If one is still not convinced of the cruelty and mendacity of Republicans today, then one is:
A) Complicit in the GOP's madness
B) Not paying attention
C) Delusional beyond hope
D) Suffering from anosognosia
E) All of the above.
This week proved it more than ever when Republicans, who had campaigned on repealing Obamacare when they were the minority; decided to "repeal and replace" when they took over both chambers of Congress and the White House; postponed a vote on the American Health Care Act on Thursday so Donald "The Closer" Trump could seal the deal, and withdrew the bill on Friday when it was obvious that defeat was at hand.
Simply, the cruelty of the Republican bill was too much for some moderate members of that party, and not severe enough for some of its conservative members. That the bill would have placed too many grandmothers, grandfathers, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren at risk was not enough to stop the Paul Ryan express.
And that is the problem. Though this effort faced its own death panel, other efforts may live on and may be successful.
Ryan, the Republican House Speaker from Wisconsin, offered up the AHCA with great fanfare, even providing his customary PowerPoint to impress the media and the American people.
If the AHCA is passed, Ryan promised, Americans would be free of the yoke of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as Republicans derisively call the former president's heath-care insurance plan. Medicaid would be block granted, and the mandate to purchase insurance would be lifted from those who have been harmed by the socialist overreach of Barack Hussein Obama.
Of course, anyone with critical literacy or critical thinking skills knows that to be untrue.
The AHCA is nothing more than a vicious manifestation of Republican desires to make heath care a privilege, not a right. Under the plan announced by Ryan, as many as 14 million people would lose health care in the first year of the plan, according to scoring by the Congressional Budget Office. That number would shoot up to 24 million within a decade, the office concluded. In addition, the cost of health insurance would have jumped 500 percent for the elderly.
The Congressional Budget Office lists many other problems with the Ryan-doesn't-really-care plan.
Yet, while nearly everyone -- from doctors, to hospitals, to citizens, to AARP -- trashed the AHCA, Republicans tried to force it through the House of Representatives, claiming the AHCA would dramatically reduce how much Americans pay for health insurance. (That is probably the one thing that is true about the program: Many Americans will realize those much-vaunted premium savings because they will not have to pay premiums after losing their policies.)
So when discussing the AHCA on the Sunday talk shows, Democrat after Democrat attacked the Republican plan while many in the GOP applauded the speaker's bold action. Too be fair, some Republicans, particularly those in the Senate who hail from state's that expanded Medicaid, voiced concerns about increased costs and benefit reductions for the elderly and poor. Many Republicans, though, cheered the proposed destruction of Medicaid, as well as the gutting of government subsidies to buy insurance. The complaint of the Freedom Caucus was that Ryancare was not draconian enough.
The level of glee at denying millions of people health-care coverage -- along with the conflation that is the Republican standard -- was mind boggling.
On one show on MSNBC, for example, the host brought on a Republican party official from North Carolina and a Democratic strategist to discuss the plan. As one would expect each echoed the talking points of his party.
Where the breakdown really occurred was when the North Carolina Republican proclaimed the AHCA as a great thing because it would allow states to determine who was eligible for Medicaid and would once again increase the support that private charities give to the poor.
To make his point, the North Carolina Republican cited the way the people of the Raleigh-Durham area pulled together to help those affected by a large fire in downtown Raleigh..
The host of the show then became complicit with Republican mendacity and cruelty. Instead of deconstructing that Republican assertion, he quickly moved on to a different question.
North Carolina was one of the state's that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That means that tens -- if not hundreds -- of thousands of people who might have gotten health insurance that could have lead to care that could have saved their lives were left uninsured. So how did that work out for poor people in that state?
In addition, while people may be quick to respond to a one-off tragedy such as a fire in the heart of a city, it is another thing to expect that same community to respond each and every day to the tragedies facing those without health-care insurance. Imagine the massive undertaking that would be needed for a community to help just 100 families with their medical needs. It could easily overwhelm and drain that community's resources.
That is when the Federal government is supposed to step in. Spreading that costs across the nation through taxes helps all Americans. Yes, some people will be better off than others under such a system. But isn't that what insurance is all about?
A healthy young man or woman might lose on some levels because each may not use their insurance that much. The upside is that by sharing the burden of costs a family that is struggling or an elderly person with greater health needs may have a chance to live longer because of medical care.
Suggesting or hoping that the local church, VFW, Kiwanis Club, Moose Lodge, or any other civic organization should carry such a burden everyday is to expect too much, particularly in light of The Closer's proposal to cut funding from Meals on Wheels.In many towns and cities across America, those charitable organizations are already overwhelmed by the need to feed families, some of whom include working adults.
We are not a small country, and when one realizes the size and diverse needs of America one begins to realize that small government just does not cut it. People come to accept that fact when their community is hit by a natural disaster and the federal government redistributes wealth by sending federal dollars through FEMA to help people rebuild their lives.
Luckily many people, including some Trump voters, are waking up to these facts, albeit slowly. Now they must answer another pressing question: When the 2018 midterm elections arrive I will:
A) Register to vote and register my family and friends
B) Vote in my congressional, state, and local elections
C) Fight efforts to roll back programs that help those who need help the most
D) Oust morally corrupt legislators
E) All of the above.
A) Complicit in the GOP's madness
B) Not paying attention
C) Delusional beyond hope
D) Suffering from anosognosia
E) All of the above.
This week proved it more than ever when Republicans, who had campaigned on repealing Obamacare when they were the minority; decided to "repeal and replace" when they took over both chambers of Congress and the White House; postponed a vote on the American Health Care Act on Thursday so Donald "The Closer" Trump could seal the deal, and withdrew the bill on Friday when it was obvious that defeat was at hand.
Simply, the cruelty of the Republican bill was too much for some moderate members of that party, and not severe enough for some of its conservative members. That the bill would have placed too many grandmothers, grandfathers, fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, cousins, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren at risk was not enough to stop the Paul Ryan express.
And that is the problem. Though this effort faced its own death panel, other efforts may live on and may be successful.
Ryan, the Republican House Speaker from Wisconsin, offered up the AHCA with great fanfare, even providing his customary PowerPoint to impress the media and the American people.
If the AHCA is passed, Ryan promised, Americans would be free of the yoke of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as Republicans derisively call the former president's heath-care insurance plan. Medicaid would be block granted, and the mandate to purchase insurance would be lifted from those who have been harmed by the socialist overreach of Barack Hussein Obama.
Of course, anyone with critical literacy or critical thinking skills knows that to be untrue.
The AHCA is nothing more than a vicious manifestation of Republican desires to make heath care a privilege, not a right. Under the plan announced by Ryan, as many as 14 million people would lose health care in the first year of the plan, according to scoring by the Congressional Budget Office. That number would shoot up to 24 million within a decade, the office concluded. In addition, the cost of health insurance would have jumped 500 percent for the elderly.
The Congressional Budget Office lists many other problems with the Ryan-doesn't-really-care plan.
Yet, while nearly everyone -- from doctors, to hospitals, to citizens, to AARP -- trashed the AHCA, Republicans tried to force it through the House of Representatives, claiming the AHCA would dramatically reduce how much Americans pay for health insurance. (That is probably the one thing that is true about the program: Many Americans will realize those much-vaunted premium savings because they will not have to pay premiums after losing their policies.)
So when discussing the AHCA on the Sunday talk shows, Democrat after Democrat attacked the Republican plan while many in the GOP applauded the speaker's bold action. Too be fair, some Republicans, particularly those in the Senate who hail from state's that expanded Medicaid, voiced concerns about increased costs and benefit reductions for the elderly and poor. Many Republicans, though, cheered the proposed destruction of Medicaid, as well as the gutting of government subsidies to buy insurance. The complaint of the Freedom Caucus was that Ryancare was not draconian enough.
The level of glee at denying millions of people health-care coverage -- along with the conflation that is the Republican standard -- was mind boggling.
On one show on MSNBC, for example, the host brought on a Republican party official from North Carolina and a Democratic strategist to discuss the plan. As one would expect each echoed the talking points of his party.
Where the breakdown really occurred was when the North Carolina Republican proclaimed the AHCA as a great thing because it would allow states to determine who was eligible for Medicaid and would once again increase the support that private charities give to the poor.
To make his point, the North Carolina Republican cited the way the people of the Raleigh-Durham area pulled together to help those affected by a large fire in downtown Raleigh..
The host of the show then became complicit with Republican mendacity and cruelty. Instead of deconstructing that Republican assertion, he quickly moved on to a different question.
North Carolina was one of the state's that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That means that tens -- if not hundreds -- of thousands of people who might have gotten health insurance that could have lead to care that could have saved their lives were left uninsured. So how did that work out for poor people in that state?
In addition, while people may be quick to respond to a one-off tragedy such as a fire in the heart of a city, it is another thing to expect that same community to respond each and every day to the tragedies facing those without health-care insurance. Imagine the massive undertaking that would be needed for a community to help just 100 families with their medical needs. It could easily overwhelm and drain that community's resources.
That is when the Federal government is supposed to step in. Spreading that costs across the nation through taxes helps all Americans. Yes, some people will be better off than others under such a system. But isn't that what insurance is all about?
A healthy young man or woman might lose on some levels because each may not use their insurance that much. The upside is that by sharing the burden of costs a family that is struggling or an elderly person with greater health needs may have a chance to live longer because of medical care.
Suggesting or hoping that the local church, VFW, Kiwanis Club, Moose Lodge, or any other civic organization should carry such a burden everyday is to expect too much, particularly in light of The Closer's proposal to cut funding from Meals on Wheels.In many towns and cities across America, those charitable organizations are already overwhelmed by the need to feed families, some of whom include working adults.
We are not a small country, and when one realizes the size and diverse needs of America one begins to realize that small government just does not cut it. People come to accept that fact when their community is hit by a natural disaster and the federal government redistributes wealth by sending federal dollars through FEMA to help people rebuild their lives.
Luckily many people, including some Trump voters, are waking up to these facts, albeit slowly. Now they must answer another pressing question: When the 2018 midterm elections arrive I will:
A) Register to vote and register my family and friends
B) Vote in my congressional, state, and local elections
C) Fight efforts to roll back programs that help those who need help the most
D) Oust morally corrupt legislators
E) All of the above.
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