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THE LATEST ATTEMPT TO REPEAL AND REPLACE OBAMACARE
Senate majority leader, the Republic Senator from Kentucky, Mitch McConnell, is planning to introduce a bill, to the US Senate next week. The bill, nicknamed ‘Graham-Cassidy, will represent the Republican’s latest attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The bill is named after the bill’s sponsors: the Republican Senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, and the Republican Senator from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy. Republicans are under pressure to get the bill passed before the opportunity to pass it with a simple majority expires with the Reconciliation Bill on September 30th.
The objective of the Graham-Cassidy Bill is to abolish individual and employer insurance mandates and to increase the power of state governors to veto certain regulation in their state. Along with individual and employer mandate, it will eliminate:
- Medicaid expansion
- Cost-sharing subsidies
- Tax credits
And will make changes to:
- Traditional Medicaid
- Taxation
- Essential health benefits
- Price restrictions on older Americans
- Health savings account.
Under the Graham-Cassidy, Bill states will receive their Medicaid funding through block grants. This change will put an end to the Obamacare’s Medicaid program where states could have ninety-percent of their funding for new beneficiaries subsidized by Washington. This encouraged the states to expand their Medicaid programs to include individuals and families earning up to 138% of the Federal poverty level.
Under this new system, southern states that did not expand their Medicaid programs stand to receive more federal funding. Furthermore, the bill will also give greater power to the states by allowing them to spend their funding as they see fit.
ONCE AGAIN, THE LEFT HAS PROVED THEIR INTOLERANCE
Yet again, the extreme left has proven that they are incapable of tolerating the beliefs and opinions of those who do not agree with them.
In two separate incidents, members of the extreme left turned out to wreak havoc at what could have been peaceful events. On Sunday, members of Antifa, calling themselves the “security force” for progressives and cladding themselves from head to toe in black, resorted to mob violence against Trump supporters in an anti-racism rally in Berkley, California.
In the second case, members of Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and Showing Up For Racial Justice organised various stunts to make law enforcement officials attending the Fraternal Order of Police national convention in Nashville, Tennesee, feel unwelcome. Banners were erected throughout Nashville with statements like “Fraternal Order of Police Protects Killer Cops.”
The group also held a demonstration entitled “Unwelcome the FOP” in downtown Nashville. Dixon Irene, an organiser with Showing Up For Racial Justice, commented that the Fraternal Order of Police “only existed to keep cops out of a system of accountability.”
Jo Freeman, a political scientist who had been part of the student movement that forced Berkeley to permit political speech in the 1960s, commented:
“It is not uncommon for societies to produce a hate squad. People who want to suppress the right to speak — they are everywhere.”
Other leftists, however, have not been so quick to condemn the Left’s actions. Virginia Governor, Terry McAuliffe has refused to condemn Antifa by name. Benny Johnson of the Independent Journal Review repeatedly asked McAullife to condemn Antifa for violence in Berkeley. McAuliffe stated:
I disavow anyone — we won’t tolerate violence of any kind. You’re entitled to protest. First amendment certainly protected. As I’ve said after Charlottesville, anyone who came to our state, anyone who committed violence, on any side, will be arrested. […] Everybody’s entitled to do their protest but were not going to accept violence from anybody.”
McAuliffe then went on to say:
“Here’s what I do as governor, I denounce any individual who commits a crime, who commits violence on our citizens. We will get you, and we will arrest you, plain and simple. I don’t care what the group is.”
It’s interesting how violence on the Right is condemned, but violence on the Left is ignored.
HURRICANE HARVEY AFTERMATH
Fifteen people are dead and around thirty-thousand have been forced to seek emergency shelter in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Speaking at Corpus Christi, President Trump praised Texas’ response to Hurricane Harvey:
“We want to do it better than ever before. We want to be looked at in five years and ten years from now as, this is the way to do it. This was of epic proportion. No one has ever seen anything like this.”
President Trump went on to say:
“I just want to say in working with the Governor and his entire time has been an honour for us.”
President Trump then travelled to Austin where he spoke at an emergency operations centre:
“Probably there’s never been anything so expensive in our country’s history. There’s never been anything so historic in terms of damage and in terms of ferocity as we’ve witnessed with Harvey.”
President Trump continued:
“And the sad thing is the never seen anything this long, and nobody’s ever seen this much water in particular. The wind was pretty horrific, but the water has never been seen like this to the extent. It’s maybe someday going to disappear. We keep waiting.”
The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood watch for Houston on Tuesday evening. A spokesperson said:
“There is the potential for catastrophic flooding over the next several days as Tropical Storm Harvey moves inland and slowly over southeastern Texas. Additional rainfall totals of 15-25 inches are likely with isolated amounts higher through mid next week.”
Meanwhile, Republican Congressman, Pete Sessions, has told MSNBC that east Texas and Lousiana are preparing for flooding. Sessions said:
“What lies ahead for everyone is to make sure that after the trauma of water that everybody has their tetanus shots, that they get their medicine, that we take care of children. Obviously when people get together we then — whether like it or not, we have diarrhoea problems, we have food problems, we have needs of people, we are prepared for the this. I believe the problem is that people are having trouble getting out of Houston because of the bands of rain.”
Ken Storey, a Professor of sociology, has been fired from his job at the University of Tampa in Florida for tweeting:
“I don’t believe in instant Karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas. Hopefully will help them realise the GOP doesn’t care about them.”
Unsurprisingly, numerous mainstream news figures have associated Hurricane Harvey to global warming. Together with guests from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other news outlets, CNN and MSNBC anchors have sought to blame Hurricane Harvey on the Trump administration’s environmental federal policies.
MORE INFORMATION ON THE CHARLOTTESVILLE TRAGEDY
Americans are recoiling from the tragic events that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia yesterday. The tragic succession of events, which saw violence between the Unite the Right protesters and counter-protesters and culminated in a vicious car attack, left nineteen people injured and thirty-two-year-old Heather Heyer dead.
On Monday, President Trump bowed to pressure to name and shame those whose ideology inspired yesterday’s hate crime. Trump stated:
“Racism is evil. And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans. Those who spread violence in the name of bigotry strike at the very core of America.”
Political reactions have been swift and damning. Michael McCaul, Republican Congressman from Texas and chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, tweeted:
“We must condemn the hate fueling the violence in #Charlottesville. It does not define us as Americans. Those affected are in my prayers.”
Republican Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, meanwhile, has called for the Department of Justice to investigate the events of Charlottesville as an act of domestic terrorism. Cruz stated:
“It’s tragic and heartbreaking to see hatred and racism once again mar our great Nation with bloodshed. Heidi’s and my prayers are with the loved ones of those killed and injured in the ongoing violence in Charlottesville. The First Amendment protects the rights of all Americans to speak their minds peaceably, but violence, brutality, and murder have no place in a civilized society. The Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are repulsive and evil, and all of us have a moral obligation to speak out against the lies, bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred that they propagate. Having watched the horrifying video of the car deliberately crashing into a crowd of protesters, I urge the Department of Justice to immediately investigate and prosecute this grotesque act of domestic terrorism.”
At a press conference on Monday, Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas claims police had planned to move the Unite the Right protesters to the rear of Emancipation park. The protesters had originally agreed to cooperate with police. However, police were forced to alter their plans when protesters began entering the park at different locations.
The perpetrator of the attack, James Alex Fields, Jr., a self-confessed admirer of Adolf Hitler, has been charged with second-degree murder, malicious wounding, and failure to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in death. He has been denied bail.
TRUMP INCREASES RHETORIC ON NORTH KOREA
President Trump has increased the force of his rhetoric against North Korea, warning the rogue nation that they would “regret it fast” if they kept threatening the US and her allies. Trump tweeted on Friday morning: “military solutions are now in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully, Kim Jong Un will find another path.”
Trump told reporters at his private golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey:
“If he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat … or if he does anything with respect to Guam or anyplace else that’s an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast.”
“I hope that they are going to fully understand the gravity of what I said, and what I said is what I mean. Those words are very easy to understand.”
President Trump has received support from the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnball. Others, however, have expressed concern. Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W. Bush, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson told MSNBC that he is more concerned with Trump’s rhetoric than with North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.
Similarly, German Chancellor has expressed concern:
“I don’t see a military solution and I don’t think it’s called for. I think escalating the rhetoric is the wrong answer, I see the need for enduring work at the UN Security Council.”
However, North Korea seems to be in a fairly precarious position. The Global Times has warned Pyongyang that China would not resist a US attack on North Korea. In an editorial, the Global Times said:
“China opposes both nuclear proliferation and war in the Korean Peninsula. It will not encourage any side to stir up military conflict, and will firmly resist any side which wants to change the status quo of the areas where China’s interests are concerned. It is hoped that both Washington and Pyongyang can exercise restraint. The Korean Peninsula is where the strategic interests of all sides converge, and no side should try to be the absolute dominator of the region.”
President Trump’s rhetoric is changing the dynamic of the argument. When North Korea threatened Guam, Trump threatened North Korea. Furthermore, a nuclear reprisal by the US on North Korea would probably wipe the rogue nation off the map.
FBI RAIDS PAUL MANAFORT’S HOME
On July 26th, the FBI raided Paul Manafort’s home in Alexandra, Virginia. The FBI seized documents and other materials from Manafort’s home in relation to the Russia investigation.
Manafort, who was Trump’s campaign chairman, has appeared cooperative to investigators in public. Even going as far as to voluntarily testify before a Senate Intelligence Committee on July 25th.
However, there are clearly questions that the FBI felt still needed to be answered. According to Politico, Federal Investigators approached Manfort’s son-in-law, Jeffrey Yohai, in an attempt to get inside his head.
Peter Zeidenburg, a former prosecutor for the Justice Department, commented:
“It is a big deal. Prosecutors do not take aggressive steps like this with subjects who the government feels are being open and cooperative. And they also do not do this to ‘send a message.’ They do it because they think there is evidence to be found and that if they do not act aggressively, it could be destroyed.”
The simple fact is that obtaining a search warrant usually requires investigators to have a rational reason to believe that there is evidence of a crime. Nor does the FBI execute warrants on cooperating witnesses, they don’t need to. What the investigation will prove cannot be known. Nevertheless, the President Trump’s Administration has cause for concern.
DONALD TRUMP SIGNALS A CHANGE TO US MILITARY TRANSGENDER POLICY
On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced on Twitter that his administration would be reversing the previous Obama administration’s decision to allow transgender individuals into the US military:
“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical cost and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.”
The decision has been met with negative reactions from both Democrats and from disgraced soldier Chelsea Manning (who was convicted of releasing classified documents to Wikileaks and received a pardon from Barack Obama, presumably because he was transgender). Californian Democrat Senator Kamala Harris referred to it as “discrimination, plain and simple”, whilst Manning tweeted:
“So, biggest, baddest, most $$ military on earth cries about a few trans people but funds the F-35? Sounds like cowardice”
In June, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis made the decision to delay the Obama administration’s decision by six months to give military service chiefs the chance to review whether allowing transgender people to enlist would affect the military’s capabilities.
The order to allow transgender people to serve openly in the US Military, undergo gender reassignment surgery (paid for by the military), and change their gender in Pentagon systems. Under the decision, military service personnel could not be involuntarily separated, discharged, or denied re-enlistment purely only the basis of their gender identity.
SENATE FINALLY MAKES PROGRESS ON REPEALING AND REPLACING OBAMACARE
Republicans in the Senate have finally decided to vote for debates on a series of proposals to repeal and replace Obamacare. The motion was passed with a vote of 51/50 with Vice-President Mike Pence breaking the deadlock.
The motion’s success came despite phenomenal opposition. Republic Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski crossed the floor to the vote with the Democrats whilst outside left-wing agitators were arrested for disrupting Senate proceedings.
In a positive sign, however, John McCain returned to Washington despite his cancer diagnosis.
Speaking from the White House, President Trump commented:
“I applaud the Senate for taking a giant step to end the Obamacare nightmare. As this vote shows, inaction is not an option, and now the legislative process can move forward as intended to produce a bill that lowers costs and increases options for all Americans. The Senate must now pass a bill and get it to my desk so we can finally end the Obamacare disaster once and for all.”
In the end, the motion does not repeal and replace Obamacare. However, it is an important first step.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN STRICKEN WITH CANCER
Senator John McCain has been diagnosed with primary glioblastoma, a highly malignant (cancerous) brain tumour. The tumour, which carries only a four-percent survival rate, was discovered during surgery to remove a blood clot in the eighty-year-old Senator’s brain.
The Mayo Clinic released the following statement in relation to the matter:
“On Friday, July 14, Sen. John McCain underwent a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. On Friday, July 14, Sen. John McCain underwent a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye at Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix. Subsequent tissue pathology revealed that a primary brain tumour known as a glioblastoma was associated with the blood clot. Scanning done since the procedure (a minimally invasive craniotomy with an eyebrow incision) shows that the tissue of concern was completely resected by imaging criteria. The Senator and his family are reviewing further treatment options with his Mayo Clinic care team. Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. The Senator’s doctors say he is recovering from his surgery ‘amazingly well’ and his underlying health is excellent.”
Similarly, McCain’s Senate office also released a statement:
“Senator McCain appreciates the outpouring of support he has received over the last few days. He is in good spirits as he continues to recover at home with his family. Senator McCain appreciates the outpouring of support he has received over the last few days. He is in good spirits as he continues to recover at home with his family in Arizona. He is grateful to the doctors and staff at Mayo Clinic for their outstanding care, and is confident that any future treatment will be effective. Further consultations with Senator McCain’s Mayo Clinic care team will indicate when he will return to the United States Senate.”
McCain, who endured torture during his years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam, has received prayers and well-wishes numerous people in both politics and media. President Trump issued a statement saying:
“Senator John McCain has always been a fighter. Melania and I send our thoughts and prayers to Senator McCain, Cindy, and their entire family. Get well soon.”
Ben Shapiro, conservative journalist and editor at large for the Daily Wire, referred to McCain as an ‘honourable man.’ Former President Barack Obama commented: “cancer doesn’t know what it’s up against”, whilst Steve Scalise tweeted that McCain was “one of the toughest people I know.”
