Blog For Iowa

7 minutes

Just a thought passing though my mind after another day of getting no answer from the Ernst office once again and the usual surly response at the Grassley office. I have a couple questions and some ruminations about what happens to this current horrible attempt at repealing all remnants of anything the black guy did.

One question is that if the senate passes the Graham-Cassidy amendment, what is the next part of the process? Will the bill need to go back to the full House for a re-vote? Or since some form of a Republicans-Destroy-Healthcare bill has already has passed in the House will it simply go to a joint conference committee?

If the House can avoid another roll call vote this will certainly be less damaging for those who will be voting to take away health care for 30 million + Americans. No doubt House leadership is doing all it can to provide cover for the members who really want to screw their constituents without the constituents ever feeling a thing.

The good thing that we have seen so far is that leadership of the far right radical party is pretty inept these days. So our hope is that their attempts to provide cover will blow up like an inflatable boat and everyone will see it. With all eyes watching about a year before the next election a vote to take away health care from Americans is not going to be popular. That vote will be so onerous it will still be fresh in voters minds a year from now.

Even though the corporate media will do all it can to divert attention from this vote, it will be one that a majority of constituents will see children, brothers, sisters, mom and dad and uncles, aunts and parents lose some major part of their healthcare to this bill. And they will not forget in a year it will be so onerous.

So why would radical far right politicians risk a vote that is likely to be hated by 90% of their voters?

Well they do have some tricks up their sleeves.

The very first trick is voter suppression. Suppressing those voters who will most likely vote against Republicans is the hottest game in town. Apparently it works and works well because red states are making it more and more difficult for citizens to vote.

The next trick is gerrymandering or setting up districts in such a way as to ‘enhance’ your party’s chance of winning. Once again we can see that gerrymandering has certainly distorted the shape of our representation in Washington. While Republicans won 51.5% of the total votes in this country for the US House they have 55.2% of the votes in the chamber. 

The last trick I will mention is money. Back during the first round of attempting to cut healthcare, the Koch brothers let it be known that they would open up its checkbook if the ACA is repealed (replaced? not so much) and tax “reform” is enacted. The Kochs political arm is talking in numbers like $300 to $400 million dollars. That is enough to totally finance a majority of the House races for radical right wingers.

$400 million will buy huge amount of television ads. TV ads are what passes for campaigns in most districts these days. For most Americans these days, the perception of reality that is sold to them by television becomes their reality. In order to create the perception that candidates want they need money and the Kochs have it. 

However, the Kochs and others are pulling the purse strings closed until they get something to show for their money. As noted here:

There was a sense of deep frustration from conservative officials and donors alike, decrying the pace of progress in Washington with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House for the first time in a decade.

[Doug] Deason has already informed a handful of congressional Republicans that the “Dallas piggy bank” is closed until he sees more action. He said he was recently approached by congressmen Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Jim Jordan of Ohio about hosting a fundraiser.

“I said, ‘No I’m not going to because we’re closing the checkbook until you get some things done,’” Deason said, noting he’s encouraged nearly two dozen major Texas donors to follow his lead.

While some donors threatened to withhold campaign cash, Koch’s team outlined a broader strategy to help shape the debate. Already, Americans For Prosperity claims a paid staff of more than 400 full-time activists in 36 states.

For the far right, the bottom line for everything is money, especially rewarding their donors. So the push now is to pass a horrible health care bill and then take the money stolen from the children, the infirm and the aged to give their super rich donors huge tax cuts.

Then they can take money from those who got the tax cuts from money stolen from children, the infirm, the aged and all others to shape the perception through the super mesmerizing medium of television.

Perception is reality. As Marshall McLuhan said nearly half a century ago “the medium is the message.” So they will do whatever horrid action they wish and then use the medium to tell us it is good for us. With the power of the medium, many, many will believe.

10 minutes