May, 04 2017, 10:45am EDT
Civil and Human Rights Coalition Urges Congress to Reject Renewed Attempt to Take Health Care Away from Millions of Americans
Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement ahead of the House Republican's attempt today to undermine the Affordable Care Act:
"Today, the House Republican leadership will attempt, yet again, to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. We continue to urge Congress to end its cruel attack on the millions of Americans who have benefited from the health coverage the current law provides.
WASHINGTON
Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued the following statement ahead of the House Republican's attempt today to undermine the Affordable Care Act:
"Today, the House Republican leadership will attempt, yet again, to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. We continue to urge Congress to end its cruel attack on the millions of Americans who have benefited from the health coverage the current law provides.
"Thanks to Obamacare and the expansion of Medicaid, tens of millions of people have gained access to affordable health care, especially those with low incomes or pre-existing conditions; seniors; people with disabilities; and people of color. Under the Republican proposal, 24 million people--disproportionately people of color, people with disabilities, seniors, those with low incomes, and the underserved--will lose their care. For those with pre-existing conditions, the new Republican bill would make it exceedingly expensive to find insurance, and it will place immense financial burdens on seniors and people with disabilities.
"Instead of providing more health coverage, the GOP bill provides less, by reducing Medicaid spending by $880 billion or 25 percent less than estimated under current law, thus depriving millions of low-income people, seniors, and people with disabilities affordable health care. The bill would cut special education services in schools and allow states to eliminate essential health benefits, including maternity care. The Republican bill also shamelessly uses the money saved from these draconian cuts to reduce taxes for the wealthy. President Trump campaigned on a pledge that everyone will be covered and no one will lose their coverage - yet the Trumpcare bill does neither.
"The bill also continues the Republicans' ideological attacks on PlanneRad Parenthood. These health centers provide essential preventive health care to underserved communities around the country. One in five Americans have used Planned Parenthood at some time in their lives. Barring Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood's services would have a disproportionate effect on poor families and people of color and, according to the Congressional Budget Office, could further jeopardize women's access to preventive health care.
"The facts are simple. The Affordable Care Act has expanded access to health care. If Republicans are serious about strengthening the law, they must take off their partisan blinders and work with their Democratic colleagues to find a bipartisan approach that works. The health -- and lives -- of their constituents is at stake."
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 200 national organizations to promote and protect the civil and human rights of all persons in the United States. Through advocacy and outreach to targeted constituencies, The Leadership Conference works toward the goal of a more open and just society - an America as good as its ideals.
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"Immaturity masquerading as strength is the defining personal characteristic of our age," said one critic in response.
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Venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of data platform company Palantir, is calling for the return of public hangings as part of a broader push to restore what he describes as "masculine leadership" to the US.
In a statement posted on X Friday, Lonsdale said that he supported changing the so-called "three strikes" anti-crime law to ensure that anyone who is convicted of three violent crimes gets publicly executed, rather than simply sent to prison for life.
"If I’m in charge later, we won’t just have a three strikes law," he wrote. "We will quickly try and hang men after three violent crimes. And yes, we will do it in public to deter others."
Lonsdale then added that "our society needs balance," and said that "it's time to bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable."
Lonsdale's views on public hangings being necessary to restore "masculine leadership" drew swift criticism.
Gil Durán, a journalist who documents the increasingly authoritarian politics of Silicon Valley in his newsletter "The Nerd Reich," argued in a Saturday post that Lonsdale's call for public hangings showed that US tech elites are "entering a more dangerous and desperate phase of radicalization."
"For months, Peter Thiel guru Curtis Yarvin has been squawking about the need for more severe measures to cement Trump's authoritarian rule," Durán explained. "Peter Thiel is ranting about the Antichrist in a global tour. And now Lonsdale—a Thiel protégé—is fantasizing about a future in which he will have the power to unleash state violence at mass scale."
Taulby Edmondson, an adjunct professor of history, religion, and culture at Virginia Tech, wrote in a post on Bluesky that the rhetoric Lonsdale uses to justify the return of public hangings has even darker intonations than calls for state-backed violence.
"A point of nuance here: 'masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable' is how lynch mobs are described, not state-sanctioned executions," he observed.
Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll argued that Lonsdale's remarks were symbolic of a kind of performative masculinity that has infected US culture.
"Immaturity masquerading as strength is the defining personal characteristic of our age," he wrote.
Tech entrepreneur Anil Dash warned Lonsdale that his call for public hangings could have unintended consequences for members of the Silicon Valley elite.
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And Columbia Journalism School professor Bill Grueskin noted that Lonsdale has been a major backer of the University of Austin, an unaccredited liberal arts college that has been pitched as an alternative to left-wing university education with the goal of preparing "thoughtful and ethical innovators, builders, leaders, public servants and citizens through open inquiry and civil discourse."
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Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, watched video of the September 2 double-tap attack last week, and he described the footage as “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.”
“Any American who sees the video that I saw will see its military attacking shipwrecked sailors,” Himes explained. “Now, there’s a whole set of contextual items that the admiral explained. Yes, they were carrying drugs. They were not in position to continue their mission in any way... People will someday see this video and they will see that that video shows, if you don’t have the broader context, an attack on shipwrecked sailors.”
While there has been much discussion about the legality of the September 2 double-tap strike in recent days, some critics have warned that fixating on this particular aspect of the administration's policy risks taking the focus off the illegality of the boat-bombing campaign as a whole.
Daphne Eviatar, director for security and human rights for Amnesty International USA, said on Friday that the entire boat-bombing campaign has been "illegal under both domestic and international law."
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