Showing posts with label Government Shutdown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Government Shutdown. Show all posts

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Poorest American's don't get Medicaid! (Rant Post)

WTF? Wow just open the government back up GOP!
Today is day three of the government shutdown that the far right wing of the republican party has caused, we now have republicans trying to shift the blame to the democrats because they refuse to negotiate with the hostage takers or better known as the republicans. The democrats should not negotiate with hostage takers, so the republicans are 100% wrong as they usually are I will be the first one to bash the democrats when they deserve it but they are 100% right in this case. I'm really mad after I read a article in the New York Times called "Millions of Poor Are Left Uncovered by Health Law" the reason why I'm so mad is because the whole point of the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act is to try and insure the poorest of Americans who can't afford private health insurance. Instead what do we see from the conservative states? They reject Medicaid expansion and they doom the poorest people in their state to not have any health insurance. That makes me so angry, the reason why is because I live in the state of New Jersey and we are expanding Medicaid next year and I'm a college student and I can't afford private insurance so now because of the Affordable Care Act now I can get Medicaid and I have President Obama to thank for that. I'm fortunate that I live in a state that is expanding Medicaid, now I kind of feel bad because what about the people that live in states that are not expanding Medicaid? They are out of luck I guess because millions of people that live in those states are going to continue to die thanks to the republicans in these states.

Every American deserves health insurance! 
What frustrates me is that the federal government is paying for the Medicaid expansion, it's not like the Affordable Care Act is making the states pay for the Medicaid expansion, I would be against making the states pay for the expansion. The article says that "The federal government will pay for the expansion through 2016 and no less than 90 percent of costs in later years." After 2016 these states would have to pay for 10% of the cost of the expansion, why don't those conservative republicans take the money for the Medicaid expansion? I really don't understand how heartless these conservative republicans are, every person in America deserves some type of health insurance no matter if they are very wealthy or they are the poorest people in this country. Most of these states are in the deep south and except for Arkansas all of these states have rejected Medicaid expansion under ACA. The New York Times says that "Every state in the Deep South, with the exception of Arkansas, has rejected the expansion. Opponents of the expansion say they are against it on exclusively economic grounds, and that the demographics of the South — with its large share of poor blacks — make it easy to say race is an issue when it is not. In Mississippi, Republican leaders note that a large share of people in the state are on Medicaid already, and that, with an expansion, about a third of the state would have been insured through the program. Even supporters of the health law say that eventually covering 10 percent of that cost would have been onerous for a predominantly rural state with a modest tax base."

I'm not sure whether race is a factor or not in the reasoning why these southern states are rejecting the Medicaid expansion, part of me thinks so, however I will give them the benefit of the doubt. In Mississippi a large percentage of their people are already on Medicaid which is the reasoning the Republicans have in why they reject Medicare expansion and they do not want to pay for the 10% of the expansion after 2016. Really? They can't pay the 10% after 2016? Why? Because the rich in the south need more tax cuts? If that's the case that's an outrage because these people still need insurance and no matter what they deserve respect and these conservative republicans do not respect these poor people because if they did they would take the money for the expansion and they would make sure that those poor people were covered under Medicaid. “Any additional cost in Medicaid is going to be too much,” said State Senator Chris McDaniel, a Republican, who opposes expansion." I don't know this man but I bet that he's against any tax increases on the wealthy and corporations in order to pay for the expansion. If you can tell from the tone of this post I'm disgusted by these republicans that are rejecting Medicaid expansion and letting their poor people go without any health insurance, yes I'm damned disgusted.

My question is what kind of country do we want America to be? Do we want a country that will neglect their poor and sick because they don't want to pay 10% of the cost of an expansion of Medicaid that will cover poor Americans? Do we want to let heartless conservatives control our domestic policy making here in America? Because if that's the type of country that most Americans want then we've misunderstood the meaning of America. However I know that most Americans are not like these heartless conservatives that claim that they can't expand Medicaid because they don't want to pay 10% of the cost are the same conservatives that are in favor of fighting two wars that cost us trillions of dollars and giving subsidies to massive oil companies that cost us the tax payer billions and billions of dollars. They are in favor of that but they are not in favor of expanding Medicaid. How dare they! What nerve do they have in rejecting those funds that are supposed to help the poorest Americans get Medicaid in order to get the minimal care that they deserve. Ten fucking percent that's the reason why they rejected Medicaid expansion how dare they!

Postscript: Yes I was very made when I wrote this blog post today and I don't regret anything that I wrote here, thanks for reading and let me know what you think. Now back to the government shutdown, I saw a couple of more covers from the New York Daily News and Time Magazine which I loved and I will post here.  

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Government Shutdown Coming GOP to blame!

Yes I know that today is Sunday, and I never write a blog post on Sunday, but events say that I must write this post. Unless there is a deal, Tuesday at midnight the government will shut down for the first time since I was nine or ten years old. What a coincidence that the last time the government shut down there was a Democrat in the White House and the Republicans controlled the House of Representatives, the last time there was a government shutdown in 1995/1996 it did not go well for the Republican party and the shutdown was part of the reason why Bill Clinton was reelected in 1996 and the Republican party was hurt politically by the shutdown but it did not last long because in the 2000 elections we saw George W. Bush get elected President and he somehow lasted for eight years. The 1995/1996 shutdown and the shutdown threats that the Republican party is making now, shows me that they don't give a damn about the people of this country that they claim to represent. All the republicans give a damn about is their rich donors and they are deathly afraid of the far right wing of their party.

Now the Republicans are also threating not to raise the debt ceiling, the debt ceiling has been raised over and over again by Republican and Democratic Presidents and the Republicans in Congress have never ever made a issue of the debt ceiling. So why are the Republicans now making an issue of the debt ceiling? The reason why is because they want to oppose Barack Obama no matter what he tries to do, which is why the Republican Party had the nickname "The Party of No" but it's much worse than that because I will say that this about President Obama's race if he was a white man like Bill Clinton was than the debt ceiling would not even be an issue but since the President is black the Republicans now want to make an issue of the debt ceiling. Anyway to the tea party and the far right wing of this country, the debt ceiling does not authorize more spending but by raising the debt ceiling it allows the US government to pay the bills that it currently owes. To make it more simple you are allowing the republicans to make America into a deadbeat country they don't want to pay the bills because Obama will not delay is signature health care plan that will help millions of Americans to get health care. Anyway Perry v. United States says that we have to pay our bills no matter what, look it up Supreme Court Ruling.

It's time for progressives and the Democrats and President Obama to become a team and fight these republicans that want to scare us into delaying a health care law that will help millions of Americans and we must not give in to these terrorists, yes that's what they are terrorists, I recognize that this is strong language but it's nothing but the truth, they want to scare us into doing what they want us to do even though they lost the election in 2012. That's the definition of terrorist, we also must not give in on the debt ceiling why? Because the Republican party is funded by the corporations and the big banks and they will not allow the Republican party to not increase the debt ceiling or else that will destroy the profits of the corporations and the big banks and they will come and crush the republicans if they don't raise the debt ceiling. My opinion is that we don't do anything and watch the Republican fold on the debt ceiling and they will raise it whether the tea party likes it or not.  I say to the Republicans try and shut down the government and not raise the debt ceiling and very soon I'll be going to your funeral.