Some Trump Administration Lowlights

A Threat From the DOJ
Sanctuary policies lead to threats from the Department of Justice.  The DOJ letters ask officials to show documentation validating their compliance with federal statute U.S.C. 1373, which prohibits any federal, state or local government entity from restricting government entities or officials from sharing information about an individual citizenship or immigration status. "Failure to comply with this condition could result in the withholding of grant funds...or other actions, as appropriate," the DOJ said in the letters.  In the letters, the DOJ asks for proof of cooperation with immigration authorities, citing the terms of a specific funding mechanism, the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant or JAG program.

A report by the Pew Research Center, based on 2014 data, estimated the population of undocumented immigrants in New Mexico -- my state of residence -- at 85,000.

Trump Lowlights
Tamara Draut, writing in the 4/29/17 "The Hill," lists some Trump lowlights: Unraveling Dodd/Frank; repealing a host of EPA regulations; repealing Internet privacy protection; repealing work safety rules; and rescinding a rule that would have given 4 million workers access to overtime pay.

Draut says that Trump campaigned to serve the "forgotten men and women" and then proposed tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, deregulation that enriches industries, and has proposed cuts to a whole host of agencies and programs that serve the very people he proposed to serve.

Easing Johnson Amendment Enforcement
 A Trump executive order will ease enforcement of the Johnson Amendment, that bars religious institutions from endorsing or opposing political candidates and parties. The order directs the IRS to "exercise maximum enforcement discretion" of the amendment. Also, it orders regulatory relief for those who object to Obamacare's preventive service mandate on religious grounds.

High-Risk Pool Funding
The last-minute addition of $8 billion to the American Health Care Act was the action that swayed enough votes in the U.S. House to approve the bill by a two-vote margin. Those members who switched their votes due to it, probably didn't realize how little impact the $8 billion will have. The Center for American Progress has calculated that the funding will cover only 76,000 more people. To put this figure into perspective, the Center projects a need for $327 billion over ten years to offer a moderately subsidized high-risk pool coverage for the 1.5 million plus who qualify. The $8 billion to be paid, over five years added to the $130 billion already in the AHCA, will leave a shortage of $193 billion. The $8 billion will thus cover about four percent of the projected shortfall. It is important to keep in mind that this would be a "moderate" subsidy.  Also, the 1.5 million figure is for those who fit into a high-cost preexisting condition category; it is a small percentage of those who have a preexisting condition. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that about a quarter of those adults under the age of 65 have a preexisting condition.

Trump's War Fever
Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation magazine opines that: "It is a testament to the absurdity of the 'Washington playbook' that one of the most irresponsible acts of Trump's madhouse presidency has also been one of the most applauded." [vanden Heuvel is referring to the U.S. attack on a Syrian airstrip after a chemical attack generally attributed to the Syria government].

"After railing against the foreign-policy establishment as a candidate, Trump has made it clear that his non-interventionist rhetoric, like his supposed economic populism, was a farce." "In March alone, according to "Airwars," more than 1,400 civilians were killed by US bombings in Syria and Iraq, far more than in Assad's apparent chemical attack." (Source: "Trump's War Fever," The Nation, May 8/15, 2017).

ADDENDUMS:
*A  Reuters poll taken over March 28 trough April 3, found 36 percent rating the danger of racism and bigotry in America as an "imminent threat" to the country; 22 percent rated it a "serious threat;" and 18 percent rated it a "moderate threat." This poll lends weight to another poll taken in 2010, 2015 and early 2016, after a spate of police shootings of unarmed African Americans. The first poll found 30 percent of respondents believing the United States has a racial problem; the second found 60 percent believing that; and the third poll found the percentage raised to 63.  The linkage here appears to be the highly publicized police shootings of unarmed, primarily minority males.

*Press secretary fill-in Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump was apparently unhappy over Comey's "disloyalty" in not supporting his charge that Obama wiretapped him. He was also angry about Comey not pursuing leaks.

* CNN's Chris Cuomo told Kellyanne Conway: "Kellyanne, I've got to check what you're saying. I've got to provide the context for it. Because you're creating an image that doesn't reveal itself in facts." Kellyanne told CNN's "New Day" that it is "inappropriate" to raise questions about the timing of Trump's decision to fire James Comey. She said: "He'll do it when he wants to, just like he fired FBI Director Comey when he was faced with evidence that was unignorable."

*A new analysis has found that Wisconsin's voter-ID law reduced turn-out by 200,000 voters.