While we watch football, real battle is in Washington

The president doubled down on his conflict with the NFL, tweeting today that “the issue of kneeling has nothing to do with race. It is about respect for our Country, Flag and National Anthem. NFL must respect this!”

President Trump makes a good point, one most red state residents probably agree with, but Nebraska Nice might have worded his Friday night statement, which kicked off the controversy, a little differently.

“Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a bitch off the field right now, out, he's fired, he's fired,” he said at a political rally in Alabama.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers, many of them as frustrated with their party’s leadership as Trump is with the NFL, are debating an issue likely to have life-or-death effects on American citizens that will show the NFL controversy to be the tempest-in-a-teapot it really is.

Some of the debate over the latest GOP health proposal echoes the arrangement called, rightly or wrongly, the “Cornhusker kickback” that preceded then Sen. Ben Nelson’s decisive vote to pass the Affordable Care Act.

Under the new GOP plan, states like Nebraska, which didn’t expand Medicaid coverage under Obamacare, would receive a share of federal funding now going to states that did.

They include Alaska, home to Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is one of the undecided senators. As of this morning, the measure could not pass if one more GOP senator defected.

Besides redistributing Medicaid money, the bill would cap overall federal spending on the program, causing the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation to conclude that 35 states plus Washington D.C. would lose nearly $160 billion in federal financing from 2020 to 2026.

Medicaid currently covers more than 70 million Americans, including many newborns, adults in low-wage jobs, disabled people and many elderly nursing home residents.

The administration says the bill still contains an adequate amount of money and governors would find better ways to serve as many people, if not more, more efficiently.

Many medical organizations have opposed the bill, saying it would reverse the progress that has seen the nation’s uninsured rate drop to a historic low of about 9 percent.

Americans, from the president to members of Congress to common voters who should be debating healthcare and any number of other vital issues are now spending their time and energy talking about the behavior of a few millionaire athletes for a few minutes at the beginning of football games.

We have better things to do.