Rep Mark Pocan (D-WI) sat down to talk with MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell about the "Kind of Trumpestan" and how Taco Don's incoherent use of tariffs is already hurting people and the cuts to ACA will hurt people.
They started by talking about the volatile, haphazard nature of Trump's tariffs and how it's making it impossible for small mom and pop stores be ready for the holidays without getting slapped with Trump's arbitrary taxes on things. Then O'Donnell asked Pocan if he has spoken to any Trump voters and if they match the polls saying they're experiencing buyer's remorse. Pocan had this to say:
“I have to admit, I had a meeting I enjoyed too much, Lawrence, where a bunch of Republican, Trump-voting business people were complaining about the tariffs. I said, ‘Elections have consequences, don’t they?’ They didn’t really say much, but they’re definitely impacted, and those costs get passed on to consumers. This is just another tax from Donald Trump. He didn’t address the cost of living like he promised, and now he’s taking us in the completely wrong direction by giving us new taxes through these tariffs. The problem is that, because they’re so indiscriminate, and there’s not really a policy to them, you never know when you’re going to pay more for things. I saw that tomatoes are about to increase with the tariffs coming from Mexico, and I saw a restaurant owner saying they may not be in business in 45 days if they’re still existing.”
Towards the end of the interview, Pocan talked about some of the real-life ramifications from the ACA will be. It looks like former Rep Paul Ryan is going to get to sell his cat food to Grandma after all:
“Donald Trump cares about one thing: Donald Trump. As long as he’s getting a tax cut, as long as he’s getting something out of this, some connection with a ruler of another country, and he can put a hotel up or something, that’s what he cares about. The problem is, for all the people in my district who have been calling our office at record numbers this year, health insurance matters. For people on the Affordable Care Act, losing the subsidy, I was told a couple who are 60 years old, making $85,000 a year, could see their premiums go up as much as $16,000 next year. You may not be able to afford health insurance anymore. And then there’s the ripple effects; those rural hospitals and nursing homes are going to be affected. There’s just so much that’s going to happen, and they even made sure that some of them didn’t take place till after the next election, but the ACA cuts people are going to feel right away.”
One thing that caught my attention was when O'Donnell mentioned that if the Democrats win back all the seats they had lost by 1% or less, they'd have control of the house. That would be a rather achievable goal without Trump helping push people back to the good side. We don't dare set our goals too low.
