The Republican machinations to end healthcare for millions of Americans often defy logic. Yesterday, Wisconsin's dumb Senator, Ron Johnson, did a press conference with fellow Senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Bill Cassidy. The four wanted to make it clear that the"skinny" GOP Bill to end healthcare was unacceptable. They wanted to express their hope that the awful bill would never become law.
Graham called the bill a "disaster", "a fraud", "terrible policy", and "a half-assed approach". The bill would kick millions off of healthcare and result in 20% premium increases over current projections for years to come. Late last night, Graham, Johnson, and Cassidy voted for the bill anyway.
On his turn to speak at the press conference, Senator Johnson told the woeful tale of a couple, Shari and Vern Colby of River Falls, Wisconsin. Vern drives a milk truck 60-70 hours a week. Shari works for a florist. The couple evidently bought insurance on the Exchange. They believed themselves eligible for Premium Tax Credits and received these as advanced payments, greatly lowering the costs of their monthly premiums. At the end of the year, Shari and Vern found that they had made too much money to qualify for the tax credits. They were required to repay the credits that they had already received, amounting to about $15,000.
According to Johnson, the couple had to tap their 401K to repay the government. He claimed that they had to sell their house to get the rest of the money.
Naturally, Johnson didn't mention the benefits that the Colbys gained from the ACA. Shari had a pre-existing condition. Before the ACA, she may not have been able to buy health insurance at any price. If she could have found an insurer, the couple might have paid much more than the $15,000 tax credit plus any monthly payments that they had already made. Before the ACA, nobody was eligible for government help in paying the ever-rising cost of insurance.
The couple was victim of one of the most easily-fixable flaws of the current ACA. The Premium Tax Credit is available to people who make up to 400% of the federal poverty level. Last year, that was $63,720 for a family of two like the Colbys. The law provides that nobody under the 400% income cap pays more than 9.66% of their income on health insurance.
However, the fixable flaw is that people earning even one dollar over 400% of the poverty level are ineligible for any tax credit. One more dollar of income can be the difference between a $12,000 credit and nothing. Unlike most other tax credits that gradually phase-out with higher income, this premium tax credit has a dramatic income cliff. I know. We buy our insurance on the exchange and have had to deal with this very provision.
Johnson admitted that nothing the Republicans are doing in any of the proposals are addressing the challenges and problems of people like Shari and Vern. Johnson and his GOP colleagues could have worked with the Democrats any time during the last seven years. Together, they could have addressed flaws in the ACA such as the one that tripped-up the Colbys. Instead, they obstructed any efforts to fix the law.
If Johnson really cared about people like the Colbys, he and his fellow Republicans could solve their problem immediately. He could eliminate the income-cliff over which the Colby's tumbled. He could submit a bill to gradually taper-off the tax credit for higher income workers. But no, Johnson would rather benefit politically from the Colby's misfortune. He would rather use their case as an excuse to take healthcare away from tens of millions of Americans and to gut Medicaid. He would rather throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Johnson, who has called the Affordable Care Act "the worst assault on freedom in our lifetimes", would rather sit on his hands with his nihilist Republican colleagues, hoping against hope that the ACA will fail. He would rather let the Colbys be suffering pawns in a cruel political game.
Maybe Johnson could stop playing politics and think of his constituents for a change. With last night's failure to repeal the ACA, he could actually work with Democrats to fix the law and make it stronger. Instead of whining about injustice, he could tweak the law so that he could help people like the poor Colbys
While growing up, my Dad often repeated the ancient Persian saying:
"I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet."
This adage reflects the truth that no matter how bad your situation is, there is probably someone even worse off. They are coping with their predicament, and so can you. So, quit whining. Suck it up.
Just last week, I was in a situation in which the old wisdom applied perfectly. I had traveled to my hometown of Tipton, in north-central Indiana, for my (ordinal number deleted) high school class reunion. The Tipton County Fair was happening the same weekend. With a little time to kill during the day, and little else to do in this town of 5,000 people, I paid a visit to the fair.
In the fair's commercial building, I was happy to see a booth for the local Tipton County Democrats. It was in a prime, high traffic area. It was well-decorated. Best of all, it was staffed by three enthusiastic workers.
This proud waving of the Democratic flag was a welcome surprise. During my youth, my county was always a deep red one. The state legislative politicians were reliably Republican. A perennial sacrificial Democratic candidate always lost against our GOP Congressman. No Democrat has won the county in a Presidential race since the 1964 massacre by Lyndon Johnson.
The current political scene is no different. Tipton County, like much of Indiana, is prime Trump territory. It is 98% white. The area has historically been a heavy manufacturing region, with many auto industry suppliers. However, hard times hit and several big factories closed. Promises to revive American manufacturing are very enticing to voters here.
Last year, Trump carried the county with 74.4 % of the vote. Trump carried the entire state of Indiana with 57.2% of the vote.
In contrast, my own Washington County, Wisconsin went only 67.8% for Trump. That is, Tipton County was 6.6% more Trumpian than Washington County (the 3rd most Trump-loving Wisconsin county). My birth county makes my adopted Washington County seem downright progressive.
Trump carried Wisconsin with only 47.9% of the vote. Trump's share of the votes in Indiana was almost ten percent higher than his share in Wisconsin. My birth state makes my adopted Wisconsin seem downright liberal.
But even in deep red Tipton County, in the heart of deep red Indiana, the Tipton County Democrats know that they can make a difference. Despite having little hope at the local level, they can help elect Democrats at the state and national level. And they have. Senator Evan Bayh represented Indiana for two terms and was Governor for eight years. Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly currently serves the state. As recently as 2008, the state voted Democratic for President Obama.
So I will stop crying because I have no shoes. Suddenly, being a Washington County Democrat doesn't seem like such an overwhelmingly lost cause. I have seen enthusiastic Democrats working one of the reddest crowds in America. I have seen hardworking county-fair volunteers waving the progressive flag in deeply Republican Tipton County, Indiana. If they can do it there, we can certainly do it here.
There are three separate "school choice" programs in Wisconsin. One applies to Milwaukee, one to Racine, and one covers the rest of the state. The common bond among the various schemes is that we, the hardworking taxpayers of Wisconsin, are forced to pay for the religious indoctrination of other people's children.
According to the DPI, there were 33,076 students in the three tuition giveaway programs in January 2017. Wisconsin spent almost $245 million on religious school vouchers for last school year alone. The tuition grants amounted to $7,323 for students in grades K-8 and $7,969 for high school students.
The ever-expanding statewide program is called the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program (WPCP). Of the 155 schools enrolled next year in WPCP, every last one is a religious school. Not a single Montessori school. Not a single non-religious college prep academy. Not a single trade school.
The religious schools your taxes fund in the WPCP are primarily Lutheran (45%) and Catholic (38%). The other schools are an assortment of fundamentalist Christian (15%), Jewish (1%) and Muslim (1%). The participating schools in the Milwaukee and Racine programs are also overwhelmingly religious ones.
But that is not all. In addition to the publicly-funded tuition vouchers for religious schools, Wisconsin gives a big tax deduction to parents who send their children to private schools. This deduction amounts to $10,000 per pupil for high school and $4,000 for K-8. It is no big surprise that the bulk of this tax giveaway goes to the richest Wisconsinites. According to the Department of Revenue, about two-thirds of the benefits go to the top 13% of individual taxpayers. The state loses $12 million of revenue a year thanks to this unnecessary tax break.
There are many reasons why the public should not be forced to pay for private religious schools. We hear frequent horror stories of schools locking their doors in the middle of the school year after management absconds with tuition money. Study after study shows poorer student performance for private schools compared to public ones.
However, my biggest objection to these programs is that taxpayer funding of any religious school is simply wrong. Separation of Church and State is one of the founding principles of America. If parents wish to send their children to religious schools, that is fine. They (and their church/Kingdom Hall/temple/synagogue/mosque) should pay for that themselves. It should not be my responsibility to fund the religious instruction of other people's children.
Using my tax dollars to teach religion in religion classes is bad enough. As a scientist, what really burns me is the teaching of religion in science classes. Many of these schools, especially ones associated with Lutheran and other fundamentalist Christian groups, teach Creationism. This pseudo-scientific hogwash ignores the reality of modern Geology, Paleontology, Astronomy, Physics, Archeology, and Biology in favor of Genesis creation myths.
Let's look at science course offerings for just one typical taxpayer-funded voucher school, Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School, in Jackson, WI. The course description for Biology states, "Human biology will also be applied to each sub-unit, with particular emphasis on combating evolutionary theories with the truths of God’s creation."
Advanced Biology at the school is no better. The course's purpose is listed as "God created all things in the first six days of creation. In the book of Proverbs, God encourages us to get wisdom and understanding. These two provide huge foundations for the purposes of this course."
From Advanced Biology's course description, "The course will develop growing Christians who will be able to proficiently apply the timeless truths of God's holy, inerrant word to their study of organisms. " The syllabus describes one of the units as "Early evolution of life, the so called “evidence” for evolution, Mechanisms of evolution, A closer look at Creation."
This is just from one school, but Kettle Moraine is fairly typical. Many of these voucher schools teach similar creationist flim-flam in trying to prop-up their version of religion. Wisconsin state laws that mandate this taxpayer-supported dumbing-down of society do America a great disservice.
GOP politicians in Madison are forcing state taxpayers to fund religious schools. We pay for these schools through direct tuition payments, as well as through generous tax breaks. This funding comes at the expense of our public schools. With sympathetic ears to school voucher expansion in both Madison and Washington, this bad situation will only get worse.
