The Republican Party is trying to kill us... again
TAT readers,
Today’s essay may be a bit startling and some may not believe my headline… but please give what I write today, serious consideration. Sure, the headline is intended to be flamboyant, but by the end of today’s essay it will not only sound plausible, but I believe that you will see the merits of my analysis.
What prompted today’s work, despite me pondering this topic for months, was a news headline this afternoon about the GOP, once again voting against ACA subsidies in their new bill. This was the issue that drove the longest ever, government shutdown. The left broke ranks in order to put our government back to work and the GOP promised to address this issue in the bill they are now voting on. The GOP like every other time in the Trump administration’s tenure, simply lied in order to reopen the government from the shutdown that they had caused. For the record, the ACA is favorably viewed by a strong majority of Americans, left and right.
Today’s refusal to extend those ACA subsidies, will cost up to 12 million Americans, their healthcare. The rest of us will pay exorbitantly higher costs for diminishing healthcare services. Luigi Mangione’s actions against a thoroughly corrupt healthcare executive, may just have been the first, if things continue along the lines they are now trending. If I was Luigi’s legal team, I would be arguing that he acted out of “self defense.” To be clear, violence is never the answer, except in legitimate self-defense and I am in no way, advocating for Luigi-like violence. In the Trump and MAGA Republican era, today’s vote was but one of many that imposed extreme hardship onto taxpaying citizens, and not just regarding healthcare.
The question that I have always had for the Republicans is, “why are you so driven to takeaway something that provides enormous service to our nation and that its citizens clearly want? What is your obsession with imposing cruel circumstances onto tens of millions of American citizens? Even more puzzling for me is, why do Republican voters support these cruel politicians who are negatively impacting their lives? There are several answers to these questions but among them are a couple of prominent ones such as, party over country, dividing our citizenry for political power and mostly, the profitability of their large campaign donors. None of these primary reasons represent them caring about the nation or its citizens. None of these reasons either are American values.
Today’s republicans have clearly demonstrated blind subservience to the administration’s policies, including countless efforts that like this bill, deprive Americans and other global citizens of what they need to survive. The Republican Party has a long history of voting against such support. Here at home, jobs, food, healthcare and plenty more determine the stability of America’s citizens. The GOP is in the process of either removing benefits, or directly trying to kill the most vulnerable among us, by denying healthcare, nutrition, living wages, education and every other aspect of a family’s opportunity to survive and prosper. In short, yes they are intentionally killing off parts of America’s and the world’s most vulnerable populations.
The evidence is quite clear in what it reveals about this administration. The reason that it has been difficult to see the administration’s intentions is due to their incessant chaos, that obscures our views. Today’s essay is designed to paint a factual picture that can only be described as evil.
Onward
Today’s headline isn’t bombastic. It’s reality stripped of the intended subterfuge, obscuring our view. As with nearly all national security risks, today’s topic is complex, requires understanding facts and being able wield critical thinking as a tool of visibility. My intention is to make it as easy as possible, to see the Republican’s intentions. There will not be enough room in a daily article to address every fact and this would be impossible anyway, unless I wrote a series of books on the topic. Please bear with me as I just address the most important factors.
So my friends, just how are the Republicans going about killing Americans and other at risk populations around the world? The answer lies in three areas of discovery; 1. GOP legislation, 2. Oval Office policies and EOs, Executive Orders 3. Their declared intentions in their Project 2025 strategy. This is no longer your grandfather’s GOP. This version is profit and power focused. America and Americans no longer matter to Republicans other than of course their votes, solicited via conspiracy theories, lies and propaganda. The Republican base, consistently votes against their own self interests and all because they have been professionally “conned” by decades of propaganda and conspiracy theories. GOP voters vote zombie-like, for whatever their primary propagandists utter.
Ever since the beginning of “Obamacare” or the ACA, the GOP has attempted to remove it from law. Their history is well known to all of us on this topic. It didn’t begin with the ACA either. Even to this day, hardcore Republicans are still whining about the nation’s social programs begun under FDR and during the Great Depression. These programs, in our Social Safety Net, were very popular during the Depression and continue to be until today. In fact, this administration intends to take an axe, to Social Security as well.
Republican attacks on our national social safety network are actually an attack on America’s workforce collectively, while concurrently punishing that same workforce with hunger, illness, limited education and a lack of jobs other than entry level. When people use the phrase, “living wage” they are actually talking about keeping people from starving, being untreatably sick or homeless. This is to knowingly impose suffering on the majority of our workforce and citizenry. The GOP is fine with imposing such suffering and the proof is in what they are attempting to cut, such as the Federal Programs listed in the research commentary below, from the University of California, Davis, one of the nation’s premier universities.
As you will see as you scroll through these few programs, the burden of suffering is primarily being imposed onto women and children. The GOP doesn’t care, so long as they continue blindly supporting their dear leader’s wishes. They are spineless as it pertains to morality.
What are the major federal safety net programs in the U.S.?A summary of efforts to reduce poverty in the U.S.
Here is a timeline and summary of selected safety net programs in the U.S.
1935: The Social Security Act
Part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation, the original act included grants to states for unemployment compensation, aid to dependent children and public health. Today, Social Security is the largest safety net program in the U.S. In 2017 it will reach an estimated 62 million Americans with $955 billion in benefits.
1935: Unemployment Insurance
Unemployment insurance was a part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1935 Social Security Act. Today’s U.S. Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs provide benefits to eligible workers who become unemployed through no fault of their own and who meet certain requirements.
The program is a unique federal-state partnership, based on Federal law, but administered by individual states. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that UI benefits totaled $32 2016 when the unemployment rate averaged 4.6 percent.
1964: Head Start
This pre-school education program was a part of the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act that was designed to reduce disparities among young children. The 1994 Head Start Act Amendments established the Early Head Start program, which expanded the benefits of early childhood development to low income families with children under three years old.
In 2016 the program served up to 900,000 mostly low-income children per year with total federal spending of over $8.7 billion. While the program’s effectiveness has been criticized by prominent researchers, recent studies show the benefits of Head Start, especially for children at the bottom of the skill distribution.
1964: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
The first Food Stamp program ran from 1939-43, but the program we know today was established with the 1964 Food Stamp Act. The program is now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and served 44.2 million people with $66.5 billion in benefits in 2016.
1965: Medicare/Medicaid
These health programs were established with amendments to the Social Security Act in 1965. Today, Medicare provides health insurance for people over 65 years of age and some younger than that but who have certain disabilities or diseases. Medicaid is a Federal and state partnership that provides health coverage for people with low income.
During 2015, enrollment in Medicare averaged about 55.3 million people who received $615.6 billion in benefits. In fiscal year 2015, total Medicaid spending was $552.3 billion, of which federal spending for Medicaid was $348 billion ($301 billion covered benefits for enrollees). States funded the additional $220 billion. Approximately 68.5 million people were enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 2015.
For more information about Medicare and Medicaid, visit the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services online.
1972: Supplemental Security Income Program (SSI)
SSI is a Federal program that provides income people 65 or older as well as to blind or disabled adults and children. The 2016 benefit amount for individuals on SSI was $733, and for couples it was $1,000.
At a cost of $58 billion, SSI was the second-largest means-tested cash assistance program in 2016, behind the Earned Income Tax Credit.
1972: Women, Infants and Children (WIC)
WIC is a nutrition program that benefits pregnant women, new mothers and young children who live near poverty and who are at nutritional risk. WIC is not an entitlement program, so the number of people who receive the benefits depends on the amount Congress allots for the program from year to year.
1972: Federal Pell Grant Program
Pell Grants help pay for tuition and other expenses for low-income college students. In 2010, three-fourths of recipients had a family income of $30,000 or less.
The grant amount is based on family income and education costs, and also varies from year to year. The 2016-17 maximum grant amount was $5,830. Federal spending on Pell Grants in 2016 school year was about $26.6 billion, with approximately 7.1 million recipients.
1975: The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
The EITC is a tax credit that benefits working people who have low to moderate income, especially families. In 2015, the EITC reached 46.2 million tax filers at a total cost of $58.8 billion. Since EITC benefits are not considered income for other Federal benefit programs, they do not jeopardize recipients who qualify for other assistance like SNAP or Medicaid.
Research has shown that the impacts of the EITC are wider than raising families out of poverty. A study by Center Research Affiliates Hilary Hoynes and Douglas Miller found that it also increased birth weights and reduced low birth-weight births.
1996: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
TANF issues federal grants to states for programs that provide temporary benefits to families with children when the income does not provide for the family’s basic needs. Programs include job preparation, family planning and other benefits as well as cash assistance.
The program replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC), which was established by the 1935 Social Security Act. In 1996 it was replaced by TANF as part of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act welfare reform that would change the face of the safety net in the U.S. While AFDC allowed families to receive assistance for as long as they were eligible, TANF imposes a five-year limit on benefits.
1997: Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
CHIP provides health coverage to nearly nine million children in families who cannot afford private health insurance but who have incomes that are too high to qualify for Medicaid.
The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 strengthened CHIP with additional funding and improvements, including tens of millions of dollars for a national outreach campaign, grants to Indian Tribes and to promote enrollment and retention in both CHIP and Medicaid.
2010: The Affordable Care Act (ACA)
The ACA is the largest recent expansion to the U.S. safety net, the full impact of which remains on the horizon. Implemented by President Obama in 2012, the law includes subsidies to help pay for individual health insurance. It also allows states to cover additional low-income families under Medicaid by providing Federal matching funds. In September, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the total cost of all of the ACA’s health insurance provisions for people under age 65 was $705 billion in 2017.
These cuts are not just about dollars and cents either. In fact, it would be foolish as a national leader to see such cuts as merely financial. A strong economy requires a stable, secure, healthy and motivated workforce. As we can see from most data sites, none of this matters to today’s Republicans. In order to have troops to fill the ranks of our military, we need a healthy crop of young men and women that are well-educated and inspired by American values. Unwarranted greed, is not an American value.
When families cannot provide for themselves, the suffering becomes a national security risk. Prior to World War II, our military had been hollowed out after the first world war and the only thing on American minds during the Great Depression, was survival. Had it not been for FDR’s foresight and along with support from his party and a few Republicans, we would have entered WW II, in far worse shape than we did on December 8th, 1941. As a gentle reminder, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, drove the Depression deeper and longer than had we not passed the short-sighted Tariff Act. It wasn’t just the US either. The Tariff Act was partially a cause for the second world war.
There have been plenty of phases of American history where short-sided and greedy politicians, along with their financial backers, drove the country into crisis simply to acquire more wealth. The Robber Baron, Gilded Age, Yellow Journalism and Trustbusting eras were the same. Americans died, lost everything, and often spent most of the rest of their lives, merely trying to catch up, often in politically imposed misery. The ultra wealthy, did not suffer.
It’s not just the US either. This administration’s policies have abdicated our interests in Africa, Europe and most of Asia, as our new NSS/ National Security Strategy declares in bold print. Europe and NATO are out as allies. China and Russia can do as they please, so long as they stay out of the Americas and we no longer as a nation, care about values. Elon Musk’s DOGE debacles a few months back showed this is horrific detail due to his slashing of USAID’s programs overseas.
In July, a TAT essay explained in detail how many deaths had occurred due to DOGE actions and also projected future deaths from those actions. The numbers are staggering. The same Boston College professor who put together the project, also projected deaths from future cuts to Medicare. And now after the GOP passed the Big Ugly Bill, cuts to Medicaid are projected to cause 51,000 American deaths, per year.
"The reconciliation bill making its way through Congress includes cuts to Medicaid that are so massive that even some Republicans have criticized them. In a remarkable address Sunday, Sen. Thom Tillis asked his fellow GOP lawmakers what he should say to North Carolinians who lose health-care coverage “What do I tell 663,000 people in two years, three years,” he asked, “when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding’s not there anymore?” But the toll is even worse than lost coverage. These cuts will cost more than 51,000 people their lives every year. That’s not hyperbole. It’s a predictable result when you cut off health insurance to people who are old, poor and sick. And it’s based on analyses and projections from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Yale. Medicaid insures one in five Americans, typically low-income and often disabled. The latest version of the bill in front of the Senate includes more than $1 trillion in proposed cuts to the Medicaid program over 10 years. If enacted, these cuts would be the largest in Medicaid’s 58-year history and would harm the health of millions." - Experts: Medicaid Cuts Could Prove Fatal for Thousands - Penn State, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics - By: Eric T. Roberts, PhD and José Figueroa, MD, MPH - July 1st, 2025
This administration listens to no one. During the runup to the GOP passing the Big Ugly Bill, the AMA, American Medical Association, argued against the draconian healthcare cuts championed by Republicans. They didn’t do this on political grounds, but as doctors and other healthcare professionals. They fully understood the chilling and dangerous effects of the Republican agenda. Below is a quote taken from a presentation by David Aizuss MD, board chair of the American Medical Association, along with three of his fellow officers of the AMA.
"The One Big Beautiful Bill law made changes to federal programs that are important for physicians and critical to the health and well-being for some of the most vulnerable patients in our communities. Throughout the process of this bill being signed into law, the AMA made our priorities clear and outlined the impacts that could occur when it passed. We advocated against provisions that will severely cut funding for federal health programs and restrict access to health coverage. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the CBO, the OBBA will increase the number of people without health insurance by 10 million in 2034. Additionally, if the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits are not extended past the end of 2025, CBO estimates that the number of uninsured people will increase by more than 14 million in 2034. We also made clear that the law makes changes that needlessly create more barriers to people pursuing careers in medicine. These changes make the high cost of medical school even more unaffordable and will surely exacerbate an already alarming physician shortage." - Advocacy Insights: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the impact on physicians and patients - AMA - David Aizuss MD, Todd Askew, Emily Carroll JD, Annalia Michelman JD - November 5th, 2025
Since taking office, Trump and his administration, have been busy imperiling us, the people as it pertains to healthcare. At the embedded link, you can see some of the key legislative and EO, HHS Public Health policy actions under the Trump Administration. As you will see by following the link, the GOP is reshaping healthcare in a manner that is focused on one thing only… higher profits. Apparently, the GOP doesn’t abide by the Hippocratic Oath.
And then there’s RFK Jr., who is single-handedly trying to kill, injure and maim Americans of all races, religions, ethnicities etc. I often find myself at a loss for words to describe the depth of insanity affecting RFK Jr. and many others in this administration. By now, most Americans are fed up with the conspiracy theory crowd, RFK Jr. included. His radical and senseless claims are in fact, endangering lives of our fellow countrymen. When he came into office, we were just finally recovering from Trump and Company’s mismanagement of the early stages of COVID 19. That mismanagement cost well over 400,000 Americans their lives. RFK Jr. is pursuing a path, that could become just as costly, due to his conspiracy theories, lack of scientific support for those theories and the power to hire, fire and generally remake our government’s role in healthcare.
"The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus eclipsed 400,000 on Tuesday in the waning hours in office for President Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis has been judged by public health experts a singular failure." - U.S. virus death toll tops 400,000 in Trump’s final hours - PBS News - January 19th, 2021
Kennedy’s mis and disinformation has become a punchline to an already crazy administration. His brain worm, unsupported conspiracy theories and generally odd behavior are just the tip-of-the-iceberg too. His decisions as the HHS Secretary has been nothing but dangerously nutty. Measles is back, HHS, the CDC, NIH etc. are all critically understaffed from uninformed firings, vaccines are being demonized with propaganda and there are countless other violations of law, common-sense and just plain sanity regularly emanating from the mouth of JFK Jr. Below are comments from the American Public Health Association from April. Now, eight months later, things are far worse and still, Kennedy refuses to embrace science.
"His implicit and explicit bias and complete disregard for science has been in evidence since he was sworn in as Secretary. He has: - Reduced staff at the relevant federal agencies and promoted a nonsensical reorganization of HHS that will weaken our nation’s ability to meaningfully address any health problem. - Forced the leading FDA vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks, to leave the agency where he led the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and was instrumental in starting up Operation Warp Speed in the first Trump administration. - Even after the confirmed deaths of two unvaccinated children from measles, Kennedy still refuses to strongly encourage vaccination, which is 97% effective at prevention of the disease. - Promoted unscientific therapies such as vitamin A to treat measles, which has resulted in significant liver injury from its use among some children in Texas. Drastically reduced the nation’s capacity to respond to public health threats including the current measles epidemic, by precipitously cutting funding from state and local public health by clawing back $11 billion (about $34 per person in the US) in approved funding. - Hired a known anti-vaxxer to lead a study to undermine proven science related to the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, which is 97% effective and has a long history of safety. - Stopped research at NIH that was focused on preventing future epidemics. Mocked the sitting governor of West Virginia to go on a diet with public weigh-ins. - Announced plans to tell CDC to stop recommending fluoridation in community’s water." - Secretary Kennedy and his policies are a danger to the public’s health - APHA, The American Public Health Association - Statement from APHA Executive Director Georges C. Benjamin, MD - April 9th, 2025
Kennedy’s list of detractors is nearly endless and almost always for the same reasons. Because he’s a conspiracy theorist, anti-vaccine and deeply anti science. Most of his detractors are prestigious, like The Lancet, the world’s oldest and most respected medical journal. Unlike Kennedy, these detractors are steeped in science and adhere rigorously to the very scientific principles, Kennedy loathes.
" He is a lawyer, without any scientific or clinical experience. What he has, instead, is a long history of promoting false and deadly claims about vaccines and spouting racist pseudoscience. He has claimed to value “radical transparency” but his tenure at HHS is marked by the destruction of data and the exclusion of the public from its decisions." - One Month of RFK Jr.: Empty “MAHA” Promises Hide Attacks on Public Health - Union of Concerned Scientists - Darya Minovi - March 19th, 2025
The danger doesn’t end with Kennedy either. The administration’s dedication to erasing the EPA/ Environmental Protection Agency will undoubtedly claim more US lives. The EPA was born in 1970 and has been protecting us from life ending or altering, industrial waste ever since. I was a high school freshman in 1970 and easily recall the environmental risks imposed by unregulated industry. Raised in Ohio, I can still remember the 1969 headlines from Cleveland, about the Cuyahoga River being on fire again, due to the quantity of contaminants dumped into it around the clock.
Memories like the “Love Canal” tragedy and countless other environmental disasters still haunt those years. It would be impossible to write this piece without also adding the oil industry and the incessant threat that they pose. The threats from the oil industry alone, are among the most dangerous. It’s not just air quality risks from the oil industry. They degrade our lives and health in countless ways, every minute of every day. This is what Trump and his Republican hordes want us to go back to. Like most of you, I am not willing to go backwards into filth, grime, disease, death and all else that an effective EPA has protected us from over the years.
Summary
This already too-long essay could go on endlessly, and I have barely scratched the surface of what we must all reasonably fear. If we added up all of the projected deaths in the US alone, from a useless EPA and administration hellbent on profits, not safety, the numbers would be staggering. It’s not just human beings either. Conservation seems an ancient word in the era of tyrannical oligarchy. America will not survive what the GOP has wrought in this administration, if we do not all come together and restore our constitutional republic. We are not Republicans and Democrats, we’re Americans.
The word, “united” in the name of our nation, is the key word. We must stop believing in political parties more than our own national values. Values are worthless should we not heed them, especially in times of crisis. Politics in the US prior to WW II, wasn’t too dissimilar from our politics today, except of course, we didn’t have a greedy, cruel and corrupt leader in the White House and his party controlling congress. We had a POTUS that cared about us during FDR’s four administrations and he and his party, willed our social safety net into being, despite the pressures of the Great Depression and an imminent global conflict.
The midterms are our only viable legal opportunity to remove both from office. It will not be easy and yes, our elections will not be fully secure. We must overcome the obstacles for our own sake, before this version of the Republican Party succeed in killing the poor, disabled, homeless, starving and ill. Their policies, especially in the Big Ugly Bill are clear in their intent to deprive millions of Americans and more around the world, of the basic needs for their survival.
We must start preparing ourselves for a horrible decision to be made, should we not remove these folks from office next November. We will all have to decide which side of history that we want to be on. This is a deep question to ponder for most. I have long ago made my decision. I will not stand for what Trump and his Republicans are imposing on all of us. I will honor my oath of service to, “protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” I am still a true believer in what our founders envisioned, and centuries of Americans have defended. I chose to side with my forefathers in freedom, come what may.
The way I was raised, being an American is much like farming; we must tend to our fields and animals, in order to harvest what we are capable of by our own toil. If our neighbors need help, I am yet to see a farming community not come to the rescue of their neighbors. We as citizens of this fine nation, must all be farmers now, and tend to our republic as if it were a field of corn or other crops. We must also come to the aid of those abused by their own government and those who wish to be Americans. That’s what real Americans do, and there are double the number of us, than of them. Let’s make our numbers count.
E Pluribus Unum
Paul
Paul, I am not sure how you find the time to write a tome such as this, but it is needed and most welcome. As somebody who depended on Pell Grants for my undergraduate degree(s) and that launched me to grad school and later Chief Economist of the world’s largest power market (PJM) think about the massive talent pool we are damning to desperation and frustration?! Absent that kind of help, I would not have had the opportunities I have! The same goes for the New Deal of FDR or the Great Society programs of LBJ. Hell, even Nixon signed the EPA and Pell Grants into law!
And now, my father who in his 40s fell into hard luck and never recovered but paid into SSI and Medicare/Medicaid is a recipient of these programs. Prior to those those kinds of costs would fall into families who then had to make a choice…help the young provide a springboard to something better or help the elderly who had nothing? What a cruel decision to have to make?
I know I am preaching to the choir, but kudos to you for the blunt and direct message!