Politics 2020

I think about politics a lot, but I don’t often write about it on my blog.  I like to think my blog is about bringing people together – not driving them apart. True, my views tend to be on the progressive side of the spectrum.  But my objective is to persuade those who are open to persuasion on issues I believe to be important.  These include climate change and health care.

Not so long ago, many conservative voices recognized the reality of climate change and agreed with the
overwhelming majority of scientists that human activity was driving that change.  Their disagreement with progressives was over the appropriate mechanism for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change.  Conservatives preferred market-based approaches, such as cap and trade, which use economic incentives to reduce carbon emissions.  Progressives preferred the regulatory approach which would impose increasingly stringent emission limits.

Then, around twenty years ago, some in the conservative community adopted a different approach, questioning the science of climate change.  As time went by, those voices became louder culminating in the election of a president who denied what scientists were saying and called climate change a hoax.  As a result, now it is nearly impossible to find a conservative who supports any steps whatsoever to address the impending climate crisis. 

In the 2020 campaign for president, Donald Trump has given no indication that he has changed his mind about climate change being a hoax.  While a National Geographic article states emphatically, “Climate change exacerbates the factors that create perfect fire conditions,” candidate Trump blames raging West coast wildfires on poor management, including the failure to rake leaves in the forest.  In contrast, Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, is proposing a detailed plan “to achieve a 100% clean energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050.”

As with climate change, universal health care coverage was at one time a bipartisan goal.  The main disagreement was over the role of the government in providing that coverage.  In 2006, under Republican Governor Mitt Romney, Massachusetts passed a health care program that provided coverage to nearly all citizens of that Commonwealth.  The Massachusetts program, later dubbed, “Romneycare,” is often cited as the model for the federal Affordable Care Act enacted under President Barack Obama in 2010.  Despite strenuous efforts by Obama to obtain bipartisan support for the ACA, not a single Republican voted for the law’s passage.  Instead, Republicans have tried for a decade since its passage to repeal it.  President Trump is currently asking the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the law in its entirety.

Among its most popular provisions, the ACA prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to applicants who have a pre-existing condition.  It also provides that young adults can stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26. Prior to the ACA, young adults were cast off their parents’ insurance as soon as they ceased to be full time students, which could be as early as 18.  The ACA also eliminated yearly and lifetime coverage limits which allowed insurers to refuse to pay claims after a certain dollar amount was exceeded.

Joe Biden has a plan to protect and expand the Affordable Care Act.  Among other things, Biden wants to provide a public insurance option, like Medicare, to compete with coverage being offered by private insurance companies. 

Donald Trump has been teasing the public for nearly four years that he has a health care program far better than what is provided by the ACA.  The Trump plan is always a few days or a few weeks away, but it never seems to arrive.  Whether a Trump health care plan exists is questionable.

There are many reasons to vote for Joe Biden to be our next President rather than re-electing Donald Trump.  Honesty, decency, temperament, and competence quickly come to mind.  But if you want to take positive steps to save the planet from a climate crisis, you must vote for Biden.  And if you care about Americans having access to affordable health care, especially when millions are getting infected and hundreds of thousands are dying from a global pandemic, then you must vote for Joe Biden. 

I am happy to say I have already cast my vote for Joe, and I have received confirmation from my County’s voter services office that my ballot has been received.  If you feel the same way, please vote.  This year there are plenty of options in Pennsylvania and they are described at votespa.com.

I don’t much like to write about politics, but at this juncture, silence is simply not an option.