NOTE THE DIVERSIONS AND DECEPTIONS USED WHILE DISMANTLING 72 YEARS OF PROGRESSIVE FEDERAL PROGRAMS

Opinion
Photo Credit: Jonathan Simcoe/Unsplash

Hilbert Morales

EL OBSERVADOR

Biologist Margaret Mead (1901-1976) observed, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” If ‘We, the People’ ever become fully engaged, committed, and involved in our governance at all levels, it only takes a few citizens to ‘change things’ for good or bad. Today, things look bad, but we can change that lawfully with our votes.

“While our attention was focused upon the Trump Administration callous and horrific treatment of migrant children whose parents approached the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum, House Republicans quietly revealed their proposed fiscal year 2019 budget. This proposed budget calls for $537 BILLION in reductions to MEDICARE services; $1.5 TRILLION in reductions to MEDICAID programs; and $4 BILLION in cuts to SOCIAL SECURITY ENTITLEMENTS over the next 10 years.”

“Meta Starr appropriately comments, “There is no cutting Social Security Administration’s programs because it is self-funded and (is a) separate and independent tax (both employee and matched by employer) all pay into our retirement fund. Therefore, there would only be more stealing, continued theft of Social Security’s (encumbered designated funds). Reader BTW comments ‘All that ‘previously borrowed’ (social security) money needs to be paid back with interest due.” (Source: Facebook, 07.10.2018).

At every opportunity, Republicans are making health care more expensive for hard-working families – attacking people with pre-existing conditions, cynically driving up insurance premiums while concurrently handing massive tax breaks to the same pharmaceutical companies raising drug prices. Republicans are proving once again that they do not care how many people they hurt in their obsession with sabotaging health care.

The Trump Administration proposes suspending a program paying billions of dollars to insurers to stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).

“Any action to stop disbursements under the risk adjustment program will significantly increase 2019 premiums for millions of individuals and small-business owners, and could result in far fewer health plan choices,” said Justine G. Handelman, Senior VP, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. “It will undermine Americans’ access to affordable care, particularly for those who need medical care the most.”

Health insurers warned that a move by the Trump administration to temporarily suspend a program that was set to pay out $10.4 billion to insurers for covering high-risk individuals last year could drive up premium costs and create marketplace uncertainty.

“What you are effectively doing is dismantling pieces of the ACA (ObamaCare) without replacing them,” per consultant Eric Hillenbrand, AlixPartners, “It moves us back to some extent to the status quo where people with pre-existing conditions found it very difficult to get insurance.”

The suspension of these payments (amounting to $10.4 Billion) is the most recent maneuver by the Trump administration to undercut the (ObamaCare ACA 2010) health-care law that President Trump made his 2016 vowed to demolish. The Trump Administration has been using executive actions to dismantle it.

The American people cannot afford the Republican’s raw deal on health care. Democrats are fighting to give the American people A Better Deal, with lower health costs and better care for all. (Source: Office of Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, July 9, 2018 3:23 PM)

Once installed as President, Trump immediately addressed trade agreements made using ‘collective bargaining’ with America’s partners. The Transpacific Trade Pact (TTP-12 nations); the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA-3 nations); and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO-with European nations) are all being subjected to demeaning commentary followed by each nation being forced into ‘bilateral re-negotiations’ in which America has advantages. Trump keeps saying ‘He can negotiate a better deal for America’ which did not happen with China and North Korea. Meanwhile he keeps insulting and abusing allies while praising autocratic leaders of Russia, North Korea, and the Philippines. Trump has already started an ‘import tariff war’ with China (2nd largest global economy), NAFTA (Canada and Mexico); and now the European Union. Trump does not understand the import/export relationships which allow American labor to produce goods and services involved. The loss of these export-import markets will create production slowdowns/shutdowns resulting in rising unemployment levels both here and there.

Import tariffs (15 to 25%) on aluminum and steel from Canada and Mexico are being imposed when the fact is that (per Mexico’s Steel Industry Association), America exported $3.6 billion more to Mexico

over the past two years than Mexico sold to U.S.A.!

In an import/export tariff trade war, the real losers are the unemployed workers here and there, who end up unable to earn wages supporting their families and ability to continue being ‘consumers’ who make purchases.

THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION NEEDS TO BEGIN USING ‘EVIDENCE BASED DECISION-MAKING PARADIGMS rather than shooting from an uninformed mouth and then letting others put things together again. The irony is that many agricultural jurisdictions which support Trump are the ones most impacted by this Import/Export Tariff war initiated by Trump. (source: Raul Lowry-Contreras, Email: July 8, 2018: 4:32 PM).

President Trump’s selection of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court is not in the best interests of Silicon Valley and the entire working class of America. This ultra- conservative judge must not be approved by the U.S. Senate until after Tuesday, November 6, 2018 mid-term election when, hopefully, the U.S. Senate is flipped from RED to BLUE.

Why? I personally cannot imagine Mr. Trump and his current Cabinet members having the knowledge and expertise to come up with a very effective dismantling of liberal progressive programs. President FDR (1936) threatened to pack the U.S. Supreme Court in order to obtain favorable rulings which enabled establishment of Social Security Administration; Works Project Agency (WPA), and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The WPA and CCC put the unemployed of 1929’s Great Depression back to work building infrastructural systems (such as the Mississippi 10-foot-deep barge channels which go from New Orleans to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota and Pittsburg, PA.

I can find no major industry which is not being subsidized by Federal programs. America needs to understand that a ‘free-market competitive capitalistic economy does not exist. What has been applied is Democratic Socialism ideology recently used by Alexandria Osorio-Cortez (Bronx, NY), who recently upset incumbent Joe Crowley, who had already served 10 terms and was expected to become the next Democratic Leader following Nancy Pelosi. Democratic-Socialism takes care of ‘We, The People’ along with those corporate individuals who want to own and control everything.

The only way to “STOP TRUMP AND HIS AGENDA” IS TO PLAN TO VOTE THIS COMING TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2018. TRUMP MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO IMPLEMENT THE PLANS OF THE KOCH BILLIONAIRE NETWORK NOR THOSE OF RUSSIA’S VLADIMIR PUTIN. THE ESTABLISHMENTS OF BOTH REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS ARE OUT OF TOUCH WITH ‘WE, THE PEOPLE’. WE MUST REDIRECT THE AMERICAN SHIP OF STATE BY REPLACEMENT OF THE CURRENT LEADERSHIP ESTABLISHMENTS.

If you chose not to vote, you and your neighbors will suffer the worst economic and governance collapse ever designed by our own American autocratic billionaire dreamers. It very essential to ‘push back’. Plan to Vote now in your own best interests because you already know that the Trump Administration will not take care of ‘We, The People’.

Categories
Opinion

RELATED BY

0