Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) is anticipating a Trump win in
November. Or, at least, he is preparing for it. He says that if
Republicans hold sway in the White House, the House and the Senate,
he plans to use budget reconciliation to repeal the American Care Act
(also known as Obamacare) and to impose tax cuts on the wealthy.
Ryan says he will not even attempt any bipartisanship as he shoves
his regressive agenda down the throats of our people. Instead, he
says that he can make it work, especially if he has a Trump White
House.
This
is, perhaps, why Republicans who appear to have at least a little bit
of good sense are going for the nonsense. They know that Mr. Trump,
with his head in the cloud and his rhetoric in the gutter, will let
them get away with anything they want. He will agree to their tax
cuts because they coincide with his agenda to reward the wealthy.
Trump will go along with cuts to Obamacare because he wasn’t
loving it in the first place. He will let conservative Republicans
hold sway, especially if they reward him with their votes in
November.
Paul
Ryan calls his plan a “Better Way” policy agenda. It is
an aggressive move that assumes that Republicans will control both
the House and the Senate. They might not – if people vote, and
vote down ballot, there is a real chance that Democrats can control
the Senate. The House is a much bigger challenge, and it is likely
that Republicans will continue to hold sway in the house. But there
are too many folks who say they won’t vote, and their votes
could make a real difference. In Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and
Florida (among other states), those who choose to refrain from voting
are really voting for a Trump-Ryan agenda.
The
attack on Obamacare is especially problematic. While the President’s
Affordable Care Act is clearly flawed, it expanded health insurance
for more than 20 million people. It isn’t the desired single
payer care, but it provides opportunity and takes the first step in
expanding the social contract since the Roosevelt years. The
Affordable Care Act can be used as a foundation to expand health
insurance coverage and, in my mind, single-payer is the ultimate
goal. But legislators rejected the single-payer plan that Senator
Edward Kennedy (D-Ma) proposed for decades. The Affordable Care Act
is a compromise. We need to move forward in improving the ACA, not
backward in repealing it. Trump and Ryan would restrict rights
instead of expanding them.
According
to Politico, Paul Ryan thinks that a divided government contributes
to gridlock. He’d be happy if the Presidency, the Congress,
and the Senate were all Republican. What about the rest of us? Does
he see our voice in this? Not according to Ryan. He tells Politico
“I’m tired of divided government. It doesn’t work
very well.” He seems to ignore the fact that there are
legitimate differences among legislators and that these differences
need to be worked out. He is uninterested in compromise. Instead,
he wants to shove his position down the throats of other people.
Paul
Ryan has explicitly called Donald Trump a racist. He has eschewed
many of his policies. Other Republicans have been openly repulsed by
their bellicose standard bearer, disturbed by his racist bluster and
his wacky wildness. But they have thrown their discernment to the
wind, embracing the man they have described as a rabid racist because
they prefer him to an embrace of integrity.
As
we count down to the November 8 election, people are coming forward
to say they are undecided, conflicted, and have to vote for third
parties because they can tolerate neither Clinton nor Trump. But the
bottom line is that either Clinton or Trump will win the Presidency.
Really. Those Republicans who support Trump are openly supporting
evil. They will dance with the devil to their detriment.
African
Americans, especially, need to look at that which Mr. Trump has
promised. He has promised discrimination. He has described our
lives as hell. He has been a bully and a documented discriminator.
He has been too much. He should be enough to repel us. Paul Ryan
has called Trump a racist, but he is willing to dance with the devil
because it serves his purposes. What about you?
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