affordable care act – thetexastart.org

See that man. Watch that scene. He is the drama queen.

It’s only been a couple of months now and every day a new drama with this guy, even 3 a.m. Twit storms. If the intellectual overload is not from the 24-hour news media just trying to report on the U.S. presidency, separating fact from fiction, and assorted televised political pundits spinning in place, then it’s the president himself saying whatever whenever.

It’s got me longing for the previous eight years of relative serenity with our former president: Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected. President Obama said that was how he would be as president, taking advice from his favorite predecessor, Abraham Lincoln. The American people, Lincoln and Obama theorized, want a leader who brings a sense of calm, where there is no daily uproar or scandal amidst dozens of investigations, whereby the People can just live their lives in peace and freedom and let their elected leaders take care of governmental affairs. This is not what we are experiencing now and may never for the next four long years.

Mama Mia

I can’t get this image out of my mind. It’s when both Obama and Trump met officially in the Oval Office shortly after the election. Obama and his key commanders met with Trump privately, revealing all the world’s secrets past and present and perhaps U.S. obligations and commitments. When the two world leaders sat down together for the international photo op, Obama had a certain smile on his face and a knowing twinkle in his eye … while Trump looked like he was sick to his stomach, like he really didn’t want to be President of the United States of America after all. I’ve seen the cocky Obama countenance in the movie Amadeus. The look is from Mozart when his secret rival Salieri asks with all humble graciousness for him to look over a new composition. Mozart takes a swig of wine from the glass goblet in hand and shoots his tongue in his cheek, his eyes smiling with sarcasm. The Obama look was ‘Checkmate.’ The look was ‘I know all your secrets, man.’ Trump’s look was ‘I’ve bit off more than I can chew. I’m President, leader of the Free World, the most powerful man on Earth, and it ain’t going to be any fun, too scary’—because the World, the universe, is a very dangerous and uncontrollable place.

Waterloo

How many bets are ongoing about the days left to the Trump presidency? Or his ultimate demise? Impeachment? Heart attack? Stroke? Just simply stepping down and leaving it to the rest of us? There are talk show hosts projecting an itch for war with Trump’s call to beef up the already mighty U.S. military complex. Trump has managed to offend several world leaders important to the U.S. including those south and north of our borders. There are millions, tens of millions, of American people hollering to keep ‘Obamacare.’ There is a split among Republicans, some fearing election turnout if Obamacare is killed and not replaced as they all had promised with typical political sincerity. On the other side are Republicans whose intent always was to dismantle and bury the very idea of affordable health care, hoping no Americans, the ones who matter anyway, would raise a fuss or even miss the humane benefits of universal healthcare.

There is 100% proof from our very own federal investigators of Russian connections and interference in the 2016 U.S. election simply to discredit Hillary Clinton and leave Americans thinking Trump our lone salvation. And just when Congress is investigating the Russian connection, Trump himself claims President Obama had his New York palace wiretapped. Obama did insist on a hot and heavy federal investigative report on Russian tampering in the U.S. election whether through hacking the Democratic national website and emails or infiltrating the internet with fake news that passed as legitimate by millions of American readers—Americans not known to take the time and trouble to verify everything they read online. Obama had this investigation report presented to Congress by the time he left office. Perhaps that is where President Trump is thinking his home was investigated by the feds.

There is President Trump’s dubious selection of multi-billionaires to lead major tax-supported federal departments, some of these new radical leaders touting their sole intent to dismantle and dissolve from the memory of the American people any benefits from their government programs. There is the Trump gold-standard budget that would kill federal funding to schools, education, health care, food programs, the arts and humanities, and any type of Democratic program created long ago to help the poor and disenfranchised. How did Trump ever get away with being a Democrat for most of his very rich life? And like other former weenie Democrats whose number one goal was to get elected at any and all costs, he proved a turncoat when sensing the rage of angry Americans over global economics and religious indignation—over circumstances they cannot control. And half the American people bought New Trump.

All the current political upheaval can be blamed on Comedy Central and their Trump roast. Every single celebrity on the dais told the Big Man over and over again how they hoped he would run for President and what a great President he would be. This is when the Golden Dream occurred. But the stars and celebs were referring to the former Cool Trump who was all business and pizzazz and nonreligious and apolitical.

But not only did Trump need to switch parties for some reason, he also needed to go far right. During the hotly watched televised Republican debates, Trump verbally assaulted every decent contender right in the morals as they were unwilling to punch back. They could have and should have. Evidently Americans don’t mind. Lesson for the future. The other Republican presidential hopefuls were first gentlemen and second politicians. Trump came across as the non politician, the savvy businessman whose immense wealth put dollar signs in everyone’s eyes. Yet he is the consummate politician and displays it and plays it every single day.

It’s been … exhausting—and remains dangerous for all Americans and anyone else living on the planet at this point in time.

Government giveth, and it taketh away. They get it from the Bible. So why is anyone shocked about dismantling the Affordable Care Act (passed during the Obama administration and referred to as Obamacare)? Our Government has a history of creating social and education programs—even lofty science ones like NASA—and then eroding or removing them through budget cuts, often when a new administration comes to power.

Back in the 1960s, old-timers tell of the Republican fight against Medicare and Medicaid. But since then, generations have forgotten all the fuss. Today not a single elderly person or the poor and disabled and disenfranchised and, well, everyone living in the middle and lower classes would want to see a single dollar cut from these programs. [Medicaid might take up less than 5% of the federal budget while Medicare is close to 30%. The military is around 15% while education funding is not even 5%.]

A quarter of a century before Obamacare, our federal government looked into passing universal health care, whereby no one would be rejected or dumped by an insurance company due to circumstances such as pregnancy (or just being a woman of child-bearing age), chronic health ailments and pre-existing conditions, or a previous cancer battle. The Clinton administration tried and tried and tried to get something passed along the lines of universal health care—like every modern country provides its citizens except the good ol’ USA. The President’s wife, First Lady Hillary Clinton, was appointed to lead the charge and instead found through round-table discussions with physicians, insurance companies, hospitals and pharmaceuticals, no one could or would come to a consensus. Issues of conflict centered on lowering health care and prescription costs, cutting a physician’s salary basically in half, and increasing insurance rates to expand coverage. There could be no compromise.

Higher ideals

During the Bernie Sanders’ campaign, I learned of an era before my time, 50 years ago or so, when Uncle Sam would pay tuition of any American attending a public university or college. How kind of our government leaders in those bygone days, how unified they were for the common good: ensuring fellow Americans a college education. It had to do with the American Dream of the house, the car, the summer vacation—in short, pulling folks financially decimated by the Great Depression into the middle class.

When I chose to go to college in 1981, the times had changed. America was on edge with a rough, punk attitude. No one cared about anybody. Recession and inflation were common daily language, which for a high school kid left little hope for optimistic dreams or a brighter tomorrow. Those of us growing up in that gloomy era understood government could not help us. Don’t even ask. Nevertheless, I did.

I received a federal student loan to cover my first year of college, plus I took on a couple of part-time jobs. During my college years under the Reagan administration, budget cuts greatly affected government assistance for college. By my second year, I was eligible for only half the loan amount with triple the interest. Later I received a federal Pell Grant (thank God) and was eligible for college work-study. Throughout the remainder of college, the Pell Grant was cut in half year after year, though it always covered tuition. Incredulously, during my final year of college, I no longer qualified for work-study. What kind of crazy government policy was that? Reagan seemed to support kids working their way through college.

Other college students had government assistance taken away, too, affecting their plans and aspirations. One student was on the GI Bill, having been a Vietnam-era veteran but not one that saw combat. That was the new hitch in trying to balance the federal budget, I suppose. Another college friend had to leave when Social Security could no longer afford it. The government program used to provide a college education for youth whose parent or parents were deceased.

Those programs benefited millions of Americans until funds were cut. Education programs like those could only help our nation and future generations. The Social Security fund for college came from President Johnson whose programs and purpose was to ensure that any American who wanted to go to college ought to be able to do so. I grew up with that mindset, a natural assumption (maybe because I am an American) that I could go to college even if my parents could not afford it. I was grateful for the federal government supporting young people to achieve a worthy goal and a bright future for all.

Here we are today. Our federal government and millions of Americans do not support tax dollars funding a college education. Not only do we have a generation of college grads who cannot pay off their loans in their lifetimes, we have the same generation and younger disbelieving in college as the only way they can get ahead in life even if they are living in poverty. They are affected by negative government, family, TV shows, movies and pop culture with sarcastic online references that play down a college degree as making any difference. This cynical worldview has penetrated school kids who do not see the benefit of education or even a high school diploma.

Here’s the truth: Work options for people with a degree are much better than the vast number of jobs that do not require higher education whether from college, trade school or military training. Here’s another fact: Businesses desperately need workers at every level who can read, write, calculate and think to make quick assessments and decisions ON THEIR OWN. And businesses continuously lack the kind of employee who is overall intelligent, self sufficient and well rounded. For decades businesses have complained workers with only a high school diploma or less are not smart enough to keep up with technology.

Government budgets reflect what’s important to people already in power. It’s up to us Little People to let Washington know: We know how our tax dollars are spent, how the budget is divided, and what the government’s priorities are—because we know what used to be important back when America was great indeed.