Congenial-speak #31

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 115^th 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.