Today I got a compounding bad taste in my mouth. You see it is not enough for me to see the impending acceleration of the demise of the middle-class specifically because of Trump driven policies. The problem is that those who do the extensive research to see through the fraud are not enough. We need to get to our Trump supporting brothers and sisters, the Trump voter.
I came up with a standard phrase that I use on my Politics Done Right radio show broadcasted on 90.1 FM KPFT Houston, a Pacifica Network radio station. The scariest thing for the plutocracy is the uniting of the ghettos, the barrios, and Appalachia. While it is a bit stereotypical, the point is clear. It is for this exact reason why Trump magnifies and foster divisions on many fronts.
Trump must divide Americans given that absent the manufactured conflict; citizens would unite against his fraudulent and deceptive policies. After speaking to voters of every stripe, I am confident of one thing; we mostly want the same thing. I will build the chart to show those similarities and difference in a subsequent blog post. But for now, I want to concentrate on the clear and present danger to our “personal economies.”
For the sake of this article, I will use the words Right and Left. Of course, we know there are gradations and even flipping between constituencies.
Donald Trump’s healthcare policy and tax reform policy will continue the decimation of the middle-class, a far cry from the populist president that he purports to be.
Illness does not know party or ideology. I am sure we want a program where Americans can all get the healthcare they need when they need it. Trumpcare does not offer anything close. Trump is asking us all to believe that he can cut the amount of money going into healthcare and magically get better outcomes, reduce premiums, and give a higher level of care. If we are honest, we know that is hogwash. The president needs the savings from healthcare to give larger tax cuts that will mostly go to the wealthy since they pay a larger percentage of the taxes. The reality is that every Republican plan so far means higher premiums, higher out of pocket costs, or bankruptcy; middle-class Americans will suffer.
Many on the Left including yours truly prefer a single-payer Medicare for all system. I understand those on the Right are not convinced that is the best way. Let’s be clear, there is a good reason, in the short term, then to keep the Affordable Care Act with fixes until we come up with an American health care system we can agree on in the long term. For the super ideological reader, note that the Affordable Care Act had its genesis in the Heritage Foundation, a Conservative think-tank. Only when Republicans slapped the name Obamacare onto it, did it become untouchable.
We could work towards a bifurcated system. A single-payer Medicare for all system for those who don’t have employer-based health insurance and employer-based insurance. My hunch is that the efficiencies realized in one will lead us closer to the rest of the industrialized world. But at least we could have that real-time test.
Trump claimed that his tax reform plan was mostly to give the middle-class tax relief. Unfortunately, even though his tax reform framework is short on details, it is clear that the only sure beneficiaries are the wealthy including a billion dollar tax break for the president. And here is a kicker. The average working class voter can pay up to 35% of their wages in taxes. However, if you are a doctor, lawyer, or another high-income profession, you get the ability to convert most of your income to business profit, which would cap the tax rate at 25%; so much for being a working-class tax reform.
There are many social policy differences between the Left and the Right. Let us resolve those separate from that which can negatively affect us economically. Let’s not allow Trump or anyone else to play us against each other. When we allow that both of us are left holding the bag while they, those running the plutocracy, eat the caviar.
Trump voter, for the sake of us, and for the well-being of the middle-class, we need you.