Every now and then someone will ask innocently, doesn’t Paul Ryan realize that his AHCA plan will drop tens of millions of people from their health care plans? Doesn’t he know the elderly will have to pay much higher premiums? Doesn’t he know how many disabled will have their home care visits cut back if Medicaid is changed to a block grant? Doesn’t he know how many *children* are on Medicaid? How can he hold himself out as some kind of super-Christian while advocating these heartless cuts? Doesn’t he CARE?????
I am writing this out in diary form so I can have something to link to every time I see this comment. And maybe it will help you decide what to say the next time you see it in writing or hear someone say it.
First of all, I am not sure whether Ryan knows.
I am not sure whether he knows about the number of people whose coverage will be lost or the kinds of sacrifices the elderly and the working poor would have to make if the AHCA passes on the second-go-round.
But I am sure he does not care.
I’m 100% sure, or as people who don’t understand math say on the Maury show, I am one zillion percent sure.
Paul Ryan does not give a good God damn about who is covered, who isn't covered, who has insurance, who doesn’t have insurance, whether you die from a preventable illness because you can’t afford to go to the doctor, whether you die from cancer because you waited until you could afford the cost of the screening test (and waited too long), whether you die from an otherwise manageable illness because you can’t afford your medication, whether your great-grandmother dies in a cut-rate nursing facility in agony from dehydration and bedsores because that it is the only place she can afford to live.
Ryan does not care, because benefits coverage is not the main thing he wants to accomplish with his AHCA bill. If he could get away with it, he would propose an Obamacare “replace” bill with the EXACT SAME benefits. Who gets benefits and who doesn’t has nothing to do with why the AHCA is “valuable’” to Paul Ryan.
All he cares about, and I mean *ALL* he cares about, are two tax cut provisions that are buried in the AHCA, and the budget windfall of turning Medicaid into a block grant program.
While most in the reality-based world have been focusing on the cruelty of the proposed benefits cuts with respect to what will be taken away from the poor and needy, very little coverage has been given to the proposed tax cuts with respect to what will be given to the wealthy and greedy.
1. First, Ryan wants to eliminate two surcharges the ACA asks higher-income people to contribute to Medicare.
- an additional 0.9% Medicare surcharge on earned income (wages and tips) over a certain threshold.
- a 3.8% Medicare contribution on unearned income (capital gains, dividends, and some kinds of interest) over a certain threshold
It’s complicated if you are not accustomed to following tax law closely, and I don’t want to get in the weeds about explaining modified adjusted gross income. It’s boring to explain and it makes for poor messaging. But here is my attempt at a simple explanation, and if i get it wrong I know some tax expert at DK will set me straight.
You and I pay a 2.9% Medicare tax on all our wages and tips because we are well below certain income thresholds. Most working folks pay 1.45% and their employer pays the other 1.45%. (If, like me, you are considered self-employed, you have to pay the whole 2.9%. Grrr.)
The ACA asked people with higher wages to pay an additional 0.9% on their wages above a certain threshold--$200,000 for an individual and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.
Also, people with unearned income (Rs like to put unearned in quotes—I don’t) used to be allowed to exempt ALL of their interest, capital gains and dividends income from the Medicare contribution. But to help fund the subsidies, the ACA requires higher income individuals to make a 3.8% Medicare contribution on the amount of their unearned income over the thresholds.
Both the 0.9% surcharge on wages and the 3.8% tax on the excess unearned income would go away immediately, putting thousands of dollars in some folks’ pockets that they can use to buy some nice trinket for themselves.
Fidelity has spelled out some examples here if you want to see the details:
Paul and Ann’s [modified adjusted gross income] is $372,000, of which $330,000 is wages and $42,000 is net investment income. Their MAGI is $122,000 over the $250,000 threshold for married couples filing jointly. They'll owe the 3.8% on their $42,000 of net investment income, because it is less than the amount they are over the MAGI threshold ($122,000). They’ll also owe 0.9% on the $80,000 that their wages are over the $250,000 earned income threshold for married couples filing jointly. Their total Medicare tax surcharge will be $2,316, which includes $1,596 (3.8% of $42,000) and $720 (0.9% on $80,000).
*
2. Even more important, by going to block grants and allowing Rcon governors to be “Rationers-in-Chief” Ryan will eliminate about $800 billion in Medicaid spending, and Ryan needs that money to “pay for” a reduction in the top income tax bracket in the “tax reform” plan Rs hope to bring up later.
Everyone who has been asking why they spent so much political capital on their AHCA bill first, ahead of infrastructure, or “tax reform” or something that would be an easier sell, this is the reason why.
And perhaps they stupidly thought the AHCA would be an easy sell, because they have not been paying attention, or because they thought their caucus would automatically vote for the “repeal and replace” after they themselves had played such a large role in the brainwashing of the populace to hate Obamacare. I mean, the first 60 repeal votes were supposed to be like that sales technique where you get the mark I mean the customer to say yes to several other questions so they will be primed to say yes when you ask to make the final sale!
He needed TrumpCare first because Speaker ZEGS must make that $800 billion savings on the backs of children, the elderly, the disabled and the working poor, in order to pay for crony infrastructure handouts and a reduction in the top tax bracket. EVERYTHING Rcons want to do budgetwise depends on getting their hands on that $800 billion dollars.
The bottom line:
At the same time the elderly and working poor will have to pay more to get fewer insurance benefits, people who are already living comfortably will get a windfall. This is a message we need to repeat and repeat and repeat.
At the same time that children, the disabled, the elderly and the working poor will get fewer Medicaid benefits, people who are already living comfortably will get a reduction in their top tax break. This is a message we need to repeat and repeat and REPEAT.
It will sting because Rcons hate it when anyone notices their reverse Robin Hood income redistribution.
Make them own it. Make them explain it. Make them justify it. Bring it to the attention of the average Joe and Jane, especially the average Joe and Jane who are facing life-threatening benefit cuts.
When Paul Ryan calls the ACHA “valuable” it’s for these because he needs to give those two direct tax cuts to the well-off in the R base: eliminating their fair share contribution to Medicare costs, and reducing the top tax bracket from 39% to 36%.
Three percent doesn’t sound like a lot and it isn’t a lot if you don’t make much money.
But if you have high wages and unearned income, three percent is a whole bunch. This chart says it all:
And Time Magazine helpfully points out that the chart doesn't show the windfall for people making more than $1,000,000 a year. They will get an average tax cut of $51,400 and “that figure accounts for 46% of tax savings for all taxpayers”, so when Republicons start bragging about how much money they are saving people, push back on the fact that almost half the tax savings will go to people making more than one million dollars a year.
So yeah. TrumpCare is really “valuable” to Paul Ryan and Republicon granny-starving dreams of paying for a tax cut for millionaires by taking benefits from children, the elderly, the disabled and the working poor.
THAT is the message we need to get out there somehow when Speaker ZEGS tries to bring TrumpCare/RyanCare/TryanCare/DonTCare/Eleph-I-Care up for a vote again. And you know he will. He has to. He needs to get that $800 billion from somewhere.
It’s bad enough that they want to take benefits away from people who need them and will die without them.
They are doing it to put thousands and in some cases tens of thousands of dollars in the pockets of people who are not struggling in the same way as lower income Americans are.
If we get the truth out about who benefits financially from this bill, it will generate even more opposition to TrumpCare than currently exists.
REPEAL AND REPLACE ALL REPUBLICONS!
money. that’s what he wants.
PREVIOUS TRUE BLUE REPORT diaries
Mar 28: Nipping at their heels
Mar 27: In cheering Republicon failures, think like a surgeon
Mar 26: Dare we hope the tide is turning? Or is that unrealistically optimistic?
Mar 25: Sheldon Whitehouse, Al Franken, Bobby Brooks, Betsy Anderson, ACA phone callers
Mar 24: HaHaHa-Ha-Ha You’re gonna need Congressional approval and you don’t have the votes
Mar 23: Rcons hate Obamacare for selfish, greedy, racist reasons, but not enough to fix it.
Mar 22: Neil Gorsuch’s attempt to seem wide-eyed and innocent makes him look even worse
Mar 21: Using Trump as a bad example—no Trump Sleep, Trump Food or other Trump habits
Mar 20: Is DJT a compulsive liar, or out of touch with reality? Five scenarios...
Mar 19: A budget is a moral document—a statement of public compassion
Mar 18: Ribbons: CBO scorers, Senate Intelligence Committee, Judge Derrick Watson
Mar 17: They know DJT is lying. Here’s one sad reason they follow him anyway.
Mar 16: Mick Mulvaney's ignorant, callous, evil, Republicon definition of compassion
Mar 15: Message Discipline 101—Pushback against Rcon talking points re DJT 2005 tax return
Mar 14: Message Discipline 101—Pushback against Rcon talking points about Obamacare repeal
Mar 13: Culture, Civilization, Rural America, Working Families—the missing word is a “tell”
Mar 12: The Rcon definition of Christians is as wrong as the Rcon definition of Democrats.
Mar 11: Ribbons: A Day Without a Woman, Native Nations Rise, Voting Rights Act still lives
Mar 10: How to talk to people who have trouble understanding actions have consequences
Mar 9: Where’s the fire? The real reason Rs are trying to rush TrumpCare through Congress
Mar 8: Message Discipline 101: TrumpCare, RyanCare, GOPCare, DonTCare—what’s in a name?
Mar 7: How very hard it is for a woman to go a day without paid (or unpaid) work
Mar 6: Can DJT really be stumbling into the exact investigation we want?
Mar 5: How is it even possible that deplorables see a man of faith when they look at DJT?
Mar 4: Blue Ribbon Winners—Chris Hayes, Malcolm Nance, Cierra Fields
Mar 3: I’m glad Bannon, Conway, Carson, Sessions, Miller, et al. are in the DJT Administration
Mar 2: “In every major fire it always starts with smoke. And smoke is what kills you.”
Mar 1: Am I the only one whose skin crawled at the Carryn Owens BIRGing moment?
FEBRUARY
Feb 28: Spinspotting 101: Special Prosecutor for what? It’s so easy to answer that question
Feb 27: Spinspotting 101: I’ve seen no evidence because I haven’t looked for any evidence!
Feb 26: If Neil Gorsuch were a man of integrity, he would decline the S.Ct. appointment
Feb 25: True Blue Ribbons: Russia Flag trolling, Dixie Swastika grabbing, District Days demonstrating
Feb 24: There is no such thing as a compassionate conservative
Feb 23: Chief of Staff, Nat’l Security Advisor, GOP Head, President Bannon—too many hats!
Feb 22: DJT has a few questions for you—SMURF THIS POLL!
Feb 21: The end of “access journalism” means it’s time to #sendtheinterns
Feb 20: KAC lying low for now… can we banish her (and all her ilk) from the airwaves completely?
Feb 19: DeVos cartoon, Ruby Bridges, unearned unhappiness and childlike faith
Feb 18: Blue Ribbon Winners—Vice Adm. Harward, Melissa McCarthy, and intel whistleblowers
Feb 17: And Ain’t I an American?
Feb 16: Please tell your family and friends—If you regret your DJT vote, speak up NOW
Feb 15: R-supported forced childbirth laws deny the autonomy of women
Feb 14: What did the president know? Everything. When did he know it? From the beginning.
Feb 13: Coping with The Madness of King Donald by hoping political comedy will save us
Feb 12: The Poverty and Justice Bible
Feb 11: Blue Ribbon Winners—Swastika removers, Ninth Circuit Panel, and the Persisterhood!
Feb 10: The first three words of the Constitution are “We, the People” not “I, the President”
Feb 9: Who first inspired your political activism? Who inspires you now?
Feb 8: We cannot and will not be silenced—Here’s what to do if they try to silence you
Feb 7: Plain Talk Tuesday: Tell people the Affordable Care Act is the same as OBAMACARE
Feb 6: Interview Skills 101—Internalized oppression and what Ryan Lizza did right. BRAVO!
Feb 5: These protest signs with Bible cites will confuse and befuddle RWNJs
Feb 4: Blue Ribbon Winners—Temple B’Nai Israel, Judge Robart, CNN, Senate Phone Callers
Feb 3: Not rich, not smart, not a good businessman, not a winner—DJT is NOTHING he claims to be
Feb 2: Thursday action—Encouragement, thanks, and apologies (pick one or more)
Feb 1: July 7, 2009 to August 25, 2009 and September 25, 2009 to February 4, 2010
JANUARY
Jan 31: If you’re on overload that’s part of their plan—there’s more than one way to #resist
Jan 30: Interview Skills 101 for reporters attempting to interview KAC and other Rcons
Jan 29: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness
Jan 28: Blue Ribbon Winners—Women's March participants and #NoMuslimBan demonstrators and...
Jan 27: I wish Steve Bannon would tell me to keep my mouth shut
Jan 26: Thursday Action—Have you ever written a letter to the editor? Here’s how to start
Jan 25: The Asch Conformity Study, inauguration crowds, and the importance of speaking out
Jan 24: #ResistTrumpTuesday—good news day or another paying dues day?
Jan 23: Spy the Lie 101: How to enjoy watching Rcon spokesbot interviews, even KAC!
Jan 22: Why I prayed for the President* today
Jan 21: The only silver lining in the midst of these clouds
Inaugural (!) diary: Stop expecting Republicons to make sense