Far East Cynic

Just a few questions on the way out the door.

Today is Veterans Day, or as I prefer to think of it now, Remembrance Day as it is referred to throughout the British Commonwealth.  I am supposed to honor others for their service and I do. But I have also given some 35+ years of my life to the service of the United States. And on this Veterans Day, that falls just days after a national electoral catastrophe for my country, one must forgive me if I can’t but help to think all of that service was for nothing. The people still chose to fling themselves into the Hegelian Hell that awaits them next year as the new Administration begins its drive to erase any and all progress since the year 1992.

So let’s get the formalities out of the way. Thank all those how have served and are serving for their service. You may be the only constancy left in the nation, even if the world is supposed to be better than it is and less in need of your service.

So as I head out the door to face the long cold of the coming winter of economic, political and foreign policy discontent, I thought it might be useful to ask the Trumpkins a few questions about the policies their hero seems to be advocating. Maybe they can explain to me EXACTLY how the coming conservative policies are going to make my life and the lives of my children better. Can you tell me? I seen plenty of evidence that they won’t. But in fairness, may you could tell me the other side of the story.

For example, can you tell me how a 10% corporate tax rate will actually do anything to make higher paying jobs available to me and my children? We have seen plenty of evidence that when companies get a windfall like that, they simply profit the difference and do nothing invest in their companies or workers. Why is this time somehow different?

Question number 2. Tell me how, when I am already saving 15% of my salary for retirement, paying for my Social Security and Medicare and paying a tax rate of 16-18% I am supposed to find solace in a Health Savings Account. Especially since my last colonoscopy in the United States cost over 10,000 dollars. How exactly does it get my son an insurance policy since he has a preexisting condition?

Along the same lines, can you somehow tell me how, repealing the ACA and replacing it with the race to the bottom known as selling across state lines will make my insurance premiums cheaper? Especially since the basic assumption of the GOP is that ACA is a complete and utter disaster from top to bottom and therefore can’t be changed, altered or reformed, so it must be completely repealed.

And someone is really going to have to explain to me how privatizing Medicare is not going to take away the current level of coverage in the program? Health care experts have already pointed out how it transfers expenses to individuals, many of whom cannot afford it.

One important note: Despite what Ryan says, the plan doesn’t actually maintain the prohibition on denials of coverage for pre-existing conditions, which may be the single most popular element of the ACA. It does so only if you maintain continuous coverage, beginning with a special one-time open enrollment. If you don’t, you’ll find that insurers can once again deny you because of your medical history, just like in the bad old days. And his answer for people with costly medical conditions is high-risk pools, which are just about the worst way possible to provide insurance (they segregate the costliest patients together, making coverage impossibly expensive).

And that’s just about healthcare. We have not even gotten to the rest of the deal.

Like this important question. How does deregulating the banks and not ensuring they maintain required capital minimums prevent a re-run of the 2008 financial crisis? Hmmm? Or eliminating the Consumer Fraud Protection Bureau stop a bank from doing what Wells Fargo did? Can you tell me?

Here is one that hits close to home. How does a federal hiring freeze actual make the government more responsive? It keeps people from coming in the door-but with out restructuring (e.g. reducing organizations) you will just have less people trying to do the same work. How do you do less with less?

A simple question. How does removing environmental restrictions eliminate or prevent this from happening. ?

Finally, how does incurring a massive increase in the debt to finance tax cuts for rich people prevent problems in the bond markets?  ( Marketplace did a story on that today).

In summary, I cannot see one thing, that in his proposals that will make my life better. Not one thing. But maybe  I missed something.