Possession
is some tense of the law
It
is OUR money. We are backed by the pre-amble, the gentle and
nonchalant segue into the constitution. Let me reiterate. It reads,
in bold letters, WE THE PEOPLE, in order to form a more perfect
union. . .blah, blah. Generation X may recall the words schoolhouse
rock set to a catchy tune. Lincoln himself said in his address at
Gettysburg, on a November day in 1863, that “government of the
people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from earth.”
Government is US. Government is as collective, as epic in scope
as—God. We make government and, in all fairness, it makes us. It
secures us, makes our interstate highways, protects our borders with
a nominal fence and negotiating humans, NOT a 40' wall. It does many
things for US. We, the collective we, the constituents of a chosen
few, have entrusted money to pay for services. Among these, fertile
for farming out to third-party interests, is health-care.
Big
ticket items
Ever
since Lyndon Johnson proposed the medicare system in 1966, the
American peoples' tax dollars have been taxed. They have paid for
everything, regardless of intent, from police security to wars to
inaugurations. Jimmy Carter cut the defense budget of his predecessor
to roughly 120.3 billion. For 2018, the House and Senate Armed
Services Committee proposes a $640 billion budget, a $37 billion
increase from Trump's plan. Admittedly 2018 dollars will not fly as
far as 1976 dollars, but who is at the spigot has something to do
with getting the most mileage out of OUR money. To illustrate how
disproportionate defense spending is to medical spending would
explain a lot. Why such an unethical, inhumane, and cost defective
bill is even being considered. Weighing the costs, to eyes not
reflected in $s, will prove the cost EFFECTIVNESS of dumping more of
OUR money into medical programs and skimping a bit on the military
spending. Remember Trump's panty raid on Syria, the rhetorical tears
shed for the children Assad killed? Just one of those 59 Tomohawk
missiles cost $832,000. Gee, the price of a good ground/air war has
gone up. In 1999 that same missile cost a mere $596,000. But there,
for the grace of god go I, sitting in a hospital bed somewhere
hacking into computers, on a ventilator, knowing I will die. In a
year I will have run up a bill of $39,000, payable by medicare,
Medical Assistance or Medicaid, liberal programs that are, in the
truest sense of the word, of, by, and for the American people. These
are not pithy prepositions in hyperbole. Remember Lincoln, the
Republican who made the mold. His nation was divided. Ironically,
Trump finds himself in the same situation (however, I really don't
think he gives a damn, if he can even see someone else's reality).
Robbery
Trump
has put the least tax money allowable though loopholes into the pot,
the chamber vessel into which the ninety-eight percenters are exiled
to piss. And each side celebrates little victories. Weeks ago, on the
WH lawn, the two percenters with their president lauded their
achievement of passing their bill through the House. Last night the
98 percent had reason to celebrate. After weeks of protests, jammed
phone lines, open dialogue with senators, indivisible visibility,
enough opposition to the worst, most malicious mandate ever in
America was found. One by one Republicans rejected the bill. They
could not, in good faith, vote for a bill that would cut 22 million
Americans' (some of whom voted for Trump) access to health care. Yes!
WE won, for now, for the summer break of the 115th
congress. Our money talked. . . and talked on the senate floor. The
guarantors WE entrusted to curate OUR money rolled out onto the
capitol steps, voicing opposition to the evil bill deep into the
night. They evoked the words of Edmund Burke, not being among those
who did nothing so the evil would not triumph.
Throwing
them a bone
Chew on the fringes of that travel ban. The SCOTUS, in the debut of
Justice Gorsuch, handed Trump a defeat wrapped in a victory. Muslims
with zero connection, no family, no job or school ties to the U.S.
won't be allowed in—for a finite period of time, which will soon
expire. The big orange man in the harbor said it, “. . . until we
can find out what the hell is going on!” He set his Mickey Mouse
watch. He tweeted about the multiple blockages. Muslims with
families or jobs in the U.S. were the main focus of the crowds and
pro-Bono lawyers at the airports. What unit of time is in a
until we can find out what the hell is going on?
Nothing
form nothing is nothing
I
think the GOP is a fighter in the ring. They have been, since
Lincoln, favored to win. In the eleven administrations since Ike six,
including the current one, are Republican. The GOP, like a
heavy-weight fighter, like the British in the American revolution,
like the hare, is getting weary. It is now fighting itself to fight
the Democrats and a much more Egalitarian vision of democracy. It is
grand and old and moaning, weakly, soundlessly trumpeting like a
battered elephant trying to remember why it is in the ring. Paul Ryan
is the spineless man with his head up the elephant's ass trying to
jog its memory, trying to hold together a party that's lost all touch
with reality. All Trump has accomplished in his five and a half
months as POTUS, as far as any significant legislation, would affect
the budgets in western New York, his home state. He has nothing
really to show for his time in office—all the more reason to barely
grasp a complicated issue like health care and try to amend it by
ramming a bill, sprinkling manure on it hoping a law will grow. And,
it is, by all ways and means, a reason to rob America.
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