SLClarke
SLClarke's JournalAmerican Politics 2023
AMERICAN POLITICS 2023 2023/10/26
Yesterday, the House of Representatives elected a Speaker, a member with no chair experience, a someone who, as one Representative said, that most did not know, or even know the name of, a someone who is anti-abortion, anti-LBGTQ, anti-immigration, an election denier, someone, who in the eight years he has been a Representative, has never had a bill passed and, according to the reports, is not a great fund-raiser, and, a someone who is dedicated to cutting Medicaid and Medicare, a someone who labels Social Security an “entitlement” program.
I could go on with his list of awfuls, but what is truly more disturbing is, that in order to be elected Speaker, you have to have the blessing of our past president, a man who’s set a record with 91 indictments, with the possibility of being tried for treason because he shared state secrets with other countries; is the arbiter of a party where his followers ignore his bankruptcies (four), his frequent marriages and the affairs that came before that, ignore the astounding disrespect of his first wife, burying her at his golf course and, ignore the fact he doesn’t pay his bills.
We, as a country, need two functioning parties. America was set up that way. We are not a parliamentary system, however, at this moment, watching the shenanigans in the House, maybe we should be. At least then, ignoramuses would not be elected to higher office. I can’t stand people who are willfully stupid, and Johnson, in his speech about basing his life on, what he calls, Christian principles, is just that, stupid, ignorant, mean, spiteful, vengeful, and blind, blind, blind.
My very Republican patient was incensed when she heard the news (just before coming in for treatment yesterday). This women, politically active, wants someone who will support her party in the coming election, and was verbally articulate about the failings of Mike Johnson of Alabama. Even she did not know his name, and, she would expect too, because, like everyone else she is on the watch for someone to rise up and take the GOP back to power. This man won’t.
And I am back too, we need a functioning opposition party, and the current members of the Republican Party occupying the House in DC are not that.
Regardless of whether or not you liked Pelosi, with her thin margin of Democratic Representatives, she managed to get hundreds of bills through the house. This time, with the Republicans in power, they have passed twelve. And now, in October, having finally elected a Speaker, they have until the end of November to pass bills to keep the government open.
It remains to be seen what Johnson can manage. Can he manage the Freedom Caucus?
Personally, I am resigned about the mess they are making. It’s like bad theater, however, unlike theater, we are sitting in the seats and cannot move, cannot leave the bad performance and the bad actors to their fate, which, in a just world, would be rapidly coming for them.
Taxes and Health Care
For those of you who pay a monthly "fee" for your health care, consider looking at that payment as a "tax". For indeed, it is a tax. It just isn't named at as one. If you want health care in this country and are under 65, paying this monthly fee is mandatory. A deduction of $250.00 per month from a paycheck (for instance), is, in reality, a "tax". That is $3,000 a year being paid for access to the clinics and doctors covered by the plan. Oh yes, this plus the co-pays on top of that (which makes the yearly "tax" outlay even bigger).
For those who think that Medicare For All would create more taxes, need to know they already pay even more "taxes" than they realize. As Shakespeare wrote "... a rose by any other name would smell as sweet ...", the health care "deduction" could (should?) be redefined to reflect reality.
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