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Health & Fitness

Republicans sounding like a broken record

Grand Times Political and social commentary by David Grand Skip to content ← “Retreat hell; we’re just advancing in a different direction”

Republicans sounding like a broken record

Posted on October 4, 2013 by David Grand

As I watched from the grandstand (pun intended), more with bemusement than intense interest, the current majority of Republicans in the House, spearheaded by members of the Tea Party, remaining as steadfast in their resolve to stop (or at least delay) the Affordable Care Act from being implemented, as if it were their birthrights at stake, I kept hearing Frank (“Old blue eyes”) Sinatra’s Cole Porter song ringing in my ears: It seems to me I’ve heard that song before, from an old familiar score I know it well, that melody.

For ironically, Social Security and Medicare faced the same arguments and vehement opposition, and yet today’s House Republicans wouldn’t dare call for the abolishment of either one because it would be political suicide, plain and simple.

In retrospect, the 1935 Social Security Act was challenged in two separate lawsuits by Republicans and corporate interests as being unconstitutional and an illegal federal contributory insurance program, which ended up with the U.S. Supreme Court upholding that law in a 7-2 ruling, stating it promoted “the general welfare” of the nation.

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Similarly, when Medicare was created in 1965, it met the same type of opposition by Republicans; namely, that it was an unearned entitlement and would, like the Social Security Act, lead to socialism. (Sounds familiar to what’s heard today, doesn’t it?)

A harsher view of it was preceded by President Reagan’s ominous warning in 1961, that “if Medicare isn’t stopped, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once like in America when men were free.”

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And later in 1964, George H.W. Bush described Medicare “as socialized medicine,” with Barry Goldwater adding his per usual rancorous comments that year by asking, “having given our pensioners their free medical care, why not food baskets, why not public accommodations, why not vacation resorts, why not a ration of cigarettes for those who smoke and of beer for those who drink?

Setting aside all the hubbub and chest-beating that prevails in Washington, the way I see it coming to an end, is once most Americans (even the most skeptical among them) have a clearer understanding of the basic benefits to be realized under the Affordable Care Act-such as, extending coverage to 32 million people who are currently uninsured, reducing the cost of care, preventing insurers from denying coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, and allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ plan until age 26- they’ll come to accept and praise its benefits with the same vim and vigor as they do those they receive under the Social Security and Medicare programs, that have given those in the “Golden years” a new lease-on-life, and a less worrisome one to boot.

A major stumbling-block that has to be removed, however, in order to bring that about, is to dispel the illusion that more than a few people have (based on recent polls) that the Affordable Care Act and Obama Care are not one and the same; and that, according to those polls, the former is preferable by a wide margin.

That’s not surprising to me, considering the instant, negative, knee-jerk reaction people often have to anything with which his name is linked, except when, for instance, he pushes for lower middle-class and small business’ taxes.

And even then, there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s the color of his skin which contributes to a substantial degree in preventing his receiving any outpouring of kudos for such positive accomplishments by those wearing  permanently affixed blinders, which they’d opt to wear to the grave before admitting of their prejudice.

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About David Grand

Just a superannuated, run-of-the-mill provocateur View all posts by David Grand → This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Edit ← “Retreat hell; we’re just advancing in a different direction” Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here...Enter your comment here...

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