Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Vortex of evil: Mike Pence and Paul Ryan decimate Medicaid and Medicare to fund $600 billion tax cut for rich and war




There is no question about it, President Trump is the victim of Deep State tyranny led by Veep Mike Pence and Speaker Paul Ryan.  Trump won the election in spite of the GOP not because of it.  When Trump allowed Veep Mike Pence to head up his transition team he sealed his fate, the fix was in.  The president now finds himself surrounded by enemies.  From Lew Rockwell:

Excerpt:

Is Pence the Deep State’s Insurance Policy?

Last month, Anti-Media reported on leaked intelligence that forcibly ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn from the Trump administration. Flynn’s successor, General H.R. McMaster, is far more hawkish, and in comparison to Flynn, takes a much more anti-Russian stance…

Despite this, the media still perpetuates anti-Russian hysteria and repeated claims regarding the Trump administration’s ties to Russia — despite the fact that Flynn, Trump’s supposed go-between with Russia, has already relinquished his power…

Why would this be?

Both Clinton and Obama had very hawkish approaches to Russia and Russia’s strategic allies in the Middle East. In contrast, Trump was clear that he respected Russia’s president and wanted to forge closer relations.

The first thing to note is that Trump has been keeping most of his campaign promises to date — even the most outlandish ones. The second is that Flynn was actually in the process of offering a deal on economic sanctions against Russia and a ceasefire in Ukraine, suggesting there was substance behind Trump’s pro-Russia rhetoric…

Evidently, there are those behind the scenes within the deep state and the intelligence community who still fear that Trump could take away their long-held anti-Russian narrative, which has arguably been fueling the need for such a large and oversized military budget since World War II.

So where is this headed?

If Trump doesn’t adopt the Cold War 2.0 approach of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and is forced out of his own administration in the same manner as Flynn, it will become clear why once we learn who would replace him: Mike Pence.

As the Washington Post’s Josh Rogin observed:

“Pence is seen by many in Washington as a figure who might stand up for the traditionally hawkish views he espoused while in Congress, a proxy of sorts for the GOP national security establishment…”

As head of the transition, he was instrumental in bringing several traditionally hawkish Republicans into the top levels of the administration’s national security team, including Director of National Intelligence-designate Dan Coats, CIA Director Mike Pompeo and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.”

The ultra-right wing Pence is an entrenched member of the Deep State as is Paul Ryan.  The Deep State enriches their own off wars designed to keep America deep in debt enslaving its citizens.  Pence has populated the Trump Administration with enemies of the American people that plot to overthrow the president to enact the long desired GOP agenda.  From USA Watchdog:

Excerpt:

Trump Has Treason in White House-Robert David Steele

Former CIA operative and military Intel officer, Robert David Steele, says there is no doubt President Trump is dealing with “treason in his own house.” Steele explains, “Donald Trump’s biggest worry right this minute is they are stripping away every single one of his loyal staff members and planting spies in the White House.  Reince Priebus, in my judgment, is not loyal to Donald Trump. 

Reince Priebus’ highest mission in life is to keep Donald Trump from unrigging the system, while helping the neo-conservative and the extreme left two party establishment strip away all of Trump’s options to the point that they drive Trump out of office, and Mike Pence is the go along, get along President that keeps the two-party tyranny in place. . . .

Steele goes on to point out that the real enemy of “We the People” is the so-called Deep State… Steele, who is Latino, contends, “We are all black now.  White people are feeling what it is like to be black with no resources, nobody on your side and the state against you and the authorities against you.  We are all black now…

Steele says unrigging the voting system should be a top priority in the Trump Administration, and, yes, there is voter fraud by the millions. Steele contends there are “at least three million illegal voters in this last election, period.  It’s not disputable.”  Steele goes on to say, “The key thing is the Electoral Reform Act with 50 states in thirty days . . . that stops the violent American spring in its tracks

That’s priority one, not all this nonsense about Russia and Iran.  In my “Memo for Trump,” I say all of your enemies are right here at home, in Washington D.C., New York City and in some areas of California and Texas.”

The treacherous Deep State now has Trump illegally escalating the war in Syria for which there can be no good outcome.  From Ron Paul at Lew Rockwell:

Excerpt:

Why Trump’s Syria 'Surge' Will Fail

Last week President Trump significantly escalated the US military presence in Syria, sending some 400 Marines to the ISIS-controlled Raqqa, and several dozen Army Rangers to the contested area around Manbij. According to press reports, he will also station some 2,500 more US troops in Kuwait to be used as he wishes in Iraq and Syria.

Not only is it illegal under international law to send troops into another country without permission, it is also against US law for President Trump to take the country to war without a declaration. But not only is Trump’s first big war illegal: it is doomed to failure because it makes no sense.

Part of the problem is that President Trump’s advisors believe the myth that the US “surge” in Iraq and Afghanistan was a great success and repeating it would being the victory that eluded Obama with his reliance on drones and proxy military forces.

A big show of US military force on the ground – like the 100,000 sent to Afghanistan by Obama in 2009 – is what is needed in Syria, these experts argue. Rarely is it asked that if the surge worked so well why are Afghanistan and Iraq still a disaster?

President Trump’s escalation in Syria is doomed to failure. He is being drawn into a quagmire by the neocons that will destroy scores of lives, cost us a fortune, and may well ruin his presidency. He must de-escalate immediately before it is too late.

Ron Paul is right, the neocons’ wars are not supposed to be won, they are supposed to decimate America leaving it weak and vulnerable with a population that is sick, starving, drug addicted and ignorant from lack of resources.  The neocons’ loyalty is to Israel, not America.  And now Paul Ryan’s healthcare plan is the final nail in the American coffin.  From The Intercept:

Excerpt:

More Guns, Less Medicine: Trump’s Military Spending Binge Would Swamp Savings From Health Care Repeal

THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE (CBO) released its analysis of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) on Monday, finding that the Trump-backed House Republican bill that seeks to repeal and replace Obamacare would save the federal government $337 billion over 10 years — at the cost of throwing 24 million people off of health insurance coverage by 2026.

But those theoretical savings would be more than wiped out by an also theoretical increase in military spending that President Trump wants Congress to pass…  The reason the AHCA doesn’t save more is because it also includes a $600 billion tax cut, most of it aimed at benefiting wealthier taxpayers, by paring back taxes used to support the Affordable Care Act.

AHCA’s impact on the federal budget deficit is hardly the whole picture, of course. The CBO estimates that 14 million people would lose health insurance coverage in its first year. The cost of health insurance premiums would go up for many. The CBO notes, for example, that someone 64 years old earning $26,500 a year would see their net premiums increase from $1,700 annually to $14,600:

Caching.  Mission accomplished.  But if you think that Ryan’s plan is really much different than Obamacare, you’d be mistaken, the goals were the same.  Democrats are equally corrupt.  From World Socialist Website:

Excerpt:

US ruling elite moves to repeal the 1960s

The repeal of Obamacare, which began last week with the introduction of legislation drafted by Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, working in conjunction with the Trump administration, has become the vehicle for a much wider program of social reaction.

The new legislation, which will cut off health coverage for 24 million people, will essentially put an end to Medicaid, one of the major social reforms of the 1960s, a program that has funded health care for tens of millions of poor, blind or otherwise disabled people, as well as nursing home care for the low-income elderly. It sets the stage, as Ryan has indicated, for even more sweeping legislation that will undermine and eventually destroy Medicare, which has provided health coverage for most elderly people in the United States for more than 50 years…

The attacks were accelerated greatly under Republican Ronald Reagan, who smashed the PATCO air traffic controllers strike, giving the green light for a decade of corporate union-busting and wage-cutting, and slashed federal social spending to fuel a record military buildup.

Reagan set the pace for further attacks on the programs established in the 1960s and even in the 1930s, from Clinton’s abolition of Aid to Families with Dependent Children to Bush’s targeting of aid to public education with his “No Child Left Behind” legislation, co-authored by Democrat Edward Kennedy, and the first steps towards the privatization of Medicare.

The Obama administration did not mark a reversal of this decades-long process, but rather its intensification. Obamacare was not an expansion of the welfare state, as its apologists claimed, but a reactionary effort to shift the cost of health care from employers and the government to working people. The all-out support of the Democrats for this legislation, worked out in collaboration with the insurance industry and the drug monopolies, testifies to the rightward evolution of the Democratic Party over the past 40 years.

The eight years of the Obama administration--begun with promises of “hope” and “change” and filled instead with endless war, attacks on jobs and living standards, and the steady erosion of social services such as education and health care--created the conditions for the Republican takeover of Congress and finally the victory of Donald Trump…

Now, every one of Great Society liberalism’s “big four,” as one historian described the laws enacted in a six-month period from April to October 1965, is targeted for destruction:

·        The Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965: This legislation provided the first extensive federal support for local public schools, which had become politically possible following the legal abolition of segregated public schools in the South…

·        Medicare and Medicaid, established through the Social Security Act of 1965: This bill for the first time provided government-backed health insurance for those over 65, half of whom had no coverage in 1965…

The Obamacare repeal legislation would put an end to Medicaid as an entitlement program beginning in 2020, when grants to the states would be capped, forcing them to ration care to the poor and disabled. Medicare was already significantly undermined through Obamacare itself, which cut $700 billion in reimbursements over 10 years, and the repeal legislation will set the stage for even larger cuts, based on Ryan’s plan to convert the program from an entitlement to a voucher program.

·        The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was the most radical democratic measure enacted by a US Congress since post-Civil War Reconstruction. It targeted those states, mainly in the Deep South, where denial of the franchise to minorities was widespread…

The US Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act by a 5-4 decision in 2013 in Shelby vs. Holder, ruling that the targeting of the southern states for federal intervention could no longer be justified, despite repeated renewal and extension of the law by Congress, most recently in 2006.

·        The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, also known as the Hart-Celler Act after its leading Senate and House sponsors, abolished longstanding restrictions on immigrants from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, and ended the preference for immigrants from Northern and Western Europe over those from Southern and Eastern Europe.

The Democratic Party has collaborated in one attack after another on the social reforms with which it was once identified. The Democrats have spearheaded the attacks on public education, introduced major cuts in Medicare funding as part of Obamacare, and did not lift a finger to restore enforcement after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. They oppose Trump, not in defense of social services, but on behalf of sections of Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus, attacking the new administration over its supposed softness towards Russia.

It’s hard to put lipstick on that pig.  Thus we have it, Donald Trump is out of the picture and Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus and Mike Pence are enacting their agenda not that of Donald Trump.  Gone are the lofty promises of returning power to the people.  Trump’s pledges to work for the working men and women of our great country have been blown to bits and scattered to the wind by a coalition of Democrats and Republicans. 

If the Democrats think they can make a silk purse out of this sow’s ear, they are even more craven and disgusting than I thought.  Breaking news from WikiLeaks from FreeThought Project:

Excerpt:

Assange: Clinton Conspiring With Deep State to Oust Trump for “A Pence Takeover”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange suggested on Twitter Tuesday Hillary Clinton and certain unnamed members of the U.S. Intelligence Community are plotting a takeover by Vice President Mike Pence.

“Clinton stated privately this month that she is quietly pushing for a Pence takeover,” Assange tweeted. “She stated that Pence is predictable hence defeatable.”

“Two IC officials close to Pence stated privately this month that they are planning on a Pence takeover,” he added in another tweet. “Did not state if Pence agrees.”

Further, he continued, “By handing unilateral power to the CIA over its drone strikes at this time White House signals that bullying, disloyalty & incompetence pays.”

In response to shocked reactions to the tweets, Pence lambasted Assange’s suggestion of a takeover as “absurd” and “frankly offensive” in an interview with radio host Laura Ingraham, asserting, “I would find all of that dialogue to be absurd and frankly offensive… 

To wit, the Wall Street Journal reported last night, “President Donald Trump has given the Central Intelligence Agency secret new authority to conduct drone strikes against suspected terrorists, U.S. officials said, changing the Obama administration’s policy of limiting the spy agency’s paramilitary role and reopening a turf war between the agency and the Pentagon

Zero Hedge handily summarized what this coup brewing behind Washington D.C.’s curtains could entail for the rest of us:

http://pixel.watch/qut7 “No matter what one makes of Trump – or his administration and the policies that have been initiated thus far – the fact remains that Trump won the U.S. election. The people working behind the scenes to oust him are not subject to democratic controls, nor are they working in the best interests of the American public. We are left to ask ourselves exactly how renewing relations with Russia –  a nuclear power –  could possibly endanger American lives.    

“Either way, we are more or less left with two paths ahead of us. The first path involves Trump giving in and adopting an anti-Russian agenda, as is already apparent in his decision to send more ground troops to Syria alongside Saudi troops, who will intentionally oppose the Syrian regime (a close ally of Russia). The second involves the possibility of another direct coup within the Trump administration, this time one that may ultimately force Trump out of the White House so he can be replaced by Mike Pence, a war hawk who will be more than happy to do the job Hillary Clinton wanted to do.”

Well that didn’t take long.  The vortex of evil, Mike Pence and Paul Ryan are wielding the GOP meat cleaver to decimate America’s safety net while engorging the military industrial complex with cash, a neocon dream since the sixties.  The only question is, will Trump abandon the American people who put him in office and risk impeachment or worse assassination?  I guess time will tell but so far it doesn’t look good for America, there’s a devil inside.


By Patricia Baeten

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