Medicare And Medicaid

MAGA Republicans In Charge In House Of Representatives: Its Implications!

Having “slept” on the elevation of Mike Johnson to the Speakership of the House of Representatives, this author and blogger has woken up to the horrors of this MAGA Republican, who seems to be a “nice” person on the surface, but has horrendous views on so many issues!

This man, now two heartbeats away from the Presidency, is a rabid social conservative who is vehemently opposed to abortion, gay rights and gay marriage, and has a hardline Christian view of marriage and family, more like the 1950s and earlier!

Johnson also led the Election Denier movement in support of Donald Trump, and has never backed away from refusing to accept that Joe Biden is President.

Also, he has spoken in favor of changing Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.

Johnson is the Speaker with the least government experience since the 1880s.

He is also not a supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia under Vladimir Putin, and is likely to have a difficult relationship with President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

So, while the whole fiasco of the Speakership battles is likely to harm the Republican Party in 2024, for the next year, and including through the lameduck session after the Presidential Election of 2024, there could be a massive crisis in acceptance of the election results with a Trump supporting MAGA Republican in charge in the House of Representatives!

Lyndon B. Johnson And Medicare: 58th Anniversary!

It has been 58 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare Act, a pathbreaking turning point in health care, after much resistance for a half century.

Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, as the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party Presidential nominee, was the first President to suggest health care should be a national commitment.

His distant cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered the issue, but had enough of a battle over Social Security being legislated into law in 1935, as part of his “New Deal”.

Harry Truman promoted, as part of his “Fair Deal”, the consideration of some sort of national health care, but it went awry in the divisive politics of the “Red Scare” and the Cold War.

John F. Kennedy also pushed the issue, but did not have the clout to get it past House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Wilbur Mills of Arkansas.

Lyndon B. Johnson pushed the issue of national health care as part of his “Great Society”, and got it done, and it has been a godsend to millions of elderly people and disabled people, and added to the following year by the adoption of Medicaid.

Most Republicans opposed it then and since, and continue to call it “Socialism”, and ten states, including Texas and Florida, refuse to expand Medicaid, denying the poor the care they need, and this by a party that claims to be “Pro Life”! 🙁

And Barack Obama, in promoting the Affordable Care Act or “ObamaCare”, expanded health care, and it continues to survive despire blistering Republican and conservative attacks!

So this is a time to salute LBJ, as the savior of the promotion of national health care!

Ron DeSantis Strikes Out On Day One, And All Downhill From Now On For Good Reasons!

Ron DeSantis “struck out” on Day One, having problems on Twitter Audio with Elon Musk, and it will be all downhill from now on.

Instead of speaking before an audience of supporters, DeSantis is isolating himself, and talking only to right wing cable and radio shows.

And he is telling us he will be more hardline than Donald Trump was on immigration! And he will consider giving pardons to Insurrectionists from January 6, and even to Trump, if he is convicted!

So DeSantis is against the rule of law, and supporting the sedition and treason of the Insurrectionists, which should, automatically, kill his candidacy!

DeSantis is coming along more than ever as an extreme right wing Fascist, who wants to take away the freedom of women, gays and transgender people, and immigrants!

And he is ignoring evidence of antisemitism in Florida, and warring on Disney, and banning books, and dictating curriculum in public schools and universities, and promoting racism and white supremacy!

Remember he was one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives, and a TEA PARTY activist under Barack Obama’s Presidency!

And he wanted to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid while in Congress, and has used his power to fix legislative and congressional districts to promote gerrymandering, which took away representation from African American in the state of Florida!

He has a wife who is very ambitious and dominating, and he has come across as very phony in his public persona, laughing hysterically that looks preposterous, and lacking any empathy, sincerity, compassion, or common decency!

He is the direct opposite of the personality and character of President Joe Biden, and for anyone to support him as the “better” alternative, would need his or her head examined!