EXTRA: America squirms in hopes there’s some truth to Trump tweet

President Donald J. Trump felt compelled to use his Twitter account Tuesday to inform us he thinks the partisan sides in Congress eventually will reach agreement on something resembling a health care plan for the nation.

Of course, his talk of Democrats and Republicans “eventually coming together” on the issue is so vague that I can’t say it offers any sense of relief to people who actually relied on the Affordable Care Act in recent years to be able to have something resembling health insurance.

IT ALSO DOESN’T help assure people that Trump seems more concerned that the Affordable Care Act itself is undermined in ways that will prevent it from being able to succeed. Although I’m sure the unease his actions are causing isn’t much of a concern to Trump – he probably figures we didn’t vote for him anyway.

As one of the people who relied upon the program’s assistance to be able to cover a health care plan, the whole situation makes me uncertain just what my status is.

And it’s also put me in the situation that I’m sure many hundreds of thousands of people across Illinois will now share – don’t get sick!

So here’s my New Year’s resolution to act in ways to promote good health. Not only for my physical well-being, but because my wallet could wind up feeling more ill than my body.

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We still want health insurance aid, no matter what ideologues want to think

I’m sending off a payment this week to an insurance company – one meant to be a binder for the health insurance policy I hope to have for 2018.

Will it continue?

Yes, I’m amongst the people who really can’t afford to pay the full cost of this policy, and am hoping to continue to receive the assistance I have got in past years from the federal government as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

YOU KNOW, THE one that President Donald J. Trump and his ideologue allies want to believe is the most disgraceful part of the Barack Obama legacy, the one they’d like to believe will wither away and the one that Trump himself has claimed to have killed off because of provisions of his $1.5 trillion tax plan.

As I comprehend it, if I had chosen to ignore the issue, I would no longer be susceptible to financial penalties for failing to have health insurance.

Which the Trump-ites want to believe will make many people disregard the issue, and will cause the problem to wither away.

Which is why I found it amusing to read reports showing that the number of people who filed their applications by the Dec. 15 federal deadline for ACA financial help with insurance was nearly as high for 2018 as it was for 2017.

IN ILLINOIS, IT was 339,740 people (including me) who filed for help for next year (which begins Monday), while it was 356,403 people who sought help this year. Nationally, according to the Chicago Tribune, it was 8.8 million people, compared to 9.2 million to the previous year.

Which is amazing, when one considers that in their efforts to undermine the federal initiative, they made a point to cut back the registration period. The aforementioned Dec. 15 deadline in past years was the end of January.

I know in my case, it made me think more promptly about being sure my application for Affordable Care Act assistance with health insurance was in on time, and that it be double-checked to ensure there were no glitches that would cause me to be rejected due to my own ignorance.

Will Trump's ideological opposition prevail?

Because it seems the ideologues who now control of the federal government want to do to this program what they have allowed to happen to immigration policy.

AS IN OUR nation has an immigration policy filled with so many bureaucratic glitches that it can be easy for some unknowing soul to make a mistake that is later used against them as a reason to reject any sort of compassion for someone wishing to remain in this country.

Just as I suspect the Trump-ites are hoping many of us blew the deadline or make a mistake with our renewal applications so that they can reject our requests for assistance that makes health insurance affordable – which was the whole purpose of the Obama-era initiative.

So could it be that this program so despised by the ideologues who want to believe that anybody without health insurance is just a deadbeat who won’t “get a job!” is actually so popular that we, the people, went to great lengths to make sure we couldn’t be denied?

Personally, I’m not sure what to believe. My own application through HealthCare.gov responded to me by saying all is in order, once I get that binder payment to the insurance company by Monday (the first of the new year).

BUT I’M GOING to be uncertain about my fate for the next few days. Because as I have been in recent years, I’m self-employed – as in doing work for companies and checking the mailbox for checks.

Part of Obama legacy to be most missed?

I do know that when I looked at the actual cost of the policies offered by various insurance companies, all cost more than I could cover in their entirety on my own. The idea of federal aid in providing health insurance to the masses is something that benefits our society as a whole, unless you happen to believe that a certain individual’s profit margin is more important than not having healthcare available to as many as possible.

I’ll be checking the news accounts of coming days, weeks and months to see if further politically partisan tampering with the issue further restricts the ability of the Affordable Care Act to fulfill its purpose.

And if I find myself unable to fill a medicinal prescription in the future, I’ll be amongst those complaining, along with, of course, Walgreen’s – which I’m sure has as its bottom line selling as many drugs as possible and could see its bottom line slashed if some of us can't pay in full!

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A DAY IN THE LIFE (of Chicago): In Land of Lincoln, we’re now No. 6

I’ll have to confess to being a little shocked when I learned of the latest U.S. Census Bureau’s latest estimates of population. That’s the one that says Illinois, with its 12.802 million people, is now smaller than Pennsylvania’s 12.805 million.

Which means Illinois is now the sixth largest of the 50 U.S. states. We’re no longer in the Top 5!

WHAT IS SURPRISING about that? I have to confess. I thought we already were Number 6. When I first heard of reports saying we were out of the Top 5, my reaction was “What else is new?”

Perhaps it was all those years of political reporting that had me thinking there were five other states with more Electoral College votes than Illinois. Five states with more political influence than ours.

Although we were still amongst the top of the Great Lakes states. In fact, we’re still at the head of those states in population. Although it should be noted that Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota all experienced slight increases in population – according to the latest Census Bureau estimates.

Are we headed for a point some five or six decades from now that Illinois will be just another mass of the states whose lifeblood relies on lakes such as Superior, Erie and Michigan, to name a few?

IT SHOULD BE noted that it was my mistake to take the Electoral College too seriously on this issue. Because the number of electors a state gets doesn’t always coincide with the number of residents. Smaller states get more than they ought to, even the ones that get the bare minimum of three.

Whereas Illinois’ electoral problem has always been a matter of the state’s population not growing enough to warrant more representation. Take the early 1930s when the state peaked at 27 electors, compared to the 19 it now has (and 18 it could be reduced to following the 2020 population count).

Back then, Illinois had 7.63 million people total (with nearly half living within the Chicago city limits). Yet despite having 5.3 million more residents now, we get eight fewer electors. There are entire states that have the same political representation.

So aside from having fewer people living in Illinois, what else is notable to people living along the southwest shores of Lake Michigan?

DECLARING VICTORY AFTER A LOSS?!?: President Donald Trump is going around claiming he killed off the healthcare reform plan that was a major part of President Barack Obama’s legacy – even though the measure remains in federal law and is likely to never be formally repealed.

TRUMP: Winner; or loser?

It seems the tax overhaul bill (all $1.5 trillion of it) includes provisions that eliminate the penalties people are charged if they do not have health insurance. Which was the provision meant to encourage people to use the Affordable Care Act.

Meaning he’s made it possible for people to ignore the law requiring people to have some sort of health insurance. Of course, Trump has made a mess that complicates the situation for those people who want to get health coverage, but can’t afford to do so without the subsidies that Affordable Care helped provide.

Trump’s victory declaration will appease his own ego, and I’m sure he’ll claim it gives him a legacy of his own. Although most likely, it is nothing more than political spin gone wild.

CHICAGO’S STINK NOW COMES FROM ‘DA BEARS’: It’s a good thing that professional football’s Pro Bowl – the end-of-season all-star game – is one that football fans care less about.

Because for the third straight season, there won’t be any members of the Chicago Bears playing in the game that is supposed to represent the best football has to offer. Then again, a team with a 4-10 record (with two games remaining) surprisingly doesn’t have anybody worthy of all-star status.

So there’s definitely no reason for Bears fans to care about the game to be played Jan. 28, 2018 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Fla. I can’t even envision the players caring much.

Because at least in the old days, the Pro Bowl’s appeal was that it was played in Honolulu, Hawaii – a locale that added an exotic touch to bring a season of football to an end. Somehow, a corporate-named stadium near Disney World just doesn’t have the same touch.

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Pritzker wants your vote – puts self in middle of political brawl over insurance

For those people who actually rely upon the Affordable Care Act (myself included) in order to have something resembling health insurance, Illinois Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker is making what some might try to claim is a self-serving attempt to gain our votes.

PRITZKER: Buying our votes? Or taking interest?

Then again, those of us who are in need of the federal assistance in order to be able to afford health insurance may well be willing to give our votes to Pritzker because he seems to be one of the few officials willing to take an interest in the issue.

THE REALITY THESE days is that Republicans have always hated the idea of the Affordable Care Act, and not just because it was an accomplishment of former President Barack Obama.

They seriously want to believe that people make a conscious choice to go without health insurance. They want to believe that people who don’t have some sort of health plan are somehow too lazy to work a decent job or are otherwise incapable of providing for themselves.

In which case, it’s their own fault. It shouldn’t be a task of the government to help individuals come up with a medical plan.

I know in my case, I haven’t held a full-time job in 12 years. I have managed to earn income through assorted freelance work, which some people claim has the advantage of me being able to set my own work hours, get personal business taken care of during the weekdays and can also work from home.

TRUMP: Could care less about issue

I DON’T HAVE to show up at anyone’s office. Personally, I miss the newsroom atmosphere of past news outfits I’ve worked for. But also, it means nobody is providing me with a health insurance policy as a perk for my work.

Trust me, the cost of just about every health policy I ever looked into was above my freelance pay grade – particularly since one of the disadvantages of freelance work is that the pay can be irregular. The occasional week with a significant check, followed up by many weeks of piddling amounts of money – and the periodic time period for which my check resembles a strong resemblance to the kind of money I used to bring in when I was a kid reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago (grossing just under $10,000 per year back in those days).

IVES: Can she be viable Rauner option?

So yes, the stipends from Affordable Care are the reason I have been able to afford health insurance the past three years. It’s nice to know that the occasional doctor’s visit won’t put me further in debt.

Which is an issue the Republican partisans don’t want to be concerned with. They are the ones who have created so many bureaucratic messes that the financial stability of the Affordable Care Act is threatened. Considering they would just as soon see it go away, I don’t doubt they wouldn’t mind seeing it fail – they’ll refuse to take responsibility for the failure, so what do they care! Particularly our current president – who probably figures it won’t impact him at all.

THAT IS WHERE Pritzker is trying to gain himself some support, putting aside roughly $1 million to buy airtime across Illinois to remind people using the Affordable Care Act that we’re at that time of year (deadline is Dec. 15) in which we have to renew our participation.

I know in my case, I’ve been informed by the insurance company that has provided me insurance that the specific health plan I have used will no longer be offered. I have to find something new to cover me beginning in 2018.

I’m curious to see how much confusion the Republican partisans will try to create amongst those who actually have to make changes in our plans, and I’ll admit I’m dreading the process.

RAUNER: Wishes insurance issue would go away

So to learn there’s an official in the form of Pritzker who isn’t eager to see the whole process detonate is a bit of a relief.

IT’S ALMOST ENOUGH to sway me to cast a vote for J.B. come the March 20 Democratic primary. Sorry, but I’m not the type disgusted by Gov. Bruce Rauner that I’d actually consider a vote for Jeanne Ives – the woman who messed up her nominating petitions and now has to start over if she wants to get on the ballot for the ’18 election cycle.

Although I’m not deluded enough to think J.B. Pritzker has any personal interest in my case. With all the money he has in personal wealth he’s willing to spend on trying to become Illinois’ new governor, this $1 million for Affordable Care Act advertising may well be pocket change to him.

But his “pocket change” could wind up impacting the livelihoods of many of the rest of us across Illinois.

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JFK assassination docs do provide a nice distraction (for Trump) from flaws

Perhaps President Donald J. Trump has spent too much time watching Oliver Stone’s film “JFK,” particularly the scenes where actor Kevin Costner’s “Jim Garrison” character tells of how his children in a long-in-the-future year will be able to go to the National Archives and find the answers to the questions he tried to resolve with his 1967 criminal trial in New Orleans.

Trump spent too much time watching JFK?

Or (more likely), Trump wants us to quit paying attention to issues that reflect poorly upon himself. The Kennedy assassination of 54 years ago is far enough in the past he figures he can’t be made to look ridiculous.

THAT’S ABOUT THE only reason I can fathom for Trump’s interest in recent weeks in claiming he’s going to get to the bottom of all this by forcing the public disclosure of any remaining documents related to the investigations of that dreary day in Dallas when Jack Kennedy was killed.

The fact that Trump actually has no authority to disclose the documents in question (federal law already dictates the schedule for those papers to become public) means there’s really nothing for Trump to do.

In fact, I wonder if when he’s unable to do anything he’s talking about, he’ll turn around and blame it on government bureaucracy. As though the key to our national success is for Trump to be let loose to do whatever he wants.

Bo Derek IS the real 10!

But really, it is just the “flavor of the month” when it comes to issues that actually capture the presidential attention span.

A MONTH AGO, he got worked up over slacker football players who don’t show appropriate (in his mindset) respect. Now, it’s the Kennedy assassination. Maybe next month, Trump will think it time that he become a “wartime” president and start up a scuffle with North Korea?

Or he may decide it’s time to take on Barack Obama again; trying to place blame on the nation’s 44^th president for something (anything) that pops up in his mind.

There are real issues that Trump could try addressing – except that I suspect he thinks real issues are “boring!” Let someone else bother with the details of operating government. He’s a “big issue” kind of guy! Or so he thinks.

An adventure Trump doesn't want to take

Of course, his idea of “big issues” truly is questionable.

TAKE, FOR INSTANCE, the notion of Puerto Rico, who along with Cuba, Mexico and parts of the southern United States, all got hit with severe hurricanes or earthquakes. Natural devastation and the need for massive rebuild is the issue of this era.

Now I know Mexico and Cuba are separate nations in charge of their own rebuild. But Trump really seems to think Puerto Rico is also separate and that he has no obligation to give the Commonwealth one little bit of thought.

And that the thoughts he has paid to it are some gracious favor he’s doing – wasting time and attention on Puerto Ricans when he probably wants to have a mass deportation the way he always implies with regards to Mexicans living in this country.

Trump is the guy who has rated his performance with Puerto Rico rebuild as a “10,” even though much of the Caribbean island remains without electricity or fresh water all these months later. Bo Derek, the woman who gave us the image of a “10” being perfection, probably thinks Trump ought to be sued for defaming her character (since she was the real “10”).

Is Trump the 21st Century's Wizard of Oz?

OR THERE’S EVEN the issue of healthcare reform – the fact that Trump and his political allies have failed thus far in their efforts to eliminate the Affordable Care Act that is the major part of the Obama-era legacy.

We’re coming up in about one week on the time period in which people who have health insurance through the program (in the interest of disclosure, I should admit to being one of them) will have to renew their policies – even though it would seem the Trump administration will have few qualms about enough confusion existing that many people won’t be able to renew.

Death by political confusion – is that the ultimate legacy of this Age of Trump?

It might be, although I’m sure that Trump wants us to think about “JFK.” Or perhaps the “Wizard of Oz” and think of issues such as Puerto Rico or health insurance as being that “man behind the curtain” that we’re supposed to pay no attention to.

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McCain, Rauner taking opposite ends on Trump ties – who will prevail?

Who’s to say just what is the appropriate tie that a political person ought to maintain to the doofus whom we, the people of this nation, have given the title of president and commander-in-chief of our military forces?
 

TRUMP: Political millstone, or savior?

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is getting his share of praise these days for being one of a few Republican political people who voted “no” to the latest crazy scheme by which President Donald J. Trump wanted to do away with the health care reform proposal whose biggest drawback was that it was an accomplishment of former President Barack Obama.

YET JUST AS some political operatives are wanting to say that Republicans will now start distancing themselves from the president (the Chicago Tribune went with a front-page story Sunday headlined Republicans rethink their reticence to resist Trump), there are those political people who seem to be making their moves to a hard-right in hopes of ensuring their political future.

Take Gov. Bruce Rauner, whose hard-lined ideologue moves are managing to offend the large segment of Illinois’ voters who live in or near Chicago.

Rauner in recent weeks (ever since losing his two-year fight to pressure the Democrat-led General Assembly into backing his anti-organized labor desires) has canned many of his gubernatorial staffers.

In many cases, they were replaced by people who had spent the past couple of years working for the Illinois Policy Institute – a conservative activist group that was about the only portion of the Illinois electorate who thinks Rauner was being responsible in putting state government on hold just to try to score a partisan victory.

RAUNER: Soon to engage in Trump talk?

MANY OF THESE Institute types are from the segment of Illinois that gave its support in the 2016 election cycle to Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton for U.S. president. I have no doubt it means many of the people who now will be the basis of Rauner’s voter support for re-election come 2018 will be the kind of people who want to see Rauner move closer to Trump on various points.

Which is a radical change, since Rauner during his two years as governor has gone out of his way to distance himself from the president. He doesn’t come out and criticize him, or praise him, on anything!

Even when Illinois-based interests come out and criticize Trump for his latest nonsensities, Rauner maintains silence – almost like a submarine in wartime goes quiet so as to try to avoid being detected by the enemy's sonar equipment.

McCAIN: Voting his conscience?

But it could turn out that with the Chicago metro population (about two-thirds of the state’s people) potentially turning more and more hostile to Rauner, he’s going to need all the ideologue Trump-ites he can find so as to avoid an Election Day blowout come next November.

WHICH COULD BE just the opposite of McCain, who is now getting the praise of many people who were eager to lambast him back in 2008 when he ran unsuccessfully for president against Obama.

Back in that campaign, McCain made the hard-right adjustments so as to try to get the votes of the conservative ideologues. Particularly with regards to immigration, where he had been a GOP supporter in the past of some serious reform measures but in that campaign backed away from his past talk on those issues.

Now, he’s willing to express some support for serious immigration reform (which excludes anything whose prime focus is to increase the number of deportations from this nation). And he went ahead and took the vote last week that keeps some people (possibly even myself) remaining with some form of health insurance.

There are those who say that the bout of cancer that McCain is coping with these days (he made a special trip to Capitol Hill to be on hand for the negative – from Trump’s perspective – vote) gives the senator the ability to vote his conscience on the issue.

WHILE IT ALSO is leading to many snide comments on the Internet from people whose idea of a sense of humor is to say that McCain can’t die fast enough – on account of him selling out the ideologues on this particular issue. I’m not about to become a McCain apologist. I was offended enough by his reversal back in ’08 on immigration reform that I will forevermore be convinced I made the right choice in backing Obama.

OBAMA: Trump trying to erase his memory

But it was impressive to see that some people were capable of putting aside their politically partisan ties to vote in a way that the bulk of the people wanted. Only the ideologues are all that worked up about repealing the Affordable Care Act.

After all, if it has its flaws, they’re mostly because of the ideologues who have spent years trying to thwart its implementation and who probably deserve the blame for not trying to revamp it into a more formidable policy.

Those ideologues will have to settle for the electoral chances of Rauner in Illinois – who could always wind up victorious if problems arise amongst his Democrat challengers. We’ll have to see whether backing, or backing away from, Trump is the appropriate stance for the future.

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Rauner really is – to cite cliché – damned if does, and damned if doesn’t

It has been nearly two days now since Gov. Bruce Rauner issued his statement in response to the House of Representatives approving the President Trump-desired measure to repeal Barack Obama’s vision of health care reform, and I’m still not sure exactly where the Illinois governor stands on the issue.

RAUNER on Health Care: Huh??!?

He says the bill that passed the lower chamber of Congress, “continues to be of deep concern to our administration.”

YET IN HIS five-sentence, two paragraph statement, Rauner also says, “The Affordable Care Act is a seriously-flawed law that should be changed.”

For those of you who get easily confused by political jargon and gibberish, the Affordable Care Act is the measure put forth by former President Obama that the ideologues amongst us have labelled “Obamacare.”

The alternative measure being put forth by Trump’s advisors and backers is the American Health Care Act.

Which, in the Trump way of viewing the world, means that “Affordable Care” is for poor people, and nobody cares about helping them. Whereas the “American Health Care” plan is an AMERICAN vision!!!!!!! that is wonderful just because it is for us, and NOT none of those foreigners who fantasize that they can someday be us.

IF YOU GET the impression that I’m mocking the jingoism and xenophobic views of this Era of Trump that our society is now in, you’d be correct.

 

TRUMP: His vision of healthcare reform ...

The simple fact is that the primary goal and intent of Republicans in Congress wishing to reform health care is that they want to erase the measure that the Obama administration managed to get passed into federal law back in 2010 and that for the past three years has made it possible for many people (myself included) to have health insurance plans that provide us basic health coverage in the event of an emergency.

I often joke that this means if I get shot by a sniper’s stray bullet, there’s a chance that a hospital Emergency Room somewhere will actually make an attempt to save my life – rather than dismissing me because I can’t afford to pay the full cost of medical treatment.

Medical treatment and healthcare has become a politicized issue, and Rauner certainly doesn’t want to get caught in the crossfire. Which is most likely why he’s trying to take both sides of the issue, while also not making a simple, declarative statement on where he stands.

 

... is basically to erase any involvement of Obama

IF RAUNER COMES out in favor of Trump or his ought-to-be Republican colleagues, he gives Democrats a significant issue that can be used to bash him about – one that might be heated enough to take him down no matter how many millions of his own dollars he puts into campaign efforts that bash Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

Let’s not forget how overwhelmingly Democratic Illinois is – and how alone Rauner is within the Illinois political structure. Rauner needs to spend those millions of dollars for his political survival.

Yet if Rauner tries to appease the more urban portions of Illinois that are the basis of the Democratic Party majority in this state, he’ll find out how quickly the Republicans turn on him.

For while Rauner likes to think he made GOP inroads by gaining a few legislators in rural parts of the state, the fact is that many of those voters were influenced by the presidential presence of Trump.

I DON’T DOUBT there are people in Illinois who would get all excited about Rauner if he became the ultimate Trump ally – a move that would ensure his political death in the more urban parts of the state that comprise about two-thirds of the state’s population.

 

DURBIN: He will be part of effort to fix mess

So where does our governor stand on healthcare reform?

The most honest part of his statement may well be where he says, “We are hopeful that our federal lawmakers will continue to work hard to get this right for the people of Illinois and our nation.”

Which basically means he’s desperately hoping and praying that somebody else manages to figure out a solution – which is a long-shot considering the number of years that government officials have devoted to trying (unsuccessfully, I should add) to find the solution.

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Some people just don’t want to comprehend the way insurance works

A part of me regrets that I’m writing this commentary – I feel bad writing a piece about former Congressman Joe Walsh revealing his vacuous nature about issues just to gain himself some more public attention.
 

WALSH: Bringing us all down?!?

Walsh is the guy who served one term representing the northwest suburbs in the House of Representatives, before voters got wise and dumped him.

SINCE THEN, HE’S tried to make himself a social conservative voice who speaks out for his people – although all he usually manages to do is make himself out to be clueless; which I’m sure winds up hurting his causes more than anything else.

His latest “issue” seems to be health care reform. Which isn’t a shock. Many social conservatives have let themselves get all worked up throughout the years with regards to former President Barack Obama’s efforts to reform the way healthcare is paid for – and to ensure that all people have options other than just neglecting their physical beings because they can’t afford a doctor visit.

New President Donald J. Trump has made it clear he wants to abolish the Affordable Care Act; although his efforts to replace it with an “American Healthcare Act” were a political flop – but he hasn’t given up trying.

Which is what got Walsh worked up enough to feel the need to speak out. Or actually, to follow the lead of Trump as a “Twit who Tweets” and use a Twitter account to take pot shots at those people who regard health care access as an important issue for our society.

OR, AS WALSH felt compelled to write Tuesday night, “Sorry Jimmy Kimmel: your sad story doesn’t obligate me or anybody else to pay for somebody else’s health care.”

Kimmel is the late-night television host who has gained attention for the heart surgery his son had to undergo in order to save his life, which he has tried using as a way of urging political people to be more compassionate and not be so eager to approve something that would take away health care access.

Apparently, Walsh isn’t swayed. Or else, he objects to someone trying to put a “guilt trip” on him. I don’t doubt there are other people who will be hard-hearted enough to feel the same way.

But the basic fact is that insurance, by its very nature, is a means by which all of us pay our premiums and we wind up covering the costs of those of us who become ill enough to need serious medical treatment.

BECAUSE WE KNOW (or hope) that when the time comes we become ill, others will be making their premium payments and we will be covered in our time of need.

I know insurance companies aren’t charitable organizations out to do the public good – they’re out to make a profit off the perception that they’re there in our times of need.

But do I complain about that monthly payment I make to an insurance company? As a freelance writer-type, I have to provide for my own insurance. Because I know full well that having to pay the actual cost of even a brief hospital stay would bust me financially. That's the drawback to medical care that actually works -- it's expensive!

Trust me, my finances are meager enough that I can’t afford to be bankrupted by the asthma I suffer from, or that my blood pressure can shoot sky-high if I don’t carefully monitor my physical condition.

SO TO LEARN that Walsh hasn’t a bit of compassion to him makes me grateful that the voters up in those northwestern suburbs of the “Tea Party” persuasion (a gross misuse of a historic allusion if ever there was one) overcame their vacuous moment back in 2010 when they sent him to Congress to begin with.

But let’s not forget when Walsh was the guy threatening to take up his musket and fight, if by chance Hillary Clinton had actually been elected president last November.

He’s also the guy who complained about the possibility of FBI Director James Comey’s actions last fall with regards to a federal investigation of Clinton e-mails might actually harm Trump’s presidential chances – even though Comey himself now admits to being “mildly nauseous” about the thought that he actually enabled Trump to win.

Even when Walsh wins, he perceives defeat. Which makes me think he’s just the ultimate political malcontent who’s determined to bring us all down to his level. How sad!

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Trump needs new target; will it be the nation's Mexican-American population?

No matter how much President Donald J. Trump wants to say that Democrats will take the blame for the failure of his version of health care reform to pass, the masses are fully prepared to blame the Trumpster himself.

Will we soon see uptick in Trump piñatas?

And since in the world of The Donald, he is all knowing, all wise and never fails at anything, I’m sure that Trump is now scouring the scene for another issue that he can score a quick victory on.

ONE THAT WILL allow him to rebound with something resembling success. Something that he hopes will be considered more important than any mere loss with regards to health insurance access.

Which is an overly complicated issue that no one should have expected the Trumpites of the world to achieve any level of success. Even the brightest of minds have trouble with the nuances of insurance and health care. And let’s be honest, we don’t have the brightest of minds in charge of our government these days.

We have the most egomaniacal of ideologues, and ones with a nativist streak that tends to outright xenophobia.

Personally, I can’t get around the fact that the Trump presidential fantasies (nightmares for the majority of us) began with the attacks he made on Mexico and those people in this country with ethnic ties to the land down south – although in some of our cases, it was the border dropping south so that our great-great grandfathers went from being Mexican to “American.”

ALBEIT A SECOND-class status of American, because the Anglo types who settled the Southwest likely would never have done so if they had thought all those people already living there would be treated equal to them.

Will this site become common?

In my mind, the failure of Donald Trump and his pathetic band of backers to erase former President Barack Obama’s version of health care reform from the books means he’s going to try to revamp his persona with a political victory of sorts against the foreigners.

And since he has now repeatedly failed in his efforts to pass travel restrictions against people from nations where Islam is a predominant religion, he may decide that he needs to get his victory at the hands of Latinos.

Whom he’ll probably proclaim to all be Mexicans. Even the ones of Puerto Rican ancestry who have U.S. citizenship by birth, or the ones from Cuba who still get preferential treatment because of the old desire to do things that humiliate the now-deceased Fidel Castro.

I KNOW THAT in a lot of Spanish-tinged enclaves and neighborhoods in this country, including in Chicago, there is the increased sense of paranoia that immigration agents are on the verge of being unleashed for mass rounds of deportation.

Can this wall really be made to look pretty?

Which may even pick up a few U.S. citizen-types of Latino backgrounds, because the bulk of Trump backers really are clueless when it comes to distinguishing people – except to be able to say who isn’t exactly like themselves!

Could Trump’s wrath take the form of some dramatic action to try to force a confrontation about “the wall” that the president has said he wants erected along the 1,900-mile U.S./Mexico border?

The one that supposedly will be 30 feet high and beautiful to look at, from the U.S. side. Although I can already envision the graffiti marring it, along with the tunnels that will wind up underneath. Why do I suspect that any border wall will be as secure as Stalag 13 from that staple of 1960’s television “Hogan’s Heroes?”

If Trump is Klink, who's playing the part of Col. Hogan?

DOES THAT MAKE White House strategist Steve Bannon the equivalent of actor John Banner’s “Sgt. Hans ‘I know nothing’ Schultz?” With Trump himself as the immortal Col. Wilhelm Klink – making ridiculous boasts about how “No one escapes from Stalag 13” – which was about as accurate as all the “fake news” that Trump now spews on ever so many issues.

Or are we really in line for some immigration raids so we can get a few busloads of people being driven back across the border into Mexico – and in the process, probably a kid or two who gets mistaken for Mexican (and probably will wind up having parents who voted for the Trumpster)!

Winnah, and still Champeen?!?

President Trump has just shown too much incompetence, but has too big an ego to let it go and try to think the issue through rationally. Like in the 1978 film “Animal House,” when the Delta fraternity responds to their being expelled from college with “a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.”

The best we, the true majority of our society, can hope for is that their streak of political incompetence continues. Although the one sad truth is that real people will wind up getting hurt – all to salvage the ego of the man who couldn’t beat Obamacare!

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Who's going to suffer to enable GOP to satisfy their Obama-hating sentiments?

It's no surprise that Republicans are ever-so-eager to dump the Affordable Care Act. The Republican influences that now control federal government want to erase every trace that Barack Obama ever was president. That most certainly includes his prime achievement -- bolstering the number of people who actually have health insurance when they become ill.

RAUNER: Not rushing to back Trump's vision

It's not even a surprise that Republican officials on Capitol Hill are split on how to handle the situation -- with some trying to come up with convoluted repairs and others who would just as soon scrap the whole thing and be done with it!

BUT I HAVE to admit to being a bit shocked that Gov. Bruce Rauner was publicly critical of the reform plan that now-President Donald J. Trump put forth this week -- the American Health Care Act! It has to be better, because it has the word "American" in its title. If only Obama hadn't have titled his health care reform plan to emphasize the fact it would be "Affordable" for people.

Rauner had a reaction to the new plan that is supposedly the Republican alternative to provide medical treatment to the masses, and the stories being published across the state carry headlines such as "Illinois 'won't do well' under House GOP health plan."

He thinks Illinois will wind up faring worse under the Trump-inspired proposal. Our state's people will be "left in the lurch," says the governor, who thinks there will be pressure to reduce insurance coverage in our state. "Illinois won't do very well under the changes they're recommending."

I'm sure some people will be shocked to learn that a Republican governor is not immediately leaping on board to back this proposal that will be key to understanding how the ideologues of our society intend to replace Obama in all segments of our society.

Would Obama's plan have been better ...

BUT I'M SHOCKED as in "shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" (remember "Casablanca's" Capt. Renault character?). Rauner's own ideological leanings are such that he wants to undermine organized labor and unions, but actually has been supportive in the past of some progressive causes.

He's not the kind of guy who would have felt compelled to make a priority of erasing the program that actually provided many millions of people with health insurance they previously couldn't afford to buy for themselves -- although there are many Trump-ite tyes who are exactly those kind of people.

Rauner's own re-election campaign strategy for 2018 focuses heavily on turning the other parts of Illinois against the Chicago city masses who will vote overwhelmingly for whomever the Democrats nominate to run against him. What happens if Trump starts extending his contemptable Tweeter missives into shots against the whole of Illinois (we were one of the states that clearly preferred the thought of "President Hillary R. Clinton" and I think most of us are proud of that fact)?

... if he had included the word "American" in the title?

Will Rauner wind up having to eat his initial opposition to Trump's version of healthcare reform?

OR WILL HE wind up gaining the backing of the Protect Our Care Illinois Coalition, which consists of various progressive-minded groups. They said this week that some 350,000 Illinois residents who were able to purchase private medical coverage will find the cost shoot up so high that they won't be able to afford to keep it.

And yes, as a freelance writer, the reason I have had health insurance in recent years is because of the subsidy I qualified for under the Affordable Care Act. My insurance plan remains in place for now, but I must admit to feeling some trepidation, wondering what will be forthcoming.

Would Renault be 'shocked' to find GOP partisanship?

Of course, there also are the 650,000 Illinois residents who were benefitting from expansion of Medicaid in recent years who could suddenly find themselves shut out of health care.

That's an even 1 million people living in Illinois who will sustain some sort of loss -- all because Republican ideologues don't want the president who came from our state to have any lasting accomplishment. And because I'm sure many of the ideologues probably think it's not their concern if some people can't merely get a health insurance benefit as a part of their job.

YES I'M SURE many of those people want to believe that the insurance-less are merely too lazy to go to work. "Get a job!" is bound to be the war cry we'll hear.

But it will be intriguing to see how Rauner handles his political situation, since many of the kinds of people whom he theoretically needs to rely upon for support are ones who are on board for Trump and will expect the governor to be fully supportive of the president -- and would think nothing of dumping on Rauner if he doesn't back The Donald.

Considering that a recent poll showed Rauner with a 32 percent approval rating and being beaten significantly by a still-nameless Democrat. Or, as the Capitol Fax newsletter out of Springfield put it, 56 percent of people would support the tax on pop and other sugary beverages; which means people would rather pay more for their pop than vote for Bruce Rauner.

Would crackpots prevail in this show?

It's going to be an intriguing coming few months as we figure out which segment of the Republicans manages to prevail -- the ones who want health care reform to carry the brand of Donald Trump or the ones who'd just as soon do nothing. The ones who will have us thinking of the past eight years as "The Obama Years," which might be like that old "The Wonder Years" program, only this show features the Arnold family with a neighboring family of cranky malcontents determined to impose their will over all.

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EXTRA: Just a thought – would you rather be Hank Aaron, or Bob Gibson?

Pure political nonsense and trivia to spew as we work our way through these final hours before a presidential transition many of us are dreading.
 

Obama a political Hank Aaron?

We’re going from President Number 44 to Number 45. A fact that does amuse some people with a baseball mindset.

FOR BARACK OBAMA is Number 44, which makes some think of ballplayers who bore the double-4 on their uniform backs. As in double-cleanup hitter.

A number with such aura that Reggie Jackson wore it with the New York Yankees and can’t say he’s the biggest star to bear it.

That would be either Hank Aaron or Willie McCovey (another reason why its perfect that Obama granted the one-time San Francisco Giants star a pardon earlier this week).

So does that make Hammerin’ Hank the political equivalent of the calmness and coolness of Obama? The sophistication and aura that he portrayed politically equates Aaron’s stints with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves?

OBAMA GOT THE baseball number with quite a punch.

So what does that make for President Number 45. Who does Trump get to claim for his image?

Looking at the baseball-reference.com website (which actually keeps track of so many minute details), there have been some 558 ballplayers who bore the Number 45 on their uniform jerseys.

Does Trump have Gibson-like brushback?

Listing literally from Don Aase (I remember him pitching when I was a kid for the California Angels, but he bounced around several different teams) to Oscar Zamora of the Chicago Cubs back in the mid-1970s.

I EVEN REMEMBER the Number 45 on the back of Bobby Jenks during that short stint he was the ultimate big and tall relief pitcher for the Chicago White Sox when they won the 2005 World Series. Not bad. But also not as intimidating.

None of these people equate with Aaron. Until you stumble across the St. Louis Cardinals, which retired jersey Number 45 for pitcher Bob Gibson.

He may be Mr. Baseball, but he's NOT Mr. 44

Is he now the baseball image we’ll have to conjure up when we think of Donald Trump? That of a tough competitor who had a reputation of being willing to throw at hitters to try to intimidate them.

Which may account for the .215 batting average with only 8 of his 755 home runs that Aaron achieved against Gibson in some 163 career at bats.

BUT IT WAS another pitcher with a “headhunter” reputation off whom Aaron managed to hit the most home runs – 17 against Don Drysdale of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers (for the record, he was Number 53).

Obama's baseball card; where's Trump's?

I’m also sure the fans who saw those home runs being hit recall them with a sense of delight – as opposed to just another strikeout or whatever at-bat in which the pitcher prevailed.

Just as I’m sure the sense of hope and inspiration that the Obama years brought to this country will not be matched by the sense of trepidation that many have these days about the uncertainly of what direction our nation is headed in these coming years.

As in the Affordable Care Act equating a Home Run! While its’ repeal being little more than the equivalent of a rally-killing strikeout.

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