Sure, but AFTER 30 million Americans get health insurance, what then?
If Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are elected, they plan to engineer the largest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the rich in American history.
Sure George W. Bush cut taxes on the rich, which led to the greatest inequality since before the Great Depression. But he grew government spending and expanded Medicare at the same time. Romney and Ryan want to cut taxes on the richest by billions and then gut every government service that helps working families—Pell grants, Headstart, Medicaid, education, on and on.
That’s their plan–on their website. Experts say they’ll have to raise taxes on the middle class. They claim they’ll cut them by maybe a few hundred dollars a year. Even if they do, what they promise to take away is the greatest victory for the middle class since Medicare—the Affordable Care Act.
IF the Affordable Care Act goes into effect, 30 million Americans will join the millions that are now covered by the law. This will make a huge dent in the 26,000-45,000 Americans who die a year for lack of insurance.
But there are two aspects of ObamaCare that will fundamentally change the way middle class Americans live–enhancing your freedom to pursue what we can only call happiness.
The first is the freedom of fear when you get sick. Countless Americans avoid going to a doctor for fear of the costs or being branded with a pre-existing condition. ObamaCare ends lifetime caps on coverage, makes it illegal for insurance companies to drop you or deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
The other freedom ObamaCare offers is the chance to create your own business without fear of losing or not being able to afford your family’s health insurance.
If President Obama wins, this future is certain. If Mitt Romney wins, even if he has a Democratic Senate, he can begin canceling huge parts of the law with executive orders.
Beyond health care, President Obama’s plans call on the rich to pay a bit more to balance with the cuts we’ll have to make to the size of government programs. Romney has promised that in addition to his cuts, he’ll slash whole programs, whole departments he won’t name.
Under Romney the trend toward privatizing everything the government does – another way to transfer trillions to the richest—will get a turbo boost as he slashes oversights on Wall Street and the environment. And based on his 17 Bush/Cheney advisers, we can assume that dumb war is inevitable, if not the plan.
President Obama’s goal is to stop the wars so we can stop the war spending and use that money to rebuild infrastructure. He plans to put teachers back to work and help make college affordable for people who can’t borrow $10 million from their parents.
And women will still have the right to make their own private health care decisions.
If you look at President Obama’s plan for his second term, just not being Mitt Romney would be enough. But what’ he’s offering is a chance to improve life for the middle class the same way Medicare and Social Security improved life for the elderly.
We’re not just voting to not go back. We’re fighting for a future worth living.
[Photo credit: Anne Savage]
