What gets me about these debates is how much better the GOP is with lies than the Dems are with the truth.
When Obamacare first passed the GOP claiming Obamacare was “evil” and lied by screaming about death panels and pulling the plug on Grandma. Now with a repeal that will take away healthcare from 23,000,000 Americans the GOP is claiming great success improving healthcare by freeing everyone from Obamacare.
The Dems on the other hand, have yet to make an emotional argument as to why the GOP plan is evil and, in truth, will result in tens of thousands of sick people and seniors being taken out of hospitals and nursing homes and dumped on street corners to die. I mean the result of the GOP’s plan is to gut Medicaid beyond the Obamacare expansion that 70% of nursing home patients rely for their care. What other option will nursing homes have but not to provide care for those who no longer have Medicaid? So yes, it is a fact that if the GOP plan passes many in nursing homes and other assisted care facilities will lose their care.
You have articulated my anger with the Democratic party. They seem to be incapable of standing up to genuine evil. It is way past time the American people were represented by politicians who care about them. We need a reformation of the Democratic party. It needs to be restored. It needs to actually care about working people and others who aren’t hedge fund managers.
Look especially hard at how Medicaid helps pay for seniors in nursing homes. Now digest this projection: the number of Alzheimer’s cases is predicted to triple by 2050. That’s simply based on demographics. Here is one of places you can read more about that.
Mitch McConnell overcame polio with the help of the government
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/335602/mitch-mcconnell-polio-government-assistance/
The conservatives have essentially unlimited and unreported money available with which to hire the most unscrupulous accountants and actuaries. Democrats have to go hat-in-hand to wealthy donors to get money for that kind of research report, and the conservatives use that to attack the very best and most effective Democratic politicians - the way they did Hillary when she gave speeches for money.
Ask the labor movement. The GOP is expert at going after the money sources that would make Democratic candidates competitive. But of course, YOU would never vote for or defend a Democratic candidate who gave speeches to Bankers, would you?
This reads more like he overcame polio due to charity from public citizens, not government assistance. That said, I wish one of every disease onto McConnell and hope when he dies it’s both public and humiliating.
You’re right about “death panels” and it is unbelievable that now the Republicans get away with disenfranchising millions, surely condemning many to premature death, while they were earlier discrediting Obamacare with the alleged problems of death panels.
Not sure about Schumer and Pelosi, but there are Democrats who argue with great conviction and credibility, notably Bernie Sanders and Joe Kennedy III. Why these guys don’t seem to get quite the traction as the Republican leadership is a mystery, but not completely unsolved.
We know that race is the trump card and millions of people will vote against their own self-interests in order to keep people of color and women in their place. And keeping people of color and women in their place is exactly what Republicans stand for. So it’s always wink-wink and let’s get rid of evil Obamacare, which serves so many lazy people of color and loose women. “And we don’t want to pay for them!”
Despite the obvious, that millions of people will be forced out of the market and won’t have healthcare, all Americans should also think a little deeper. We, our kids, our grand kids will be in school, out shopping, in the movies, around town, shoulder to shoulder with sick people exposing all of us to illnesses because many won’t be able to seek healthcare until they need the emergency room. Preventative care will diminish. Easily treatable illnesses will become serious conditions. Productivity in the workforce will suffer. Rural areas will see less access. The overall health of the population will be affected by this Bill, which can only be called what it is, a crime.
Gotta eliminate the unfit. And if their money can be confiscated first, and given to the rich, so much the better.
The fascism of the BCRA is depressing.
There are a lot of people in this country who believe, wrongly, that every single thing the government does with their money is bad.
Therefore, when the Republicans cut a program, they’ll tell the public that they’re getting their otherwise-wasted tax money back. They’re happy to hear that, because they believe that Uncle Sam sucks.
The problem here for Democrats is that every single thing the Democrats can do to make people’s lives better necessarily involves spending money. You simply can’t conjure up roads, schools, or healthcare out of thin air.
That means that Democrats need to make two arguments:
- The government can help you.
- Your money will fund something from which you will personally benefit.
That’s a heavier lift than the Republican argument.
Until the Democrats can come up with a way to persuade Joe Six pack to voluntarily pay money for a government program, the Republican “tax cuts are always better than government spending” mantra will continue to be a winning argument.
There’s no easy answer to that.
The whole thing with the ACA was more about a group of angry guys going to their base of angry people. And general people responding to emotion.
The GOP, at the core, taps into fear. People are afraid of varying things. Keeping them afraid and proposing various things to help keep the things the way they think they should be.
It is hard for Dems to match that. The base is different. Most people already do not like the GOP plan that are aware of it. The Dems just need to do a better job of getting it out there. That said, nobody likes the bills they are pushing.
For whatever reason, on a societal level it seems that it is more accepted that the GOP lies and do not get called on it as much. Seems like a Dem being slightly wrong is reason to be covered for a week. A GOP member is talking to the base.
I think it takes more for sure. In the sound bite world we live in people do not care to listen as much. Saying government is the enemy and cut things is easier than to explain the need for funding and what each program does.
We pretend now, or at least conservatives do, that there is all this random spending. When in reality each funding line or regulation is there for a reason. One may need to look at the original context to fully see the before and after. People do not care to spend that sort of time. It is easier to say waste and be done with it. Or make some lame argument about returning thing to the states, when they botched it initially in the first place.
It is a heavy lift for sure. It is also ironic that conservatives as a whole would be a viable party for federal office. Given they hate it so much. Or at least are supposed to.
If those states that receive over $2.00 back from the federal government for each dollar they send to washington carried their own weight the health care problem could be solved. Their Republican Senators scream bloody murder when it comes to others welfare but gladly accept their own handouts. Plus sucking from the trough themselves. Plus the “donations” (bribes ) they get from lobbyists.
I just read this from the New Yorker. I don’t know how TPM stands with shared outside links but this was quite explanatory to me,
I just can’t express my repulsion of my government, my homeland and my neighbors, who voted for these tools of the ultra-wealthy.
Call this travesty Mitchcare, or trumpcare, or McConnellcare…but don’t call it the American Health Care Act because that implies a universal single payer system.
NOW I understand why McConnell is such a mean spirited person. I dealt with polio myself in 1954 but it didn’t have the same effect on my personality it obviously did on McConnell. I also did a lot of physical therapy that I recall hating but it didn’t make me mean.
So, Mr. McConnell is as ugly on the inside as he is on the outside.
This is nothing more than a giant balloon loan to “pay” for the tax cut for the wealthy. And like all balloon loans, if things don’t work out there will be hell to pay when it’s due. They are just making the term length well past the next round of redistricting.