The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.
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President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.
The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
I would know. I am one of them.
To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.
But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.
The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.
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Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.
In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.
Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.
But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.
From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.
Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.
“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.
The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.
It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.
The result is a two-track presidency.
Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.
Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.
On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.
This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.
Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.
Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.
We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.
There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.
The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/i-am-part-of-the-resistance-inside-the-trump-administration/ar-BBMVtbs?ocid=spartandhp

Health CARE costs were rising faster than inflation long before the ACA and you are wrong about the private sector not contributing the most to the rise in health CARE costs. Administrative costs contribute to 25.3 percent of all health care spending in the U.S., the highest of eight nations analyzed in a 2014 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs.

Duke University Hospital, for instance, has roughly 900 beds and 1,500 billing clerks. Why because of literally 100s of private, for profit health INSURERS that make billing as complicated as possible and denying as many claims as possible. My doctor brother said to look at the employee parking lot of any hospital on any given weekday and it will be full. Look at that same employee parking lot on a weekend and it will be nearly empty. Why? Because most of the hospital employees work in administration, specifically billing.

Another issue that cause health CARE costs to rise is giant health CARE$ facilities owned by giant corporations using the legislature (the buying off of politicians...er...lobbying) to pass laws and regulations that make it difficult, if not impossible, for health care providers or would-be providers to first obtain permission from the government and often their competition like nearby hospitals to establish or expand a facility. What does this do? It eliminates competition.

In most other areas of commerce, the consumer knows the price up front. Not so with health CARE where the full cost of the tab may not be clear for weeks or months, and even then, the consumer isn't charged the actual cost of the service. In the meantime, the patient's insurance company negotiates the price of procedures with the provider until the parties reach an agreement...back to high administrative costs in dealing with private, for profit health INSURERS.

It would be much easier to begin lowering health care costs once the population's health CARE is covered by one entity. A Medicare for All system would accomplish this by giving the government the tools to negotiate lower health care costs, along with lower prescription drug costs. Hospitals and private practitioners would be relieved of high administrative overhead, eliminating costly collection activities and lower staffing requirements by having to deal with one payer.

Medicare for All would eliminate the ridiculously high premiums, deductible and co-pays consumers pay the private, for profit health INSURANCE corporations saving 95% of taxpayers and most businesses BILLIONS even with the slightly higher Medicare for All taxes and by taxing the unearned incomes of capital gains and dividends of the rich.

Why is it that you anti-Medicare for All parrots for the private, for profit health INSURANCE corporations NEVER want to address the $700 BILLION that the health INSURANCE and big PHARMA corporations extract from the health CARE system that provides NO ONE any health CARE?

Your stance is really quite laughable while supporting anyone in the likes of Trump who is not only the Biggest lying president in our history but also the most unscholarly, ill-equipped, discourteous, an unlettered person to be seated in the White House, or to better quote him, as he would..."he's really really bad". He can't keep people and the people who are still there are running around every day trying to handle Trump damage. Working with a spoiled child constantly having tantrums, pathetic.

Biden is a great human being and was an excellent VP. Oh yeah I suppose to you Pence has been great but the only thing he's done is separate mother,s from their children. ...

Better still, why don't you prove the "math" will never work for Medicare for All?

After all, isn't the point of insurance is to have the largest possible pool to distribute risk. So, wouldn't a Medicare for All system create the largest risk pool ever (320 MILLION ) to distribute that risk over the entire society? The point of making it public is we can then negotiate collectively with the hospital and pharma industries, which, after all, exist to make a profit. This not only drives down costs for patients, but also ensures that no one dies for lack of health care.

Would it not also eliminate the bloodsucking special interests of corporate/government collusion that now has a stranglehold on health CARE?

So how does the math work with people and businesses paying absurdly high premiums to private, for profit health INSURANCE corporations and then those same corporations extracting $600 BILLION annually from those premiums that pays for no ones' health CARE while the government (taxpayers) still have to pay for those that get it got free (the poor) and those that create the most in health CARE costs (the elderly)?

http://www.chieftain.com/opinion/editorials/medicare-for-all-too-costly-not-so-fast/article_16584f84-b0b9-11e8-8eda-ff5dc3b2f281.html

I would like to remind the U of I obama was the most corrupt a lawless president in the nation's history and this award will make your school of 'learning' a national joke for years to come You have till the 7th to change what if any mind you have
(1)obama's using the IRS to target conservative groups.
(2) In the GM bailout, Obama illegally ordered the bankruptcy court to ignore shareholders and non-union members in order to restore union members.
Shareholders lost 100 percent of their investments.
(3) In Operation Fast and Furious, the Obama ATF allowed straw buyers to arm the Mexican drug cartels.
Hundreds of Mexican police and citizens were murdered as a result.
(4) Instead of deporting illegals, the Obama US Customs and Border Protection took them to bus stations in McAllen, Texas, bought them tickets, gave them payment vouchers, and turned them loose.
(5) The Obama Department of Justice used Operation Choke Point to illegally pressure banks to not do business with gun dealers.
(6) In order to implement gun-control measures, Obama illegally bypassed Congress using Executive Orders.
Trump rescinded the Executive Orders, thus reducing the power of the Executive Branch and returning it to Congress, where it belongs.
(7) Obama illegally implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which is not any form of government rule.
He simply ordered that his administration carry out his wishes.
(8) Obama illegally ordered the Labor Department to delay the caps on our-of-pocket expenditures under ObamaCare.
The law was changed without legislation. Obama simply ordered it done.
(9) Obama illegally delayed the employer mandate of ObamaCare.
Again, that was done without legislation. Obama simply ordered it to happen.
(10) Obama illegally ordered the Office of Personnel Management to exempt Congress and their staff from the requirement that they get their coverage through ObamaCare exchanges.
(11) Obama illegally delayed the requirement that the public buy ObamaCare-compliant plans, and THEN he rejected House legislation that would have made his actions legal.
(12) Obama illegally ordered the IRS to ignore the requirement that tax credits be offered only for use of state exchanges. Instead, the IRS was ordered to offer tax credits for state, regional, subsidiary, and federal exchanges.
(13) Obama illegally ordered the IRS to profile political organizations. Formal guidelines were issued to "be on the lookout" for groups that had specific words in their titles or descriptions.
(14) The Supreme Court ruled against the Obama administration more than any administration in history.
In each case, the government's only argument was that federal power has no limitations.
(15) Obama illegally made recess appointments when Congress was still in session.
(16) Obama's Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights and Justice Department illegally sent out guidelines to speech on college campuses. The procedure denied legal representation, encouraged punishment before trial, and used a “more likely than not” conviction standard.
(17) Obama illegally ordered the Department of Homeland Security to issue work and residence permits to the so-called Dreamers.
(18) Obama's Justice Department illegally obtained recorded conversations from employees of the Associated Press.
(19) Obama illegally ordered the Boeing company to close a non-union plant in South Carolina.
(20) Obama fired Gerald Walpin-- Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service--after Walpin reported that Obama friend Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson used AmeriCorps funding to pay for political activities.
(21) Obama illegally met in secret with lobbyists hundreds of times, violating disclosure laws.
(22) Obama raided the guitar factory of a REPUBLICAN manufacturer for allegedly using illegal wood, while the DEMOCRATIC manufacturer was allowed to continue using the same wood.
(23) Obama illegally appointed "czars," thus bypassing the requirement that Congress approve appointees.
(24) Obama illegally demanded payment for Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
(25) Obama illegally directed most of the "Stimulus" to union pension funds paying off his cronies.
(26) Obama illegally exempted unions from most ObamaCare requirements.
(27) Obama lied about the Benghazi attack, claiming that it was caused by a movie trailer, when in fact it was a carefully planned al-Qaeda attack that involved over 150 men armed with gun trucks, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades.
(28) Obama protected terrorist group Hezbollah by stalling Opperation Cassandra.
(29) obama spied on FOX News, James Rosen
(30) obama lied to the American people on the Iran Nuclear Deal.
(31) obama sent $2 billion in cash to the largest sponcer of terrorism on Earth, Iran.

I could go on but what has already been said shows obama was without a doughty the most lawless of all president in US history. I doughty he even knows what ethics are and just like stupid is no excuse for voting democrat being Black is no excuse for being lawless. U of I your ability in teaching is only dwarfed by advanced stupid which shows like a signal flare on a long Moonless night.

They even threw in the dirty word "socialist" which would bias many away from it.

In another aspect FOX pulled some ludicrous number out of their butt of $32 Trillion that this socialist program would cost.

In a shakeup of the for profit medical system it wouldn't cost any more than is going into the system right now. The cost of healthcare right now is the highest per person that has it in the world by thousands of dollars. In a government healthcare for all system there would be a total revamp of the billing system for hospitals and pharmaceutical companies.

two elderly guests, Papa Gringo and badbobby, attended a party given by a business associate to mark his daughter's engagement to a man she had been living with for three years, they grumbled about the decline in moral standards.
'All these people sleeping together before they're married,' badbobby muttered indignantly. 'I didn't sleep with my wife before we were married. Did you?'
'I don't know,' answered Poppa Gringo thoughtfully. 'What was her maiden name?'



Papi
if you read this
know that I'm thinking of you