A Laughable Stunt, Healthcare Revival

Wish List: The White House yesterday released President Trump’s sketchy plan for tax reform, a one-page bullet point list of changes that would be a windfall for the wealthy and provide some relief for more average taxpayers. The plan did not say how it would balance out the billions of dollars in lost income for the government.

Trump would lower the business tax from 35 to 15 percent; drop the highest personal rate from 39.6 to 35 percent; and completely do away with the estate tax.

Gary D. Cohn, the director of Mr. Trump’s National Economic Council, said, “We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do something really big. President Trump has made tax reform a priority, and we have a Republican Congress that wants to get it done.”

A NY Times editorial says the “skimpy one-page tax proposal” is “by any historical standard, a laughable stunt by a gang of plutocrats looking to enrich themselves at the expense of the country’s future.”

To Your Health: Desperate to get a spending bill passed, President Trump yesterday knuckled under on his demand to cut off subsidies to insurance companies under Obamacare, strangling Obamacare.

But the healthcare legacy of President Obama is on the block again anyway. The House Freedom Caucus, which nixed the last version of healthcare replacement, has given its approval of a new, more conservative version of the bill.

This doesn’t guarantee that the rest of the Republican majority can pass the bill. Some of the moderates face angry voters at home who like Obamacare, and many more fear the consequences of passing a bill that will dump millions of people off health insurance.

The latest version gives states the choice of eliminating the “essential health benefits,” mandated under Obamacare including emergency services, maternity care, mental health, and drug addiction. Of course, those are some of the things that make up the core of real health insurance.

Monumental: President Trump yesterday signed an order for review of 30 national monuments in a move to open up the land to drilling, mining, and other development. Expect a fight over that.

World: In a continuing purge, Turkey has suspended 9,000 police officers the government claims may be linked to a failed coup last July. — As tensions heat up in the Far East, China has revealed its first domestically-made aircraft carrier. It’s their second Carrier.

Small Screen: Once a money-minting powerhouse in cable television, the shrinking sports network ESPN has laid off a handful of on-air reporters and commentators. Including off-air employees, as many as 100 people may lose their jobs. ESPN has lost 10 million viewers in the past several years as it faces competition from new ways for fans to watch live sports. Amazon has elbowed its way in, and even The Walt Disney Co., which owns ESPN, plans a sports streaming service, which will compete with its own cable outlet.

The Obit Page: The prolific, Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme, who made “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Philadelphia,” has died of esophageal cancer at age 73.

Demme was a moviemaker with a social conscience and a feel for character. His thriller, “The Silence of the Lambs” in 1991, won five Oscars. He took on the AIDS crisis in 1993 with “Philadelphia,” in which Tom hanks played a lawyer who sues his own law firm because he was fired for having AIDS.

Demme’s first love was rock and roll, but he entered the Hollywood business as a publicist and got his entrée into directing making B movies with the famous Roger Corman.

His love was not entirely for fiction. He made documentaries about the rock group Talking Heads, singer Neil Young, and the monologist Spalding Gray.

Bones: Researchers in California say they may have dug up evidence that human beings existed 130,000 years ago. Mixed with mastodon bones in San Diego County were broken rocks and bones that look like they were fractured by human hands. If it’s to be believed, that would make mankind 115,000 years older than previously thought.

Low Fashion: The Nordstrom’s department store chain is being mocked for offering a pair of jeans that appear to be caked with mud. The pants, according to Nordstrom, “embody rugged, Americana workwear that’s seen some hard-working action” and show “you’re not afraid to get down and dirty.”

They cost $425.

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It's Been Said

"Christians, get out and vote, just this time. You won't have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won't have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you, get out, you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don't have to vote again, we'll have it fixed so good you're not going to have to vote."

  • Donald Trump courting the vote of the Christian right

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