I think we will have to let Obamacare go for a while. I hope it does well, but it can’t. It can’t do well, it’s imploding and soon will explode. — Donald Trump
Just let Obamacare collapse, then challenge the Democrats to come in and help us fix the mess they created. — Senator Lindsey Graham
Let’s parse this out so we are very clear on what is being said.
By “collapse” and “explode” Trump, Graham and the GOP are predicting that the primary health care regulatory framework of the United States will soon cease to function effectively. While that sounds like some abstract legislative event, what they are saying is that as a result of this legislative event American citizens will soon suffer emotional, financial and physical harm, up to and including financial ruin, homelessness, preventable serious medical conditions, and even death, and that this will happen on a massive scale.
The specific reference Trump, Graham and the GOP make to “Obamacare” is an assignment of blame to the opposition party and to President Obama himself. But the concept of blame doesn’t apply unless the harms are preventable. If America’s healthcare problems are acts of God, intractable resource shortages, pandemics, or other external forces then there’s nobody to blame and we just have to figure out how to make the best of a bad situation. But what Trump, Graham and the GOP are saying by assigning blame is that the predicted harms to Americans are entirely preventable.
The word “let” implies a choice. People don’t say “I let the sun rise today” because they had no choice in the matter. “Let” makes sense only in a context where there is a choice to be made and agency with which to make it. Trump, Graham and the GOP are saying that among all possible courses of action available, the “collapse” or “explosion” of our primary healthcare framework and 1/6 of the US economy is a deliberate choice.
Let’s recap:
- Our President and supermajority Republican party predict human suffering in the US on a scale not seen since the Great Depression will soon be upon us.
- Our President and supermajority Republican party claim that this is entirely preventable through improved legislation.
- Our President and supermajority Republican party are intentionally allowing this happen as part of a strategy.
Re-read that as many times as necessary to let all the implications sink in.
Unfortunately for the party, Republicans are so used to thinking of regular Americans as insignificant that they failed to anticipate the full scope of political backlash from passing legislation that harms us by the millions without another party in the mix to which blame can be assigned. When you have a supermajority you have to own the consequences of your legislation, even when that legislation reveals your party to be aspiring kleptocrats and oligarchs. When you make it about class and not ideals, your workaday base not in the elite class isn’t going to play along. Harm enough average Republicans, even they will vote your asses out of office.
The Republican leadership’s response on realizing this is to state openly, in recorded interviews no less, their strategy to allow suffering on a massive scale then exploit that human tragedy for political advantage by blaming it on the Democrats. Deliberately holding Americans under medical siege, playing chicken with 1/6 of the US economy, and inflicting human suffering on a massive scale is the Republican idea of how to win popular support in order to resolve internal party disagreements.
You cannot as legislators claim that the root cause is legislation then openly state that you are going to allow bad legislation to cause human suffering on a massive scale because it makes for good political strategy. Fixing this is not just in your job description it’s in the job title, and by your own words you are abdicating the responsibilities of that job. Do you understand the human implications behind the statement “let Obamacare collapse” and that “let” means intentional choice? When you people give interviews, do you ever stop to look at the plain meaning of the words you use? You should because they reveal you for who you really are.
