Month: October 2017

To hear Trump proclaim it, it will be the “biggest tax cut in U.S. history.”

I don’t know how he managed to leave “amazing” out of the sentence but it is that too.

Trump was speaking of the still unveiled tax cut that he hopes to enact if he can hold his two vote Republican majority in line in the Senate.

The budget bill which passed by the Senate contains some pretty draconian cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and imperils those programs in the years to come.

Ignoring the fact that the baby boomer generation is retiring in increasing numbers and accessing Medicare, the budget plan would cut Medicare funding by four-hundred seventy-three billion dollars over the next ten years.

Add to that cuts in Medicaid funding over the same time period in the amount of one trillion dollars and you can see the pain that will be inflicted on the poor, children and seniors, particularly those confined to nursing homes.

Typically, an advanced and modern society provides for its elderly, particularly when they have worked all their lives and are expecting to enjoy the fruits of the programs that they have funded during their working years, but I guess we didn’t count on having Lewis Carroll in the White House.

On Thursday, the budget barely passed the House of Representatives as representatives from high tax states cringed at the prospect that the deduction for state and local taxes may be eliminated.

If one likes to read tea leaves to guess what will happen on this particular issue, the fact that House leaders canceled a meeting to discuss a compromise position, once they had secured the votes to pass the budget does not portend a favorable resolution of the deduction.

Another “revenue raiser” is the prospect that the deduction for 401-k retirement contributions may be scaled back.

While Trump contends that this last deduction will not be altered, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Kevin Brady and Senate Finance Committee Chair Orrin Hatch contend that they are not wedded to this position and open to changing the deduction.

Now that Trump and his Party have identified the 1.5 trillion dollars in spending cuts they need to finance his tax cut, they need to work out what the specific will be.

As usual, the devil is in the details.

The tax cut is generally predicated on the “Laffer Curve,” a theory that holds that if you cut taxes it will stimulate the economy and lead to more jobs which will produce more revenue.

It served as the basis for Reagan’s tax cut in 1986 and George W. Bush’s tax cut in 2000.

In practice, it has proven to have no more basis in reality than the theory that the world is actually flat.

Still, it gives the GOP talking points and allows them to proclaim that they are the champions of the middle class.

Trump and the GOP leaders seem wedded to cutting the corporate tax rate from thirty-five percent to twenty percent, reducing the number of tax brackets from seven to three and eliminating the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax.

How any of this benefits the middle class remains to be seen.

Tax experts that have examined these proposals have concluded that those in the top one percent earning $ 900,000 per year or more would see a tax cut averaging $ 234,050 in 2027.

Those in the middle class, making $ 50,000 to $90,000 would see a tax cut averaging $ 660.00 and one middle class house hold in four would be paying more taxes.

Another rationale for passing a tax cut in the guise of tax reform is the mantra that it will make the tax code simpler and allow people to file their tax returns on a “postcard.”

That usually means that they are going to simplify it by eliminating deductions, like the ones discussed above.

It’s also possible that they might cut taxes and make no unpopular changes to the deductions and blow a hole in the deficit.

That would, undoubtedly, enrage the “Freedom Caucus,” doom the whole “tax reform” effort and deny Trump, McConnell and Ryan the legislative “win” they so desperately crave.

I must say that I remain mystified by self-proclaimed deficit hawks who advocate tax cuts that will increase the deficit on the spurious claim that the demonstrably false Laffer curve will produce revenues that will cure this defect.

After watching the failed repeal of the Affordable Care Act, because its replacement was so unpopular, I am perplexed that Trump, McConnell, Ryan and company would wed themselves to an equally unpopular tax measure in the belief that it will provide them with a “win.”

My sense is that if the health care markets collapse and people lose coverage because Congress and Trump undermined them and suddenly find that they are paying more in taxes because Republicans wanted to post a win for the wealthy, retribution at the polls on Election Day 2018 will be coming.

At the same time, if you’re in the middle class and this legislation passes under the guise of “reform,” you might take solace in being able to file your tax return on a post card because a stamp is all you’re going to be able to afford.
.

Is there any subject that Trump won’t try to turn into a competition with President Obama’s legacy?

He has withdrawn from the Paris Accords concerning climate change that was negotiated on Obama’s watch.

He is trying to tear up the six party nuclear arms deal negotiated with Iran, while at the same time playing a dangerous game of nuclear chicken with the North Koreans.

He is trashing the health care provided to Americans under the Affordable Care Act.

He has ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and put the burden on Congress to find a solution.

He reminds me of a petulant child who breaks his toys on Christmas morning because he doesn’t like the gift giver.

His attempted obliteration of anything that President Obama accomplished is reminiscent of the random destruction that the Taliban and Islamic State engaged in to any cultural artifacts they encountered during their occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.

It has become the mission of his Administration.

His Attorney General rolls back legal protections for LGBT citizens.

That’s what you expect when you appoint a cracker to run the Justice Department.

His EPA Director nullifies any clean air or climate regulations designed to prevent pollution.

That’s what you get when you designate a shill for the oil and gas industry for that position.

It makes no difference what the prior administration produced or accomplished.

It makes no difference whether it is health care for the vulnerable, clean air and water safeguards, consumer and banking protection, or anti-nuclear proliferation treaties .If it bears Obama’s signature, it must be destroyed.

Although painful to watch, I’ve become somewhat numb to the anger it used to produce.

That was, until Trump declared that he has done more to comfort the families and honor the sacrifice of soldiers killed on his watch than Presidents Bush and Obama did during their terms.

I didn’t serve in the military.

Neither did Donald Trump.

We both would have been draft eligible during the Vietnam War.

We both had student deferments and he was additionally deferred because he suffered from “heel spurs.”

Fifty years later I can vividly recall the body bags that were coming home from Vietnam with guys my age in them, at the rate of five-hundred per week.

I can still feel the agonizing pain and loss I witnessed attending the funerals of friends and classmates who were sacrificed during that war.

So, despite being jaded at the daily diatribes Trump launches on Twitter as he degrades and demeans those he decides to target, I must confess to being stunned at his politicization of honoring the dead of war.

Like most of his claims, this one is untrue.

Alternative facts, fake news, call it what you will.

Aides to both President Bush and Obama have recounted the emotional toll that both men endured in their trips to Dover Air force base to meet the caskets of those that were killed, of visiting the wounded at Walter Reed Hospital and the private meetings they held with their families.

Trump’s lack of empathy for anyone is exemplified by his claim that President Obama did not reach out to General John Kelly, his current chief of staff, after Kelly’s son was killed in Afghanistan.

Never mind the fact that Michelle Obama was seated with the General and his wife at a luncheon that the Obamas hosted to honor Gold Star families in the wake of their son’s death.

Ripping the scab off of General Kelly’s painful wound is of little moment to him if it serves as a defense of his own fake news and alternative facts.

Kelly is being badly used by a White House that is repeatedly sending him to the podium in the White House Press Room to defend the indefensible.

If it continues, it will damage his good reputation, tarnish the General’s legacy and turn him into another broken toy.

In retrospect, we probably shouldn’t be surprised by this after witnessing his attack on the Gold Star parents of Captain Kahn who was killed in Iraq or his denigration of John McCain’s torture as a prisoner of war that lasted seven years.

This latest revelatory glimpse that we get into Trump’s soul resulted from his being questioned about why it took him twelve days to comment on the death of four green berets in Niger.

The New York Post reports that the four green berets were ambushed and killed on October 4th.

Their bodies arrived at Dover Air force base on October 7th.

Instead of being there to meet the caskets, Trump was playing golf.

The explanation for the twelve day silence about the killings has yet to be forthcoming, a period when Trump was burning up his twitter feed on a host of other topics.

When he did reach out to the family of Sergeant La David T. Johnson, he offered the touching observation that, “He knew what he was signing up for, but I guess it hurts anyway.”

Maybe we’re better off that he plays golf rather than consoling the families fallen heroes.

Maybe we would all be better off, if those that voted for him, had known what we were signing up for too.

Throughout the past decade and a half we have battled Al-Qaeda and ISIS in Iraq and then Syria.

We have had one reliable ally in this regional war and that is the Peshmerga forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi-Kurdistan.

The Peshmerga are the military force that provides security to the region known as Iraqi Kurdistan.

Once we “liberated” Iraq, President Bush’s envoy to Iraq, made the brilliant decision to disband the Iraqi Army and the insurgency was born.

The Army was probably the only stable institution in post-Sadaam Hussein Iraq and once it was disbanded under the policy of de-Baathification (the cleansing of Baath party members from all participation in Iraqi government and civic affairs) the largely Sunni forces reconstituted into Al Queada in Iraq.

In the 2003 Iraq war, the Peshmerga are credited to playing a key role in the capture of Saddam Hussein.

The following year they captured a key Al Qaeda figure who revealed the identity of Osama Bin Laden’s messenger that set in motion the events that led to his death in Pakistan in 2011.

As the Islamic State swept across Iraq and Syria decimating the Iraqi armed forces, the Peshmerga together with Kurdish troops from other countries repelled them.

Iraq has always been an unworkable, unmanageable puzzle since its creation.

It was carved out by the League of Nations following World War I and placed under the authority of Britain. Established as a monarchy, it gained its independence in 1932.

In 1958 the monarchy was overthrown and the Hussein regime ruled it through the Baathist Party until 2003.

Although the regime was made up of the minority Sunni sect, it succeeded in imposing brutal repression on the Shia majority until the overthrow of Saddam in 2003.

Since then, the country has experienced one weak and chaotic attempt at coalition government after another while having to contend with Iranian backed Shia malitias.

Since launching Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the United States has experienced 4,424 deaths and almost 32,000 wounded in its ongoing futile attempt to bring order to the country.

In 2005 former Vice-President, Joe Biden, was the Chairman of the United States Senate foreign relations Committee.

In a New York Times Opinion piece, he proposed that each sect, Shia, Sunni and Kurds, be allowed to establish a separate state under a central Baghdad government. While he would later contend that he did not advocate “partitioning “Iraq, he clearly recognized that establishing a homogenous democracy was proving to be impossible.

On September28th the Kurds held a referendum on declaring their independence from Iraq against the wishes of every nation in the region.

The result was that ninety-seven percent of the population voted to be free.

Neighboring Turkey, which has always been hostile to the Kurds despite their military successes against the Islamic State, has threatened to cut off its oil pipeline to starve the province of needed revenues. The Turkish government fears that the outcome will fuel a similar referendum among its own Kurdish population.

Iran, which is overwhelmingly Shia, also fearing unrest among its Kurdish population, has demanded the referendum be annulled.

Both countries have joined with Baghdad in conducting military exercises on the borders they share with Kurdistan.

The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad also opposes Kurdish independence.

The continued resistance the Kurds maintain in the face of this retaliation has now led the Baghdad government to issue arrest warrants for the leaders of the Kurdish government.

The United States has refused to recognize the outcome of the referendum and Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has urged the Kurds to stay focused on fighting the Islamic State.

When one considers that the rise of the Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Iraq is a direct outgrowth of our disastrous mismanagement of that country after the fall of Saddam Hussein that position borders on hypocrisy in the face of the Kurdish contribution in this fight.

To be sure, the existing Kurdish government, a pseudo- monarchy is far from a democracy along with a variety of other flaws it possesses.

Whether it could establish an enduring, self-sustaining state is an open question.

Nevertheless, when one considers the enormous contributions that the Kurds have made in thwarting Islamic terrorists and oppressive regimes like Bashar-al-Assad, it is easy to see why the Kurds might now view themselves as America’s pawn rather than ally.

I remember when I was a kid, that we played a game in which one person would give a direction to all the other players about how many steps you could take and if you didn’t ask, “ Mother may I ?” you had to return to the starting line and begin playing the game again.

It seems that game has made a comeback in the Nation’s capital.

Last Sunday, fifty-nine people were shot and killed by a gunman at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Over five-hundred more were wounded or injured.

When White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee-Sanders, was asked whether this might prompt legislation concerning gun sales, she said, “Now was not the time to talk about it.”

Last month, after hurricanes destroyed Houston, Texas and much of the State of Florida, Environmental Protection Agency Director, Scott Pruitt, said it was not the time or place to talk about climate change.

So, I have to ask the question, when is it time to talk about these issues?

The gunman who massacred so many innocent people in Las Vegas had a cache of twenty-three firearms in his hotel room. It consisted of sixteen assault rifles and seven handguns.

Police report that one of them was a fully automatic AK-47 type rifle with a stand to steady it while firing it.

One need only listen to the audio tape of the attack to conclude that the weapon being fired is on automatic fire.

It allowed the gunman to fire two-hundred and eighty rounds into the concertgoers in thirty-one seconds.

At this writing it is unclear whether he used a semi-automatic weapon with a bump stock or it was modified to automatic by using a conversion kit.

Both, at the present time, are legal.

Searches of homes that he owned revealed that he owned a total of forty-three firearms. All of them appear to have been purchased legally.

I have no faith that this tragedy will lead to the enactment of any common-sense restrictions concerning the sale and possession of firearms.

None were enacted after twenty children and six adults were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut almost five years ago by a gunman wielding an assault rifle.

If anything, we have gone backwards.

In February, Trump signed legislation that made it easier for people with a history of mental illness to purchase firearms including assault weapons.

The latest National Rifle Association proposal is to allow the legalization of silencers.

It’s being portrayed as a health measure and called the “Hearing Protection Act.”

Silencers have been banned since the 1930’s because of their use by gangsters.

Needless to say, that if the gunman in Las Vegas had a silencer, none of the concertgoers would have been able to hear the sound of the automatic gunfire recorded on the films of the shooting and thee police would have had far more difficulty in locating him, increasing the carnage.

The same legislative package would also allow the legalization of armor piercing bullets.

It doesn’t get any healthier than that.

In the days following the destruction of Houston and Florida not a word was heard from the Trump Administration about climate change.

In the wake of the destruction and devastation of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the silence has been deafening.

It’s not surprising.

Since taking office Pruitt has met almost exclusively with coal, oil and gas executives and their lobbyists.

He had no time for environmental advocates or public health groups.

He has spent all of his effort undoing the regulations and championing the cause of the climate change deniers.

I remember a time when a hurricane was a rare weather event.

Sometimes years would pass before a major one hit.

In the past month we’ve had three hurricanes, Harvey, Irma and Maria devastate parts of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

At this writing, a fourth, Nate is scheduled to make landfall in Louisiana, striking the areas ravaged by Katrina.

During the past half century, thirty-nine of the fifty most destructive hurricanes have occurred since the turn of the century.

There can be little doubt that the increase in their frequency and power is the result of the waters of the ocean becoming warmer as the result of greenhouse gases that trigger global warming.

Oops!

I forgot that now is not the time to talk about climate change.

Several years ago I was talking to a group of law students in San Francisco and the subject of political corruption came up.

They insisted that the California State Legislature was the most corrupt in the United States.

I responded by telling them that when the Legislature convenes in New York, the crime rate in Albany goes up.

I wasn’t being entirely facetious.

During the past fourteen years twenty-nine state legislators including Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos have been convicted of felonies.

The convictions haven’t all been for official corruption.

Some have been for physically and sexually assaulting staff members.

It seems that when the “three men in a room” are cutting deals, the other legislators waiting to be told of the deals have too much idle time on their hands.

Reigning in corruption in Albany has proven to be a fool’s errand.

Cuomo announced the creation of a Moreland Commission to examine the issue but then closed it down when the scrutiny got too close to him.

When the Commission’s files were obtained by the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, the indictment and conviction of Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver and State Senate Majority Leader, Dean Skelos for official corruption soon followed.

Three months ago Silver’s convictions were revered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

This past week Skelos convictions were reversed by the same court.

The Second Circuit was constrained to follow a United States Supreme Court ruling in United States v. McDonnell.

McDonnell was the Governor of Virginia who accepted thousands of dollars in gifts from a major contributor who sought his help in arranging meetings with Virginia state officials his business needed approvals from.

In reversing his convictions, the Supreme Cour narrowed the definition of what constitutes an official act that could be considered as evidence of a corrupt bargain, opening the door for corrupt politicians to claim that pay-to-play meetings arranged by them were merely routine constituent service.

This isn’t the first harebrained decision by the Court affecting the electoral process.

The Citizens United decision, in which the Court ruled that campaign finance restrictions were a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, allows unregulated spending, turning the electoral process into a cesspool.

During Supreme Court confirmation hearings, days are spent poring over the nominees qualifications to insure the most qualified are sitting on the Court.

When I consider the consequences of these two decisions I’m reminded of what former Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, once remarked, when told that John F. Kennedy’s cabinet were the “best and brightest” that America had to offer, he said, “that may be so but I wish one of them had run for sheriff once.”

Asked to comment on the Skelos reversals, Andrew Cuomo said, “Fighting corruption is right, I did it as attorney general. I think it is an ongoing process. There is no doubt that we could do more in Albany. There is no doubt that we could do more in New York City. There is no doubt that we could more federally. But you have to do it legally.”

That, from the guy who prematurely shut down the Moreland Commission, has balked at closing the LLC loophole that allows individuals to contribute unlimited amounts of money to his campaigns and whose closest associate and executive deputy secretary , Joseph Percoco (“Mario Cuomo’s third son”) is awaiting trial for political corruption along with other administration officials and campaign donors caught up on bribery, bid rigging and extortion charges emanating from his “Buffalo Billion” program.

Congressman Thomas Suozzi from long Island has introduced legislation to expand the definition of “official act” to close the loophole created by the Supreme Court in the McDonell decision. While it has bipartisan support, it remains to be seen whether it will be enacted. Politicians are not known for closing loopholes that protect them from criminal liability.

In the meantime, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, Joon Kim, has vowed to reprosecute both Skelos and Silver.

Today, disgraced former congressman and convicted felon, Michael Grimm from Staten Island, announced that he would seek re-election and challenge Republican Daniel Donovan, now that he has completed a seven month prison sentence for falsifying tax returns.

It seems that there is no amount of shame or hubris that acts as a deterrent to these types of politicians, once they’ve fed at the public trough.

If Michael Grimm prevails, it will only encourage Skelos and Silver to try and rejoin Cuomo in the “three men in a room” form of governance.

Who knows ?

Maybe, someday, we could see a Governor Percoco.