Of course Ron Johnson would defend shifting more taxpayer health care money at the last minute to two states - - Maine and Alaska - - whose Senators could make or break the latest version of the GOP's fast-tracked-principle-free-secretely-crafted kill-Obamacare & fund-tax-breaks-for-donors bill.
RoJo had already seen to it that this last-ditch version of the bill included a special funding boost for Wisconsin to make up for Scott Walker's punitive yet costly refusal of Obamacare funding - - an ideologically-driven move - - that has forced Wisconsin taxpayers so far to shell out nearly $700 million in precious state dollars to cover, paradoxically, fewer Wisconsinites than would have received health insurance had Walker not declined full Obamacare funding, as Urban Milwaukee has pointed out.
Walker would get a boost politically should the Johnson co-sponsored bill pass because its special, Wisconsin-only formulation would help blunt or remove discussion of the extra burden Walker shoveled onto state taxpayers from his 2018 gubernatorial re-election campaign whose announcement is but days away.
You can just imagine the Walker, spin talking points and ads to follow...'We covered everyone in poverty,' (no, he didn't - - he narrowed the eligibility rules and kicked thousands off coverage)...'and now we're going to be rewarded for our foresight' (cue fresh dog-whistling, poor-shaming, dividing-and-conquering)...'and hooray that health care decision-making is being given to the states...'(translation: more power to me, where I will use it to push more low-income people from the state while I continue to cut my donors' state taxes...).
This latest GOP bartering for votes which Johnson endorses as "nothing unusual" - - and remember that this guy ran as a Tea Partier outsider dedicated to upending DC-insider business as usual - - prompts me to add this:
I hope to God that every time Wisconsin GOP leaders like Ron Johnson
and Paul Ryan and Scott Walker run for re-election, come to your city hall, speak at a high school graduation, drop by the church supper or send you an email, text message or snail mail appeal for a donation that you respond by asking for the rest of their political days why they tried once, twice, three times and more - - in Ryan's case, more than 70 - - to use the power and resources of the public offices they were privileged to rip away the peace of mind, health insurance and medical care from millions and millions of American citizens - - some of whom are our friends and neighbors right here in Wisconsin - - including seniors in nursing homes, home-bound adults facing crippling disabilities, kids needing medications to survive birth defects, lower-income women about to give birth and more.
I've tried to collect some of Johnson and Ryan and Walker's words, maneuvers and spin aimed at killing Obamacare and simultaneously transferring these 'savings' compounded from withheld insulin shots, cancelled nursing home services or withdrawn pre-natal visits into tax cuts for the super-wealthy whose campaign donations who are are using their insider influence and talking louder right now to Republicans than are the life-and-death medical needs of American citizens or petitions from every imaginable health care resource and provider in the nation.
No one knows yet if the bill will pass or not - - though we know if it slips through that Ryan's House of Representatives will rubber stamp it for Trump's signing Sharplie in a heartbeat.
We also know that time and other issues and having to face daily discombobulations intentionally spawned by Trump's tweets and threats will dim the memory of The GOP War Against People and Obamacare regardless of the bill's approval or defeat.
But here in right-wing, red Wisconsin, where so much of the bill's leadership support is centered, and where the color red right now is one part partisan identification and two parts statewide embarrassment, let's agree as a matter of personal, principled, political practice to hold perpetually hold Johnson and Ryan and Walker and their ideological friends Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Vukmir, et al fully accountable for the reprehensible, soulless life-and-death politics they have inflicted on, and would expand against tens or millions of human beings.
RoJo had already seen to it that this last-ditch version of the bill included a special funding boost for Wisconsin to make up for Scott Walker's punitive yet costly refusal of Obamacare funding - - an ideologically-driven move - - that has forced Wisconsin taxpayers so far to shell out nearly $700 million in precious state dollars to cover, paradoxically, fewer Wisconsinites than would have received health insurance had Walker not declined full Obamacare funding, as Urban Milwaukee has pointed out.
Walker would get a boost politically should the Johnson co-sponsored bill pass because its special, Wisconsin-only formulation would help blunt or remove discussion of the extra burden Walker shoveled onto state taxpayers from his 2018 gubernatorial re-election campaign whose announcement is but days away.
You can just imagine the Walker, spin talking points and ads to follow...'We covered everyone in poverty,' (no, he didn't - - he narrowed the eligibility rules and kicked thousands off coverage)...'and now we're going to be rewarded for our foresight' (cue fresh dog-whistling, poor-shaming, dividing-and-conquering)...'and hooray that health care decision-making is being given to the states...'(translation: more power to me, where I will use it to push more low-income people from the state while I continue to cut my donors' state taxes...).
This latest GOP bartering for votes which Johnson endorses as "nothing unusual" - - and remember that this guy ran as a Tea Partier outsider dedicated to upending DC-insider business as usual - - prompts me to add this:
I hope to God that every time Wisconsin GOP leaders like Ron Johnson
and Paul Ryan and Scott Walker run for re-election, come to your city hall, speak at a high school graduation, drop by the church supper or send you an email, text message or snail mail appeal for a donation that you respond by asking for the rest of their political days why they tried once, twice, three times and more - - in Ryan's case, more than 70 - - to use the power and resources of the public offices they were privileged to rip away the peace of mind, health insurance and medical care from millions and millions of American citizens - - some of whom are our friends and neighbors right here in Wisconsin - - including seniors in nursing homes, home-bound adults facing crippling disabilities, kids needing medications to survive birth defects, lower-income women about to give birth and more.
I've tried to collect some of Johnson and Ryan and Walker's words, maneuvers and spin aimed at killing Obamacare and simultaneously transferring these 'savings' compounded from withheld insulin shots, cancelled nursing home services or withdrawn pre-natal visits into tax cuts for the super-wealthy whose campaign donations who are are using their insider influence and talking louder right now to Republicans than are the life-and-death medical needs of American citizens or petitions from every imaginable health care resource and provider in the nation.
No one knows yet if the bill will pass or not - - though we know if it slips through that Ryan's House of Representatives will rubber stamp it for Trump's signing Sharplie in a heartbeat.
We also know that time and other issues and having to face daily discombobulations intentionally spawned by Trump's tweets and threats will dim the memory of The GOP War Against People and Obamacare regardless of the bill's approval or defeat.
But here in right-wing, red Wisconsin, where so much of the bill's leadership support is centered, and where the color red right now is one part partisan identification and two parts statewide embarrassment, let's agree as a matter of personal, principled, political practice to hold perpetually hold Johnson and Ryan and Walker and their ideological friends Sensenbrenner, Grothman, Duffy, Vukmir, et al fully accountable for the reprehensible, soulless life-and-death politics they have inflicted on, and would expand against tens or millions of human beings.