The President of the United States has COVID-19. There are so many things that I could say, but what I want to talk about is the fact that while he receives free healthcare, thousands upon thousands of people are uninsured because they can’t afford insurance, and I’m one of those people.
To make matters worse, he is asking that the Supreme Court repeal the Affordable Care Act, which will strip insurance coverage for 20 million people!
I am not interested in the whole “that’s a perk of his job” talk. I’m also not interested in the “he deserves it because he donates his salary.” Neither of those things help make my point. My point is that we live in the richest country in the world and people are dying because of our shoddy healthcare system, and here we are again, brainwashed to think that it’s okay for us to watch the rich have every basic need met by our taxpayer dollars while we will rip food right out of our neighbor’s mouth because we don’t feel as if they are worthy of help.
You know, when you struggle with poverty and rely on government assistance programs, you hear a lot of stuff from people. One of my favorite lines is “get off your lazy ass and get a job,” because the assumption is that if you can’t make enough to survive without the government’s help then you’re doing something wrong.
Immediately, people begin to point the finger at you with their assumptions about your life. You hear all the time that people are tired of working and giving their tax dollars to pay for your family. But yet we defend the fact that the wealthiest people get the perks.
Not So Cut and Dry
If we would stop and think about the hypocrisy in our systems we might realize that we shouldn’t be fighting each other. I shared a story a couple of weeks ago about a friend who has to stay in poverty so her son’s meds, which cost around $60,000 a MONTH, are covered. Our healthcare system has her trapped her in a box with very little breathing room, and yet she’s probably been told that she’s lazy or to stop having kids that she can’t afford by the same people who feel it’s okay for their tax dollars to pay for free healthcare for some of our nation’s wealthiest people.
I have heard a lot over the last three years about how we subsidize poor folks with our tax dollars without a choice. People become so angry when they think about that estimated $36 a year going to the food stamp program, stating that they’re tired of paying for poor people to eat better than they are. And see, the thing is that it’s not so cut and dry.
Check this out: Not all major corporations pay their employees a living wage. In fact, it’s not uncommon for people not to be given full-time hours in some of these jobs so the business doesn’t have to provide benefits.
So, what happens?
Well, their employees are forced to receive assistance from government programs to survive. Let’s start framing this for what it really is: we’re subsidizing big corporations’ wages and benefits for their employees. And in the meantime, they receive large tax cuts while we, the taxpayers, continue to place the blame on the employees and allow this system to continue.
The Nerve
Members of Congress receive healthcare. They also, and you might have heard this from me before, receive $40,000 a year for office furniture. Yet, here we are, sick and tired of being so sick and tired. Why do we believe that they are automatically entitled to a lavish free lifestyle? Working as a politician means that they are hired to make the best decisions for us. I don’t care if it’s a mayor or a board of education member or the president; they are supposed to listen to and represent our needs once elected.
But we allow them to hide from us, not answer their phones, not answer their emails, and blow smoke in our ears when we have an issue.
Why do we not have enough nerve to call them on it?! We don’t have enough nerve because we’ve allowed the government to become a place where people like us aren’t really welcome, and we gave up the fight for our justice. We gave up the right to have our basic needs met because we believe that those in power and wealthy are automatically entitled to a better quality of life, which is ludicrous.
I’m not saying that I don’t believe government officials shouldn’t have healthcare, but I am saying that we are all worthy of a system that is just and equitable. Anything else is unAmerican.
Onward,
Amy Jo
