Above: A WPA poster, highlighting the New Deal principle of affordable healthcare. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Lower taxes for the rich, higher costs for everyone else
I renewed my ACA health insurance exchange coverage today--same plan, same doctors, same medicine--and my monthly premiums have increased by 44.6%. The increase is due to Republicans not wanting to extend health exchange subsidies currently in effect.
But the Republicans DID want to extend tax cuts for the rich, including themselves, and so they did.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy explains the effect of the Republican's "megabill," signed by Trump this past July: "More than 70 percent of the net tax cuts will go to the richest fifth of Americans in 2026, only 10 percent will go to the middle fifth of Americans, and less than 1 percent will go to the poorest fifth. The richest 5 percent alone will receive 45 percent of the net tax cuts next year."
This is what happens every time the GOP is in charge - the rich get coddled and the working-class gets pummeled. Sadly, this phenomenon also happens--though usually to a lesser degree--when neoliberal, corporate Democrats are in charge, as we painfully saw during many of the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama years. Obamacare (the ACA) was nice of course, but it's only as good as the subsidies it gets.
Perhaps someday the working-class will realize that the super-wealthy and their political marionettes are not their friends. Perhaps one day the working-class will unite and demand another New Deal. But unfortunately, that day is not today. Today, the working-class has allowed itself to be divided up into warring factions, battling each other over one cultural issue or another. Oh, how the wealth-controlled media has done a number on us!
Working-class Americans are beating each other senseless--men vs. women, whites vs. blacks, gays vs. straights, native-borns vs. immigrants--while the 1% giggles, keeps wages stagnant, and jacks up the prices. In fact, if you listen... very carefully... you can actually hear the voices of the 1% coming from the mega-yachts passing by: "Thanks suckers."
