The president's new clothes -- Oct. 26, 2017 column

By MARSHA MERCER

In the Hans Christian Andersen fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” when the little child sees the emperor without clothes, he blurts out the truth.  

Everybody in the village instantly realizes the child is right -- except for the emperor who, shivering, carries on.

“So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all,” the story ends.

If only real life were that simple.

There was no universally shared “ah-ha” moment when two former presidents, a the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and two sitting senators – one his party’s former presidential nominee -- separately denounced President Donald Trump.

Instead, opinion in the American village split along predictable lines. The critiques won praise from the Democratic left and fell on deaf ears of the president’s Republican supporters.

In the latest poll by Fox News, Trump’s favorite news outlet, a whopping 83 percent of Republicans still approve of the job Trump is doing. Only 7 percent of Democrats and 30 percent of independents approve, Fox reported Wednesday.

Overall, because Trump can’t expand support beyond his base, only 38 percent of registered voters surveyed approve of his job performance. That was a new low for the Fox poll.

Americans in 2017 live in parallel universes with their separate news sources, heroes and very different takes on events at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Trump’s foes see nothing good in him and his fans are blind to his faults. Trump himself ricochets between calling congressional Republicans names and insisting they’re having a love fest.

Critics say Trump has accomplished nothing, while he and his press secretary cling to the dubious claim he’s already done more 10 months than President Barack Obama in eight years.

Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, has struck fear in the hearts of Republicans with his well-funded plans to sweep Washington clean of incumbent GOP senators, except for hardliners like Texan Ted Cruz.

Many political observers believe Trump must deliver a substantial policy change to keep Republican voters’ support, hence the rush to enact a tax cut before year’s end.

But Trump’s constant blaming others for his failure to deliver on any of his major campaign promises – build the wall, bring back coal jobs, replace Obamacare with a better, cheaper plan – has worked for him so far.

What is different now is the growing bipartisan resistance to Trump. His two predecessors have taken the extraordinary step of warning Americans about the direction Trump is taking the country. Neither named Trump directly, but their message was clear.

Former President George W. Bush said almost nothing for the eight years Obama was in the White House.

But things have gone so off the rails that the Republican felt obliged to say Oct. 19: “People of every race, religion and ethnicity can be fully and equally American. It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed.”

Lamenting “our discourse degraded by casual cruelty,” Bush pointedly said, “And we know that when we lose sight of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed. It is the failure of those charged with preserving and protecting democracy.”

Speaking the same day at a campaign rally in Richmond for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam, Obama said, “Why are we deliberately trying to misunderstand each other and be cruel to each other and put each other down?”

Republican Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona have rebuked Trump by name, saying he is unfit for office, divisive and debasing the country.

McCain is battling brain cancer, and Corker and Flake, conceding heavy weather for mainstream Republicans in GOP primaries, have announced they will not run for re-election next year.    

Unlike other Republicans, they are free to speak their minds, but such scathing criticism from within a president’s own party is rare. A tough defense and strong fiscal conservatism have been bedrocks of Republicanism for decades.

So when we see staunch fiscal conservatives like Corker and Flake and a defense hawk like McCain call out a Republican president for his policies and his behavior, it should give everyone pause. This is no fairy tale.

©2017 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

`The Martian' reminds that we're stuck on Earth -- Oct. 15, 2015 column

By MARSHA MERCER

To escape our earthly troubles, Americans are going to the movies to see plucky fictional astronaut Mark Watney, played by Matt Damon, struggle with problems that are, well, out of this world.

A box office bonanza for all the right reasons, “The Martian” is an entertaining adventure film that’s funny and thought-provoking.  No matter how bad our days are, we’ve never been left for dead by our colleagues on a hostile planet millions of miles from Earth. 

To set the stage: Watney gets stranded when a storm prompts the crew to make an emergency departure for Earth. He’s the only human and the only living creature on the entire planet. His supply of astronaut food will last only a couple of months, but a rescue, if it comes at all, will take years. To survive, he needs air, water and food in a barren world – and therein lies a tale.

The story is futuristic science fiction, but the movie bathes us in 1950s’ sensibilities. Wearing our 3D glasses, we bask in the glow of pride for Watney’s relentless determination and can-do spirit. He never falls into self-pity or depression.

“I’m going to have to science the (bleep) out of this,” he says cheerfully, in one of the movie’s most-quoted lines.  

With so much going wrong, just about the only thing he complains about is the disco music the mission’s commander left behind.  Oh, and when he runs out of ketchup. What a great American.

  

“The Martian” sends the message that smart is cool. Working hard is cool. Never giving up is not only cool but a matter of life and death. When was a botanist a cinematic hero -- or growing potatoes a major feat?

As we root for Watney and his ingenuity, we admire the dedication of his fellow crew members and NASA’s tireless staff. The country and the world rally around him. In the movie version of America, people work together, united in a cause greater than themselves. Even China wants to be helpful.

The real-life story of the novel on which the movie is based could itself be a movie. Software engineer Andy Weir wrote “The Martian” as a serial in 2009, posting the novel chapter by chapter on his blog. Readers asked for the book in one piece, and he put it on Amazon for 99 cents. It became a cult classic, Random House approached and “The Martian” hit the bestseller lists. Hollywood came calling. Fairy tales can come true.

Reports of salty water on Mars stir our imaginations, and “The Martian” could help NASA gin up support for a Mars mission in an era of flat budgets. When we sent a man to the moon in the 1960s, NASA’s budget peaked at 4.5 percent of federal spending; it’s less than half of 1 percent now.

Without more money, the Mars mission is grounded. The Obama administration is working on a Space Launch System and Orion manned crew vehicle, but NASA’s latest “Journey to Mars” report released Oct. 8 contained no budget, schedule or deadlines.

“It’s just some real pretty photographs and some nice words,” complained Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Tex., chairman of the House Science Committee at a hearing. “A journey to nowhere,” he said.

  

While there is bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for deep-space exploration, presidents come with different visions. President George W. Bush called for a lunar mission by 2020 leading to a trip to Mars. Barack Obama dropped the moon mission when it fell behind schedule in favor of an asteroid mission first, pushing back a crewed mission to orbit Mars to the mid-2030s.

In 1962, at the dawn of the Space Age, President John F. Kennedy said: “We choose to go to the moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone.”

The atmosphere in Washington is too political and too toxic to expect much of anything soon. But the next president should galvanize the public and Congress behind the robust goal of a crewed mission to Mars with a date, budget and deadlines.

The space program has been a technological and emotional boon for generations of Americans and can be again. 

We need the shared national purpose and pride of reaching for the stars in real life – and not just at the movies.

 (C) Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.

30

History says Obamacare may yet thrive -- Oct. 10, 2013 column

By MARSHA MERCER

The new health benefit got off to a rocky start. Complaints about long wait times were flying, and politicians wanted to ditch the law.  

“Any time Washington passes a new law, sometimes the transition period can be interesting,” the president said.

“That,” The New York Times reported dryly, “was something of an understatement.” 

But it wasn’t President Barack Obama, responding last week to complaints about overwhelmed servers and long waits to access the new online marketplaces to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

It was President George W. Bush in March 2006, trying to defuse anger over a new prescription drug benefit for seniors, known as Medicare Part D. Democrats and seniors hated it.

“This is lousy legislation,” then-Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., declared when Bush signed the major new entitlement in December 2003. “We may spend the rest of our careers repairing the flaws of this bill.”

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass, thundered at a rally against the drug benefit:  “Who do you trust? The H.M.O.-coddling, drug-company-loving, Medicare-destroying, Social Security-hating Bush administration? Or do you trust Democrats, who created Medicare and will fight with you to defend it – every day of every week of every year?”

The week Bush signed the prescription benefit, only one in four seniors approved.  Republicans and Democrats were – surprise! -- polarized. Forty-nine percent of Republicans approved and 52 percent of Democrats disapproved, according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll. 

Nearly 10 years later, you’d hardly know anyone ever objected to the prescription benefit.

It’s optional, but nine in 10 seniors choose it. Of these, 90 percent say they’re satisfied with their drug coverage and 60 percent are very satisfied, according to a survey commissioned by Medicare Today, an industry group.

So what does all this say about today’s political flashpoint – Obamacare? It likely is on more solid ground than you might think, despite House Republicans’ dozens of votes to repeal it and multiple proposals to defund or delay it.   

Only about one in three people has a favorable opinion of the health law – far from a ringing endorsement. But when you think that only one in four seniors approved of the drug benefit, one in three is not so shabby.

Plus, while those who think Obamacare goes too far make the most fuss, about 7 percent of those who disapprove of the health law think it didn’t go far enough. There’s still support for a single-payer system.

   

Even its most devoted critics concede that once people actually see the Affordable Care Act in action, they’ll really like it.  

In July, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., told Fox News, “What the administration desperately wants is to get to January, to get the exchanges in place…they want people hooked on Obamacare so it can never be unwound. If we’re going to repeal it, we’ve got to do so now or it will remain with us forever.”

Cruz persuaded his House colleagues to shut down the federal government in the erroneous belief that Obama would cave on Obamacare. Republicans succeeded in shutting down the government, but funding was already in place for the rollout of Obamacare. Open enrollment began as scheduled Oct. 1.

Republicans have backed off repealing and defunding Obamacare, although they’d still like to delay it.

Obama insists that one day his signature health law will be as beloved as the Medicare drug benefit. As even Cruz indicated, it’s hard to see how Congress can take back health insurance after millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions get coverage starting Jan. 1.

Ironically, the government shutdown Cruz and others orchestrated has given the exchanges breathing room. The shutdown is more newsworthy than computer problems plaguing the rollout.

The glitches don’t get the media scrutiny they would if the marketplaces were the big news story in town. 

The Obama administration talks about the millions who have gone on the marketplaces, but it has not said how many people have been able to close the deal and buy insurance so far. Open enrollment continues through March 31.  

As another president once said, “Any time Washington passes a new law, sometimes the transition period can be interesting.”

© 2013 Marsha Mercer. All rights reserved.