Repulsive, Repugnant, Republicans

The Covid-19 pandemic continues its onslaught, claiming 2.5 million American casualties and counting,  2.5 million cases, 130,000 dead. We now know many survivors, including young people and children, may face permanent organ damage. Compounding the problem is an archaic, for-profit employer-based health insurance system operating in a devastated economy, unseen since the great Depression. It has thrown millions out of work and out of coverage.

 Students’ remote learning is a travesty when worries over food and rent or mortgage money destabilize the family and only add to the fragile state of kids now worried about survival. It is difficult for most kids to not veer off course from work to play to cyber forbidden zones while in school, let alone hour upon hour at home in the Groundhog Day world we all live in.

 In the midst of this national health crisis and economic emergency, our government should be all-out to contain the virus. Saving lives, helping victims cope, assisting families deal with the hardships wrought by this one-two punch, returning to a safe normalcy, to protect and defend its people is the first order of government. Instead, a coalition of Red states’ attorneys general filed with the Supreme Court to end Obamacare, which would result in the loss of insurance for upwards of 20 million people, according to some estimates. They submitted the file late Friday night, hoping to slide unnoticed like cat burglars at midnight.

As the Coronavirus rages on, our own government aims to inflict more cruelty on an already suffering population –much of it due to their own ineptitude. Survivors, including children, will carry the tag of pre-existing condition, which would make obtaining insurance more difficult if the Affordable Care Act is nullified. No viable plan has been offered in its place, only a promise one will be revealed. Ten years and waiting.

By seeking the end of the ACA, the Republicans have shown a callous disregard for the survival of Americans in crisis. TGBL sadly but rightly buries three stingers in the GOP’s SOBs.