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President Donald Trump pumps his hands to GOP House members after the House pushed through a health care bill, in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 4, 2017, in Washington. (Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)
Even the great Stephen King might find this story implausible.
Republican leaders in the House and White House wanted to implement a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans (the health care bill passed Thursday) as a prelude to adopting a second massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations (the tax bill that's next on their agenda).
"You'd think the 217 heartless legislators who voted for this monstrosity would be hiding their heads in shame. Instead they engaged in a raucous celebration, wheeling a sled full of beer into the Capitol and then holding a victory rally in the White House Rose Garden with President Trump."
They needed the first tax cut so they could pass both bills through a process called "reconciliation" which allows them to enact both massive gifts to the 1 percent by a simple majority in the Senate without the 60-vote threshold in the Senate for other legislation.
The first tax cut for the very rich is called the American Health Care Act, the not so hidden fine print in a bill that is also a horror story for tens of millions of Americans who would be deprived of health coverage and millions more who are threatened with bankruptcy for being sick.
And, no doubt many of the 217 Republican Congress members who narrowly passed the bill are among those expected to benefit from the nearly $600 billion tax cut in the AHCA, most of which goes to those with incomes of over $1 million a year.
What does the rest of America get? A nightmare, which ought to violate the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The bill was rushed through for a final vote without a Congressional Budget Office analysis which predicted the last version, which failed in March, would slash health coverage for 24 million people. And, to line up votes from the most far right members of the House, they made it worse.
Most notably, the legislation, if enacted, would eviscerate $880 billion from Medicaid, affecting low income Americans, with a cap on federal reimbursements to states, an open invitation for states to cut eligibility and reduce covered services.
It is especially punitive for people with what the insurance companies endearingly call pre-existing conditions, which is virtually any existing health status from asthma to cancer, with the added discrimination against women, notably higher costs for pregnancy.
Under the AHCA, 40-year olds could be hit with massive increases in costs for premiums of $142,650 for metastatic cancer, $26,580 for rheumatoid arthritis, $18,720 for congestive heart failure, $17,320 for pregnancy, $8,490 for certain mental health conditions, $5,600 for diabetes, and $4.340 for asthma, according to the Center for American Progress.
While most of the focus has been on those on Medicaid, or under the Affordable Care Act newly able to buy individual insurance coverage with restrictions on all the noxious those insurance industry abuses, the bill also undermines employer-based coverage.
An inconvenient truth uncovered by the Wall Street Journal exposes that the bill would allow individual states to opt out of the ACA minimum benefit standards. Employers could just reduce covered benefits they offer by hunting the most bare bones standards offered by the most regressive state, limiting, for example, existing ACA requirements that cap out of pocket expenses.
There's far more to this sadistic show. The bill would:
You'd think the 217 heartless legislators who voted for this monstrosity would be hiding their heads in shame. Instead they engaged in a raucous celebration, wheeling a sled full of beer into the Capitol and then holding a victory rally in the White House Rose Garden with President Trump.
Their joy may be short lived the next time voters in their districts, who have been protesting this disgrace for months, go to the polls.
Let's not let Democrats off the hook here either. The Affordable Care Act, with its improvements, also was undermined with significant weaknesses, that included leaving 28 million uninsured, and failing to control ever increasing out of pocket costs.
The solution is not making our broken healthcare system even worse, it's by achieving real reform, once and for all, by improving Medicare, one of the signature reforms in U.S. history, and expanding it to cover all Americans.
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Even the great Stephen King might find this story implausible.
Republican leaders in the House and White House wanted to implement a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans (the health care bill passed Thursday) as a prelude to adopting a second massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations (the tax bill that's next on their agenda).
"You'd think the 217 heartless legislators who voted for this monstrosity would be hiding their heads in shame. Instead they engaged in a raucous celebration, wheeling a sled full of beer into the Capitol and then holding a victory rally in the White House Rose Garden with President Trump."
They needed the first tax cut so they could pass both bills through a process called "reconciliation" which allows them to enact both massive gifts to the 1 percent by a simple majority in the Senate without the 60-vote threshold in the Senate for other legislation.
The first tax cut for the very rich is called the American Health Care Act, the not so hidden fine print in a bill that is also a horror story for tens of millions of Americans who would be deprived of health coverage and millions more who are threatened with bankruptcy for being sick.
And, no doubt many of the 217 Republican Congress members who narrowly passed the bill are among those expected to benefit from the nearly $600 billion tax cut in the AHCA, most of which goes to those with incomes of over $1 million a year.
What does the rest of America get? A nightmare, which ought to violate the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The bill was rushed through for a final vote without a Congressional Budget Office analysis which predicted the last version, which failed in March, would slash health coverage for 24 million people. And, to line up votes from the most far right members of the House, they made it worse.
Most notably, the legislation, if enacted, would eviscerate $880 billion from Medicaid, affecting low income Americans, with a cap on federal reimbursements to states, an open invitation for states to cut eligibility and reduce covered services.
It is especially punitive for people with what the insurance companies endearingly call pre-existing conditions, which is virtually any existing health status from asthma to cancer, with the added discrimination against women, notably higher costs for pregnancy.
Under the AHCA, 40-year olds could be hit with massive increases in costs for premiums of $142,650 for metastatic cancer, $26,580 for rheumatoid arthritis, $18,720 for congestive heart failure, $17,320 for pregnancy, $8,490 for certain mental health conditions, $5,600 for diabetes, and $4.340 for asthma, according to the Center for American Progress.
While most of the focus has been on those on Medicaid, or under the Affordable Care Act newly able to buy individual insurance coverage with restrictions on all the noxious those insurance industry abuses, the bill also undermines employer-based coverage.
An inconvenient truth uncovered by the Wall Street Journal exposes that the bill would allow individual states to opt out of the ACA minimum benefit standards. Employers could just reduce covered benefits they offer by hunting the most bare bones standards offered by the most regressive state, limiting, for example, existing ACA requirements that cap out of pocket expenses.
There's far more to this sadistic show. The bill would:
You'd think the 217 heartless legislators who voted for this monstrosity would be hiding their heads in shame. Instead they engaged in a raucous celebration, wheeling a sled full of beer into the Capitol and then holding a victory rally in the White House Rose Garden with President Trump.
Their joy may be short lived the next time voters in their districts, who have been protesting this disgrace for months, go to the polls.
Let's not let Democrats off the hook here either. The Affordable Care Act, with its improvements, also was undermined with significant weaknesses, that included leaving 28 million uninsured, and failing to control ever increasing out of pocket costs.
The solution is not making our broken healthcare system even worse, it's by achieving real reform, once and for all, by improving Medicare, one of the signature reforms in U.S. history, and expanding it to cover all Americans.
Even the great Stephen King might find this story implausible.
Republican leaders in the House and White House wanted to implement a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans (the health care bill passed Thursday) as a prelude to adopting a second massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and big corporations (the tax bill that's next on their agenda).
"You'd think the 217 heartless legislators who voted for this monstrosity would be hiding their heads in shame. Instead they engaged in a raucous celebration, wheeling a sled full of beer into the Capitol and then holding a victory rally in the White House Rose Garden with President Trump."
They needed the first tax cut so they could pass both bills through a process called "reconciliation" which allows them to enact both massive gifts to the 1 percent by a simple majority in the Senate without the 60-vote threshold in the Senate for other legislation.
The first tax cut for the very rich is called the American Health Care Act, the not so hidden fine print in a bill that is also a horror story for tens of millions of Americans who would be deprived of health coverage and millions more who are threatened with bankruptcy for being sick.
And, no doubt many of the 217 Republican Congress members who narrowly passed the bill are among those expected to benefit from the nearly $600 billion tax cut in the AHCA, most of which goes to those with incomes of over $1 million a year.
What does the rest of America get? A nightmare, which ought to violate the Constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
The bill was rushed through for a final vote without a Congressional Budget Office analysis which predicted the last version, which failed in March, would slash health coverage for 24 million people. And, to line up votes from the most far right members of the House, they made it worse.
Most notably, the legislation, if enacted, would eviscerate $880 billion from Medicaid, affecting low income Americans, with a cap on federal reimbursements to states, an open invitation for states to cut eligibility and reduce covered services.
It is especially punitive for people with what the insurance companies endearingly call pre-existing conditions, which is virtually any existing health status from asthma to cancer, with the added discrimination against women, notably higher costs for pregnancy.
Under the AHCA, 40-year olds could be hit with massive increases in costs for premiums of $142,650 for metastatic cancer, $26,580 for rheumatoid arthritis, $18,720 for congestive heart failure, $17,320 for pregnancy, $8,490 for certain mental health conditions, $5,600 for diabetes, and $4.340 for asthma, according to the Center for American Progress.
While most of the focus has been on those on Medicaid, or under the Affordable Care Act newly able to buy individual insurance coverage with restrictions on all the noxious those insurance industry abuses, the bill also undermines employer-based coverage.
An inconvenient truth uncovered by the Wall Street Journal exposes that the bill would allow individual states to opt out of the ACA minimum benefit standards. Employers could just reduce covered benefits they offer by hunting the most bare bones standards offered by the most regressive state, limiting, for example, existing ACA requirements that cap out of pocket expenses.
There's far more to this sadistic show. The bill would:
You'd think the 217 heartless legislators who voted for this monstrosity would be hiding their heads in shame. Instead they engaged in a raucous celebration, wheeling a sled full of beer into the Capitol and then holding a victory rally in the White House Rose Garden with President Trump.
Their joy may be short lived the next time voters in their districts, who have been protesting this disgrace for months, go to the polls.
Let's not let Democrats off the hook here either. The Affordable Care Act, with its improvements, also was undermined with significant weaknesses, that included leaving 28 million uninsured, and failing to control ever increasing out of pocket costs.
The solution is not making our broken healthcare system even worse, it's by achieving real reform, once and for all, by improving Medicare, one of the signature reforms in U.S. history, and expanding it to cover all Americans.