Quote of the Day

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The Trump kleptocrats are political arsonists. They are carting cans of gasoline into government agencies and Congress to burn down any structure or program that promotes the common good and impedes corporate profit.

They ineptly have set themselves on fire over Obamacare, but this misstep will do little to halt the drive to, as Stephen Bannon promises, carry out the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Donald Trump’s appointees are busy diminishing or dismantling the agencies they were named to lead and the programs they are supposed to administer. That is why they were selected. Rex Tillerson at the State Department, Steven Mnuchin at the Treasury Department, Scott Pruitt at the Environmental Protection Agency, Rick Perry at the Department of Energy, Tom Price at Health and Human Services, Ben Carson at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Betsy DeVos at the Department of Education are eating away the foundations of democratic institutions like gigantic termites. And there is no force inside government that can stop them.

The sparing of Obamacare last week was a Pyrrhic victory. There are numerous subterfuges that can be employed to cripple or kill that very flawed health care program. These include defunding cost-sharing subsidies for low-income families, allowing premium rates for individual insurance to continue to soar (they have gone up 25 percent this year), cutting compensation to insurers in order to drive more insurance companies out of the program, and refusing to enforce the individual mandate that requires many Americans to purchase health insurance or be fined. The Trump administration’s Shermanesque march to the sea has just begun.

– Chris Hedges
Excerpted from "The Feuding Kleptocrats"
TruthDig
March 26, 2017

Related Off-site Links and Updates:
Robert Reich: America Is "Waking Up to Walking Catastrophe" of Donald Trump – Matt Broomfield (The Independent, March 25, 2017).
Trump the Destroyer – Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone, March 22, 2017).
Trump Signs Order Dismantling Obama-era Climate Policies – Valerie Volcovici and Jeff Mason (Reuters, March 28, 2017).
Trump’s Environmental Executive Order Is As Stupid As It Is Damaging – Susan Matthews (Slate, March 28, 2017).
Meet Indivisible, the Young Progressives Leading the Resistance to President Trump – Kurtis Lee (Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2017).
 The Key to Taking Back Our Country: Fortify the Front Lines of the Resistance – Steve Phillips (The Nation, March 27, 2017).
Donald Trump Says Obamacare Is Going to “Explode”? Only if He Lights the Fuse – Jordan Weissmann (Slate, March 27, 2017).
Five Lessons from Trumpcare's Collapse – Adam Gaffney (Jacobin, March 27, 2017).
Medicare for All? Sen. Bernie Sanders Poised to Push for Single Payer After GOP Plan Falls Apart – Democracy Now! (March 27, 2017).
Authentic Populist vs. Bulls**t Artist: Why Bernie Sanders Is So Popular and Donald Trump Isn’t – Conor Lynch (Salon, March 25, 2017).
Do These 10 Things, and Trump Will Be Toast – Michael Moore (The Huffington Post, February 21, 2017).
How Republicans Quietly Sabotaged Obamacare Long Before Trump Came Into Office – Tom Hartmann (Salon, March 22, 2017).
Steve Bannon Admits Trump's Cabinet Nominees Were Selected to Destroy Their Agencies – Dartagnan (Daily Kos, February 23, 2017).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• A Profoundly Troubling and Tragic Indictment
• Historian: Trump's Immigration Ban Is a "Shock Event" Orchestrated by Steve Bannon to Destabilize and Distract
• "The Movement of Love and Inclusion Has Just Been Unleashed"
• Something to Think About – January 20, 2017
• Quote of the Day – January 11, 2017
• Quote of the Day – December 25, 2016
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying "No" to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda
• Progressive Perspectives on the Election of Donald Trump as President of the United States
• Election Eve Thoughts
• Carrying It On
• Progressive Perspectives on the Rise of Donald Trump
• Trump's Playbook

Image: "Trump the Destroyer" by Victor Juhasz.