Tom Toles for September 22, 2017

Too many blockheads in Congress on the right side of the aisle, and the wrong side of almost every issue when it comes to defending the real America, and Americans.

Republican penury will kill the financial markets through unchecked greed and corruption, and will kill the national and global economies through strangulation.

Well that’s the plan. Economy crashes everyone but the rich starves and the rich are left with the lot. Sort of like a private equity corporate takeover. :(

Toles is ALWAYS cleverly-correct. This Wikipedia-page explains that “block grants” tend to fail re national needs: We Lefties have complained-ag’inst-‘em o’er my many decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_grant

How cruel. At least chisel in a blood gutter. Waste not, want not.

If my father had not moved my family to Canada. my mother, a sister and myself would likely be dead by now or be in debt until we were dead. Talk about “sad” Mr. Trump.

Better yet do serious work towards improving the act.

Could someone point out the section of the Constitution that allows a Congress to not serve ‘we the people’ , just their extremist base?

Speaking of shocking things (as so many people are these days), the following is from James Babington Macaulay’s THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF JAMES II:

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[Charles I] “Faithlessness was the chief cause of his disasters, and is the chief stain on his memory …There is reason to believe he was perfidious, not only from constitution and from habit, but on principle. He seems to have learned from the theologians whom he most esteemed that between him and his subjects there could be nothing of the nature of a mutual contract; that he could not, even if he would, divest himself of his despotic authority, and that in every promise which he made there was an implied reservation that such promise might be broken in case of necessity, and that of necessity he was the sole judge.”

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Does this sound like anybody we know today?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_England_from_the_Accession_of_James_the_Second

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http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/stuart-england/the-trial-and-execution-of-charles-i/

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http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/king-charles-i-executed-for-treason

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I’m sure that comments from English readers could enlighten us to what happened in the years following that execution. Executions often do not solve political problems, as we see even today.

Best definition of “block” grants I have ever seen.

Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock.

The Kochs promised to give the GOP $400 million if they vote to repeal Obamacare. This new bill is expected to cause 32 million people to lose their healthcare, (It could be more. Who knows? They don’t want to give the CBO a chance to score it!) therefore $400 million dollars donation divided by 32 million people kicked off of healthcare equals $12.50 per person to let people die without healthcare.

$400,000,000 ÷ 32, 000,000 = $12.50 each. That’s what it costs for Republicans to sell out Americans. That’s how much Republicans value an American life: $12.50 each.

@Kip W

Yeah, Gilbert and Sullivan could have a LOT of fun with Trump, Trump supporters, Trump apologists, Trump ex and current wives……..

Is the ACA flawed? Sure it is. It was a Republican plot hatched by the conservative Heritage Foundation to funnel money from US taxpayers into the treasuries of the big insurance companies. It was field-tested in Massachusetts by Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. All sorts of Republicans were in favor of it until Barack Obama came along and said “OK, you won’t do the right thing, let’s at least do this so we can get tens of millions of people out of the ranks of the uninsured.” Only then did the GOP discover how much they were against it.

It’s like Bill Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay people in the military. Yeah, it was a half measure and had its problems, but it was a step on the road to getting it right, which we eventually did by instituting full equality.

And the ACA is halfway toward national health care, which is the ultimate solution adopted by every other industrialized democracy on the planet, and overwhelmingly approved of by the citizens thereof, producing top-quality health care for all without the huge expense entailed by the 25-35% overhead imposed on Americans by the for-profit health industry (I refuse to call it a “system”, because that implies design). Medicare, by contrast, gets by on 2% administrative overhead.

Sure is broken, it is Republican after all that the Right Wing Democrats lead by then Pres. Obama took a shine to despite his talk of “single payer” eh was never for it in his heart of hearts. WE could afford and we can also leave the Health care corps too for any who have the money or don’t trust medicare for all.

How many times are they going to try to shoot it down???

After Reading all this, the punchline being $12.50 for each person! is the saddest thing I’ve ever read! and knowing it’’s true is the saddest thing I’ve heard. Remember yourself at age 3 or 4, a your parents told you how good life was going to be for you because you were such a swell kid? The cute as a button little one who learned about 5 new things a day, Look at a picture of your self and your kids if they are little. Then think $12.50 is all you or they are worth. And all your hopes and dreams, you will be thrown lifeless onto a pile of dead neighbors. Knowing this is the plan worked out by 400 or fewer people who hold all the money and wherewithal to do this to the rest of us. How does that make You feel? do’n’t they think that about a million or so of us are a little bit Alarmed by this?

Usually politicians sell us out for less.