Jay Bookman at the AJC had a very good opinion piece regarding promises made by Trump during the elections regarding care for opioid addictions in some of the hardest hits states. The proposed Republican Senate Health bill does not do anything to help this problem, in fact, it is taking away resources for this very problem…
“We’re going to take all of these kids—and people, not just kids—that are totally addicted and they can’t break it,” Trump told a town hall meeting in Columbus back in August. “We’re going to work with them, we’re going to spend the money, we’re gonna get that habit broken.”
As political strategy, it was brilliant. In the industrial Midwest, where Trump in essence won his victory, 95 percent of the counties where he outperformed Mitt Romney also had higher than average rates of drug mortality.
Yet this is the thanks they get. Instead of spending more money, Trump and his fellow Republicans are slashing those programs. In addition to drastic Medicaid cuts, both the House and Senate bills would strip the requirement that private health-care plans cover addiction treatment ….
And nursing homes and care for children is traded for a tax cut.
Both bills cut $800 billion in funding for Medicaid — much of which covers health care for poor children, for the disabled and for the elderly in nursing homes. Through tax cuts, both bills then smuggle that $800 billion to those who are deemed much more in need.
You know, those in the top 1 percent of income, those who have already benefited enormously from this economy, those whom President Trump sneeringly derides as the elite even as he and his party alter the structure of government and the economy to further enrich that very same elite.
I followed the comments in the paper and on social media. The usual folks that bang the drum for the GOP and Trump are eerily silent on this.
Every dime the Republicans save by cutting the funding for Medicaid and other medical care, will go directly into the pockets of the top 2%.
The Republicans could care less if we the people become sick and die as long as the wealthy get tax cuts.
It makes the Liberals cry – so it’s all good.
Rick, you’re a regular pistol.
OT — But maybe someone here will know the answer.
The elected Repugs on TV have taken to wearing some new lapel adornments.
In addition to the oft-seen American flag pin, some have taken to wearing a fleur-de-lys (men and women both). I somehow doubt that this is in solidarity with President Marcon.
And some have been wearing little gold or brass-colored discs an inch or so in diameter. Today, I saw a particularly patriotic chap wearing all three.
What do the two new baubles stand for? Is this just the beginning of a contest to see who can wear the most medals? Are they scout merit badges, or military decorations awarded for valor in cutting taxes on the rich?
Is it a competition? Will they proliferate to the point where it will be hard to find lapel room for all of them?