Leo Ashner

The editorial piece that I read was entitled: Why Undoing Obamacare Will Be So Hard, by Steven Rattner. In his piece, he talks about the difficulties involved with the Republicans' goal of dismantling the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Rattner writes, "what is becoming increasingly clear is the extent to which Obamacare has become embedded in the American health care structure". He backs it up with numerous facts including the 23-26 million Americans who were able to purchase healthcare with Obamacare; who had not been able to afford healthcare prior. Another issue is that Republicans have made numerous promises that some of the most popular provisions of the act will be kept in tact, yet they also promised to cut the taxes that were used to finance those parts. It does not take an economist to realize that without funding, what's left of the A.C.A. will not be capable of supporting those popular provisions and Americans will be back to a time when people with previous medical conditions were unable to get medical insurance. Personally I agree with Steven Rattner and I believe that most rational people would as well. He frames out his argument well and offers a lot of detail. The intended audience for this piece is definitely liberals who are educated. When Mr. Rattner is not writing editorials in the New York Times, he is the Chairman of a investment advising firm that represents former mayor, Michael Bloomberg. His resume is impressive as he was formerly a wall-street financier who ended up being a councilor to the secretary of energy under President Obama. Steven Rattner is an interesting individual as one would not expect for a previous Wall-Street financier to care to preserve the Affordable Care Act, but this piece goes to show that a repeal wouldn't be bad for those that are current beneficiaries, but it would be bad in general.

Blog Stage 2: Stay on Immigration upheld

As many already are aware, Trump desperately wants to pass his anti immigration policies. The article that I read, Court Refuses to Reinstate Travel Ban, Dealing Trump Another Legal Loss, opens with news of the decision from the Federal Appeals Court that Trump's ban has officially been halted. The national government played an important role in upholding the ban's repeal. The decision to repeal the ban came from a Federal judge's ruling last week, issued in San Francisco. Although Trump brought the appeal before the Supreme court, their 4-4 tie allows the Federal judge's previous ruling to remain in effect. I believe that this article is a worthwhile read because it reminds people why Trump's Supreme Court pick is important. Had he already had his Supreme Court pick approved, the decision from San Francisco would have likely been overturned. The fight to stop the travel ban is clearly not over.

NYT Article