The American people forget that when the Affordable Care Act was proposed, most of the American people were behind its passage. Only Republican politicians opposed it. The original bill would have created a ‘single payer’ program which would disallow insurance companies the opportunity to change their rates. Basically, they would have been uniform throughout the nation. The insurance lobby paid millions of dollars to Republicans to ensure that this did not happen. The final result was considered by myself and others as “a beginning.” We knew it would need revisions; it was far from perfect.

The final result today is that more than 20 million Americans now have life-saving healthcare who were previously unable to obtain insurance. Trump and his Republican cronies are making a concerted effort to repeal it with no replacement available or in the planning stages. Don’t believe Paul Ryan.

Ryan held a town hall meeting last evening. During the meeting, Ryan spoke of his number one priority; repealing ‘Obamacare.’ He called upon a man he believed to be an ally, having formerly worked for the Reagan and Bush administrations as a volunteer. He was as surprised as Cruz was at a town hall meeting before the Iowa Caucus in 2016 when the presidential wannabee encountered a similar situation.

The man formerly owned a small business in a ‘red’ state until he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. His health in improving thanks to his ability to receive healthcare under the Affordable Care Act.

“I want to thank President Obama from the bottom of my heart,” the man said, “because I would be dead if it weren’t for him.”

Ryan lied to the crowd saying that the ACA was unpopular, when polls show that although it needs revisions, it is a live-saving law for millions of Americans.

His other lie is claiming that enrollment is down, when in fact it is rising. Some estimates are that as many as 35 million Americans will soon have coverage unless Republicans repeal it.

Three things Republican politicians share are that they hate the truth, deny facts, and are hypocrites. They ignore the will of the American people and have created an oligarchy which has replaced our democratic republic.

Ryan and his cronies cannot be trusted; they will attempt to offer their illegitimate president everything he demands, while denying the vast majority of the American people their needs and desires.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

Source

Photo courtesy of DonkeyHotey

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