I once heard the story about a man who crossed the Swiss border each day on a bicycle with a sack on the handlebars.
Each day the guards would examine the sack and find nothing. After a month of bicycle trips, the border guard finally said in exasperation, “I know you are smuggling something, but if you tell us we won’t bother you.”
The bicyclist turned to the guard and said “bicycles.”
The untold story of any presidency is not in the laws that Congress passes or the confirmation of judges who will impact on the philosophy of the court, but rather the ability of the president’s appointees to pass regulations that will affect the health, safety and welfare of Americans for decades to come.
Let’s start with the Affordable Care Act.
Despite the fact that almost 20 million citizens signed up for the program over the past eight years, and have benefitted from coverage of pre-existing conditions, President Trump is hell-bent to destroy this program with subtle but dangerous changes in the regulations that control how it functions.
The latest attack on health coverage is the approval of a new health care plan that will allow companies to offer inexpensive plans that would appeal to healthy Americans.
There is a catch to that so-called benefit. The cheap plans will not cover pre-existing conditions and unless you read the fine print quite a few people will be paying money for nothing.
The goal of the president is to undermine the ACA and drain it from subscribers.
Prior to announcing this new underhanded program, the president decided that insurance companies that cover people with serious health conditions should be stopped from getting government assistance that helps the companies defray the cost of coverage for the very sick.
Presidents don’t have to worry about health care because they get it free for life, but to destroy protection for the average citizen is a moral outrage.
One of the big promises that candidate Trump made was that he was going to “dramatically reduce the cost of drugs for all Americans.”
A few months ago, Mr. Trump announced a plan that he said would cut pharmacy costs but it was a sham and was crafted with the input of the very industry that he was going to attack.
New regulations could have successfully helped the President cut costs but he chose once again to side with the special interests.
There isn’t a person who doesn’t love the Bald eagle, which is a symbol of our democracy. They are exciting to see in their majestic glory wherever they can be found.
But the existence of these magnificent creatures is being challenged by the President’s plan to change provisions of the Endangered Species Act.
It seems that the oil and mining interest want the Act to be watered down so they can go into national parks and preserves to make a buck. If these regulations are approved one of the big losers will be such species as the Bald eagle.
Another presidential assault deals with the quality of the air we breathe. It seems that some special interest, probably the gasoline producers, are unhappy with the fact that in the future all cars must be more pollution free.
This is accomplished by forcing manufacturers to produce cars that give you better gas mileage.
Last week the President announced that he wanted to change these anti-pollution standards by regulation. He also wants to take away the power of California to require higher standards.
So while the whole country is being bombarded with stories about Russia, election meddling and the Mueller investigation, a lot of other mischief is taking place that will do harm to every American citizen for many years to come.
Just like the bicycle smuggler, the president is busy re-regulating the quality of life of all of us and no one is watching that carefully.
