Shaken Up Donnie Twists and Shouts!

In the Trump white house truth is an unwelcome transient that shows up at the most inconvenient times. For six months or so Sean (Baghdad Bob) Spicer has been loyally dishonest. Now Mr. Spicer has finally decided to pack up what is left of his shredded reputation and depart, not because of the damage done to his reputation but because of the bruising of his ego. He was being demoted from his position as Director of Communications. Enter the new Director of Communications, Anthony Scaramucci, throwing wet kisses to Trump and doing his best imitation of Susie sunshine. In his first press conference Mr. Scaramucci denied that the train was off the tracks, and, mixing metaphors, insisted that the ship was on course. If Mr. Scaramucci thinks Donald Trump's ship of state is on course, he (Scaramucci) must be mistaking it for a submarine.

This latest white House shake up is prompted by desperation. Like Nixon during Watergate, Trump is feeling besieged. The Special Counsel is following the money, and the people closest to Trump, including members of his family, are being hauled up in the investigative net. All of those people are going to have to testify before the Senate or Congress and/or the Special Counsel. So Trump is in a panic and is lashing out. He is attacking the Special Counsel and the justice Department, including his Attorney General. In particular, he is highly critical of his messengers. They should be able to turn public opinion in Trump's favor even if he does undermine their efforts by tweeting ever changing and inconsistent stories.

Trump is hoping that shaking up his staff and bringing aboard another huckster like Scaramucci will solve his problems and give him the room he needs to squelch the investigations. He thinks this might work because he believes he can get away with anything as long as his delusional base stays with him. The Republican Party would not dare to anger Trump's base by impeaching him, would they? Probably not, but the Republicans are likely to lose control of congress if they do not pass any legislation.

The problem is that the Republicans have spent eight years demonizing the government and making it as dysfunctional as possible. They have forgotten how to govern, and they are led by someone who never knew how to govern. Furthermore their lies about Obama care and pledges to repeal it have created the bog into which they now find themselves ensnared. The hard right wingers like Rand Paul do not care that 30 million people will lose their health care coverage if Obama care is repealed but not replaced. Other Republicans think they are being more reasonable than Rand Paul. They want to replace Obama care with a plan that would throw only 23 million people off their health care plans. They call this a deal, not a compromise, non dare to present it to the uncompromising base as a compromise. The governors, both Democratic and Republican, who took advantage of the expanded Medicaid funding stand to lose big if either of those options are chosen. But not to worry, the third option is to repeal now and replace later. “It is not as bad as it sounds,” the Republicans say. “Honestly, it is not.” The repeal would not go into effect for two years and that is plenty of time to come up with a replacement. But the ineptitude the Republicans are now displaying indicates that two years is enough time to pass an acceptable replacement for Obama care only if the Democrats regain control of congress in 2018 elections. Now that sounds like a plan I could endorse if most economists did not agree that the uncertainty created by that two year laps will cause the price of insurance to skyrocket. Unlike Trump who is sabotaging the insurance exchanges to make Obama care fail, I believe that profiting from the suffering of my fellow citizens is unacceptable!

The reason I brought up the health care issue is that even many of the dullards who voted for Trump are still smart enough to know what eventually happens to people who do not have health care coverage. There is no issue, other than a total economic collapse, that can determine an election quicker than the health care issue. By the way where are the jobs? And why aren't wages going up? Trump will blame the Russia issue for his lack of accomplishments, but that is an issue of his own making! It is not the investigators who have become Putin's man ho. Nor does that issue prevent Trump or his party from doing the work of the people. There will always be a large minority who will stand by Trump no matter what, but his support will fade as he tries to put the unkept promises he has made farther and farther behind him.