In the natural world, beings that are weak and unable to care for themselves are cleansed from existence either through starvation, sickness, or inability to protect themselves or escape predators, and it is best defined by the phrase “survival of the fittest.” Human beings are fortunate in that most of them possess an innate moral drive to assist those unable to care for themselves, and most governments have set in place programs to ensure no citizen will perish because they lack basic necessities of life. There was a government in Europe in the 20th century that instituted a policy of killing off what they considered “defective” human beings, and after the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler’s “Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens” (destruction of life not worthy of life) may be one of the most inhumane practices of the 20th century. Eugenics, whose prime idea was that only genetically ‘suitable’ people should be allowed to live and procreate, has been adopted and tweaked by the Republican Party and their “unsuitable” people are the 47% that Willard Romney complained are parasites he could never teach to take responsibility for their existence.
Within Romney and Republicans 47% of undesirables are senior citizens, poverty-stricken children, and the working poor who need assistance to survive the GOP’s economic malfeasance, and lacking a government-sanctioned eugenics program, Republicans are attempting to exterminate the 47% by withholding food, housing, and healthcare. Besides cutting food and housing assistance for the poor, Republicans have attempted to eliminate the Affordable Care Act because it provides healthcare coverage for the poor thus prolonging their lives, so they are depending on their cohort in Republican states to expedite the demise of millions of poor Americans. In about half the states, Republicans are rejecting Medicaid expansion, and according to their inhumane policies, it is the very poor who will never receive medical care, and although it is not outright extermination, it is a way to kill off the “parasites” and cleanse America of what Republicans label “unsuitable for life.”
The conservative Supreme Court gave Republican-controlled states the ability to restrict the poorest Americans from having access to healthcare when they allowed them to reject Medicaid expansion. The states refusing to expand Medicaid leave millions of poor people ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance while many others with slightly higher incomes receive federal subsidies to buy insurance. In states like Texas, Florida, Kansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia, which refuse to expand Medicaid, the opportunity to have healthcare insurance will be unavailable for the neediest people, and more than half of the population without health insurance reside in states that rejected Medicaid expansion. If the people in those states have income up to four times the poverty line ($11,490 to $45,960 a year for an individual) they receive federal tax credits to subsidize buying private health insurance, but millions of Americans below the poverty line will be unable to get tax credits, Medicaid, or any assistance to purchase healthcare insurance. It is a way for Republicans to slowly kill off the undesirable 47% in GOP-controlled states, and the Urban Institute estimated that 5.7 million uninsured Americans with income below the poverty line could gain access to health coverage except they live in Republican states that are not expanding Medicaid.
In Texas, the executive director of an interfaith group, Texas Impact, said that “A lot of people will come in, file applications and find they are not eligible for help because they are too poor. We’ll have to tell them, you are so poor, you cannot get anything.” Another director of an outreach group, Georgians for a Healthy Future, said “Hundreds of thousands of people with incomes below the poverty level would be eligible for Medicaid if the state moved forward with the expansion of Medicaid. As things now stand, they will not be eligible for anything. What do we do for them? What do we tell them?” Why not tell them the truth that Republicans want them sick and dead, and without a government-sponsored eugenics-type program in place, the next best thing is withholding access to medical care to accompany withholding food assistance.
A Louisiana director of a primary care organization explained that in his state “If the breadwinner in a family of four works full time at a job that pays $14 an hour, he or she will be eligible for insurance subsidies. But if they make $10 an hour, they will not be eligible for anything.” It explains the Republicans’ refusal to consider raising the minimum wage, and why they want to eliminate overtime pay; because if they can prevent the working poor from qualifying for tax credits to buy health insurance, they can deny giving them any healthcare assistance because they don’t make enough money. Bruce Lesley, president of a child advocacy group, First Focus, said “Trying to explain that will be a nightmare,” but he can tell poor children and their parents that it is Republicans’ form of eugenics and maybe convince them that slow death from lack of healthcare is better than being herded into gas chambers.
Republicans hate any American that is not in the 1-2% of the richest income earners, but they cannot tolerate the 47% of Americans they consider a drag on the wealthy. It is true that killing off 5.7 million poverty-level Americans will not make a huge dent in the 47-percents’ numbers, but it is a nice start in eradicating what Republicans call parasites and takers, and they are likely disappointed it is a slow method of exterminating the poor, but it is a death sentence all the same. Republicans cannot claim their refusal to expand Medicaid is a fiscal decision because it will not cost their states one penny until 2017 and then their share is only 10% of the cost of expansion. The people that do earn enough over the poverty level to qualify for assistance should not breathe easy because Republican-controlled states are cutting their wages, robbing pensions, and passing “right to work” for less laws that inform they are in jeopardy of falling into poverty and joining the 5.7 million Americans slated for slow death from lack of healthcare and it includes retired Americans, working poor families, and those who earn enough to receive tax credits to purchase healthcare insurance.
Republicans in Congress have attempted to assist their state-level cohorts in their slow-death eugenics programs for the past two years with their persistent calls for giving states block grants for healthcare, food stamps, and housing assistance and allowing Republican governors and legislatures to use the federal funds as they see fit which is usually more tax cuts for the rich and corporations. It is why high-value corporate donors are pouring money into campaign coffers to elect more Republican governors and state legislatures, because what they cannot accomplish at the federal level, they will achieve in the states as evidence by Republican-controlled states refusing to expand Medicaid as well as cutting every other type of assistance for the 47%.
The idea of killing off poverty level Americans is universally adopted by Republicans, and they have made little secret that denying assistance to the poorest Americans is their raison d’être whether it is wages, healthcare, food stamps, or eliminating Social Security. The 47% have always been a thorn in Republicans’ sides because in their warped minds, any assistance, whether federal or state, is better spent on the rich and their corporations and since they cannot just exterminate the poorest Americans outright, they will deny them food, housing, and basic health care. It may take a generation for Republicans to eliminate 5.7 million poverty level Americans, but at least they will have thinned their ranks and unlike in nature, it is not survival of the fittest, but the economically fittest exterminating the poor.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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