by Norman Halls
WASHINGTON…March 2017 The House and Senate leaders are really pushing hard to throw out the Affordable Care Act or what the Republicans like to call “Obamacare.” The GOP tried to repeal Obamacare 52 times in the last 6 years. You would think the Speaker would assign a Committee in those 6 years to revise the Act. When Paul Ryan became speaker in October 2015 he said: “We will not always agree – not all of us, not all of the time. But we should not hide our disagreements. We should embrace them. We have nothing to fear from honest differences honestly stated. If you have ideas, let’s hear them.” Mr. Ryan’s Health Plan is not being honest with a number of American voters. For those who have pre-existing conditions, you might not be insurable. Trump promised not to cut Medicaid. His Health Bill will cut $880 billion from it. (Will this pay for the WALL?) The Republican Health Care Bill raises premiums for older, poor Americans by more than 750%.
The majority in the Congress and Senate are taking totally different positions from their campaign speeches. They have to remember they represent many constituencies with different economic backgrounds. Some members of Congress are worried because they are elected for 2 years. It’s time for the Washington elite to wake up and listen to what these voters feel they should be responding to. As we have seen, many Congressmen don’t want to hear or see their constituency. In the 1st Direct of Massachusetts we have been fortunate that we don’t have problems like they do across the country.
Transparency is not being used during this Presidential administration. We are seeing some unconventional methods and distractions. David Fahrenthold, a political reporter for The Washington Post said: “I feel like the biggest danger in this chaotic environment is that we will harm our own credibility by running stories either in our paper, or amplifying on Twitter, stories about Trump that are not true. It’s hard to know what’s true with Trump because often the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, the spokespeople may not tell you the truth — but the truth is all we have, [why] people care about us and read us, and there’s been some examples where people push stories that later on turn out to have not been fully checked, or turn out not to be true.” Despite Russia’s harmful national interests against the U.S., and its human rights violations around the world, President Trump and his team are directly and indirectly tied to Russia.
President Trump first tweeted the accusations against Obama Saturday morning and then Sunday demanded that Congress investigate the former president for abuses of his office in 2016, when the presidential election was held, and wiretapping was implemented according to Trump. This is just another roadblock that Trump and his team are using to throw off the media from investigating his connection to Russia. There is quite a money trail according to Congressman Eric Swalwell, ”there are twelve associates of Trump that have ties to Russia. Either having business interests and/or affiliated interest.” Wilbur Ross, Trump’s Secretary of Commerce, left under a cloud as chairman of Deutsche Bank. On that chairman’s watch, Deutsche Bank paid $20 billion in fines. Among these was a $650 million fine for helping launder Russian money through Deutsche Bank offices in Moscow, New York City and Cyprus. Deutsche Bank is Trump’s largest known lender, having extended him more than $300 million of loans that remain outstanding. Rex Tillerson, Trump’s Secretary of State, “used an alias name to conduct business while at Exxon discussing climate change” according to Erik Larson Bloomberg News.
“Mr. Paul Ryan and Mr. Mitch McConnell; McConnell virtually disappeared during the presidential election, avoiding the fate of so many GOP leaders who tangled with Trump and quietly to frustrate the president’s agenda by burying it in the arcane of Senate processes. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who found himself in a high-stakes war with Trump before the election, isn’t the guy to stand up to the White House. Ryan simply doesn’t have control of his caucus or the rules structure to defy Trump without forcing a confrontation.” Wrote Johathan Allen. As you can see the House of Representatives and the Senate Majority leaders don’t have the guts to tell various Committee Chairmen to investigate Trump’s connection to Russia and to reveal his Tax Returns. Write to them and tell them to stand up and do their job.
During the campaign, Trump called his competitor many names: crook, liar and nasty woman. Many of his supports, like Michael Flynn said “Lock her up.” This was another Trump diversion.
We have to remember that elected legislators are working for us. We have the right to contact any legislator and inform him/her what we think a piece of legislation should be. As you know there are many deals that go on between legislators, such as getting funds for a project in the District. If a congressman can get funds, this will make him/her look good when it comes to voting. This is the same with senators. Representatives are elected every 2 years. Every 6 years for Senators. Now if legislation is presented like the amended Health Care and you see a section of the legislation that you do not see as agreeable, write to the legislator that is working on it. Here is how: Name of Senator, United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510 and/or Name of Representative, U.S. House of Representative, Washington, DC 20515.
Today in the House of Representatives there are 237 Republicans, 193 Democrats, and 5 vacancies. If you feel that a Republican or Democrat Representative is not performing the way you want, write to his/her local newspaper and give them your thoughts. You can email them too.
Don’t let anyone sell out our country…we should not be beholden to them either.
