I urge readers of The Progressive Populist to read the articles written by Wayne O’Leary and Jake Johnson in the 3/1/24 issue. Both articles are concerned about changes to traditional Medicare. After reading these articles, contact your Congress members to express opposition to making Medicare Advantage the default plan when people retire, and other right-wing privatization schemes.
Medicare Advantage plans were and are a right-wing Republican scheme to privatize Medicare (my comment) and they have largely succeeded, since 54% of seniors are now enrolled in them. The for-profit monster we have for medical care in this country should have been slain in the 1930s. Traditional Medicare, enacted in the Johnson administration, has been there for retirees. It was a compromise, however, of 20% private “Gap” insurance, which Republicans demanded. In spite of that, traditional Medicare is a great program, but short-sighted seniors lured by “Advantages” are trading guaranteed medical care for a privatized insurance company-controlled system, where not only must they pay insurance premiums, but they must also pay co-pays, face denial of care and coverage if they are outside the Advantage Plan network. In other words, we are returning to square one.
Once seniors sign up for an Advantage Plan, it is difficult to switch back, because the Gap insurance comes with pre-existing conditions, like being over 65. The co-pay loophole is big enough to allow for-profit medical care to drive a Mack truck through. Government itself has been complicit in this disastrous change. The playing field is skewed in the direction of Medicare Advantage plans. I will never give up traditional Medicare, but I see a time when it may not be an option. Again, I urge readers of The Progressive Populist to read the O’Leary and Johnson columns and contact their congressional representatives to oppose the right’s efforts to privatize traditional Medicare, and to work to preserve traditional Medicare by supporting measures that level the playing field for traditional Medicare and oppose the default scheme. There are those of us who care deeply about traditional Medicare.
JOHN F. BARKER, Antigo, Wis.
Deficits don’t matter? Politically, that’s correct. But liberals shouldn’t believe the debt a Republican boogeyman to be trotted out against Democratic presidents. As with every capital instrument, the debt steals potential wealth from toilers to give to the wealthy. Debt service annually transfers three-quarters of a trillion dollars to the investing class (claiming cover from grandma’s $50 Savings Bond).
Spot the debt a trillion to fight the World Wars. The rest is entirely a creation of the Boomer generation. It began with Reaganomics. Galloping debt served the unbridled capitalism that has shoved wealth upward, entrenching plutocracy, with attendant homelessness and insecure retirement. It has been facilitated by a lapsed democracy in which (only) money is speech.
Debt alarmists point out that tax increases and entitlement slashes will both burden the middle class. They assume the debt must be whittled down over time. The proper solution, to the contrary, is to erase the debt in one fell swoop. Every American gets to set aside one million dollars of personal assets. The rest gets shoved into a pile, and $34 trillion of it paid to America’s creditors.
“The Cat in the Hat,” a Boomer touchstone, ends with the Cat driving a cleaning machine through the house he has trashed. Radical debt retirement is akin to that magical machine. It is well that Boomers should solve their own debt fiasco. And that will require taking the trillions from folks who have it. (And mostly stuffing it back in the same pockets.)
M. WARNER, Minneapolis. Minn.
Judging by U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s (MTG) behavior at the recent State of the Union address, I fear she has an advanced case of rabies. Someone should get her to a doctor, or perhaps a vet, ASAP. Or, maybe she’s always been inappropriate, obnoxious and mean – one of those girls in junior high who hung out in the restroom so she could beat-up or otherwise humiliate any girl who happened to annoy her. Now as a middle-ager, she’s a poster-adult for a wicked form of arrested development, and a member of Congress – lucky us, not really.
Forgive my sophisticated analysis: if MTG is the new face of the Republican party, complete with her blood-red MAGA hat, we’re all in deep doo doo. Along with her beloved, or at least convenient, leader, The Orange Narcissist, MTG and her ilk could pull this country toward fascism and breathtakingly fast. For those who think I’m being an alarmist, bone-up on world history. The fascist playbook is an old one.
I’m so sick and tired of voting for corporate Democrats, whose party revved up their support of Wall Street at the expense of Main Street decades ago (curse those Clintons), but what’s a progressive to do when no progressives are on the ballot? There’s a time and place to vote for someone who doesn’t have a chance or exercise a protest vote, but now isn’t the time for either. Just get a whiff of what the Republican judiciary is shoveling out into our country and imagine how much worse it could get if the Republicans won the White House and both houses of Congress in the upcoming election. It’s the stuff of nightmares, American style.
So, I’ll do what I’ve done so many times before. I’ll take a clothes pin into the booth of bile, pinch it onto my nose and vote for every Democrat running as I try to keep down the meal churning in my stomach. Yes, it’s a weak form of protest but somehow my silly little ritual helps me through it. The tide is still against us so we must ride the wave once again and never, never give up hope.
SUSAN ODEGARD, Westminster West, Vt.
It Is a tall chest of six drawers that resides in my unused attic room to store seasonal clothing. Other than the steam-bent oak drawer fronts, it is an example of low-cost, early 20th century bedroom furniture. The drawers are rabbeted rather than dovetailed. There are no center guides nor dust panels between drawers. The only distinctive feature is that each drawer has a lock. All six drawers have a mortised lock. The locks were manufactured by the National Lock Company in Rockford, Ill., in 1904. Rockford had more than 30 wood furniture manufacturers so this lock was widely used. These locks were installed almost as an afterthought since the lock itself was low cost and installation in a factory was a simple task needing little effort.
In contrast, for a homeowner to mortise in a lock without carpentry skills is a challenge. If a parent had even one dresser or nightstand with a lock, how many child tragedies would be avoided? How many chidlren killed or injured by an unsecured firearm would be saved? How many children denied access to prescription drugs would still be alive or without serious injury.
I can think of no single regulation having a significant impact on home safety than to require bedroom furniture with one locking drawer. We require tip over protection on furniture and ranges. This addendum to a drawer wouldn’t increase cost since it’s proven by my dresser that the manufacturer, who cut out every feature of quality construction, could still afford to install all six drawers with these locks at almost no cost.
PETER ARDITO, Harvard, Ill.
I have appreciated The Progressive Populist for many years. I have followed the news about Israel and Hamas. I know that not all news is reliable, but I do know what terrorism is and I feel you have concerned the paper with too much concern about the evils of infant killings etc. without a corresponding concern of what Israel is trying to do to protect themselves from terrorism. Hamas has violated previous agreements repeatedly and will not now release hostages. After 17 years of teaching hate to the population — and building tunnels — they should not be surprised about the ravages of the war they created. And neither am I.
BOB CASSIDY, Ojai, Calif
I don’t get it. I simply don’t get it. You know it, your journalists know it. I’m a dolt and even I know it. Why are you all so afraid of it? The wrath of the Pope, the Bishops, the Roman Curia, American Catholics? Even the extraordinary Katrina Vanden Heuvel must know it. All those great authors in The Progressive Populist on the subject of the Supreme Court have no fear of exposing and castigating the extremely reactionary Evangelical Protestant Right. Trump did not come up with those three ultra right judges on the Supreme Court. Leonard Leo did: the powerful D.C. head of Opus Dei. That’s the extremely reactionary, secretive fascist society of the Catholic Church imposing its dogma on Americans. I once read that Alito and Thomas are members. Are there now three more? Dig and ye shall find.
Baffled in Westport.
VINCENT LUTI, Westport, Mass.
Editor’s Note: Being in the Catholic organization Opus Dei might get them on the bishop’s mobile phone contacts list, but being members of the right-wing Federalist Society, of which Leo is a leader, is what got those mooks on the Supreme Court.
From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2024
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