Got so tired of writing about Trump that I had to take a week off.  I was trying to find something else that was more interesting to write but given all the craziness of the Trump presidency, I have to come back to it.  If anyone has some suggestion for future blog subjects, please do not hesitate to let me know.

As David Gergen of CNN who worked in the White House of two Republican and one Democrat administration wrote, it is the worst first 100 days of any recent presidency.  With a majority in the House and Senate, the GOP has failed to do what they promised, repeal and replace Obamacare.  After seven years of criticizing and trying to get rid of Obamacare, the GOP has failed to come up with a plan to replace it.  Sure the so called Freedom Caucus blocked it but the plan was worse than Obamacare in the first place.  The CBO said it will cause 24 million people to lose their insurance in the next 10 years.  Various group like physicians, nurses and patient advocacy groups are against the GOP plan.  So this is what they come up with after 7 years?  It would have made sense to try to improve Obamacare but not to replace it with something worse.

Trump ran on his ability to make the deal.  Well, he couldn't make a deal even with his own party members.  You see, it is a lot easier to tell people what to do when you are their only boss and they have to do what you tell them.  In government that is not the case.  It will not be case when he tries to deal with foreign governments for sure.  So Trump's bulling will not work as shown by his ultimatum to vote on Friday or else.  After the Freedom Caucus said else, he blame the Democrats.  He says he will let Obamacare implode and then it will be Obama's fault.  That is like FDR saying that the Depression is Hoover's problem and now that I am president, let the country go down the drain.  What happened to "the buck stops here"?  By the way Trump was also fuming about his daughter Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner taking a ski vacation while the health plan was in  jeopardy.  Well, that is what happens when there is nepotism.

While this is a defeat for Trump, I think it would have been worse for the GOP if the plan had passed.  All studies show that the plan will have the most negative impact on blue collar, middle aged whites who overwhelmingly supported Trump.  When they realized that Trump had made things worse for them, it would not be good for Trump in four years.  Right now, I wonder how many of these people realize the GOP does not share their economic interests? 

Somewhere Jim Boehner is working on his tan, lighting up a cigar, wiping away a tear and enjoy watching Paul Ryan getting pushed around by the Freedom Caucus.  While I am glad the GOP plan did not pass, it is frightening that a small minority on either side can derail what the majority wants.  I am sure the extreme liberals in the Sanders camp failed to support Clinton and thus leading to her loss.  In order to move the country forward, I think we need to get centrists from both parties to come together and defeat the fringes of both sides.  But the way it is today, both parties catering to either the left or right rather than to reach to the other side.  So we will continue to have a dysfunctional government.

AG Jeff Sessions have fired U.S. attorney from the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara.  The Trump administration had asked resignation from over 40 U.S. attorneys.  This is not unusual as new administrations want their own people in these positions.  But usually there is not a big turnover like this suddenly.  When Bill Clinton did this in 1993, he was heavily criticized by the conservatives.  The situation with Bharara is also strange in that Trump had asked him to stay on in November when Trump was elected.  Bharara is in charge of the highest profile district in the country.  The targets of his office is often big rollers in Wall Street and other important people in Manhattan.   In fact the main character played by Paul Giamotti in the show Billions is loosely based on Bharara.  He is seen as a crusader against corruption.  While he has targeted many Republicans on Wall Street, he has also convicted NY assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, and sent him to prison for 12 years.  He has also began to investigate NY mayor De Blasio, another Democrat.  So it is surprising that Bhararar was asked to resign in the middle of this investigation by Trump.  Bharara, an Indian American, is a fighter.  He refused to resign and forced Trump to fire him.  I am sure we are not going to see the last of him.

The Congressional Budget Office is supposed to be a non partisan entity.  Presidents and Congressional members have, however, criticize the CBO in the past when the CBO findings are not in their favor.  But the GOP and Trump is criticizing the CBO BEFORE its findings of Trumpcare come out!  So I guess the GOP already know that their numbers are so bad that there is no way the CBO will find their plan better than Obamacare.  This is not surprising given that Trump said recently that he did not know health care is so complicated.  DAH!

Does anybody believe that Wiki Leak is helping democracy?  It claims to be that by making government policies transparent.  So now it leaks CIA secrets.  It seems odd to me if Wiki Leak wants to promote democracy, why has it not leak anything from Russia, China, or ISIS?   Is the U.S. and Europe easier to hack or are there other motives Wiki Leak has that it is not revealing?  It seems very hypocritical to me.

Trump wants to increase funding to the military and ICE.  The GOP want small government but is willing to spend money in areas with poor returns.  We already spend more than the next ten highest nation combined for the military.  Trump says that this will convince other nations to know that we are the most powerful.  If we can't convince them now with what we have, increasing the military budget further will not convince them.  In fact, everybody from Russia to China know we are the most powerful.  But if Afghanistan and Iraq have taught us anything, it is that powerful military by itself does not ensure good outcome.  The pentagaon is probably the most wasteful branch of our government so I would think trying to decrease waste is more important than pouring in more money.

Giving more money to ICE is also a waste given that the inflow of undocumented immigrants is down.  Besides, didn't Trump say a wall will solve the problem?  By the way the wall is going to cost a lot more than Trump lets on.  And of course, Mexico will not pay for it.  So we are going to spend a lot more money on areas that will not make us safer but will decrease funding for our domestic problems. 

Trump calls for journalists to give names of their sources.  He calls all bad news about him fake news.  But now he says Obama wire tapped him but gives no source or evidence.  So it seems that Trump is providing fake news.  This is obviously an attempt to distract from his own problems.  Instead of the buck stops here, it is being deflected here!