Using Health Care Debt and Gun Homicides to Depress Upward Mobility and Freedom.

If only Democrats would start every town hall and candidate's debate with this: "Why are we continuing to play along with the right-wing game of distraction, intentionally ignoring all the problems reality keeps throwing at us."

For decades Republicans have declared President Lyndan Johnson's War on Poverty a failure, conveniently blaming what they know is not controllable, human nature. The Heritage Foundation framed it this way in 2014, ignoring the ravages of capitalism, purposely exempting that from any attempted reforms:

The culprit is, in part, the welfare system itself, which discourages work and penalizes marriage. When the War on Poverty began, 7 percent of American children were born outside marriage. Today the number is 41 percent. The collapse of marriage is the main cause of child poverty today. The welfare state is self-perpetuating.

#1-The Myth of "Working Hard and Getting Ahead" crumbles under Health Care Debt: Many of us do work hard and get ahead, but for how long? That hard-earned income disappears with our first medical problem, blocking upward mobility for the working class. 

Not surprisingly, Republican states that supposedly have all the "right answers" are the biggest cause of poverty and downward mobility (click images to enlarge). "The debt is also deepening racial disparities:"

Here's NPR's breakdown of the Kaiser Foundation's new survey. "Sick and struggling to pay, 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt:"

#2-The Surreal Defense of Mass School Shootings and the Arming of Teachers: This sick notion is now considered normal, part of a free society?:

Republicans again target what they know is unchangeable, human nature, and push for more guns and less training, arming teachers. It gives schools more "tools" to work with. Wait for it...

Teachers in Ohio have been allowed to carry guns in schools so long as they complete 700 hours of mandatory training, the same required of police recruits. Lawmakers argued that made it nearly impossible to arm teachers, so they drastically cut that training requirement down to 24 hours.

Whether it's in schools, public places, or just another mindless road rage incident, how does making people afraid of being randomly shot and killed make American "free" Yet it does for so many conservative voters. Here's the story about turning teachers into armed security guards:

No new gun laws targeting guns. None, and convincing many this is as good as it gets. 

Republicans think U.S. Health Care is Normal and should be Profitable?

While my Trump cultist friend in Milwaukee is as happy to see Wall Street and black employment up "like never before," he's one of millions being told; be happy, this is normal and will be protected by Republicans only if we do nothing.

The U.S. Health Care Horror: The surreal idea Republicans have for our private health care system: It's good now but could be better if free market competition and profits were allowed to flourish. It's supposedly normal to have only one month to shop for insurance, pay higher monthly premiums, co-pays and deductibles, all the while trying to decide if you can afford to use your insurance when you finally need it. Does that make sense, seriously?

Here's a great summary from an actual doctor and medical journalist, Elisabeth Rosenthal, from Kaiser Health:

There’s one issue that nearly every American can agree on: Our health care system is a mess and in need of dramatic overhaul. That’s not just because it is absurdly expensive compared with the systems of other developed countries. It’s also because it is so dauntingly complex ... driven significantly by profit, rather than by measures of health. Countless providers, companies, consultants and intermediaries are trying to get their piece of the $3.5 trillion pie that is U.S. health care. That has led to a maze-like system — with twists and turns and barriers and blind alleys and incomprehensible signposts — that ordinary people are expected to navigate. We say ... our system gives consumers choices. We tell people that to benefit they just need to be smarter shoppers. What we are really telling them is to perform the impossible.

Any adult whose seen a doctor, whether for themselves or their kids, has experienced much or all of the following "choices:"

"Choose an insurance policy; endless permutations involving personal budget calculations and modeling that would defy a post-doc in economics; in-network deductible and an out-of-network deductible; copays and coinsurance (yes, they’re different); as well as an annual maximum personal out-of-pocket outlay; choose between a PPO and an HMO; a tax-advantaged flexible spending account or health savings account; rigged against patients thanks largely to its opacity and complexity; Insurance plans can refuse to pre-certify a prescribed treatment or decide it was not medically necessary and deny coverage after the fact; complexity grew out of financial considerations; All the players are effectively licensed to reach into our wallets when they can’t get the money they want from one another."

A few more important final thoughts: 

"We’ve turned somersaults not to do what almost every other developed country has done; restrain charges by setting prices or by large-scale national negotiations. “Innovation” in our profit-oriented system is not just about developing lifesaving treatments, but also about inventing new ways to bill and new charges that don’t exist elsewhere.

Americans trying to be smart shoppers are understandably confused about navigating the open enrollment season, as they are doing currently. And just when they have figured it out for one year, they have to do it all over again. The odds of success are small."

This should be required viewing. THIS is what the health insurance fight is about. Moral vs. immoral. Right vs. wrong.

This should be required viewing. THIS is what the health insurance fight is about. Moral vs. immoral. Right vs. wrong. https://t.co/5MBWWScAiY

— Victoria Helen Stone / Dahl (@VictoriaDahl) October 20, 2018

Republicans stick with Trump Party's Plumer, to hell with clean drinking water and people with preexisting conditions.

Wisconsin's 42nd Assembly District north of Madison kept that Republican seat, not because candidate Jon Plumer had any real solutions to issues troubling the state, but by spreading fear and acting like Trump. And if you add a little spousal abuse and tough fatherly love into the mix, how could you possibly lose? 

Even worse and more embarrassing for Trumpian low-bar Republican voters, they chose as their "lawmaker" a guy investigated for a domestic dispute, disorderly conduct and issued a warrant for not showing up for his court appearance...he didn't think it was mandatory? That's the kind of thinking we need in Madison's Capitol. 



But not even these infractions match Plumer's manly Trumpian explanation...where he had to blame someone, like his daughter, instead of just letting go:

Deeper in the gutter still, was the following ad by the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, calling Democratic candidate Ann Groves Lloyd a "socialist" who "thinks the United States are terrorists, and that we're like North Korea." Voters, really, that made sense to you? 

But I really loved woman 2's response to that comment, when she instantly linked "socialism" and being "like North Korea"...to health care?:

Woman 2 in ad: "North Korea? Let me guess Groves Lloyd support single payer health care?"

Woman 1 in ad: "Yes, even though it kicks 200 million Americans off their plans..."

Socialist single-payer health care, you know, like EVERY other rogue industrialize country in the world. NOTE: How do you "kick 200 million Americans off their plans" when single payer covers everyone with health insurance? Those "Rube Goldberg plans" go away forever, and are instead replaced with a system where every doctor is your doctor, and every hospital is your hospital. No bills, no bankruptcies. The horror.

Clean Drinking Water, Health Care BAD: Yup, Ann Groves Lloyd must have scared a lot of people with her ad below trying to protect our drinking water. Somehow, it looked more insane than the Assembly Committees factually incorrect lunacy.



Or Lloyd's hope to provide health care to people with preexisting conditions without going broke. That's crazy, we need a rural Wisconsin version of Trump, and for now, we've got one: