A Mile Wide, An Inch Deep

This week we’re on red alert in response to reports that Republican leadership is gearing up for a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and gut Medicaid the week of September 25 , with a sham hearing possible before then. Now is the time to call, write, and rally to urge the Senate to reject this new threat and support a bipartisan package instead. The bill, known as Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson for its sponsors Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Dean Heller (R-NV), and Ron Johnson (R-WI), is being sold as a “compromise” and “non-partisan” solution—even though no Democrats support it. But not only is Graham-Cassidy not a compromise, it is the most radical proposal yet. And like the proposals that preceded it, the bill goes far beyond Republicans’ campaign pledge to repeal the ACA; it also attacks long-standing traditional Medicaid. Republicans only have two weeks to ram through repeal with just 50 senators and Vice President Mike Pence because on Sept...

Republicans like to say we don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. We don't need to tax more, we need to spend less. Sure, sure, and how exactly are they going to cut spending? According to Mitt Romney on October 22 : "First of all, we're going to cut about 5 percent of the discretionary budget excluding military." To which I say: bwah ha ha ha ha ha. The budget he wants to cut by 5% is $623 billion. The deficit is $1.3 trillion. Don't stop at 5%, Mr. Romney. With no new revenue, you could cut 100% — the entire non-defense discretionary budget, every last dollar of it — and still end up with a deficit of $677 billion. On top of those cuts, you could also cut the entire budget for welfare and Medicaid and still end up with a deficit of $117 billion. Since Romney has promised not to cut defense, but rather to grow the defense budget, and since he has promised to restore every single dollar of wasteful spending in Medicare overpaymen...