veronica_rich (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
veronica_rich) wrote2017-03-14 04:50 pm
veronica_rich) wrote2017-03-14 04:50 pm
Entry tags:
In the Age of Nuclear Cheeto, Year 1, Day 54
This won't be a long entry. It's about my friend MT. She technically has an LJ account, though I don't know if she still reads this platform; a lot of people don't. I don't mind if she reads this, I'm just observing she might not.
MT is still alive. She won't be for too much longer, according to her doctors. She's been battling cancer on and off for the past five years, roughly - I think that's right, but it's definitely been since after Congress passed the ACA, or "Obamacare," in 2010. MT hasn't had employment that provides her with health insurance, so she's either had to pay for her own care or just go without seeing a doctor, which I suspect is what she did before the ACA kicked in. At any rate, it was in full force when she was first diagnosed with cancer and she gives its funding credit for being able to get treatment and surgeries, and stay alive. "Thanks, OBAMA," indeed.
While the ACA isn't perfect, it's helped a lot of people like MT with both serious health care and preventive doctor visits, that they couldn't afford before it. And being able to access means of basic health and staying alive should be a human right we don't even think about granting. Yet in this country a lot of the same people who have hijacked Jesus Christ as the hood ornament for their political juggernaut eschew Christ's New Testament's basic principles of caring for fellow humans - especially those down on their luck - via help with obtaining nutritious food, shelter, water, clothing, and care for their bodies and minds.
It does not fail my notice that a lot of liberals who are in favor of spending taxpayer funds on these sorts of things identify as agnostic, atheist, or something other than Christian (not all of them do, of course, and maybe not even the majority - Diane, who died several years ago and was on LJ, was very liberal but also very dedicated to going to a Christian church and studying the principles of her Lord ... and then trying to carry them out as she was able). Just saying.
I read a WaPo article yesterday analyzing the CBO report on the GOP ACA replacement proposal, called the AHCA (I suspect the similarity of acronyms is entirely intended, to confuse GOP voters who actually rely on ACA but were too fucking stupid after 6 years of exhaustive news coverage to know "ACA" and "Obamacare" are the same thing, and voted against Obamacare because it had Black Devil's name attached to it ... and yes, I think even the congenitally and willfully stupid both deserve publicly funded health care just as I or anyone else does). It outlined the facts of the report, as well as comments from both Republican and Democrat lawmakers regarding it.
What struck and bothered me was the almost gleeful response Paul Ryan and others on the right of the GOP were having to the news about the "cost savings" projected over 10 years if it is enacted. Totally ignored was the millions of people who would lose health coverage. Totally ignored was the fact these "savings" would mostly be going to people who don't need tax cuts, in the form of tax cuts - the wealthy. Totally ignored was any sense of morality or ethics or public service AT ALL.
Look, I know there are people who don't work because they don't want to, and they milk the welfare system, while we're all out scraping and clawing to earn a buck. I also know those are nowhere NEAR the majority of human beings, or Americans, and I'm willing to finance a small percentage of those people in exchange for being able to provide humanity to everyone. It sure would've been nice if more voters and lawmakers would have felt that way over a decade ago, when I was working three jobs and none of them provided health coverage, and I couldn't afford the $600 a month for COBRA so I just didn't go to the doctor for many years.
MT told me earlier this year that she was largely at peace with death. She also joked (joked? serious? I don't know) that it's good she's dying now, since the Republicans seem hellbent on taking away any sort of health coverage anyway that she would need going forward if she were live past the time her doctors have surmised for her. So, for this and for many other things I've had to watch over the past few decades, especially the last two ... if you're a Republican reading this and you voted especially for these cocksuckers in November: FUCK. YOU.
MT is still alive. She won't be for too much longer, according to her doctors. She's been battling cancer on and off for the past five years, roughly - I think that's right, but it's definitely been since after Congress passed the ACA, or "Obamacare," in 2010. MT hasn't had employment that provides her with health insurance, so she's either had to pay for her own care or just go without seeing a doctor, which I suspect is what she did before the ACA kicked in. At any rate, it was in full force when she was first diagnosed with cancer and she gives its funding credit for being able to get treatment and surgeries, and stay alive. "Thanks, OBAMA," indeed.
While the ACA isn't perfect, it's helped a lot of people like MT with both serious health care and preventive doctor visits, that they couldn't afford before it. And being able to access means of basic health and staying alive should be a human right we don't even think about granting. Yet in this country a lot of the same people who have hijacked Jesus Christ as the hood ornament for their political juggernaut eschew Christ's New Testament's basic principles of caring for fellow humans - especially those down on their luck - via help with obtaining nutritious food, shelter, water, clothing, and care for their bodies and minds.
It does not fail my notice that a lot of liberals who are in favor of spending taxpayer funds on these sorts of things identify as agnostic, atheist, or something other than Christian (not all of them do, of course, and maybe not even the majority - Diane, who died several years ago and was on LJ, was very liberal but also very dedicated to going to a Christian church and studying the principles of her Lord ... and then trying to carry them out as she was able). Just saying.
I read a WaPo article yesterday analyzing the CBO report on the GOP ACA replacement proposal, called the AHCA (I suspect the similarity of acronyms is entirely intended, to confuse GOP voters who actually rely on ACA but were too fucking stupid after 6 years of exhaustive news coverage to know "ACA" and "Obamacare" are the same thing, and voted against Obamacare because it had Black Devil's name attached to it ... and yes, I think even the congenitally and willfully stupid both deserve publicly funded health care just as I or anyone else does). It outlined the facts of the report, as well as comments from both Republican and Democrat lawmakers regarding it.
What struck and bothered me was the almost gleeful response Paul Ryan and others on the right of the GOP were having to the news about the "cost savings" projected over 10 years if it is enacted. Totally ignored was the millions of people who would lose health coverage. Totally ignored was the fact these "savings" would mostly be going to people who don't need tax cuts, in the form of tax cuts - the wealthy. Totally ignored was any sense of morality or ethics or public service AT ALL.
Look, I know there are people who don't work because they don't want to, and they milk the welfare system, while we're all out scraping and clawing to earn a buck. I also know those are nowhere NEAR the majority of human beings, or Americans, and I'm willing to finance a small percentage of those people in exchange for being able to provide humanity to everyone. It sure would've been nice if more voters and lawmakers would have felt that way over a decade ago, when I was working three jobs and none of them provided health coverage, and I couldn't afford the $600 a month for COBRA so I just didn't go to the doctor for many years.
MT told me earlier this year that she was largely at peace with death. She also joked (joked? serious? I don't know) that it's good she's dying now, since the Republicans seem hellbent on taking away any sort of health coverage anyway that she would need going forward if she were live past the time her doctors have surmised for her. So, for this and for many other things I've had to watch over the past few decades, especially the last two ... if you're a Republican reading this and you voted especially for these cocksuckers in November: FUCK. YOU.