This is not about health care, and as a matter of fact, the Republican self-immolation this past week has never been about health care. Or health insurance. Or health. Or care.
That’s what the Republicans care about. That’s what they think will make them healthy and insure their political future. Taxes. as in lower taxes. As in lower taxes than Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush would ever consider because as repellent as their political and economic philosophies were, they were rooted in real-world and real-economy assumptions. Those assumptions turned out to be wrong, as is amply evidenced by the deficits they created and the fact that economic growth never reached the heights it would need to pay back the Treasury for their rashness.
And Reagan even raised taxes over the course of his term in office to cover part of the shortfall. W’s dad gave up his political career when he raised taxes and set the stage for the Clinton boom in the 90s that was further fueled by the tax hikes in Bill’s budgets.
But now we have the ultra-right wing sycophants who forget or, my assumption, never learned those lessons. They’ve wanted to cut taxes for the past eight years and now they have the ultimate know-nothing in the White House who’s going to make their dreams come true.
In order to do that, though, they need to claim the money that President Obama used to revolutionize the health care system. To make sure that uninsured Americans can get affordable health insurance, which they are getting thanks to government subsidies, and to make sure that those people who have pre-existing conditions or are women or are elderly and should not be denied or price-gouged, taxes went up for the wealthy. And corporations. That’s obviously too much for the GOP to handle, so repeal became the rallying cry.
Well, when your goal is to repeal instead of making people healthier, then repeal is what you get. Except, the bill the House passed last week is not repeal. It just guts the best parts of the ACA while making the most vulnerable and sick people in this country subject to paying far more for health care.
Like they used to. When America was great. We’re going to make it great again by making health insurance more expensive, less comprehensive, unfairly discriminatory, and less job-friendly.
But at least taxes will go down, way down, for the already wealthy and to pay for the cuts Donald Trump will sell our intellectual and cultural soul. Because in the end, Trump only wants victories. He knows nothing about health insurance, or about how to be president for that matter, and only counts wins and losses. He considers the vote last week a win. It was not.
Let’s hope that the Senate proposes an actual health care bill that benefits real people. Otherwise, 2018 will not be kind to the Republicans.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
