DC Deciphered

If Obamacare is repealed in the Senate and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?  That’s certainly what Senate Republicans are hoping for, as they’ve spent the last month or so writing their version of the GOP health care bill entirely in secret, and as they make plans to fast track the legislation straight to a vote, skipping the normal committee process and avoiding even a single hearing on the bill.

And it looks like they may get their wish, as they’re getting a huge assist from both the media and Democrats, all of whom are letting this process proceed with barely a whimper, let alone the primal scream it deserves. Continue reading →

So how did you like “Infrastructure Week”? Yup, this week was designated Infrastructure Week by the Trump White House, and the focus of the week was supposed to be their “big” infrastructure plan (here’s the real scoop on this plan from the most competent man in Washington, Ron Klain), particularly their plan to privatize air traffic control.

Of course the week ended up being almost entirely dominated by the testimony of former FBI Director James Comey in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee.  Even though the hearing didn’t take place until Thursday morning, much of the week leading up to the hearing was filled with pre-hearing anticipation & speculation which crowded out most other news. But there was other news.  So what else happened this week that you might have missed? Continue reading →

Just checking in with your periodic reminder that the very important issue of Obamacare’s cost sharing reductions has still not been resolved.  If you’re a regular reader of DC Deciphered, I apologize, because you might be getting sick of hearing about this topic.  But the cost sharing reduction (CSR) payments are so crucial to the survival of Obamacare – and therefore so crucial to the many millions of Americans who rely on Obamacare for health insurance – that I can’t let this issue get lost in the chaos of all the other ongoing crises of the Trump presidency. Continue reading →

Well, we did it – we showed those stupid globalists, what with their silly ideas about working together productively and thinking we all have to coexist on the same planet and whatnot.  Trump gave a big fat middle finger to the rest of the world with his speech withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, and his fans cheered lustily.  The rest of us still have to live here on planet Earth & endure the consequences.

So much has already been said & written in the last few days about Trump’s decision, by people much smarter than I am on climate change issues.  So I’m not going to even try to get into a detailed discussion here about the effects of his decision or debate its merits.  But I wanted to draw your attention to an interesting article from the New York Times this past weekend related to the topic. Continue reading →

So this week Trump was back from his grand world bluster tour, and we were all back to normal – or whatever passes for normal these days.  And that means the focus was mostly back on the Russia story, especially questions about Jared Kushner’s role in the unfolding mystery.  Some additional excitement was generated mid-week by the “will-he or won’t-he” drama over Trump’s decision about the Paris Climate Accord. (If you look back at some of my old posts, you’ll see that this drama has actually been quietly dragging on for more than a month).

This spectacle was capped by a long, drawn-out ceremonial announcement in the Rose Garden in which Trump informed the world of his catastrophic decision to withdraw from the agreement.  Those two stories dominated the news coverage this week, but what else happened that you might have missed? Continue reading →

Contempt.  That’s the one word that best describes the attitude the Republican Party seems to have toward the American people these days.  In Tuesday’s post, Detest the Protest, I asked whether Republicans even believe they should be accountable to “the People” anymore?  The pattern of behavior I wrote about in that post – repeated incidents of GOP members dismissing, delegitimizing and/or intimidating & attempting to criminalize protestors – seemed to point to an answer of “no.”  Now a new article out from the Washington Post shows us yet another way in which today’s Republicans seem to be utterly contemptuous of the idea that they should be expected to answer to the American people. Continue reading →

DC Deciphered has written several posts here about a pattern we’ve seen from certain Republicans where they make a show of standing up to Trump in order to avoid having to actually stand up to him or hold him accountable in any way.  This is part of a larger pattern in which Republicans have demonstrated a complete dereliction of their duty to provide checks & balances on Trump, and in fact can often be found affirmatively making excuses for his behavior.

They – as a Party – are responsible for giving Trump an environment in which he’s able to operate with impunity.  It’s only because of this choice by Republicans to abandon their constitutional duties that Trump has been able to get away with displaying such incompetence in office, flagrantly violating so many ethical norms and breaching so many boundaries of acceptable presidential behavior.

The cascade of revelations over the last few weeks (re Comey’s firing, Flynn, Kushner, etc.) has shown us just how badly this presidency has gone off the rails. And along with that, it’s become increasingly clear just how desperately the GOP is avoiding any calls to hold Trump accountable.  At the same time we’ve also been getting a clearer picture of the questionable tactics these members will use to avoid addressing their own accountability with their constituents. We learned about one such disturbing new tactic a couple weeks ago . . . Continue reading →

The words sound so small, considering the great sacrifices these men & women have made on our behalf, but I just wanted to take a moment to say “thank you” in memory of all those who gave their lives serving this country.

For the first time in a long time, we’ve had a week that wasn’t dominated by the Russia probe, though the Russia-related stories did continue to pour in.  Trump’s first international trip dominated what turned out to be an extraordinarily busy news week.  The trip’s been going surprisingly well, or at least it had been, until Trump reached the NATO portion of his journey.

And several other major stories filled the news this week: there was the horrific terror attack in Manchester, England, the release of the much anticipated CBO score of the GOP’s health care bill, and a truly bizarre story out of Montana, in which – on the eve of the vote – the GOP candidate for a special House election “bodyslammed” a reporter who had asked him a question he apparently didn’t want to answer (and then went on to win the election).

Every one of these stories would have normally filled the news cycle for an entire week on their own, but this week, they all competed for attention.  And believe it or not, still other news was proceeding in the background.  So what else happened this week that you might have missed? Continue reading →

Have you deconstructed the administrative state today?? Well, the GOP has. Or at least, they’re working on it. In early April, DC deciphered posted about the GOP’s years-long battle against one of the agencies that makes up their dreaded administrative state: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  Now, I’ve got an update for you . . . Continue reading →