Joy Reed and Team Democrats are on fire this morning. I am gradually waking up hearing excited guests analyzing the collapse of Ryan-Trump-care with a series of great insights I can't attribute due to still being mostly asleep, but which are the most optimistic energies I've heard on the progressive side in a long time.
For example, Ryan and zealous Freedom Caucus Republicans have shown Americans that they’ve never had any real interest in improving health care for regular Americans, but rather have spent seven years belittling “Obama-care” in what can now be seen clearly as a shallow and zealous, ideological political con jobs, or perhaps worse, as thinly masked racism to not allow President Obama any victory no matter how well deserved.
After seven years of repeal and replace vitriol Team Ryan limps forward with the most pathetic health care bill we ever seen. One that has absolutely no substantive health care elements, but instead suggests we take just short of a trillion dollars out of Medicaid to give even more tax cuts to billionaires.
When this was not enough to mollify Freedom Caucus tantrums, the right’s response was to propose stripping out essential health benefits such as prenatal care, mental health, addiction, emergency response, and other basic safety net elements that revealed, once and for all, the utter lack of compassion — even base brutality of the alt-right — Freedom Caucus wing of the Republican Party. The much vaunted Republican Repeal and Replace mantra shows itself to be all bull-malarchy and zero health care.
I join
Laurence Lewis in congratulating House Democrats for standing united against this would-be atrocity against deeply held American values of compassion and mutual aid. We would be remiss, however, if we did not acknowledge and give even greater credit to the populist led outbreak of raw, grassroots activism of regular working class Americans who stormed GOP Town Halls with a collective outrage that shocked and awed the zealous right congress people and stood them on their heels. We should learn more about these spontaneously erupting expressions and support for using government to be an agent for advancing our common good.
Can establishment Democrats catch up with and help channel, this energetic burst of outrage? Because, “frankly,” with a few exceptions such as Senator Sanders, Warren, and Rep Cummings, and Micheal Moore, we haven't really heard as much support and defense of ACA from the last four months of slander and lies as we should have from established Democratic leaders. Let's allow such observations to be water under the bridge if we can now reunite and the Democratic Party around exciting and perhaps achievable goals to Fix and expand The American health care system.
President Obama has shown sufficient traditional due deference to the new president by remaining silent. Perhaps, now we should encourage ACA ‘s best advocate to come back onto the playing field — for the good of America during this emerging national leadership emergency. Traditions should change upon dire need.
Can we now convert the Ryan led health care fiasco into real improvements to health care and into congressional votes for specific Fix and Expand ACA efforts such as allowing Medicare to negotiate pharmaceutical prices?
Could we have an opportunity to create a realignment of political coalitions to pull in 21 plus moderate Republicans to join us to create a house majority on this issue, and perhaps others? Using the foundation idea of constructive populist-based substantive governance rather than vindictive, and destructive ideological antigovernment zealotry.
A constructive strongly lead bill to reduce premiums, and deductables with modest revenue enhancement from the top 1% could demonstrate a clever and constructive jiu Jitsu. President Trump has already demonstrated openness to allowing Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate pharmaceutical prices. Such an alliance could offer Trump, and all Americans a quick, practical, immediate win.
And even his most vocal critics, such as myself, must acknowledge our President has long demonstrated a high degree of opportunistic ideological flexibility. If Trump discovers he can have greater and quicker success joining with moderate Republicans and Democrats to achieve foundational victories with fixing and expanding the ACA, and an economically stimulative trillion dollar plus infrastructure plan we may on the way to a much sooner political realignment than having to wait for 2018 and 2020.
Such a empirical, and results oriented “Fix and Improve ACA” will illustrate how government can be a useful and essential agent of public good.
Could we convince President Trump that he was bamboozled and betrayed by Speaker Ryan and alt-right Freedom Caucus who ignored his clear campaign promises to provide great and better health care for all Americans by these extremIst ideological zealots? Zealots who hijacked, exploited, and betrayed his promise of better healthcare for all to instead substitute their disgraceful tax- cut plan for billionaires. “Don't ya see that, once again, his instincts to cover all Americans with better health care were right all along.” He just fell into the wrong crowd. (Snark alert.)
How can we use this new populist led activism to bring moderate Republicans and Democrats together to show Trump he can achieve quick wins if he refocuses on “his original instincts” to provide substantial improvements to health care and coverage for all people.
Could we use such a avictory as a stepping stone to do the same with a a trillion dollar infrastructure plan financed in great part with a economically stimulative government finances with a combination of increased revenues from the top 1% and a burst of “pump priming deficit spending.
if he hasn't figured it out yet, President Trump will soon discover the Freedom Caucus has no intention to fund any infrastructure stimulus with new government dollars. President Obama and Democrats have been advocating this for eight years, and even longer.
Could we realign the Congressional leadership even before the 2018 and 2020 elections? Maybe I should have my morning coffee. I appear to still be dreaming.