Editor’s note: This commentary is by Mark Skelding, of St. Albans, a retired educator who most recently was a faculty member for Southern New Hampshire University’s Graduate Program in Education. He previously worked at Food Works/Two Rivers Center for Sustainability.
[T]hose who’ve been following the right wing’s desperate attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act have no doubt seen through it from the start. Why would Republicans and libertarians be so vindictive toward a president who sincerely wanted to help as many Americans as possible, had the courage to take on an industry that’s making obscene profits at the expense of Americans, and was smart enough to figure out how to do both? And why else would they want so desperately to completely do away with ACA rather than simply save the parts of the bill that are working and fix those that aren’t?
The answer could not be more obvious. The right wing cannot stand the fact that a Democrat, a first-time black president no less, was the one finally to have the compassion, courage and IQ to do what’s right when it comes to health care in this country. Since the bill’s inception they’ve been spewing hatred not just toward the bill, but toward President Obama himself. Trump’s desperate executive order on health care he signed on Oct. 12 followed this week by Congress inserting the elimination of individual mandates into their tax reform bill are just the latest examples of their vindictiveness.
The right wants us to believe this isn’t racism and their true concern is for our country. They argue ACA is government overreach into our individual right to choose. It’s another “entitlement” program contributing to the national deficit. Charitable giving and trickle down economics will somehow help those who can’t afford it to have health care. They say ACA is one more step toward the U.S. becoming socialist and anyone who doesn’t trust that the free market will take care of the problem is a fool.
If free market competition had worked with the health care industry in the first place we wouldn’t be in this position. And if allegiance to capitalism and hatred of socialism are the right’s true motivators, why aren’t they spewing hatred with the same degree of virulence toward past presidents and their social programs and “anti-free market” policies as they’re doing with President Obama?
The right wing’s repeal and replace Obamacare effort is not about putting Americans first and making America great again. They were beaten to the punch by the Democrats and a black president who proved to America who is actually sincere when they claim they care about all Americans. And that sticks in their craw. Their undying worship of trickle-down economics, a policy that has been proven not to work because human greed won’t allow it to, has them looking rigid and foolish. America’s top CEOs confirmed this during their Nov. 14 Wall Street Journal CEO council meeting. But the right clings to this myth regardless because what else can they do. It’s what defines them and to admit fallibility requires humility. It’s also a great excuse to use as cover to hide the real reason they hate Obamacare.
