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For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
I Timothy 6:10

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Showing posts with label Obamacare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obamacare. Show all posts

Monday, May 15, 2017

ONIM For May 15, 2017

If you are not sure about the validity of a news story linked to below, you can use mediabiasfactcheck.com to check out the credibility of the source of most of the stories.


Christian News

World News


Protest News


Climate Change News


Pick(s) Of The Litter








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Tuesday, March 28, 2017

What Makes Activism Work

We should note that within the last few months, activism has won twice and lost once in shifting government policies. The two wins are the cancellation of the TPP and the failure of the American Health Care Act to get off the ground. The loss has to do with renewing the construction of DAPL.

The TPP was activism's first victim. For while activism delayed the passing of the TPP before the election, Trump's election, which was partially the result of conservative populism,  sealed its doom here. But the TPP was not just in trouble in America, other nations started to back away as well (click here). Opposition to the TPP showed that individual issues can bring conservatives and nonconservatives together. I have seen this happen when I have taken the time to talk to counter-protesters at May Day celebrations, I've found that leftists, like myself, and some of the conservatives with whom I've spoken can sometimes agree on what our nation's problems are. Of course, our disagreement comes in what we believed were the solutions. But sharing recognition of the problems again shows that we conservatives and nonconservatives can find some common ground.

As for the Republican replacement of Obamacare, yes, we were told that the Ryan's replacement was dead on arrival. For many groups opposed the replacement though not for the same reasons. We know that some of that opposition was voiced in the angry townhall meetings that Republican legislators had to endure. These legislators saw the rage that people felt about the potential of losing the health insurance they gained through Obamacare. And while the problems caused by the ACA shows that it is not a permanent solution, certain parts, like the increased number of people who now have health insurance, could no longer be sacrificed according. 

Activism's loss mentioned above came with Trump's order to continue DAPL construction. For the protests against DAPL were not widespread enough and did not incorporate enough people to put sufficient pressure on the government. It did delay some of the construction when the Army Corps of Engineers agreed to do more extensive studies of the project. But with Trump's election came a presidential directive to approve the immediate continuation of the construction of the pipeline. BTW,  we should note here that our President is financially invested in the project.

With this current record, what we should note is that when enough of us make our voices heard, we can still make our government listen. We can still gain victories. Sometimes those victories are small and temporary while there are a few times when those victories decisive and final. The point here is that despite the increased authoritarian nature of our government, we can still put limits on it and change some of its policies. We just have to get enough people to speak as loud and as often as possible. One thing we can be sure of, though we might have a shortage of activists from time to time, there will be no shortage of issues to address during Trump's Presidency.



 
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Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Cain's Healthcare Approach


Perhaps nothing reveals more about the Republican plans for healthcare than Paul's Ryan's main criticism of Obamacare (click here for the source):
So take a look at this chart. The red slice here are what I would call people with preexisting conditions. People who have real health-care problems. The blue is the rest of the people in the individual market — that’s the market where people don’t get health insurance at their jobs where they buy it themselves. The whole idea of Obamacare is the people on the blue side pay for the people on the red side. The people who are healthy pay for the people who are sick.

The problem, according to Ryan is that healthy people are being made to pay for the healthcare of sick people by the Obamacare mandate. Even though, as it has been noted by others, this is the primary way insurance functions in that those who don't file claims pay for those who do, that is not the concern of this blogpost.

The basic concern of this blogpost is that in a highly interdependent society, an ideology that says we should only get what we pay for ourselves now serves as the foundation of our government's approach to social and safety net programs. That ideology is almost as old as the hills for it was first expressed by Cain when confronted by God on the whereabouts of his brother Abel. Cain rhetorically asked God: 'Am I my brother's keeper?' Of course, Cain challenged God with this question after he had murdered his brother. Paul Ryan's version of Cain's question is being asked prior to making one's brother more susceptible to dying. For Ryan's primary criticism of Obamacare is:
The whole idea of Obamacare is the people on the blue side pay for the people on the red side. The people who are healthy pay for the people who are sick.

Consistent with Ryan's above statement is the fact that his healthcare plan gives tax relief to the wealthiest whose taxes were being used to help provide coverage for those who could not afford it while it threatens to millions of people the loss of their healthcare insurance. But we should also note that Ryan's healthcare plan goes beyond protecting the wealthy from having to pay for the poor. For his healthcare plan also includes tax breaks for insurance CEOs.

 We should also note that this washing of one's hands of providing for the less fortunate will not be restricted to healthcare alone. Corporate taxes and regulations will be slashed so that, in our highly interdependent society, laws will be written to restrict our access to resources other than own in the name of being financially responsible. This puts the poor and seniors at greater and greater risk. 

But we should also note the basic value system being instituted here. That value system says that we should have more attachment to our abundance than we have solidarity with those in need. That lesson is one that has been fed to middle class conservatives as they have been taught to obsess over the poor have been benefiting from tax dollar funded programs. And, thanks to this last election, it is now the turn of the rich to say the same to the rest of society. For we are facing massive tax cuts for the rich in addition to those provided by Ryan's healthcare while government programs will be forged in ways that benefit the rich financially such as increases in military spending.

What we are witnessing is an Atlas Shrugged hijacking of our government. And though it isn't the case that past government policies did not further enrich the wealthy, it is that the social responsibilities of those with wealth have to the society in which they became so prosperous are now being eradicated at a faster and faster pace while many of the rich exhibit the same resentment towards society which middle class conservatives were taught to have toward the poor. 

From a citizen's point of view, it seems that the only Americans who are taught to sacrifice for their fellow countrymen are those in the military. And while conservatives relish in praising our troops for making physical sacrifices for their countrymen, when it comes to paying taxes to help fellow countrymen in need including many veterans, these same conservatives adamantly condemn the call to sacrifice. This is nothing more than a vicarious patriotism. It is under those circumstances that conservatives, like Paul Ryan, tell us that each of us should sing 'I am an island' as our national anthem.

Again, Cain uttered his question having killed his brother. How many people, fellow Americans if you must, have to die because too many of us are rhetorically asking Cain's question?



References
  1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/09/either-paul-ryan-doesnt-understand-insurance-or-you-dont-understand-paul-ryan/?utm_term=.eb941f130146

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Friday, October 7, 2016

Who Are Socialists Scared Of?

In an effort to discredit Obamacare as well as any further attempt to nationalize healthcare, Franklin Graham (click here for a bio) quoted conservative Catholic leader who said:
socialists and atheists are scared to death of the church

Graham also added the following:
I'm not a Catholic, but as the Democratic Party embraces socialism...
They don't want anyone except the government responsible for caring for the poor...
Here in this country, the poor were cared for by churches for over 200 years, the Catholics, the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Baptists all had great hospitals to care for the sick
The article that reported these remarks were quoted in a CNS News article (click here for the article). Graham also predicted that if the "Democratic Socialists" get the healthcare program they want, the quality of healthcare will go down while its costs will become prohibitive to the poor.

In short, Graham's remarks seem to be a combination of a spiritual machismo along with both a historical and political ignorance. And this is sad simply because that combination of traits, while not affecting Graham's choir, inadvertently discredits and thus dishonors the Gospel that Graham serves before others.

Graham's seems to equate Socialism with big government and government intervention. And it seems that in Graham's statement, there is the implicit claim that anything Socialism can do, the Church can do better. And thus, he accuses, and possibly projects onto, Socialists of being afraid of competition. Competition for Socialists in this case, according to Graham, would be the Church.

To get to why Graham is doing the Gospel more harm good, one should note the following:
  • Big government is not the same as Socialism
  • The Democratic Party neither pursues nor follows Socialism
  • Some Graham's claims about the Church providing healthcare for the poor are false 
  • Socialists are a diverse group. And thus Graham's claim about all socialists are demonstrably false since some Christians are also socialists.
 Regarding the first point, just because a government is big or intrusive, doesn't mean that it is practicing socialism. This is especially true from the Marxist tradition. Here we should note that a socialist government, according to the Marxist tradition, would be one where those without wealth would have at least an equal power in determining laws as those who have wealth. In fact, Marx believed that the transition from the economic and political systems he observed at his time to the classless paradise he envisioned would by performed by a proletariat dictatorship. Seeing that Marx was opposed to the rule of the bourgeoisie, any big or intrusive government that was controlled by wealth could never be called Marxist. Thus, it appears that Graham is, to say the least, confused as to what constitutes socialism.
 
Now whether we have Republicans or Democrats controlling the three branches of government or whether there is a mixed control by both parties, it is evident that those with wealth do control our government (click here for some documentation). Thus, any big government program that is the result of control over government by either major political party is not a demonstration of socialism. Obamacare, itself, was the result of legislation that was crafted by and written for the benefit of the health insurance industry (click here and there). And Obamacare definitely has problems. So while Graham's observation about the future perils of our healthcare system might have some merit, he is wrong to attribute that to socialism. He can rightfully blame one or both of our major political parties, but he can't blame socialism.

 In addition, his claim about the Church in America providing hospital care for 200 years doesn't account for the fact that churches did not provide hospitals until the mid 1800s. And even if we ignore that fact, we need to understand that just prior to Obamacare, healthcare costs were the first cause for personal bankruptcies. In addition, the costs of healthcare, prior to Obamacare, made getting treated prohibitive for many people. Thus, the transition from our past system into Obamacare was not an exodus from any kind of healthcare utopia. Rather, for all of its flaws, Obamacare did try to at least partially address the shortcomings of our then healthcare system.

 Finally, considering that some socialists were proponents of Liberation Theology, and considering that some Marxists, like Rosa Luxemburg for example, coveted support from the Church in helping people, it is difficult to make the case that Socialism is afraid of or opposed to the Church. Even if you want to call Democrats who support Obamacare 'socialists,' we should note that some Democrats are confessing Christians. Thus Graham's bipolar view that we have Christians in one corner and socialists, both real and pseudo ones, in the other paints a false picture of reality. 

 What Graham is really asserting is that his politically conservative ideology is the only one that both provides for people in need and is aligned with Christianity. In other words, Graham is making an ideological tribal claim on God. And because his claim is a false one, he is misrepresenting the Gospel. And in misrepresenting the Gospel, by associating the Gospel with inaccuracies and distortions, he causes some to dishonor the Gospel as they respond to that association.  

Like others who conflate religiously conservative Christianity with conservative politics and ideology, Graham seems to believe in an American mythological past. And when changes occur that challenge that past, Graham, in this case, lashes out and does so while spouting the errors that come with American mythology as well as his lack of understanding of the diversity that exists in Socialism. But not only that, his response is ideologically tribal--something we are all at risk for doing. And when we do respond tribally, we are likely to sound more like the self-righteous Pharisee from Jesus's parable of the two men than like preachers from the New Testament or the prophets from the Old Testament.



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Monday, December 14, 2015

ONIM For December 14, 2015

Christian News

World News

Pick(s) Of The Litter



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Monday, December 7, 2015

ONIM For December 7, 2015

Christian News



World News



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