Price reveals Trump's likely next move, destroying the ACA by sabotage

“All things are on the table to try to help patients,” Price told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.”

Price, who President Donald Trump jokingly suggested last week he would fire if efforts to repeal the act failed, claimed that the mandate was contributing to higher health care costs.


“The individual mandate is actually one of those things that is driving up the cost for the American people in terms of coverage,” Price said. The mandate may result in higher individual costs for Americans who previously went without health insurance or purchased bare-bones plans eliminated by the Affordable Care Act ― commonly known as Obamacare.


But it also almost certainly functions as a check on overall costs for people who get their coverage on Obamacare’s individual insurance exchanges by bringing healthy people into the risk pool. Eliminating the mandate unilaterally is liable to create chaos in the individual exchanges as insurers scramble to offset the departure of healthy enrollees.


That’s why the insurance industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans wrote a letter to Congress opposing the so-called “skinny” repeal bill that the Senate rejected early Friday morning. The legislation would have abolished the individual mandate and the rule requiring large employers to offer their employees coverage. “Eliminating the individual coverage requirement by itself will likely result in fewer people covered and a deterioration of the risk pool, which will increase premiums,” AHIP wrote.

Significant evidence exists that one of the problems facing Obamacare is that the fine for violating the individual mandate is too modest to encourage enrollment, leading to a disproportionate ratio of sicker Americans in the exchanges. Insurers have responded by driving up premiums to offset the costs of coverage and withdrawing from some high-cost areas.

We now know exactly what happened. NSA will have the tapes.

Chris Hayes detailed the emails between Jr. and Goldstone that requested a contact to get information. Goldstone finds Emin who is on stage but will call after he finishes his show. An hour later Jr. confirms the call took place with a thank you note back to Goldstone.

Following up on the phone call Goldstone details that they will send the Russian attorney in response to JRs request for help.

Phone records will exist but more importantly this phone call is recorded and sitting in the NSA cloud so that they can recall it once they know what call to look for.

Four hours later Trump boasts to a crowd that he expects to get some very damaging information on Secretary Clinton.

We now have a very clear idea of what exactly happened. The video shows Trump and Goldstone in active conversation when they met in Las Vegas a couple of years before. It is clear that Trump tasked Junior with contacting Goldstone to get the Clinton emails which the Russians had. A confirmed phone call initiated by Jr sets up the meeting. The Russians got the compromising position on the Trumps but probably told them that they couldn't pass the original source material directly to the campaign because it would be too easily traced by the CIA/NSA.

The Russians tell the Trump campaign that they will release it through Wikileaks so that they can maintain deniability. Trump gets impatient and actually makes a public plea "if the Russians have the 30,000 emails please release it". In order to show that the Trump administration will deliver on promises to relax sanctions Manafort pushes through a Ukranian plank that is soft on Russia at the convention. This is an important "offer of proof" by Trump to signal to the Russians that he understands what they want and will be able to deliver the product.

Trump wants to follow up on his quid pro quo but knows that the CIA/NSA will be able to pick off his communication and asks Jared to meet with Russian Ambassador and set up a secret back door channel so that they can carry out their "Sanction relief for contracts in Russian energy development" plan that will bring them the billions that have evaded him.

Trump sees Comey closing in on the above and fires him.

Many elements of this will be easily confirmed with telephone records and with NSA captured conversations.

Trump complained about the "cloud" over his administration. A lot of the cloud has dissipated and we can now see how the dots were connected. In this case the "cover up" won't be nearly as bad as what they almost got away with.

Updated with the emails from June 6th

6 June 2016
Goldstone to Trump Jr

Let me know when you are free to talk with Emin by phone about this Hillary info – you had mentioned early this week so wanted to try to schedule a time and day. Best to you and your family.

Trump Jr to Goldstone

Rob could we speak now?


Goldstone to Trump Jr

Let me track him down in Moscow. What number he could call?

Trump Jr to Goldstone

My cell.

Goldstone to Trump Jr

He’s on stage in Moscow but should be off within 20 minutes so I am sure can call.

Trump Jr to Goldstone (about one hour later)

Rob thanks for the help.

7 June 2016


Goldstone to Trump Jr

Hope all is well. Emin asked that I schedule a meeting with you and the Russian government attorney who is flying over from Moscow for this Thursday. I believe you are aware of the meeting – and so wondered if 3pm or later on Thursday works for you? I assume it would be at your office.


Full text of all emails here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/11/donald-trump-jr-emails-full-text-russia-rob-goldstone

This nothingburger has about 43,000 calories.

Post: Russia probe current WH official - Guess Who! NBC CONFIRMS

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russia-probe-reaches-current-white-house-official-people-familiar-with-the-case-say/2017/05/19/7685adba-3c99-11e7-9e48-c4f199710b69_story.html?tid=a_breakingnews&utm_term=.012a1f9f5998

The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the matter.

The senior White House adviser under scrutiny by investigators is someone close to the president, according to these people, who would not further identify the official.

The revelation comes as the investigation also appears to be entering a more overtly active phase, with investigators shifting from work that has remained largely hidden from the public to conducting interviews and using a grand jury to issue subpoenas. The intensity of the probe is expected to accelerate in the coming weeks, the people said.

The sources emphasized that investigators remain keenly interested in people who previously wielded influence in the Trump campaign and administration but are no longer part of it, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

While similar to Watergate it is in fact a daily reenactment of "Lord of the Flies"

Its like a "Groundhog Day" experience where we have to relive the last third of "Lord of the Flies" everyday.

Piggy is dead, the conch is broken, they started a fire on the island and we are just praying that some adult arrives before things get REALLY bad. Just when things seem beyond the possibility of further disintegration you fall asleep and when you wake up you realize that Piggy is dead, the conch is broken, and someone just started another fire on the island.

Republican House members just signed up for Trump University: Pledging their job as tuition.

It has become exceedingly clear that Trump is a single issue President: Reducing taxes on American businesses and the top 5%. There is no other political policy or governmental concern that matters to Trump in the slightest.

The kindest interpretation of this is that he is convinced that these moves will launch the economy into hyper drive and that the growth will bring jobs, increase consumer spending and growth the economy by 3% or more which will bring more tax revenue and create all kinds of wonderful.

This is what Kennedy did when he reduced the top tax brackets from 80% and it launched a robust growth that did all of the things listed above.

Republicans have become incapable of rational thought and now elevate a relative argument to an absolute one. While the Kennedy tax restructuring achieved that objective the Bush tax restructuring did not. It turns out that in a mature wholly developed economy there is a tipping point where tax restructuring, which lowers the cost of investment capital, brings increasingly smaller benefits and flatlines and the amount of government revenue declines and endangers expansion because the government is holding ever increasing amounts of debt and sucking investment out of the private sector instead of freeing it.

This is the kindest possible interpretation, the other is self aggrandizement by theft and treason.

The Republicans have lost all capability for nuance, or complex calculation and believe that tax reduction is an absolute good. If that were true then we shouldn't reduce it to 15% but reduce it to 1%.

In order to build momentum for the real agenda of the Goldman Sachs Administration they had to have a win on health care to sustain a winning image. Trump went to the Republican Congress and said "pass anything, the Senate will fix it or do nothing and it will be on them. In the meantime we will pass the tax legislation before your election and you will all be hailed as victors for saving the American economy".

It was as stupid an appeal as Trump University and the Republican House bought it and all they had to do was put their jobs on line for the tuition. It is Governance by Hucksterism, Policy by Jingoism, and Morality by Perjury.

A few months after Mr. Obama took office the DJI was at 6,600 and when he left office it was 19,800. This isn't the greatest growth of capital in any 8 year history this is more capital created in the combined history of capitalism. In technical economic and historical terms this period will be known as "the good old days" although its goodness was limited in a job half done. The first job was to get the engine going and the second job which Trump has destroyed is getting more people involved in sharing the benefit.

The tax plan won't pass and I am hoping that Schumer and the Senate doesn't fall for a half backed infrastructure bill that is ill timed, will target the wrong objectives and help undermine government function by adding needless debt.

We should not give any concern about what, for example, Senator Sanders (a great Senator who I vigorously opposed as a Presidential candidate) or any Democratic office holder says or does.

We have only one objective and nothing else amounts to a hill of beans.

We are the debt collectors.

Republican Congressmen and Congresswomen have bought a completely irresponsible attack on the health of American citizens ala Trump University. For their tuition they have pledged their seats.

In the 8th Century BC Hosea the prophet looked at the kings of the Northern Kingdom and saw that they had forsaken their heritage and instead engaged in homicide, perjury, theft and debauchery. He correctly foresaw what would bring them down.

“They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.

The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour.

Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up.

. . .

Although they have sold themselves among the nations,

. . .

They will begin to waste away under the oppression of the mighty king."


Our only concern for the next 18 months is to become debt collectors and make sure that each and everyone of them pays their tuition fee in full.

Proof that the ACA is not "imploding" "collapsing" or "falling apart"

Every time one of the paid talking heads or Trump/Ryan assert that the ACA is collapsing I am tempted to throw my TV out the window. Fortunately there is an absolute proof that is not the case, look at where the basic architecture has been in place the longest and is immune from Republican subterfuge.

Look at the results in Massachusetts where the individual mandate with state subsidies was started in 2006:

Russia is not our Adversary

Russia is not our Adversary.

Words matter and once you establish certain frames of reference then the terms define the acceptable outcomes and thereby significantly limit policy options. Limited options often are accompanied by heightened emotions and flash points. This was exactly how World War I was started, once a certain framing was accepted then it was inevitable that war would follow.

The word adversary is not the word for diplomacy or for normal relations between states. It is a term that presages conflict not resolution, military confrontation not diplomatic cooperation.

To begin with we have no inherent conflict with the people of Russia. Both countries have long term interests and there is some inherent competition of those interests but there is nothing that cannot be surmounted with reason, good will and mutual respect.

The current Russian leadership is the result of the greatest theft of state assets creating the world’s greatest kleptocracy. Putin is anti-democratic and has used blackmail, fear and murder to consolidate power. However we have allies, like President Duterte of the Philippines who has killed more and the House of Saud that are less democratic.

It was somewhat astonishing then that the House Committee today glibly asked the Director of the FBI and the NSA if Russia was our adversary and their glib reply was a single affirmative “yes”.

Historical Objectives of Russia

From Czarist Russia to Revolutionary Russia to the USSR and the current Russian Federation there has been a remarkably consistent Raison d'être for its political class. Consistent with Toynbee’s understanding that climate and geography are strong determinates of national character and interest Russia’s unique position and climate have forced a remarkably consistent nexus of interests for its leadership over 5 centuries. Those priorities have been:

1) Obtain a Warm Water Port. No land locked country has succeeded in developing a strong basis for its society. Here are two articles that explain the existential need for a warm water port and their movements in the Ukraine and Syria:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/warm-water-port.htm

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/navy-base-syria-crimea-putin/408694/

2) Security through Hegemony. Russia’s immense and long border make border security impossible. To achieve border security Russia has for centuries opted for the only practical option that would provide security in neighborhoods that can be aggressive, hegemony. By concentrating power onto smaller neighbors they are practiced at installing friendly governments in its neighbors that would provide a buffer from aggressive large countries. It usually is a positive cost/benefit formula. Usually not requiring force but when it does, like Czechoslovakia in 1968, it is a temporary high profile exercise followed by controlling an autonomous friendly client state. The initial movement of Soviet forces into Afghanistan was not an invasion against a government that was hostile to the Soviet Union but, strikingly similar to the Czech invasion, was made to support the Communist government that had taken control of the Peoples Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

It is easy for Americans to be critical of Russian reflex to always try to establish intimidation of hostile neighbors but we have been almost universally surrounded by friendly neighbors our entire existence. If you want to see how we would react to hostile neighbors simply look at the disproportionate response that the US had by the relatively small challenge that Cuba presented.

3) Authoritarian Rule. With so much territory and so much divergence in culture between the European West and the Asian East Russia has always supported strong despotic leaders as they value order over chaotic discourse. Putin is not contrary to Russian rule but fills the same shoes that Catherine the Great (and others) wore, although he is more much more civilized than his ancient predecessors.

4) Acceptance as a European Equal. Russia doesn’t want to dominate Europe nor does it necessarily need to challenge the US. It does mean that a united European Community with a strong bond to the US challenges Russia’s essential identity and that they are determined to disrupt the coalition. At the heart of Russian leadership is the desire to be accepted as an equal member of standing in the European community and they don't care how many heads they have to smash to get that respect.

Trump is going to destabilize US/European relationships to the same degree that Bush destabilized middle Eastern relationships. The best response is for the US to remain united with Europe and patiently continue to present a united front for universal democratic values. If the outcome of Trump’s paranoia and transgressions is that we come to automatically label Russia as an “Adversary” then we will have increasingly limited options to trying to establish normal relations between countries based on mutual respect.

In pursuing the crimes of Trump and his associates and exposing how those crimes intersect with the criminal side of Russia we should not allow our bilateral relationship to escalate in a way that makes military confrontation, either directly or indirectly through surrogate conflicts, more likely. It is the kind of nuance that Trump could never fathom.

To give an example how we might be able to solve big problems with Russia and maintain our principles look at the Russian annexation of Crimea. Russia couldn't care less what we think in the short term. They will take decades of discomfort in exchange of obtaining a lock on centuries of a warm water port.

In the international law that covers the Suez and Panama Canal there is, I believe, the foundation of a settlement that would meet the important interests of all sides. The principle for the Suez and the Panama canal is that once you create a universal passage then you cannot use that passage to exploit a parochial advantage. If Egypt or Panama try to close the waterway then the international community has the right to restore its universal application, but they don't lose sovereignty. In the Crimea we could use the same principle of establishing an "international port and land bridge" to Russia. Like Suez and Panama the administration would be subcontracted to a private company and the fees for usage revert to the sovereign power, in this case Ukraine. If Ukraine did move to restrict access of goods to Russia then they would have the military right to enforce its reopening (like France/England did in Suez, or the US has in Panama). Ukraine would continue to hold the rights of sovereignty (for example any crimes committed in the port would still be tried in Ukraine) but an Intergovernmental Committee with the stakeholders could govern the running of the port and the corridor to Russia.

Trump is like a crazed bull in the glass emporium. It would be a tragedy if his Presidency gave Putin his ultimate victory by destabilizing not only the Atlantic alliance but created a chaos that allowed Putin to profit from his crimes.

Why Trump self leaking the 2005 Returns is the most likely explanation

1) Shows a significant income (which Trump's ego demands) and avoids huge loss write off that we know other years show and relatively large tax actually paid.

2) Doesn't have any smoking gun information, doesn't have any schedules, predates his large Russian investment years.

The most logical conclusions we can make is that who ever leaked this didn't just get it and has a lot more information including the full return. If true then why are they leaking it now? Why are they leaking only this little bit?

The most logical answer is in Trump's own actions. He will continue to try to hijack the conversation in order to divert attention from substantive issues. Maddow refuses to be lured by tweets so he lures her with minimal tax returns.

What are we not talking about because of this?

1) CBO report on Republican health care plan
2) Sessions perjury follow up
3) Comey confirming (reportedly tomorrow) FBI investigation on Russian interference with our elections
4) Massive change in tax burden for the rich
5) Anbang sweetheart property sales to Kushner
6) Trump allegations that President Obama wiretapped him.

Trump has a clever strategy: Try to win every news cycle, but if you can't win it then flood it with less than significant shiny objects to keep people talking.

The problem for Trump is that we are on to him.

Do you remember the Good Ole Days?

Those were the days when the President of the United States used to give thought provoking speeches that challenged everyone to listen to their better angels and find practical benefits to help those who were bearing a heavy burden whether it was because of their sexual identity, lack of health care or ambiguous immigration status and not a President that gave inane knee jerk reactions to what he saw on Fox News.

Other nations not only respected us and our government but they actually had a clear idea of what we stood for and what we wanted to do.

We went 8 years with virtually no infighting in the government, no unauthorized leaks by government officials and not a single case of perjury by cabinet level officials.

Taxes were reduced on the lower half and increased on the elites.

Lives were saved, family assets secured as millions were able to get health insurance.

Instead of adding tens of billions to the defense budget and rattling sabres at not only foes but also friends we reduced our military footprint and sat down with advisories to find the maximum possible agreement.

People were valued for their character and not vilified because of their religion.

We talked with our neighbors to find joint approaches that would be mutually beneficial.

Leadership positions were fully staffed by competent and outstanding figures from a broad selection of Americans, not relatives and obvious sycophants.

We had a President that was cool under pressure, even with constant bigoted taunting and not a President who is hot under the collar and constantly making bigoted taunts.

The President set a record for calm and comity and not vitriol and comedy.

Its been a long time. Its been exactly 45 days but it seems like a generation.

Only 1,416 days until the next inauguration.

Trump finally gives a speech with limited crazy and Sessions crushes the next days news cycle.

When Sessions was nominated I predicted that it actually was a good thing because