For two presidential elections I haven't voted for the Democrat candidate, yet I'm still a registered Democrat with the hopes that there is an emergence of a creed of kindness that is logical, an approach of progress that is prioritized, a commitment to policy that is nationally motivated to the betterment of the lives of all US citizens. I was hoping that there would be a wake-up call when Donald Trump won: Warning, the Democrats have turned themselves into a niche party of disorganized beauty-pageant generalities of wanting world peace or world environmental protection or world whatever that belies the reality of the policies that not only didn't fix the world but worsened our US world.
And so, I'm patiently awaiting the catharsis of Trump bashing to run its course so that the Democratic Party can reconsider its failures. The best conclusion I've come to is, "Not yet." So far I'm still seeing and hearing the new liberalism of hatred-filled, personalized attacks and disrespect for our new President that's characterized by a chaotic series of peaks and valleys of momentary puking up of an emotionally charged but illogical argument, and a return to silence.
And there are SO many issues that need attention. After all, amidst all the transgender bathroom issues addressed I haven't heard what I consider a national disgrace, the no-good-options choices for transgenders in our prison system which are most often living in isolation or living in peril. Where are the protests?
After all, in 2014, President Obama signed an $8.7 billion CUT to food stamps when today, 42.2 million Americans live in FOOD insecure households. Where are the protests?
After all, our cities have seen spikes in their homelessness rates with NY boasting an 11 percent increase from 2014, 13 percent in Seattle, 8 percent in Chicago, and up 6 percent just in one year in Los Angeles. Where are the protests?
After all, after the ageist policies of the Obama Administration including the only times when there was no cost of living adjustment for seniors in the form of COLA increases at a time when the homeless population over 50 is skyrocketing. Where are the protests?
And when it comes to healthcare, again, where were these committed protesters as Obama lied his way into making the system worse for the majority of Americans?
And instead of talking about healthcare, every day we're treated to the relentless obsession the media has with trying desperately to prove that Donald Trump is Russian. We're treated endlessly to the "PLIGHT" of non-Americans overseas who, some might note, because of Obama's stupidity like his red line live in peril and now seek to leave their countries and come here, or the "PLIGHT" of those who have illegally been here and what America owes them--SKIPPING OVER the PLIGHT of homeless Americans, the PLIGHT of aging Americans, the PLIGHT of HUNGRY Americans.
And then there was Obama's creation of a stronger, richer, privileged public employee class, including Congress and as this class prepares to tell us what we get I wonder, where are the protests?
If there is a SINGLE thing that the swamp draining promise requires from President Trump it is that no matter what happens with Obamacare or a Republican equivalent, the law must apply to public employees first. This crucial step was not done by Obamacare in keeping with our former President's myopic vision and limited experience that supported a true government class where public employees were given perks and privileges that the rest of America doesn't get off the backs of the rest of America.
From pay raises to job security to pensions to health benefits for eight years we watched Obama insulate public employees from the impact of his policies on the rest of us and health care legislation is the FIRST place this swamp should be drained and where the sugar-coated screwing of America by Obama should be addressed.
This was not some ideological difference between party members, this was a public employee screwing of the American people as they all sat back in the security of their jobs and benefits that we pay for and explained that their "employer," the federal government that we pay for, provided them with superior benefits so tough luck on the rest of us. The sheer madness of this approach underscores the importance that the public employee carveouts be removed as antiquated.
There should have been protests from every American citizen working and paying our government glanced at the brag of the government website that states: "…the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that the gap concerning benefits between the private and public sectors has been growing-in favor of the public sector,” http://gogovernment.org/government_101/benefits.php. So we pay for public employees to have better protections than we have? There should have been protests, but there weren't.
There should have been protests from every American when Obamacare resulted in millions of families losing the availability of a working head of household to afford purchasing a health plan for his dependents because Obamacare didn't cap how much could be charged for health insurance other than self-only--the family glitch. But there weren't.
There should have been protests from every American when the CBO reported that not only had premiums gone up for working Americans from 2005 to 2014 48 percent for single coverage but 55 percent for family coverage but that we should EXPECT THAT TO GROW AT SIMILAR RATES OVER THE NEXT DECADE," ["Over the period from 2005 to 2014, premiums for employment-based insurance grew by 48 percent for single coverage and by 55 percent for family coverage. CBO and JCT expect them to grow at similar rates over the next decade," https://www.cbo.gov/publication/51130,] but there weren't.
There should have been protests when Medicaid Estate Recovery is a 1993 law, but states like NEW YORK have already EXPANDED ways they can recover those monies, such as with laws like New York's that provide for Expanded Definition of "Estate" for Medicaid Recoveries, 2011, with Massachusetts proposing a similar law and other states following suit, https://www.health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/publications/adm/11adm8.htm, but there weren't.
As Medicaid enrollment and payments continue to increase to include those with higher incomes who are likelier to have assets, without a change barring clawbacks and estate recoveries, a population of individuals whose accumulated assets are at risk will increase.
There should have been protests that the government was frittering away money as it simply rained healthcare dollars on people, some who never had the right to receive those dollars and some who didn't exist (see CBO report on 11 out of 12 phony applications approved), but there weren't.
So as we listen to the Republican government class, like their Democratic counterparts talk about the screwing of Americans other than themselves, where are the protests? There aren't any.
