Trump--Stop using President Obama as your "whipping boy"

I am sick and tired of Trump using President Obama as his “whipping boy.”  He enjoyed great success for many years by questioning Obama’s place of birth and his legitimacy as President.  Over the years of Obama’s presidency, Trump continuously questioned his “experience” to even be President.  Trump has said things such as “Obama is a threat to our country.”  “Obama is the worst President in the history of our country.”  “Obama is the founder of ISIS.”   “Obama is the number one enemy of America.”  And now, “Obama tapped my phone lines.” 

When anything goes wrong in Trump’s presidency now, he always blames it on President Obama.  It’s always worked for him in the past, because the same folks who hated Obama, love everything Trump.  I say to Donald Trump,  “Get over Obama.  Blame yourself.” 

For those of you who are quick to tell me “Trump won and is the President” and tell me to “get over it,” I say to you, “I’ll get over Trump in the same amount of time you got over Obama.” For whatever reason you hated that Obama was elected President (twice), you need to accept that he’s gone and you don’t have Barack Obama to kick around now.

FLYNN’S MYSTERY

Remember when General Flynn came out to the presidential press room podium and said, “Iran, you are on notice?”  We didn’t find out then, and now that Flynn is gone, I guess we’ll never know the meaning behind that tersely delivered statement.

MONROE COUNTY MORE INFORMED THAN TRUMP

The big news last week was President Trump said he did not know that General Flynn worked for the Turkish government before he hired him as his National Security Adviser and while he worked in his campaign.  Perhaps Trump should start reading the Monroe County Reporter.  In this Unfair and Unbalanced column in the November 23, 2016, edition, I wrote of General Flynn’s lobbying position with Turkey and pointed out that he was not a registered agent as required by U.S. law. 

TRUMP CARE

Trump is a man who puts his name on everything.  Now he’s going to great lengths not to have his name associated with the new Republican healthcare plan.  Obama never wanted the Affordable Care Act to be called Obama Care, but Republicans pinned it to him like a donkey tail and it stuck. 

THE TRUMP CARE BILL

I can guarantee you Trump has not, and will not, read this Bill.  Since I feel I cannot talk about something I’ve never read, after hearing Speaker Paul Ryan and Republican surrogates urging people to read the Bill, I went to their advertised on-line address, www.readthebill.gop.  Just skip on through the denunciation of Obama Care and go straight to downloading and reading the Bill.  It’s only 123 pages, how bad could it be?  Bad!  It’s bigly bad!  I am firmly convinced it was not meant to be coherent.  But don’t take my word for it.  Always check things out yourself.

Let me tell you a couple of things that I was able to comprehend.  First, it is not a full appeal of Obama Care.  It just messes it up so bad you can’t recognize it.  Most of this Bill is aimed at making it tougher for poor and low-income people of our society to get and keep insurance.  You can read this for yourself starting on page 4, Subtitle B-Medicaid Program Enhancement. (What’s that old saying about putting lipstick on a pig?) One thing that jumped out at me in the “enhancements) was 6 pages of the 123 pages dealt with excluding high dollar lottery winners from receiving Medicaid.  I never thought that was such a complicated problem in our country.  Read it for yourself on pages 10-16. 

How many times have you heard Speaker Ryan tell us how horrible Obama Care was because it mandated coverage by charging a penalty?  There is still a penalty for the people, just not for employers.  Instead of paying the penalty to the government, you will pay it to the insurance company in the form of premiums 30% higher.  Read it for yourself on page 62, Sec. 2711, Encouraging Continuous Coverage of Health Insurance Coverage.

We should all be thankful that the Republicans are repealing the awful Tanning Services Tax.  Obama Care placed a 10% excise tax on Tanning Services to deter young people from the use of tanning beds because of the proof of its connection to skin cancer.  This 10% tax went to offset cost of the government’s insurance services.  Read it for yourself on page 68.  Hmmm.  That’s all the more reason to call it Trump Care.