You might be living in a plutocracy if...(part 10 of 10)

(The caption for this photo reads, "The Lower West Side Health Center which PWA built in New York City." During the New Deal, many hospitals were built, repaired, or improved with PWA funds or WPA labor. New Deal policymakers thought that the health of citizens was more important than personal profit. Image courtesy of the National Archives and the New Deal Network.)

You might be living in a plutocracy if...

...right-wing millionaires & billionaires pay politicians to keep low-income Americans from voting, and also pay politicians to keep low-income Americans from receiving comprehensive healthcare.

Right-wing politicians across the country are trying to keep low-income Americans from voting, under the guise of trying to ferret out "voting fraud." They're limiting voting days and requiring various forms of identification, depending on which form of identification will be most difficult for low-income, and especially minority, voters (See, as just one example, "GOP Official Resigns After Saying Purpose Of Voter ID Is To Suppress Votes Of Democrats, ‘Lazy Blacks’").

Funny thing is, I don't remember right-wing politicians being overly concerned with voting fraud when George W. Bush was in office. But, after the first African American in U.S. history was elected president, right-wing politicians are suddenly very worried about "voting fraud!" Just a coincidence I'm sure.

 

(The caption for this photo reads, "WPA Traveling Health Clinic of the Board of Health, NY City, shown in consultation and fitting glasses for patients at 74 West 124st Street." The WPA frequently hired unemployed healthcare workers to provide medical services to low-income Americans. Photo courtesy of the National Archives and the New Deal Network.) 

Right-wing politicians are also preventing low-income Americans from receiving comprehensive healthcare. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), states can expand Medicaid to more of their low-income residents, and the federal government will pay the entire bill for the first few years and 90% thereafter. Despite this, many Republican-managed states have refused to expand Medicaid, thus sentencing their lower-income residents to shorter and less healthy lives (see, e.g., "I Watched My Patients Die of Treatable Diseases Because They Were Poor" and "27,000 May Die Next Year Because Republican Governors, Lawmakers Refuse to Expand Medicaid").

Now, we know that the billionaire Koch Brothers are major contributors to right-wing politicians, giving them millions. We also know that the Koch Brothers despise the ACA, and are spending millions to demonize the ACA (see, e.g., "Billionaire Koch Brothers Spending Millions To Deny Health Coverage To Low-Income Americans"). So, is it a coincidence that Republican-managed states have refused to expand Medicaid, even though it would cost them next-to-nothing to do so under the ACA?

This is an example of how plutocracy kills people, literally. The Kochs hate the ACA, the Kochs pay right-wing politicians to sabotage the ACA, right-wing politicians deny ACA Medicaid expansion to their low-income residents (in obedience to their Koch sugar daddies), and people die. Yes folks, people will die because right-wing politicians want more Koch money.

Is there anything more evil than millionaires & billionaires using their money to prevent low-income Americans from voting, and also to prevent them from receiving comprehensive healthcare?

This is plutocracy. A system of government that rips apart the entire moral fabric of a culture, and places money, greed, and selfishness above life, health, and happiness.