his wealthy peers become more wealthy.
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From The New York Times:
Inside Trump’s Hour-by-Hour Battle for Self-Preservation
With Twitter as his Excalibur, the president takes on his doubters, powered by long spells of cable news and a dozen Diet Cokes. But if Mr. Trump has yet to bend the presidency to his will, he is at least wrestling it to a draw.
I know that it is hard to access the NYT. Here are some quotes from what was written in “Inside Trump’s Hour-by-hour Battle for Self-Preservation’
WASHINGTON — Around 5:30 each morning, President Trump wakes and tunes into the television in the White House’s master bedroom. He flips to CNN for news, moves to “Fox & Friends” for comfort and messaging ideas, and sometimes watches MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” because, friends suspect, it fires him up for the day….
For Mr. Trump, every day is an hour-by-hour battle for self-preservation. He still relitigates last year’s election, convinced that the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, into Russia’s interference is a plot to delegitimize him. Color-coded maps highlighting the counties he won were hung on the White House walls.
People close to him estimate that Mr. Trump spends at least four hours a day, and sometimes as much as twice that, in front of a television, sometimes with the volume muted, marinating in the no-holds-barred wars of cable news and eager to fire back…
“He feels like there’s an effort to undermine his election and that collusion allegations are unfounded,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who has spent more time with the president than most lawmakers. “He believes passionately that the liberal left and the media are out to destroy him. The way he got here is fighting back and counterpunching…
Mr. Kelly is trying, quietly and respectfully, to reduce the amount of free time the president has for fiery tweets by accelerating the start of his workday. Mr. Priebus also tried, with only modest success, to encourage Mr. Trump to arrive by 9 or 9:30 a.m….
For most of the year, people inside and outside Washington have been convinced that there is a strategy behind Mr. Trump’s actions. But there is seldom a plan apart from pre-emption, self-defense, obsession and impulse…
Once he posts controversial messages, Mr. Trump’s advisers sometimes decide not to raise them with him. ..“I do not watch much television,” he insisted…
To an extent that would stun outsiders, Mr. Trump, the most talked-about human on the planet, is still delighted when he sees his name in the headlines. And he is on a perpetual quest to see it there. One former top adviser said Mr. Trump grew uncomfortable after two or three days of peace and could not handle watching the news without seeing himself on it….
Mr. Trump seeks release on the golf course on weekends. But on weekdays, his principal mode of blowing off steam is his nightly dinner in the White House residence, which begins at 6:30 or 7 p.m. with a guest list organized by the ever-vigilant Mr. Kelly.
Thanks, Carol, for posting the long excerpt. If I did it, someone from the newspaper would contact and say I violated copyright law and I would have to delete it.