Let’s start with the good news. During one of his continuing campaign rallies in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, President Trump announced that he wanted only rich people to run our economy. Not that he wanted successful people, but rich people – and his cabinet full of folks such as himself with inherited wealth bears this out.
That’s not the good news. Nor is it a surprise. What was heartening was that his rallying cry for an oligarchy of wealth was met largely with silence. The Iowans were actually listening. The president made his pronouncement, was met with silence and then, in the parlance of his ilk, “doubled down” by reiterating his preference for rich people. And, again, the crowd did not roar with approval. Some people are actually catching on to his true intentions to make the rich richer at the expense of the rest of us.
Joining in this crusade to impoverish the average American, Republican senators introduced their health care plan last week.
I will leave it to theologians to decide what is more evil: depriving millions of people of basic health care and subjecting them to suffering and shortened lives; depriving these people of the health care guaranteed by every other developed country in the world in order to provide tax cut billions to the richest among us; or doing all of this and then lying about it.
As if it is not bad enough to expose millions of Americans to short, brutal lives, the corollary to a health system geared toward medical and insurance industry profits, one of the main causes of bankruptcy in America is catastrophic medical expenses.
The Republican plan was announced Thursday. Friday, the state’s largest newspaper assured us that our senators were scrutinizing the plan.
What that reminds us is that Jim Inhofe and James Lankford were not considered important enough or clever enough to be included among the original 13 white Republican men Mitch McConnell selected to put together a health plan.
It also reveals that after the lack of diversity of that original group nudged McConnell to include all Republicans in the discussion, our senators chose not to participate. They had nothing to offer.
Another get the rich richer scheme surfaced recently as well, with the announcement that the administration will explore the possibilities of privatizing air traffic control. Sure, let’s turn air safety over to fast buck artists trying to maximize profits by doing things on the cheap.
Ignore the Republicans’ rhetoric. If they didn’t think some pals would enhance their wealth, such a proposal would never get off the ground.
And look for them to take aim at the Postal Service, too.
Those of you still wondering what kind of person now runs the country can look up the recording of President Donald J. Trump playing golf – and driving his golf cart right across the green. That’s how much consideration he has for those who can afford to pay his green fees. The rest of us do not count at all.
(Gary Edmondson is Stephens County Democratic Party Chair.)