I am SO steamed right now, I might soon start to blow loud like a tea kettle.
I’m mad at Democrats and their messaging. NO Democratic representative I hear says a freaking word about the cuts to medicare. And, I’m not even hearing it from reliable progressive journalists like Maddow and O’Donnell.
There’s a lot to hate about this tax bill, but a lot of it is complex and easily argued from both sides of the aisle. BUT, I would think that 25 billion dollars in cuts to Medicare would be an easily understandable pitch from Democrats. And I hear almost ZIP about it.
Most of what I’ve read about it has been here, and a couple of other places. What do these cuts to Medicare mean? They mean, for instance, that many seniors will be turned away for anything but the most standard forms of chemo, if that.
I apologize for the fact that I’m not a big linker, which is because I tend to read so much over a couple of days, and by the time I know how I feel about it all enough to write about it here, I can’t remember where I read what I’m going to talk about here.
Which was an article I read by an oncologist who said that he is in active discussions with his practice, about what they will do if this tax bill passes with the cuts to medicare. He said that they would have to turn away over 60% of their patients, and they are all trying to decide if they want to continue a practice that must do that. It was so sobering, and infuriating. I just really need to save articles that hit me so viscerally as this one did, no matter what I do with them or don’t in the future. Have to get more proactive that way.
So John McCain, who is depending on complex brain cancer chemo therapy to give him a bit longer, is today, OK with seniors being turned away for the same, not to mention killing the ACA mandate. Shit, I really don’t care about what McCain says, except for the fact that it made this tax bill much more likely to pass.
But MOST OF ALL, I blame Democrats for not talking about this every time they get their mug on TV or elsewhere in the media. I realize there’s a lot to talk about these days...and lots of red herrings that deflect from what effects most of us, if not today, someday.
Still, HOLY SHIT, I simply cannot believe the lameness of the Democratic Party right now in not making the cuts to Medicare up front and center in their PR efforts against this tax bill. And they’re not only NOT doing that, they’re not even even mentioning it. And either are some of our best journalists.
News flash, older people vote. And many older people are barely hanging on with their SS and medicare as it is.
You can talk about “trickle down economics” all the day long, and most Americans will not understand what the F you’re talking about. You can argue all day long about Trump’s lies as to who this tax plan will benefit. That and a quarter won’t get you a cup of coffee anymore.
But BOY HOWDY, if you tell seniors (those over 65 with good years in front of them if they get the medical help they need) there’s a good chance they’ll be turned away for their cancer treatments, due to this tax bill, now THAT is going to resonate.
Where the HELL are Democrats with their talking points on this?!?!?!?! They all repeat each other on what we all know. This tax plan is all about the rich. BUT that’s not selling well enough, because too many Americans don’t believe it enough to threaten their republican reps with hell hath no fury like a senior whose paid in forever getting short changed!!!!!
How about telling them their medicare is going to be cut to the short hairs, and if you get cancer over the age of 65, well, good luck.