Foiled: So-Called Right To Life Party Wanted to Kill Millions By Stealing their Insurance

2017-07-29 11

Trump–the madness continues. Photo: Gage Skidmore-Flickr.

This week Republicans and their mad President Donald Trump again engageg in another futile attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

Again, the prejudiced partisan efforts of Republicans to take money from the poor to transfer to craven corporate interests, and the never get enough rich people of this country, went down in flames.

Again their latest attempt to erase legislative achievements of President Barack Obama has failed.

The GOP wanted to kill ACA as the August recess approached. Republicans, and the Donald Trump White House, were desperate for something they could call a “win.” Instead, they suffered another humiliating defeat trying to repeal the main legislative victory of America’s first African-American president. As a result Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of stuff was forced to resign.

The latest sad spectacle had Republicans trying to pass their so-called “skinny bill” legislation through a bare majority of the Senate. But they could not even get that through a Republican-controlled Congress. Vice-President Mike Pence waited in vain to cast a tie-breaking vote.

Arizona Senator John McCain, whose “maverick” label is often nothing but hype, dealt the decisive blow to the legislation. McCain, along with Maine Senator Susan Collins and Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski were the three Republican senators who stood with all the Democrats to defeat the attempt.

It was clear from Senator McCain’s comments that he, like other Republicans, were pressured to vote against this legislation, not only from constituents—but by state Republican governors. On his return trip to the Senate, on Tuesday, where he voted to open the debate on the Republican healthcare plan, McCain warned “I have changes urged by my state’s governor that will have to be included to earn my support for final passage of any bill.”

In a bi-partisan letter sent to the U.S. Senate, several Republican governors argued against the repeal efforts. Republican governors Brian Sandoval of Nevada, John Kasich of Ohio, Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Larry Hogan of Maryland, and Phil Scott of Vermont all signed the letter which said “The bill still threatens coverage for millions of hardworking, middle class Americans” and that it’s “Medicaid provisions shift costs to states and fail to provide the necessary resources to ensure that no one is left out, including the working poor or those suffering from mental illness or addiction.”

On Thursday, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said “The skinny bill, as policy, is a disaster” and a “fraud,” as a replacement for Obamacare. He also called the bill a “half-assed” plan that was “politically” the “dumbest thing in history.”

The fact that most Republicans voted for something like this shows they are nothing but frauds. After seven years of screaming and fearmongering about the “dangers” of Obamacare, Republicans exposed the clear fact that in all that time they had not agreed on a healthcare plan to push when they gained power.

Still the party of no even when in power.

Republicans often claim they care about the “sanctity of life.” Hypocritically, we only get this rhetoric whenever they are trying to prove to the rest of us how morally superior they believe they are to everybody on the issue of abortion. Why don’t they talk about the “sanctity of life” right now when they are attempting to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, which would leave millions without health insurance?

For seven years, Republicans have been talking about “repealing and replacing” Obamacare. But their utter failure to do so, multiple times since this current Congress and White House has taken power, is testament to their unpreparedness, incompetence and miscalculations of how difficult it would be to overturn this growingly popular healthcare law.

Their frenzied attempts to pass something shows how desperate Republicans, and the Trump White House are to defeat Obamacare and declare victory for something — “anything.” That’s the definition of reckless and heartless.

Republicans have engaged in fearmongering claiming that President Obama’s signature legislation was ruining America. They talked about what a monumental disaster it has been. Yet, many of their own constituents, who are now becoming more clear of the law’s benefits, forced some Republicans to vote against repeal.

Republican Senator Susan Collins, of Maine; and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have faced attacks by Republicans for their no votes. The Trump White House threatened to withhold funding for some programs from the state of Alaska because of Senator Murkowski’s opposition to the bill.

Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold, in a radio interview last week, said that if the female Republican holdouts were men from Texas he might have been inclined to settle the disputes “Aaron Burr-style.” A statement referencing the July 11, 1804 gun duel, in New Jersey, between then sitting Vice-President Aaron Burr and Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton—which led to Hamilton’s death on July, 12.

Senator Collins later made disparaging remarks about Farenthold, caught on a “hot mike,” saying the Texas lawmaker was “so unattractive it’s unbelievable.” Indeed, the congressman should take a good look in the mirror before spouting off at the mouth about duels.

Rep. Farenthold’s apologized for his ridiculous comments. But the fact a congressman could so cavalierly speak of violence toward another member of Congress is quite telling of the duplicity of some Republicans. Somebody should remind Farenthold that his kind of rhetoric is irresponsible, especially in light of what happened to House Majority Whip Steve Scalise who was shot last June 14, by James Hodgkinson.

Republicans like to give us sanctimonious sermonizing speeches about the “sanctity of life.” Where is their ideological consistency when Republicans tell us this while pronouncing they don’t believe in healthcare as a right? Healthcare and life go hand-in-hand.

If Republicans cared about life they would respect healthcare as a fundamental right—and they would also be opposed to the death penalty.

The Republican resistance to affordable healthcare exposes them as liars when they claim they care about life. In their world, if you are poor, and therefore can’t afford healthcare, you only have the right to a miserable death. How dare these phonies lecture us about the “sanctity of life?”

Ironically, Senator McCain’s recent healthcare woes may have been a factor in his decisive vote. Like former Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer. Did this experience give him further insight on how he should vote?

In spite of the defeat of the Obamacare repeal efforts we should not expect Republicans and the Trump White House to just accept this. Trump has talked a lot about letting Obamacare die. This is a sign they will attempt to damage the law by means of sabotage, to make it more costly. Then they will cry this is proof of its failings.

One of the issues behind this Obamacare fight is that Republicans and conservatives hate “big government” programs that help the working class poor. These are the same kinds of people who fought against the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. For these folks, it is all about the corporate state.

This is why while they cry about “big government” spending they promote costly wars that pump billions of dollars into the arms industry

The two major objectives of the Republicans’ attacks on Obamacare are: too take back the taxes that have been levied upon the rich to fund the program; and to further desecrate the legacy of President Barack Obama—America’s first African-American president.

The latter reason, is no doubt an obsession for the spoiled rich kid who is now in the White House scandalously soiling the American Presidency.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *