Opinion
Sick of Hearing the Healthcare Lies
“Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now”
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T
he on-going debate about
healthcare reform hit me
this week when I became
quite ill. I am one of the lucky
ones. I have an employer-provided
healthcare plan so I was ultimately
able to go to a medical facility, get
diagnosed and begin treatment.
My co-pay was minimal, and cer-
tainly would not have put me
under water.
But what if I had not been so
lucky? I use the term “lucky”
quite specifically since having
healthcare, at least until President
Obama’s reforms, has been the
luck of the draw: Did you belong
to a union? Did you have an
employer that provided insurance?
Did you have enough money to
pay for it on your own? Not to
mention the actual quality of your
plan, if you were, like me, lucky to
have one.
Obama’s healthcare reform did
not go as far as it needed to, and,
with all due respect, made too
many compromises with private-
sector interests. In that sense, the
struggle is not over for universal
healthcare. President Obama,
both because of his connections
with corporate America and his
early belief in bi-partisanship, sin-
cerely seemed to believe that rea-
sonable people could strike a
compromise. He could not accept,
and perhaps still cannot complete-
ly accept, that the Republicans —
T RANS
A FRICA
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
from Day One of his administra-
tion — have been out for blood.
We needed and still need full
in no position to criticize the plan
since it is largely based upon the
one that he initiated as governor of
Massachusetts.
But the arguments of the Repub-
licans actually are deeper and
meaner than Romney’s flip-flop-
ping. They go to the question of
whether there are, or should be, a
“deserving” population and an
“undeserving” population. This
may sound vaguely familiar, and
so it should since it goes back to
the Reagan era separation of the
The right-wing argues that there is a
segment of the population that has
done little to earn any of the so-called
entitlements that they receive.
Therefore, these should be cut
healthcare reform. We need, in
other words, the extension of
Medicare to cover us all. We have
to reject the false notion that this
means a loss of jobs.
While I have been ill this week I
have considered many of the argu-
ments raised by the Republicans
against Obama’s plan, a plan that
has now been upheld by the
Supreme Court as constitutional.
The most ironic of the arguments
comes from Mitt Romney, who is
poor into the “deserving” and the
“undeserving.” In both cases, a
right-wing moral judgment has
been cast against a segment of the
population. In today’s situation,
the notion is simple: the right-
wing argues that there is a segment
of the population that has done lit-
tle to earn any of the so-called
entitlements that they receive.
Therefore, these should be cut.
Flowing from this fuzzy line of
thinking, Republican opposition to
Obama’s plan — Romney’s
hypocrisy notwithstanding —
becomes more understandable and
equally unsettling. As far as they
are concerned, let the so-called
undeserving swing in the wind and
look out for themselves. And if
this means that this undeserving
population cannot get access to
quality healthcare, jobs, food
housing, proper education, etc., as
far as the right-wing is concerned,
so be it.
Just in case you think that the
right-wing is not talking about
you, let me clarify who they see as
the undeserving populations: the
poor (the right-wing is not making
the distinction anymore between a
‘good’ and ‘bad’ section); people
of color; youth; immigrants of
color; low-waged workers; and in
many cases, anyone who makes
less than $100,000/year. Do you
see yourself in that picture?
This is what the November 2012
election is all about. It is not about
Obama and his record. It’s really
about whether you have a right to
be treated for illnesses in such a
way that you are not cast into the
bottomless pit of debt and poverty.
Sick or not, there is no way that
I am staying home on Election
Day.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior
Scholar at the Institute for Policy
Studies.
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T
he unemployment rate has
hovered above 8 percent for
several
months,
most
recently holding ground at 8.2 per-
cent, the same as last month.
Meanwhile, the African American
unemployment rate went up, offi-
cially to 14.4 percent, and we all
know that means the real rate is
even higher, probably in excess of
25 percent.
Republican presidential candi-
date Mitt Romney interrupted his
vacation to gloat about the number
of Americans who are experienc-
ing misery, and his gloating might
be at least somewhat amusing
were this not the same man who
says he likes to fire people.
The 8.2 percent unemployment
is not in President Obama’s best
interest. Many who are feeling the
misery and pain are open to an
alternative, even if it is one as
muddled and confused as Romney
who doesn’t support health care
reform now, although he engi-
neered a similar plan as governor
of Massachusetts. This man has
so talked out of his mouth, that a
simple reel of his contradictory
quotes would make it clear how
confused, or deliberately deceiv-
ing he is.
The good news for President
Obama is that the lower the unem-
ployment rate goes, the better his
chances for re-election. The better
news for President Obama is that
many people don’t snap into cam-
paign mode until after Labor Day.
People want jobs, to be sure, but
the summer numbers even if they
are level, don’t alarm everyone.
The employment reports that our
president has to pay the most
attention to are those released the
first Friday of September and
Page 4 The Portland Skanner July 11, 2012
B ENNETT
C OLLEGE
Julianne
Malveaux
October. This is when Republi-
cans will get all cranked up and
suggest that President Obama
can’t handle the fractured econo-
my he inherited.
Can the unemployment rate
drop? Well if Republicans would
turned the money down in the
interest of fiscal conservatism.
There the Republicans go again,
hurting their constituents to
thwart President Obama.
Part of the reason Republicans
can get away with this is because
no one is pressuring them. Just
like the Tea Party has pushed
these people to the right, some-
body needs to push them back to
center. The Tea Party has virtual-
ly obliterated the notion of a mod-
erate Republican, but there must
be some out there, and what has to
happen is that somebody needs to
push back.
Fuelled by race matters and rhetoric,
working class White people are
organized for Romney, someone who
would cut education, health care,
and Social Security and put those
“savings” into military spending and
tax cuts for the wealthy
pass the American Jobs Act, an
actual plan for employment, it
might. It is in the interest of the
nation’s unemployed, but not in
the interest of Republican chi-
canery, for the American Jobs Act
to be enacted. In some ways,
Republicans are starving their
constituents to thwart President
Obama. Similarly, when state and
local governments have to lay peo-
ple off because their budgets are
tight, the federal government has
previously stepped in to help. Part
of the recovery funds went to state
and local governments, some who
The African American commu-
nity has to push, too. While few of
us are Republicans, many of us
live in districts with Republican
representation. These representa-
tives need to hear from us, and
from our neighbors, not only
African Americans. And these
representatives need to hear from
our mayors, not only Democrats,
who can pressure them to do the
right thing by cities.
Meanwhile, Republicans fiddle
while Rome burns because no one
has called them on it. Whenever
Romney says the president has no
plan, somebody needs to remind
him of the American Jobs Act.
Whenever Romney starts bab-
bling about health care, someone
ought to throw Massachusetts in
his face. And when the braying
bunch of bobbleheads who call
themselves the Tea Party get
worked up over the economy, we
need to ask them: How many peo-
ple in your family are unem-
ployed? How much Social
Security does your mama have?
Don’t your kids have student
loans? Does everyone in your fam-
ily have health care?
Fuelled by race matters and rhet-
oric, working class White people
are organized for Romney, some-
one who would cut education,
health care, and Social Security
and put those “savings” into mili-
tary spending and tax cuts for the
wealthy. In other words, and not
for the first time, working class
White people are working against
their own economic interests.
Meanwhile, if House Republi-
cans want to move an economic
agenda that helps some 14 million
unemployed people, perhaps they
can see their way clear to pass the
American Jobs Act. We don’t
need all the Republicans, maybe
just a third of them, and I’ll wager
that perhaps that many have sense
enough to see what their leader,
John Boehner (R-Ohio], does not.
In any case, let’s make it plain.
The unemployment rate is stag-
nant because Republicans have
failed to act.
Julianne Malveaux is a Wash-
ington, D.C.-based economist and
writer. She is President Emerita of
Bennett College for Women in
Greensboro, N.C.