Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Impeached President Donald Trump swore in a tweet (2/8), “We will not be touching your Social Security or Medicare in Fiscal 2021 Budget.” He reiterated in a meeting with Republican governors (2/10): “We’re not touching Medicare. … We’re not touching Social Security.” Of course, he was lying in both cases.
Instead, the White House (2/10) proposed a $4.8 trillion budget that would cut Medicare by $850 billion, cut Medicaid by $920 billion and cut Social Security by $30 billion over the next decade. The proposal would also slash food stamp spending by $181 billion. The plan also calls for a steep 8% cut to the Education budget; a 9% cut to the Health and Human Services Budget, including the Centers for Disease Control; and a 26% cut to the Environmental Protection Agency budget. The Interior Department would see a 13% budget cut; the Department of Housing and Urban Development would see a 15% cut; and both the State Department and US Agency for International Development would be slashed by 22%.
However, Trump’s budget calls for an increase to the Homeland Security funding and $2 billion in additional funding for his border wall, down from $5 billion last year.
Despite the deep cuts, which aren’t expected to get through Congress, the budget plan acknowledges that the proposal would fail to eliminate the deficit over the next decade. Trump’s advisers vowed to eliminate the deficit by 2028, but it has only grown instead.
The new proposal claims to eliminate the deficit within 15 years, though it would only achieve this through “unprecedented” 3% growth through 2025, which are “levels the administration has failed to achieve for even one year so far,” the Washington Post reported.
Rural people will be disproportionately hit by Trump’s proposed cuts to the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program, Joan McCarter noted at Daily Kos (2/10). They would be subjected to onerous, barriers to maintaining the modest SSDI payments, which average about $1,200 a month for people who are not yet of retirement age but can no longer work because of a mental or physical impairment. The Social Security Administration conducts reviews of all beneficiaries on the basis of three categories: the people who are only temporarily disabled, people who might improve, and people who are not expected to improve. Some reviews are as frequent as twice a year, and some are once every seven years. The administration is proposing to add a new classification of “Medical Improvement Likely,” and is aiming it at older workers who are not longer able to work in their fields, or about 1 million people. Many of them can work part-time or in odd jobs. Most, however continue to live below the poverty line, even with SSDI help.
As with the Medicaid and food stamp work requirements, the Trump administration wants to create more hoops for these people to jump through. But for rural people the process is even harder because they have to work with a Social Security office both in the review process and in the event that they’re denied ongoing payments. More than 2 million people with SSDI live in counties that don’t have Social Security offices, and more than 1 million of them are in rural counties where getting transportation to the closest SSA office is difficult. This problem is compounded by how hard disabled people in rural communities have had it since the Great Recession. Fewer disabled people in rural areas are employed now than were in 2008, even though the unemployment rate is low nationwide. It’s a population that’s hit disproportionately hard by disabilities—rural dwellers are 5 percentage points likelier to become disabled during their working lives and are more likely to become disabled at a younger age than people in urban areas.
So once again, the Trump administration is taking action that will disproportionately hurt his base, or the “forgotten men and women” he supposedly championed in his run for office, McCarter noted. They haven’t been forgotten by Trump — not at all. They’re among his favorite targets.
TRUMP MEDICAID RULES WOULD UNDERMINE RURAL HEALTH CARE. Trump is using regulatory tools at hand — largely in defiance of Medicaid law — to demolish the program designed to deliver health care to the working poor. While block grant rules have received the largest amount of attention recently, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma snuck out the Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation, which could drastically reduce the federal contribution to states. It could cuts $11 billion annually in the state of Texas alone. Nationwide, it could mean up to $31 billion lost to hospitals across the country, Morning Consult in January. Trump is “underwater” outside the margin of error in three key states Trump won: Iowa, where his approval vs. disapproval was 44-53 (the same as December); Michigan, where Trump was down 40-55 (the same as December); and Wisconsin, where Trump was down 43-53 (a loss of 1 since December). Trump was underwater by 1 point in Arizona (a gain of 2 since December), North Carolina (a loss of 1) and Pennsylvania (a gain of 4), tied in Georgia (a gain of 2) and up 1 in Florida ( gain of 2), which means those states are tossups. In other potential battleground states Trump lost in 2016, Trump was down 7 points in Minnesota (a gain of 4 points), 10 points in New Mexico (same as December), and 15 points in Nevada (a loss of 3 points).
BARR CONFIRMS HE’LL PROCESS GIULIANI’S ANTI-BIDEN CLAIMS. Attorney General William Barr confirmed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s assertion that Barr now had a “process” by which Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani could feed his anti-Biden claims directly to the Justice Department to be “verified”—a direct pipeline of Trump’s demanded smears of a political opponent to federal investigators.
The Justice Department initially refused to comment on Graham’s explosive claim made on a Sunday talk show. Speaking to reporters the following day (2/10), however, Barr acknowledged his department has “established an intake process” for Rudy’s claims, while taking pains to portray it as business as usual. Barr, however, has lied throughout the Ukraine probe, Hunter noted at DailyKos (2/10). And this is not business as usual.
As reported by Politico, Barr responded to a reporter’s question about Graham’s claim at an unrelated Barr news conference. According to Barr, taking information from Giuliani about Trump’s designated political enemy is nothing special. “The Department of Justice has the obligation to have an open door to anybody who wishes to provide us information that they think is relevant. I did say to Sen. Graham, we have to be very careful with respect to any information coming from the Ukraine.”
Barr went out of his way to express theoretical skepticism on that last part, noting that “we can’t take anything we receive from the Ukraine at face value.” But as for Giuliani’s pro-Russia, anti-Ukraine, pro-corruption and anti-Biden pipe dreams from the likes of indicted oligarch Dmytro Firtash, “we’re taking information as we would in any case.”
What Barr is clearly attempting to do in this response (Politico notes that some of it was read from notes, meaning it was prepared in advance) is portray Giuliani as just another crank contacting the Justice Department with crank theories that will be dutifully written down and “evaluated,” rather than as having an administration-arranged direct pipeline to his offices. The problem with this.Hunter noted, is that Barr has been a liar throughout the Ukraine scandal. Barr has also rendered the Justice Department an explicitly political tool, vigorously using his office to block investigations into alleged wrongdoing by Trump, inventing new justifications for “absolute immunity” from congressional oversight.
The other problem is that the Justice Department does not usually respond to such cranks by establishing “an intake process” personal to them. Giuliani, on the other hand, now has that.
TRUMP’S JOB CREATION STILL LAGS OBAMA’S LAST THREE YEARS. Donald Trump Department of Labor reports that 6.6 million new jobs were created in the first 36 months of Trump’s tenure, but that compares with 8.1 million in the final 36 months of Obama’s ― a decline of 19% under Trump, according to a HuffPost analysis by S.V. Date (2/10).
Economists say that the slowing of job creation is not surprising. There are fewer empty jobs and fewer unemployed people available to fill them as the economy gets closer to full employment.
“I’m not a big fan of jobs numbers as a metric of success,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, once the top economic adviser to John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. He added, though, that Trump’s “hyperbole” notwithstanding, “the performance of the labor market has been nothing short of stunning.”
David Rothschild, an economist with Microsoft Research, said Trump is presiding over a decent job market — the same as his Democratic predecessor did. “The economy is basically humming along for the last three years, just as it was for the last year several years of the Obama administration,” Rothschild said.
Nevertheless, the statistics belie Trump’s frequent claims that he turned around Obama’s poor management of the economy.
The White House would not respond to the new statistics, but spokesman Judd Deere told HuffPost: “President Obama presided over one of the slowest recoveries in history while President Trump has smashed expectations with 5 million more jobs grown than forecasted by the (Congressional Budget Office), a record setting stock market, strong wage growth for blue collar workers, and historically low unemployment rates. Because of the strength of the Trump economy more and more Americans are coming off the sidelines to find work many of whom were left out of the so-called Obama recovery.”
During his State of the Union speech to Congress, Trump said: “If we hadn’t reversed the failed economic policies of the previous administration, the world would not now be witnessing this great economic success.”
“He’s largely riding trends he inherited,” said Jared Bernstein, once the chief economist to former Vice President Joe Biden.
TRUMP CHARGED TAXPAYERS NEARLY $500,000 FOR SECRET SERVICE STAYS AT PRESIDENT’S PROPERTIES. The Trump Organization billed American taxpayers up to $650 per night and at least $471,000 in 2017 and 2018 for Secret Service accommodations at the president’s own properties, the Washington Post reported.
Donald Trump has claimed his company only charges taxpayers minimal fees or “at cost” when government employees stay at his properties. His son, Trump Organization Vice President Eric Trump, also claimed last year that the government "saves a fortune" by staying at the president's properties rather than other nearby hotels.
In contrast, Secret Service and presidential aides were allowed to stay for free at former presidential properties: George H.W. Bush's compound in Maine, Bill Clinton's New York home and George W. Bush's Texas ranch.
“If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free — meaning like, cost for housekeeping,” Eric Trump said at the time. “If they were to go to a hotel across the street, they’d be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know, we charge them like 50 bucks.”
But Secret Service records obtained by the Washington Post reveal that statement was false.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach charged Secret Service a rate of $650 per night “dozens of times” in 2017 before charging them $396 “dozens more times” in 2018, according to the report. The initial cost was more than three times the $182 nightly limit for federal employees in the area and was even higher than what State Department staff were charged to stay at Mar-a-Lago around the same time.
The records also showed that the Secret Service was charged an “unusually high” $17,000 per month fee to use a three-bedroom cottage at Trump’s Bedminster, N.J., golf club in 2017. The average price for a similar rental in the area at the time was $3,400. The company even billed the government for days when the president was not staying there, according to the Post.
The full extent of Secret Service spending at Trump properties is unknown, because the Secret Service failed to list the expenses in public databases despite reporting requirements for payments exceeding $10,000. The *Post* found more than 103 payments totaling more than $471,000 between January 2017 and April 2018, according to federal records.
In contrast, Secret Service and presidential aides were allowed to stay for free at former presidential properties: George H.W. Bush’s compound in Maine, Bill Clinton’s New York home and George W. Bush’s Texas ranch.
Jordan Libowitz of the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told the *Post* the missing costs were as concerning as the available information.
When Democrats sought to investigate the costs of Trump’s travel, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin refused to turn records over until after the 2020 election.
“They’ve really stonewalled us,” Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., a member of the Appropriations Committee, told the Post. “He’s trying to hide the details from the public, because he knows how bad it looks. That’s the truth of it. He’s a billionaire, but we’re spending millions of dollars to support his for-profit clubs and for-profit businesses.” (Igor Derysh, Salon)
TRUMP THREATENS TO PARDON ROGER STONE BEFORE DIRTY TRICKSTER IS SENTENCED. In November, former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone was found guilty on all counts in the charges against him, including lying to Congress and witness tampering, in direct relation to Stone’s role as a liaison between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign in 2016. The potential sentence for those crimes is more than 20 years, and prosecutors recommended a sentence of seven to nine years (2/10).
The next morning (2/11) Trump made it clear that before Stone receives so much as a slap on the wrist, he intends to make it all go away for the man who threatened a witness, covered up crimes, and lied repeatedly to investigators. Declaring that “the real crimes were on the other side,” Trump tweeted, “This is a horrible and very unfair situation,” Trump tweeted around 2 a.m. He added, “Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice! ”
Trump has already demonstrated an extraordinary willingness to use his pardon powers to excuse his allies of any wrongdoing, Mark Sumner noted at DailyKos (2/11). Trump pardoned racist former Sheriff Joe Arpaio for charges of contempt of court. He dipped back into a former round of Republican wrongdoing to pardon Scooter Libby on multiple counts of perjury. He pardoned far-right propagandist Dinesh D’Souza for campaign contribution fraud. He even pardoned newspaper magnate Conrad Black, whose fraud conviction had just been upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, after Black wrote a flattering biography of Trump.
Trump has not been subtle about putting a short, fat thumb onto the scales of justice. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Trump appears to be putting pressure on a judge even before sentencing takes place.
As The New York Times reported (2/10), in obtaining a conviction against Stone, prosecutors carefully outlined that his crimes had not been a one-off event. The man who had been describing himself as a “dirty trickster” for decades had, unsurprisingly, been involved in dirty tricks just as long. And when his connections to WikiLeaks came under scrutiny, Stone engaged in a multiyear scheme that included “a relentless and elaborate campaign to silence.” That campaign involved threatening not just to injure or kill a witness, or to send thugs to take him out; Stone even promised that he would kill the witness’ dog.
Stone’s attorneys have argued for a sentence of just over a year—well below even the minimums that guidelines provide for his crimes. But based on the signals Trump is sending, it’s unlikely to matter. Whether he’s sentenced to one year or 10, Roger Stone is likely to be back in the buffet line at Mar-a-Lago by the end of the month, chuckling over the idea that he, or any of Trump’s friends, is subject to justice.
NEW DATA SHOWS TEXAS’ WORKING CLASS SUPPORTS PROGRESSIVE ECONOMIC POLICIES. Working-class Texans are supportive of policies to raise the minimum wage; raise taxes on the wealthy; and increase spending on health care, education, and transportation and infrastructure, the Center for American Progress Action Fund reported in a new issue brief, which also contains similar data for the other 49 states and the District of Columbia. Across the country, and even in red states, there are only a handful of instances in which working-class Americans did not support these progressive economic policies.
“Working-class voters have immense power to influence elections, yet they are little understood by many political commentators. Since 2016, the pervasive narrative has been that working-class voters are disaffected, white, and conservative,” said David Madland, a senior fellow and the senior adviser to the American Worker Project at CAP Action. “The reality is that the working class is racially and ethnically diverse, and regardless of ethnic background, workers across the nation support progressive economic policies.”
Findings for Texas include:
• 71% of working-class Texans support raising the minimum wage.
• 68% of working-class Texans support raising taxes on the wealthy.
• 66% of working-class Texans would like the Legislature to spend more money on health care.
• 72% of working-class Texans would like the Legislature to spend more money on education.
• 62% of working-class Texans would like the Legislature to spend more money on transportation and infrastructure.
View the data and read the issue brief, “Working-Class Americans in All States Support Progressive Economic Policies” by David Madland and Malkie Wall, at www.americanprogressaction.org.
‘END CITIZENS UNITED’ AND ‘LET AMERICA VOTE’ JOIN FORCES FOR COMBINED VOTING RIGHTS GROUP. Two of the most formidable voting rights groups in the nation, End Citizens United and Let America Vote, are combining into one joint PAC, McClatchy reported (1/30).
End Citizens United was formed in response to, of course, the Citizens United Supreme Court decision that vastly expanded the ability of corporations to finance their own efforts to elect their preferred US lawmakers. The corporate interests have spent heavily to oppose ballot initiatives aimed at stemming the new influx of dark money and to boost the efforts of candidates that support them, Hunter noted at Daily Kos (1/30).
Let America Vote’s focus has been on fighting Republican voter-suppression efforts, unleashed across Republican-held states by the court’s separate decision ending the Voting Rights Act’s “preclearance” requirements for states and counties with proven records of violating the voting rights of their (nonwhite) citizens. Let America Vote was the product of former Missouri Democratic Senate nominee Jason Kander, who, McClatchy reports, will cease to hold an official position in the new, combined PAC.
Both groups seem pleased with the decision to merge, and McClatchy cited End Citizens United president Tiffany Muller as saying that the two organizations’ missions “fit really well together.” Their fight will be more important than ever, now that the Senate has effectively nullified laws against campaigns soliciting—or extorting—foreign government assistance in elections outright. McConnell and his allies have pulled out all the stops in the effort to maintain power not by appealing to the nation’s voters, but by sabotaging voter rights and burying the public under waves of billionaire-funded propaganda. As the Republican Party turns into a kept thing of white nationalists and America’s oligarchs, it is the only way it can win.
