Tuesday, March 26, 2019

To my friends who support Donald Trump…

What the ungodly F*CK is wrong with you!?! Seriously! I would really like to know.

I am not talking about Russia, I am not talking about the missing millions of dollars from the Trump inaugural fund, I am not talking about Wikileaks, I am not talking about Jared’s business ties to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. 

I am not talking about Ivanka’s Chinese Patents, or Don Jr’s ties to private prison companies.I am not talking about Paul Manafort and Ukraine, I am not talking about Trump Tower Panama, or Trump Tower Moscow, the Trump Hotel DC, or 666 Park Avenue.  I am not talking about Marina Butina and the NRA. I am not talking about Stormy Daniels, or Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova.

I am not talking about Mike Flynn and Turkey, I am not talking about the Trump Foundation or Trump University.  I am not talking about Rick Gates, Michael Cohen, George Papadopoulos or Roger Stone.  I am not talking about Tom Price, Scott Pruit, Wilbur Ross, Steve Mnuchin, Brock Long, David Shulkin or any of the other officials who have been forced to resign due to the myriad of scandals plaguing them and the rest of this Administration. 

I am not talking about the Mueller Report, the Barr Report or even whatever the latest gaslighting the President has spewed forth on Twitter today.  I am not talking about any of that. As awful as all that is, your support of the Donald Trump in that context just made me question your common sense, not doubt your fundamental human decency.

That is, until now.

As Donald Trump takes his victory lap claiming the (yet unseen) Mueller Report totally exonerates him of ….well, everything he has ever done in his life. What has he decided to focus on first? His promise of a Trillion dollar infrastructure plan? Nope.   Is he focused on his  promises to reform the criminal justice system? The Immigration System? The Postal System? Nope, no and not even close.

Donald Trump has decided to once again, try to take health insurance away from 29 Million Americans. (Forbes reports:)

In a brief filed late Monday, the Trump administration said through its Justice Department attorneys that it supported a recent U.S. District Court ruling that invalidates the entire ACA, also known as Obamacare. The law this past weekend celebrated its ninth anniversary of being signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010.

The case, which legal experts believe will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, could result in health coverage being stripped from more than 20 million people who have subsidized individual health benefits from private insurers and Medicaid benefits in more than 30 states under the ACA.



A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that across the country, 29.8 million people would lose their health insurance if the Affordable Care Act were repealed—more than doubling the number of people without health insurance. And 1.2 million jobs would be lost—not just in health care but across the board.   Let’s not even focus on the job losses, as odd as that sounds. Let’s just take that number of uninsured in the United States more than doubling. If you support this President, if you support this Administration, here is what you are saying you believe, and want. 
  • If you have a pre-existing health condition, you can be denied health insurance. No matter what the condition is.
  • Medicare should be cut and the payroll contributions you have made to it throughout your working life can and should be used to pay for tax cuts for the top 1% of earners and for Corporations.
  • You believe Health Care is a commodity, and if you can’t afford it you should not get it. You believe in the United States in the 21rst Century, dying because you can’t afford health care is acceptable. 
Spout all the fake talking points you want about how “government run health care” is a total disaster, but the facts on the ground in 32 other industrialized nations prove you wrong. Here are some basic facts for you; Health Care is not like cars, or like consumer electronics. To claim that deregulation and competition will lower costs and increase access is a wonderful Fox News talking point but is completely false.

But hey, I’ll play along. To say you believe in a totally market driven health care sector is a valid position. But then be honest about what that means. The two core drivers in any market economy are what? Supply and Demand, right? When supply outpaces demand prices fall, when demand outpaces supply prices rise. That’s Capitalism 101.

So when you have a sector of your economy that is a basic human necessity where the demand will always, always, always far outplace supply. No amount of deregulation or competition will ever lower costs. There will always be more sick people than doctors and nurses. There will always be more need for hospitals and medicines than capacity. Left to “the market” prices and costs will never, ever decrease. That is why nearly every other industrialized nation on the planet has some form of universal health coverage for their people.

 So the only way a for profit model can make money is to deny care.  (or "manage utilization" as the for profit insurance companies call it).   So the question you don't want  to answer is this:  How many American deaths are acceptable to support your economic philosophy?   Because that is what you are advocating.

You are saying that in the United States  death by poverty is a natural cause.

The Kaiser Health Foundation did  a comprehensive study on Health and Health Care disparity in the United States.before the Affordable Care Act was in place.  They found  that disparity in access to health care, and the resulting impact that had on the health of various populations in the U.S. was a direct contributing factor in the deaths of over 87,000 Americans a year. 


Let me repeat that, because it is worth repeating. Not being able to afford Health Care, kills more Americans a year than all the terrorist attacks in history. It killed more Americans from 2000- 2001 than if there had been a 9-11 scale attack every week. 

THIS is what Donald Trump wants to return to, and if you are supporting, him, you are supporting this as well. It is an unconscionable, and deliberately cruel act by a small petty stupid man, because he is obsessed with jealousy and insecurity over his predecessor.  There is no “replace” in his repeal and replace.    This is all about Trump needing to defeat Barack Obama for whatever perceived slights his fragile ego and unstable mind can’t get past.

 He will get his vengeance, even if it kills thousands of Americans. 

If you support Donald Trump it gives me cause to doubt your basic humanity. It is not a policy disagreement. It is a clear case of good versus evil. To stand with Trump on this, is to stand with evil, and I am done with it, and with you.

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