Fixing the ACA
For once I am happy to start on a positive note and offer my, and I hope all “real” Americans a thanks to Republican Senators John McCain, of Arizona, Susan Collins, of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, for being statesmen rather than party hacks.
With 100 senators seated, I was elated to see three Republicans refuse their party’s call and do what is best for the majority of Americans. Don’t misunderstand my position. I believe the Affordable Care Act is far from perfect, but it is fixable — something we will never know about whatever the Republicans said they had to offer in its place.
After eight years of forcing President Barack Obama into a corner on nearly every issue, good or bad, it is amazing that the Republicans could not come up with something better than the ACA. They had the votes, or did they? Was their alternative bill so badly crafted that they could not let anyone study it? They complained the same about the ACA. Again, thanks to the three senators who voted their conscience. I hope it’s a crack in the Republican Party’s bully politics and another crack in Donald Trump’s façade of government.
Senators Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Take note; follow their examples. Know that being a Republican doesn’t mean having a red ring in your nose. Now on to the wall!
Ned Sheats, Mission
Dissent, disapproval, disappointment …
… all banned in Hitler’s Germany, Franco’s Spain, Stalin’s USSR, Castro’s Cuba.
What the central power said was law, no questions asked. We are not there, yet, in the United States, as well as Texas, especially deep South Texas, where governmental silence in the face of the reactionary Texas Legislature is so thick.
Except for some disappointment with SB4, a void has existed with the: misogynistic restrictions on women’s health care; the homophobic moves towards LBGT individuals; and, the endless games with state taxes instead of enacting a needed and fair state income tax.
So I wait for all the elected officials in South Texas to let the state and nation know our officials will not keep their mouths shut. They could, and should, stand out as a force for independence, justice, free speech, dissent.
Resolutions against SB 4, and other laws being considered, would an excellent start. Do not wait, we are closer to those dictatorial examples than we think.
There is still time. Will we be part of the muted acquiescence, or be a leading opponent to this hateful arrogance?
Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky,
Brownsville
