It must be tough to be a Trump supporter and to keep realizing his words don't mean much. He says there's evidence that Obama wiretapped him but he somehow hasn't gotten around to showing it to anyone even though the investigation he demanded is collapsing for lack of any evidence. It's just like all that proof he said he had that Obama wasn't born in Hawaii. Somehow, it never materialized. Somehow, he could never quite admit that anything he said wasn't true.
He just lets these things dribble away. He said that everyone was going to have the greatest health care and everyone would be covered and the government would pay for it…and now that's kind of backing away through his usual techniques of changing the subject, putting things off and redefining the words he said.
His minions have been out insisting that when he said he'd been "wiretapped," he didn't mean "wiretapped," though he still says he was and will prove it. One of these days. As long as he faces no journalist more insistent than Tucker Carlson, he can get away with it with a certain section of the population.
It still amuses me that deep down, Trump seems to think that the way to discredit opposition is to say that their business is in trouble. This morning, he kept referring to the "failing New York Times." No one should listen to them because their business is failing…except, of course, it's not. Here are some links…
- Jonathan Chait writes of the battle between Trump and Paul Ryan to blame each other for plans going awry. He also notes that Trump could just arrange a big tax cut for the rich without going through all these efforts to gut Obamacare but it wouldn't be a permanent cut, which is what Ryan wants.
- Trump's new proposed budget will be great for people in his income bracket; disastrous for those at lower levels…including folks in those levels who voted for Trump. This is according to Chauncey DeVega. The Trump voters who are about to see their health insurance go away or become beastly more expensive are probably starting to figure out that that's the kind of thing they voted for.
- Fred Kaplan says that the wisest, most experienced members of Trump's cabinets are the ones no one there is listening to. Just about what you'd expect.
- Lastly, if you read no other article about health care, read this one…but I'll warn you: It's long. Sarah Kliff and Ezra Klein lay out the lessons of Obamacare and how we got to where we are now. The lessons seem undeniable but Republicans don't seem to want to heed them because they don't lead to the desired result. That's why I don't think they can ever get to their desired result.
TV shows that bash Trump — like Colbert's, Meyers' and Maddow's — continue to enjoy increased ratings. Wonder if NBC has given any thought to reconfiguring Celebrity Apprentice as a show where the competitors' goal is not to make money but to bring down the current President of the United States. They could install Keith Olbermann as host and each week, he fires the person who's done the worst job of exposing Trump's ineptness and treachery. It would soar in the ratings and even Donald would like it because he still owns a piece of the program.