It’s even worse than we thought
The term “big, beautiful bill” sounds as dumb as the man who coined it. Esquire agreed to call it that because “we have a toddler in the White House.” It is still so hard to fathom that people wanted this waste of flesh back in the White House, and while doing so, gave him a majority Republican Congress so that he can do whatever he wants. Esquire reported that Trump’s bill is now looking at cutting Medicare because major cuts to Medicaid won’t cover the cost of tax cuts to the richest 1% and corporations.
To say I despise Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans is not enough, but I stop there because I am without words. Let’s talk about Medicare for a moment. Just like Social Security, Americans paid into Medicare with automated deductions from their payroll for years. Even with those deductions, Medicare has a $180 monthly premium, so seniors continue to pay for a benefit for which they should have already paid. We don’t mind that, however, because we like having decent healthcare. If we had to deal with the regular insurance industry, we would be rated out of being able to afford insurance at all. Do Trump and Republicans care? Of course not. If their rich friends are happy, so are they. The rest of us are expendable.
According to Esquire, after hours of hearings, Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA), ranking member of the Budget Committee, shared that preliminary analysis of the budget report is clearly about “the massive amount of wealth the OBBB should shove upwards to the richest Americans and away from the great mass of ordinary citizens.” Under an earlier analysis of the bill, the CBO reported that 8.6 million would lose health insurance, and 7.7 million would be uninsured, and this is all from cuts to Medicaid. Add Medicare to the mix, and those numbers go even higher.
Boyle said to attendees: “There was a commitment from Trump that there would be no Medicare cuts. Here we are tonight because, as you explained it, because of the size of the deficits, because of the pay-as-you-go act-that would trigger sequestration of Medicare and would total over $500 billion. The official figure that CBO confirms is $535 billion in cuts to Medicare.” Trump is a liar. Most people with sense knew that. The bright side, if you can call it that, is that those seniors who voted for him will be out in the cold with the rest of us. Talk about voting against your own interests.
How we escape this fate is not yet known. Even if Democrats win the midterms, that is 530 days away. Can we survive until then? If more Republicans like Thomas Massie continue to speak out and refuse to support this bill, we have a shot, but it will take more than Massie to stop this atrocity. Democrats are speaking out, but they are powerless right now. Even though people have become disillusioned with Democrats, they are our only hope. We must get out in masses to give them the majority in Congress. Our very lives depend on it.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years