The Top 6 Republican Deceptions About Trumpcare

As House Speaker and Guinness Book of World Records Holder for Pulling Wings off of the Most Flies As a Ten Year Old, Paul Ryan struggles to keep the American Health Care Bill (aka the “Old, Poor and Insured is no Way to go Through Life Bill”) from swirling down the toilet (along with his last shred of humanity and political future), he, Trump and fellow Republican cronies are trying to shove this bill down the throats of Americans (not a covered procedure).

The transparent lipstick they’re trying to put on this pig (no pigs were harmed in the making of this bill…though their droppings do comprise the bulk of it) doesn’t seem to be helping but it can be annoying to those who still think there is no alternative to truth. So, below is a list of the top 6 lies that Republicans are using to try to deceive Americans about the AHCA (Against Human Compassion in America):

TOP SIX DECEPTIONS FROM REPUBLICANS ON TRUMPCARE

1. “Obamacare is collapsing.”  No, it’s not. The recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report which analyzed the AHCA (and found it would cause 24 million Americans to lose healthcare) also analyzed the state of the ACA and concluded that it is stable. Now who should we believe? The guy who says his inauguration (on the right) was the most attended in history or the non-partisan CBO?
2. “The CBO’s numbers are wrong.” This is the Republican equivalent of being five years old and saying, “Nuh-uh!” Republicans have tried to rush through one of the most life-changing,  wide-reaching pieces of legislation ever passed in just weeks with ZERO analysis. Yet when an analysis is finally done, they know with total surety that it’s wrong because…er…they just know, so there! How many studies have Republicans done to affirm their beliefs…oh yeah, zero. They have no facts, no numbers, no analysis to support their phony claims about the benefits of the AHCA or poke a hole in the CBO’s estimates. And let’s not ignore simple common sense. If you cut $880 billion from subsidies for poor and elderly people to get health care, a lot less of them will healthcare. Really, is that so hard to understand? Do Republicans think the poor and elderly losing Medicaid are somehow going to find $880 billion under their couch cushions? Republicans supporting the AHCA also ridiculously claim, “It’s not fair, the CBO’s not including the other two parts of the AHCA that will come later!” The truth is that Republicans don’t even have details yet on what those two parts would even be, outside of allowing insurance to be sold across state lines…which can be done today by insurance companies but isn’t because of the cost of setting up and marketing in more states!
3. “The ACHA will give Americans more freedom and access to choose the plan that’s right for them.” Do you know “Republispeak”? In case some don’t, let’s translate all of this. “Freedom” in Republispeak means “If you can’t afford health insurance, you’re free to go bankrupt or die.” The use of the word “access” is surprisingly accurate. Just as you have access every day to lease a private jet, you’ll have access to buy healthcare. “Access” to health insurance isn’t the sane thing as “having” health insurance, which many won’t be able to afford if the AHCA passes. But at least you’ll have access to healthcare…just like you have access to Ferrari showrooms. And the Republispeak of “choosing the plan that’s right for you” translates into, “You will be able to buy cheaper plans with huge deductibles that don’t cover much and will leave you in a massive financial hole if you have a major health issue or accident…but hey, the price of the premium is a bargain!
4. “This is the closest we will ever get to repealing and replacing Obamacare.” So, a bill that can’t even scrape together enough votes right now in the Republican controlled House to pass and has many Republicans in The Senate openly opposing it, is the “closest” they can come to repealing and replacing Obamacare? If it is, that’s a relief to everyone who opposes the AHCA but it sure seems hard to believe that a bill that’s been called dead on arrival by many Republicans in Congress is the best they can do. Of course, poor Paul Ryan is throwing his fits and tantrums like this because if it fails, he fails right along with it. Perhaps the next plea we’ll hear from Ryan is, “Come on guys! You’re being mean! I won’t be your best friend if you don’t vote for it!!! Why did you laugh?! I hate you! I hate you!”
5. “The ACHA is about having a free market that makes healthcare more patient-centric”. Healthcare isn’t a box of Fruity Pebbles. It isn’t a commodity that belongs in a free market, that you can simply choose not to buy because you don’t like the price. At one point or another, all of us will need healthcare (for those who think they need Fruity Pebbles, you’re on your own). It shouldn’t be sold like any other consumer product. No other developed country treats healthcare as a for-profit commodity, it’s a bit crazy to tout free market capitalism as the proper home for healthcare provision. Imagine if the services of police, fire and schools were only available on the free market (you may not have to imagine for much longer with Trump in the WH). Not all of us have amnesia, we remember what it was like before the ACA when we supposedly had “free market competition” in healthcare. Premiums rose double digits every year, claims were often denied as part of higher-profit business schemes, deductibles kept rising, more and more treatments were not covered or not pre-approved and “pre-existing conditions” became a scarlet letter that prevented Americans from getting any policy from any of these so-called competitors. Health care was better and more people were covered before the ACA? Maybe in Trumplandia but in reality and history, that’s a different story. As for the “patient-centric” blather, that is really Auntie Paul “Ayn Rand” Ryan sugarcoating his hero’s spite towards the poor, elderly and disabled. It means, “Our society will turn its back on you no matter how much you’re in need of help, all for none and me for me!” “Patient-centric” is Soylent Green, it’s Republispeak for keeping government from being in the business of helping Americans. Perhaps it should be renamed, “Republicentric”
6. “This is just the first part of a three part plan.” No, and it may not even be the first part of anything. First, you don’t enormously slash and deregulate an industry that is almost one fifth of our economy with no analysis and only pie in the sky promises…then say that everything that will make healthcare cheaper and better will come sometime later. There’s no guarantee that any future provisions will ever pass (or even that the AHCA will) because policy changes (as opposed to budgetary/financial changes) will require 60 votes in The Senate…and it’s not likely to get at least 8 Democratic Senators to vote for a bill that completes the destruction of their President’s landmark healthcare bill…not to mention, after Democrats have been steamrolled and stomped during the Republican stampede to pass the AHCA. As mentioned above, Republicans can only come up with one thing right now that they would include in Part 3, that they claim will bring prices down and provide better insurance, allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines. But they have nothing to back up this specious claim. Nothing. And all of pre-ACA history argues against that. The second part is supposed to be all these magical, wonderful things that Tom Price, ACA-hating Secretary of Health and (in)Human Services can implement in rule changes or re-interpretations. Any big steps he tries to take will immediately trigger lawsuits since the things Republicans really want need to be legislated, not dictated. So, there is no second or third part, this is it. Like any show that bombs, the AHCA will not have any sequels.

The bottom line is that the truth of what this bill really is and the destruction it would do, doesn’t support its passage. Only lies and deceptions can be used to promote it. It’s an $880 billion cut in health insurance subsidies for those who need it the most and an $880 billion tax windfall for the wealthiest Americans. Plain and simple, that’s what this bill is really about.

In an America that is in the midst of the biggest divide between the wealthy and the majority of Americans, one of the key issues why Trump voters supported Trump, Ryan, Trump and their partners in crime are trying to make it so much worse. Not only would this make the gap bigger between the billionaires and 99% of Americans, it would deny many Americans even the most basic health care, literally hastening the illness and deaths of the many in the quest of making the fewer rich richer.

The argument could be made that if the Republicans passed the AHCA and as the CBO has forecast, 14 million Americans lost healthcare in 2018, the backlash against Republicans would be massive and could put Democrats in a position to control Congress and the White House by 2020 to pass a Medicare For All type plan. The big problem with this though is how many people could suffer and die in the meanwhile so it does seem best if Republicans choke on their reverse Robin Hood scheme now and for good. Hopefully, Democrats will win back at least one house of Congress in 2018 and Trump will lose any chance to take another whack at whacking healthcare for Americans.

In the meantime, let’s not let lying dogs lie.