This Awful Trumpcare/Ryancare Bill Just Will Not Go Away

I have mentioned here on "The Charbor Chronicles" before that there are two huge areas where I feel the United States is truly getting it wrong politically, and being judged and found wanting by most of the rest of the world. The first, and perhaps the biggest in terms of long-term ramifications to be felt around the world, is inaction on climate change, largely fueled by a very narrow-minded and transparently self-serving skepticism of the science behind it. I published quite a few blog entries on this issue fairly recently, in and around Earth Day week.

The second area where the United States is glaringly failing before the eyes of the world has been in the news making headlines once again, although not surprisingly, these are the wrong kinds of headlines for the country to be seeing and making. It should be no surprise for me to mention that this second area in which the country is failing would be healthcare. 

In the United States right now, the prevailing arguments from both sides of the aisles are completely taken with what is wrong with any and all new proposed ideas with healthcare reform. Obviously, this Trumpcare/Ryancare bill is deserving of criticism, because frankly, it deserves to be in the garbage bin, where it already was just a little over one month ago, when Congress flatly rejected it the first time around. Yet, the House of Representatives, the most extremist and absolute in their pro-corporate agenda, went ahead and passed it this time around.

What ensued after this was almost comical, if it were not so tragic! The Republican Congressmen who voted in favor of this elitist bill favoring the already advantaged went to the White House for a big celebration with President Trump. 

I heard someone on the radio compare this to holding a pep rally after kicking a field goal for a 3-0 lead in the first quarter of a football game. Sounds about right. There is so much still left to go, and it seems unlikely that this healthcare bill will pass the Senate without serious modifications. But you go on and enjoy those premature celebrations, Trump fans! Also, you better pray that you either will have millions if you or someone close to you ever gets really sick and needs expensive medical care, or that you never, ever have to face that dilemma, because these guys are most certainly NOT on your side! 

As for the Democrats, apparently they were all smiles on the marbled halls of Congress, after House

Republicans passed this bill. They even went as far as to sing that song that you often hear in sports

arenas and stadiums around the world (Na, na, na, na, Hey, Goodbye!), to mock the GOP members,

and make sure that they understood that their voting in favor of this ridiculous healthcare bill would

likely cost them elections, and seats in Congress.

Now, they are trying to preserve Obamacare, although few Democrats seem to be in favor of finally

simply doing the obvious and honest thing, and acknowledging that this is clearly one area where

most of the rest of the developed world gets it right, but we here in the United States gets it wrong!

The rest of the world does not have a stigma about a single-payer healthcare system, while millions

of Americans clearly do, believing it to be the first step towards fascism and socialism. The fact that

every other developed nation in the world has such a healthcare system in place is telling, and the

fact that these countries also have access to the same information that we have, and are free to debate

these issues just like Americans can, and yet not one single other country has looked at the American

example, and the looked at their own, and decided that the American system is indeed better, is pretty

convincing evidence of which systems work better for the people. To fail to acknowledge this basic

reality is disingenuous and intellectually dishonest, not to mention morally suspect!

This is why the Democrats are hardly better than Republicans. All they ever say is that it cannot be done here, even though it has and is being done elsewhere - literally in every other developed country in the world! The United States stands alone among developed countries as the only nation that fails to provide it's citizens with some kind of an affordable, universal healthcare system. And let's make no mistake about it, failure is the right word here. Why? Because these political elites love taking money from the healthcare industry and pharmaceutical corporations, who want nothing more than to keep the for profit system in place, and to keep profiting off of the pain that the American people - the people that these politicians are supposed to represent and protect! So while the Republicans are making fools of themselves by celebrating a likely doomed healthcare bill to "repeal and replace" Obamacare, let us remember that the mainstream Democrats are also elitists, and part of the problem, and not part of the solution. Shame on all of them! 

After all, Democrats were singing and celebrating what they perceived to be the failure of the other
party (and let us not forget how frequently wrong they have been with these assumptions before!).
Let us be clear, here: they were not celebrating a triumph for the American people. They were not
celebrating an election win (although they clearly imagined that they were, indirectly). And they most
certainly were not celebrating some great new proposal of their own that would finally address all of
the glaring inadequacies that have existed in the American healthcare system now for several decades -
dating back at least as far back as the Nixon administration! Call me crazy, but I hardly think that this
was a cause for celebration.

Aren't you getting tired of these politicians voting on things that directly impact the American people, yet they do not read the entire bills? That was the case with the so-called PATRIOT Act, as well as the economic bailout in 2008. And now, this healthcare bill, as if healthcare is such a small matter, that the details are not pertinent. These are the guys making decisions for you and for me, and they look and sound completely incompetent! Quite a few of them are known to be in the pay of the healthcare industry and big pharmaceuticals. Truly outrageous! Where is all of the rage from Trump supporters now? But you know they'll be the first ones complaining if they find themselves screwed out of decent healthcare as a result of this, if this ever were to become the law of the land.

We're living in the age of truly pathetic government, and what passes for government "leadership." Once again, a bill no one individual read, and few understand, is being crammed through the House, and next to the Senate, while most of these guys know barely any more about it than you or me. According to projections, millions will lose their insurance. Typically, it benefits the rich, the very people who, by definition, need the least help. They will be well taken care of, but the lower down the economic ladder you are, the more out of reach healthcare will be! The poorer you are, the more this healthcare bill will punish you. You know, because 'Murica. And the rest of the developed world watches what is going on here, and just shakes their head, thankful for being citizens of other countries (and with justification!).

Please take a look at this video of a doctor from Arizona addressing the healthcare failures that we have all seen, and suggesting ways that these can be improved:

https://www.facebook.com/IndivisibleSouthernArizona/videos/877785709042211/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

Finally, here is a video of a familiar face and voice, advocating for serious healthcare reform (as well as some other things):