Well, well, Mitch McConnell. You did it, you little scamp. You and your Republican brethren took advantage of the fine combination of fear and apathy that rule this country and used it to sweep your way into the majority in both houses. You’re the new majority leader. You and John Boehner took a victory lap all over the Wall Street Journal wherein you pledged to repeal the ACA and leave the minimum wage stagnant. This, you insist, will somehow lead to economic recovery in ways you haven’t managed to actually explain.
The brilliant people at Wonkette have already written an excellent response to the WSJ article, so I’m not doing that here. I’m instead asking you, Senator, to do something a bit more personal. More human. Something that I’m honestly not sure you’d be able to do with a straight face.
I want you to look me in the eye.
Look me in the eye, Senator McConnell, and tell me that my father having health insurance for the first time in a decade and being able to afford medications again is a bad thing. Explain how sick people being able to afford to get the help they need is a detriment to our country. Elucidate what you’re going to say to the people of your state who really like having health care and voted to keep you in office after you promised to keep KYnect. Justify your scheme to take away the federal funding the state exchanges rely on to keep going with no real plan to replace it. I’m hoping the word “suckers” won’t be part of the speech. While you’re at it, explain to me how repealing the ACA and eliminating the thousands of jobs it created will improve the employment rate.
Look me in the eye and explain to me how raising the minimum wage is somehow more costly to taxpayers than the subsidies we pay into in order to sustain those living below poverty level. Tell me how a person who works 60-80 hours a week at two or more jobs and still can’t afford basic living expenses is ‘just being lazy’. Lay out, point by point, exactly why you believe the process of giving a person more money and then having them go out and spend it on things (also known as “how economics works”) somehow spells doom. Finally, tell me exactly how you justify giving more money to billionaires while refusing even a lousy $40/week increase to those struggling the most.
This is my request to you, Senator. Look me in the eye and justify your plans to me in detail. Explain how refusing to help the sick and poor is a good thing for the country. Don’t do it in an op-ed or an interview. Don’t give me a word salad of talking points. Don’t mutter some generalities without actual answers.
Look. Me. In. The. Eye.