They'll Do Anything to Shred the Safety Net

This week, I discussed why Republicans want to take roll back the New Deal and the Great Society so badly:

This isn't just about helping the wealthy save money, though that's a huge part of everything the Republicans do. It's also about undermining the labor force. By making it both more convenient and more affordable for people to be able to purchase health insurance on the individual markets, it makes it so that people are less reliant on their employers. Students can stay in school longer, parents can work part-time (or not at all) in order to stay home with their kids, people can work for themselves, older workers can retire a bit earlier, and it generally gives people more choices and flexibility about where they work and what compensation they can accept. THAT's choice.

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...with the exchanges gone and lower, if any, subsidies, those aforementioned students have to get jobs, those parents have to go back to work full-time, freelancers and small business owners have to turn to large corporations, and those older workers have to stay at their jobs longer. This increases the labor force, which drives wages down. That can create a vicious cycle; if competition increases considerably for jobs and people get more desperate, they might have to take jobs that not only pay less, but not offer benefits SUCH AS HEALTH INSURANCE.



They and their flacks like American for Prosperity's Stephen Moore will go on TV and blatantly lie and dissemble with a straight face, even when they sound patently ridiculous. They repeat zombie lies like "supply-side economics" ("trickle-down") no matter how counterintuitive they are and how many times they've been disproven.

They're fighting a propaganda war on us, and HHS Secretary Tom Price fired another shot of dishonesty against Medicare today. Joan McCarter at Daily Kos:

Price's argument is that you'll get more doctors willing to see Medicare patients if they get full reimbursement—even if it has to come from their patients rather than the program. This, supposedly, will make it easier for Medicare enrollees to find doctors.

Sounds benign, right? Of course not:

Except that's not really a problem: "according to the March 2016 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report, 'most beneficiaries report they are able to obtain timely appointments for routine care, illness, or injury, and most beneficiaries are able to find a new doctor without a problem.'"

This isn't about making sure seniors get healthcare. It's also not about saving Medicare dollars and strengthening the program. It's about undermining Medicare—making it cover less of people's care and therefore making it less helpful, and less popular, thereby easier to do away with eventually. These guys are playing a long game—one that will leave us without the guarantee of Medicare.

As I said on Thursday, "the Republicans will be satisfied with nothing less than a Grapes of Wrath-esque company town feudalism."

It's probably the biggest driving force behind modern American conservatism.

 

Would this face lie to you? Yup. Over and over again, and he'll make millions doing so.