This from a very dear and long time friend and fellow memo reader: "I am always too optimistic. I believed Republicans would find a way to get the health bill passed. It seems that they have forgotten how to govern.
My suggestion is that President Trump schedule a rally in each of the holdouts' states and ask them to stand next to him while he explains the benefits of the just passed health care bill - or why the bill failed.
Offer the reward and the stick in one invitation.
Delay stops health care and tax reform and the economy and the financial markets. It shows disarray, confusion, lack of leadership. It causes loss of support. It is hard to over estimate the damage now being done to the party and to the country.
The 2018 election will be a disaster if the President fails to unite the Republicans and govern.
Pogo famously said, We have met the enemy and he is us.
In closing, think of what Thomas Jefferson of Virginia might have said of the present situation. G-----"
I believe my friend's idea of Trump going to the states of those who opposed the bill is clever but I am not sure I can totally join him on much of the rest. Trump has led but you can't lead stubborn mules, or for that matter, stubborn elephants.
Also, not sure Republicans ever knew how to govern any more than Democrats. Republicans do know how to cave though.
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Apparently the CBO, which is historically seldom correct and particularly when variables are extensive as they are regarding health care, has provided more recalcitrant Republicans ammunition.
As I have said before, half a loaf is preferable to none and these Republicans should support their president, even though he is not a traditional Republican.
These peacocks could approve what is less than a great bill and then work further to bring about changes but, with them, it is a whole loaf or none. Obamacare is a disaster but that is the loaf they want to keep on the table.
CBO's claim that 22 million will be without health care is nonsense. Pelosi and Schumer claim the Republican Bill results in death, Death, if they did not know, is inevitable. The CBO and Democrats need to make a more rational argument that is statistically supportable but, then, whatever carries the day is the expedient political card always played first and to hell with rational behaviour /arguments. Particularly is this so when one raises the question of how do you pay for everything Americans want and politicians are willing to deliver
Our constitution guarantees Americans have the right to "pursue" happiness. It does not "guarantee" happiness.
However, can one be happy if they are not healthy? Most would say no. Therefore, how can our government provide health care for every American so they can pursue happiness without assuming an obligation it cannot possibly fulfill or afford? That is the issue from my perspective and I believe government cannot, nor should it attempt to, do so.
I believe everyone has both a logical and moral responsibility to care and pay for their own health. I also know that is a pipe dream because America is no longer a nation of independent citizens. We have become an increasingly dependent/overweight people who have been brain washed into believing Socialism is the answer to everything. Politicians from both sides of the aisle have perpetuated this myth because it serves their selfish purpose of gaining re-election. Giving candy is enticing and those who point out the stupid and wicked consequences are accused of being heartless.
That said, I do believe government has a moral but not constitutional obligation to do what it can to help those who cannot truly afford healthcare coverage to obtain same. The problem is, once you proceed down this slippery slope more and more Americans will believe health care is an entitlement, which it is not.
Second, I also know once government assumes the responsibility of providing health care dependency will grow and personal responsibility will fly out the window. Simply look at the Food Stamp Numbers, the Wic numbers , the unemployment benefit numbers etc.
If you want more of something just substitute money for carrots. When government pays for something it is free, right? There is no cost, right? There never is the need to repay, right? Believe that and I have a bridge to sell you.
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Has Justice Ginsburg become so aged or demented she no longer is capable of acting ethically? (See 1 below.)
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Now that Bezos owns Wapo, the paper's credibility and objectivity seem to be following in the downward sloping path of the NYT's. (See 2 below.)
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Dick
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1) Dozens Of House Republicans Urge Ginsburg To Recuse From Travel Ban Cases
Fifty-eight House Republicans signed a letter to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg demanding her recusal from the forthcoming travel ban case, given her previous public criticisms of President Donald Trump.
The letter argues that Ginsburg is bound by law to recuse herself in cases where she has a “personal bias or prejudice concerning a party” or from cases where her “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The congressmen argue that the justice publicly evinced prejudice towards the president in a series of interviews given at the conclusion of the 2016 term, in which she called the president a “faker” and mused about moving to New Zealand if he prevailed in the general election.
“You are bound by law to recuse yourself from participation in this case,” the congressmen write. “There is no doubt that your impartiality can be reasonably questioned; indeed, it would be unreasonable not to question your impartiality. Your participation in Trump v. International Refugee Assistance Project would violate the law and undermine the credibility of the Supreme Court of the United States.”
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2) For Palestinians, It's Lights Out at the Washington Post
ALGEMEINER, Shawn Durns
Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
In recent months, the Washington Post has put the phrase “democracy dies in darkness” on its masthead — the first time that the paper has ever officially adopted a slogan. Yet, when it comes to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Post readers have been left in the dark about critical information and events.
The Post seems incapable of reporting on the Palestinians, unless the stories can somehow be connected to Israel. A look at recent coverage offers some examples.
June 2017 marks the ten-year anniversary of Hamas seizing power in the Gaza Strip — a hugely important event for Israelis, Palestinian Arabs and the entire Middle East.
Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group that calls for Israel’s destruction, seized power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, after a brief, but bloody, fight with Fatah, the movement that dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA). Hamas had won January 2006 elections in the Strip that many observers had expected Fatah to win. Yet despite Hamas’ victory in the parliamentary elections, PA President Mahmoud Abbas remained the head of government. In 2007, Hamas drove Fatah and Abbas out of Gaza.
Ten years on, the negative consequences of Hamas’ rule are apparent. The terror group has made continuous war on the Jewish state — launching rockets at civilians, kidnapping and murdering Israelis, and trying to carry out the group’s stated objective: annihilating Israel and establishing an Islamic state. Since Hamas seized power in Gaza, there have been three major conflicts with Israel — in 2008, 2012 and 2014.
The consequences for the Palestinians living under Hamas’ rule have also been grim. Hamas frequently launches terror attacks, and then uses its own population as “human shields” to deter an Israeli response; this is a double war crime. The group’s obsession with destroying Israel has led to its using foreign aid and most of its resources for incessant warfare and terror, instead of state building. Furthermore, much of that aid is pocketed by Hamas’ corrupt leadership, many of whom live in luxury outside Gaza’s borders — or is spent building a culture in which anti-Jewish violence is encouraged, taught and enshrined.
In a June 15, 2007, report on Hamas’ seizure of power, the Washington Post stated that President George W. Bush’s June 2002 call for the “Palestinian people to elect new leaders, leaders not compromised by terror,” was now a failure. At the time, the paper even quoted a former US State Department official and adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas named Edward G. Abington, Jr., who asserted that Hamas’ victory meant that “[t]he two-state vision is dead. It really is.”
Yet, in June 2017, the Post — and many other major US news outlets — largely ignored the anniversary of Hamas’ coup in Gaza. Indeed, not a single report was filed by the paper’s Jerusalem bureau highlighting the event.
By contrast, the paper offered exorbitant — and deeply flawed — coverage of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War. For instance, the Post published a six-page, multi-story in the May 28, 2017, Sunday edition, running in excess of 10,000 words, complete with an online video and several photographs, as well as a more than 6,000 word op-ed. Most of these, and other stories about the war, criticized Israeli policies and blamed Israel for the failure to achieve peace since 1967; and all of the stories omitted the Palestinian rejection of countless US and Israeli peace offers.
Even as it devoted so much space to the Six-Day War, the Post ignored current news — such as the recent decision by the PA-approved head of the Palestinian Islamic courts in Ramallah to ban divorces during Ramadan, and to imprison those who break the Muslim tradition of fasting (including those Christians who live under the Authority’s increasingly oppressive rule).
Similarly, when the Palestinian Journalists Association released a statement condemning “the [PA’s] continuous hunting and arrests of Palestinian journalists and threats against them,” the Post was silent.
On May 13, 2017, a Fatah party candidate and convicted terrorist named Tayseer Abu Sneineh was elected the mayor of Hebron, one of the largest cities under PA-control; it is also a city of religious importance to both Jews and Muslims. The Post could have informed its readers of the new mayor’s terrorist background. It did not.
Nor did it inform readers about recent revelations, noted by the Times of Israel, Haaretz and others, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted — and PA President Abbas rejected — US-proposed guidelines to restart peace negotiations in 2014.
In the last 60 days in the Gaza Strip, Hamas carried out ISIS-style public executions of three Palestinians deemed subversive, expelled PA-officials in a sign of growing tensions and even banned Gazans from walking their dogs in an effort to get residents to “think only about politics, about resistance [attacking Israel],” as a scared Palestinian dog owner told the Telegraph.
Furthermore, chronic power cuts in the Gaza Strip — the result of Hamas spending its money on terror instead of infrastructure — have led to increased tensions and unrest. Yet, the Post’s Jerusalem bureau has yet to run a recent story on this.
In a June 5, 2017, interview live streamed on Facebook, Post Jerusalem bureau chief William Booth claimed that the paper seeks to detail how “ordinary Palestinians… conduct their daily lives.” If so, it is failing — horribly.
The writer is a senior research analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. His views are his own.
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