Impeach Barr Too

Today the United States House of Representatives will vote on the Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump and will almost certainly approve them by a party line vote with a couple of dissenting Democrats, one of whom has announced he’s switching parties. There’s discussion of making Justin Amash (Independent – MI), who was a Republican until he announced support for impeachment, one of the managers of the Senate trial, if this was a Law & Order episode he’d be an assistant District Attorney. Members of the Senate will be jurors, the judge will be Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Jury member Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-TN) has publicly stated that he is coordinating with the Donald Trump as to how the Senate trial will be handled even though doing so violates his oath as a juror in the trial held in the Senate. If you made such a statement after being selected as a juror member you’d be booted off the jury and possibly jailed for contempt of court. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has made similar statements. Both men would recuse themselves of if they had any integrity. Trump has been complaining about fairness since the impeachment inquiry began yet he seems uninterested in a fair trial as he’s quite happily been sending campaign donations to Senate Republicans who commit to supporting him in the impeachment trial. In any other trial that would be seen as bribing a juror.

Now that the House is about done with its part of impeaching Trump it’s time to address other serious matters. No, it’s not that the House hasn’t gotten anything else done as there are over 270 bills passed by the House that Mitch McConnell hasn’t allowed to see the light of day in the Senate. The next important job is to impeach Attorney General William Barr for obstruction of Congress, abuse of power and failing to faithfully execute his office.

Barr has held the office for 10 months and during that time he has made it clear that he serves the interests of Donald Trump rather than those of the United States. He misled Congress and the people of the United States through his words and deeds when the Mueller report was made public. He is implicated in the Ukraine scandal over Trump trading military aid and a White House visit for an investigation into a possible 2020 election opponent due to having withheld the whistleblower complaint from Congress. Barr criticized the conclusion of his own department's inspector general who reported that the FBI had a legitimate basis for launching an investigation into Russian interference in our 2016 election and the possibility that the Trump campaign was involved. In addition, Barr has defied congressional subpoenas regarding the 2020 census and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's claims that a citizenship status question was added at the request of the Department of Justice. The Supreme Court has determined that the justifications for the question offered by the DOJ were contrived and made up after the fact in order to conceal the real reason.

Through his actions Attorney General Barr has politicized the Department of Justice and undermined trust in the law by acting in the interests of a president who has committed impeachable offenses instead of upholding his oath of office and the Constitution of the United States, therefore he should be impeached and removed from office.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 18, 2019

Medicare For All Good For All

Last week’s column discussed the advantages of Medicare for All from the point of view of any individual, everyone would be covered with the same benefits regardless of what size business they work for and even if that employer shuts down or lays off workers. This week let’s review the advantages of Medicare for All to businesses and the entire economy.

Did you know that General Motors spends more per car on health insurance than it does on the steel in the car? Not so for Japanese and Korean car makers since the employer doesn’t provide health insurance, it comes from their respective federal governments via Medicare for All type programs. That saves them a couple of thousand dollars right off the top.

When unions, even those few in Texas, negotiate with employers the issue they all have in common is health insurance and it is often the issue that is hardest to resolve. Just a few years ago the City of San Antonio was in a protracted and fraught contract fight with the Firefighters Union and the biggest issue was health insurance.

When a young couple with a child or two is considering whether or not to strike out on their own and start a business one of the biggest stumbling blocks is health insurance and maintaining it in the face of both a slow start for the business and the potential failure of it. What modestly successful person is willing to risk the health and lives of their family when also taking the big financial risk of starting their own business? No other developed country so dampens the entrepreneurial spirit as does the United States.

As the prices of drugs and medical care in general continue to soar upward every employer that offers health insurance does their best to minimize the cost while providing the level of coverage necessary to retain their employees. One of the ways to do that for employers large enough to handle it is to become the insurer themselves. Schertz/Cibolo/Universal City ISD did this a few years ago and it has proven successful at restraining cost growth such that while the district isn’t paying any less than before the teachers and staff aren’t paying any more in premiums, deductibles, and co-pays than they were a couple of years ago. Compared to what all parties would be paying if SCUC ISD still used a third party insurance company they’ve generated real savings by cutting out the middleman.

SCUC ISD contracts out for administration of their health plan, that’s the part that involves paying claims by health care providers. It also pays a premium to a re-insurance company in case of a bad health year or several employees contracting catastrophic illnesses like cancer, yet it is still a government agency providing health insurance on its own. That’s a small step, taken by many others, toward government health insurance that shows it is viable here in the United States.

There is plenty of evidence that shows that children, aka future employees, who receive adequate health care from conception to adulthood grow up to be both healthier and more productive workers. The Medicare for All plans proposed by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren address of the issues I’ve written about this week and last. There are no disadvantages to Medicare for All unless you think that wealthy people automatically deserve good health care and poor kids don’t.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 11, 2019

Medicare For All Tough To Beat

Every now and again I run into a Democrat who says they support healthcare reform but not the Medicare for All plans promoted by Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. When asked why, they say they have a good plan through their employer and don’t want to give it up, that they support a “public option” where everyone has the choice to buy into Medicare. What those folks fail to realize is that while the plan they have now may be very good, Medicare for All is also much more that traditional Medicare and is actually better than most commercial plans.

How many commercial plans out there have a total annual out of pocket of $200 and that is limited to prescription drugs? No co-pay or deductible to go to the doctor with a sore throat and fever. No co-pay or deductible to take your child to the doctor for a broken arm. No co-pay or deductible for an emergency room visit for a heart attack or the intensive care unit, or surgery, or later rehabilitation. How many commercial plans cover the entire bill for all that? I know mine sure doesn’t. My colonoscopy last month was $1400 out of pocket. I haven’t gotten the bill from the anesthesiologist or the pathology lab where the biopsies were done yet. Hopefully I won’t meet my $6000 deductible for the year.

Just like current Medicare any doctor or service provider, like physical therapists, licensed or certified in Texas can apply and be accepted. Unlike traditional Medicare, the Medicare for All plan proposed by Bernie Sanders also includes dental care, hearing aids and exams, as well as vision benefits. Bernie’s plan also pays for home and community based long-term care and services, think home health aide visits to the elderly at home, or nursing homes for those in need of constant monitoring.

Just as important, while the plan people have through their employer might be just as good as Medicare for All, what happens when that employer moves to another city or state like AT&T did when it moved its headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas some years ago forcing people to find another job if they didn’t want to move? What happens if the industry they’re in or the overall economy turns down and the employer lays them off? What happens if they become too sick to work, perhaps due to cancer or other debilitating illness? The answer is that formerly great insurance is no longer available, they might have access via COBRA for a while but the premium will be sky high and if they’re not working how will they pay that outrageous premium?

45 percent of Americans are worried a major illness could leave them bankrupt, 1 out of 4 Americans skipped needed medical care because they could not afford it, and 77 percent are concerned rising health costs will cause significant and lasting damage to our economy. With these awful statistics it’s laughable that Medicare for All skeptics most common complaint is “how will we pay for it?” First let’s recognize that we’re paying more now for less. Elizabeth Warren pays for her plan by raising taxes on billionaires by adding a tax of 6 percent on net wealth above $1 billion, repealing Trump's tax give away to the rich, and treating long-term capital gains like regular income. In addition her plan calls for restoring funding for the Internal Revenue Service so it can go back to auditing the rich they way it did 20 years ago which is expected to recover $230 billion a year.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 4, 2019