TRUMP, FILIAL LAWS AND OTHER THINGS THAT MAKE NO SENSE!

Trump spent all of 18 days on health care and, having lost, has now declared it the Democrats problem, somehow unaware that he is the leader of the free world right now and the buck stops with him. When health care premiums spike higher, which they will until price controls are established on hospitals, manufactures and drug companies, he's getting the blame. He has all the power to stop it of he wishes but it is going to require leadership and, most likely, help from the Democrats to succeed which at this point is as likely as me growing a second nose.

So far, Trump has been spectacularly bad at his job. He's been so bad that I seriously question how a good a businessman he really is. Give me a few hundred million dollars and I guarantee I could make more than he did. Throw enough darts at a dart board and eventually you'll hit a bulls-eye. If you can afford to lose hundreds of millions like Trump, the wins outweigh the loses eventually. You just have to have a big enough bank to start with. So much for good business sense.

Even worse, he has been spectacularly bad being the populist he promised everyone he would be by constantly wrecking the lower class and working class. His health care bill was a giant blow job for rich people while shitting on the rest of us. Every law he has put forward has done nothing to fix our problems and instead set the siphon upward to the elites. After eliminating health care for 17,000 miners, it came out today the the GOP in Kentucky is trying to eliminate safety protocols in the mines too because well money. Needless to say the people who work there, and may die now, are not happy. But most of them voted for this. Same goes for union people worried about their jobs as to right work may go national. You picked poorly. Or the dweebs watching their loved ones get deported because Trump promised only to "deport the bad ones." Apparently these idiots missed the parts were he said they were ALL going to go away. Morons who vote against their own interests are killing us and themselves.

His pivot to tax reform is going to be even harder than health care because finding a way to balance the budget which doesn't destroy some states is impossible. The border adjustment tax is going to be very unpopular with people like Tom Cotton, as Walmart, from his state of Arkansas, is going to spend millions fighting it and with good reason as they stand to lose a fortune if this goes through, not to mention tens of thousands of jobs when stores start closing. And that's just one example. Imagine this playing out across the spectrum with Senator A suggesting X which affects Senator B harshly. Senator B proposes something else which pisses off Senator C. This continues forever. Meanwhile the entire democratic party sits on the sidelines and smiles. The chances for this are slim.

Much better is the installment of Neil Gorsich for the GOP as chances are very good this idiot is going to get in.The funny part is I have been reading his past decisions and while some are horrifying (religious and corporate bullshit), his decisions on abortion are not clear and his ruling on immigration are not in line with Trump. It will be funny if Trump's latest Muslim ban goes before him and he helps nix it again. I am hoping the democrats make the GOP go nuclear and then spend the rest of the next three years telling them to fuck off about everything. It will destroy Trump and probably a good portion of this country but such is the price of democracy. If the Republicans hadn't been acting like spoiled children these last ten years we'd all be better off.

And then there are Filial laws that are still on the books in 29 states but rarely enforced. Unless you live in PA that is. These laws are made to ensure that children pay for their parents care in their old age but it can be taken too far it seems. The reason most states don't enforce this is because going after someone to pay for the parents ignores past relationships status. What if you haven't seen your parent in decades or if they abandoned you? Then you don't have to pay. In MA, you can face a two hundred dollar fine and a year in jail although I can't find any instances of that law ever being enforced.

Only two states have these laws in the books and use them infrequently and they are SD and PA. The latter is the worst offender, going after people they really shouldn't. In most cases when these are enforced it is because the child has lots of money or the parent dies and the child tried to hide it. One woman tried to do that by transferring $160,000 out of her mom's account before she died and into her own. That is a big no no.

However, recently it has been used to go after people for small debt loads, 5000 to 10,000 dollars. This may not sound like much but a lot of people couldn't come up with that kind of money in five years let alone right away. Almost always it is because of a Medicaid shortfall that the child, having money, must pay. It's when they start going after people with no cash that this becomes an issue and in PA alone, this seems to be happening more and more. In some cases, they are going after people who haven't seen their parents in years or have no part in their care. But because it's under ten years, they are responsible. How'd you like that phone call: Mr Smith I am calling to collect a huge sum of money you can't pay for a parent you haven't seen in nine years.

State Senator Tony DeLuca has introduced a bill to put a stop to this in PA. I hope it succeeds because this is terrible. However, this law is still on the books in 29 states and they could enforce them at any time, especially if the state is having financial problems. The redder the state, the more likely these will start being enforced and soon. Make sure that doesn't happen and call you senator and demand and end to filial laws being directed toward people who can't afford it.