How Paul Ryan Designed The Healthcare Bill To Finance Tax Cuts For The Wealthy

This article explains how the healthcare bill, primarily designed by Paul Ryan, financed a tax cut for wealthy Americans.  Ryan's plan cuts federal spending on Medicaid which was built into Obamacare by around $800 billion over ten years.  That allows Ryan to eliminate the taxes in Obamacare which were put in the plan to fund Medicaid without adding to the federal budget deficit.  In other words, Ryan's plan is basically a way to finance the tax cut.  The CBO believes that 14 million Americans will lose healthcare benefits so that taxes on high income Americans can be reduced.  I doubt that Trump has any idea about how this works.  Ryan has built his career around reducing federal spending on entitlement programs in order to cut tax for wealthy Americans.

The Trumpcare Disaster

This NYT editorial describes key parts of the GOP healthcare bill and the changes made to ACA will affect access to healthcare.  It is not very pretty.  Ryan and Trump get to declare victory but the majority of Americans don't really understand what's in the new bill.  Many believe that repealing Obamacare will be good for them because it will be bad for people they don't like.

Trump And "America First" Is Turning Many Foreign Governments Against The US

Donald Trump's America First slogan has been popular enough to win the presidential election in the US.  This article describes how his policies and tweets have affected politics in several other nations.  America First sells well with Trump's base but it has had a negative effect on politics in many other nations.  Instead of pointing to America as a positive example of powerful nation that is concerned about their interests,  politicians in many nations are using Trump's unpopularity as a political weapon.  Some of them may replace US friendly governments with less friendly governments.  In France something different is happening.  Macron has been comparing his opponent's "France First" agenda with Trump's unpopular America First form of nationalism which would be better named the "Trump First" nationalism that more accurately describes his policies.

Trump, of course is tone deaf about his influence outside of the US.  He boasts about his ability to charm foreign leaders and the "good chemistry" that he has established by meeting with them.  He does not need a State Department to inform him or to establish good relationships with foreign nations.  He just needs to turn on the charm that he has used to build a real estate empire. 

Did The Republicans Really Win By Passing The Healthcare Bill?

Paul Ryan and Donald Trump could not afford to lose another battle over healthcare in the House.  Ryan had to show that he could lead his own party and Trump had to make good on his campaign promise.  He also had to prove that his executive branch has influence in Congress.  Ryan and Trump are now celebrating, but it may be a Pyrrhic victory.  Essentially, they replaced Obamacare with a plan the greatly reduces healthcare benefits for millions of citizens.  That is a good thing for many Republicans who prefer a less active government.  On the other hand,  taking benefits away from people is usually not politically astute.  The Republican Party has had better luck with tax policy.  Nobody likes to pay taxes.  Its hard to lose by giving most of the public a little cut in their taxes while giving much larger cuts to people like Donald Trump.  Everyone is a winner.  The healthcare bill is a different story.  There will be millions of losers.  The CBO concluded that the prior bill, which was more generous, but failed to win support from the Freedom Caucus, would cause 24 million citizens to lose healthcare coverage.  More will lose coverage under this less generous bill.  Some of the losers may be upset.

The Senate must confirm the House bill in order to turn it into law. There is little chance that the bill, as written, will become law.  The Senate will have to make changes in the bill in order to win support from Democrats.  The vote was so close in the House that any changes proposed by the Senate will make things tough for Paul Ryan.  As a last resort, there are not enough Republicans in the Senate to overcome a filibuster by Democrats.  There is no way that the House bill will become law.  On the other hand, Republicans in competitive districts, who voted for the House bill, will have a tough time defending their vote.  Democrats will have the great majority of healthcare providers and their organizations behind them.  They know that the bill is huge step backwards.

Paul Krugman On The French Election

Paul Krugman has never been a fan of the way in which Europe responded to the financial crisis.  He looks at the French election from that perspective.  He argues that France is still a great place to live.  Le Pen has nothing on offer that will improve the lives of its citizens.  She won't make them safer and she has no plan for growing the economy.  However, there is a lot of resentment in France about the  loss of French identity.   The target of her attacks is basically the European Union.  She opposes open borders and the loss of French sovereignty to bureaucrats in Brussels.  Krugman grants her the last point.  He argues that Brussels has been particularly insensitive to the needs of smaller nations.  He has been a consistent critic of fiscal austerity, which was the wrong medicine for dealing with recession,  and he believes that the central bank created more problems than solutions during the financial crisis.  Apparently, he has few problems with the performance of the ruling parties in France. They failed to earn a spot in the run off election.  One can't blame the rise of Le Pen in France entirely on Brussels. 

Paul Ryan Has Declared Victory On Health Care Bill

The House has not yet voted on the healthcare bill but Paul Ryan is at the lectern declaring victory.  He must have counted the vote and the debate in the House is pointless.  The GOP has replaced parts of Obamacare that they don't like.  For example, it eliminated a tax on high income households which made it necessary for them to cut federal funding in their replacement bill.  Their primary objective has been to let Trump claim a victory after several bad starts on passage.  Most of them have not read the bill and they could care less about the implications for millions of Americans.  The bill will have to get through the Senate but the GOP does not have enough votes in the Senate to prevent a filibuster.  Trump can then blame Democrats for what happens after the GOP takes steps to undermine Obamacare.

The French Presidential Debate

Le Pen and Macron had their last debate before the election on Sunday,  Some highlights of the debate are provided in this article.  It was a lot like many of the US debates.  Lots of shouting at each other and very little substantive debate on the issues.  Le Pen's strategy was to personally attack Macron and claim that she was the only one who could protect France from Islamic terrorism.  Some how she would defend French borders but she did not provide a plan for achieving her objectives.

Macron presented himself as the sensible candidate and ridiculed most of her positions.  It was telling that he criticized her for being too much like Donald Trump.  I guess, Trump is a bad word in France.