Today’s Theme:
Increase Visibility of the Social Cost of the ACA
I thought a lot about my personal focus this week because the Republicans are doing their best to blitz a lot of things through so that we can’t concentrate our efforts.
I decided to continue to focus on the ACA rather than switching focus to the cabinet nominees, even though that is an easy target this week, because I think this week’s hearings are a distraction. McConnell has already been forced to say that the cabinet nominees won’t receive a vote until the ethics filings are complete. I think their willingness to have hearings without the filings are a big mistake for them, and
“Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake.” (Attributed to Napoleon)
The hearings are a big mistake for Trump and the Republicans.
Trump’s own team has not vetted his nominees because they don’t even see the ethics problems. The technicalities of the ethics laws exempt Trump himself — although most Presidents have followed them, for good reason because it protects them from the appearance of scandal. Trump’s own unwillingness to divest is handing a loaded gun to his present and future opponents.
He’ll be in violation of the Constitution on Day One. Just because the Republicans are willing to ignore this now doesn’t mean they’ll ignore it forever, or that a Democratic Congress in 2018 will be so complacent. His businesses can still be sued, his hotels are still tempting targets for terrorists as long as they bear his name, and his children cannot be shielded from prosecution for illegal business activities.
Trump’s appointees are not exempt from the same laws, so their risk is greater. They are also not experienced in the new expectations that the laws impose upon them, and the new legal risks that they have taken on which include criminal penalties.
Let the Senators waste their time on these hearings — only to learn later that the nominees were poorly vetted and have serious ethical problems. When the nominees are forced to withdraw from consideration a little later, forced to resign after they’re in office, or embroiled in scandals, they will be distracted from doing the harm they intend to do, and replacements will be hard to find.
We will continue to focus on the ACA.
We’ll do it because it is the most immediate threat to ordinary citizens. If they are forced to abandon their plans to repeal the ACA without replacing it, then 20 million people - and the hospitals, insurance companies and health care providers who care for them - can breath a sigh of relief that they will not be operating with a ticking time bomb.
We’ll do it because it increases the wedge between Trump and Congress. Trump himself has been all over the place on this issue, providing the opposite of leadership. Ryan knows exactly what he wants - but he also knows he can’t get it without unacceptable political costs. Bannon wants Ryan out of leadership so he’s not inclined to help, and no one listens to Priebus.
We’ll do it because it builds up defenses against other harms. If they succeed here, it will embolden them to press ahead with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. If they fail here, they probably won’t even try to reform the first two and they’ll have a harder time undoing the third.
We’ll do it because fighting this battle hard helps us get ourselves organized. This is only the first skirmish of a long war to protect our country from these nihilists. We need to build our strength, our skills and our networks.
We’ll continue to build our muscles at the most effective means
Anything easy and less challenging - emails, online forms and petitions and now auto-faxing - is going to flood the system to the point that the method loses effectiveness. Congress will grow numb to it.
Person-to-person contact is scarier and takes a bit more time, but that’s why it’s going to be a lot more effective. Many fewer people do it, and it’s much harder to ignore.
If you need to dip your toe in, try calling in the evening and leaving voicemail, if your local offices allow you to do that. Imagine the aide coming in and seeing a full voicemail, with all of the messages about stopping the repeal of the ACA. There’s no way that’s not going to be mentioned at the day’s staff meeting.
Here are the actions for Monday, January 9 - 11 days before Trump’s Inauguration.
Key Actions Today:
Finally, if you’re in the DC area Inauguration Weekend, consider joining us on Inauguration Sunday. You can learn more about that here.
Developments in the Past 24 Hours:
Key Messages Today:
Tweet of the Day:
George Takei, as usual, has the best take on this morning’s Tweetstorm from Twitler Trump:
Donald, we all saw you mock that disabled reporter. You also mocked Marlee Matlin as "retarded." Just admit you're a bully--and a liar. pic.twitter.com/xaw98h7DnTâ George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) January 9, 2017
Donald, we all saw you mock that disabled reporter. You also mocked Marlee Matlin as "retarded." Just admit you're a bully--and a liar. pic.twitter.com/xaw98h7DnT
Resources to Bookmark:
Help Spread the Word!
Thank you for all the recommends, shares, callouts and tweets!
If you’re new to this, it’s the last in a series of diaries with action items specific to addressing the threat of Russian interference in our election. Here is the first diary in the series: A Ten Point Action Plan for Resisting Putin’s Takeover of America
Remember - history has its eyes on us this time.
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