HEALTHCARE

During his 2 terms in office, President Obama, despite obstruction by the Republican Congress, was able to craft a system of mandated, affordable, comprehensive quality health insurance which resulted in coverage for most Americans. It had a rough start but ultimately took root and became successful. During the 8 years of the Obama administration the stated goal of Senator McConnell the leader of the Republicans in the Senate was to make the Obama presidency fail. They failed in that goal despite controlling both houses of Congress by the end of the 8 years.
The goal of Trump during his 2 years as president has been to undo all accomplishments associated with the name Obama including Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act), but they failed. The American people had tasted Obamacare and they liked it. The people who especially benefitted from it included the blue collar Whites who had voted for Trump. When they realized that Trump wanted to take away their health care they rebelled. No matter how hard they tried, Trump and the Republicans could not come up with a replacement for Obamacare. So Obamacare remains, perhaps a little weakened but still there.
So now the task of the incoming Democratic Blue Wave House of Representatives will be to revive and enhance Obamacare. Some say the goal should be Single Payer. Although I would be OK with Single Payer health insurance if that is how it ultimately plays out, I don't think that should necessarily be an ideological goal. The goal should be, as it was under Obamacare, mandated, affordable, comprehensive, quality health insurance with no precondition. It has to be mandated because that is how insurance works. Well people have to pay in as well as sick people. If a person does not join and develops a potentially fatal illness or injury would he then say "let me die because I did not join when I was well?"  It has to be affordable so that everyone can participate. It has to be comprehensive and quality to include maintenance of wellness which will keep down the costs as well as making a better life for the population. It should not be a cheap predatory plan which does not produce the necessary services. I also think a public option would be a good idea to fill in the gap where effective private insurance is not available. It also would insure competition with private insurance. If the public option drives out private insurance because the private can't compete OK, but I doubt that that will occur in every case everywhere. In any event the goal should be mandated, affordable, comprehensive, quality health insurance with no preconditions however that comes about.

AFTER THE 2018 MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Now that the mid-terms are over and as predicted the Democrats won the House of Representatives, the Republicans kept the Senate and even gained a few seats there, and of course Trump is still the president, where do we go from here? What the Democrats in the House do over the next 2 years might be more challenging and consequential than winning the House. Some think the House needs younger, more Left leadership, but I think Nancy Pelosi is an experienced old warrior and the right person for the job. The Blue victory in the house was not just a victory for Democrats, but rather for reason, truth, compassion, and real American values. It included not just Democrats, but also anti-Trumpism Republicans and Independents. The challenge is to promote those values and negotiate with Trump and the Republicans without giving in to Trumpism.

Since I wrote the above first paragraph, Trump fired Jeff Sessions (resigned at request of the president = fired by the president) and almost immediately replaced him with Trump’s lackey Whitaker who has stated that he opposes the Mueller investigation and is known as a hard line Trumper. I was going to say that the Democrats in the House of Representatives might work in a bipartisan way while staying firm on the important issues. Well, this is the most important issue. Polls have showed that the most important issues to Americans are first of all healthcare and second immigration, but above all we must save our American democracy and system of laws. For Trump, law is whatever he can get away with. Trump knows what misdeeds he has committed. He is desperate to hide what he has done (which might actually be criminal) and is now going over the line to obstruct the Mueller probe which equals obstruction of justice. This is the point at which we must protect our democracy. Trump appears to be at the point of trying to turn America into a Putin-style dictatorship.

Let’s hope that Mueller has anticipated this event and has a plan. What has Mueller found concerning Trump? (obstruction of justice? using his position for personal financial gain? acting as an agent for Putin, a foreign dictator?). Americans (Democrats, non-Trumpian Republicans, Independents) must stand up for Mueller and do peaceful protest. Things apparently are coming to a head. Will American justice, freedom, and honesty prevail or will we descend into a Trumpian/Putinian dictatorship?