The House is set to vote on the diabolical GOP health care plan on Thursday. I noticed they're not calling it "The Greatest Healthcare Plan in the World" anymore.
I'm amazed anyone of any ideology would OK a bill without cost figures. Or that's lacking important details:
"Hey seniors! We're tossing another $75 billion to help y'all! Only we don't know where it will come from! Or how it will work! But trust us!"
My last straw about being American is that if it fails, it won't be because it was too harsh to the elderly, disabled, children and poor. It will be because it wasn't harsh ENOUGH. And an even more terrifying plan is sure to appear in the future.
I grew up during the Cold War, and I've NEVER seen a political movement as fucking cruel as this one. Not Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, nor Bush 1 or 2 would hope to erase Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Disability, Unemployment, AND food stamps.
They really AREN'T Republicans, nor Conservatives (if that means means fiscal responibility).
They're some new hybrid of Libertarian. And it's great there's all sorts of different ideologies, but no country's functioned with this one.
It's odd. Americans FREAKED over Sanders' Democratic Socialism, even though it works just fine with Capitalism.
(Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Canada, etc. etc., are all Capitalist nations. And many have more upward mobility, more financial stability, and even freer markets -- yet STILL manage to have strong safety nets! Whoulda thunk it?)
This information is easily accessible from impartial sources all over the planet. I can't believe NONE of them know.
This new, ultraconservative Republican ideology PRETENDS to be about the BUDGET, TAXES and FREEDOM.
But I believe it's all a Machiavellian masquerade.
I believe it is about the superiority of the WEALTHY, the CAUCASIAN, and the CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN.
And I'll go a step further. I believe it is about EUGENICS. Indirectly, yet still quite literally.
Clearly everything this administration does victimizes people in less powerful groups: religious minorities, African Americans, Hispanics, women, gay and trans people, children, the mentally ill, the disabled, the elderly and the poor.
But nothing can be as blatantly Eugenic as this health bill.
>>THE REPEAL HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BUDGET.
If it did, it would not include a $274 billion tax break to the richest 2%. (And that's on TOP of a $4.4 TRILLION tax break already going to the richest 1%.)
In fact, I'd be willing to bet a dollar, or a donut, that the repeal of the ACA will wind up costing more than keeping it in place and improving it would have been.
>> THE REPEAL HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TAXES.
Yes, the GOP has never liked taxes; that's a given. But the Obamacare Mandate (which kinda paid for Obamacare!) was interpreted as "taxation without representation," and therefore unconstitutional -- as well as being "the most horrible thing since slavery."
We've all heard the sad stories of people losing their homes, or even being thrown in jail, over massive fines they were paying simply because they couldn't afford afford Obamacare.
Those stories ARE sad. But they happened on another planet. Because until last year, the fine was 1% of income. Now it's 2.5% of income. And it only kicks in at the middle-class level or above.
A case of appendicitis or even a childbirth can set you back $100,000. Pretty s noure that's more than 2.5% of some peoples' incomes.
In addition, the Mandate became the spark that caused every group against taxes to explode. They regarded it, literally, as theft. Entire films have been produced and books written about this horrific crime against Americans.
But I've noticed that nobody is this outraged over airports, sports stadiums, highways, libraries, drug testing, water sanitation, subways, or 100 other things -- including hundreds of billions in corporate subsidies.
Just health care. Hmmm.
>> THE REPEAL HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FREEDOM.
What I'll say next is argument for universal health care. But the context is much more serious.
We're not just talking about trying to get the US to join the rest of the world and have healthcare for all citizens, less costly and of better quality.
We're talking about TAKING AWAY health care options that have added to Americans' quality of life since 1965 ... and TAKING AWAY coverage from many people who have it as a job benefit.
If we need to do that, we need to have POWERFULLY important reasons.
First, this concept of "liberty" is usually paired with "personal responsibility." In the US, every man should be an island. He should be free to do any goddamn thing he wants -- except be a burden on the taxpayers. That is the unforgivable sin.
So it's awfully interesting that the people who've fought SO hard for the right of Americans to NOT have insurance apparently are totally unaware that because people don't have insurance, taxpayers must foot the bill for:
√ Disease outbreaks
√ Effects of untreated mental illness and addiction (crime, homelessness, etc)
√ Medical bankruptcies
√ Unpaid ER visits
√ Babies born preemie/with birth defects because of no prenatal care (often needing help for a lifetime)
...And much more.
Regarding the kind of liberty that allows you to live where you want, work where you wish; start a business; have a family; etc., I'm not sure you can have "liberty" if:
+ You can't be an entrepreneur
+ You can't attract the best employees
+ You're stuck at a job you detest
+ You can't have a baby
+ You -- or your child -- dies of leukemia, brain cancer, etc.
+ You are terminally ill or elderly and have no place to go
...ONLY because you cannot afford health care, or because Medicaid is essentially dead.
The SAVAGERY around this issue is disturbing.
On any forum where people say they're scared about the repeal of ACA, they're called "babies,""slackers,""whiners,""worthless,""pathetic,""libtards," -- even by "Christians."
And they're called these things even if they're employed, even if they're Republicans, even if they're Christians ...even if they will DIE without healthcare.
That's why this movement is essentially Eugenic. They're not lining people up and shooting them. But in a way, what they're doing is worse -- they're taking away hope for the future for millions and millions of people.
Those already retired, on Social Security, on Medicare: imagine what it will be like for anyone in the "less powerful groups" listed above -- particularly anyone 60 or younger.
Many will have to live the rest of their lives without access to health care, or worrying they will lose it if they do have it.
If they need surgery to relieve pain, such as in their knees or back; if they have a condition that won't kill them but affects their quality of life; if they develop cancer; if they get Alzheimer's ... there might not be anything they can do about it, or anywhere to stay.
And since people are living into their 90s now, that's a long period of dystopia.
MY DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
I truly realize a minority of extremists is running the show. But we haven't had this number of Republicans in office since 1928, and a significant percentage of them are extremists. The damage they can do in the next 4 years cannot be fixed for a decade, if ever.
I didn't like Hillary. In fact I detested her. But if she'd had enough votes to get past the electoral college, Sanders would be heading up the budget committee right now, and we would not be facing this apocalypse.
It DID matter who won. And not ONE thing Trump has done has surprised ANYONE who paid attention to the campaign.
The press DID warn us. Economists (380 of them) DID warn us. The medical community DID warn us.
Has no one ever watched "The Apprentice?" Christ.
We told you so.
We told you so.
We told you so.
And it will get worse, even if he's impeached, because all the top officials now are extremists.
So if you voted for Trump because he was a "Christian," or because he wasn't Obama, or because he "tells it like it is," or because of Hillary's emails, or you wrote in Bernie Sanders: I blame you. Because you had to have a bag over your head to be that ignorant.
I grew up believing I could do anything, feeling safe, knowing I'd never wind up on the street, and having some security in my old age. I ALWAYS felt fortunate to be an American.
Fuck you for taking that away from me.
I don't have the qualifications I would need to leave the US and renounce my citizenship (which unprecedented numbers are doing right now).
It's health care. The economy. The racism. Human rights. The likelihood of nuclear war. The possibility that we're being led by the fucking Kremlin.
And America let all that happen.
I'm fed up with this shit. I'm done. I am stuck here, but I renounce my citizenship anyway.
I don't know what I am, but I'm not an American anymore.
~ T