I fully appreciate how cold this is going to sound, but part of me is disappointed that the repeal of the AHCA failed to pass, because I have been feeling so intensely curious about the kinds of things that will happen when Trump voters get what they voted for, and how they will respond to it. It is a genuine intellectual curiosity that I am experiencing. At first when Trump was elected I was filled with deep horror and disillusionment, but I reached acceptance of the election outcome and now I am simply intensely curious. Actually, I think this state is good for me. I can't myself control the outcomes, so I might as well learn more about what others believe and value, in the suspension of my own beliefs and values. I think that I can learn more effectively this way.
In other Trump news, I have been interested in a couple of stories I read over the past couple of days about people who say they voted for Trump and have come to regret it. One was about a man who followed around with Trump during the campaign singing country songs about him, who previously discovered his 24 year old son dead in his bed of a heroin overdose, and who felt that he was promised improved addiction services as part of the campaign, only to discover that mental health and addiction were no longer going to be covered by Medicaid. Another was a woman who believed that only criminal illegal immigrants would be deported, only to suddenly face the deportation of her illegally immigrated husband who has been operating a steak restaurant with her in the US for 10 years. I have been interested in thinking about the experiences of these people, and trying to imagine things from their perspective - why they made the decision to vote the way that they did. For me, it seems that they failed to understand the implications of their decision. I don't blame Trump for that failure, and I don't blame these people either. I'm not completely sure whether I can think of who to blame. My main thought is that these people were failed by others. They didn't properly understand what was happening, and no one succeeded in helping them to understand.
The bill had a deplorable 17% positive poll amongst people in the US.
I understand the curiosity...but it may still come to pass.
There are ways to defund this part or that part...bills who’s sole objective is to sabotage the current working parts of the ACA.
Keep in mind that most major estimates of the ACA project it to stabilize...but there is still no addressing of the huge prices of healthcare in general.
So if the GOP doesn’t pass the bill, which they did not...they can still play opposition to any amendments that could be made and applied to the ACA to make is more solvent and actually bring down prices and premiums, cap prescription drug prices, etc. all of which the healthcare industry lobby is pushing back HARD against.
They will still sabotage the ACA until it no longer works and then blame the Democrats and Obama for it’s failure.
Then they will say - See, this is why we should have gone with our plan.”
And there could be a push to try and jam it back through at that time.
But it’s going to be a difficult sell, just as this one was because a projection of 24 million people losing healthcare is just not acceptable even to some Republicans...people want healthcare to be affordable, but throwing millions of people off of healthcare while giving very generous tax breaks to the rich pissed a whole bunch of their constituents off and they heard it.
Then we have another bunch of Republicans who didn’t vote for it because it didn’t throw enough people off...which is scary and just sad.
There is an ideological bunch in Congress who despise the poor, the disabled, the elderly, immigrants, LGBQT, anyone other than white or Christian, who blatantly express this in various disgusting and inhuman statements...who would giddily cream their Dockers if they could axe any and all aspects of what they see as “entitlements” people don’t deserve and any remaining threads of a social safety net.
As Paul Ryan was trying to push his bill the other night the GOP was trying to dismantle the basic healthcare guarantees that the ACA made into laws - to protect the consumer.
Such as the pre-existing condition clause...medicaid for children...covering pregnancy....covering mental health/substance abuse treatment....the clause that specifies that insurance companies must use a certain percentage of all profit in patient care as opposed to CEO bonuses (not that they don’t all have multimillion dollar salaries and golden retirement parachutes) or marketing, etc..
My district is Represented by Jaime Herrera Butler...she is a Republican.
I wrote several emails asking her to vote no on this bill and luckily she was in the the “No” vote group...I think she would have voted along partly lines were it not for her own medical issues in her family...her daughter was born 2 years ago with no kidneys...her husband donated one of his and she is doing well now....but if someone didn’t have medical insurance, the child would die....if someone didn’t have really fucking great insurance you would be in debt to the point of considering bankruptcy even with our current system.
She had/has a Cadillac healthcare plan and the personal finances to pay for the expensive surgeries that she flew down to California to have performed.
But I think she understands a bit more holistically the plight and difficulties most here in the US face.
She said she would vote “No” after asking for a concession to keep children who need healthcare on Medicaid...apparently, they couldn’t put that in this disgusting “healthcare”/tax break for the 2% bullshit plan to watch poor people including children who you won’t be able to abort soon either die in the street...or go into deep medical debt and become destitute so you can buy the heart medication keeping you alive.
I’m glad she listened to those she is supposed to represent....at least so far.
But yeah...expect sabotage and wrenches thrown into the machinery, just as it has been from the very beginning when the GOP obstructed the implementation of the ACA...it could have worked if the expansion of Medicaid was fully implemented and amendments addressing prices were not obstructed...just as they obstructed for 13 months the naming of the next Supreme Court Judge, and now we have Captain Douchebag who wants to roll back Roe V. Wade and impose religious legislation into law.
Anti-LGBQT...anti-worker - pro-corporate intrest.
Ruled that a trucker who unhitched his trailer because the brakes were frozen and drove into town for fuel and so he didn’t die of hypothermia should be fired because his interpretation of the law doesn’t allow for critical thinking...nor does he care about the common man...he’s a corporate shill.
Awesome times here in Trumpland...
Remember how all those folks were chanting “Lock her up” for the FBI investigation against Hillary that didn’t show anything and wasn’t warranted...but now we have a President and his staff, who is a pathological liar, who has so far broken every promise he ran on.
Has not divested himself from his businesses.
Has not shown his tax returns.
Is being investigated for colluding with Russia...his aid Manafort specifically was there to pull the strings for Putin...as was Wikileaks.
Any news that Trump doesn’t like or is critical of him is deemed by him as “fake news”, and then specifically and perniciously lies to the American people.
He wouldn’t even shake the hand of Angela Merkel the other day...he’s surrounded himself with a bunch of old, rich, white men, and now his daughter and son in law are on staff? Nepotism laws, hello, wtf?
Trump is in deeper and deeper shit...and shown himself to be a political novice who knows nothing about how our government works, the laws that we follow, the checks and balances....there is a complete disregard for the public at large....and if he isn’t careful, this message of “Let them eat cake.” (Sorry, no cake for the seniors who rely on Meal on Wheels to eat) is going to have people dusting off the guillotines and pitchforks.
At least tar and feather him.
