Donald Trump suggested that the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) was a clever ruse by our first Black president and his Democratic friends to have a successful health-care system in place for his own presidency, but one that was set up to fail in the first year of the next president's term.

Trump said (on 3/10/2017) that this year "would be a disaster for Obamacare. That's the year it was meant to explode, because Obama won't be here. That's when it was supposed to be, get even worse. As bad as it is now, it'll get even worse."

While most people are rolling their eyes - why would Obama do that, particularly when everybody expected the next president to be Hillary? - there's actually a substantial grain of truth to Trump's assertion. He has identified, however, the wrong culprit as the person who poison-pilled Obamacare for 2017.

That distinction would go to Marco Rubio (and his Republican helpers in the Senate). Let's step back to 2015 for the entire story, which is bizarre and fascinating.

Read more here

-Thom

(What do you think? Tell us here.)

Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10:30pm... GOP Wants Terrified Workers for Corporate Masters (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)

Thursday's Daily Stack 

Hour One: Trump's Budget, Issues Of The Day And Your Calls
- Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI, 2nd District)    

Site: Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Article: "CBO report: Health care bill would strip millions of their medical coverage" by Bryan Renbaum.

Article: "Trump's Second Bid at Travel Ban Knocked Down by Two U.S. Judges" by Kartikay Mehrotra, Erik Larson, and Bob Van Voris.

Article: "Trump puts the skinny in his 'skinny budget'" by Roberta Rampton.

Article: "President Trump tells the FEC he qualifies as a candidate for 2020" by Matea Gold.

Article: "LIVE STREAM: Donald Trump Rally in Nashville, Tennessee", March 15, 2017.

Article: "Trump rallies: Campaign-funded, for a reason" by Jeremy Diamond and Jeff Zeleny.

Article: "Trump's budget shows he is getting ready to fight Americans for their land on the border" by Christopher Woody.

Article: "New study finds 45,000 deaths annually linked to lack of health coverage" by David Cecere.

Bill: "H.R.676 - Expanded & Improved Medicare For All Act" by John Conyers.

Article: "The GOP's Stealth War Against Voters" (Crosscheck) by Greg Palast, August 24, 2016.

Event: March 15: DC EPA HQ: "Emergency Rally: Defend Climate and EPA from Trump's Attacks".

Video: .@RepJaredPolis TY , clean air clean water are vital to our existence.

Video: .@RepDonBeyer: "We have to stand up for the EPA and science. The EPA is already great." #DefendClimate.

Video: CPC Vi ce-Chair @JacksonLeeTX18 calling out @realDonaldTrump's attacks on EPA workers..

Video: [Pruit in the EPA] is not like the fox in the hen house, it is much worse & we have to stand up in every way we possibly can -@RepDonBeyer.

Article: "EPA Employees Vow to 'Stand Up! Fight Back!' Against New Administration, Budget Cuts" by Eric Katz.

Article: "3 Freedom Caucus Republicans voted against the Republican health bill in committee" by Tara Golshan.

Article: "Trump fuel economy rollback will kill jobs and cost each car buyer $1,650" by Joe Romm.

Article: "Discharge petition" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Marco Rubio Quietly Undermines Affordable Care Act" by Robert Pear.

Article: "Explaining 'Risk Corridors,' The Next Obamacare Issue" by Louise Radnofsky and Jennifer Corbett Dooren, Jan 22, 2014.

Article: "Trump's Budget Would Kill a Program That Feeds 2.4 Million Senior Citizens" by Alana Abramson.

Article: "This is how much it costs 'Meals on Wheels' to feed one elderly person for a year" by Quentin Fottrell.

Site: Congressional Black Caucus.

Article: "Pro-Pot Lawmakers Launch a Congressional Cannabis Caucus" by Tom Huddleston, Jr.

Site: Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07).

Article: "Great Lakes funding cuts are absurd, irresponsible, lawmakers say" by Keith Matheny.

Article: ""Morally Obscene" Trump Budget Proposal Stands to Make America Cruel Again" by Deirdre Fulton.

Article: "In Trump's blueprint to reorder the federal government, echoes of Reagan '81" by Dan Balz.

Article: "US states mull laws allowing religion in science class" by AFP.

Article: "Jeff Sessions Claims Marijuana Only 'Slightly Less Awful' Than Heroin" by Phillip Smith.

Article: "14th Amendment, July 9, 1868 (citizenship, representatives, public debt)

Article: "15th Amendment" (right to vote), February 3, 1870

Site: Aden Forecast.

Video: Checking in with the #Resistance | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS.

Article: "United States elections, 2017" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Will Trump make Calexit a serious question for voters?" by Thomas D. Elias.

Site: The Hartmann Report

Twitter: "Twistance" by Alice Stollmeyer (Twitter+resistance=#Twistance. US federal #science agencies going rogue).

Article: "Did President Trump Announce Plans to End the 'Meals on Wheels' Program?" by Dan Evon.

Book: Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild.

Book: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War by Joe Bageant.

Documentary: The Brainwashing Of My Dad.

 

Talk Media News Segment:
- Victoria Jones 

Article: "What are petroleum products, and what is petroleum used for?" by EIA.

Article: "Pelosi slams Trump administration's proposed budget" by Bryan Renbaum.

Article: "GOP senator slams Trump's Yucca Mountain proposal" by Timothy Cama.

Article: "Three airport security programs axed under Trump budget" by Melanie Zanona.

Article: "American Healthcare Act narrowly passes House Budget Committee" by TMN.

Article: "Second federal judge halts Donald Trump's new attempt at travel ban" by Harriet Alexander.

Site: "Goats for the old Goat".

Hour Three: Trump's War on the Media
- Katrina vanden Heuvel, The Nation Magazine    

Site: "The Nation. March 20 2017 edition: Media in the Trump Era".

Article: "Trump's Plan to Eliminate Public Broadcasting Would Hurt Listeners in Trump Country" by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney.

Video: Dakota Access Pipeline Company Attacks Native American Protesters with Dogs & Pepper Spray (Amy Goodman).

Article: "The tea party radio network" by Kenneth P. Vogel and Mackenzie Weinger.

Article: "Trump Versus the Media: How to Cover a Hostile President" by Nic Dawes.

 

Article: "Legislative roundup, March 16, 2017" (New Mexico no longer is calling for a national constitutional convention).

Article: "Constitution of the United States", article 5 (amendments, convention).

Case: "Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad", 1886

Case: "McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission", 2014

Article: "A new bill would allow employers to see your genetic information - unless you pay a fine" by Julia Belluz.

Bill: "H.R.1313 - Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act" by Rep. Foxx, Virginia [R-NC-5].

Law: "Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act" (HIPAA), 1996.

Article: "Climate Change Denier Jim Inhofe Says EPA Is 'Brainwashing' Our Children" by Farron Cousins.

Article: "James M Inhofe: Senator (R - OK)" by OpenSecrets.org.

Article: "Germany: Nuclear power plants to close by 2022" by BBC.

Article: "Fairness Doctrine" by Wikipedia.

Site: Triknowlogy.

Article: "'I love the poorly educated': why white college graduates are deserting Trump" by Lauren Gambino.

Case: "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" (2010)

Article: "Church Committee", 1975-6.

Case: "Buckley v. Valeo", 1976

Article: "The Powell Memo or Powell Manifesto".

Book: "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson.

Book: "Unsafe at Any Speed" by Ralph Nader.

Case: "First National Bank Of Boston V. Bellotti", 1978

Site: Move to Amend

Article: "Constitution of the United States", article 3 section 2. "... the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make..."

Article: "Neil Gorsuch Has Web of Ties to Secretive Billionaire" by Charlie Savage and Julie Turkewitz.

Friday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET 

 

It's Anything Goes Friday!

 

We'll have the latest news and information... everything you need to know to win the water cooler wars...

 

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

 

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week" for "we the people"

 

And don't forget... Democracy is NOT a spectator sport... it begins with you...

Free excerpt, read book for free at Truthout, buy the book!