Thirteen Senate Republicans, led by OldAge Mutant Nefarious Turtle, Mitch McConnell, are continuing to secretly craft then force through a bill that will literally bring about the deaths and suffering of millions of Americans. They cynically call this massive wealth transfer to the wealthy by squeezing the life out of the poor and middle class, a “health care bill”.
Right now, it’s unclear if this anti-democratic, tyranny-styled process of forcing approval of a bill that only 17% of Americans support (based on the House bill, we don’t know all the awful details of the Senate bill because of the secrecy) that affects one sixth of the nation’s economy and all Americans, will succeed.
Some say today’s special election in Georgia could help to block it if Democrat Jon Osoff wins…or help push it forward if mental dinosaur Karen Handel wins.
What seems clear though is that the Republicans behind forcing approval of this nightmarish bill don’t care about the fallout of the destruction of health care in America, they’re not even thinking about how the reaction of Americans to the return of worthless or unavailable or unaffordable health insurance could doom the GOP in the future. They are only thinking about winning re-election at any cost.
Republicans have been promising to repeal Obamacare since it was passed and they are afraid that they could be primaried from the right if they don’t make good on that promise. That seems to be all that this is really about. Of course, their promises were made to a 2010 electorate who believed all the devious propaganda about how the ACA would kill them and destroy America…as well as be an accomplishment for a president who never was the recipient of the comment, “That’s mighty white of you!”.
However, while the core Republican voters remain clutching their racism and ignorance, popular opinion has greatly changed over the past 7 years. A plurality of Americans now support the ACA and want it fixed, not repealed.
So what will happen if McConnell and Ryan succeed in forcing through a massive change to our healthcare system that is not supported by 83% of Americans? Will it last or will the destruction it forces on Americans actually bring about election results and mandates that bring about a reinstatement of the ACA with improvements…or even, a Medicare For All single-payer program?
One thing that Republicans seem wholly clueless about is blowback. They lied us into the Iraq War and cost America thousands of lives, the creation of ISIS and the loss of trillions of dollars leading into a Great Recession. They empower Trump who has embroiled himself and his party in criminal investigations and giving aid and comfort to America’s primary enemy in the world. Republicans don’t seem to think about the consequences of their actions outside of how it affects their upcoming re-election, including how they can shovel more money into the pockets of their wealthy contributors.
If the Republicans don’t pass their Health Careless bill, they will look like the hapless fools they are. If they succeed in cheating our democratic system to dictate a punishing new insurance regime on a country that doesn’t want it…they will look like vicious fools in the end.
Republicans lose on healthcare no matter what happens and they may in fact be passing single payer in the future if they pass zero-payer for millions of Americans as they are trying to do right now.
The disconnect is stunning. Republicans can’t seem to think far enough ahead to how the actual terms of their bill will come back to haunt them. The 23 million or more who lose their healthcare and the many millions who lose protections on pre-existing conditions, lose coverage for major conditions and are bankrupted by lifetime caps, many of whom are ironically hard core Trump supporters, will hardly be enthusiastic about rewarding them in elections.
And the resulting chaos and destruction wrought by such a made-to-fail system won’t be sustainable anyway. What the Republicans are trying to foist on the nation is a system that has a built-in self-destruct countdown. It can’t and won’t last if it becomes the law of the land, the revolt and outcry from a desperate public will be its undoing.
Millions more uninsured as time passes, bankruptcies and premature deaths stacking up, hospitals being hammered by non-payment and going out of business while premiums skyrocket along with deductibles and deteriorating coverage in response to the cost of millions going uninsured…not a scenario that can endure.
Once people have a system that benefits them, they won’t be satisfied with it being taken away and told they’re better off with less or none. The demand for restoring the ACA or even instituting single payer will become deafening in elections. And the short-sightedness of Republicans will be on display, as they seek to pander to their base to avoid being primaried, they are cementing the likelihood of their losing in general elections.
A big part of what has fed this de-evolution of the GOP is gerrymandering. Many House Repubs feel that they don’t have to do what serves the majority because their districts have been so gerrymandered with mindless Repub voters, it doesn’t hurt them to support horrible legislation. The Supreme Court has just taken on a political gerrymandering case from Wisconsin and if they decide to uphold the lower court ruling against gerrymandering, this era of Republican insanity could be reversed.
If democracy and genuine representation of the majority is supported by SCOTUS, these politics of killing the golden goose…or at least denying the golden goose health insurance for a pre-existing condition which makes medical care unaffordable and causes it to die pre-maturely of what would have been a treatable condition…could have the plug pulled on them instead.
Win or lose, this shameful assault on democracy that Republicans are engaged in to pass a law that drags the country back to the unsustainable and cruel health insurance system we thought we had finally escaped, will never succeed in the end and may be what finally will lead to America joining the rest of the modern nations which provide all their citizens with affordable and dependable health care.
Thanks so much, AdLib, for spelling out so clearly what the OldAge Mutant Nefarious Turtle and his evil cohorts have planned for the American public when it comes to the future of (ill) health (non) care.
Those of us who’ve been on the journey of managing care for aging parents know what many Americans seem unaware of: namely, that Medicare does not cover long term care — like assisted living and nursing home care– period. First a parent has to use up virtually all his/her assets and then an application for Medicaid must be filed in order to finance 24/7 care.
So what happens when the GOP blows an $830 billion hole in Medicaid? A lot of families get the call from the nursing home that makes their blood run cold: “Get here before the end of the month and pick up Grandpa/Grandma and her belongings because we can’t keep him/her at this facility, unless you personally have a spare $96,000 a year to pay for continuing care.”
This means that either Beauregard or Scarlett — who may well have voted for Trump — will likely have to quit his/her job (if he/she has one) and stay home full time with Granny. There’s nothing like a few weeks of doing home health care full time 24/7 to make a voter question whether or not that vote for Paul Ryan and his wrecking crew was the right move.
Were there problems after Obamacare was passed (due largely to GOP sabotage)? No doubt. But when a patient is anemic, the answer is often a transfusion. Not applying several hundred leeches who all bear a remarkable resemblance to Charles and David Koch.
Kes, there may be no visual more perfect than leeches with the faces of the Koch brothers. Brilliant!
There are so many horrible ramifications from this Republican crusade to grind most Americans into profit for the wealthy but what you describe is one of the most unrecognized and devastating consequences.
While only 17% of Americans support the House atrocity of a bill, I doubt most Americans understand that the slashing of Medicaid wouldn’t just affect the poor but will undermine the lives of Americans who simply aren’t multi-millionaires and have parents or relatives that need full time care.
Those who know from experience, the necessity and great expense of nursing home care for the elderly and how Medicaid is the only safety net left at that point, know what a burden and struggle life will be for so many lower and middle class families if Medicaid is slashed.
It was like another kick to the gut to see Ossoff lose last night even though the margin still indicates advantages for Dems in 2018. I am tired of consolation prizes in elections. One of my emotional, passing thoughts was, “Fine, let these ignorant Republicans get everything Trump and Repubs want to bury them with, they insist on learning the hard way, let them learn through suffering.”
Of course, my next thought was that I’d never want millions of Americans to have their lives shortened or torn apart by these greedy, vicious bastards in the GOP Congress.
As I mentioned in my post, it is inescapable though, if Republicans succeed in passing their Health Kill Bill it will be a Pyrrhic victory. The destruction they do to the lives of millions will turn back on them. And their oppressive laws will eventually be reversed because of the terrible suffering they will cause…so all of this, the destroying of millions of lives is just to make a profit for a brief period of time for the wealthiest who already have taken so much from the 99%.
It’s inhuman and deranged. I just hope there’s enough of an outcry and protests as soon as this monstrosity of a bill is finally revealed by the OldAge Mutant Nefarious Turtle to stop it in its tracks!
I’ve had those same thoughts, AdLib. Namely (as Mom used to say): “Some people only learn the hard way.” I’ve considered how the ramifications and inevitable awful consequences of throwing all these millions out of the health care system would be the most effective and quickest path to “learning.”
But — like you — I think twice then and realize that I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
And then I think for a third time and wonder how anyone actually could wish that on people. Because the GOP obviously does.
That’s such a scary thought.