Day 918.
There is one thing that is certain. This certainty came to light during the 2018 midterm elections. It is the idea that Americans want health care and that was the number one issue during those midterm elections.
The real battle began when the Republican Congress tried to repeal the ACA with their “skinny” version. It failed in the Senate. Something that trump is still seething over. Then, when the midterms came around, people were up in arms over their healthcare and wanted to make sure their representatives backed their support for the ACA.
As a result, Democrats did very well in those midterms. The healthcare issue carried many of them to victory. Republicans kept saying they wanted to “protect pre-existing conditions” but kept voting to remove those protections, as well as many others.
Additionally, 20 Republican controlled states were involved in a law suit trying to eliminate the law. They say that since Congress removed the mandate, that makes the whole law unconstitutional. That is a silly argument by any stretch of the imagination, but a judge in Texas agreed. His ruling is on hold until the case works its way through the courts.
During his rambling State of the Union address this year, trump even said that he would “defend pre-existing conditions” protections. He lied.
Yesterday, while everyone was very interested in the Mueller report, the administration did a complete 180 when it comes to healthcare. They filed with the courts papers that say they want the entire Affordable Care Act tossed out.
Previously, they argued that only certain sections should be tossed. But, now they say the entire law should be tossed. Our dear leader promised us that he would provide healthcare “for everyone”. He lied during the campaign over that as well.
If the courts follow the lower court and toss out the ACA, literally millions of people will lose their healthcare coverage. This includes those with pre-existing conditions, people who were added with Medicaid expansion, and many more.
Those low and middle-class earners who received credits to keep their premiums down will lose those credits meaning they will not be able to afford their health insurance.
And the effects would not stop there. The health care law includes all kinds of other, lesser-known provisions, touching everything from the way Medicare pays hospitals to the calorie counts on food menus.
In addition, before the ACA became law, rural areas saw their hospitals close down in droves. The law, because of the Medicaid expansion, saved many of those hospitals. If the law is tossed out by the courts, we will begin to see those hospitals close down again. And, that is where most of trump supporters live. So, he is planning to destroy his own supporters healthcare.
It must also be pointed out that it is very unusual for any administration not to defend a law on the books. Even if the president doesn’t like the law. That is common practice because it is a law passed by Congress and signed by a president.
However, that doesn’t mean anything to this president. He doesn’t like the law, so he has done everything in his power to get it removed. Now, he is willing to make the lives of millions of Americans worse by taking away their healthcare.
And, as usual, the Republican Politburo has no plan as to what to do if this law is tossed out by the courts. For years they argued against the laws, but put forth nothing that would help the American people keep their healthcare.
Their repeal and skinny replacement plan failed because it meant millions of people would lose their insurance. Now, they are still trying to take that protection away from their own constituents. The biggest question is why?
Even though the administration failed to even advertise the open enrollment period for the ACA last year, there were more people who signed up than before. People have come to realize that this law is for their benefit. They have come to realize that having healthcare is not only important, it is their right.
However, for trump and his Politburo, what the American people want is not important. What the American people demand from their representatives is not important. What is important is their ideology and their donors.
The majority of Americans want the ACA to remain in place. The majority of Americans want sensible gun control laws. The majority of Americans want no stupid Berlin Wall on the southern border. The majority of Americans want us to rebuild our infrastructure.
None of that matters to trump or his Politburo. As a result, they don’t listen to their constituents, mainly because they live in districts so gerrymandered that they don’t worry about losing elections.
Couple that with the fact that too many people swallow the Kool-Aide and vote party instead of policies, these same people keep getting elected. Too many people vote party even if it means going against their own pocketbooks.
As a result, too many politicians feel immune to actually doing what the people want. The upcoming elections are already shaping up. The Democrats are talking policies and new ideas. Even if you don’t like them, at least they are telling you what they think.
The Republicans on the other hand is only talking about “socialism”, “the radical left” and “immigration dangers”. You can always tell when a party has no policies to offer because they simply refuse to discuss any policies. That is what the Republicans are already doing, and it will get worse as the election get closer.
That is the window in which trump thinks he can crawl through in order to take away your health insurance. It is the reason he believes that he won’t get “hurt” if millions of people lose their insurance.
What it really boils down to is the simple fact that neither trump nor his Politburo believe you deserve health insurance. They believe that insurance companies can charge whatever they want, and if you can’t afford it, too bad. They don’t care about you because they only want those health insurance company donor dollars rolling in.
While everyone was distracted by the Mueller report, our dear leader told about 40 million people their healthcare doesn’t matter to him. He is telling about 40 million people they don’t deserve to be protected from bankruptcy over health care costs. He is telling about 40 million people they don’t deserve a chance to keep living by having health insurance.
The budget he sent to Congress already slashes Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. Now he wants to do more harm by getting rid of health insurance for millions of people, just because he thinka he can.
And, the shirts keep marching along.
Lean Left World 