monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

maporsche wrote:

You should be alarmed. But as of right now there hasn't been anything seriously damaging to the law yet. What Trump has done is invoked a lot of uncertainty into the health care market, at the exact time that people are going to have to enroll in coverage for next year. That's going to cause premiums to rise even more than they may have otherwise.

Have you bothered to see what Obamacare premiums are going to be the coming year? They were already more than people can afford.

You're wrong, because the Democrats didn't defeat any plans this year. The GOP failed to even get to 50 on their own. The Dems couldn't have stopped them if they'd gotten to 50.

You're wrong on both the policy and procedural aspects of the subject you're discussing.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

You're wrong, because the Democrats didn't defeat any plans this year. The GOP failed to even get to 50 on their own. The Dems couldn't have stopped them if they'd gotten to 50.

Sophistry. The Democrats were unified in their opposition to the bill.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

You're wrong on both the policy and procedural aspects of the subject you're discussing.

My statement that the original Republican plan would have dramatically increased subsidies, is 100% correct.

Whether I am wrong about the subsidies being in danger, that I don't know. All I know is that the news guy seemed pretty sure that the subsidies were in trouble.

I personally wouldn't go around repeating things without researching them first, you ought to try it. It probably would lead to a dramatic improvement in the average quality of your posts.

Cycloptichorn

My statement that the original Republican plan would have dramatically increased subsidies, is 100% correct.

Senate Republican leaders unveiled their health-care bill Thursday morning, after weeks of crafting it behind closed doors. The bill, like the House’s, makes steep spending cuts to Medicaid and insurance subsidies

so why would someone like Oralloy?

maporsche wrote:

Says you.

"Those earning under $75,000, or $150,000 for a married couple, in modified adjusted gross income, get the same, fixed amounts for their age groups -- starting at $2,000 a year for those under age 30, increasing in $500 increments per decade in age, up to $4,000 a year for those 60 and older."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/08/republican-health-care-bill-facts/98917660/

That hypothetical 60-year-old gets $0 in tax credits under the ACA. But if our 60-year-old earns $30,000 a year, she would likely get more under the ACA than the GOP plan: In Franklin County, Ohio, for instance, the tax credit would be $6,550 under the ACA in 2020 and $4,000 under the Republican plan. (This interactive map from the KFF shows the difference in tax credits under the health care plans.)

snood wrote:

so why would someone like Oralloy?

You falsely accuse me of not researching information because you aren't capable of making intelligent arguments.

Dude. Why didn't you include the next part?

OH, that's why, because it's actually a REDUCTION in benefits for people. Gotcha.

These are also tax credits and not premium subsidies, so they're inherently worse for the recipient than the current system.

You don't actually know much about Policy, do you? You're big on bold statements and ideology but not so much on details. I can see why you like Trump so much...

Your own pitiful posts accuse you. Witness the pitiful, half-assed argument you're having about subsidies. Half-truths, lies, and suppositions. you and Trump are made for each other.

It may be a reduction for a very narrow slice of people. But for the vast majority it would have been a dramatic increase in the assistance they received.

How exactly are tax credits inherently worse?

It is unseemly to bolster your arguments with these untrue comments about my level of knowledge.

Wrong. Totally wrong. Where are you even getting this data from? In no way was the Republican health care bill an increase in assistance for anyone. It was literally designed to do the EXACT opposite. Provide a link proving your point here or admit you're making **** up.

Premium subsidies lower your costs on a monthly basis. Tax credits apply at the end of the year and don't pay out until you pay your taxes. Many of the people who qualify for assistance already pay very low taxes or nothing at all, and these aren't REFUNDABLE tax credits, so for many people they'll get nothing.

Even if they do get a credit, it doesn't help them pay their bills on a monthly basis. That's much, much worse.

Those are true comments.

You prove it by writing things that are patently false,

and refusing to admit it when called out on it.

It shows a lack of intellectual honesty.

The president’s Scottish golf resorts in Turnberry and Aberdeen racked up a collective $41.4 million in losses over the course of 2016, and there’s little sign of a substantial improvement in performance this year. His public golf course outside Los Angeles has seen double-digit drops in revenue, and his clubs in the Northeast have seen steep declines in attendance. And the five-star Trump Soho in New York City has suffered a plunge in patronage, as big-name corporations, professional athletes, and other celebrities have taken their business to less controversial confines — leading the hotel to lay off staff and shutter its sushi restaurant.

Meanwhile, Trump Hotels’ new, budget-friendly lines appear to be disintegrating on launch. In June, the company announced that it had 39 locations lined up for Scion, a luxury hotel chain for millennials. But, as of this writing, only one hotel in Mississippi has publicly signed on to the Scion brand.

A developer in Dallas had been promoting plans to launch a Scion property in the Big D — but, in April, he told the city that the deal was no more. A bid to bring Scion to Austin was killed in the cradle, when the city voted for a boycott of the president’s hotels and products (in a non-binding resolution).

And, on the retail front, Ivanka Trump’s fashion line has forfeited plans to expand into Japan, while Macy’s, and the Trump Organizations’ other erstwhile department-store partners, has shown little interest in hawking the president’s wares.

Trump on Monday falsely suggested he is one of few commanders-in-chief to call the families of fallen U.S. soldiers, and wrongly singled out his predecessor Barack Obama as a leader who never did so.

“The traditional way if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn't make calls,” Trump said during a Rose Garden press conference with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“A lot of them didn't make calls. I like to call when it's appropriate, when I think I'm able to do it.”

Minutes later, after a reporter challenged Trump's comments, the President said he wasn’t sure if his allegation about Obama was true.

“I don't know if he did (call),” Trump said.

“I was told he didn't often and a lot of presidents don't. They write letters...I do a combination of both. Sometimes it's a very difficult thing to do, but I do a combination of both. President Obama I think probably did sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn't. I don't know. That's what I was told.”

Trump was responding to a question about why he has remained silent for 12 days about an ambush in Niger that left four U.S. soldiers dead. It was the deadliest attack on American troops since Trump took office.

Trump, who went golfing on Saturday and Sunday, said he was “going to call” the families of the fighters when the time is right, and that he’d written their families letters which are “going to be going out either today or tomorrow.”

Former Obama staffers minced no words in shooting down Trump's baseless attack.

"that's a f---ing lie," Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former White House deputy chief of staff, tweeted.

"to say president obama (or past presidents) didn't call the family members of soldiers KIA (killed in action) — he's a deranged animal," she said.

A woman who said her brother was killed in action during George W. Bush’s presidency was also irate at the allegation.

“When my brother was killed, Pres Bush listened while I screamed at him & then held me as I sobbed, you fat f---ing liar,” Delilia O’Malley wrote in a message to Trump that was retweeted 20,000 times.

Bush “wrote all the families of the fallen,” said Freddy Ford, spokesman for the ex-president. Ford said Bush also called or met “hundreds if not thousands” of family members of the war dead.

Obama's calls and visits to service families and ailing veterans were well-documented during his time in office.

Former White House photographer Pete Souza posted a photo Monday of Obama consoling the parents of Army Sgt. 1st Class Jared C. Monti in 2009. Souza wrote on Instagram that the 44th President visited “hundreds” of military family members and wounded soldiers.

Obama made at least two high-profile visits to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to see the dignified transfers of slain soldiers. He saluted the return of 15 fallen troops in 2009 and returned two years later to spend more than an hour meeting with about 250 relatives of 30 soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan when their helicopter was shot.

He also visited military hospitals almost two dozen times during his eight years in office.

Trump in August 2012 criticized Obama for sending form letters to the families of slain SEALs.

“Too busy playing golf? @BarackObama sends form letters with an electronic signature to the parents of fallen SEALs,” Trump tweeted, linking to a story from the conspiracy-laden conservative website Gateway Pundit.

The White House confirmed that it mailed out form letters but said Obama personally signed each one.

The Obamas also had a “Gold Star” Christmas tree in the White House decorated with hundreds of photos and notes from people who had lost loved ones in war. Gold Star families visited during the holidays, bringing ornaments.

Over 4,000 servicemembers were killed during George W. Bush’s presidency and over 2,500 during Obama’s presidency.

Trump has traveled to Dover once to see the dignified transfer of Navy SEAL William (Ryan) Owens, the first service member killed during his administration.

Owens' father Bill Owens later told the Miami Herald that his "conscience" stopped him from meeting with Trump at Dover. The heartbroken father said he would prefer to see an "investigation" into what went wrong on the Trump-approved Yemen raid that led to his son's demise, which the elder Owens called a "stupid mission."

Since Owens’ death, Trump has not returned to Dover, and has rarely acknowledged fallen military members in tweets and public remarks.

“The toughest calls I have to make are the calls where this happens, soldiers are killed. It's a very difficult thing,” he said. “For me, that's by far the toughest.”

Vice President Pence has attended Dover ceremonies at least three times.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump infamously feuded with the Gold Star parents of Humayun Khan, a Muslim U.S. Army officer who was killed in a suicide attack in Iraq in 2004.

Trump falsely stated that Hillary Clinton's staff wrote an anti-Trump speech Khan's father, Khizr, delivered at the Democratic National Convention. Trump also implied Khan's mother, Ghazala, was "not allowed" to speak at the convention because of Islamic gender customs. The family later said Ghazala was too emotional to speak.