WESTMINSTER WEST — There is no such thing as a moderate Republican in the U.S. Congress.
Arizona Senator Jeff Flake wrote a book brought on by a guilty conscience. Being a Republican will do that. I give him credit for expressing disgust at President Donald Trump. Flake voted for a health-insurance bill that will take away health care from tens of millions of people, yet he writes about principles.
Maine Senator Susan Collins reportedly was told by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that in exchange for her vote on the tax bill, he will advance a bill in next year's Congress to prop up the Affordable Care Act, despite Republicans' hate for the health-care law and their disdain for the people who depend on it.
The inevitable poverty, loss of income, and tragic outcomes to non-wealthy constituents resulting from this bill doesn't faze Republicans at all. (Advice to Susan Collins: Become an independent, vote for the people, and leave a positive legacy.)
Tennessee Senator Bob Corker initially voted against tax bill because of deficits. Really? Corker displays disgust as well. And then he changed his vote.
And then there's John McCain, who voted for a bill that will pass massive debts to future generations.
And the solution to this self-inflicted deficit problem? Austerity. Deep cuts to our health care and economic security will result in an unknown number of unnecessary deaths, illness, and human suffering.
But this what the Republican Party is all about. And John McCain will receive the best health care until the day he dies.
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The removal of dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile resulted in the libertarian experiment (presided over by supply sider, Milton Friedman) privatizing the Chilean social-security system and forcing citizens to invest in tawdry fiscal Ponzi schemes.
The results have been disastrous for the majority of Chileans, and the current democratic Chilean government is returning to the plan that was originally based on the American Social Security system, as has been the case for all successful modern social safety-net programs all over the world.
Social Security works. That's why Republicans hate it. George W. Bush's privatization scheme in 2005 was based on the Chilean experiment, and that would have been a similar economic disaster for all the people coerced into mandatory investment schemes after the nightmare of a financial meltdown in 2008 - a nightmare caused by Republican deregulation.
If this bill passes, the short-term minimal financial benefit for a few will be gone after a few years, yet the benefits for the rich have been written as permanent.
If the Democrats take back the House in 2018, the projected deficits will be so high from this bill that massive cuts or tax increases will be necessary, measures that will be politically unpopular.
Poison-pill legislation, known as paygo, pulls the plug on government spending after the deficit reaches a certain amount It's a tool negotiated by the Republicans when they held the government hostage in 2010.
Obama and the Dems eventually caved and conceded to paygo, which is projected to impose $400 billion in cuts to Medicare next year if the bill passes and is signed by the president.
The only ones saying that taking health care away from people will not result in illness, suffering, and death are morally empty and corrupt Republicans.
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The corporate Dems' abandonment of working people and the middle class haunts the Democratic party. Progressives are being purged, and one can only wonder if the Democrats are committing political suicide again. Ignoring the needs of people is a Republican trait.
Dependence on corporate donations have contributed to the failure to protect even the flimsiest of social contracts. “Failure to protect” is the correct phrase when talking about the Democrats.
Obama put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block during the last budget stalemate in his second term, leading the way for Republicans to control the so-called “entitlement” narrative. Mick Mulvaney, Trump's hatchet man on the budget, has described Social Security earned-benefit recipients as welfare recipients.
The process of demonization, distortion, and lies has begun. The Republican tax-cut-for-the-wealthy bill is thinly disguised eugenics based on wealth and class, rather than where your grandfather came from or the shape of your skull.
Trump and Congressional Republicans are officially rolling out the oligarchy in this bill, reminiscent of Vladamir Putin's first rollout of the Russian Federation, in which he consolidated power and wealth in oligarchic rule and destroyed any social contract - including with veterans, who were venerated in Russia.
Will that happen here? Only if this bill is passed.
They want it all.