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

Cornyn Failing People of Texas

The impeached popular vote loser in the White House and his enablers in the Senate fiddle while Rome burns. The House passed the HEROES Act months ago which would continue the enhanced unemployment benefits that have kept many Americans afloat along with providing funds for cities and states to allow them to continue to pay police, firefighters, health department staff or other critical city and state services while the national economy shrinks due to the pandemic. Frustratingly neither our senator, John Cornyn (R), nor the rest of Senate Republican leadership has shown any interest in taking up that bill. Instead they’ve been unable to even reach agreement on a wide ranging bill of their own. Worse they’ve decided to try slicing up the topics into separate bills because they can’t get agreement amongst their own membership on all the topics.

State and local governments have hemorrhaged 1.5 million jobs due to the huge downturn in sales tax and other revenues. Unemployment has continued to grow and yet John Cornyn’s Republican colleagues claim that continuing the extra $600 a week of unemployment benefits will somehow discourage people from going back to work. While that extra money does offer a few people more than they would normally earn in a week it doesn’t come close to offsetting the extra money they spend on insurance premiums usually paid by their employer. As in anything I’m sure a few people are taking advantage but that happens with anything, whether it’s the grocery with a sale on turkeys, limit 2, or health insurance fraud committed by doctors. That doesn’t even take into account that the reason so many are out of work is that there are so few jobs available. I know several people looking for work every day including weekends who can find nothing they qualify for.

National news often talks about Mitch McConnell as the Senate Majority Leader having the lead role in this travesty by we in Texas should remember that his second in command is our own John Cornyn  and like anyone in such a position he has tremendous influence in the course taken by his superior. Instead of showing any interest in addressing the pandemic or the economic devastation it is causing John Cornyn has marched in lock step with McConnell. Just a couple of weeks ago Cornyn had the gall to suggest that children might not be able to contract COVID-19, a day or two later San Antonio reported more than 200 of cases of infants with it. In the last week alone over one thousand Texans died of COVID-19, Cornyn is out of touch with the people of Texas as much as he is with reality.

Early voting for the November general election starts October 13, that gives us six extra days to vote. If we’re going to turn this ship of state around before it strikes an iceberg and sinks like the Titanic it is imperative that we all get to the polls, wear your mask, and elect people who are in touch with reality and the needs of Texans, a good start would be to replace Sen. Cornyn with former Air Force helicopter pilot M.J. Hegar.

Hegar was on her third tour to Afghanistan, when her helicopter was shot down near Kandahar on a combat search-and-rescue mission. She received shrapnel wounds in her arm and leg from Taliban ground fire, and her helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing. Other U.S. Army helicopters rescued her, her team, and the other soldiers. Hegar received a Purple Heart and the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor device.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 5, 2020

2020 US Senate

In March 2018 when Beto O’Rourke ran in the Democratic Primary he faced only two other candidates both of whom were unknowns with no background suggesting they understood campaigns or even government. His near miss in the general election prompted pundits to claim that Texas was turning purple from its long time red status. In 2020 we see the fruit of that close race with a dozen candidates, three hold or have held public office, three lead community or labor organizations, one other ran for office in 2018 and came about as close to beating their Republican opponent as Beto did. Two more ran for office in 2018 but didn’t make it out of the primary. The field is crowded with some really interesting candidates and I think we have a tremendous opportunity to win this Senate seat.

To me the most important issue is climate change because the window for holding back the worst effects of our greenhouse gases is fast approaching yet our federal and state governments are doing next to nothing to address it. I’ve found that the candidates who recognize the urgency of that issue also generally hold views similar to mine on a wide range of other issues as well. Healthcare, a living wage, education, criminal justice reform, and immigration are important to them too though some don’t go as far as I wish with their proposed solutions.

My top two are both women, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez and MJ Hegar. Ramirez is a labor organizer and working mother who co-founded the Workers Defense Project, serving as its Executive Director from 2006 until 2016 when she started Jolt. Jolt is a civil rights organization that works to amplify the voice Texas Latinos on issues impacting them. Jolt organizes communities on issues and elections ranging from local school boards all the way to Congress.  Jolt works to accomplish this through voter engagement, leadership development and community and student organizing. Remember that a certain former President by the name of Barack Obama was once a community organizer.

Hegar is a retired Air Force major and working mother who ran for U.S. Congress in 2018. She is a former combat search-and-rescue pilot, served three tours in Afghanistan and was awarded a Purple Heart after she was shot down by enemy fire, protecting her crew and patients. She was also part of a 2012 lawsuit against then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta challenging the ban on women in ground combat. Hegar has a compelling personal story told in a video created for her 2018 U.S. House campaign, check it out on Youtube search for MJ Hegar Doors.

Other major candidates include: Amanda Edwards who is a current Houston City Council member and former member of Senator Elizabeth Warren’s staff; Royce West who is a long time Texas state senator out of Dallas with a solid track record; Chris Bell who is a former U.S. Representative for Texas's 25th congressional district, Democratic nominee for Governor of Texas in 2006, and candidate for mayor of Houston in 2015; Sema Hernandez who is a community organizer for the Poor People's Campaign and Democratic primary candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018; and Michael Cooper who is a pastor, NAACP chapter head, and Democratic primary candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 2018.

Early voting for the Primary starts February 18 so you don’t have much time left to do your homework and decide which candidate ticks the most boxes for you so get started soon because there are other contested races you need to check out besides President and U.S. Senate.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 15, 2020