Common Cause Calls For Impeachment

Last Friday the nation-wide non-partisan organization, Common Cause, called for impeaching President Trump. In a letter to every member of congress Karen Hobert Flynn, the president of Common Cause, reviewed the organization’s reasons as “The President and his Administration’s abuse of power, subversion of the rule of law, solicitation of a bribe, campaign finance violations, and obstruction of justice by ignoring subpoenas, undermining congressional investigations, threatening witnesses, and refusing document requests leave Congress no choice but to impeach and convict him.”

Flynn then lists the articles of impeachment recommended by Common Cause, the first four of which are related to Trump’s withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid which Ukraine needed to defend itself from Russian aggression. The impeachable offenses tied the Ukraine scandal are abuse of power, the solicitation of a bribe, campaign finance violations, and obstruction of justice in the President’s effort to thwart the House Impeachment Inquiry of the Ukraine matter.

Common Cause also recommends Articles of Impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of justice related to the Russia investigation, and abuse of power for failure to adequately safeguard U.S. elections from foreign interference. Additional Articles of Impeachment are also recommended for campaign finance violations related to “hush money” payments, and violations of the foreign and domestic emoluments clauses of the U.S. Constitution.

All of the recommended Articles of Impeachment as well as a review of Senate rules for an impeachment trial and the additional procedures developed for the Clinton impeachment are described in detail in the 60 page report delivered to every member of congress with the letter on Friday. Common Cause has made the full report available for free at the commoncause.org website.

“Abuse of power,” is not defined in the Constitution or criminal statutes, yet it is most assuredly an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor.  Constitutional law scholar Noah Feldman has explained, “Abuse of power is anything the president does that he can only do by virtue of being president that threatens the basic freedoms and capacities of other people.” One of the three Articles of Impeachment against President Richard Nixon was for abuse of power as was one of the four against President Bill Clinton.

President Trump’s withholding of military aid to Ukraine’s government was both the carrot and stick used to force an investigation by Ukraine’s government into Trump’s 2020 electoral opponent Joe Biden was an abuse of the power of the presidency. In addition those same acts can fairly be described as bribery and/or extortion, attempting to secure Ukraine government assistance for his 2020 reelection campaign in exchange for nearly $400 million of U.S. taxpayer money and a visit to the White House.

Article II of the U.S. Constitution provides that the president “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

President Trump asked President Zelensky for something of personal political value to Trump that being an investigation of his 2020 electoral opponent Joe Biden in exchange for an official act which was release of military aid to Ukraine. Arguments that President Trump eventually released the Ukraine military aid without assurances of an investigation into Joe Biden and, therefore, did nothing wrong are irrelevant. Under the federal criminal code, a bribe need not be exchanged in order for the law to be violated. It is illegal for a public official to “demand” or “seek” a bribe.

There’s more where this came from, read the report for yourself then call Representative Vicente Gonzalez and urge him to call for impeachment on all nine articles in this report.

Impeachment Looking More Likely

Last week Terry Harper offered the idea that the impeachment hearings could go bad for Democrats. So far that doesn’t seem likely to happen even though many of Trump’s defenders, particularly congressman Jim Jordan, claimed the testimony was all hearsay, second- or third-hand information. In addition to Ambassador William Taylor publicly testifying with the same information he’d already provided in closed door hearings he added a new witness who can testify with first-hand knowledge as that witness was party to a phone call between Ambassador Sondland and President Trump.

Remembering that Republicans wanted to “lock her up” over Hillary Clinton’s private email server it’s astounding that nothing was said about the fact that the phone call Ambassador Taylor described was on an unsecured line to a cellphone in a restaurant with the volume so high several people at the table with Ambassador Sondland could hear Trump asking about progress on investigations. Call me crazy but were president or an ambassador I wouldn’t want much of anything I had to say about negotiations with a foreign power to be overheard in a public setting.

Even if Ambassador Taylor’s staffer never testifies Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, a Ukraine specialist on the Nation Security Council (NSC) has already testified in closed door hearings, a transcript of which has already been made public, that he was among several government officials who listened to the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine’s President Zelensky.  That’s the call that got the attention of Congress when the whistleblower complaint was passed to them. Vindman registered concern over Trump's request for an investigation into the Biden family almost immediately with the legal staff on the National Security Council. The colonel told investigators that a top NSC lawyer decided to move records about the call onto a highly classified system that few could access. Vindman testified in public yesterday and we’ll have to see how the public reacts to what he has to say.

When Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, testified to what she knew about Trump withholding congressionally approved military assistance to Ukraine Trump was tweeting about the purported damage she’d done in her prior foreign postings in a continuation of the smears he’s published about her for a year. Upon completing her testimony she was enthusiastically applauded by audience members. She made very clear the concern she has for the damaging behavior exhibited by Trump toward career foreign service personnel. She also made clear that Trump had both the right and the power to recall her and need not have besmirched her reputation to justify doing so.

Trump hasn’t done his case any favors by his tweets about Yovanovitch as the latest polling numbers now show 51% support for his removal from office via impeachment, that’s a 4 point increase over the last week so the upward trend continues. What’s worse for Trump is that a significant part of the increase comes from independents. So I don’t think Terry Harper’s concerns that the impeachment trial will hurt Democrats is anything the rest of us need worry about.

ACA Open Enrollment

It’s that time of year again when people without employer provided health insurance can sign up for a plan on marketplace provided under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Open enrollment started November 1 and runs until December 15. Donald Trump with help from congressional Republicans has made it harder for people to sign up by reducing the open enrollment period and cutting funding for promotion and assistance it’s still possible to find help if you need it.

Healthcare.gov has links to local assistance providers as well as renewing or updating your existing plan. While Trump has been messing with the financing he managed in some ways to accidentally lower the premium in some cases. In Guadalupe County a 40 year-old making $20,000 a year can get a Gold level insurance plan for just $32 a month or a Bronze plan for $0. If that 40 year-old earns $35,000 a Gold plan will cost them $223 a month or $105 a month for a Bronze plan. Gold level plans have lower deductibles than bronze or silver plans.

Previously I’ve spoken to folks who help people sign up for Obamacare plans and they told me that while some folks don’t qualify for the subsidies that get the premiums so low they also find people who qualify for Medicaid or their children qualify for CHIP and don’t know it so they help them sign up for that. If you know someone without health insurance now is the perfect time to help them contact Seguin Community Health Center at 1104 Jefferson Street, Seguin, phone number (830) 379 – 9797 for assistance in applying.

There are roughly 5 million Texans without health insurance or nearly 18% of the state population. Texas has both more people uninsured as well as a higher percentage of uninsured of any state in the country. Approximately 1.25 million Texas children under 18 are among those uninsured.

A study done by the Texas Alliance for Health Care., shows the lack of health insurance would cause hardships for hospitals, physicians, and ordinary Texans.

Among the study’s findings: In 2016, the cost of lower lifetime earnings and worse health for uninsured Texans was $57 billion. Barring any change in policy, that cost will rise to $178.5 billion by 2040. The $3.5 billion price tag for hospitals and physicians who provide unsubsidized and uncompensated care in 2016 will rise to $12.4 billion by 2040 without a change in policy. The value of lost earnings and poor health due to lack of health insurance in Texas is estimated to be $178.5 billion in 2040 (or $74 billion in 2016 dollars).

Speaking of uncompensated care, Texas is seeing a rash of closures of rural county hospitals primarily due to funding shortfalls caused by the state failing to accept Medicaid expansion. You can thank, our state representative John Kuempel and Governor Greg Abbott for that.

All the Democratic candidates for president are talking about how they plan to fix this nation’s health insurance mess. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren offer sweeping plans that would take Medicaid and CHIP out of the hands of the state and make sure every American has health insurance. Consider that when listening to all the candidates as you decide who to support in the March primary.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 13, 2019

Joe Biden Says Look At My Record

Recently a young woman asked Joe Biden how young people can trust he'll fight for us when he's opened the door  to Super PACs, which would allow any amount of dark fossil fuel money to support his campaign. His response was condescending “Look at my record, child" and at the same time tells all what we should do when investigating any candidate. So let’s look and Biden’s record and see what it tells us about him on any number of issues.

Before we do that though remember what a Super PAC is and why the young woman’s question is relevant. Super PACs can take virtually unlimited amounts of money from a variety of different sources, and they’ve found loopholes that enable them to dodge disclosure requirements. Those donations made by undisclosed sources are called Dark Money. As a result, we the voters might not even know who is paying for advertising promoting the candidate during the primaries. What promises the candidate make in order to encourage a donor to provide tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Super PAC? We'll never know and because we don't know who donated those funds we don't even know what to look out for.

Now on to Biden’s record, do you remember the 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas? You remember the controversy over Anita Hill’s testimony that Thomas sexually harassed her? Joe Biden was the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee at that time and in a deal with Republicans he blocked four other women from testifying in support of Hill’s claims. This is sadly illustrative of both Biden’s treatment of women and the way he works cooperatively with Republicans, which he claims is one of his strengths.

Then there’s Biden’s support for credit card companies over working Americans when he voted for the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill. The bill, championed by credit card companies and many major retailers, made it harder for individuals to file for bankruptcy and get out of debt. The bill passed the Senate with a large majority including Biden, but most Democratic senators voted no. Biden was widely considered one of the bill’s major Democratic champions. Elizabeth Warren was a strong opponent of the Bankruptcy Bill from the outset based on research she published in 2000. She explained to journalist David Cay Johnston that “Many people in bankruptcy were solid bill payers until something knocked their legs out from under them. For two-thirds of these people, it was loss of a job, for 40 percent it was a serious medical problem and for 20 percent it was the economic fallout of divorce.”

Lest we forget Biden voted “Yes” to give George W. Bush the authority to start the Iraq War. On the day the war broke out, Biden stated to the press, “We voted to give him the authority to wage that war. We should step back and be supportive.” In fact Biden didn't just vote for the war the record shows he was a leading Democratic voice in its favor. Biden played an important role in persuading the public of its necessity and laid the groundwork for Bush's invasion. At the time Biden stood as a leading Democratic voice on foreign policy since he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. While President Bush attempted to peddle the war to the American public, Biden became one of the administration’s strongets allies in this cause. Biden backed claims regarding the threat posed by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and the necessity of removing him from power.

So yes Joe, let’s look at your record.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 6, 2019

Pounding the Table

I’ve never been a baseball fan though when I was a kid I watched a few televised World Series games but I have to tell you I sure wish I’d been at the game played Sunday. All the fun happened before the first pitch when Donald Trump was introduced and the crowd booed then started chanting “Lock him up”.

Included in Trump’s World Series entourage was Congressman Matt Gaetz who last week led a group of 30 or so Republican House members to violate the security of closed door hearings involving the impeachment inquiry. Gaetz and his followers ranted about the unfairness of the closed door hearing claiming that Republicans were left out. As usual Republicans have problems with reality, also known as telling the truth, since 12 of the 30 or so in the group are members of the committees meeting in the secure area and were in fact eligible to attend those hearings along with the other 35 Republicans also on those committees.

Last week’s column was about the facts showing Trump’s demands that Ukraine President Zelensky publicly announce an investigation into Joe Biden and his son’s membership on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company named Burisma before the U.S. would release funds, previously approved by Congress, for weapons to defend themselves against Russia’s current aggression.

Since then there has been additional testimony some confirming the nature of the “quid pro quo” and some attempting to obfuscate it. For the moment let’s pretend that there was never a connection between Trump’s demands that Zelensky initiate an investigation and the military assistance funds. Trump’s demand in itself is a violation of both campaign finance law and the constitution he and his enablers are sworn to protect and defend. Regarding campaign finance law, it is illegal to solicit or accept a campaign donation from a foreign citizen, foreign company, or foreign nation. Just asking politely for Ukraine to dig up dirt on an electoral opponent is soliciting a donation since opposition research is considered a campaign expense and is therefore a “thing of value” and therefore a campaign donation as defined by campaign finance law.

As to violating the constitution Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 states: "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." Emoluments in the case of this clause broadly encompasses any kind of profit, benefit, advantage, or service, not merely gifts of money or valuable objects. Having a foreign nation provide a campaign advantage is obviously in the scope of the prohibitions established in the constitution.

Gaetz and his cronies haven’t given up on claims that impeachment process hasn’t been fair and even now that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced a vote on future procedures for holding open impeachment hearings and releasing all the transcript from the closed door hearings they find other reasons to complain. This is typical legal wrangling rather than any focus on substance, in fact there’s an old legal aphorism that goes, "If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table."

Trump, Gaetz and Republicans in general are going to continue to pound the table as they have neither the facts nor the law on their side.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 1, 2019