Trump-free Friday politics roundup: Oct. 20

Tax cuts, health care reform, and the meaningless nature of some pardons all rear their heads on this week’s Trump-free Friday politics roundup.

Senate approves budget for tax cuts

On the heels of a series of painful politics failures regarding healthcare reform, Senate Republicans have successfully passed a budget measure.

Ho-hum, you might say. Who cares about budgets, after all? Yet, money often makes way for larger political movements in any system of government. This particular budget measure concerns the Republican tax reform. Its passage now allows for easier passage of the tax reform overall, regardless of decidedly lackluster Democratic support. None of that pesky need for conferences or committees or the like. The House will now be able to simply pass the measure and push forward with increased tax cuts and more lenient structures.

It’s a strange kind of tax reform, given numerous Republican promises to decrease the federal deficit. However, this current plan would allow it to expand to the tune of up to $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

Arpaio still guilty, kind of

This doesn’t mean that Joe Arpaio, former Maricopa County sheriff and former convict, will be flung back into jail. However, a judge has refused to clear Arpaio’s conviction for criminal contempt.

The 85-year-old former sheriff was pardoned by the president mere months ago, relieving him from facing charges for his violation of a 2007 court order. Arpaio and his deputies reportedly violated said order, put in place after a racial profiling case made it illegal for law enforcement officials to target immigrants and Latino people.

Shortly after the pardon, Arpaio’s attorney’s filed a motion to dismiss all charges. However, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton dismissed the motion. She wrote that, “The pardon undoubtedly spared Defendant from any punishment that might otherwise have been imposed. It did not, however, ‘revise the historical facts’ of this case.”

Small comfort, perhaps, given that Arpaio — who put Arizona inmates in inhumane conditions and advocated for racist and xenophobic policies — still walks free. However, it is at least now a matter of public record that he remains a criminal, regardless of pardon or lack of consequence.

New healthcare deal still might not work. Or maybe it will?

I mean, are we even remotely ready to talk about health care repeal again? Is it so much to ask that we get a couple of weeks off, here and there? Yet, here we are. We will apparently be talking about the merits and failures of Obamacare until the actual heat death of the universe.

This time around, we’re now faced with a bipartisan bill that may still have shaky support in Congress. It’s actually truly bipartisan, in that 12 Democrats and 12 Republicans have created a coalition that has since pushed a new healthcare reform bill — the Alexander-Murray Bill. It’s named after Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who crafted the bill together.

What’s the deal with the Alexander-Murray bill? It’s tied, in part, to the changes in health care subsidies that came via executive order last week. The halt in those subsidies is expected to drive up costs in the insurance market, especially for people seeking to find health insurance through exchanges (as opposed to, say, their employers). Up to 16 million Americans may be unable to find insurance via their own counties, according to an earlier estimate via the Congressional Budget Office.

The latest proposed bill would allow states to circumvent some ACA rules and make cheap, low-coverage plans available to more people. Some see it as a key compromise and step towards true bipartisanship. Meanwhile, other lawmakers view the Alexander-Murray bill as merely a stopgap measure in the process towards total ACA repeal. Its promise, however you view it, is therefore without promise. At the very least, the consistently unclear support of the bill has made its fate uncomfortably unclear.

New Zealand picks a prime minister

Lest you think that political news is all terrible, all of the time, there’s New Zealand. Now, it’s not that anyone thinks that New Zealand is somehow above the petty human politics of any other nation. However, it’s at least a little heartening to see the election of Jacinda Ardern. At 37, Ardern is set to be New Zealand’s youngest prime minister in 150 years.

After her election as leader of the flagging Labour Party, Ardern helped push steadily increasing poll numbers. In fact, her popularity and charisma were enough to be dubbed “Jacindamania”. She ran on a platform advocating for increased environmental efforts, more available health care for New Zealanders, and progressively-minded economic reform.

And, finally, your palate cleanser

What are you going to be for Halloween this year? Of course, that’s a question that loaded with personal meaning and cultural history. After all, it’s possible that you don’t even celebrate the occasion for any number of reasons.

But, if you do, you may be inclined towards finding a costume. Maybe you’ve got a party to get to, or you like the thrill of planning an elaborate and oftentimes silly outfit. Perhaps you even just want a comfortable, if goofy bat onesie to lounge around in on the evening in question, while you hand out candy to trick-or-treaters.

Next: Trump-free Friday politics roundup: Oct. 13

At any rate, it turns out that the history of Halloween costumes is pretty fascinating. It’s actually an ancient pagan tradition dating back thousands of years. On occasions like Samhain, believers would undertake all sorts of rites to mark the end of the harvest and the encroachment of winter on their land. While you may be hard-pressed indeed to find some of these rituals in the modern world, dressing up has remained.

For more information, check out LiveScience’s take on the history of Halloween costumes, along with another one from Bustle.