We are hearing more about the Trump/Ryan plan to phase out Medicare and replace it with private insurance and vouchers. But we’re still hearing much, much less than about Obamacare or a lot of other issues. Obamacare is super important. Don’t get me wrong. But Medicare is a much, much bigger deal. Most DC journalists don’t actually understand what’s being proposed. You think it’s hard getting good insurance when you’re 30 or 50? Try getting good private insurance when you’re 70 or 80.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) says forget about repeal and replace on Obamacare, just repeal will be fine. Once it’s repealed you can look into replacing it. It’s all clear. Republicans still have no plan or even any concept for how you replace Obamacare – at least if ‘replace’ is defined as something that will keep the tens of millions now insured insured. The immediate impact on millions of people will be huge. I’m curious whether they will be able to get this through the senate or indeed, in this form, through the House.
Rep. Tom Price (R) of Georgia is said to be President-Elect Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. He is the one who told us little more than a week ago that Congress would move on phasing out Medicare in 6 to 8 months (i.e., early summer 2017). He also predicted and advocated pushing the phaseout through with 50 votes in the Senate.
Most health care policy goes through HHS. So he’s now the administration point man on Medicare phaseout.
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From Government Executive magazine on the ye olde Trump Post Office deluxe hotel …
The Post Office Lease differs from many of Mr. Trump’s other business arrangements. That’s because, in writing the contract, the federal and D.C. governments determined, in advance, that elected officials could play no role in this lease arrangement. The contract language is clear: “No … elected official of the Government of the United States … shall be admitted to any share or part of this Lease, or to any benefit that may arise therefrom…”
The language could not be any more specific or clear. Donald Trump will breach the contract on Jan. 20, when, while continuing to benefit from the lease, he will become an “elected official of the Government of the United States.”
As noted yesterday, a lot of what we’re seeing with Mitt Romney is the standard, classic ritual humiliation of Trump opponents. But here’s another possibility for what is going on behind the scenes.
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Back in July I wrote this post fearing something like November 8th would happen, but assuming it wouldn’t. I’ve been returning to the argument in my head basically every day for the last three weeks.
At the tail end of a just published Washington Post story on Jared Kushner (seemingly Donald Trump’s most trusted adviser) we learn that as the Bridgegate scandal was blowing up back in December 2013, Kushner emailed David Wildstein to tell him that he thought the bridge closure was a “badass” move.
Wildstein, the mastermind of the bridge shutdown, had actually worked for Kushner as the anonymous blogger behind PolitickerNJ.com. He later agreed to plead guilty to charges stemming from the bridgegate scandal and testify against his fellow conspirators.
From the Post …
It would be entirely normal for someone like Mitt Romney, who had excoriated the incoming president in such blistering and personal terms, to be passed over when it came to putting together a new administration. Some criticisms and breaches are just too hard to get past. But the current drama over Mitt Romney’s possible nomination to be Secretary of State points to something quite different: the ritual humiliation of opponents, critics and all who have resisted that Trump yoke that is central to the Trump world. We saw it repeatedly during the campaign and it continues into the transition.