Politico: Tillerson "exploded" at Priebus, Kushner for questioning his judgment, staff delays, and damaging leaks.https://t.co/5X6wQ57Kmo
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 29, 2017
I don’t remember such stories when Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albright, or Condolezza Rice held this position, she said piously. (And we couldn’t help remembering, because Fox News would bring any such “explosion” up approximately every other hour, 24/7/365.)
On the other hand, those women didn’t have Jared ‘Son-in-Law’ Kushner trying to undercut them:
… The normally laconic Texan unloaded on Johnny DeStefano, the head of the presidential personnel office, for torpedoing proposed nominees to senior State Department posts and for questioning his judgment.
Tillerson also complained that the White House was leaking damaging information about him to the news media, according to a person familiar with the meeting. Above all, he made clear that he did not want DeStefano’s office to “have any role in staffing” and “expressed frustration that anybody would know better” than he about who should work in his department — particularly after the president had promised him autonomy to make his own decisions and hires, according to a senior White House aide familiar with the conversation…
The encounter, described by four people familiar with what happened, was so explosive that Kushner approached Peterlin afterward and told her that Tillerson’s outburst was completely unprofessional, according to two of the people familiar with the exchange, and told her that they needed to work out a solution…
Just in case Ragin’ Rexy wanted to know who was spreading the story around. There’s this MBA misconception that a good assassin always signs his work.
… It was the loudest manifestation yet of how frustrated Tillerson is in his new role. He has complained about White House attempts to push personnel on him; about the president’s tweets; and about the work conditions in a West Wing where he sometimes finds loyalty and competence hard to buy. Above all, the former ExxonMobil CEO, accustomed to having the final word on both personnel and policy in his corporate life, has balked at taking orders from political aides younger and less experienced than he is…
“Hard to buy” loyalty and competence when your boss is so widely known for stiffing his subcontractors. Not to mention, letting his favorite kid’s snotty-nosed spouse override people who’ve forgotten more than he’ll ever learn.
… Tillerson’s frustration with White House meddling began early and has been a persistent issue. “He went into this with a very negative attitude towards the White House,” said a former senior State Department official familiar with his thinking, who recounted that during the transition, Tillerson opposed a candidate proposed by Trump’s team simply on the grounds that Trump’s team was proposing him.
He has sometimes conducted talks with potential job candidates without telling the White House, said one person familiar with his actions. Tillerson has told senior officials that Trump promised him autonomy, and that he wanted it, according to people who have spoken to him….
Where Tillerson is concerned, the frustration goes both ways. Many of his proposed nominees have been rejected by DeStefano’s Office of Presidential Personnel either because they are Democrats or because they are Republicans who were critical of Trump during the campaign. Though Brian Hook, the State Department’s director of policy planning, told associates several weeks ago that the department had several people in the pipeline, few have been announced since, and the White House continues to resist Tillerson’s choices….
If Tillerson’s so smart, how come he didn’t appreciate that in the Trump administration, there is no lord but Trump, and *mumble mumble* is Trump’s loyalest enforcer?
I wonder if Kushner’s “Re-Inventing Government” group had anything to do with this?
WH floats idea of moving consular affairs and refugee issues completely out of State https://t.co/UTQNlGhfiU
— John H Norris (@john_h_norris) June 28, 2017
[normal brain] leave state department alone
[planet brain] put State in DHS
[galaxy brain] put State and DHS in DoD— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) June 28, 2017
MattF
Funny how ex-CEOs have a, um, mixed record in government. I’m thinking of Mr. Cheney, in particular. When Cheney went rogue, there was a lot of rueful comment from the Village about how he’d ‘changed’ since the old days. Well, um, d’oh. Being head of a major corporation is big deal– you’ve graduated from being a drone to being a Master of the Universe, and it tends to permanently affect one’s behavior.
Gin & Tonic
I’ve not been a fan of Tillerson since he was proposed, and continue not to be, for various reasons. But you don’t get to be CEO of Exxon/Mobil by being anyone’s patsy. And you don’t stay CEO of Exxon/Mobil by wasting your time listening to punks like Kushner.
nightranger
What did he expect was going to happen? They can’t make a violin small enough.
scav
At some point, the number of “leakers” /sources is going to equal the umber of people in the room. What is the technical term for a sieve with absolutely no metal?
piratedan
they all deserve each other….
while I understand that the wheels of investigation turn at their own pace, it would be beneficial to the country if they can find tangible lawbreaking proof that brings down this charade of an administration and all of those who willingly broke our laws to bring it into being.
TriassicSands
Hahahahahahahaha! Tillerson believed Trump. That’s priceless.
Wrong temperament? Maybe, but he’s definitely too stupid to be Secretary of State.
jonas
Tillerson: “I don’t understand. I go to work for this utter idiot’s administration and it turns out to be run poorly!” This is apparently what happens when you listen to your wife’s suggestion that Jesus wanted you to take the job or something. Republican Jesus is quite the trickster god. Look what he keeps doing to Ted Cruz.
Frankensteinbeck
Kushner is the pure, distilled MBA cliche. He is a dim witted, spoiled child who spouts business buzzwords like ‘the cloud’ without understanding them, then pats himself on the back for being a genius. For anyone with even a trace of competence, having this idiot checking their work must be agonizing. His employees have said it was.
The Moar You Know
It’s “Secretaries”, not “Secretarys” for God’s sake! Have some pity!
TriassicSands
@scav:
Trump’s brain.
artem1s
NOT ONE appointment by the Master of Disasters has had the temperament to do the job…
NOT ONE has gotten the rock star welcome that Hillary got on her first day as SOS.
Never forget what we could have had. I intend to spend the rest of my life making the GOP pay for this horror show and I want back pay for W because obviously the only lesson they learned from that disastrous 8 years is ‘elect someone worse the next time’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9QtSTchGpA
gratuitous
Pity poor Wayne Tracker! Trapped, like Howard the Duck, in a world he never made. Stuck forever in a position he didn’t want, can’t manage, and can’t escape. Sure, Republicans are telling 80-year-old Alzheimer’s patients that they can have health insurance if they get off their lazy sit-upons and get a job with an insurance benefit, but Rex Tillerson has absolutely no agency or autonomy. It’s heart-breaking to stand by, powerless to assist this man from the trap he finds himself in.
Weep, Balloon Juicers! Weep for Secretary Tillerson and his personal Kobayashi Maru.
germy
I’m not surprised this administration is exactly like Celebrity Apprentice. The feuds, the outbursts, the firings, the suspenseful “to be announced” declarations…
Brachiator
Authoritarian regimes, from the time of the French Revolution through to the various communist countries in the 20th century often had political officers who monitored and “advised” ministers to make certain that appropriately loyal people were slotted into government positions. And apparently among his many duties, Kushner is also the Political Commissar for the Trump regime.
Wasn’t Tillerson present at the “dance of the toadies” Cabinet meeting? Is he really surprised that the Dementor-in-Chief would keep him on a short leash, and yank his chain as required to make sure that he was obedient?
Quinerly
Looks like Mika and Joe’s segment on Tillerson might have prompted the bleeding tweet. Don’t normally link to Raw Story but memeorandum site is linking to it: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/06/out-of-his-mind-msnbcs-mika-unloads-on-trump-and-his-lobotomized-staffers-over-tillerson-reports/
japa21
Not a fan of Tillerson, but he has some legitimate gripes. And maybe someone should tell Kushner the the personnel office which is nixing all the names Tillerson wants is acting in an unprofessional way.
Normally, I would recommend Tillerson resign, but who knows what we would end up with.
ETA: One of the biggest differences between this administration and Obama’s is that Obama knew he was not an expert in all matters, so appointing competent people who knew the subject matter was important to him. Trump thinks he is an expert in everything so an appointee’s knowledge of the subject matter is irrelevant.
And that is one of the scariest things about this administration. If people resigned (up to and including DeVos) the replacements would probably be far worse.
rikyrah
Look..
The Secretary of Exxon never planned on being in this position this long.
Remember the stories from a couple of weeks ago that Dolt45’s folks CAME IN trying to find a way to lessen the Russian Sanctions.
The Secretary of Exxon thought he’d get the job…
Sanctions lifted.
Exxon gets that $500 BILLION RUSSIAN DEAL…
within 30 DAYS of that…Tillerson.WOULD.BE.GONE.
He’s mad because he actually has to pretend to do the job right now…
mdblanche
Now be fair. If you were to meet Priebus and Kushner would you be able to resist the urge to explode at them?
Chris
Pretty sure the guy he should actually be mad at is Donald.
MomSense
@artem1s:
I feel like crying. My god. What could have been. We’d be sleeping at night. This is a fucking disgrace that we have to suffer this nightmare.
d58826
One of my nieces, who works in consular affairs, hates his guts
Villago Delenda Est
Tillerson has come to the realization that he’s just more of the hired help, like the busboys at Mar-A-Lago.
TriassicSands
@The Moar You Know:
I feel your pain.
But, in fairness, if we have two Marys, why can’t we have two secretarys? I mean, would it have been so hard to just put an “s” after a “y” to form a plural? Whose bright idea was it to drop the “y” and add “ies.”
Who is responsible? I want a name!
(Just being silly.)
Ian G.
Rexy could always quit if he can’t deal with this shit.
Roger Moore
@scav:
I think that would be a hoop.
Chris
@MattF:
Funny how ex-CEOs have a mixed record in business.
The more I look at American businessmen, the more I think that a very large number of them are just shit at business. And the Republican ex-CEO candidates we’ve gotten recently certainly are – both Trump and George W. Bush’s business records before politics were a long string of failures. It’s no surprise that people who are incompetent at even their supposed area of expertise would be even more incompetent once they step outside of it.
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
While I agree to the importance of the Exxon deal to Tillerson, I think you underestimate both the allure of power and the other opportunities Tillerson saw for corruption.
Chris
@japa21:
Does he really? My impression is that he’s mad because he thought he’d be Trump’s stooge-in-chief at the State Department, and is upset that it turns out someone else is instead. Kushner is overruling him and trying to fill the department with his own cronies to keep an eye on Tillerson, where TIllerson thought he’d be the one who got to do that at State.
Brachiator
@japa21:
Obama is intelligent. Trump is delusional.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TriassicSands: One questions Tillerson’s intelligence – it’s not like Trump’s paranoid, control freak Byzantine management style is a secret. It’s been mentioned that many conservatives refuse offers to join the Trump admin for that very reason.
Villago Delenda Est
@Frankensteinbeck: He wouldn’t last long as a platoon leader in combat.
MattF
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Trump has one specific talent– he knows, intuitively, what a given person want to hear. And when someone like Tillerson hears that he’s going to get what he’s asking for…
Patricia Kayden
@Gin & Tonic: So why take the job in the first place? I would think that Tillerson knew that he would have to kowtow to the President and the President’s close aides if he became the Secretary of State. He’s no longer running a private business where he can do anything he dang well pleases.
d58826
@mdblanche: as long as I had a 4×8 that i could apply to the proper locations I would be quite cool and collected. Totally unprofessional to get mad in these kind of situations.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@japa21:
Likely no one. The Trump admin already has problems getting people to join, what sane person is going to wreck their career by being blamed for the Russian scandal while being stabbed in the back with a plastic spork by Jared? Even if they found some all ready retired good Republican like Tom Baker and assuming the various Trump faction were forced to go along, there is still the Senate would have to confirm which means a public humiliation for the candidate .
This “there is no one but me willing to do this” is likely part of Tillerson’s caculation in that blow up.
germy
@Patricia Kayden:
Captains of Industry (at least the ones I’ve worked with) have a special contempt for elected officials and government employees in general. They see them as the hired help. They believe their jobs are easy as hell; that they should just step out of the way and let the Captains of Industry ride the great invisible hand of the marketplace.
Herrdrumpf had nothing but contempt for Obama. Saw him as a bullshitter with no real world experience. He saw elected officials as incompetent dullards.
How frustrated they must be, now that they’re in the driver’s seat. “Who knew it could be so complicated?”
cmorenc
@japa21:
Including Trump’s vice president Mike Pence, Trump’s own potential replacement.
d58826
@Patricia Kayden: figgered the best way to get the Russian sanctions lifted and increase Exxon’s bottom line. I don’t think for an instant that he has totally divested himself. The door to his office will not have closed on his last day and all of his holdings will suddenly reappear on his balance sheet.
The one thing that all of Der Fuhrers appointees have in common is they have lived and worked in the swamp all of their lives. They know where to hide things in some deep dark back channel. The concept of public service is unknown to them. Serving in the Trump government is simply another business opportunity to make more money for themselves. The only difference between them and Willy Sutton is they wear better suits.
germy
TriassicSands
@japa21:
Let’s face it, anyone who works for Trump is going to have some legitimate gripes. The guy has to be the worst manager in history.
But I’ve no sympathy for Tillerson or anyone else who signed on to be in a Trump administration.
Besides, with Renaissance Man J. Fred Mugs…um, I mean Kushner on the job, surely he can just run the whole damn government. How hard is it to insult and threaten our allies and cozy up to our adversaries? Over at Interior and the EPA we don’t need more than a single temp to answer phones. HHS? Since the House and Senate are writing all the legislation and all Price does is cheerlead (poorly) HHS doesn’t need any full-time employees either.
And so on. Trump is out to prove that the government that governs best is the government that doesn’t exist, which is undoubtedly true if you’re running the government like it’s a third rate reality TV program (in syndication).
Chris
@Brachiator:
That’s my general litmus test for if someone’s an idiot or not. If you know what you don’t know and are smart enough to seek out those who do, you’re doing pretty well in the brains department. If not, you’re a moron no matter how credentialed you are.
This is ideological, by the way. It’s not a Trump thing, it’s a conservative thing in general to assume that certain easily categorized people – “businessmen” being the big one – are not only brilliant at what they do but brilliant people overall, whose opinion should carry great weight no matter what the topic, while others, like “government bureaucrats,” are comprehensively worthless and stupid even in fields that they’ve spent an entire lifetime mastering.
Barbara
@Gin & Tonic:
Quite so and exactly what I thought. Neither Tillerson nor Kushner is qualified to be SOS, but Tillerson is leaps and bounds more qualified than Kushner. However, any SOS ends up being accountable to the president, so if he really thought he would have independence he just shows what a neophyte he is. But it’s also the case that the president rarely micromanages hiring of non-political employees at this level. He just holds the Secretary accountable for people who go off the reservation. So it’s basically idiocy and incompetence all the way around.
scav
@germy: My opinion of management and captians of industry was so low to begin with, I probably should congratulate the stellar exemplars here desplayed before us for finding enough to make such a large crack as it was broken into still smaller pieces. Could be just a natural byproduct of going subatomic though.
Gin & Tonic
I get e-mail from The Economist, which publishes each week’s issue on Thursday afternoon London time. The subject line of the e-mail that just came in is “Donald Trump’s Washington is paralysed.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MattF: Well it’s not so much a talent as Trump just leaves a lot of blank spaces for the listener to fill with their own imaginings (that “you know?” thing Trump does) and that’s how the greedy and stupid get hooked in. While I have a cynical opening of CEOs one of my friends is a personal assistant to an Oil company exec and she says it’s just staggering the kind of fraud people routinely attempt to the point that staff meetings end up like POW interrogations since it’s assumed the presenter is just lying threw their teeth to the exec, so one would think the CEO of Exxon would know better.
Brachiator
@germy:
Except Trump ain’t no Captain of Industry. Shit, he wouldn’t even have lasted as skipper of The Minnow on “Gilligan’s Island.”
You’re right that Trump’s ego is huge, but it his contempt for Obama and the government seems to come from a deep, deep insecurity and a tangle of neuroses that is frightening to contemplate.
Gin & Tonic
@germy: If only they had some forum in which to express their private horror publicly.
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
Funny thing is, they don’t.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris: Two words: Carly Fiorina. Destroyed two successful business operations.
Doug Gardner
@scav: Hula Hoop?
germy
@Brachiator:
True, but that’s what he sees when he looks in the mirror.
To me, he’s a game show host.
TriassicSands
@cmorenc: I
In general, I agree. Except for old Betsy. The only person I can imagine being worse would Trump himself — despite, I’m sure, his believing that he’a world class expert concerning education. A, B, C. 2 x 2 = 4. What’s to know? Right?
But DeVos truly is the bottom of the barrel. She’s like an English teacher who only knows Tagalog, but has taken a vow of silence because she doesn’t believe in language.
Frankensteinbeck
@MattF:
I argue that this is a common talent. What Trump has is an ability to say it, immediately and without hesitation, where most people instinctively try to bend the truth instead.
It’s likely relevant that CEOs are used to being told what they want to hear.
@Barbara:
I agree with everything you said.
Villago Delenda Est
@d58826: Sometimes I wonder about that. What’s with Donald and scotch tape on his ties, for example…
rikyrah
What Pro-Life Democrats Want from the DNC
Democrats for Life of America is asking the Democratic National Committee to alter its pro-choice party platform and make clear it supports candidates who oppose abortion.
CLARE FORAN
JUN 28, 2017
A group of pro-life Democrats met with Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez at DNC headquarters in Washington, DC on Tuesday, according to Kristen Day, the executive director of pro-life group Democrats for Life of America. Day said that members of her organization as well as other Democrats who identify as pro-life, including Democratic congressman Daniel Lipinski of Illinois and other current and former elected officials, attended the meeting, which takes place as the party is struggling to win back power in Washington.
Democrats for Life of America delivered a list of requests to Perez that the group wants the DNC to fulfill in order to reach out to, and welcome, more pro-life Democrats into the party, according to Day.
A copy of the list shared with The Atlantic calls for “a public statement on the Democratic National Committee website and a letter from the chairman to all state and local party chairs explaining that the party does not support an abortion litmus test and pressuring people to change their position on life” as one in a series of actions the pro-life group wants to see from the DNC.
germy
@Villago Delenda Est:
In his old age, my father bought a ton of stock in them. Probably listened to somebody’s advice. My father thought he’d be comfortable in retirement and have something to leave his children.
After he died, I saw the carly statements. Lost every penny he invested in them.
Quinerly
@germy:
Heart breaking.
Patricia Kayden
@Villago Delenda Est: Exactly. If you decide to work for someone with a huge ego like Trump, you better bow down and submit yourself to his every whim and fancy. Tillerson should have known that when he took his current position.
d58826
@Barbara: follow the money to Exxon. It is that simple. And I don’t care what God told Tillerson’s wife.
With one or two exceptions (DHS,DOD MCMaster to name a few) it is all about the money.
low-tech cyclist
@mdblanche:
No problem! I’d be grinning like a fool as I kicked Jared in the nuts.
zhena gogolia
@germy:
Oh, THIS is what gets them horrified?
germy
@zhena gogolia:
Privately horrified.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: NO.
The ONLY acceptable way to do this is as Tim Kaine does. The Democratic Party supports a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her own body, period, end of discussion. This is the unwaiverable litmus test. There is no negotiation, ever, on this point.
Mom Says I'm Handsome
@Chris:
Touche. Excellent.
The proper rejoinder to “Government should be run like a business” is, “No, government should be run like a government. Contrary to what Ronald Reagan and Ron Swanson said, your fellow Americans in federal, state and local government are not the problem; conservative ideas about government are the problem. You want to see the end result of conservative governance? Look at Kansas. Kansas, where Gov. Brownback’s shitty policies were so awful that Kansas Republicans overrode Brownback’s vetoes so that school funding could actually be restored.”
ETA: Concept stolen in part from today’s blog post at Booman (aka Martin Longman), one of my favorite non-BJ bloggers.
Frankensteinbeck
Tillerson expected to be reshaping the world and international affairs to suit himself and his buddies. Instead, he’s being ordered around by putzes, has discovered the rest of the world does not give a rat’s ass what he thinks, and most of his department ignores him and keeps on the way they were. (This last part is as much because his orders either cannot reach them or are in no format they can shape to reality, rather than disobedience.)
This has to be dispiriting. And no, I have no sympathy.
@d58826:
While I believe for most conservatives money is secondary to hate, Trump hires in his own image. So, yeah, for most of them greed is first and hate is second. Make sure you include Sessions in the exceptions, because he was hired solely because Trump really god damn hates blacks and wants them put in their place.
Villago Delenda Est
@Frankensteinbeck: The Webster’s Dictionary definition of “putz” should have a picture of Jared Kushner as the arch-typical example.
Obdurodon
Trump has a super power. He can make anyone with a seed of avarice in their own heart utterly blind to his own incompetence, narcissism, etc. He can make them believe that he actually cares about them, that he can and will do something to help them. It only works when they’re in the same room, though. Anyone with even a tiny bit of sense, looking objectively, can see what a pathetic monster he is. However, between the people exposed to his aura at rallies and those who listened to trusted friends who were under his power, that was enough to get him elected.
The solution, perhaps, is to make sure he’s physically proximate to as few people as possible, for as long as possible. Once there are few enough people still under his mind control, some progress might be possible. We should *keep* him engaged on Twitter, keep doing/saying things that will enrage him (just as he has been doing to us), to keep him tapping away at that insecure phone he has instead of out there influencing people.
Brachiator
@germy: RE: Except Trump ain’t no Captain of Industry.
I think that Trump sees a frightened little boy who was made to fear his father and despise his mother.
Funny. I’m suddenly reminded that there was a time in the history of television where game show hosts came across as calm, knowledgeable and humane. Allen Luden of “Password” fame comes to mind.
Trump is like an evil carnival barker.
randy khan
@Villago Delenda Est:
Precisely.
TriassicSands
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
But, but, but…Trump promised! He promised to let Tillerson run the show.
However, now that I think about it, five minutes with Trump would reveal he knows virtually nothing about virtually everything, so of course he would let Tillerson be in charge. But Trump has almost certainly never made a promise he kept (for more than ten minutes, anyway).
In the end, I’ve got to go back to agreeing about Tillerson’s intelligence. Believing Trump, in the face of all the evidence that he never keeps his word, means that Tillerson is either dumb or incredibly careless to not learn more about Trump before believing him and taking the job. And that would be dumb.
The biggest favor any Senate committee could do for a Trump nomiminee would be to reject her or him.
smintheus
@MattF: Did you see this article in the Atlantic? Power Causes Brain Damage
Frankensteinbeck
@Obdurodon:
I believe it works because in his hideousness they see an expanded version of themselves, and they want to believe that is a good thing.
rikyrah
Tax cuts in the Republican health care plan are the ‘central’ issue
06/27/17 12:58 PM—UPDATED 06/27/17 01:09 PM
By Steve Benen
Jesse Lee, a former official in the Obama White House, wrote on Twitter yesterday, “I say this in all honesty: you could easily write a bill with ideas from both parties that would fix issues in ACA & make Trump look great.” This happens to be entirely true.
Indeed, it’s the secret hiding in plain sight. If Republicans were serious about identifying and addressing the Affordable Care Act’s real shortcomings, they could work out a deal with Democrats, stabilize the marketplaces, offer incentives to insurers, and make meaningful improvements to the system. This would be an incredibly popular move, and more importantly, it would help a lot of people.
But it wouldn’t satisfy any of the Republicans’ ideological goals, starting with the GOP’s raison d’etre. The Washington Post’s Matt O’Brien had a good piece yesterday on the central pillar of the party’s health care plan.
The Senate health-care plan isn’t a health-care plan. It’s a tax cut.
That’s clear enough from how little thought it puts into actually stabilizing insurance markets versus how much it does into showering the rich with as much money as possible. Indeed, it would go so far as to retroactively cut the capital gains tax – something, remember, that’s supposed to be about incentivizing future investment – in an apparent bid to get people to create jobs six months ago.
Barbara
@d58826: No doubt it is about money, but viewing it from afar, I think Tillerson is finding it a lot more difficult than anticipated on a personal level to be controlled by nitwits.
TriassicSands
@Obdurodon:
Yep, no matter how much medication I take to quell nausea, he still makes me violently sick to my stomach. It’s truly amazing.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: And then we’ll have to cope with “Democrats for the Confederacy” or “Democrats for Misogynists”. Sorry but I cannot with anyone who believes that his/her personal beliefs should dictate what grown women should do with their own bodies. Those are not people who need to be cozied up to in the Democratic party. Pro-choice means that you can choose to have an abortion, take contraceptives or have your baby so it encompasses pro-life folk who don’t want to end pregnancies.
bemused
@Chris:
A few years ago I listened to An American Life episode about there being a higher percentage of psychopaths among ceos than in the general population. Didn’t surprise me then and certainly not today. Just confirmed the conclusion I had already reached.
rikyrah
What the Republican Health-Care Holdouts Want
A look at the varied and even contradictory changes that GOP senators are seeking in exchange for their votes
RUSSELL BERMAN
JUN 28, 2017
After abandoning a quick vote on his original proposal, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wants to come up with a revised health-care bill by Friday so it can be ready for debate and a vote when lawmakers return to Washington the week of July 10.
His challenge is stark: At least 10 Republican senators have declared their opposition to the plan McConnell originally unveiled, and he can afford only two defections and still get the 50 votes he needs to pass the bill. If he does, Vice President Pence would cast the tie-breaking vote.
McConnell’s central hurdle is that the 10 critics are split nearly down the middle between conservatives like Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee who want the bill to spend less money and repeal more of the Affordable Care Act, and more moderate senators like Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski pushing to restore cuts to Medicaid and provide more funding to states. At the majority leader’s disposal is a pot of nearly $200 billion resulting from the fact that the original draft reduced the deficit by more than the Senate was required to do. Short of simple persuasion, McConnell’s narrow path to passage likely involves a combination of more money sought by moderates and a loosening of existing regulations that conservatives want—if the various factions will agree to a trade.
Here’s a rundown of the holdouts’ demands.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator: Alex Trebek is a good guy, too.
Iowa Old Lady
@Barbara: Aren’t we all.
stinger
@The Moar You Know: Or just leave it singular.
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
They’re not.
Never underestimate how central ‘hurting people’ is to Republican goals. That is the truth America needs to wake up to. They want to hurt people. They like it, voters and leaders alike, and think hurting people is both enjoyable and a moral virtue. Republican voters have only turned against this bill because it has finally slapped them in the face that they, themselves, are on the firing line. Even then their majority response has been that they think hurting people is more important than saving themselves, but they really want their leaders to supply both.
Barbara
@rikyrah: I really don’t care what political candidates think about abortion personally. I do care very much what they think about women’s autonomy. So, no on litmus test re personal beliefs, yes on litmus test about not imposing legal restrictions on pregnant women. More fundamentally, as Republicans pull the individual cards out of our already fragile house of cards safety net, it irks me to no end to see anyone, but especially those who call themselves Dems, continuing to be so fixated on abortion. Apparently, it’s okay for little kids and pregnant women to die, but it’s really super important that we be able to tie down women we don’t know and don’t much care about and force them to give birth.
Bruce K
@mdblanche:
I’d guess no, but if one could set up the meeting and arrange for delivery of about half a kilo of Hush-A-Boom, we could arrange some empirical testing.
quakerinabasement
“Tillerson also complained that the White House was leaking damaging information about him to the news media”
Quit, ya big wimp. Or just sit there and let a crude, loutish buffoon and his callow son-in-law make you a laughingstock.
MattF
@Obdurodon: A Slate interview with Maggie Haberman. Mostly about Trump and the Trump White House. Haberman has a fairly long history with Trump, she worked for the NYC tabloids before moving to the NYT, so she’s as much of a Trump expert as you’re going to find.
Brachiator
@Villago Delenda Est:
And a Canadian, to boot.
Keith P.
How do all of these “disgruntled” sr administration members don’t quit? Or at least realize they hold a shitload of leverage over Trump by threatening to quit, as it would make the wheels looks like they’re about to come off.
Cermet
@cmorenc: No; except for snake eyed Ryan, no one in office is as bad as Pence – that guy might …might, even top Snake eyes. Pence is a religious true believer and those are the really crazies
West of the Rockies (been a while)
At some point five or twenty years from now, there will be a fabulous book detailing the massive web of corruption, malfeasance and incompetency of this administration. It will be soaked in the gossipy stuff, too.
Man, I wish I had that book now. The vast dimension of wretchedness of all-things-Trump is staggering.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
I always thought that the Democratic Party was pro-choice, and against government interference with a woman’s right to choose.
rikyrah
@Barbara:
That’s how I feel.
Aleta
Experienced peacemaker Jared knows exactly what to do, throw more gas on Tillerson. It may be they want him to quit and walk away now with his prizes, before they smear him. I have to wonder if Jared’s goal was to inflame the Palestinian leaders too.
NorthLeft12
@japa21:
Yeah, I agree with you on this, but with the caveat that President Obama was a very intelligent man who is curious and thoughtful and respectful and humble, and actually had a pretty wide and deep knowledge base.
Deadbeat Donald? The exact opposite of all those qualities.
I still find it hard to believe that I am actually living through these times…..when the US President is arguably one of the most ignorant and incompetent leaders of a Western civilized country in the last hundred years or so.
rikyrah
And Now the Trump Presidency Begins to Fail for Real
by Martin Longman
June 29, 2017 11:52 AM
Reading the New York Times last night and this morning, I felt like I had been plagiarized. It seems that what was once a lonely voice is rapidly becoming common wisdom. It’s been a recurring theme of my analysis for months that the Trump administration had blundered badly by marrying his unorthodox and in many cases heretical campaign for the Republican nomination and presidency with a strategy that is wholly reliant on conventional conservative Republicans for implementation and passage.
In particular, the decision to sign off on the never-before-attempted plan to pass two budget reconciliation bills in a single fiscal year is beginning to look like a narrow-alley dead end in a very bad neighborhood. The idea was that the Republicans could take advantage of the fact that since they never did their budget work last year they still had the opportunity to finish that up with a health care bill that only requires fifty votes to pass (with the vice-president breaking any tie). They could then use the same legislative trick to pass tax reform in this year’s budget plan at a fifty vote threshold. Without getting into all the parliamentary rigamarole that’s involved, the most significant consequence of adopting this plan was that the administration believed and acted as if they would never need a single Democratic vote for anything, ever.
The first problem with the plan was two-fold. First, by relying only on Republican votes in the Senate, they assured that they would get only Republican votes in the House, too. In itself, that wouldn’t be a problem except that it gave House Republicans permission to pass the most right-wing health care bill their moderates could stomach. That bill had no relationship to the promises Trump made on the campaign trail where he said he would protect Medicaid and not leave people dying in the street.
The plan relied on Republican unity. With only 52 votes in the Senate, any health care bill would have to win the support for virtually all of their members. But many of their members represent states that expanded Medicaid. If Trump had learned nothing else about Congress during the Obama years, he should have known that they have factions and are hard to lead. Did he not notice that Speaker of the House John Boehner lost his job because his own members refused to follow his leadership and rebelled when he had to go to the Democrats repeatedly to pay our bills on time and keep the doors to the government from being shuttered?
rikyrah
14 states that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare have at least one Republican senator. Here’s how the Senate bill would affect their states. pic.twitter.com/wLR970rvFc
— Bill Galston (@BillGalston) June 29, 2017
The Moar You Know
@rikyrah: So the Jesus-humpers, having turned their own party into a steaming rancid pile of shit, want to leave and join ours?
They can go fuck themselves with a rusty bandsaw. Sit and stew in the pile of shit you made, fuckers.
We have one policy and that policy stays: Women get to do what they want with their bodies, the end.
Frankensteinbeck
@Barbara:
I think the 2016 election, and Sanders’ role in it, highlighted a weakness in the Democratic coalition. A not-inconsiderable number of white Democrats, especially males, are bigoted at a level where they’re willing to put up with women and minorities to get the other liberal goals they want. Hate is less important to them than their own well-being, or they’re simply disinterested rather than actively against minority rights. As the Republicans more and more force racism and sexism loudly and centrally into the front stage of politics, these Democrats get actively pissed off that their issues are not being addressed. (I know those issues are being addressed, but it’s an issue of priority perception.)
These are a pretty small minority of Democrats, and we neither practically nor morally should cater to them, but it doesn’t take much to be an electoral problem.
Republicans don’t have this problem. Their coalition was always built around hate. They seem to be having a problem between the portion that wants angry, screaming, incompetent hate, and the ones who merely want to ‘reform entitlements’ and turn a blind eye when racist cops commit murder. It’s always hard to tell how important that divide is, but Johnson’s numbers do show it’s a real issue.
bemused
@Villago Delenda Est:
Really? I thought he was a wingnut.
MomSense
@NorthLeft12:
Same here.
Amir Khalid
@Villago Delenda Est:
There’s corporate folk who got to be CEO because they’re good at running the business, and there’s corporate folk who got to be CEO because they’re good at climbing the ladder. Fiorina is one of the latter.
Frankensteinbeck
@Aleta:
From what I’ve read of his business dealings, Jared’s goal was to say something trite and applaud himself for being a genius. He’s a putz. It’s the best word I can think of to describe him. He’s exactly the empty-headed, arrogant, coddled rich kid he looks and sounds like. He has no strategies in the sense we think of them. He thinks he has strategies, but they’re word salad with no meaning. He might be less competent than Trump.
Chris
@bemused:
I remember that study, but I don’t remember whether it was accurate or not – for some reason I seem to recall it being debunked soon afterwards.
I wouldn’t find it unbelievable. But anyway, the bigger problem with CEOs isn’t even that more of them are sociopaths, but that those of them who are face no consequences for it.
Cheryl Rofer
I would like to know what Tillerson was like as a manager at Exxon. He’s not impressing me so far.
[Borrowing a neighbor’s wifi, but will be here only temporarily.]
bemused
@Chris:
I think I have also some memory of “accurate or not” talk. Still it seems that there is never enough money to be made by the majority of the top 1% wealthy and ceos no matter how much they already have. They always want more and more. It reminds of crazy cat hoarder behavior.
Miss Bianca
@rikyrah: Except I DO support an “abortion litmus test.”
Don’t like abortions? DON’T FUCKING HAVE ONE. Simple. Boom. Do you believe women have the right to make their own decisions, “pro-life Democrats”, or don’t you? If you don’t, you belong to the Republican Party.
Cheryl Rofer
@Keith P.:
I think Trump is fine with the wheels coming off. He probably thinks that would give him more power.
rikyrah
Lakewood welfare fraud: How did the scheme work?
Alex N. Gecan and Payton Guion
Asbury Park Press Published 4:31 p.m. ET June 28, 2017 |
LAKEWOOD – Public assistance scams in the township are both “widespread” and some of the “most sophisticated financial fraud” cases authorities have seen in recent years, one ranking law enforcement source said.
How could such an alleged scam work so well for so long?
Hidden income, fake applications and phony company owners were integral parts of a complex scheme several wealthy families used for years to fool the government into doling out nearly $2 million in aid reserved for the poorest citizens, federal and state investigators say.
A child daycare center was also used to help hide one couple’s true income, according to the charges.
Using public records, federal complaints and interviews with law enforcement officials, the Asbury Park Press examined the puzzle works of the government assistance fraud charges.
More than $1 million flowed through limited-liability companies – legitimate corporations set up to hide ownership – that enlisted relatives as straw owners and used corporate bank accounts to hide money, according to the charges.
At the center of most transactions was a local beeper store that helped transfer money across the globe, the charges state. As the 14 suspects were claiming poverty on government documents, they took in hundreds of thousands of dollars in undeclared income from the front companies.
rikyrah
Pence’s Chief of Staff is LEAVING AFTER 12 YEARS?
Uh huh
Uh huh
Chris
@bemused:
Yep. It’s why they need checks on their power. Left to themselves, they just keep gorging themselves until there’s nothing left.
(Funny how the Republican praise for the “checks and balances” in our system never extends to checking the power of wealth run amok).
Villago Delenda Est
@bemused: Pat Sajack and Chuck Wollery are, but to the best of my knowledge, Alex Trebek hasn’t made any political statements at all.
geg6
@rikyrah:
No fucking way. No fucking way, you assholes. Never.
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: The rich stealing from the poor.
Thus it always was, is, and shall be.
Stan
@Brachiator:
Yes, we have this in the blue State government here….
Stan
@Chris:
Yes, I agree, he’s the f*cking SoS. He should be able to pick his people with maybe an occasional exception from the white house.
I suspect Tillerson has a huge ego too and that he WILL quit if he isn’t allowed to run his department.
JaneE
Tillerson’s big problem is that he believed Trump would keep his promise. No autonomy for you.
TenguPhule
@d58826:
Its too early to rule it out actually. Deep State may reveal they too are much the same as the rest.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@scav:
Well, a small one of that description would resemble a canning funnel. I suppose for a larger one you’d be looking at a springform pan without the bottom…
d58826
OK confession, I had trouble with 6th grade arithmetic so when they get into the mechanics of the healthcare debate I am lost. But Sen. Corker is now saying the tax cuts will come out of Trumpcare. Now whither they can sell that in the Senate, let alone the House is a political question.
My question is if you leave the tax cuts alone, then you don’t have to gut medicaid and all you really have to do is make a few technical fixes that we have known about since 2014. seems to simple/ what am i missing. Oh yes rename the program to Trumpcare to satisfy the raging ego
gvg
@Brachiator:
….good description in the sense of someone who is demented, rather than the Harry Potter sense.
d58826
And if f that isn’t enough the ‘voter fraud’ commission is asking the states for complete voter rolls, back to 2006, with full name, party and last 4 digits of ssn. All of this will be made public. Now besides being a road map to voter suppression,
I’m sure every con artist, Nigerian prince and hacker will just love getting their hands on those lists.
https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/880483686289817600
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
and Kushner should know from unprofessional outbursts given who his father in law is. I mean, give me a break, the Trump clan is complaining about unprofessional outbursts? That’s like Antarctica complaining that Greenland is too cold.
TenguPhule
@d58826:
Corker is lying. They’d literally have to start all over from scratch if they were to change the bill that much.
Mnemosyne
For all the whispers about Hillary’s terrible, terrible temper, the one actual instance I ever heard cited was when she (allegedly) heaved a lamp at Bill’s head when she found out he’d lied to her about Monica. To which I can only say, I don’t blame her a bit, and if that’s the worst you can come up with …
Brachiator
@d58826:
Wow. I cannot see this being allowed to stand. The GOP is adamant about cutting taxes. Also, it would be very, very, very difficult to leave the ACA taxes in place but to reduce tax rates elsewhere (did I say very?)
Somebody is lying or playing games. I can’t see them keeping these funding mechanism in place. However, without the individual mandate, you would still end up with major funding shortfalls in the long run.
Davebo
@Patricia Kayden: In fairness Exxon/Mobile was not a private business and he did have a board to answer to so “anything that he pleases” really wasn’t the case.
liberal
Clinton, Albright, Rice…all bloodthirsty.
The Midnight Lurker
Rex Tillerson took the job at State to help get santions against Russoia removed so a half-trillion oil deal with Exxon could proceed. None of this is what he bargained for.
liberal
@Brachiator: as George Will (!) put it so well, it’s not that he doesn’t know, or that he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. It’s that he doesn’t know what it means to know something.
sm*t cl*de
The trouble with trying to “buy loyalty” is that there’s always someone who can out-bid you.
Nora
@artem1s: I couldn’t even watch that whole clip. It was too painful to remember that and think of what could have been.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
If these folks want a pro-life (in the terms of current politics) party, they should go off somewhere by themselves and found such a party. We have a party, which allows people to wish that rainbows and butterflies were all that counted in this world, but know that other things count in reality.
Fuyck these people and their perverted ideas!!
If they want to not allow babbies to be preborn then they can have babbies. The rest of us want people to engage their preference, if they are bound and determined to birth babbies, OK, otherwise, people have no place to interfere with the mother/host’s opinion on the topic.
RepubAnon
@scav: A zen sieve?
LongHairedWeirdo
@Gin & Tonic: Or Trump.
Hey, if you *weren’t* thinking it, you *should* have been.