The sheer hypocrisy makes me angry enough to punch a concrete wall.
Priceless. I was in the midst of composing an overlong post about why Tom Price -- the HHS secretary who ran up a million-buck travel tab -- had to go. And then the news came: He's already gone.
The travel scandal was not the greatest of Price's sins. Preet Bharara was fired while investigating Price's double-dealings in Congress, profiting from investments in health-related companies while overseeing legislation that affected those same companies. Is "insider trading" the right term for that?
Price testified at the time that his trades were lawful and transparent. Democrats accused him of potentially using his office to enrich himself. One lawmaker called for an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing concerns Price could have violated the STOCK Act, a 2012 law signed by President Obama that clarified that members of Congress cannot use nonpublic information for profit and requires them to promptly disclose their trades.I'd like to know whether Trump fired Bharara to protect Price. (At this writing, Bharara has not offered a tweet about the Price departure.) But it gets worse.
But Price's mismanagement of taxpayer resources for official travel pales in comparison to his active sabotage of Obamacare, a program it was his duty to administer carefully so long as it remains the law of the land.
During Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollment dates (November 1 through December 15) the HHS department typically joins community health groups in local campaigns to encourage signups. Given how insurance works, the more people that buy into it, the lower the costs for everyone, and the more stable the insurance markets will be. Price directed his department to pull out of these events, and slashed the advertising budget to spread the word by 90%.
Price's department also plans to shut down the HealthCare.gov enrollment website for 12 hours during all but one Sunday during the enrollment period for "scheduled maintenance." Eighty members of the House have signed a letter urging the secretary to shorten the maintenance period, which appears designed to intentionally cut down on the time Americans have to enroll in ACA plans.Kurt Eichenwald tweeted the following:
If Trump fires all his guys who cheatd taxpayers 4 private planes -heads of VA, Treasury, EPA, Interior -its gonna be lonely in White HouseOne reader's response:
Let's talk about Trump's $3,000,000 golf weekends to Florida.The Hill gave that number back in May, based on a report from the GAO, although the figure has been disputed. A Trump family ski vacay in Aspen ran up $300,000 in security costs.
The next to go may be VA chief David Shulkin...
Nearly three days into a trip to Europe this past July, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin had attended a Wimbledon championship tennis match, toured Westminster Abbey and taken a cruise on the Thames.Oh, that's an old dodge. Many years ago, back when I was a graphic illustrator, I'd often go out for dinner with my girlfriend. When the bill came, I'd say: "Art art art art." This act justified claiming the tab as a business expense, since, during the meal, we had officially discussed what I did for a living.
The 10-day trip was not entirely a vacation. Shulkin was in Europe for meetings with Danish and British officials about veterans’ health issues, so taxpayers picked up part of the tab.
Puerto Rico. Don't know about you, but I am seething. This is worse than Bush's response to Katrina -- by far. The fact that Trump was willing to waive the Jones Act for Houston and Florida but not for Puerto Rico -- until forced to do so -- tells us a lot about the guy.
I know that the island's infrastructure has been destroyed. But why can't those desperately-needed goods be airlifted throughout the island? I'm thinking of the "Refrigerator in the Sky" chapter of Empire of the Sun. In World War II, we knew how to get food and medical supplies into war-torn areas -- into places where no American trucks could go. We surely have similar containers and parachutes available to us today.
Truck's inability to save these Americans is, in and of itself, a dereliction of his duties. Refusal to do his damn job falls under the category of high crimes and misdemeanors.
4 comments:
It seems to me that the Puerto Rico disaster would have been just as criminally mishandled by any of the current batch of GOP dim bulbs.
The aim of Mercer-Putin being to destroy the Unitrd States' reputation of and the ability to take decent action. And unfortunately it's hard to see a way out.
Tis a vague phrase, "high crimes and misdemeanors." The emoluments clause is equally concrete and not vague at all. If those worthless scumbags on the hill wanted to, they could get Trump out of office in a day. But since they don't act, we can conclude that they, and their paymasters like what Trump is doing.
@Tom -
I hate to say it, but I'm starting to think Josh Blackman and Seth Barrett Tillman just might be right about the emoluments clause not applying to the President. (Link is to a FAQ clarifying their position, but their argument an be found in the amicus briefs they've filed, and a quick Google will turn up the [so far pretty weak] responses and their counters over the past few weeks.) In short, they argue the phrase "any Office of Profit or Trust" refers only to appointed officials, not elected. What's more, to date they've done a pretty good job of backing up their claims.
I realize this all smacks of Originalism -- but given that the Obama administration's willingness to continue and even extend the G.W. Bush administration's Constitutionally questionable practice of using executive orders to make law had a lot to do with the horrible position we find ourselves in today, coupled with the Left's seeming willingness to ignore what little of the Constitution it understands, makes me wonder if a dose of authentic Originalism might not be what we need. (By 'authentic' Originalism, I mean Originalism of a sort probably not practiced by anyone who calls him- or herself an Originalist, which has largely come to be a euphemism for right-wing judicial activism.)
Bottom-line is, don't count too much on the emoluments clause saving us from Trump.
I'm seething too. We throw around the term "national disgrace" a lot these days -- for good reason -- but what's happening in Puerto Rico is as disgraceful as it comes. It's hard not to see his neglect as deliberate, as malice, and it makes me wonder if we're seeing the beginning of a new kind of disaster capitalism, wherein huge chunks of the world are simply allowed to fail. There's no profit motive, there's no exploiting the ruins. Parts of civilization just fall away, because they are expendable and because power has no use for them. They are given just enough aid to ease their reentry into the dark ages. This is, perhaps, a harbinger of not just authoritarianism, but totalitarianism. The slothful, narcissistic megalomaniac leader flaunting his carelessness as the colonial subjects dehydrate and starve.
@ maz
Sorry to take so long to get back to this.
I'll never accept such an argument. If by "right" you mean could be successful in the right wing judiciary we have in this country now, that could be. in the McDonnell case, scumbag lawyers did argue that influence peddling is a protected activity and the court agreed unanimously.
Originalism is a total sham, but does have a dusty grain of truth to it. Which is that the Constitution was written by slaveholders and designed to allow them to maintain their status. Our shame down to this day, obviously.
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