Medicaid

A Most Despicable Governor: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Of Arkansas! :(

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former Press Secretary to President Donald Trump, became well known for incessant lying and nastiness in that role.

But she managed to promote her profile to the point of believing that she was qualified to run for Arkansas Governor, a position her father, Mike Huckabee, held from 1996-2007.

Her father, once seen as moderate, has become a right wing religious extremist since leaving office in 2007, and his daughter now is surpassing earlier Arkansas governors in moving the state further to the bottom.

Hard to believe that the state once had Winthrop Rockefeller as a Republican governor, and Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, and Bill Clinton as Democratic governors.

And the most recent Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, while conservative, came across as “reasonable”, and is now challenging Donald Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024, and is showing guts and courage as a critic of Trump, a rarity in the present.

But Huckabee Sanders is copying Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in his meanness and nastiness, on such issues as race, gender, sexuality, health care, and child labor.

She is promoting discrimination against gays and lesbians; waging war against abortion rights; refusing to allow an African American Advanced Placement history course in high school curriculums; taking poor Arkansans off Medicaid; allowing child labor to return to her state; and threatening librarians with prison terms if they do not remove materials and promote “Book Banning”!

The state is in the bottom five nationally in so many statistics, but Huckabee Sanders is following DeSantis’s playbook, and has national Presidential ambitions, which is stunning, since she has zero qualifications for the Presidency, and is not very smart intellectually!

Marjorie Taylor Greene Promotes FDR, LBJ, Biden, Totally Unaware Of What She Is Doing!

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Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene went on a rant at a right wing conference, making a total fool of herself, which she does on a regular basis!

She spoke about the “horrendous” actions of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society, and Joe Biden and “Build Back Better”, all three Democratic Presidents!

She compared Biden to FDR and LBJ, which is an endorsement of three Presidents who have done so much positive in domestic affairs, but she made it clear how terrrible it was that the nation has Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, labor unions, environmental laws, education, urban and rural poverty, infrastructure investments, and other so called “socialist” programs that make life better for Americans!

Biden and the Democrats are using what Greene said to tout their own accomplishments, and are proud to be connected to LBJ and FDR, as any sane person would be!

13 Year Anniversary Of Obama Care (Affordable Care Act)!

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We have reached the 13 year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care), which despite vehement Republican opposition, and multiple attempts to repeal the legislation, survives today.

It has transformed the lives of millions of Americans whose lives have been saved, despite their being poor and low income.

And North Carolina has just become the 40th state to expand Medicaid, the program begun by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, but with 10 states, including the megastates of Florida and Texas still resisting helping the poor and disadvantaged to be able to acquire health care.

Conservatives and Republicans have no concern about human life, other than fetuses being born, but they still promote denial of health care, and promote expansion of gun violence, by refusing to support any gun regulations, a true outrage!

And today, we had another mass loss of life in an attack by a woman against a religious elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, as the number of victims of gun assaults multiply daily!

Any intelligent, caring human being understands that conservatives and Republicans, if they had their way, would obliterate not only Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, but also Medicare and Social Security!

Republicans, Democrats, And The Economy: The Truth!

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Republicans for generations have claimed they are the “better” political party for the American economy, than are the opposition Democrats!

This is a bald faced lie, but gullible people keep on “drinking the KoolAid”!

The Republican party continues to call for the demise of Social Security (passed under Franklin D. Roosevelt); Medicare and Medicaid (passed under Lyndon B. Johnson); and in the past 12 years for repealing the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).

Right wingers condemn the Affordable Care Act because it was an African American president who promoted this expansion of health care that was first promoted as a basic right by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt as the Bull Moose Progressive Party nominee for President in 1912.

It took a generation for the cousin of TR to move toward social justice; and 50 years for Johnson to promote the health care initiatives of Harry Truman; and another nearly 50 years for Barack Obama to go beyond Medicare and Medicaid. Note that all of the Presidents engaged in this quest, except for Theodore Roosevelt, were Democrats.

But beyond that, all of the economic downturns since 1953 took place under Republican Presidents, with the exception of the brief recession under Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1980, which led to his defeat for a second term. But there were three recessions under Dwight D. Eisenhower; one under Richard Nixon and one shared by Nixon and Gerald Ford; one under Ronald Reagan; one under George H. W. Bush; and two under George W. Bush. This list included the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression under Reagan and the “Great Recession” under George W. Bush, which set back the economy for years. Additionally, the COVID 19 Pandemic led to an economic crisis under Donald Trump.

The latest economic report shows the lowest peacetime unemployment rate since World War II; the unemployment rate lowest since 1969 at 3.4 percent; a tremendous economic recovery since the COVID 19 Pandemic; 33.8 million jobs over the sixteen years of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama; 12.1 million jobs in two years of Joe Biden, an all time high; while only 1.9 million jobs under Republican Presidents George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump were created for 16 years; and with Donald Trump the first President since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs!

Also, Gross Domestic Product has been 3.4 percent under Joe Biden, as compared to 1 percent under Trump; and more jobs created under two years of Biden than any President in four years! And the uninsured rate on health care is down to 8 percent due to Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) than it has ever been, and if Texas and Florida had agreed to expansion of Medicaid, it would be MUCH lower! Additionally, more businesses are being formed than ever before, and wage growth, while not keeping up with inflation, has been rapidly expanding.

Once the inflation struggle, affected by the Russia-Ukraine War and the machinations of oil nations, are dealt with, inflation, already coming down, will be mastered. But no President can alone prevent or provoke inflation!

So the Democrats can be proud of their accomplishments economically over the long haul, and it is time for the myth of Republican “prosperity” to be laid to rest as yet another myth that needs to be retired!

The Republican Party is there for the wealthy, the privileged, and the bigots who promote white supremacy, racism, nativism, and misogyny, and with the political corruption under Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump being massive, while Democratic Presidents have NOT presided over corruption at a notable level, but rather mostly manufactured by Republican propagandists!

Republicans are “better” in promoting propaganda, while Democrats are far better in accomplishment of improving economic opportunity for the American people!

The MAGA Republican Agenda Must Be Resisted By Biden And Democrats!

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The MAGA Republicans who now control the House of Representatives under Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, and also have influence over some of the minority Republican contingent in the US Senate, have declared war on common decency.

Joe Biden, the Democratic Senate majority and the minority House Democratic caucus under the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries have their work cut out for them to resist and defy the lunatics who are wishing to impose their agenda on the nation.

The Republicans want to negotiate over the debt ceiling when it is their party that has added most of the national debt under Republican Presidents, and specifically, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and most egregiously, Donald Trump, in their mad quest to cut taxes for the super wealthy who do not need tax cuts, and never pay an adequate tax rate.

They have no concern over the damage that would be wrought on the American and worldwide economy by holding the debt ceiling as hostage, when it covers past Congressional actions that were enacted, so it shows that they are deadbeats when it comes to payment of financial obligations. The debt limit has been raised more times than years in the past multiple decades, and without question when the Republicans controlled both chambers of Congress!

And they wish to destroy the Internal Revenue Service, and instead of income taxes, tax everyone a flat rate of 30 percent sales tax on all purchases and expenses, an idea that will destroy the middle class and the poor, and greatly benefit the wealthy, absolutely outrageous!

The Republicans also want to make massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, veterans benefits, calling them “entitlements”, when taxpayers pay for these programs in their years of paying taxes, so to cut is an outrage!

Republicans are also declaring war on the need for environmental reforms to deal with climate change; to promote “clean energy”; wanting to cut national parks and conservation lands and sell them to industrial interests; necessary investment in infrastructure; along with wanting to cut the meager investment in National Public Radio and PBS, undermining the concept of educating the American public with a miniscule investment of public funds!

The Democrats need to counter the Republicans by insisting on such programs as the following:

An increase in the minimum wage, and indexed to inflation

A significant tax increase on the wealthy

Expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) to states that have not expanded Medicaid, mostly in the South, and including the megastates of Florida and Texas

Universal Pre-K for children under the age of five

A national paid family leave program

A permanent expansion of the child tax credit

And a “compromise” might be a smaller tax increase on the wealthy, and a slower increase in the national minimum wage over a longer period of time, but in exchange, the Republicans would stop holding as hostages the national debt that they mostly created without concern.

The Republicans claim to be “pro life”, and yet they show no concern for the welfare of American children who are not from wealthy families, and refuse to consider gun regulations as more and escalating numbers of mass murders occur, with 41 such incidents in the first 27 days of 2023!

The Republican Party War On Social Security And Medicare Continues!

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The Republican Party historically has been consistently against Social Security, promoted by Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal 88 years ago.

The Republican Party historically has been consistently against Medicare and Medicaid, promoted by Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society 58 and 57 years ago.

The Republican Party historically has been consistently against the Affordable Care Act (Obama), promoted by Barack Obama 13 years ago.

Of course, SOME Republicans over the decades have supported these programs, which are very popular, and part of the “Social Justice” agenda of Democrats since the 1930s.

Actually, however, these ideas in outline were promoted by Republican progressive Theodore Roosevelt and his “New Nationalism” platform that he ran on with his Bull Moose Progressive Party campaign in 1912, more than a century ago.

The Republicans never learn that the American people at large WANT these programs, which are NOT “entitlements”, that are “given” to Americans, as taxpayers pay for these programs, and the idea that they can just be cut, while corporations and the wealthy get their tax breaks, is infuriating!

So the attempt of the 118th Congress to cut these programs will fail miserably, but will also take Republicans down, with their evil intention, to defeat, in 2024 and beyond!

The idea being proposed to “privatize” Social Security fails to recognize that George W. Bush proposed this in 2004-2005, with it failing to occur, and fortunately so!

As in 2008-2009, with the Great Recession, if one had Social Security in the stock market, they would have lost the anchor that Social Security represents, a guaranteed support!

Most people are not knowledgeable enough to know how to invest, and be assured that such investments do not turn out to be disasters!

Republican Party Will Follow Liz Truss Lead, And Cause Economic Crisis!

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British Prime Minister Liz Truss will go down in history as the shortest lasting government in British history, 45 days, and now, there is talk of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was a true disaster, and too much like Donald Trump, might come back to office.

The Conservative Party of Great Britain is in free fall, but they do not have to call for a new election for two years, so difficult times are ahead, whether or not Johnson returns to power!

But yet, the Republican Party in American politics seems ready to go down as the British equivalent of an economic disaster, if they gain control of either or both houses of Congress in the Midterm Elections of 2022!

Liz Truss tried to follow the old “supply side Economics” of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, copied by former President Ronald Reagan. The goal was to lower taxes on the wealthy, and cut social spending, and it hit the middle and lower classes in both Great Britain and America hard in the 1980s.

The national debt tripled in America, and there was lots of corruption in the Reagan Administration, but it is glorified by conservatives, who also loved when George W. Bush and Donald Trump gave even more massive tax cuts to the wealthy.

So if Kevin McCarthy and his ilk gain control, they will promote more tax cuts to the wealthy, while setting out to destroy the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare), Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans’ benefits.

So while there are troubles with inflation, if the American people vote in a Republican Congress, they will discover the disaster that Great Britain is now experiencing!

Rick Scott, Ron Johnson And The Entire Republican Party Want To Take Away Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Benefits!

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The Republican Party is making it very clear to anyone who has a brain!

THey are against basic programs that Americans rely on, and have had for many decades!

Florida Senator Rick Scott and Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson are leading the charge to end Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans Benefits over a five year period!

But it is not just these two Senators, but the reality is that the party philosophy never liked what Franklin D. Roosevelt (the New Deal) and Lyndon B. Johnson (The Great Society) did, anymore than willing to accept the Affordable Care Act of President Barack Obama!

So the answer is to war on the Republican Party, which has gone too far to the far Right, including wanting to force women to have every pregnancy to term!

This is a battle for the future of America, and there can be no prisoners, just victories!

Republicans At It Again: Out To Destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid!

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The Republican Party at large, since the 1930s and Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, have tried to destroy Social Security.

The Republican Party at large, since the 1960s and Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society, have tried to destroy Medicare and Medicaid.

Individual Republicans have not followed the party lead over the years, but substantially even in 2022, most Republicans want to cut and destroy these programs, which have done so much for the middle and lower classes.

So the battle is on for the midterms, to insure that these programs promoted by FDR and LBJ, are not undermined!

56th Anniversary Of Medicare And Medicaid: A Salute To Lyndon B. Johnson And The Great Society!

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The nation is celebrating the 56th Anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, a time to salute President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society of the 1960s.

It is impossible to imagine how much worse off this nation would be if Johnson had not used his powers of “Wheeling and Dealing” to accomplish the health care legislation which has saved millions of American lives in the past half century, and made the lives of the elderly, the disabled, and the poor far better.

Government is not there just for the wealthy to get tax breaks, but also to serve the needs of the American people, and it is soothing to know how much Medicare and Medicaid have changed the lives of the American people.

Along with Social Security, passed into law under Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal in 1935, Medicare and Medicaid have transformed lives over the decades, despite the naysayers, mostly conservatives and Republicans, who love to call these laws “Socialism”!

If these transformational legislative achievements are “Socialism”, so be it!