Trump And Thune About to Rip Away Health Care & Whig-ify the GOP Jan 1st
How Killing ACA Subsidies Will Hurt 24 Million Americans—and Finish the GOP
by Cliff Schecter
In just 17 days, we perform all the usual rituals. An oversized disco ball drops in Times Square. We raise glasses of bubbly and toast to the future. And we share resolutions most of us will never keep.
And this year we have a special addition—special in the sense that Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) was special in American Psycho. Because when the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, 2025, Republicans will rob as many as 24 million Americans of the ability to access health care should they fall ill or get injured.
They will do this knowing full well their callous indifference will cause untold suffering and kill Americans—roughly 50% of whom, statistically, will have voted for them. It may just be the nail in the coffin to the GOP’s viability as a long-term political party in America.
Yes, folks, this group of selfish, greedy, sleazy, pedophile-protecting clods—who should be charged with trademark infringement for using the same name and symbol for their feudal, multi-level marketing scheme as American heroes like Lincoln, Grant, TR, and Ike used to run for office—become more preposterous by the day.
There are certainly no lack of examples of their glib dishonesty and putrid amorality. But if you want one that perfectly sums up the Jonestown GOP Caucus, you couldn’t do much better than their nonchalance at allowing enhanced Obamacare subsidies, the only way millions of Americans can afford healthcare, to just disappear.
Like Mike Johnson’s testicles when Trump enters the room.
Ok, so here’s your basic story, in all it’s repulsive Republican perfidy:
On December 11th, the U.S. Senate held two votes, rejecting a Democratic attempt to address the imminent expiration of Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) premium subsidies that’ve helped cap costs for millions of Americans.
The Democratic bill would’ve extended these life-saving subsidies for three years.
But Republicans rejected it, because they dutifully care about fixing the health care system are owned by the sick, elite predators who possess Epstein ethics. So they put Senate Leader John Thune out front. A man only there to add a bit of charm to their chronic manipulation, cruel deceit, and decrepit superego.
Basically, Thune is the GOP version of drawing a smiley face on a turd and then claiming it smells like roses.
Thune filibustered this simple, common-sense bill to extend subsidies, and it failed to reach the 60 votes needed under the (anti-constitutional) filibuster. Then he offered an… “alternative.” I’ve been advised by legal counsel that I can’t say plan, or I’d open myself up to lawsuits from libeled, pissed-off plans around the country.
This offering would terminate all additional ACA subsidies, diverting—and I’m not joking—$1,000–$1,500 per person to health savings accounts (HSAs). Why didn’t the GOP just go for broke and offer a few scratch ‘n sniff lottery tickets, NYC Subway tokens circa 1999 and a few used tissues they found in their pockets?
To state the obvious, $1,000 is far below what anyone needs to afford coverage. It’s just a scam, like Karoline Leavitt saying she married for love as she retrieves her husband’s bedpan. Slap a few zeroes after a number, smile, and hope people think you’re actually doing helpful.
So, as an inevitable result, monthly health care premiums will skyrocket for up to 24 million Americans, one in eleven of us, on January 1st—and when I say skyrocket I mean more than double in some cases.
But, hey, you’ll have that tax-free $1000! Don’t spend it all in one place!
Ok, actually, they won’t have that, because it was smartly voted down for being so ridiuculously stupid it even failed Trump’s cognitive test. If I recall, it said: “man, person, woman, Trump recession, you pardoned a huge Honduran drug trafficker, so stop with your horseshit off Venezuela.”
Close, but no porn star during Shark Week, if you will.
Meanwhile, everyone with an ounce of intellectual honesty—in other words, almost nobody in today’s corporate media—will offer the context that this party of amalgamated chum has claimed for a decade they have a “plan.” Just to fart out a term paper an hour before class.
One that’s grossly insufficient, a middle finger to every single person purchasing insurance on ACA exchanges. Just a reminder, the ACA subsidies enacted during the COVID era substantially reduced premiums and expanded coverage; letting them lapse means replacing a working system with the intellectual equivalent of supply-side economics or creation science.
And Americans—including many Republicans, which we’ll get to in a minute—will be incredibly pissed and inevitably die because of it. Meanwhile, Thune and Fox & Friends will jet off on their Christmas vacations, not a care in the world. I mean, what would they worry about? We pay for their very good, guaranteed healthcare!
But don’t worry, these shape-shifting, DOGE-infected imps offering the whole $1,000 “tax-advantaged” credit also ensured the top marginal tax rate was lowered from 39% to 37.6%. So malfunctioning protocol droid cum portly yacht-kateer raised by Apartheid AI—Elon Musk—will be just fine as he gets the first trillion-dollar payoff in world history (while destroying the market for Teslas).
Also somehow getting by, the $40 million second-wedding man, and the slimy, sweaty guy who won’t STFU about his puerile, Anti-Christ theory, while in a totally non-concerning way is collecting data on all of us.
That should make us all feel better, we and the people we know who directly suffer because of their abject cruelty. I mean, hey, you may have a preventable fracture or 103.5 fever, but at least Republicans have engaged in an orgiastic showering of tax breaks and subsidies on the billionaire objects of their eternal affection.
The only other thing they can do that provides that dopamine-ketamine hit like they’re visiting their unofficial party headquarters on Epstein Island.
You want a dopamine hit of your own, though? Ever see a modern political party self-immolate? No, you weren’t around for The Whigs"?? Well, then you have quite a treat coming your way.
Trump is already as popular as untreated chlamydia, and increasingly, the bankrupt farmers, fired government workers, and failed small businesses (because of someone’s stupid tariffs) are leading many of these folks who were his voters to turn against him. Not to mention the Epstein cover-up.
So this human Hooverville with the 36% approval rating—assisted by his little Senate helpers—is now going to kick many of these 24 million Americans off Obamacare for no other reason than cruelty—and surprise(!), half of them are Republicans.
Of those, 6 in 10 support extending the subsidies, as do 8 in 10 independents.
So ya know, good luck with things when you add that five or 10, perhaps 15 million people to the record number who already realize they were conned by the diaper-clad Don who can’t stay awake for 20 minutes during a meeting.
After the GOP’s recent election destruction, losing 14%+ support in races from Virginia to Bucks County, PA to Miami, FL, it’s becoming realistic to ask if the GOP will become a regional rump party in 18-20 largely rural states with the GDP of a block in New York City. Maybe 11th Avenue in the 70s?
The level of political idiocy Republicans are about to engage in is hard to overestimate. It’s stunning. But that’s what having ideologues, cranks, fundies, freaks, and Scott Jennings as your base will do.
So, in my best Marco from Tropoja voice from the film, “Taken”: “Good Luck.”
Never mind how unpopular Republicans are. Unless we seriously tighten up election security all over the U.S., they will again hack into our systems and fix a red tsunami in both houses of Congress. I don’t know of anyone who is doing anything about it either, except maybe www.electiontruthalliance.org and www.smartelections.us.
Do NOT trust John Thune from South Dakota on anything!! He tries to hide from the public but he needs to be dragged into the public eye all across America. He is a major reason Americans are about to get Screwed big time by the Republicans, led by John Thune in the Senate. Thune is so afraid of Trump that he does nothing to help Americans and even the people from his own state. He pretends to be this good ole boy from South Dakota who is just an ole rural boy. He is in the pocket of the billionaires. He is about to Screw his own constituents and Americans like he always does! John Thune is the "Coward" from South Dakota. And John Thune is a willing active member of the group who are actively working to undermine democracy and the future of America.