Following the continued Congressional Republicans appalling attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, I started receiving phone calls. The HR 1628 vote yesterday was 217-213 for repeal. The thread running through the angry tirades was never, let it happen and see how the Republicans fall, it was, we must do something, “so many people will be hurt.” Republicans proudly stood in the White House Rose Garden after toasting their success at the Capitol with bottles of Bud Light https://vinepair.com/booze-news/republican-bud-light-health-care-bill/. Meanwhile the speculation is that rape victims, children born with juvenile diabetes, cancer and heart conditions will lose their coverage.
I carefully chose the word speculation because the public has not actually seen or read the proposed repeal legislation, including the people who voted for it. So, on the strength of “probability” as stated by one Republican member, Paul Ryan and his crew gleefully agreed to play Russian roulette with the health of Americans. Yet Democrats, who could take the tact that when this falls apart they can get back in power, are choosing to lament the re-victimization of the uninsured. Liberal call-in radio show moderators are warning their listeners that revenge is not going to help the next rape victim or sick child.
In the intervening weeks following the first failed vote try, Donald Trump told the Democratic Party let them eat, big pieces of delicious chocolate cake. He openly rooted for the failure of Obamacare, to the detriment of the people he is tasked to govern and care for their general welfare. Republicans for seven years tried every trick in the book to scuttle the Affordable Care Act. The most successful being Sen. Marco Rubio(R-Fla.) who sabotaged funding for risk corridors https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/10/us/politics/marco-rubio-obamacare-affordable-care-act.html?_r=0. The Florida Senator spent two years crafting legislation that would eliminate the risk funding for insurance companies. It worked to perfection. Once the risk rose for insurers they pulled out of one-third of covered counties. Republicans play tough politics using war, women, race and healthcare. All four traffic in potential death.
All the things conservatives have howled about since FDR have been the products of a lack of toughness by Democrats. The FDIC, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, Climate Change Initiatives and the Iran Nuclear Agreement. The beforementioned ideas were born of economic justice, compassion, regard for health, equality, saving the planet and anti-war stances. Not the tough politics of win at all cost, but concepts designed to put people ahead of ambition. F. Roosevelt was labeled a socialist and so was Obama. Republicans have alluded to illness, as being a fault in the weak and undisciplined. Mo Brooks (R- Ala.) let the cat out of the bag http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/05/republican-sick-people-dont-deserve-affordable-care.html.
Liberals and liberal causes since the 1920’s have been described with purposeful minimizing terms like, pinkos, tree-huggers and recently snowflakes. It strikes me as a desperate cry for cruelty when you see tolerance, environmental protection and decency in governance as threats. Conservatives are quick to point out Republican President, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. I wonder how they explain that their current standard bearer has recently regaled the exploits of a slave holder, who waged genocide against the Native Americans. Andrew Jackson was a Democratic President, just the kind Republicans like. I am glad that toughness died 16 years before the Civil War. If not I could be fetching water as opposed to typing this diary.
‘Vote in 18 and Change’