Reversing
Max Ehrenfreund at the Post says Republicans have had good success at putting a halt to current progressive policies but not so much at reversing them. I think the 1994 Congress did a fair bit of reversing, but that may be an exception.
Throughout the modern history of Congress, lawmakers have inexorably expanded progressive social policies, and while conservatives have successfully forestalled expansions to the social safety net, they’ve had very little success in reversing them.
Right now, however, Republicans have a chance to buck that trend, as they prepare legislation aimed at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The Senate bill released on Thursday, coupled with the House bill passed earlier this year, would be exactly the kind of cuts to the welfare state that conservatives have consistently failed to achieve.
The repeal measure, which follows weeks of unusual secrecy in its drafting, would bring down taxes, eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in outlays on the social safety net, and curtail the federal government’s involvement in a crucial sector of the economy.
Thus leaving most people at the mercy of The Market. The Market doesn’t give a rat’s ass about people with low earnings and high medical bills. The Market shuts the door on people like that without losing an instant of sleep.
Of course, because no GOP bill would be complete without a direct swipe at women, they’re also trying once again to defund Planned Parenthood along with the repeal.
How is it that Republicans can get millions of people to vote against their own self interest? Is it enough that they espouse God and Country and they can do anything? Is there nothing (apart from being black or female) that will piss off their base enough that they will stay home or vote for something that will actually benefit them? I really don’t get it.
Abortion. Guns. White supremacy.
In my little corner of the world, it is common to hear people say that the only important issue in voting is whether the individual is opposed to abortion. If they are pro-choice, it doesn’t matter what else they might be doing for someone.
And very few of the people I know who are Trump voters (which is, ouch, most of the people I know) believe that any of the government programs do anything for them. They puff out their chest and say loudly that they have worked for everything they have, and nothing, literally nothing, ever comes to them from the government. For the record, I work at a public college, and so do these people.
Iknklast, I don’t know about you, but I always find myself tempted to take the piss out of such people, wanting to rub their noses in just how much they get from the Government. Problem is, I also have to work with or for those people, share community groups and spaces with them etc. The question is just how much good will can I afford to burn and how badly do I want to make my point. It’s quite a dilemma. Yes, sadly NZ has it’s fair share of right wing (by our standards) arseholes.