In the face of more evidence of the
disturbing behavior of Donald Trump and his familiars, one wonders just how
much is too much for Trump diehards.
Trump, who avoided the Vietnam draft via a phony report that he had a “bone
spur” in his foot, is yet again undermining this country’s international credibility
by caving in to fellow wannabe dictator Recep Erdogan’s demand that he be
allowed to invade northern Syria and “deal” with the Kurds there, who the U.S.
had been backing against ISIS fighters. One unnamed source quoted in Newsweek said "The U.S. national
security has entered a state of increased danger for decades to come because
the president has no spine and that's the bottom line." Even Trump
familiar Sen. Lindsey Graham wailed about how he has tried and tried to support
this president, yet he continues to do things to undermine this country’s
security.
Trump claims that he is only
carrying out his campaign promise to put “America First,” but as many have
recognized long ago, what this really means is “Trump First.” In the face of
new evidence of his unfitness, Trump insists to his diehard base of supporters
that his 2016 campaign promises have been met, and naturally most still believe
him—or if they are not “sure,” at least they still appreciate his hate
propaganda about “Mexicans,” Democrats and the non-Fox News media.
Unfortunately for the
purposefully ignorant—frightened, paranoid older voters in particular—Trump
really isn’t justifying their expectations; after all, migrants pose no
“threat” to them, in fact more likely help them by paying into their Social
Security and Medicare through payroll deductions that migrants themselves are
not eligible to collect on. Take for example Trump’s recent visit to Florida
where he told seniors that he was “protecting” their Medicare against
“socialist” Democrats and “illegal immigrants.” Right-wing commentator Liz Peek
apparently thought his speech was the work of a “very stable genius,” although
some might say it was evidence of a “very stable liar.” Last week in The Hill Peek added to the air of unreality that Trump supporters
exist in by claiming that he keeps scoring “a political win that reminds us
that his election in 2016 was no accident.” She justified this by citing the
usual propaganda about “socialist” medicine and a single-payer system as if
that is supposed to be “bad,” and defending as “sheer political genius” an
executive order ”strengthening
the program, increasing choice and combatting fraud,” which in reality is
nothing more than a fraudulent excuse to cover what Trump and his familiars in
Congress want to do: gut Medicare.
Didn’t Trump tell voters in 2016 that he wasn’t going to
“touch” Medicare or any other program that effected seniors? The reality
should be painful to Trump supporters; his 2020 budget proposal would
reduce spending for many senior service programs—by a lot. His proposed $1.5
trillion cut in Medicaid over 10 years would include denial of Medicaid to
families who cared for indigent parents. His $84 billion cut in Social Security
benefits would be money “saved” by making it more difficult to claim disability.
But it was his “promise” to leave Medicare alone that took the biggest “hit”: his
reduction in Medicare payments would “only” be—according to the right-wing
“Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget”—between $513 and $575 billion over
the next 10 years rather than the $845 billion critics were citing.
Henry Gleckman of Forbes repeated the hilarious claim made
by that “committee” that the other $269 billion in losses to Medicare was not
“really” lost, but merely “shifted” to other parts of the budget. To what
purpose? To be “shifted” to help pay for Trump’s border “wall”? The Trump
administration claims that it wants to replace cuts in Medicare with
on-the-cheap programs like “senior nutrition” (whatever the hell that means),
as if that is supposed to “cheapen” medical costs. Knowing Trump and some of
his familiars like Stephen Miller, he’s probably not going to give the harm
caused by these policies a second thought, so long as the people affected by
them at least wait until after they give Trump their vote before they die.
But Trump’s deceiving of his “base” continues to work
because he plays on their fears, paranoia and hate of the “others.” Democrats,
you see, want to take Medicare from seniors and give it to “illegals,” and
plenty of people believe this lie. Although there continues to be a debate
regarding if migrants—especially children—should be allowed access to health
care in this country, that is not the issue at hand here. Illegal
immigrants are not eligible for
Medicare under any circumstance. Only legal residents who are seniors 65 or
over, people with disabilities, and those requiring kidney support apparatus to
function are eligible for Medicare. Period, end of story.
Meanwhile, the Trump
administration has joined a lawsuit to invalidate the ACA in its entirety,
which of course would invalidate the laws’ forbidding of denial of affordable health
insurance for those with pre-existing conditions; Republicans, of course, have
no current plans to replace the ACA. Trump familiar Miller is trying his best
to obfuscate the administration’s crimes against seniors by pushing his evil, racist agenda of stopping all—or at
least Hispanic—immigration into the U.S. by adding the “public charge” rule to legal attempts to
immigrate to the U.S., that on top of blocking nearly all asylum claims from Latin America. The Trump administration is
forbidding those who apply legally (even
those who prove they have no health issues) to immigrate if they cannot “prove”
that they either have a health insurance plan waiting for them when they enter
the country, or are wealthy enough to pay for it on their own—and this in a
country where Republicans claim that people have a “right” not to have health
insurance, as was mandated by the ACA before the Republican-led Congress
outlawed the mandate. Such is the level of hypocrisy in this country.
As I have written about before, Miller’s
“public charge” rule has a sinister history, used to prevent European Jews and
others fleeing Nazi oppression to enter the country until far too late in the
day. Most Central Americans are also fleeing conditions of rampant violence,
which the U.S. has had a hand in setting the table for; “deporting” U.S.-bred
gangs to these countries is only one thing on top of many others that the U.S.
is responsible for over the many decades.
Trump claimed during his campaign
that he would not touch Medicare and Social Security, and this has turned out
like so many other “promises” he made is simply not true; that his whims have
not been entirely met save through executive orders is only because he can’t
get Congress to cooperate, not because he wants to keep his “promises” to those
who still support him. Just how much longer will they keep listening to him?
Don’t hold your breath; if Trump knows anything, it’s that he knows hate, fear
and paranoia are powerful forces that can obscure the truth. He knows this because
it works in his own unstable mind every time.
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