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During his presidential campaign, making promises were easy for Donald Trump. For candidate Trump, Obamacare was an abysmal failure and every day on the campaign trail, he would tell his supporters how terrible it was. Trump vowed that once he became president, he would replace it with a much better plan where everyone would be covered and the costs would be much less. Fast forward four months and we see what Trump actually had in mind. Or maybe not… Maybe Trump would let someone else do the work for him… Someone like Paul Ryan.

Ryan’s replacement for the ACA (Obamacare), the AHCA or American Health Care Act was not anything like Trump had promised. It would not cover everyone, in fact it would cover over 24 million less people than Obamacare. Older poor people in rural voters would see their rates skyrocket. Ryancare had one big distinction from Obamacare – it would give the wealthy a significant tax cut. Gone was the 3.8% tax on investments. The richer you were, the more money Ryancare would save you. For some reason, this must have appealed to Trump, and within days, Trump was pushing Ryancare as his own health care plan. Thus Ryancare morphed quickly into Trumpcare.

Trump has a big problem.  If the AHCA (Trumpcare) is passed, older rural voters who don’t make much money would see their health care premiums increase significantly from what they are currently paying under Obamacare. These same people who will see their rates increase the most are also the people who overwhelmingly voted for Trump and got him elected. These are the voters who actually believed candidate Trump when he promised cheaper, better, and broader coverage. These are the voters who Trump needs to get him re-elected in 2020.

On Friday March 24th, the House will vote on the AHCA and the bill will either fail or pass. If it fails, Trump fails to deliver on one of his main campaign promises. If it passes, many Trump supporters will undoubtedly loose their insurance and finally see Trump for the con-man he is.

During the campaign, one of Trump’s constant criticisms of Obama was that we has costing the American taxpayer millions of dollars from his trips and recreational activities. Of course Trump pledged to save the Taxpayers’ money by working in Washington DC and eliminating expensive travel.  “There’s no time for vacation. We’re not going to be big on vacations,” Trump said at a campaign rally last year. “The White House is this incredible place. It represents so much, and you’re there for a limited period of time. If you’re at the White House and you have so much work to do, why do you fly? Why do you leave so much?”

Of course, once Trump became president, he began spending over half his weekends traveling to his private Mar-a-Lago club on the taxpayer’s dime.  So much for eliminating expensive travel. His weekend trips to Palm Beach are estimated to cost the taxpayer $3 million dollars per visit. The Washington Post had a great piece on the Secret Service cost overruns that Trump’s vacation-laden lifestyle has caused. The Secret Service has requested an additional $60 million in funding to cover the costs for travel and protection due to Trump’s extravagant lifestyle and travel.

Golf Hypocrisy

And let’s not forget Trump’s golf hypocrisy. When Obama was president, Trump seemed to be constantly tweeting about Obama’s “excessive” golfing. During the campaign, Trump made a prediction about his own presidency – “I’m going to be working for you, I’m not going to have time to go play golf.” Well guess what, in his first 30 days on the job, Trump managed to squeeze in 6 days of golf.  Of course, the press was not invited along on these outings. Maybe with Trump’s logic, playing golf is not bad as long as you are not being photographed. We the people are not fooled.

I don’t understand the “resistance.”

Can someone please define for me who or what we are resisting? Trump’s behaviour, his values, his cabinet, his policies, his tweeting, or the man himself? Is it the Republican party, Paul Ryan, their policies, their inconsistencies, what they stand for? The people who voted for Trump and their needs? And what about the corporations? All of the above? If you picked any of the above then I am very concerned that you miss the point. (more…)

Today Donald Trump released his budget which included billions of new dollars for defense while cutting money for schools, the EPA, the State Department, Housing and Urban Development, and eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The military increase comes at a time when our military budget is not only the largest in the world, but it is larger than the next 8 nations combined. Donald Trump has previously taken about increasing our nuclear capability, and building sophisticated weapons like nuclear warheads requires a large amount of money. This budget help pay for that. Money for Homeland security has been set aside to build the wall between the US an Mexico. I guess Mexico is not paying for the wall after all – we are. Color me unsurprised.

The program cuts will most likely effect the American people in more ways than they currently realize. The National Institute of Health, which provides research funding into curing illnesses such as cancer and heart disease, will see it’s budget cut by 6 billion. Services that provide training for the unemployed and housing for the poor will have their budgets slashed also. Even Sesame Street gets the cut. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will see it’s money from the Federal government cut 100%. Bye Bye Big Birdie.

It is unknown how much of this budget will actually be implemented as law since Congress will get it’s chance to weigh in on things. However, the president sets the agenda, and with a Republican controlled House and Senate, we are most likely looking at a fundamental shift in our priorities as a nation. Americans have long taken for granted such important things as clean air and water, government sponsored science, and a social safety net that helps the poor. Not any more. All Americans will suffer with these eliminations and cutbacks, but the poor, unemployed, and vulnerable will suffer the most. Trump has shown us his true priorities and has inadvertently given us a clear view of his character. It is not pretty.