COMMENTARY: We'll Survive the Kindergarten Bill ...
... but we're slowly losing the "United" in our name.
By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST
President Trump’s much discussed and often maligned spending bill (I refuse to refer to it by the kindergarten name he placed on it) is now law.
As with all such funding legislation, it is not perfect, but it will not be the utter tragedy that the Democrats foresaw. We will survive under its terms and conditions, even though the legislation is predicted to add $3 trillion to the national deficit over 10 years.
The biggest victory the Republicans got out of the bill was the fact that it tightens Medicaid restrictions.
“We’ve got to make these people go to work!” one of Trump’s faithful followers told me. “I’m tired of my taxes paying their medical bills.”
I have no problem with that except there are some people with physical and mental impairments who will never be able to hold down a job, especially one with health insurance benefits. We, as a society, must feel some compassion for these people and see that they are cared for in a humane manner. Medicaid helps.
As for those who could work but won’t, unfortunately we will continue to pay their medical bills, Medicaid or no Medicaid. As a civilized society, we cannot watch them suffer and die because they can’t afford medical treatment, so doctors and hospitals will continue to treat them.
To compensate for financial losses to the non-payers, hospitals and doctors will raise prices for those of us who can pay, and our insurance will cover the cost of those increases. That, of course, will cause insurance rates to rise, perhaps more than we would have paid in taxes to fund Medicaid.
One way or another, the middle-class American worker will pay. That’s just the way it is. There is no free lunch, so don’t get all excited about saving any tax money and forcing lazy people to go to work.
The President’s bill also includes funding to move the space shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum to Houston, at a cost of an estimated $140 million.
The Smithsonian is America’s museum and Discovery should remain there, where the story of flight in this country is chronicled, from the Wright Brothers to the conquest of space. The space shuttle is a vital part of that story and it belongs in the Air and Space Museum.
The shuttle was not launched from Texas nor did it land in Texas. Yes, it was controlled from the Johnson Space Center, but that makes the Lone Star State no more important than any other facet to the spaceship’s journey.
Maybe we should play Solomon and saw Discovery into three sections, putting one section in Florida where it was launched, one in Texas where the flights were controlled and the tail section in California, where the ship landed.
The American taxpayer owns Discovery, not Texas, but if it is to be moved, Texas taxpayers, not all Americans, should finance the trip. Let’s get real here!
Speaking of Texas, our hearts go out to the families who lost loved ones in last week’s flooding. To call this a tragedy is an understatement.
This devastation comes at a time when President Trump is not only threatening to gut FEMA, but to do away with the federal relief agency altogether. In other words, the American people can pay $140 million to move the space shuttle back to Texas, but we don’t want to spend one dollar of tax money to help Texans when tragedy strikes. That really makes a lot of sense.
The American way has always been for us all to come together and help each other when the need arises. Obviously, we can’t all go to Texas to help, so in the past we have done it through FEMA, which is supported by our federal tax dollars.
Now Trump wants each state to take care of its own. In other words, we are no longer all together, but separate, and the word “united” is disappearing from our vocabulary.
In response to all this, Elon Musk is threatening to start a new national political party, something I have been advocating for years.
Meanwhile, the Stock Market has recovered from the president’s April tariff threats in great part because investors have learned not to pay any attention to what Trump says.
And every morning we wake up and wonder, “What’s next?”
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Not all of us will survive.
Some Americans are going to die prematurely of preventable causes because they will no longer be able to access benefits. That's the Republicans' plan: let more Americans suffer and die.
Man, I cain't do it.
I have other things to do with my time this morning, but I cain't do it. Cain't let this one go. Consider me the Lone Ranger's horse.
Triggered.
So this law isn't a big deal, and the biggest problem is the sophomoric name? Ever wonder why Reps decided to make sure the biggest effects don't happen until AFTER the next election then?
Kindness?
And then this idea that the problem is "they" are "getting" something from you. Damn, son.
You're entitled because you have insurance? Somebody's taking from you?
Insurance profits are the key reason that we are the only top 10 OECD country in the world that doesn't have guaranteed healthcare. It's the 50% of the country that are significant shareholders in those companies that are receiving the gain.
While the ones who by the very definition of being so poor that they qualify for Medicaid who are feeling the impact the most. And no, there are other hidden costs that you conveniently overlook when you demand they continually prove they remain eligible. Such as the time needed to provide that proof or fight denials. Especially when you underfund staffing so that customer service suffers.
We need to quit looking at healthcare for our citizens as some gift that the "good" people deserve, and everyone else is stealing. Particularly those who are young and vulnerable.
One of the few things I disagree with AOC on, is her desire to extend Medicare from those who are 65 to those who are 50. Even though I would benefit from such a change, I can't help but ask "Why?"
Start with Medicare for None. Guarantee basic healthcare to any women pregnant or looking to get pregnant. No questions asked. But limit the care to what is deemed by doctors to be most effective and to a pay as you go basis. Nationwide. No means test, and if someone has the wherewithal to pay for better care, through their company or personal finances, that's their business - but no tax breaks for it. Again, pay as you go.
Once that's up and running, Medicare for One. Pay for healthcare thru the 1st year of life. Then 2, then 4, 8, 16.... You'll be making incremental changes to a system that accounts for 1/6th of the US economy, but before long, you'll be where we should have been long ago. And be investing that money in the youngest, where we, as a society, will receive the biggest return on our investment.
It's good business.
A farmer takes care of his soil if he wants a garden. He protects his plants when they are weak and vulnerable. Not out of kindness, but because it makes good business sense. Aren't our people of as much value as a tomato plant? Why not?
Meanwhile, amazing to see that the $140 million spent pandering to the kultklan is the writer's biggest concern.
At the same time Republicans are taking on 3 more Trillion (2 times 1000 times 100 times more) debt for all of us to once again give it to the richest among us, who need it the least.
The debt was about 19 trillion in 2016 when this cult took over the first time. It's over 33 trillion now, and yall just added another 10% to it. To help the rich.
With little investment in infrastructure to show for it. What little there debt was taken on to invest in infrastructure, Republicans have been studiously destroying in the name of fossil fuels.
Estimates are that Social Security is now within 7-8 years of insolvency, and the only new income of note is tariffs, which again - disproportionately hit those who can afford it least the hardest. So when folks like me are ready to use SSN, it won't be there.
Or will be a lot less than now.
But hey man, you got yours, right?
The house, the garden, the golf game. Life is good.
Yet there's a whole world of hurt out there you are choosing not to see. Or if you do, have little reason to care about. Like I said, you got yours.
A nation of grasshoppers. Passing themselves off as industrious ants.
I'd rather we be a community, nation, and world working together with respect, intelligence, and caring than be greedy lying bankruptcy experts looking around to see who we can cheat, threaten, steal from, or invade to further our entitlement. With little regard for laws, facts, or decency.
Believe it or not, people used to consider those to be conservative traits. Not so much now days.
How is such greed, indifference, callousness the right thing to do? Are these values we want to show our children and grandchildren matter to us the most? How is that wise? I just don't see it.
What passes for conservatism and being pro-life in this country sure ain't what it used to be...
Anyway, back to work. But what a bunch of entitled whooey.......moving on.