It’s time to kick the bums out of office.
Right now, millions of Americans across 23 states are uninsured, because their Republican lawmakers have refused to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.
As a result, they fall into the “Red State Doughnut Hole,” that was drilled into Obamacare by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and his four right-wing buddies. The Supreme Court said that states could refuse to take federal money to pay to insure working poor people, and Republican governs have jumped at the opportunity.
Millions of Americans are unable to afford life-saving health care, because Republicans would rather play politics than protect people’s lives.
In fact, the rate of uninsured Americans is a staggering 50 percent higher in Republican-controlled states.
In Florida alone, 750,000 Floridians are without insurance, because Rick Scott thought that a political win was more important than a person’s life. Harvard researchers estimate that six people in Florida die every day because of Governor Scott’s decision.
Charlene Dill was one of them.
Charlene was a hardworking single mom, who worked three jobs to help make ends meet.
Last year, Charlene made just $11,000 cleaning houses and babysitting. She used that money to help put food on the table for her children, and to put a roof over their heads.
Charlene also had a severe heart condition, but she couldn’t afford the proper treatment for it, because she didn’t have health insurance.
Despite her health woes, Charlene continued to work three jobs, and continued to be the best mother that she could be for her children.
But then one day late last month, when she was in a neighbor’s house trying to sell a vacuum cleaner, Charlene died from her untreated heart disease.
She died because multimillionaire Rick Scott chose to play politics, rather than protect the lives of the Florida citizens he is supposed to be serving.
But now, it looks like people are figuring out how sick and twisted this Republican political strategy is.
New polling suggests that Republican opposition to Obamacare, and to expanding Medicaid for millions of Americans, is a losing strategy.
Recent polling carried out by Public Policy Polling shows that Republican governors in five states who have opposed expanding Medicaid under Obamacare are in serious danger of losing their bids for re-election.
Maine Governor Paul LePage and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett are both losing in the polls right now, while Georgia Governor Nathan Barrow and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback are also losing out to Democratic challengers.
Voters in all four of those states overwhelmingly want their governors to expand Medicaid.
Meanwhile, in Florida, polling shows that by a 58-33 percent margin, Floridians want Rick Scott to stop playing politics with people’s lives, and to accept federal funding for Medicaid expansion.
Right now, Rick Scott is losing out to Democratic challenger and former Florida governor Charlie Crist by a 49-42 margin.
That’s because Floridians realize that not only should all Floridians have access to affordable and life-saving health care, but that states that have refused to expand Medicaid under Obamacare have to give up $35 billion in federal funding in 2016. That’s a ton of money.
But let’s hope that these polling numbers aren’t just numbers, and that they turn into results come November.
Because, if Republicans across the country play politics with people’s lives, there will be thousands of more stories like Charlene Dill’s.
A study by researchers at Harvard University and the City University of New York found that as many as 17,000 Americans will die this year directly as a result of Republican states refusing to expand Medicaid under Obamacare.
We can prevent those deaths.
On November 4th, 2014, millions of us will go to the polls, and we’ll have a choice: re-elect Republican lawmakers who care more about politics than people’s lives, or kick them out of office, and let Democrats expand Medicaid, so that millions more Americans will have access to affordable and life-saving health care.
Let’s stop the Republican’s life-and-death political game, so that there don’t have to be any more mothers like Charlene Dill who die unnecessarily.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy