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As the 2018 midterm elections draws, and as reports suggest that the Republican Party's monopoly on power in Washington could be in jeopardy, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sat for a series of interviews this week in which he promised Americans that if they give his party Another two years of unified government, he'll try to make things easier. From Reuters:
Despite their dominance of Congress and the White House, Republicans failed last year to overturn President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, known as Obamacare. McConnell called it "the one disappointment of this Congress from a Republican point of view."
He said, "If we had the votes to completely start over, we'd do it. But we are not satisfied with the way Obamacare is working. "
Right now, there is a seven-point spread between those who favor the Affordable Care Act and those who disfavor it, and the law reached its peak approval ratings in 2017, when Republicans' diligent repeal efforts went down on the John's thumb of the late McCain. Trump states-and there are plenty of them-this makes for a fine stretch-run-to-vote: Remember When Republicans Almost Succeeded in Taking Care of Poor People? If given the opportunity next year, they'll happily try it again.
Apparently not happy to bring up one of his party's wildly unpopular platform, McConnell also floated the idea of slashing Social Security and Medicaid benefits-a hot topic in Washington this week, after it was announced that the federal deficit had ballooned to a cool $ 779 billion, 17 percent over the fiscal year. "Entitlements are the long-term drivers of the debt," he told Reuters; in a conversation with Bloomberg News, he blamed this figure on Democrats' unwillingness to negotiate claims of a bipartisan basis in this most recent Congress. Curiously, the potential culpability of the $ 1.5 trillion tax cut for the wealthy, which the GOP assured skeptics would not affect the deficit because it would pay for itself via economic growth, seems to have occurred to him.
The Republican Party is most vexing the most important thing in the world of public policy. This is a viable election-winning coalition is why Donald Trump is in the business of winning, and why he is a party of championing various forms of bigotry and xenophobia whenever they find it politically expedient. McConnell's vision for the 116th Congress is the subtler, more insidious half of their approach to governance: Slash vital social programs on the grounds that they are too expensive; pass the ensuing savings on the wealthy; and then, when doing so blasts new hole in the deficit, find some other line-item to cross out, and resume the performance from the beginning.
It is not the case that this country "can not" afford Medicare, or Medicaid, or Social Security, or food stamps, or low-cost insurance, or the like. It is the Republican Party chooses not to pay for them. Over the past six-month, its politicians have been working to the bottom of the tax rolls on the back of their donors, taking full responsibility for the government's ability to ensure that the most vulnerable Americans lead healthy lives, dignified lives. McConnell's proclamations are disingenuous lies, and his promises for 2019 and beyond are great reasons for voting forever.
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