By now, all but the loyal members of the Mindless MAGA Moron cult will likely admit that under the Trump presidency things have gotten demonstrably worse in the United States.
Not only has he ushered in an era of unprecedented corruption which is right out in the open, and where Trump and his family and friends are not even bothering with any real effort to even bother trying to hide it, but he has not done most of the things which he said he would do.
A brief review:
No, he did not lower the price of gas and groceries. In fact, the prices of both went up. The price of gas rose dramatically as a direct result of his launching the war against Iran.
Speaking of Iran, Trump promised not to get the United States involved in another foreign war, especially one of those endless wars in the Middle East. Obviously, another promise that he did not keep.
Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. But it has been in office again for a year-and-a-half now, and his efforts to end the war have failed.
He did not release the Epstein Files, which he promised to do.
All of that is just this second term in office. During the first term, he failed to build the wall, much less make Mexico pay for it. He also failed to keep his promise to build a national healthcare system that would be affordable and would cover everyone. He was not the greatest jobs creating president in history, which he promised to be. He did not pay off the national debt in eight years, and between his two terms so far, more than 28% of the national debt came under Trump's watch.
And that's just some of the stuff which Trump promised but failed to deliver on. There are more things on top of that. In the interest of brevity, however, I will stop it there.
Those are some ways in which the country has grown worse under Trump. But there are other ways to measure this, as well. The Department of the Treasury announced, earlier this year, that the United States is now insolvent. That should be a major story, but it was kept largely under wraps, mostly because of the Trump administration's fixation on censorship.
The Constitution and rule of law is under attack. The system of checks and balances is under attack and being systematically and purposely undermined. We have a "leader" who actively and aggressively tries to distort the narrative with lies and misleading information, then projects onto everyone else who criticizes him that they are guilty of pushing "fake news." The economy is not doing very well, with inflation rates seemingly out of control, yet Trump claims that he loves inflation. He also says that the economic concerns of Americans really does not cross his mind. The rest of the world views us with a mixture of fear and contempt, and the contempt seems to be the dominant theme. We have a reputation of being stupid as a country, and I'm not entirely certain that it is not deserved.
Add to that this new bit of information from headlines which, again, should have dominated headlines, much like the insolvency should have a few months ago. Yet somehow, this headline also barely seemed to register with most Americans. That, despite it being alarming enough that it should, frankly, have served as a wakeup call.
Now, less than 49% of Americans can apparently afford healthcare. That less than half of Americans who can afford our healthcare system, which is and long has been broken. It is far and away the most expensive healthcare system in the world, and we likely get less bang for our buck than any other country in the industrialized world.
Yet, Americans still cannot seem to figure out a way to institute the changes which are clearly necessary to actually improve our healthcare system. It has been problematic ever since Nixon privatized it in 1973. Every major election cycle, it seems to be one of the dominant topics of conversation. Yet also just as consistently, Americans seem somehow to vote against their own best interest, time after time after time.
Sickening.
This is yet another area where we have gotten simply rotten results for our collective way of thinking in this country. Once again, the facts seem to clearly suggest that we Americans are collectively doing something wrong.
Unfortunately, now that all of these things are becoming clearer and harder to deny, we have an alarming trend of far too many Americans - numbering in the tens of millions - who simply reject facts in preference of believing what they want to believe. Apparently, they do this even when it hurts their own self-interest.
When I think about that, it is hard to feel any hope for this country. It feels like we are in a downward that we cannot get out of. And it feels like we Americans cannot get out of our own way when trying to improve things.
And yeah, the Trump presidency is making all of this worse, too. Much, much worse.
After all, this guy who, remember, was born into enormous privilege and wealth, has claimed that the affordability issue is a mere Democratic hoax. Much like he claims the Epstein Files are a Democratic hoax. Also, how he feels that climate change is a Chinese hoax.
But affordability hardly seems like a hoax to me. After all, we are the only country where citizens try Go Fund Me campaigns to pay their medical bills. And we are the only country in the industrialized nations where tens of thousands of families cannot afford their medical expenses. Now, a majority of Americans apparently cannot even afford healthcare. Let's not forget that once upon a time, Trump promised to build a national healthcare system that would be affordable and would cover everyone, then lifted not so much as a finger to actually create such a system. So the healthcare in this country has continued to rot and gotten worse.
Some hoax.
Frankly, I feel like he is literally the worst possible person to hold the office of president. Yet, it also feels like a sign - one of far too many - that this pathetic man is the one who keeps somehow finding his way to our highest office.
Personally, I don't know how all of this will end. But I have long felt that things are going to get far worse before they begin to truly get better. Frankly, given all of the headlines lately, that feels even more true now than it ever has before.
Fewer than 49% of Americans can afford healthcare, the lowest rate since tracking began in 2021, according to Gallup data released Thursday.
In a single year, roughly 2.8 million people no longer identified as being “Cost Secure” meaning they could no longer afford access to quality care or pay for visits and prescriptions, according to the data. Worry about future healthcare costs, including visits and prescriptions, amongst Americans is also at an all-time high of over 40%, according to Gallup.
https://abcnews.com/Health/fewer-half-americans-afford-healthcare-gallup/story?id=133967735&fbclid=IwY2xjawSpjZlleHRuA2FlbQIxMABzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe7fGoC59R3g6oIXLr0afvqYKM18j7vJRrnT8QWy5W5FTi-7dXZ5vs20i-2yo_aem_DF9qQlDmPgiivEzj73WXVQ
Fewer than half of Americans say they can afford healthcare: Gallup - ABC News
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