Let Them Eat Cake

Over the last few months, Republicans have to be thinking: Governing is really hard! It's much easier to toss rhetorical bombs into the Body Politic without worrying about social consequences. It's much more fun to create Boogeymen via well-financed political attack machines and then rail against them to your base. It's much more enjoyable, and profitable, voting to "Repeal and Replace" Obamacare over 50 times for nearly eight years without having any plan to replace it.

Much has been written about the pro's and con's of the ACA versus the current Congressional Health Care bill. So let's not get deep into the weeds. What is interesting is the process and the past claims.

Candidate Trump promised a whole new and much improved Health Care package for all suffering Americans. It would cover everyone and be More and Better and Cheaper, and it would be Beautiful. But then Reality stepped in it after Election Day; Trump noticed he didn't have a Health Care plan, and things became complicated.

Speaker Paul Ryan displayed his renowned policy skills back in 2010 when he offered up a whole entire 26 page alternative to Obamacare, complete with big fonts, double spacing, charts and lots of graphics. But, to be fair,  he also warned about the need to develop a real program to immediately replace OCare. Then he forgot about it.

Mitch McConnell and his fellow Congressional creatures have made a career out of criticizing Democrats and Barack Obama, calling them feckless (at best) and quasi-traitors (at near worst). He worked to prevent his party from participating with the original Obamacare construction, even though most of it originated from the plans put forth by former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R) and Governor Mitt Romney (R). His "Party of No" obstructed as effectively as they could. But can they govern? So far, so bad.

This is what happens when Republicans finds themselves in a Governing situation after having spent an entire generation calling the opposition devils and traitors. After years of listening to this demonizing rhetoric from politicians, Fox News and Hate Radio, their base instinctively believes every word of it. Therefore any talk of "negotiating" or "compromising" with the opposition is perceived as an act of political suicide: the outraged base will say, 'why are you compromising with The Devil you told us about?' This is when primary challengers to incumbents come out to play.

So... we know the Health Care bill in Congress would result in significant societal changes. The rate/number of American uninsured's would rise back sharply to near-record 2010 levels. Americans who fall too deeply into financial debt because of medical bills will represent a return to the bad old days when  fully HALF of the nation's bankruptcies resulted from medical bills. And Americans who die from treatable illnesses left untreated because of poor health care coverage will bump against the number of deaths from firearms each year (over 30,000).

But not to worry! "Nobody dies from lack of access to healthcare," says this very smart Republican member of Congress:

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/raul-labrador-town-hall-nobody-dies-access-to-healthcare-obamacare

And everyone who depends on Medicaid (and implicitly, any other form of subsidy), you can take heart that the President's own advisor, Kellyanne Conway, has your back:

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/25/kellyanne-conway-those-on-medicaid-who-will-lose-insurance-can-get-jobs.html

Yep, you can always get that good paying job that has full health benefits. These jobs are all out there, just waiting for those folk on Disability to get the gumption to leave the dole and make something of their lazy-ass selves. If they can't eat any bread, let them eat cake!

But wait, you say, if this bill is so bad, who is for it? Well, it's a select group. Although Anthem Insurance is for it and Blue Cross stops just short of endorsing it (insurers will make much more money!!), the Health Care providers - the groups that know what is happening here - are loudly calling "foul!" American Medical Association, American Hospital Association and the usual bunch of stridently progressive liberal organizations, ha ha, doctors are Lefties.  Oh, also the crotchety old folks at AARP and those amoralists, the U.S. Catholic Bishops. And the ever-popular More:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/26/politics/ama-opposes-senate-health-bill/index.html

Anyone who is not healthy or wealthy, this ice floe is for you...

In the end, if Trumpcare does pass as planned, the next 10 years will mark such a decline in the nation's general health that the pendulum will be swinging full force towards a Single Payer/Medicare  For All system. What will be truly regrettable is the needless suffering that will transpire in the meantime, all for a disingenuous campaign promise that is really a masquerade for a massive Tax Cut to the wealthy.

Does this all make you mad? Does it produce a confounded curse issuing from your lips? Does it leave you truly frustrated but not knowing what to do about any of it? May we suggest you click on the link below and register for The  Daily Action. Every day around 9 or 10am you will get a text acting as a prompt to action. There will be an Issue of the Day, and a phone number to call or email - your Congress Folk, usually, but sometimes your Governor or even your state legislators. It's all prepared for you so that your valuable time each day is not wasted. And you will feel GREAT because you've demonstrated that you give a damn... every day!

https://dailyaction.org

This is really easy and very effective!!

And now that we're thinking about how to improve our health, let's take a couple of minutes to listen to Martin Mull as he reminds us to "keep one eye out for highway danger, and the other out for fruit":

Such sublimely silly stuff.