Republicans Health Scare

My what lies we weave ....

"Fake News" Is Often Claimed For Bad News

 ... when practicing to deceive.

President Trump's health "reforms" are of course nothing of the sort, and the politician lemmings in the Republican Party (GOP) and MAGA who followed him over the cliff without parachutes, by voting for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, suddenly realised that it was going to hurt ... really hurt their re-election chances. 

For instance making around 300,000 federal employees redundant has had a big impact in many states, as these are high turnout middle-class voters, who are now unemployed and thrown into financial free-fall or ruin, at a time when the jobless rates (4.6 percent) are on the rise in the USA, and they may very well not get equivalent employment in the private sector ..... so the loss of salary levels, health benefits etc, make this a double blow. 

But one measure in particular, suddenly has the politicians attention, that is the very predictable impact of the abolition of the extended health subsidies, which were issued under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aka Obama Care during Covid-19, and which is going to impact millions of voters very, very, negatively. In fact if they are allowed to expire this month, then the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that there will be an average of 3.8 million more uninsured people each year, this of course, is on top of the rise in healthcare insurance premiums, many of which will have instantly more than doubled in cost for millions of voters.

So the mid-terms are now looming large in the minds of many politicians, and the Republicans in particular are not projected to do particularly well in them, especially with a lot of very angry voters, smarting under yet another affordability issue (inflation rising, unemployment rising), as Republican economic and social policies start to bite on everyone, who isn't a millionaire or billionaire. 

So the GOP have been flailing about for weeks, trying to find a way to keep health subsidies of some sort, but without somehow extending the hated Obama Care version, after it became clear that Trump hadn't got a scoobies on what to do about what he no doubt considers a "false fact" issue. But so far, despite the clock loudly running down, they haven't found some measure that they can all agree on, and also get through both the House and Senate .... so some, those who face re-election in those very mid-terms, are starting to break ranks, as the guillotine starts to glint on the horizon.

In this case four Republicans - Pennsylvania's Ryan Mackenzie, Rob Bresnahan and Brian Fitzpatrick, as well as New York's Mike Lawler voted for a measure known as a discharge petition, that would allow a vote on the Democrats measure that extends Covid-era subsidies for another three years. Anathema for most Republicans of course, but then they are not in tight electoral fights next year! 

So even if that Democrat measure gets through the House, its unlikely to get past the Senate where Republican support is even thinner. The figures of those being adversely affected by the subsidy being removed being bandied about by the CBO and many others, suggest that the GOP will pay heavily for this in the mid-terms after the 31st of December, unless they come up with a Hail Mary policy before then.

Even with control of the Senate, the possible loss of control of the House of Representatives and thus Congress, President Trumps second term could become a bit of a lame duck for the last two years, so he might well be tempted to try to stretch presidential powers  more than he already has so far attempted, so even more referrals to the Supreme Court.