Trump Republicans Only Value Americans as Workers.

Trump Party elitism couldn't be more clear, especially when they proclaim, "health care is a privilege" because only the monied privileged can get it. Thankfully, Sen. Ron Johnson knows the exact parameters of "freedom" and "rights." Who knew?



And yet there's something incredibly brutal, inhumane, and unethical about taking away health care from those who need it. We're talking about people...Americans. This has nothing to do with unemployment or poverty, just common decency.

The term "work requirement" is a distraction from the grotesque idea of withdrawing actual health care from everyday people, suggesting a person's value in society is based on having a job. As proof, here's what South Dakota wrote in their request for the work requirement:

"South Dakotans value hard work and believe that work can add meaning and purpose to an individual's life."

Work doesn't just "add meaning and purpose to an individual's life," it's the only reason to keep a person alive and well apparently.

This morally repugnant concept went even further. They followed that up with the upside-down nonsense that claims losing health care actually improves your health and empowers you. Yup, just like that feeling of "improved health" and "empowerment" when you give someone holding a gun to your head your wallet and they don't shoot you:

State officials wrote in its application to the Trump administration ... is to "improve the health and wellbeing of able-bodied adult Medicaid recipients while empowering them to obtain full-time meaningful work. Maintaining health coverage is a key tenant of the program," the officials wrote in the application."

Let me get this right; maintaining health coverage is a key tenant and the reason why they're threatening to take it away?

Remember, Medicaid is an insurance plan for the poor and unemployed, or at least it was. Now workers who have multiple low paying jobs have to work more hours or maybe even have to find time to take classes just to see a doctor?

...work at least 80 hours a month, take classes or complete other activities ... parents or caretakers who have small incomes. In South Dakota, a family of three must earn less than $27,159 a year to qualify for Medicaid. Maine, Utah, and Wisconsin, which have not expanded Medicaid, all have work requirement proposals awaiting approval from the Trump administration.

Public Opposition? Who cares, Republicans don't serve anyone but their Party: Like the drooling Trump idol worshipers, political ideology comes first, because things will always get better once their fantasy policies replace real-world problems. Right. These aren't "public servants," these are party servants, and no one cares what we think:

South Dakota noted in its application that the majority of comments it received during the statewide comment period were expressing opposition.

Their response? They know what's best anyway, but thanks for the comments. Still, they "appreciate concerns." How condescending was that?:

"The State understands and appreciates concerns expressed by individuals generally opposed to work requirements or who are concerned about individuals losing Medicaid coverage," the officials wrote, responding to the criticism. "The State has designed the Career Connector program with the intent of preventing anyone making a good faith effort to comply with the program from losing Medicaid coverage due to noncompliance."

Tribal Trump Party cultists bow and pray to Narcissistic Authoritarian Bully!!!

The Trump Party: It's an official cult:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) fessed up: “We’re in a strange place. It’s becoming a cultish thing, isn’t it? It’s not a good place for any party to have a cult-like situation as it relates to a President that happens to be purportedly of the same party. To have an administration that wakes up every day on an ad hoc basis just making stuff up as they go along with no coherency to it — I think us having to weigh in on that would actually cause them to have to think about what they’re doing versus, ‘Well, I’m upset with X today so I’ll do this.’ ”

After all, the Trump Party said so...

The Republican National Committee chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel added a creepy, totalitarian note. “Complacency is our enemy. Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake,” she tweeted. Pyongyang or Moscow or Beijing propagandists would be proud. You must embrace our leader, or else!

Many Republican voters have morphed into zealot Trump Party cultists, buying into the myth that politicians who don't help solve their problems are just believers in small government. Conservatives and rural voters are losing everything just so they can get rid of one or two regulations they hate:

Economically dislocated Americans: right-leaning or independent voters who harbored no great love for the president, but whose communities are unrecognizable to them now, mainly because of automation and global competition and all the social ills they wrought, like broken families and addiction. The culturally affronted crowd you see reflected on social media all the time ...These voters don’t think much about an economic future; they want a time machine that will take them back to an orderly America ruled by white dudes, where you could say whatever you wanted without being labeled a bigot or a sexist, where you didn’t have to worry about gay rights and women’s rights, and where black guys getting dragged out of a coffee shop for no reason was called Wednesday.

Think about it, the Trump Party's politics of resentment has directed voters to cut their own throats:

The findings suggest that political efforts to cut welfare programs are driven less by conservative principles than by racial anxiety, the authors conclude. That also hurts white Americans who make up the largest share of Medicaid and food-stamp recipients. President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans have proposed deep cuts to both programs.

Perpetually outraged Republicans who attacked "King" Obama's overreach were only angry because it wasn't their "12-year-old bully" king doing it:

WaPo: Sandra Jones thinks his tough talk has done some good and intimidated dictators around the world. “I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but as dumb as he sounds sometimes — when he goes up there and acts like a 12-year-old bully — I think at the end of the day, he has good intentions." 

Obama was ridiculed for the slow economic recovery, yet Republicans who did nothing until the tax cuts, are oddly now taking credit for it:

Bill Campbell understands why Trump has threatened to pull out of the trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, rejected a huge Pacific trade pact and announced new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum — to exert American authority on the world stage. If those changes actually go through, prices on groceries and other items will probably go up for consumers like him and that there might be less work for truckers and others who rely on the steady flow of goods through the port. He said such sacrifices are worth enduring now for the long-term good of the country.

Standing by and groveling at the Feet of their Orange Idol Trump:

In Nevada, brothel owner Dennis Hof, the star of a TV show about prostitution and the author of “The Art of the Pimp,” blew past a Republican incumbent to win the nomination for a seat in the state legislature. In an interview, Hof said that Trump “blazed the trail” for him. “He gave me the confidence that I could do this — I could be a reality TV star, an author and a brothel owner and then be elected to serve,” said Hof. “I want to keep the stuff that the president’s got going.

Rural Republican Trump Cultists don't need no health care:

Arizona: With 83 rural hospitals having closed nationwide since 2010 and hundreds more in jeopardy, many rural healthcare experts and some policymakers want to see more rural communities with struggling or closed hospitals do what Douglas did, make an exception for rural providers (to charge a higher fee) that open free-standing emergency departments (EDs) replacing shuttered hospitals. Nearly 20% of U.S. residents live in rural areas, according to the Census Bureau ... Expanding Medicaid to low-income adults in the 18 states would help rural providers.

Our own state Republican candidates proudly declare their unquestioning loyalty to their orange malignant narcissist:

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: