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Monthly Archives: May 2017

Sally Yates


Sally Yates has had her day in court and she shone like a star! The panel of neer do wells attempted several times to impugn her testimony however it appears that she is smarter than they expected (probably because She’s a woman). Several members of this panel were on the panel when she was vetted as “acting Attorney General” and asked questions which she answered yet these members brought those questions up again and were rewarded with a nice “shut up” as their reward. Then to cover up more FBI director James Comey was fired after his testimony, this firing was at the behest of Jeff Sessions (supposedly) whose sole purpose appears to be returning us to the pre civil rights era. This administration is determined to do it wrong without conscience just because the CIC is an entertainer who believes he is immune to any questions about his actions. The Trump method of operating is to spit out  orders and have them carried out without question. This is not how it works in Government! It is apparent that we have a child in the Oval office who wants to take his ball and go home but can’t so he rants on social media. He has spent valuable time and energy trying to complete his campaign promises in the first 100 days (his stated time line) and has become frustrated when he couldn’t. This lack progress in his eyes is someone else’s fault thus the campaign style meetings outside of the White House. In his haste to undo all things Obama, he has created a fear and an anger among us all that will not be abated until he is out of office. TOTUS’s actions are reminiscent of the “Tammany Hall” era of New York and I wonder what will his downfall leave in its wake. The free press and media have been locked out of press conferences so all news sources are suspect and possibly contrived. Our Allies are looking at all of this and wondering if we as a country will recover from this witch hunt. As voters we have one solution-become informed and vote, show the power of the people to effect change. If we don’t no one else will.

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Sasse: Trump Firing Comey Helps Erode Public Trust


This is possibly one the few thinking members of Congress while a member of the Republican party (not Dupublican), he does not follow the party line without question which makes him more of a statesman. MA.

 

Gabrielle Levy • May 15, 2017, at 12:01 p.m.
Republican Sen. Ben Sasse said President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey contributes to an “erosion” of public trust in U.S. government institutions in light of the bureau’s ongoing investigation into potential collusion between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian officials.
“The timing is very troubling,” he said Monday on ” CBS This Morning.” “Once you get to a place where there’s an active investigation, the FBI director is not supposed to be in a political chain of command, and that’s the appearance of this situation and it’s timing.”
“I think we have a crisis of public trust right now, and we need to restore that,” he also said during the interview. “The FBI’s a really special institution and the American people need to be able to know they can believe in it. The FBI director has a 10-year term for a reason, because it’s supposed to be insulated from politics. I want to restore the rule of law but also the institutional conventions around that so there’s more trust.”
The remarks echoed those Sasse made Sunday on CBS’ ” Face The Nation,” when the outspoken Nebraska freshman said Trump’s dismissal of the FBI director should be considered separately from concerns over Comey’s performance.
“Director Comey … is a fundamentally honorable man, but people can think that he executed his job in all sorts of clunky and imperfect ways,” he said.
“That’s a different question than whether or not he should have been fired the way he was last week, and I’ve been critical of that decision,” he continued. “I think it exacerbates the erosion of trust in our institutions. So I’m disappointed in the timing of the firing, but I want to preserve room that there are lots of reasonable reasons that people across the political spectrum can argue about the way the FBI leadership conducted its business in the 2016 cycle.”

Sasse, who two years into his first term in the Senate has earned a reputation for challenging his own party’s orthodoxy, declined to speculate on why Trump decided to fire Comey.
“I’m not sure how this president makes lots of decisions, so I honestly don’t know,” he said. “I do know that we are in the midst of a civilization-warping crisis of public trust, and we need to talk honestly about our institutions that need to be restored and need to have the ability for people in five and eight and 10 years to trust these institutions.”
Sasse said his concerns extend to what he sees as an environment in which political candidates will be forced to contend with leaks of private records that include some faked information but enough real data so as to be believable.
“We need to have a shared civic understanding of America before we get to partisan and policy differences. There are important fights to be had in policy. But we first need a civic sense of what America is,” he said. “And here’s what comes next in things like Russian interference in America and in other countries in the age of cyber war over the next decade. I’m obviously concerned about 2016, but I’m far more concerned about 2018 and 2020, because here is what comes next.”

With the media, Congress and institutions already deeply unpopular, Sasse said, the nation is vulnerable in such an environment.
“We’ve got a bunch of different institutions that have 9 percent and 12 percent and 15 percent public trust and public approval,” he said. “America can’t work that way, because we need a shared narrative about how we are as a people, what government can and can’t do, and what the beating heart of the First Amendment and free press and freedom of assembly and speech and religion means to us.”

“We’re going to need to have some institutions that we can rely on and believe are apolitical, when the public has more and more doubt,” he added. “And, right now, Washington isn’t at all focused on the long-term challenge of rebuilding a shared narrative about America and institutional trust in our [public] servants.”

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Congressional Members Receive Free Health Care?


This is an addendum to my Post of 5/4/2016-“Hard Not To Speak Up” regarding Healthcare. Additionally the Congressional Healthcare plan has options not available to the rest of American citizens. MA.

Prior to the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as ACA, or Obamacare), members of Congress received the same healthcare insurance benefits as any other federal employee through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, or FEHBP.
During the mark-up of the ACA bill, however, lawmakers inserted a provision (Section 1312(d)(3)(D)) that requires members of Congress and designated congressional staff members to obtain their health insurance through ACA exchanges rather than continue to receive their healthcare coverage through the FEHBP.
As of 1 January 2014, Members of Congress (MOC) and Congressional staff purchase their insurance through the District of Columbia’s small business health options program (SHOP) exchange, also known as DC Health Link. Contrary to popular belief, Congressional members do not receive free health care. As it does for other federal employees who purchase their insurance through the FEHBP, the federal government provides a subsidy equivalent to 72 percent of the weighted average of all FEHBP premiums.
Therefore, MOC and staff pay approximately 28 percent of their annual healthcare premiums through pre-tax payroll deductions.
Although DC’s SHOP offers a total of 57 different ACA insurance plans at the bronze, silver, gold and platinum levels, the Office of Personnel Management has ruled that MOC and staff may only receive the employer contribution if they purchase insurance at the gold tier. If we look solely at the District of Columbia’s SHOP health plans and federal employer contributions, Members of Congress receive benefits very similar to those enjoyed by any employee of a large company.
The bottom line is this: Members of Congress and their staff members are required by law to purchase their health insurance through the exchanges offered by the Affordable Care Act. However, the federal government subsidizes approximately 72 percent of the premium cost.
Like those late-night Ginzu knife commercials on late-night TV, however: “but wait, there’s more!”
MOC and their staff are also eligible to set salary aside in Flex 125 savings plans, which help the employee pay for healthcare and childcare expenses with pre-tax dollars. If they enroll in high-deductible health plans (which is unlikely, since only the gold plans offer an employer contribution), they can also enroll in health savings accounts. If Members of Congress or staff purchase dental and vision or long-term care insurance, they pay 100 percent of their premiums through pre-tax dollars.
Again, these benefits are similar to those offered by many large employers. However, there are two areas where Members of Congress (not staff or family members) can receive free or low-cost health care that the average citizen cannot access. The first is having access to the Office of the Attending Physician. For an annual fee (unspecified), MOC can receive limited care for routine examinations, consultations, and certain diagnostic tests.
The second option is also only available to current Members of Congress. In the Capital region only, they may receive free medical outpatient care at military facilities. If they are outside of the Capital region or if they need inpatient care, then MOC must pay 100 percent of the full cost of that military health care.
Finally, upon separation from political life, Members of Congress may purchase FEHBP insurance if they are otherwise eligible for retirement and if they have had five years of continuous healthcare coverage under their DC SHOP plans.
If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, members of Congress have a fallback plan. They would be able to return to the FEHBP. Twenty million other Americans won’t.

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The Government VS The American People


The oft cited “American People” have been persuaded to shoot themselves in the foot by an entertainer and his loosely associated group of neer do wells sometimes called Congress. The still ongoing Presidential campaign brought more promises and empty superlative rhetoric than can be brought to fruition like the overblown numbers of  the touted “illegal voters”. To date this administration has begun to roll back safety measures for the environment that we all live in, is attempting to kill the little bit of healthcare that many of us now have, promising the return of jobs that are not possible to be returned and tweeting about things that do not have anything to do with governing. Now due to the high-flying rhetoric on the campaign trail many Americans who have been angry with the government now are having second thoughts but unfortunately we took the needle and damage is done. Our options now are push your representatives to do their jobs, do not take no for an answer , do not believe much of what they tell you and finally vote them out of office. The concept of  representatives being good people is and has been a misconception for years. We just never knew as  much as we know now thanks to electronic and social media. The job of representative is important and we deserve to have the right people in place. At this time we have people whose personal  perks (that we pay for) have been mandated by them! Their health care was never endangered during this “repeal and replace”, with that fact in place what incentive would they have to do anything for us?  It seems that they have one objective and that is to take care of themselves in any way they can and if it coincidentally does something for the voters then that’s a bonus. The solution is the vote and avoiding the politispeak that some many elected officials use when addressing  their constituents. We must have no illusions about our Congress, they are not on our side and it appears that they never will be. We as voters need to create a revolving door if need be to get the right people in place. Once we have that accomplished we need to demand changes in their salary and power. The power needs to be in the hands of the people as we are usually the recipients of their ill-fated laws and actions. It is apparent to me that these neer do wells are not listening to the people and the people are the reason they are in office. We can spend another election season of speeches that mean nothing or we can demand the truth then vote for or against the runner but we must be informed to do that.

The Lies We Are Told!


The past 10 years in politics have shown the dirtiest side of politics since McCarthyism.
The lies we are told about candidates, proposed laws and laws that are passed have been so outrageous at times that it is small wonder that a Trump presidency came about. Politics appears to be more about lies innuendo and insults than facts. There have been stories about candidates that prove to be true and just as many not. Without going into the many lies and insults, lets just go to what we know is true:

Donald Trump is a consummate liar.

Our Congress members are not to be trusted.

Donald Trump appealed to the anger of many of us who have gone unheard by their Congress.

The small group of Racists in our midst have latched on to Trump as a champion because he doesn’t know any better and loves to be adored at any cost.

Donald Trump is so insecure that his method of dealing with problems (and non problems) is an insult and or a lie.

The Spokes people for Totus seem to be uninformed and will do what ever he says out of fear.

The over coverage of the signing of Executive orders is more a photo op than anything serious as those orders will be at some point repealed or if not cause great harm to us.

Our Congress is using Totus as cover for their own nefarious actions.

Our Congress’ healthcare is not affected by the ACA or the new Health care act.

There are so many more items that can be added that I would spend the next several days listing them. It is the duty of each reader to pay attention to the real news (not Fox) to determine what our Congress is doing to us as they are surely not doing anything for us.

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How Smart?


How smart do you have to be in order to be President? We should all know that it doesn’t take a college degree to be elected to office or even to grow rich. What it does take is at least a rudimentary knowledge of history and general knowledge. Apparently these modern times have changed that since we have a Sexist, insulter in the Oval office. This individual seems to lack the basic knowledge of American history, For example Andrew Jackson died 15 years before the Civil War began, Frederick Douglas died 121 years ago these two men have both been cited in recent terms by our current Oval office occupant. It has occurred to me that I know the basics of these two men and I am not necessarily smarter than a modern day 5th grader but where does that put our TOTUS? Where does that put the current Congress who is busily touting him but making laws that harm the oft cited “American People”? It should apparent to us all that our lackluster attitude towards voting is why the present occupant of the White House is there, we as voters need to smarten up and become “woke” or we are destined to live under poor representation in Washington D.C.. The white House is “our” house, whoever occupies it is, in a sense “renting” it from us so it’s appearance and physical  upkeep are important but sadly those things seem to be slowly going downhill along with some protections that affect us all.

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Here’s Why Congress Exempted Itself From The New Healhcare Bill


Josh Barro
Business Insider 22 hours ago

l reaction to passage of health care – Buffalo Scripps
Last week, Vox dug into the Republican healthcare bill and found a provision that would exempt Congress and its staff from many of the bill’s effects.
This provision was bad “optics,” as they say in Washington.
But instead of taking it out — like you would usually do with a provision you aren’t wedded to and can’t defend politically — the House passed the American Health Care Act with the exemption intact after first passing a separate bill that would repeal the exemption that would be created by the AHCA if both bills became law.
There’s a reason for this mess, and it’s not about Republicans in Congress not wanting to be subject to their law.
It’s about Senate procedure.
Republicans are attempting to pass the AHCA through a process called reconciliation. This process, created by the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, allows the Senate to pass certain bills relating to the federal budget with just a simple majority. There is no need to get 60 votes — and, in this case, some Democratic support — as there is for other legislation.
A variety of complex rules govern what matters may and may not be considered through reconciliation.
One of those is that reconciliation must be conducted pursuant to reconciliation instructions passed by both chambers of Congress. That happened earlier this year — Congress sent reconciliation instructions to two Senate committees (finance; and health, education, labor, and pensions) that were designed to allow those committees to write bills making changes to healthcare policy.
The problem, as the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget explains, is that Congress’ healthcare is governed by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and that committee was not sent any reconciliation instructions.
Therefore, if a reconciliation bill makes changes to the way Congress gets its healthcare, it might become subject to a 60-vote threshold because it addresses a matter that is supposed to be the purview of a committee that doesn’t get to participate in reconciliation this year.
Why would the AHCA need to touch Congress’ healthcare in the first place? Because Obamacare included, at Republican urging, a provision requiring members of Congress and their staffs to buy insurance through the Obamacare exchanges.
That Republicans are in this position at all reflects how rushed and ad hoc their healthcare policymaking has been. They set about passing reconciliation instructions right after taking office because they hoped to repeal Obamacare very quickly. Since they didn’t know what their repeal strategy would be, they didn’t know which committees would ultimately need reconciliation instructions, and now it’s too late for them to change which ones have them.
Now their hope is to enact the AHCA and the companion bill that would undo the congressional exemption created by the AHCA. That companion passed the House on Thursday unanimously with Democratic and Republican votes.
In the Senate, that bill would need 60 votes to pass because it’s not a reconciliation matter.
Democrats clearly like the talking point that Republicans exempted Congress from the AHCA — and if the AHCA were enacted, Democrats would have the power to filibuster the companion bill and make it a matter of law. But politically, I’m not sure how it would land, as Republicans could say they are trying to apply the AHCA to Congress and it’s Democrats who are blocking that simple bill from becoming law.
Of course, in all likelihood, the Senate will pass a healthcare bill that differs extensively from the AHCA, which might make moot the whole matter of needing to change the rules about Congress’ healthcare.

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Once Again and Always


Apparently TOTUS is again blaming others for his failure, ineptitude or lack of governing ability. The recent focus is  a scrap of paper called the Constitution. The campaign promises made were at least overblown rhetoric with no basis in reality. The blame game appears to be the strongest suit in his deck of cards couple that with the flashy signing of executive orders which will at best bog down the courts and at the least create chaos in the states. It is without precedent that a President has moved in ways that have the potential to create a war footing at the cost of true security. Add in the push for the “great wall” and  repealing &  replacing “Obamacare”, this Healthcare action will leave many millions with less to zero coverage at a higher rate (to be clear several states never opted in so that coverage may not be affected). The “great wall” is another potential money pit as some areas do not need a wall due the terrain being a wall in itself. These two items have the potential to devastate State budgets and cause immeasurable harm to millions of American people. The blame for all of this has the fingerprints of a neer do well Congress who stated years ago the President Obama would get nothing passed, now hat has passed is being undone by a child! All of this with tacit and open approval of  a Congress who has no regard for their supporters , no matter what they say. This is possibly the worst Administration in years and we fell for the hype and dismissed the rhetoric. To toss out a few clarifying statements: We were allowed to shoot ourselves in the foot, we were led down the garden path and we were brought to water and water boarded! It will take the next President (if it’s not Pence) years to clear away the debris while our Congress if we re-elect them continues to range far afield doing what ever they want in Our Names. Our perception of Congress is that they are in charge and they are not-WE ARE!

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House Republican’ Didn’t Read the Health care Bill


Do we need yet another reason to pay attention to who we elect to represent us? MA.

Journalist, ThinkProgress. Twitter: @atrupar. Email: arupar@americanprogress.org
May 5
________________________________________
House Republican didn’t know the health care bill he voted for could cost his state $3 billion
Rep. Chris Collins didn’t read it before he voted for it.

Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) didn’t read the American Health Care Act (AHCA), legislation to dismantle Obamacare that will result in millions of people losing access to affordable insurance, before House Republicans voted to pass it on Thursday. And he had no idea the bill would cost his state billions of federal dollars used to insure thousands of his constituents.
During a CNN appearance on Thursday, Wolf Blitzer asked Collins if he’d actually read the AHCA before voting for it.
“I will fully admit, Wolf, that I did not,” Collins said. “But I can also assure you my staff did. We have to rely on our staff… I’m very comfortable that we have a solution to the disaster
“Congressman, this legislation affects a fifth of the U.S. economy and millions and millions of Americans — don’t you think it was important to actually sit down and read, read the language of this bill?” Blitzer pushed back.
Collins replied by suggesting he was hardly the only Republican who didn’t read the bill, which was rushed through before the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office could score it to detail its specific impact.
“You know, I have to rely on my staff, and I could probably tell you that I read every word, and I wouldn’t be telling you the truth, nor would any other member,” he said. “We rely on our staff, and we rely on our committees, and I’m comfortable that I understand this bill in its entirety, Wolf, without poring through every word.”
WATCH: Republicans prepare to vote for a health care bill they haven’t read
It wasn’t long ago that House Republicans touted a “Read the Bill” promise.thinkprogress.org
But not reading bills can have serious consequences. Later on Thursday, Collins admitted that he didn’t know the AHCA will cost New York $3 billion in federal funds — money that’s used to insure 19,000 of his constituents.
From The Buffalo News:
Told by a Buffalo News reporter that the state’s largest loss of federal funds under the bill would be $3 billion annually that goes to the state’s Essential Health Plan, Collins said: “Explain that to me.”
The Essential Plan is an optional program under Obamacare, offered only by New York and Minnesota, that provides low-cost health insurance to low- and middle-income people who don’t qualify for Medicaid. State Health Department figures show that more than 19,000 people in Erie and Niagara counties were on the Essential Plan in January.
Asked by The Buffalo News if he was aware of the bill’s cut in funding to the Essential Plan, Collins said: “No. But it doesn’t surprise me for you to tell me that there were two states in the nation that were taking advantage of some other waiver program and New York was one of the two states.”
In an attempt to defend Collins’ comments, his spokesman, Michael McAdams, tried to blame The Buffalo News.
“Once again The Buffalo News is twisting a Republican’s words to fit its out-of-touch, liberal narrative,” McAdams said, according to the publication. “Congressman Collins has been intimately involved in the creation of this legislation from its inception… He understands the impact it would have on Western New Yorkers. To infer Congressman Collins doesn’t understand the disastrous impact Obamacare has had on our region and our nation is absolutely shameful.”
Collins is correct that he’s not the only GOP lawmaker who didn’t read the legislation before casting a vote for it. During a CNN appearance Friday morning, Freedom Caucus member Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) admitted that he too hadn’t read all of the AHCA before Thursday’s vote.
“I turned through every page,” Sanford said. “As to whether or not I got through some of the details on some of the pages, no. But yes, I attempted to read the entire bill.”

This is a far cry from the fall of 2010, when House Republican leaders unveiled their “Pledge to America,” which contained a “Read the Bill” promise.
“We will ensure that bills are debated and discussed in the public square by publishing the text online for at least three days before coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives,” it said.

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Too Hard Not To SpeakUp


Edited today: Congress is covered under the ACA so it is odd that they have made changes that affect their Health, see yellow highlight MA.

Currently our government is in chaos and lead by a non functioning Congress who are at this time no more than opportunists who are playing on the whims of a inept leader. The leadership of our country is based on a person who garnered the office by “straight talk” that has no basis in the real world and cannot operate in a governing position. Tweets and executive orders are  not governing. The Congress is in the background attempting to dismantle the Affordable Healthcare Act maliciously  dubbed “Obamacare”. This healthcare change has the potential to devastate many households and even States. Keep in mind that the folks deciding on these changes will not affected by these changes!  These same elected officials have stated time and again what the “American People” want and they apparently have no idea what the “American People”  want since they never asked! What has happened is the Politicians have taken the tactic of telling the same story as if it were true to convince many that it is true . This method of speaking is similar if not the same method a European strongman used to convince the populace that the Jews were the reason that the Country was in such dire straits (not the previous failed war). If we are not careful here in America we could be going down the same path led by an inept Leader and a more duplicitous Congress. This type of political activity is evident even down to the State and local levels.

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