DC Deciphered

Are you forgetful?? In today’s world of very fast paced, over-filled lives, that seems to be a common complaint from friends & acquaintances: they just have a hard time remembering things. But I like to think of myself as having a pretty good memory.  Thankfully, I have Facebook to keep me humble in that department.

You know how every few days Facebook gives you those “Memories” that pop up on your wall – a post you made one or two (or even five or seven) years ago that Facebook resurfaces to give you a look back?  I’m shocked at how often I’ll have no recollection whatsoever of the post that Facebook decides to show me.  It makes me realize that maybe my memory isn’t as great as I think it is.  But this weekend Facebook showed me a “Memory” that I actually vividly recall: Continue reading →

This is not a post about the health care debate.  I should be writing something about it, since it’s a topic I’ve covered here more than any other, and Republicans just took a huge step in their quest to repeal Obamacare.  But I’m at a loss for how to express my disgust over the whole process, yet somehow, simultaneously feel like I could write a book about it.  So I’m going to spare you guys that for now.  In the meantime . . .

Here’s a case that slipped under the radar a few weeks ago, because – as always – there were so many juicier news stories to keep up with. But I think this could eventually end up being a big deal. On Friday June 30, the Texas Supreme Court unanimously reversed a lower court decision that had granted health & life insurance benefits to same sex spouses of city employees. (Pidgeon v. Houston). Continue reading →

So the GOP’s zombie health care bill is still thrashing around Capitol Hill, trying to eat 22 million+ brains.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to hold a vote on a version of the bill on Tuesday (exactly which version no one – not even GOP leaders – seems to know yet).

However, the media (mainly television media)* seems to have gotten bored of this topic, preferring to move on to 24 straight hours of covering Sean Spicer’s resignation, followed by days of fascinating analysis of his dude-bro replacement.  The unfortunate result is that one very important aspect of the GOP “replace” bill has continued to fly completely under the radar: the Cruz amendment. Continue reading →

It’s that time again – your end of the week news roundup.  We got a bit of a break from Russia news to begin the week, as the GOP’s efforts to repeal Obamacare turned rather dramatic.  Sadly both Russia and health care reform were pushed aside mid-week by the terrible news of Senator John McCain’s brain tumor diagnosis.  The only silver lining, if you can even call it that, was that it was a chance to see that these people – our representatives – are real human beings who have relationships with each other that transcend the partisan bickering.

I’ve written a fair amount about Sen. McCain on this blog, often critically – but as I’ve also said here before, he is a true hero to his country.  I’m hoping for the best for him and his family.  And now, what happened this week that you might have missed? Continue reading →

Upon the failure of the Senate GOP health care bill Monday night, President Donald Trump’s immediate response was to take full responsibility and pledge to do better for the American people.  Just kidding, of course he blamed the whole thing on Democrats and plotted to unleash suffering upon millions of innocent American citizens.

Asked about the bill’s failure on Tuesday, Trump told reporters his next plan was to:

let Obamacare fail; it will be a lot easier,” he said. “And I think we’re probably in that position where we’ll just let Obamacare fail.”

“We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it,” the president said. “I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We’ll let Obamacare fail, and then the Democrats are going to come to us.”

And while it’s incredibly disturbing to think that our President would allow millions of people to lose insurance and suffer the resulting health crises just so that he can score a political win, it’s not all that surprising. Because, as you’ll see below, he’s already been taking steps to make it happen. Continue reading →

Do you believe in fate?  I’m not sure if I do, but I must admit that it’s a very strange coincidence that the GOP health care vote originally scheduled for this week has been delayed by a . . . health crisis.

Senate Majority Leader McConnell had planned to hold a procedural vote on the health care bill this week (which, for all intents and purposes would be the vote, since this vote is the real hurdle for him to clear), and he was juuust hanging onto enough votes for passage by the skin of his teeth.* But then, Saturday evening, Senator John McCain’s office put out a statement saying that the Senator would have to remain in Arizona for at least a week after having a blood clot removed from above his eye. And with that, McConnell was forced to postpone the vote. Continue reading →

DC Deciphered is starting to feel like a broken record on this, but once again, we’ve had a week of news dominated by the Russia story.  Though this week definitely stood out from the pack, as we finally saw concrete, indisputable evidence that at least one member of the Trump family – along with advisers at the top level of the Trump campaign – knew at least year ago that Russia was working to help get Trump elected and that they eagerly accepted that help.  So the attention on Russia was certainly well placed this week.

A secondary story – though one of more immediate urgency – was the Senate health care bill, which was unveiled in version 2.0 Thursday morning.  The Senate made a few small tweaks to the original bill in order to try to bring some more Senators on board, along with one large change – adding the Cruz amendment – in order to bring on a group of reluctant conservatives.  Now they plan to rush the bill to a vote next week.  With those two huge stories going, there wasn’t much room for other news.  But there was other news this week.  So what else happened that you might have missed? Continue reading →

Did you enjoy some time at the beach last week for the 4th of July??   Hopefully you did!  But that means you might have missed last week’s post, Give It Time, in which DC Deciphered explained why Republicans are in such a rush to pass their health care bill.  It’s not for the reason you think.

But you can find out what that reason is, because I’m reposting the entry here today for anyone who might have missed it last week. It’s an important story, because it tells you a lot about the way today’s GOP is functioning – both as a practical matter (i.e. why, functionally, they’re having a hard time getting things done) and in terms of their win-at-all-costs mindset. Continue reading →

I know, the suspense has been killing you!  You’ve been waiting since yesterday to hear about the second reason the next term of the Supreme Court will be so crucial to the progressive agenda. In Part 1 of this post, I talked about the dread many progressives felt recently over rumors that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy would retire.  We are all momentarily breathing easier, because it appears likely that he’ll be staying on the Court for at least one more year.  But there are signs he may retire after the next session is up.

However, as I noted in Part 1, one more year of Justice Kennedy could be invaluable, because there are two voting rights cases coming up next year that will be critical to the future of the progressive agenda, both short and long term.  In Part 1, I explained why these types of cases are particularly momentous right now, and then I discussed the first case, Gill v. Whitford, in which the Court will take up the question of partisan gerrymandering.  Now let’s talk about case number two . . . Continue reading →

Phew!  Progressives across the country breathed a sigh of relief the Monday before last, when the final day of the Supreme Court session came & went with no retirement announcement from Justice Anthony Kennedy.  We’re not quite out of the woods yet, because Kennedy could still announce his retirement any time over the summer (Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, for example, announced her retirement in July of 2005).  But Justice Kennedy has already hired his clerks for next year, which is a good sign he plans on sticking around for the session.

However, there have been recent reports that he’s told clerkship applicants for the following year (fall 2018) that he’s thinking about retiring then.   And once again a terrified chill runs through left-leaning America!  But if Justice Kennedy at least sticks around for the upcoming session, that will be very good news, because the Court will be hearing two cases that are absolutely crucial to the entire progressive agenda – both short and long term. Continue reading →