The Abominable Showmen
The House recently passed a new health care bill that was intended to not only repeal the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, but also replace it with an abomination that rips out everything good that the ACA provided, while lining the pockets of the wealthy and Big Business. The House accomplished this sad specimen of legislation --- after much arm-twisting and prodding --- by four votes, and for the sole purpose of being able to claim a "win."
That's what it's all about nowadays. It's about winning and losing. It isn't about serving the people, writing legislation, or doing the job we elected them to do. Spurred on by the computer age and by video games, the mentality of much of the public is now binary; like computers, they only understand black and white, off and on, yes and no, 1 and 0. There is precious little middle ground anymore. Everybody is categorized as being on "our side" or "their side." Either embrace every single view of "our side" or be branded "one of them." Do you believe in most things Conservative, but voice an opinion favoring gun control? You just became a "Liberal Snowflake" to the Alt-RightTards. Do you like all of the things Liberals do, but you believe in capital punishment? You just became a Trumpanzee to the Loony Left. To an extremist, "our side" is 15% of the country; the other 85% is "the enemy."
The news networks, bloggers, print media, talk show hosts, etc., have picked up on this, and they now talk about things in terms of "wins" and "losses" --- as though this is all a game and not serious business. The media, etc., does this because it's what the viewers and listeners understand best. It clearly labels things, so that the binary segment of the public can choose sides. Welcome to American Guild Wars.
Getting back to the health care (or lack of it) bill passed by the House, it's sad to note that the whole circus in the House was only for show. The House --or at least the rational members of the House --- knew fully well that the bill will never pass the Senate. Senate Republicans, who in this case also spoke for most of the Democrats, announced that they would not even vote on the farce that came from the House. Instead, they're going to craft their own version of the bill, and they're going to do it on their own time frame, meaning that they aren't going to drop everything else they're doing to please The Tweeter-in-Chief. If the Senate's version of the bill passes a floor vote, then a joint committee from the House and Senate will iron out the differences and come up with a final bill that may pass both chambers and end up on the President's desk.
It's important to note that the Senate's version of the bill will need to be much friendlier to Medicaid, Medicare, seniors, people with preexisting conditions, etc., than was the fiasco forced through the House. The Senate has had a chance to gauge the public's reaction to the bill, and the reaction from almost every public and private sector has been unfavorable, to put it mildly. The House's version of the bill favors only the wealthy, and wealthy only get one vote each, the same as do less-wealthy people. Senate members aren't stupid, and enough of them (but unfortunately not all) realize that supporting the House bill is the same as not bothering to run for reelection. If the Senate did want to vote on the House's version of the bill, there would be the threat of a filibuster, since the House version isn't believed to qualify for Senate budgetary rules that bypass a filibuster.
In any case, the bill passed by the Senate will be much friendlier to the people that the House tried to throw under the bus, and when the bill goes to the joint committee, it's either going to stay friendly to those folks or never be made into law. There will probably be changes, and frankly some things in the ACA can be improved, but there won't be any wholesale eliminations, and that's a good thing for the people.
This doesn't mean that you can relax. Your voices still matter, and we all need to remain vigilant and make our feelings known in no uncertain terms, if only to let Congress know that we're paying attention, and that they are there to serve WE THE PEOPLE --- and not themselves, their contributors, and their special-interest groups.
If you like this blog, share it on your social media sites. You can do this with the inverted "V" share feature at the top and bottom of the page.
That's what it's all about nowadays. It's about winning and losing. It isn't about serving the people, writing legislation, or doing the job we elected them to do. Spurred on by the computer age and by video games, the mentality of much of the public is now binary; like computers, they only understand black and white, off and on, yes and no, 1 and 0. There is precious little middle ground anymore. Everybody is categorized as being on "our side" or "their side." Either embrace every single view of "our side" or be branded "one of them." Do you believe in most things Conservative, but voice an opinion favoring gun control? You just became a "Liberal Snowflake" to the Alt-RightTards. Do you like all of the things Liberals do, but you believe in capital punishment? You just became a Trumpanzee to the Loony Left. To an extremist, "our side" is 15% of the country; the other 85% is "the enemy."
The news networks, bloggers, print media, talk show hosts, etc., have picked up on this, and they now talk about things in terms of "wins" and "losses" --- as though this is all a game and not serious business. The media, etc., does this because it's what the viewers and listeners understand best. It clearly labels things, so that the binary segment of the public can choose sides. Welcome to American Guild Wars.
Getting back to the health care (or lack of it) bill passed by the House, it's sad to note that the whole circus in the House was only for show. The House --or at least the rational members of the House --- knew fully well that the bill will never pass the Senate. Senate Republicans, who in this case also spoke for most of the Democrats, announced that they would not even vote on the farce that came from the House. Instead, they're going to craft their own version of the bill, and they're going to do it on their own time frame, meaning that they aren't going to drop everything else they're doing to please The Tweeter-in-Chief. If the Senate's version of the bill passes a floor vote, then a joint committee from the House and Senate will iron out the differences and come up with a final bill that may pass both chambers and end up on the President's desk.
It's important to note that the Senate's version of the bill will need to be much friendlier to Medicaid, Medicare, seniors, people with preexisting conditions, etc., than was the fiasco forced through the House. The Senate has had a chance to gauge the public's reaction to the bill, and the reaction from almost every public and private sector has been unfavorable, to put it mildly. The House's version of the bill favors only the wealthy, and wealthy only get one vote each, the same as do less-wealthy people. Senate members aren't stupid, and enough of them (but unfortunately not all) realize that supporting the House bill is the same as not bothering to run for reelection. If the Senate did want to vote on the House's version of the bill, there would be the threat of a filibuster, since the House version isn't believed to qualify for Senate budgetary rules that bypass a filibuster.
In any case, the bill passed by the Senate will be much friendlier to the people that the House tried to throw under the bus, and when the bill goes to the joint committee, it's either going to stay friendly to those folks or never be made into law. There will probably be changes, and frankly some things in the ACA can be improved, but there won't be any wholesale eliminations, and that's a good thing for the people.
This doesn't mean that you can relax. Your voices still matter, and we all need to remain vigilant and make our feelings known in no uncertain terms, if only to let Congress know that we're paying attention, and that they are there to serve WE THE PEOPLE --- and not themselves, their contributors, and their special-interest groups.
If you like this blog, share it on your social media sites. You can do this with the inverted "V" share feature at the top and bottom of the page.
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