Biden Restores America

Last week President Joe Biden spoke to congress and the American people to let us know what has been accomplished in his first hundred days and what he still plans to do. When Biden took office he promised 100 million COVID-19 vaccine shots in 100 days – the country is on track to have provided over 220 million COVID shots in 100 days.  Unfortunately due to poor leadership Texas is among the 20 worst states in getting our populous vaccinated. 19 of those 20 states are run by Republicans, which should really come as no surprise.

The American Rescue Plan passed by congress is delivering food and nutrition assistance to millions of Americans facing hunger – and hunger is down sharply already.  In addition the plan is providing rental assistance to keep people from being evicted from their homes and providing loans to keep small businesses open and their employees on the job. Due to re-opening enrollment in Affordable Care Act insurance plans an additional 800,000 Americans have enrolled so they now have access to regular health care when needed.

As a result of American Rescue Plan, the nation is on track to cut child poverty in America in half this year. Hopefully that translates to a large drop in food insecurity among children here in Texas as   That’s important not only for those children but the future of our economy as a whole because children living in poverty don’t do as well in school and have higher dropout rates leading to lower lifetime earnings, more public assistance, and another generation of children living in poverty. 4 million individual Texans of which 1.6 million are children aren’t sure when or where they’ll get their next meal. Texas is one of just 15 states with higher food insecurity than the national average.

Biden’s proposed American Jobs Plan seeks to create jobs by addressing some of the nation’s most pressing concerns. Today up to 10 million homes and more than 400,000 schools and child care centers use lead pipes in water lines. The American Jobs Plan would replace 100% of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines so every American can turn on the faucet and be certain to drink clean water that will not cause brain damage and shorten their life span.

In order to keep the United States competitive in the world economy the American Jobs Plan wouId create jobs connecting every American with high-speed internet, including 35% of rural Americans who still don’t have it. It creates jobs by building a modern power grid, something Texans know from our experience in February is desperately needed.

It will cost a lot of money to do what Biden has proposed and to pay for it he wants to increase taxes on the wealthiest among us, which of course has Republicans making evidence free claims that it will hurt the economy. After the speech Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman pointed out that the upper-class tax increases Biden is proposing to help him pay for this middle-class renaissance are unlikely to affect the economy the way Republicans envision. They’ve been running this same trick play for decades now, and it looks like we may finally be learning how to stop it. Bill Clinton’s tax increases on top earners didn’t just fail to bring disaster, they brought robust job growth. Krugman also noted that people “seem to forget that Barack Obama presided over a significant hike in high-end taxes at the beginning of his second term; the economy continued to add jobs rapidly, at the rate of about 2.5 million a year.”

Published in the Seguin Gazette - May 5, 2021

Hope for a Happy New Year

 As much as the two time popular vote loser has angered me along with millions of other Texans by pardoning his cronies and potential witnesses against him I thought that given we’re about to start a new year I should write about something positive instead so here are a few things that our incoming president, Joe Biden, can and should do even if Georgia fails to elect two Democrats to the U.S. Senate.

Biden has promised to fight the COVID-19 pandemic by immediately appointing a “national supply chain commander” and establishing a “pandemic testing board” upon assuming office. Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain coordinated the federal government’s response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak.

For the last four years the Department of Justice was not interested in fighting voter suppression. That’s likely to change quickly regardless of who Biden nominates to head the agency. Strict voter ID laws have been the main tool in the Republican voter suppression toolbox. One powerful step that Biden could take is giving people the option to add a photo to their Social Security card, since most people already have one, and that would ensure that they can’t be barred from voting in the red states like Texas  where concealed carry licenses are fine, but student IDs are not accepted. It’s a simple administrative rule fix requiring no congressional approval.

The president-elect has already stated he will bring the U.S. back into the Paris Climate Accord as one of the first orders of business. This pact is an agreement among nations to reduce emissions. Biden does not need the Senate to do so, because the Accord is an executive agreement; Biden just needs to send a letter to the United Nations stating his intent to rejoin. Furthermore, Biden can reverse the more than 125 environmental rules that Donald Trump overturned by fiat, such as rules on energy efficiency, oil exploration, and use of biofuels.

To help our low income citizens keep more of the money they earn the new administration could institute postal banking.  Unlike the other 49 states North Dakota has a very popular public bank that competes with private banking. President-elect Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders convened a task force to look into the creation of a public banking option. Such a public bank would be set up through the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Reserve to provide low-income and middle-income families with low cost widely available banking services where they could cash payroll checks and get small short term loans are reasonable rates unlike at commercial pay-day lenders. Biden can do some of that work without any legislation, such as USPS offering their own refillable, prepaid debit cards.

Student loan debt is the only debt that you can’t discharge through bankruptcy, thanks to a 2005 law. President Biden can undo this debt the first day he takes office with the stroke of his pen. Over 90% of the student debt in this nation is owed to the federal government. Student loan debt is a huge burden to millions of people who are currently paying at 10% or more of their income every month, and will for at least a decade. Forgiving it can provide much-needed relief during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as spur economic recovery.

There are many other actions Biden can take upon assuming office that don’t require a single vote in Congress such as rewriting rules on who is eligible for overtime, extending the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act, restoring government unions, breaking up monopolies, rescheduling marijuana and more.

Happy New Year!

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 30, 2020

Vote Like Your Life Depends On It

With 7 days left before election day, the popular vote loser in the White House claims COVID-19 is going away. Hospitals are once again reporting a surge in patients with COVID-19 all across the country, including in San Antonio. We’re into the third surge in infections while Republican elected officials continue their push to re-open everything and even relax mask requirements. Over 18,000 Texans have died of COVID-19 so far that’s 61 deaths per 100,00 residents giving Texas the 18^th highest rate of deaths in the country well ahead of Republican’s favorite punching bag California which has had 44 deaths per 100,000.

The U.S. death toll stood at 225,000 as of this weekend, that’s the ninth highest rate per hundred 100,000 worldwide. Sunday, contrary to the president’s remarks his own Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, said “We’re not going to control the pandemic”. That’s pathetic considering that so many other nations with much less to work with have done so much better at caring for their people.

Last week I listened to an interview with former National Security Advisor John Bolton in which he tore into the administration’s pandemic response. Bolton told the interviewer that the Obama administration developed a complete playbook on how to handle a pandemic and that document was left for future administrations to use, in addition the current administration had run its own exercise and developed its own playbook in 2019 yet the president didn’t bother to use either one. In the interview, Bolton referred to the president as “the empty chair behind the Resolute desk”; a reference to the desk nearly every president since 1880 has used which is made from the oak timbers of the British ship H.M.S. Resolute and presented as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes from Queen Victoria.

After his tantrum shortened interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, the president’s staff provided Stahl a thick binder which they claimed held the present’s health care plan. When Stahl reviewed the binder, all it contained were copies of his executive orders and existing legislation. The president has been claiming to have a plan since he was running for president the first time in 2016 and still there is nothing. Republicans in Congress like John Cornyn have been talking about Repeal and Replace for years and still have not produced a replacement plan either.

In the midst of a worsening pandemic, Republican leaders have no plan to protect the health of the American public. Those same Republican leaders are suing to kill the Affordable Care Act which will cause 28 million Americans to lose their health insurance at a time when a million Americans have been hospitalized due to the pandemic. Even with insurance many of those who have been hospitalized have been left with large medical bills and men like John Cornyn and the president want to destroy what little protection many of us have from bankruptcy or death. Back in May, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News “Those of us who are 70 plus, we’ll take care of ourselves. But don’t sacrifice the country”. The only people sacrificing the country are Republican senators who refuse to hold a vote on the HEROES Act that would provide aid to states, cities, and individuals during the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

There are 6 days left until election day, and the race has tightened here in Texas. Your vote could be the deciding factor in throwing out John Cornyn in favor of MJ Hegar so make a plan to vote and then go VOTE.

Your Health Insurance At Risk

Today, around 28 million Americans have health insurance they would not otherwise have had because of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In Texas alone nearly one million more would have those same benefits if Gov. Abbott accepted federal money to expand Medicaid like many other states did. Considering that the state would only have to contribute $1 for every $9 provided by the feds and even that $1 would be largely or totally recovered from taxes on additional spending by the medical community there’s no financial or economic reason for that refusal.

It’s that same petulance that has made the popular vote loser in the White House work to reverse everything done by his immediate predecessor. It is the same petulance that has infected the entire Republican Party since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in March of 2010 and given rise to their slogan Repeal and Replace. They had a full two years at the beginning of the president’s term when they controlled all the levers of power and couldn’t pass a bill to either repeal or replace, not once did they offer a replacement plan. The president claims to have finally offered a plan a few weeks ago but it is so lacking in detail that it doesn’t even appear on his campaign website. His fig leaf of an executive order on pre-existing conditions is meaningless to private insurers as executive orders are nothing more than directions to federal agencies and the only one that actually insures people is Medicare which has always covered pre-existing conditions.

Senator John Cornyn has been at the forefront of the movement to kill the Affordable Care Act and take away health insurance from 28 million Americans who are only covered because of it. Killing the Affordable Care Act will also remove the requirements that insurers covered annual wellness checkups and mental health as well as pre-existing conditions. Killing the ACA will also mean that insurance companies can go back to charging different rates for men and women, as well as eliminating the requirement that they spend at least 90% of premiums on health care instead of executive salaries and advertising.

Texas is at the forefront of the effort to kill the ACA another way, the state is a plaintiff in a case before the Supreme Court that seeks to invalidate the law. John Cornyn’s willingness to steal a Supreme Court seat from President Obama in 2016 and his advocacy for swift consent on the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the court weeks before the presidential election is just another way to influence the result of the case. If Republicans get their way and the Supreme Court does overturn the ACA there will be many consequences unforeseen by the public and I expect you’ll see Republican elected officials distance themselves and blame those consequences on the court.

In some ways I hope Republicans finally succeed in overturning the Affordable Care Act so Joe Biden and the new Democratic Party majority in the senate are prompted to create a new more comprehensive plan with expanded coverage that leaves no one behind even in Texas. The only way to make sure that there are people in power who will work to mitigate the damage and make life better for all of us is to elect Joe Biden for president and MJ Hegar to the United States Senate. The polls are open, go vote. If you’ve received a mail-in-ballot, get it in the mail so you can be sure it gets to the elections office in time to be counted.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 21, 2020

Inspiration by Aspiration Will Turn Out the Vote

­From time to time I hear critiques of Bernie Sanders and some of the policies that he and Elizabeth Warren have espoused like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal as being unattainable and therefore bad politics. I disagree, in fact lofty goals are inspirational, look at John Kennedy’s goal of putting a man on the moon within a decade. That feat was thought unattainable by many and NASA scrambled to make it happen but we did it.

When we elected President Obama with promises to fix our broken health care system many thought he would fail since Bill and Hillary Clinton had failed to do it more than a decade earlier. My friends and I quickly learned that his proposal was a stretch as far as congress was concerned. We worked hard to convince Congressman Henry Cuellar, who represented Guadalupe County at that time, to support the bill which he finally did though he threw his share of monkey wrenches into the mix. Democratic Senators like Max Baucus from Montana held up the bill for months while stripping it of some of the best parts. We didn’t get everything we wanted but the Affordable Care Act was an improvement over what had existed before. Had our Republican governor not failed to take advantage of the tens of millions of dollars available to expand Medicaid, tens of thousands of Texans could be healthier and happier today.

During Obama’s presidency we learned that pre-emptive compromise intended to get the support of Republicans early in the process was a failure because they just moved the goalpost further off center. Now that many of us have turned our attention to electing a president to replace the ignoramus currently in office some folks seem to believe that the only important issue is winning the election and therefore we should choose a candidate that at least some who voted for Trump will vote for. Oddly they seem to think that those are folks who are somewhere in the middle on most policy issues. The reality is that those voters who voted for Obama in 2008/2012 then voted for Trump in 2016 wanted to “shake things up”, they didn’t vote for Trump as much as they voted against Hillary Clinton whom they viewed as an establishment candidate.

Pre-emptively compromising on a centrist/establishment candidate like Joe Biden or Mike Bloomberg, etc. isn’t going to win over those voters, they’ll just go for another four years of Trump trashing our democracy, violating the constitution, and lining his own pockets with public funds. Instead we need an inspirational candidate who talks about the possibilities that can be achieved. Joe Biden has essentially campaigned on bringing another four years of the Obama presidency. First Biden no Barack Obama and second at least the people I talk to think it’s time to move forward not have more of the same.

Voters who switched to Trump after voting for Obama wanted to shake things up because they felt that our federal government was more responsive to big business than working class people and they’re absolutely right even if their prescription for fixing it was totally wrong. Giving them a candidate that doesn’t offer a big change in how our government works isn’t going to bring them back.

Early voting started yesterday, vote for the candidate whose message inspires you and your family because that is the candidate who will inspire others. For me that’s Bernie Sanders.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 19, 2020

ACA Open Enrollment

It’s that time of year again when people without employer provided health insurance can sign up for a plan on marketplace provided under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Open enrollment started November 1 and runs until December 15. Donald Trump with help from congressional Republicans has made it harder for people to sign up by reducing the open enrollment period and cutting funding for promotion and assistance it’s still possible to find help if you need it.

Healthcare.gov has links to local assistance providers as well as renewing or updating your existing plan. While Trump has been messing with the financing he managed in some ways to accidentally lower the premium in some cases. In Guadalupe County a 40 year-old making $20,000 a year can get a Gold level insurance plan for just $32 a month or a Bronze plan for $0. If that 40 year-old earns $35,000 a Gold plan will cost them $223 a month or $105 a month for a Bronze plan. Gold level plans have lower deductibles than bronze or silver plans.

Previously I’ve spoken to folks who help people sign up for Obamacare plans and they told me that while some folks don’t qualify for the subsidies that get the premiums so low they also find people who qualify for Medicaid or their children qualify for CHIP and don’t know it so they help them sign up for that. If you know someone without health insurance now is the perfect time to help them contact Seguin Community Health Center at 1104 Jefferson Street, Seguin, phone number (830) 379 – 9797 for assistance in applying.

There are roughly 5 million Texans without health insurance or nearly 18% of the state population. Texas has both more people uninsured as well as a higher percentage of uninsured of any state in the country. Approximately 1.25 million Texas children under 18 are among those uninsured.

A study done by the Texas Alliance for Health Care., shows the lack of health insurance would cause hardships for hospitals, physicians, and ordinary Texans.

Among the study’s findings: In 2016, the cost of lower lifetime earnings and worse health for uninsured Texans was $57 billion. Barring any change in policy, that cost will rise to $178.5 billion by 2040. The $3.5 billion price tag for hospitals and physicians who provide unsubsidized and uncompensated care in 2016 will rise to $12.4 billion by 2040 without a change in policy. The value of lost earnings and poor health due to lack of health insurance in Texas is estimated to be $178.5 billion in 2040 (or $74 billion in 2016 dollars).

Speaking of uncompensated care, Texas is seeing a rash of closures of rural county hospitals primarily due to funding shortfalls caused by the state failing to accept Medicaid expansion. You can thank, our state representative John Kuempel and Governor Greg Abbott for that.

All the Democratic candidates for president are talking about how they plan to fix this nation’s health insurance mess. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren offer sweeping plans that would take Medicaid and CHIP out of the hands of the state and make sure every American has health insurance. Consider that when listening to all the candidates as you decide who to support in the March primary.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 13, 2019

Kuempel's Smoke and Mirrors

Once again our state representative, John Kuempel, has mailed one of his puff pieces to residents in Guadalupe and Wilson counties. As usual he touts purported accomplishments which are often as not failures.

His missive spends half a page on state funding for public education and without background it sounds pretty good until you realize that the state still hasn’t restored all the funding it took away in 2011. Instead of fully restoring funding our legislature with Kuempel’s vote in favor chose to forcibly reduce property tax rates school districts around the state had used to make up for the state cuts. So he’s cheering about a solution to a problem he helped cause in the first place. In the SCUC ISD where I live my property taxes will go down a whopping $12 a month. That’s not enough to buy a half tank of gas and I’m not going to notice it in my monthly budget. Had our district been allowed to keep some or all of those funds we wouldn’t have to again request a waiver on the maximum number of students per teacher in K-3 classes. K-3 is the age where children learn the most quickly and need to most attention and our district like many others still can’t cover the cost to properly educate them.

It isn’t just that Kuempel and his Republican cronies haven’t fully restored funding of public education they also restricted how the additional funding they did provide can be spent. It never ceases to amaze me that the politicians who talk the most about local control and not forcing one size fits all solutions on the public are the very ones most likely to do the exact opposite. I think we’d all have been better served if the state had left the choice to maintain or reduce property taxes up to the various districts.

Kuempel goes on to tout what he calls increased transparency in property taxes but in reality it’s just a requirement to hold elections to increase property tax rates. If he really believed in transparency he’d work for passage of legislation that requires purchase price of every transfer or real property to be reported to the local appraisal district. Right now wealthy folks who purchase multi-million dollar homes often use the option to not report so that the home can’t be properly appraised and therefore save thousands and tens of thousands on their taxes all while you and I pay the full share. Our former Republican state senator, Jeff Wentworth, tried for a decade to pass such a bill. If Kuempel is going to talk about transparency he should have the integrity to stop protecting the rich folks behind the curtain.

Another area where Kuempel obfuscates is his claim the legislature provided funding to cover shortfalls in Medicaid and state hospitals. Had he and his Republican colleagues voted to accept Medicaid expansion as offered under the Affordable Care Act the federal government would have provided an additional $100 million to Texas every year. That funding would have assured that many if not all of the rural hospitals that have closed and will close of the next few years were funded without costing Texas taxpayers a dime.

The general theme here is that Kuempel is taking credit for half measures designed to smooth over problems he and his fellow Republicans created in the first place. This time next year we may have a chance to replace him. I hope voters will see through the fog of Republican claims and elect someone who believes in solutions not bandaids.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 11, 2019

Trump Attacks HealthCare He Promised to Protect

During the 2016 election Trump repeatedly claimed he would help people with pre-existing conditions yet his direction to Attorney General Barr to attack the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act says differently. It is the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, that protects people with pre-existing conditions from being charged outrageous and often unaffordable premiums.

Trump also campaigned promising, “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” His proposed 2020 budget cuts all three.

This isn’t just about breaking campaign promises it’s about people’s lives, their physical well-being and their financial health. If Trump succeeds in overturning the Affordable Care Act in court and his proposed budget is passed there are a host of the negative consequences to the lives of most Americans.

Without the Affordable Care Act, most young adults 18-26 will lose the option to be covered under their parent’s insurance plan. Many young adults work part time while going to trade schools or college and aren’t eligible for employer sponsored health insurance and individual plans are notoriously expensive so overturning the Affordable Care Act via the courts will cause tens of thousands of young Americans like my daughter to lose their health insurance.

Do you know anyone with cancer or other expensive life threatening conditions? Should the courts overturn the Affordable Care Act insurance companies would once again be able to set annual and lifetime limits on the amount they’ll cover. Between two episodes of blood clots, one of which involved open heart surgery, a staph infection the nearly killed her and various other surgeries my wife would long ago have busted through the caps that many insurers were once allowed. In other words people like my wife would either die from lack of care or their family would go bankrupt or both.

The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to maintain at least an 80% medical loss ratio; that means at least 80% of premiums have to be spent on actual medical care. If an insurance company ends the year with less than that they have to refund you the difference. The first two years after the ACA first went into effect I got substantial refund checks. My insurer finally got the hang of not overcharging. Without the ACA you can bet medical loss ratios will fall and meaning premiums will go up just to so the insurance company can have higher profits.

Trump’s 2020 budget cutting Medicare and Medicaid would also impact many of us either directly or through our loved ones and friends. Medicare is already the most efficient provider of health insurance spending upwards of 95% of premiums on health care as opposed to the 80% allowed to private insurers. Cutting Medicare will mean cutting coverage or cutting physician reimbursement or both. Considering that Medicare already pays most physicians less than other insurers you can see it won’t end well.

Do you know someone in a nursing home? If so, chances are that Medicaid covers some or all of the cost since it covers 2 out of 3 nursing home residents. Trump’s 2020 budget cuts Medicaid, are you ready to care for you parent or grand-parent when they are kicked out of the nursing home?

Trump’s actions are just cruel and heartless. Let’s hope his enablers in the Senate at least see the electoral downside of this and stop him before it’s too late. If they don’t the 2020 election will be a blood bath at the polls.

Published in the Seguin Gazette April 5, 2019

ACA Not Good Enough for All Americans

Too many Americans still can’t afford health insurance even after passage of the Affordable Care Act and four million have lost their subsidies on the through Exchanges over the last four years. A recently released study by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that particularly older and rural folks find it hard to afford individual insurance whether on the Affordable Care Act Exchange markets or not.

Part of the problem is that Exchange subsidies cut off federal assistance for premiums at incomes at 400 percent of the poverty line, or nearly $49,000 for an individual and just over $100,000 for a family of four. Rather than phasing out by reducing the subsidy gradually the subsidy just disappears, lending the phenomenon the name "subsidy cliff." The Kaiser study uses this example: "On average across the U.S., a 40-year-old making $45,000 would pay $227 a month (6% of their income) for a subsidized bronze exchange plan, whereas the same person making $50,000 would pay $340 a month (8% of their income) for the same plan without a subsidy."

And if you’re older it goes from bad to worse: "a 27-year-old making $50,000 would pay 7% of their income in premiums for the average lowest-cost plan nationally, whereas a 60-year-old making the same income would pay 17% of their income in premiums. Even at an income of $70,000 (577% of the poverty level), a 60-year-old would have to pay 12% of income for a low-cost plan on average."

Rural areas get hit even harder since health insurance there is even more expensive. The Kaiser study provides this example of a 60-year-old in almost any county in Nebraska, earning $50,000 and paying between 30 percent and 50 percent of their income in premiums. And that's for the least expensive, ACA-compliant plans.

There are several ways to deal with the problem. One way is to eliminate the subsidy cliff by adjusting the subsidy so that the premium paid by the insured is never more that 6% of their income. That’s an expensive solution. A better way would be to expand Medicare to cover people 50 and older. Even better is the Medicare For All Act of 2019 introduced last week by Representatives Debbie Dingell, Pramila Jayapal, and co-sponsored by over 100 other members of Congress.

Our current healthcare system in the United States is ineffective, inefficient and outrageously expensive. Around 70 million Americans are uninsured or cannot afford the costs of their co-pays and deductibles. The quality of our healthcare is worse than other industrialized countries with lower life expectancy in the U.S. than other nations, and a much higher infant mortality. The U.S. spends more money per capita on healthcare than any other industrialized nation in part because we waste hundreds of billions of dollars every year on unnecessary administrative costs like insurance CEO salaries in the millions of dollars, while healthcare industry executives measure success in profits, instead of patient care.

When the Franklin Roosevelt administration created Social Security conservatives fought it but the lives of millions of older Americans were improved immediately and seniors have continued to benefit from it 80 years later. When Medicare was passed under the leadership of Lyndon Johnson conservatives fought it, Ronald Reagan even made speeches calling it socialism, but again millions of older Americans lives were improved and seniors today recognize their lives would be much worse without it. Conservatives are fighting Medicare for All but it will improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans and save us and our country billions of dollars at the same time.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 8, 2019

Judge's Ruling Indicator That Medicare For All Necessary

Well over one million Texans stand to lose their health insurance due to a federal court decision, here in Texas, striking down the Affordable Care Act in its entirety a week ago today. The lawsuit was brought by the Attorneys General of 18 Republican controlled states. Interestingly the suit was brought in the Northern District of Texas where U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, is the only active judge so it has the appearance of judge shopping. O’Connor held off on handing down the decision on this case for months as it was argued in his court in the Spring. Whether he did it for political reasons or not is hard to say but it sure seems odd that he waited until a month after elections were over before rendering the decision given that this issue would have been fodder for the O’Rourke and Cruz senate campaigns.

In addition to those losing health insurance they previously got through the Marketplace with subsidies there are others who will be affected by the ruling. By striking down the entire bill, limits on how much more older people can be charged for coverage compared to younger people are also eliminated so those of us 50 to 65 may find our health insurance premiums suddenly take a big jump. The ruling also eliminates the ban on annual and lifetime caps on how much your insurance will cover so if a member of your family comes down with cancer it will be possible for your insurer to stop paying for life saving medicine and treatment after paying $1 million. In addition the judge’s ruling means that children over 18 no longer are allowed to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26. The same ruling means that a host of preventive care services previously mandated to be provided with no co-pay are no longer required.

Then there are those like my wife who have Medicare Part D covering their prescription drugs; under the Affordable Care Act the donut hole which is the amount of out of pocket money spent on prescriptions was substantially reduced, if O’Connor’s decision stands she and others like her will go start spending thousands more for their medications. There are other less well known parts of the law such as the requirement for background checks on all nursing home staff that are also eliminated by striking down the law.

Many in the legal community were surprised by the ruling and believe it will be overturned since the Affordable Care Act has survived 70 other attacks including twice in the Supreme Court, especially since Congress just had an opportunity to repeal the law and instead chose to eliminate only the individual mandate to purchase insurance. If they’re right we’ll have dodged a bullet aimed squarely at those of us least able to afford the cost of recovering.

Regardless of whether or not Judge O’Connor’s decision is overturned it’s quite clear that there is still a long way to go to truly become the equitable society that this nation aspires to be. It’s past time for the United States to convert to a single payer system like that proposed in the Medicare for All bill supported by most Democrats including our own congressman, Vicente Gonzalez. Claims that Medicare for All is un-affordable are ridiculous given that nearly every other industrialized nation in the world has used such a system for decades.

This January Medicare for All should be part of the Democrats agenda in Washington. Look for a similar bill in the Texas legislature as well.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 21, 2018

Blue Wave Really a Progressive Wave

My Republican neighbors are in denial about the “blue wave” that swept the country earlier this month which led to 38 and possibly 39 or 40 more Democrats in the House. Democrats lost four seats they held in the Senate but won two others previously held in by Republicans from Arizona and Nevada. Nationally turnout was the highest for a mid-term election since 1914 so no one can claim that low turnout caused the swing. In addition to the progress I wrote about two weeks ago made by Democrats in Texas; over 330 state legislative seats switched from Republican to Democratic hands. Democratic governors were elected to replace Republicans in seven states and six state legislatures switched from Republican to Democratic control. There were many county governments and other elected offices like Secretary of State, Secretary of Agriculture, and judgeships changing hands as well.

2019 will be a tremendous year for diversity in our federal legislature. At least 123 women will be in Congress next year, all but 19 are Democrats. The 116th Congress will have the highest percentage of women ever at 23%. The first two Native American women won seats in the House, Deb Haaland from New Mexico and Sharice Davids from Kansas. Religious diversity also increased as the first two Muslim women; Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib were elected to the House and a record 53 other Muslims won elections to state legislatures and local government bodies. New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest member ever elected to the House.

Nine newly elected members with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and medicine are headed to the House of Representatives seven of them are Democrats; one Democrat won in the Senate.

Elected officials were not the only evidence of the change in the body politic as three Republican controlled states, Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah voted on propositions to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act provision enabling Medicaid expansion. Some of the states where Republican governors were replaced had denied Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act was a campaign issue so their defeat was at least in part a repudiation of the Republican efforts to repeal it.

Three states voted to legalize marijuana, Utah and Missouri for medical treatment and Michigan for recreational use. Florida voted to restore voting rights to 1.4 million felons who have served their time. In New Mexico the newly elected Democratic legislature is already preparing to repeal the existing state law prohibiting abortion so that any action by the Supreme Court on the issue will have no effect there. Arkansas and Missouri both voted to increase the minimum wage, which will give raises to a combined total of 900,000 workers in the two states.

Automatic voter registration, which disproportionately enfranchises young people and people of color, passed in both Nevada and Michigan. In Michigan voters approved same-day voter registration and made it easier to request absentee ballots. Voters in Maryland passed a ballot measure to implement same-day voter registration by a wide margin.

Given all this it wasn’t just a “blue wave” it was a progressive wave and that’s actually more important in the long run.

Protecting A Million Texans Requires Your Vote

As if you needed another reason to make time to vote in November think about this, Texas is one of 20 states suing the federal government to take away healthcare from millions of Americans especially middle and lower income Texans. Our Republican Attorney General, Ken Paxton, joined the suit earlier this year in an effort to use the courts to do what Congress chose not to. Paxton is empowered by the fact that Republicans control both houses of the legislature and every statewide office.

The cynical ploy used by the Attorneys General is the claim that since the individual mandate was central to the Affordable Care Act, the fact that Congress repealed it invalidates the entire law. Since 1.2 million Texans are covered through plans purchased via the Exchange created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) having the court decide in favor of killing it will endanger the lives and health of all of them. Of course it won’t have any effect on the 4.5 million Texans denied coverage by Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision not to accept the 90% federally funded Medicaid expansion.

Whether or not Democrats can beat Paxton directly by electing Justin Nelson to replace him or indirectly through electing a majority in one or both houses of the legislature and cutting his budget, it can be done. Readers have three or four ways to protect the healthcare of over a million Texans. They can vote to replace the current Attorney General with Justin Nelson who if elected will certainly withdraw from the suit. They can vote to replace the Governor with Lupe Valdez who can make it known to the legislature that she will veto any budget that continues to fund attacks on the Affordable Care Act. They can vote to replace the incumbent in the House with John Rodgers who would fight to force Paxton to drop the suit by cutting his budget. Rodgers would also demand that the state take the federal money to expand Medicaid which would not only be a boon to those 4.5 million Texans not currently insured, it would also stimulate the economy of the entire state leading to many more jobs and higher paying jobs as well. If you live in the part of Guadalupe County which is in Senate District 25 you can replace the incumbent who is widely recognized one of the worst legislators in Texas with Steve Kling.

On the federal side we have an opportunity to put a stop to Republican efforts to repeal the ACA in whole or in part by taking back one or both houses of Congress. We need to hold onto a House seat by voting for Vicente González so that in other districts where Republican incumbents are in jeopardy of losing their seats we can gain enough to achieve a majority there. This is really important as Republicans in the House are still working to undermine the ACA by any means available. They are also plotting to cut Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid benefits claiming that they are causing a deficit; when in fact that deficit is caused mostly by the tax breaks they just gave big banks and billionaires. A Democratic House majority insures that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the ACA all continue to be adequately funded.

There is also the very real possibility of replacing one of the Senate’s most unpopular members if we all get out and vote for Beto O’Rourke. If Texas voters flip that seat it will go a long way toward making it possible to win a majority in the Senate.

Vote! Vote! Vote!

Democrats Know the Solution is Medicare for All

In 2009 when the Democratic controlled Congress passed and President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, there was hope that nearly all Americans would soon be able to access healthcare, especially preventive care. It was expected that millions who had previously suffered, thousands who would have died and tens of thousands who would have gone bankrupt or heavily into debt would be able to breathe a sigh of relief. Some few claims by proponents turned out to be exaggerated but on the whole millions did indeed get health insurance at a price they could afford and had access to doctors and prescription medication previously unavailable to them. Even before the ink was dry on President Obama’s signature, Republicans in Congress and state governments began working to prevent Americans from having affordable healthcare. Governor Rick Perry declared that Texas would not expand Medicaid and thus denied one million Texans, many of them children the opportunity to see a doctor and receive adequate treatment.

If you’ve listened to their excuses for their behavior it becomes quite clear that in the conservative mind only those who have jobs with sufficient income even deserve the benefit of healthcare. Now they don’t say it outright but that’s really what it boils down to. If you get sick or have an accident you can get as much healthcare as you can pay for. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, it just matters how much you’re paid for it.

President Obama’s Affordable Care Act was an attempt to satisfy the conservative mind by retaining the capitalist model of the existing system and even making it more profitable for insurers, as they’d have more customers, while taking care of a far greater portion of the American public. It works fairly well at what it was intended to do and would work better if Republicans including the current White House resident would stop trying to break it.

The experiment has also shown us that the capitalist approach to healthcare is not the solution that Republicans claim it is. Private insurance companies drive up the cost of care in a number of ways including the right to take 20% of premiums for themselves. In addition they cost the medical profession significant amounts due to arcane billing procedures and delays in payments. Worse still private insurers often make difficult to actually receive the care we think we’re paying for by denying the treatment the doctor prescribed for any number of reasons. When Republicans were fighting the Affordable Care Act they complained about unelected bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor, I find it telling that they had no such concerns about the flunkies of profit seeking corporations getting between you and your doctor.

Democrats in Congress and the Texas legislature have come around to an idea that many in the public already had which is that the solution to the high and often unaffordable cost of healthcare is to make it a part of what you get for your tax dollars just like every other industrialized nation on earth and even places like Iraq.

In Congress, Democrats are actively pushing for a bill known as Medicare for All while in the Texas legislature we can look forward to something similar. Both bills guarantee that every resident will receive comprehensive healthcare services. Individuals will have free choice of licensed health professionals and services including vision and dental care as well as home healthcare, adult day care, and hospice.

Healthcare for millions more Americans at lower cost, what other reason do you need to vote for Democrats in November?

Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 16, 2018

Republicans Know How to Exercise Power

I have to compliment Senator Mitch McConnell, he knows how to use power. When there was a Democrat as president and a vacancy on the Supreme Court 9 months before a presidential election and 11 months before a new president would take office McConnell used his power as Senate Majority Leader to stop even the consideration of the President Obama’s nominee. His argument was that the people should be allowed to speak. It didn’t matter that his action was unprecedented. The people spoke and nearly 3 million more voted for the Democrat. Nevertheless a Republican won due to the anti-democratic Electoral College votes and it didn’t matter that it was hypocritical to still prevent even a hearing let alone a vote.

Now only 5 months from an election in one third of the senators who will vote on the new president’s Supreme Court nominee will stand for election he’s pushing hard to assure that a vote is taken before the people have an opportunity to speak again. Democrats just don’t have the idea that when you have power you’re supposed to exercise it. Obama had overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate and failed to use his power to push through a robust Affordable Care Act. Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi allowed the Republicans to amend and twist the bill into a pretzel without ever committing to vote for it. That’s one of the reasons Republicans and Trump have been able to whittle away parts of it in an attempt kill it without taking blame for breaking the parts that even Republican voters like.

Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership failed to use the power of their offices to twist arms that needed twisting and it was just the Affordable Care Act. We didn’t get the forceful stimulus bill we needed, nor the environmental protection bill that would have put a real dent in climate change, or an immigration bill that might have prevented the tragedy we’re seeing at our southern border today. In fact I would argue that Obama’s failure to use the power inherent in the office is the very reason we have Trump as president today. I believe that if he had used his power in concert with the congressional leadership Democratic voters wouldn’t have sat on their hands in 2010 and Republicans wouldn’t have taken control of both houses of Congress. If he’d been the strong leader we needed voters in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida would have turned out to vote for another Democrat in 2016 and the winner of the most votes would have also won the Electoral College vote.

It’s important that Democrats get out and vote in November so we can take back the Senate and the state legislature. It’s also important that our Democratic leaders use their power to do the people’s will. Failure to use your power is a lot like failure to use your muscles. Democrats have allowed their power to atrophy unlike Mitch McConnell who doesn’t even blink at his own hypocrisy. McConnell uses his power to get anything and everything he can accomplished.

Neither Franklin Delano Roosevelt nor Lyndon Johnson were perfect, but they did great things for this country because they understood both the need and the method for exerting power. As we now know winning elections isn’t enough if you aren’t going to use your power to get things done. Understanding the use of power is one of the key attributes I will look for in every candidate in future primary elections.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 13, 2018

CHIP Funding Fail

The party claiming to represent “family values” also known as the Republican Party is once again showing its hypocrisy. Nearly two months ago the funding for the decades old Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired and the funding bill Republicans in the House passed would simply take the $8 billion a year from Medicaid and more from other public health programs to pay for it. Senate Republicans knew that wasn’t going to fly and have even filed bill that continues funding without sticking it to the poor and other vulnerable Americans but there have been no hearings on the bill, nor have they scheduled a vote on it.

There’s no telling when Republican leaders will get around to pursuing a funding solution for CHIP but it looks like they’re going to hold the lives and health of 9 million poor children and pregnant women, more than 400,000 of them Texans, as hostage to get concessions like budget cuts from Democrats. In the interim, 11 states expect to run out of funds by the end of December and are preparing to send letters telling the parents of these children that if they get sick don’t expect them to receive medical care. How’s that for a Christmas present? Ebenezer Scrooge would be so proud.

The CHIP program only covers persons under age 19 and pregnant women who are either citizens or legal U.S. residents. If the family has only one child the total annual income must be less than $24,473 so we’re talking about folks on very low incomes.

CHIP covers primary health care, prescriptions, mental health, vision, physical and occupational therapies and dental care for children under 19. Additionally women receive CHIP coverage for prenatal and postpartum services.

Some states have enough funding to last a few more months but some don’t. Several states have already made emergency requests for funds to hold it over until February by which time they hope Congress gets around to deciding if the program will be retained.

The Senate and House are now very busy working toward providing massive tax cuts to billionaires while claiming they’re going to put more money in the pocket of working and middle class Americans. Of course, tax breaks for billionaires didn’t do anything to help working families under Reagan nor under George W. Bush. Republican leaders must think Americans are like Charlie Brown to their Lucy promising to hold the ball for him to kick this time.

One of the provisions getting a lot of attention will allow deductions for private jets. This is the same bill also takes away the deduction for school supplies that teachers purchase for their classrooms so it’s clear who Republicans really care about and it isn’t you and me.

CHIP has had bi-partisan support since its inception, yet this time around Republican leaders are so focused on the tax cuts they promised to their wealthy benefactors they just can’t find the energy to do the right thing. I guess we shouldn’t really be surprised at the heartless greed exhibited by congressional Republicans, after all they’re still trying to gut the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. Apparently they’re idea of right to life doesn’t include actual living people.

Published in the Seguin Gazette, November 25, 2017

Trump Incompetence Might Strengthen the ACA

For all that Republicans complain about the Affordable Care Act it has been tremendously successful in increasing the percentage of Americans covered by health insurance of one sort or another. In those states, unlike Texas, that took the Medicaid expansion funds offered very few are left without access to quality healthcare. Every year more people have learned about the availability of insurance coverage at affordable rates and signup rates continue to climb.

This year we have a Republican president who is determined to undermine the law of the land and has taken measures intended to reduce the number of Americans with health insurance. Trump has reduced the time period of open enrollment in half, to just 6 weeks, ending December 15. Possibly worse, he’s cut funding for advertising of open enrollment by 90% leaving groups that assist people in selecting and signing up for affordable, subsidized plans scrambling for ways to overcome the barriers.

A couple of weeks ago, in an attempt to overcome the lack of promotion, a small group of Democrats knocked on nearly 400 doors in Seguin handing out flyers and explaining that help is available through CentroMed and other providers both in and near Seguin. We want everyone to know that they can call one central phone number, 210-977-7997, or visit the coalition website www.enrollsa.com to make an appointment.

One of the great things about the Enroll SA coalition is even if the applicant isn’t eligible for subsidized health insurance through the Affordable Care Act the enrollment staff will check eligibility for other forms of assistance including Medicaid, CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) or low cost care at community clinics.

While some of Trumps efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act may very well have the intended effect his incompetence and that of his staff may also work against him. His executive order ending payments to insurance companies called cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies. They are paid directly to insurers, and they provide financial assistance for individuals who make between 100 and 250 percent of the poverty line. Cut those subsidies off, and insurers will try to make up the difference by raising premiums. In a report on the likely effects of cutting off the subsidies earlier this year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that premiums would be about 20 percent higher for typical plans purchased under the law.

But the joke is on Trump, as the premium hikes won't directly affect most low-income people, because Obamacare's subsidies increase with premiums, insulating those individuals from higher costs. Instead, this move is likely to raise premiums for people who earn too much to qualify for subsidies under Obamacare, the people who have already been hit hardest by the law's price hikes.

There are some reports of insurers offering plans with premiums in the range of $0-10 for those who are eligible for subsidies so if a member of your family or your friend isn’t currently insured be sure to let them know that now might be the best time of all to apply for coverage. Give them the phone number 210-977-7997, or help them visit the coalition website www.enrollsa.com to make an appointment. The great folks at CentroMed on County Line Road in New Braunfels as well as some organizations right here in Seguin can help anyone find out how to get covered.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 17, 2017

Trump the Worst But Better Than Republican Alternatives

Regardless of the scandals, racist policies, incompetence and outright ignorant foreign policy of our current president I’m not all that interested in seeing him impeached any time soon. I’d much rather the Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation find every bit of the dirt and then begin the impeachment process sometime in May of 2020 after it’s too late for any real competition for the Republican nomination.

Recently published research shows that regardless of Trump’s plummeting national approval rating, Republican voters in those districts that voted for Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016 still rate him the same as they did on his inauguration day. I see little chance of that changing so if all else remains equal we’ll lose again in 2020. We’re going to need the next three and a half years to figure out and execute a plan to get non-voters to the polls. Here in Texas that’s a lot of folks, in fact more than half of the voting age population of Texas didn’t vote at all. Based on demographics most of them are likely to vote for Democrats if they can be persuaded to show up at the polls. Winning in Texas is really important since if Texas had swung to the Democrats in 2016 Trump would have been two votes short in the electoral college and we’d likely have a Democratic president today.

We’ve got serious work to do in South Texas, for example in Hidalgo County the voting age population is over 616,000 and just 28% voted in 2016. El Paso County has a voting age population of 638,000 and only 33% voted. Harris County, 3.3 million and 39% turnout, Bexar County 1.4 million 41% turnout, Guadalupe County 115,000 and 49.4% turnout. Pathetic as those numbers are statewide the turnout rate was just 42.62%. Non-voter demographics suggest that about two out of three of them would vote for Democrats if they voted at all, so just an overall turnout increase of 17% would have been enough to win Texas for the Democrats in 2016.

I’m not just interested in impeachment being delayed for electoral reasons. It is actually in the best interest of the American people to have an incompetent Republican in the oval office rather than a competent one. If Mike Pence were President, he might very well have been able to work with the House and Senate to come up with a bill to repeal at least parts of the Affordable Care Act and who knows how many Americans would suffer and die for the greed of his wealthy sponsors. While some pundits argue that Mueller is going after Pence too, even if both are impeached the Speaker of the House is next in line of succession and that gives us Paul Ryan as President which I don’t see as a good thing.

Ryan is the architect of the House version of the bill that would repeal the Affordable Care Act which would kick 15 million Americans off Medicaid and cause another 7 million to lose their insurance coverage. Not only that but even very conservative estimates suggest passage of repeal would lead to the unnecessary and preventable deaths of 15,000 to 20,000 Americans every year. Then there’s the untold suffering of those who would be left untreated for illnesses that too often damage their bodies for life. Not to mention the number of bankruptcies that would increase again due to those who received medical care they then couldn’t pay for.

Trump may be one of the worst presidents ever but anyone other Republican is likely to be worse for America.

Published in the Seguin Gazette August 11, 2017

Are We Terrorists or Christians?

In 2001 the entire country was up in arms after the attack on 9/11 that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. Thousands of people, rich and poor, teenagers and 30 somethings volunteered to join our military and risk their lives in order to take the battle to the terrorists.

This week the Congressional Budget Office reported that the Senate healthcare bill will cause 22 million Americans to lose their health insurance. We know from studies done after the release of the similar House bill which causes 23 million to lose their insurance that between 10,000 and 30,000 of those folks will then die unnecessarily.

Even taking the low number that’s more than three times as many people dying every year than who died in the 9/11 attack. We went to war over that attack. We spent trillions of dollars to fight that war on the basis of preventing another attack. Yet now, 16 years later, our elected leaders are willing to allow 10,000 mostly poor people to die every year in order to give rich people a tax break. Not only that but thousands more will go bankrupt, losing their homes and everything they’ve ever worked for.

How are we any better than the terrorists if we lie down and take it when the Donald Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress deny children healthcare simply because their parents are too poor to pay for it? How are we better than the terrorists if we accept that grandmothers will be turned out of the nursing homes that provide the medical care they need because their families don’t have the resources to pay for it? How are we any better than the terrorists if we continue to allow sick people to suffer and die to save a few dollars on our taxes?

I frequently hear claims that this is a Christian nation most often by some Republican elected official. If you believe that, how to you reconcile that with denying hardworking people and their families life saving healthcare? I can’t make that connection because the nuns who taught me at St. Lawrence the Martyr and the brothers who taught me at Archbishop Rummel made it very clear that “when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!"

The majority of Americans don’t want what John Cornyn wants to pass of on us. We disagree with Ted Cruz that the bill isn’t tough enough. Most Americans want something better than the Affordable Care Act not something worse. There is a better replacement available that most Americans do support. The replacement is called Medicare for All, or single payer. Medicare could be everyone’s health insurance plan whether a new born or a great-grandmother, sick or healthy, rich or poor. It wouldn’t matter if got cancer after the company you worked for went out of business or moved the factory to China because your health insurance wouldn’t be attached to your employer. You’d never be in the situation where you or your child got sick when you didn’t have insurance.

If America is really a Christian nation shouldn’t we start acting like one?

Wishful Thinking About Joe Straus

I don’t agree with Joe Straus on a lot of things, he’s a Republican after all, but I have to say he’s shown real leadership as Speaker of the Texas House and it’s a real shame Governor Abbott and Lt. Governor Patrick aren’t more like him. For that matter it’s a shame that the Republican leadership at the federal level isn’t more like him.

Here in Texas Gov. Abbott has called a special session of the legislature to deal with, among things, Dan Patrick’s bathroom emergency. I don’t mean he has food poisoning or some such, I’m talking about his burning desire to require that the bathroom you use matches the gender on your birth certificate. Now, like North Carolina before us if the legislature passes his bill and Gov. Abbott signs it, Texas stands to lose $3 billion a year in tourism spending of which $412 million would be lost by San Antonio and the surrounding area, according to a study by the Perryman Group for the San Antonio Tourism Council. That translates into a heckuva lot of jobs lost over a solution in search of a problem.

The other non-sense Patrick is pushing and Abbott is caving in on is school vouchers. Texas already underfunds public education and the state keeps reducing its share of that funding, school vouchers will simply reduce the total available for public schools while giving a discount to folks wealthy enough to send their kids to private schools. Don’t forget that private schools don’t typically operate in rural areas so 80% of the state would never see one anyway.

Joe Straus isn’t having any of it, last week he told school board members from across Texas at a conference in San Antonio “Somebody is going to pay for public education, it’s either going to come from the state or it’s going to from local property taxes. If we want real property tax reform we need real reform of school finance.” He explained that the way to improve public education and reduce property taxes is to increase state funding for education but legislation to regulate bathrooms and offer state money for private school tuition is wrongheaded and counterproductive.

At the federal level Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell continues hiding the ball on healthcare bill. There has been no public hearing, there has been no published text of the bill. In fact, according to Senate Finance Committee Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), he doesn’t intend to hold a hearing. Apparently Hatch knows the bill will cause problems for Republicans if it is opened for debate. He claims that he’s getting no cooperation from Democrats on the healthcare bill but perhaps it’s because he won’t let them see it in order for them to offer any suggestions or even opinions.

It isn’t just Democrats who can’t see the bill, the Republican leadership is hiding it from the American Medical Association, the Association of Hospitals, and the American Cancer Society. So if you aren’t a lobbyist for an insurance company it’s a secret. That’s not the way Democrats handled the Affordable Care Act in 2009. That bill had months of hearings in several committees in the Senate alone and the those were public hearings unlike the smoke filled room deal McConnell and his lackeys like Hatch are working out.

If we have to have a Republican in the White House why couldn’t it be Joe Straus?

Published in the Seguin Gazette June 23, 2017

Another Terrorist Group Announced Plans to Kill Americans

Last week another terrorist group announced plans to kill Americans, far more than Al-Qaeda or ISIS. The group then met to celebrate with their recently selected supreme leader, a prickly fellow known for rambling speeches exhorting his followers. No this wasn’t in a far off land, it was in Washington, D.C.

I’m talking about the House Republicans who voted for Trumpcare. The vote shows that Republicans like Lamar Smith and Paul Ryan are real American terrorists because they are guaranteed to have blood on their hands if the Senate Republicans choose to pass it. By repealing parts of the Affordable Care Act which provided expanded Medicaid and subsidies for health insurance purchased on the exchange they have endangered the health of 24 million Americans, thousands of whom will die and tens of thousands of whom will suffer bankruptcy while trying to stay alive.

Subsidies and Medicaid expansion aren’t the only parts of the Affordable Care Act that will get the axe under this legislation, coverage for pre-existing conditions is lost and lifetime caps are back. My friend Sean’s son, Navin, was born with a congenital heart defect which has already cost over a million dollars to treat. My wife has had five surgeries and spent months in intensive care and therapy in her 50 years. Well over a million dollars has been spent on her healthcare. Under Trumpcare both could be denied coverage for future medical expenses.

Some apologists claim that pre-existing condition coverage isn’t removed by the bill but that’s a lie because it allows states to opt out of the Affordable Care Act requirements and Scott Walker, governor of Wisconsin, has already announced plans to do so. Other states will surely follow and if your employer has operations in one of those states they’ll have the option of choosing to use the rules of whichever state suits their financial goals and if that means their workers get a poor quality insurance plan then too bad.

Trumpcare also allows states to waive the requirement that ill and healthy individuals pay the same rates and gives the states the option to setup high risk pools again. Having had my wife insured through the Texas high risk pool I can tell you the rates will once again be outrageous. There were years where we spent as much as 25% of my gross pay in healthcare. If I had earned a lower wage we could never have afforded it.

All this and more was done so that Republicans can give huge tax breaks to their biggest campaign contributors. Trumpcare provides $27 billion in tax breaks each year for the top 4.4 percent, people earning $250,000 a year or more. Donald Trump alone could save $30 million a year under the House bill.

The 217 men and women who voted for Trumpcare chose tax breaks for billionaires over the lives and health of their fellow American while claiming to be good Christians. With friends like these why are we worried about al-Qaeda or ISIS?

Congressional Republicans aren’t the only group to blame though, every one of you who voted for a Republican in 2016 is complicit in the suffering this will cause millions of Americans, young and old alike.

Published in the Seguin Gazette May 12, 2017