Shut down the Republican Party

Is the ACA Worth Defending?

I don’t really talk about the Republican Party because it is like discussing the Nazi’s before they took power.  Not that I actually believe they ARE Nazis - except emotionally.  So there is really nothing to discuss or debate.  These virulent neo-Confederate reactionaries are mostly scum, especially their 30-member 'Tea Party" wing.  If I hear another southern drawl on TV or the radio talkin’ ‘bout ‘Bamacare” I’ll throw up. 

It was titled the “Affordable Care Act” ("ACA") and all the journalistic outfits that fall in with the Republican description should know better.

There may be moments of Libertarian sense in the Republican Party that oppose the NSA, the bombing of Syria and outlawing of weed, but these moments are more than made up for by the completely reactionary approach towards economics and society at large.  (See "Who is Ron Paul," below.) The Republicans are the joint approach of Neanderthal big capital and bug-eyed exploitative small capital combined in one nationalistic, Christian, authoritarian frenzy. Although here small-capital is in the driver's seat.  Wall Street and the Chamber of Commerce, both Republican heavies, have condemned the shutdown.

After many years of Democratic Party 'compromises' and 'dialog' and 'bi-partisanship' - it is a first that they didn't bail.  The Democrats have been the Republican's chief enablers, not opponents.  Of course, watch out for a solution to this mess.  As they say, 'everything' is still on the table if they'd just let the government function for awhile.  

The underlying premise of the ACA, as I see it, is ‘universal health care.’ This concept is a partial undermining of the sole role of private capital and the 'market' in health care.  Now we know this is an abomination of Single Payer, its bastard Frankenstein, but nevertheless the ACA recognizes ‘in theory’ that all citizens should have health care.  And this, I am convinced, is what has the Republicans up in arms.  They feel health care should be a privilege, fully marketized, and thus totally disconnected from 'guvmint' - as should everything else evidently – like breathing clean air.  Oh, wait, they don’t like that either.  

Even the simple concept of 'government' - other than cops and soldiers and prisons and corporate welfare - seems to be under attack.  The Republicans have boiled government down to its essence - the repressive apparatus.  In this case, you think the NSA, the FBI, the CIA, the prison guards, the army, the federal police are all going home? The Army was given full pay by both the Democrats and the Republicans in an exception vote.  The others have been asked to work now, with a promise of pay later, which is already happening, starting with civilian employees of the Pentagon.

There are many bourgeois aspects of the ACA – primarily that it is being run by Big Pharma and Big HMOs as a monopoly.  That is the essence of private health care, of course.  Romney / Heritage Foundation came up with this method.  The ACA is creating a fuller capitalist monopoly ... but which can one day be turned into a public monopoly, I might add. These massive private entities are a base the Democratic Party leadership wants to cultivate.  It will degrade the quality union health plans that remain.  It refuses to bargain with the capitalist health industry for better prices.  There will be people that are not covered, in spite of the mandate, and people that will get over-priced plans, or plans they cannot afford.  And that last issue will be key, as private capital sets the prices.  I'm sure other issues are out there.

On the plus side of the ledger is that it puts into effect a ban on not covering people due to pre-existing conditions.  It covers young people until 26 under their parents plans – although in Minnesota we’ve had that for years.  It will allow people to quit shitty jobs and move and not lose health care.  What we have now is the expensive joke called “Cobra.”  And ultimately it will cover a part of the millions of people in the U.S. without health care – a sixth of the population of 330 million - and improve the health of those who sign up. It will lead to a reduction in medical bankruptcies. It will unclog emergency rooms. It might even remove the U.S. from being on the bottom rung of world-wide health care statistics.  

The Republican attempt to ‘shut down the government’ is in order to preserve, make no mistake, the death panels of the present private insurance industry as a commodity; to preserve the overpriced and underachieving health care system we have now; to preserve the insecurity of the ordinary worker facing unemployment; to preserve and maintain labor discipline by threatening the 'street' and no coverage.  This is a system where over 50% of U.S. ‘health care’ workers actually work in billing and coordinating the products of tens of thousands of private capitalist medical enterprises, not actual patient care.  This capitalist bureaucracy is one reason why our present private system is so corrupt, inefficient and expensive.  The Republicans have no alternative except leaving this criminal bastard system in charge.  Its broken and they don’t want to fix it.

Something has to be done about their actions.  The Democratic Party has allied with the Republicans on many issues, so their ability to stop this shutdown is questionable.  The population has to get involved.  Ordinary people are angry.  This is why even Marxists can oppose the Republican thugs successful attempt to shut down this capitalist government.  The problems of the ACA are exclusively due to its being a privatized plan, and the leadership of the Democratic Party doesn't want to hear this. 

Up to 800,000 federal workers are being furloughed now.  It is reported that a million more will be asked to work for free!  This is a body blow to the U.S. working class.  National Parks, meat inspections, airline inspections, nutrition assistance - all halted; Heat Start shut-down, parts of the health departments responsible for handling epidemics - the CDC - and many other key roles of government are being put in mothballs.  The unions and every other people’s interest group should call a mass demonstration in Washington D.C. and even occupy the U.S. Capitol.  We should make citizens’ arrests of the 30 Tea Party Neo-Confederates, or keep them locked in their offices.  Lets shut them down.  The people’s assembly could then institute an assembly of the real majority, and send the Neo-Confederates and their allies packing. 

Class war ... without weapons.

Red Frog

October 1, 2013