Raymond Chandler’s famous detective, Phillip Marlowe, once
said of a small town he visited on a case, “… It’s probably no crookeder than
Los Angeles. But you can only buy a
piece of a big city. You buy a small town like this all complete, with the original
box and tissue paper.” The same can be
said of big countries and small states.
That is exactly what is going on in the Senate right now.
Under the Graham-Cassidy bill large sums of money would be transferred
from Blue states that opted for the Medicaid expansion to Red states that didn’t.
Senator Cassidy has been sniveling for sometime about the “unfairness” of
states like California and New York receiving more funding under the ACA’s
Medicare expansion then Louisiana and Nevada. It seems to escape the notice of
Cassidy that the Red states in question had as much opportunity to accept the
expansion as Blue states. They refused. The funds transferred to the Red states
would, in theory, provide a much reduced version of healthcare benefits to the
citizens. The distribution of the money
would be left up to the states.
There are many names for this kind of thing. Bribery would be one, cajoling Red states
Senators to vote yes on this abomination of a bill. That is what is in the
works with Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. It
has worked with Dean Heller of Nevada.
Another word could be a chisel, meaning a cheat or a con. Many people, your author included, believe
that the cuts in ACA funding will eventual end up in the pockets of the wealthy
by way of tax cuts be they in Red states or Blue.
Raymond Chandler’s idea of crooked is as good as any. Crooks ferment corruption. He was an expert
on corruption, studying it in the Los Angeles of the 1930’s. It was a dark theme
running through his stories. Phillip
Marlowe was driven and isolated by a need to battle corruption endlessly. So, “crooked” works. The whole damn thing known as Graham-Cassidy is
crooked; not because they have lied about it, they have; not because they lie
for a living, they do; but because it is not about health care or public policy
or serving their constituents. No, it is about scoring a win for their donors
and the man in the White House.
Consider the cynicism, the selfishness, the crudity and
cruelty that it takes to throw millions of Americans off of the ACA and risk
their lives, limbs and solvency to put a win on the political scoreboard. Think
about what it means to have such people running the country. And think about
the fact that if after all of this nightmare is said and done, whether this
bill passes or not, if we haven’t been shaken out of our apathy than we deserve
exactly what we get.
Chris Carter said, through his character Fox Mulder, “Liars
don’t fear the truth if there are enough liars.” However, that was 15 years
ago. It was before social media replaced
the 4th Estate as the glaring light that intrudes into dark chambers
and deep holes to expose the secrets of those who prefer to work without light.
It was before people like Rachel Maddow and NPR started obtaining any bill
under consideration with a few key strokes or through carefully cultivated
sources and exposing them to the light.
So, while liars don’t fear the truth if there are enough liars, they
certainly must fear the truth when there is more light than liars.
