It should come as no surprise that Donald Trump doesn’t seem to care for Blue State residents. No issue demonstrates this more clearly than the seemingly endless fight over health care.
Look, the Blue voters of New York and Massachusetts have shown themselves to be capable of great human empathy. Obamacare gave some basic health care rights to millions of poor and disenfranchised citizens who never had anything approaching decent health care. Then along came the mainstream Republicans in the Congress suggesting, among other things, that they are in touch with the Evangelicals in this country who are demanding that we basically strip somewhere around twenty five million people of their health care. I don’t care what religion we are talking about — the basic ethic of every one of these organized groups has been to be generous to the poor and “…do unto others”.
We know that Pope Francis has been appalled at the effort to strip health care from those who have finally received this basic service. Most of it comes through the expansion of the long standing Medicaid program which caters to the poorest and most elderly among us. The various programs which the Republicans in Congress keep pushing all have one thing in common and that is downsizing Medicaid. It is no secret that they need to do this in order to save the billions upon billions of dollars from the Medicaid program and assign that cash to their plans to cut taxes, especially the taxes of the wealthiest people in this country. They may say otherwise, but that is really what it is about. We all know it.
In New York state, Governor Cuomo has made it very clear that if Obamacare is killed and Medicaid is cut to the bone, the state budget will be thrown so far out of whack that basic services will be terribly affected. If you think there are problems with delivering health care now in New York and Massachusetts, wait until these Republicans get their way. How anyone could face their maker knowing they have deprived their fellow citizens of their basic rights is incomprehensible. John McCain, a true profile in courage, shows these folks, to whom reelection is obviously more important than their treatment of their fellow man, for what they are.
Of course, the arguments offered by the Republican solons are so spurious that it is hard for most of us to even comprehend what they are saying. Basic things like maternity benefits are out of these bills. Remember, these are the same folks who have been preaching against the right of a woman to have an abortion. Now they are saying that we will bring childbirth back to the dark ages.
We all know that it’s about the money. The people who are insisting that basic health care rights be repealed are after the almighty buck. We know that the super rich people couldn’t spend what they have in one hundred life times. The people that they give the money to in the House and Senate are quite sure that they will be judged on whether they deliver on their promise to end humanitarian health care. Cash on the barrelhead. We know that the big money people are really ticked off that they are not getting their money’s worth.
So, you can virtually smell the sweat on New York’s Republican congressional delegation. Hey, no money, no election. In New York, Governor Cuomo is seeking the Democratic presidential nod and has declared war on the Republicans in Congress. In Massachusetts, Republican Governor Baker has made his opposition to the Republican health care revisions well known. There are people who believe that the health care bill is dead. It is not. As soon as they can, they’ll come back with their draconian program. Let’s all try to keep our eye on that ball. Remember, this is all about money, period. Disgusting. Shameful.
