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Health Insurance v. Health Care

The central problem with health care in the United States is its cost. That’s the cost of health care, not the cost of health insurance. The high and growing cost of health insurance as it affects each of us is what we all talk about. The cost of the care itself is the elephant in the room that many seem unable to see and no one talks about. Most of us interact with the cost of health care through insurance companies, so it is natural to focus on the cost of health insurance…kvetch about its cost…and kvetch even louder over the remainder of the bill the insurance doesn’t cover. 

Step back for a moment. Private insurance companies, like any company in the “free market,” exist to make money, whether for shareholders (in the case of for profit companies) or for the salaries of people who work there (in the case of not-for-profit insurance companies). They should make money by providing a service that is pretty straightforward: they smooth out the risk of a devastating bill. That is the fundamental mission of insurance of any kind. 

Consider this: If the annual cost of routine health care per person in the United States were a manageable number relative to income, health insurance companies would have a simple task. People might be content to pay their day to day health care costs out of pocket while also paying  a modest monthly premium to a health insurance company’s financial pool. In the event of a devastating bill affecting a few subscribers the bill gets paid out of the pool. No one goes bankrupt and everyone sleeps better. 

But that is not where we’re at with the cost of health care in this country. In aggregate the money spent on health care per every man, woman, and child in this country is now more than $10,000 per year. Family of four? $40,000. Consider how ridiculous that is. If there were one breadwinner in a family of four and we shared national health care expenses equally (everyone paid the average cost) that breadwinner would need a $20/hour full time job (and pay no taxes) JUST to pay for health costs, no food, no housing, no car, no nothing else. Of course, absent a medical catastrophe, the actual medical bills for this hypothetical family of four wouldn’t be $40,000 per year every year, but SOME FAMILY will have a catastrophe, THAT family will face bills far higher than $40,000—and that family will face bankruptcy.

In Canada that cost per person figure is less than half, around $5000—and the Canadians are healthier and happier than we are. This is the elephant in the room that most cannot see and others intentionally ignore (or try to dismiss as fake news).

So are health insurance companies to blame for the cost? Consider what our screwed up system asks them to do. If a health insurance company is to make any money it doesn’t just have to administer the spreading of risk (the traditional function of insurance), it is asked to control the cost of the health care provided, that is, to bargain with a whole array of health care providers over cost. What gets considered? The bargaining chips (before the ACA) were caps on total annual and lifetime expenditures, exclusive provider networks, numbers of patients (insurance subscribers) offered, limitations of services offered, etc., etc. After all this bargaining a policy containing acres of fine print was offered to insurance subscribers to puzzle over. (All this bargaining requires armies of employees who are paid to spar with providers over what gets paid and how much. That’s a major part of insurance company overhead.)

The authors of the Affordable Care Act saw and addressed most of the fine print problems with health insurance (but not with the cost of health care, the main driver of health insurance premiums). The ACA standardized health insurance coverage and in so doing greatly simplified the fine print. Gone were lifetime and annual caps on coverage, gone were weaselly words that excluded pre-existing conditions. In exchange the insurance companies got the “Individual Mandate,” simply a mandate for more people to participate, to spread the risk, the thing insurance companies are supposed to do. What the ACA did NOT do well was tackle the actual cost of health care. Legislative reality and concerted lobbying prevented efforts to allow government to bargain over drug prices and scotched the attempt to offer a “public option.”

The Republican/Libertarian response? Regardless of the intent of the ACA (to provide health insurance for the entire population), the Libertarians saw another government controlled and tax funded social program to be resisted, not improved. They seized on the rising cost of health insurance for the still healthy insurance buyer and completely ignored the ridiculous total and average cost per person of health care. They set to work immediately by every legal and legislative means available to them to dismember the Affordable Care Act. They voted time and time again to repeal the ACA in its entirety, while offering no solution at all for the problems the ACA was designed to fix. They railed endlessly about personal choice, free markets, and government overreach. With all this they assured the cost of health insurance would rise and then they pointed to that rise in cost as yet another reason to dismantle the ACA rather than work on it’s problems. 

And now they’ve hacked away, citing, as McMorris Rodgers has, things like the repeal of the Individual Mandate (as part of their Tax Law) as a crowning achievement of the Republicans under Trump. They’ve hacked away until now they own the mess they’ve created. The complexity of pre-ACA health insurance is looming once again and they don’t have the first clue how to fix it. As I will show you tomorrow, judging by her own words, McMorris Rodgers doesn’t even understand how insurance works.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

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CMR’s Shallow Grasp of Medical Economics

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Mark Twain

Dear Group,

There is a reason that McMorris Rodgers tries hard to stick to message. When she does not stick to message she reveals startling gaps in basic knowledge and understanding. Nowhere is that more apparent than in a town hall speaking about health care.

I’ve transcribed parts of an audio recording of the Green Bluff town hall McMorris Rodgers held on short notice on May 29th. Doing the transcription has driven home for me a fundamental truth: Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the fourth highest ranking Republican in Congress, is ignorant of the basic economics of health care in this country. She is lost in the weeds. 

In what was an oblique response to a man expressing dismay over the rising cost of health insurance for his wife, McMorris Rodgers offered the following. I’ve transcribed it verbatim:

“One thing about Medicare and Medicaid. The government doesn’t pay the full cost of actually providing Medicare and Medicaid. So…ah…any provider, any doctor, any hospital, any physical therapist…anybody who takes Medicare or Medicaid will lose money every time someone comes in with their Medicare card or a Medicaid card. Medicaid is..I believe, 30, 35% of the actual cost and Medicare is 60, 70% of the actual cost…so the providers…how do the providers actually…how do the hospitals stay in business? How does a doctor stay in business? They’re making….so they charge the private health insurance higher so that they can keep their doors open. So…so that’s where we need to be honest about the actual cost…and I believe that the government needs…I have supported for our rural communities…so we’re losing our hospitals in rural areas right now because 70, 80% of their patients are on Medicare or Medicaid and they’re losing so much money every time somebody comes in with Medicare/Medicaid….They can’t keep their doors open!  So…. We’re not being honest about actual cost of, of a what the…way it currently works.. And that’s where I think Medicare is an important program and I, I believe we’ve got to make sure it is secure but it is on a path…right now it is not on a stable path and we’re signing up twenty thousand people a day.”

This is a very peculiar and confused answer to a question about the rising cost of health insurance. She claims private health insurance is expensive because Medicare and Medicaid don’t pay enough to cover the “cost” of keeping the doors open.  She even extends her mis-conception to a justification for her and her party to tackle the “entitlements” of Medicare and Medicaid, a theme she touches on elsewhere at every opportunity. 

Surely every reader of this email has puzzled over a health care “Explanation of Benefits” (EOB). You have seen a $500 charge for a service that has an “allowable” of $200, and an actual payment to the provider of only $160. When I was in practice the occasional patient would express dismay that I was only being paid a tiny fraction of my charge. I did not disabuse them of their notion by explaining the truth: the charge is a number basically pulled out of thin air. Why? Simple. The charge is set high enough so that if there is an insurance company out there that isn’t paying attention and will pay nearly that much then a nearly (or completely) outrageous charge level will “capture” that amount. If the provider doesn’t charge enough then money will be left on the table. One trouble with that system is, of course, that a patient with no insurance whatsoever sees an astronomical bill. 

The posted charge bears only the loosest relationship to the cost of providing the care. Apparently in McMorris Rodgers’ vaunted, sacred…and imaginary…health care “free market” what a provider charges for a service is the same as the cost. She says providers “lose money” every time they take care of a Medicare or Medicaid patient. Horse manure. If that were true most ophthalmology practices (largely dependent on Medicare age patients) would have gone out of business long ago.

To assess “cost” she would actually require numbers for a given medical facility that detail the fixed costs (rent, utilities, furniture,insurance, etc.), the variable costs (employee salaries and hourly wages, equipment, etc.), and some idea of the profits the providers expect and take home. 

McMorris Rodgers in spite of her youthful apple stand experience and in spite of her “MBA lite” (Executive Masters of Business Administration) missed the basic courses in economics and accounting. If she had been exposed to such course and actually learned the material she would not confuse “charge” and “cost.” She would not be susceptible to self-serving pleas from lobbyists who hope to convince her that Medicare routinely short-changes medical providers. More importantly, she wouldn’t brusquely dismiss (as she did at Green Bluff) a questioner who pointed out medical care might be cheaper if insurance companies didn’t run overhead many times higher than Medicare. 

The scariest thing is that McMorris Rodgers is very concerned and sincere in her presentation, however halting and confused it is. She is not play acting. She really is sincere. She can be sincere because she doesn’t understand that she doesn’t understand.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. I am reminded of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ convolution about one of Trump’s lies: “It’s not a lie if you believe it.”
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Matt Shea and the Red Pill

Dear Group,

Many of you recognize the name Matt Shea, fewer know he has been the the State Representative from Spokane Valley, Legislative District 4, since 2008, and even fewer know how far out on the flapping fringes of conspiracy theory his ideas really are. 

Let’s start with this premise: If most voters actually spent the time necessary to get to know the candidates rather than voting based on name recognition or not voting at all, legislators like Matt Shea would be voted out. If I didn’t believe that I would fall into a fit of despair. 

Which brings me to Matt Shea and the Red Pill. The Red Pill Expo runs June 21-23, this Thursday afternoon through Saturday evening, at the Spokane Convention Center. For a mere $470.25 you can still get an all inclusive (apart from lodging) general admission ticket online. The only mention in the Spokesman Review occurred on June 10 and identifies the gathering as “Freedom Force Red Pill Expo Conference – Freedom Force International, June 17-26, Spokane Convention Center, 100 attendees.” If you visit the Freedom Force International website you find this whole thing is the brainchild of G. Edward Griffin, a now 86 year old conspiracy theorist who has pushed his views through books, films, and conferences. He is also the lead speaker among twenty-eight speakers at the Spokane Red Pill Expo. For much of his life Mr. Griffin has been a member and officer of the John Birch Society.

The term “Red Pill” comes from a scene in the film The Matrix, in which the protagonist is offered the choice of a red pill, representing truth and self-knowledge, or a blue pill representing a return to blissful ignorance. I invite you to explore the Red Pill Expo website and decide if any of their tripe represents the “truth and knowledge” they claim to offer.

Check out the twenty-seven Speakers. Copy and paste a name or two into wikipedia.org. You won’t be disappointed. My personal favorite is Lord Christopher Monckton, “Internationally known expert on climate change.” He has zero education or credentials in science, unless a British lordship qualifies. His education includes a degree in Classics and a diploma in journalism. His many other bizarre views byond vociferous climate denial are detailed and referenced in his wikipedia article.

In the second row of speakers at Red Pill is Washington State’s very own Matt Shea. His bio includes the statement: “As the ranking Republican on the House Environment Committee, Matt insists legislative decisions are based on sound, peer-reviewed science that protects both the state’s environment and jobs that preserve Washington’s quality of life.” Really?? A man without a single scientific credential who shares the podium with a cast of conspiracy theorists?? Sorry, if these are the peers to whom he looks for review…

To round out your acquaintance with this man I encourage a visit to his wikipedia.org entry. Look under Personal Life and Controversy. Check out the links to articles detailing allegations made by his ex-wife and his experience threatening a motorist with an illegally carried pistol. Visit his Facebook page. Sample his leadership qualities expressed on his bi-weekly show on Patriot Radio broadcast on the American Christian Network. 

I still have hope that the average oblivious voter, even a standard fiscal conservative Republican voter, if they took the time to check out Red Pill might think twice about casting a vote for this man. 

I’ve met and talked with Matt Shea’s Democratic challenger in Legislative District 4, Ted Cummings. He’s the real deal. Visit his website, tedforwashington.com. Make a donation. 

If you’ve followed some of the links in this article you will have confirmed a disturbing truth about the Republican Party in general. The Party may have the same name. It may claim descent from Abraham Lincoln. But today’s Republican Party is not even the Republican Party of the Bushes. Today’s Republican Party is well on the way down the road to right wing extremism. The election of Donald J. Trump has just shined a spotlight on the takeover. Leave them in office at your peril.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. Several of Mr.Griffin’s books were published through the John Birch Society, a far right fringe group whose founder list includes Fred C. Koch, father of Charles and David Koch, current instigators of the Koch donor group detailed by Jane Mayer in Dark Money. William F. Buckley, Jr., for many years the intellectual underpinning of American conservatism and founder of The National Review, kept the John Birch Society identified as a fringe element of the conservative movement. With Buckley’s death in 2008 many would argue the Birchers have taken over the Republican Party with the help of the Koch brothers. This New Yorker article chronicles Buckley’s resistance to the JBS and the subsequent rise of the Tea Party. Written in 2010 the article foreshadows things that have now come to pass.

P.P.S. In case you missed it on the Red Pill website, a featured speaker at the Spokane Red Pill is the widow of LaVoy Finicum, the man who guaranteed his own death by pulling a gun on the law enforcement officers who pulled over his vehicle outside the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. Matt Shea visited the illegal occupation of Malheur in support of the occupiers…
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CMR, DACA, and the Discharge Petition

Dear Group,

McMorris Rodgers (with Paul Ryan) just avoided a display of something close to real democracy. Instead, they went for the partisan politics and Congressional gridlock on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). (You could be excused if you missed this detail while the Tweeter in Chief keep attention on HIS antics.)

I discussed the DACA discharge petition in CMR’s DACA Bait and Switch. In this case, the discharge petition, a parliamentary maneuver by Republican moderates, would have forced a vote on four DACA bills. At the Green Bluff town hall, McMorris Rodgers announced she was “working hard” to find a solution for the Dreamers. Then, despite some who have characterized her as moderate, she refused to sign the discharge petition. Instead, her “working hard” was to come up with a hard line Republican bill and tamp down the insurrection by the Republican moderates. Apparently, the last thing the Republican leadership wants is a bill that actually addresses straight on the plight of the Dreamers. They know that would be way too popular with the American people.

Last Tuesday Ryan’s office announced the discharge petition had failed…for lack of two more Republican co-signers. All 193 Democrats and 23 Republicans had signed. Tuesday was the deadline for the discharge petition to force a floor vote during the month of June. (I’ve been unable to figure out if its backers would have to start again from square one to mount another challenge in July.) The Ryan/McMorris Rodgers team used their “leadership” to strong-arm moderates members away from signing the discharge petition and an embarrassing set of votes. 

Instead, McMorris Rodgers and company have hurriedly put together a hard-line immigration bill that stands little chance of passage in the House and virtually no chance in the Senate. McMorris Rodgers, who lets the word “bipartisan” pass her lips with some frequency in town halls, worked to concoct a three hundred plus page bill entirely behind closed doors with Republicans only, struggling to come up with a compromise between the factions of her own Party and completely ignoring Democrats.

There will be no straight-up vote on the plight of the Dreamers as a stand alone bill. No, the bill McMorris Rodgers “worked hard” to put together offers a Steven Miller/Trump/Bannon xenophobic overhaul of immigration rules. McMorris Rodgers and company wish to pose this as a compromise. It is not compromise, it is extortion. The two issues it proposes to solve are issues Trump and his administration have intentionally made into acute problems. “OK, we’ll lay off of the Dreamers. We’ll give them permanent residency status and a complicated, lengthy path to citizenship (we don’t want the path to citizenship and voting to be easy or certain…they might vote us out!)” Of course, the need to rescue the Dreamers is all on account of Trump’s executive order to end DACA. “We’ll make the problem urgent and then we’ll offer a fix as a bargaining tool.” So this is “the art of the deal”?

The other concession in the Ryan/McMorris bill is extortion based Jeff Sessions instructions to separate children from parents at the border (heavily backed by the gaunt racist, Steven Miller), apparently as a way to discourage asylum seekers. Voila! “We’ll create this outrage and then as a bargaining chip we’ll offer to fix the problem we’ve created!” 

What do Steven Miller/Trump/Sessions/Bannon and the Republicans get? A dramatic tightening of immigration and asylum rules in line with their racist/nativist tendencies plus massive funding for Trump’s border wall.

From the NYTimes last Thursday, June 14th:

“We’re bringing legislation that’s been carefully crafted and negotiated to the floor,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said Thursday. “We won’t guarantee passage.”

And its passage is far from assured. Within hours of the draft’s release, Heritage Action for America, the political arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that it would urge lawmakers to vote against the measure, deriding it as “amnesty.”

If the Heritage Foundation calls it “amnesty” there won’t be enough Republican votes to pass this horror even out of the House (much less the Senate) and the Democrats won’t and shouldn’t cave in to extortion. 

McMorris Rodgers will keep saying she’s “working hard.” She’ll try to leave the impression with her constituents she’s seeking a solution for the Dreamers. She tears up while listening to the Dreamers’ stories. Will she support a discharge charge that forces a straight vote on their plight, a vote that might actually show a whiff of real bipartisanship, of real democratic voting, of the will of the majority of the people of the United States? No. Will she stand up to her racist, xenophobic, blustery President? No. Instead, she is “working hard” to play Republican hardball politics that sacrifice the Dreamers and asylum-seeking families on the altar of Trump/Miller/Bannon nativism.

This bill she on which she “worked hard” is not based on the America I was brought up to cherish, not the America I was taught about in school, not the America of the Statue of Liberty. This bill speaks of a mean and inward-looking America, a fearful America, an America I struggle to recognize. 

What good is McMorris Rodgers’ “leadership position” if all she does with it is follow the worst instincts of a hateful, morally bankrupt President and his enablers?

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. Trump, the mercurial emperor, has already promised not to sign McMorris Rodgers’ and Paul Ryan’s “moderate” bill. Does anyone remember months ago when Trump famously said something like “send me a bill to fix DACA and I’ll sign it?” I remember it because Trump’s words sent the diligent and very earnest Mormon boy scout, the Senator from Arizona, Jeff Flake, to his desk for an all-nighter trying to craft a bill that would we a workable bi-partisan compromise. His effort was slammed. That experience may finally have awakened this one Republican to the authoritarian threat this President embodies. 
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Civics: Primaries

Dear Group,

The WA State Primary Election is Tuesday, August 7. That’s only 7.5 weeks away. You wouldn’t know it from the local media, but the ballots are set and the Voters Guide is already available on line. It is time to put your “all politics is local” hat on and get informed. Spend a few minutes right now for orientation. Go to MyVote.wa.gov, put in your name and birthdate. Explore. 

1) Check your Registration Details. Update as needed. Have you been a regular voter? Click the Voting History button.

2) Be Proactive. Do your homework. Write down on a piece of paper to display on your refrigerator what positions you get to vote for, who the incumbent is, and the names of candidates. (Obviously, you don’t need to write down the names of all twenty-nine primary contenders for the U.S. Senate Seat currently held by Maria Cantwell.)

3) When you see a yard sign or a news article quiz yourself: Is this person among my choices or is this a different District from mine? Who is this person? Your vote is a good tool. Use it wisely.

 

4) Figure out for whom you want to vote and why. Engage other voters in conversation about your choice. There is nothing quite like a suggestion from a friend or a respected acquaintance to influence voting behavior. 

For races for which you’re not already sure for whom you want to vote there are links to basic information about each candidate at the MyVote.wa.gov webpage. Talk with friends who might be familiar with the candidate you’re interested in. Go to a campaign event. Consider making a donation to the campaign. Visit the candidate’s Facebook page(s). You’ll be surprised how revealing THAT can be. 

Not already a registered voter in Washington State? The deadline for registration that will allow you to vote in the Primary is July 9. That is also the deadline to change the address to which your ballot will be sent. (Under the “Voter Registration Details” button, you can have your ballot sent to where you’ll be and still keep your official Residence Address–just remember to change it back!) It even looks as though you can use MyVote.wa.gov to fill out, print, and then send in that ballot.

Then take your newly oriented self out to a canvass. Spokane Indivisible is running one on Monday (see the box above). There are multiple other opportunities with the Lisa Brown Campaign and with the Spokane County Democrats. Come on out. Every time I find it hard to get started I remember the last time I went and how rewarding the conversations felt. These are great days to take a walk and meet new people!

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. For more orientation check out the Reference section below for links to Spokane County and WA State voting district maps. Know your turf!
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CMR’s Devotion to NRA Messaging

Dear Group,

Let’s get one thing straight right at the get-go: Gun silencers really do not work like they do in the movies. They definitely do NOT reduce the sound of a gunshot to a barely detectable “Pfffft.” 

But they are called silencers for a reason: a silencer significantly reduces the sound made when a gun is fired. It is undeniable that a shooter using a weapon equipped with a silencer in a school or a movie theater or from high up in a hotel room will make less noise while killing people than a shooter with an un-silenced weapon. Similarly, it defies logic to suggest a silencer-equipped weapon will be as easy to detect and neutralize in a crisis situation as is an un-silenced, un-muffled weapon. 

In 1934, at the end of Prohibition and the gangster era, the U.S. Congress was composed of a sufficient number of reasonable people to understand these undeniable facts. In 1934 the National Firearms Act became law. It regulated silencers along with machine guns and short-barreled rifles and shotguns. 

Ask yourself, in this era of mass shootings do you suppose a bill named the Gun Muffler and Silencer De-regulation Act would sail through Congress? Hardly, but that would be truth in packaging, and truth and transparency is not the stock in trade of the Republican Party.

Enter the devotees of the National Rifle Association and the Congresspeople who depend on NRA fervor for their prospects for re-election. The Republican/Libertarian/NRA propaganda machine is expert at re-framing bills to obscure their real purpose.

So we have H.R. 367, The Hearing Protection Act, the simple purpose of which is to de-regulate gun mufflers and silencers, but which the Republicans and the NRA have framed as though it should be supported by everyone. Who, after all, is against “protecting hearing?” McMorris Rodgers is a co-sponsor.

At the Green Bluff town hall on Tuesday, May 29. I challenged McMorris Morris on her co-sponsorship of The Hearing Protection Act, presenting my credentials as a shooter who wears inexpensive and effective ear protection devices. I made the argument regarding mass shootings I just presented. I have a recording of the event. I have transcribed the resulting exchange (the bold is mine):

CMR:The legislation was brought forward by those that…by local law enforcement and by others…who…yes! [in response to challenge] and they say it’s a silencer but it doesn’t…

ME: (interrupting) I’ve shot with silencers. I know what they do. They diminish the sound.

CMR: OK, yes, they diminish the sound… Ah,…well, it was brought forward as the hearing protection amendment. Now…I hear what you’re saying and…with everything going on I tend to think that this is one…that now is not the right time.

ME: So you’re likely to withdraw your co-sponsorship?

CMR: Well, umm, I’m definitely going to take a look again.

“Now is not the right time.” Really? When is the right time for you to co-sponsor and vote for such a dishonestly named bill? Sure, if you want to put up a bill named the “Gun Muffler and Silencer Deregulation Act,” a name that might alert your constituents to discuss its contents on their actual merits, then fine. Do so. Argue for its passage in open forum. But don’t lie to us. Don’t feed us NRA talking points about silencers in movies when we bring up the bill’s actual purpose. 

It was only as I transcribed the recording that I realized she had betrayed her real feelings. “…not the right time.” In other words in her eyes my argument had no merit. When there is a lull in student deaths at school shootings, she will gladly push her support for this bill, such is her desire to dismantle all regulation around firearms, such is her devotion to the NRA, such is her dependence on NRA propaganda. 

I want a representative who doesn’t depend on deceiving her constituents to pass legislation. She and her Party have rotted from the inside. With Trump’s election the rot is appearing on the surface.

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

P.S. Note the NFA did not outlaw, but, instead, regulated.and taxed silencers, machine guns and other weapons. If you want to dive into the weedy details of definitions and court challenges I recommend the wikipedia article on the National Firearms Act. Some gun aficionados and devotees have been fighting over and picking at the NFA ever since it was enacted in 1934. The Hearing Protection Act is just the newest and most cleverly framed attack. 
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CMR and the Spokane GOP’s Fox News Bubble

Click here to watch Ms. Borelli in action. 

Dear Group,

The choice of featured speakers at the June 2nd Spokane County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner & Fundraiser reveals something I find very disquieting about the local Spokane GOP. When the GOP picks two talking heads from one pervasive “news” network, it might say something about where the Party faithful get their “news” and what “news” the Party is comfortable with. In this case both talking heads, Jason Chaffetz and Deneen Borelli, are “contributors” to Fox News. 

I discussed Jason Chaffetz, former Republican Representative to Congress from Utah, in an earlier post. For me, he will forever be linked to his asinine comment about personal responsibility, forgoing the “latest version of the iPhone,” and being able to buy health insurance.

Today I want to encourage you to spend a few moments watching Deneen Borelli as an example of the sort of thing she preaches and what the local Spokane GOP seems inclined to listen to and, apparently, to accept as truth. If you have not done so already, click here to watch her diatribe on the “Deep State.” This was posted by the Spokane County GOP as an example of Borelli “getting it right” as an ad for their Lincoln Day Dinner on their Facebook page on May 24th at 12:11AM. (Once you’re at the page, scroll down to that date.) 

It turns out that Ms. Borelli is a “network contributor” for Fox while her main presence is on “Conservative Review” TV (CRTV) in her own program entitled “Here’s the Deal.” A short listen suggests to me that Ms. Borelli’s polemic lies somewhere to the right of Rush Limbaugh’s. I imagine the faithful might bathe in this swamp for hours having their worst biases echoed and amplified.

If you, like I, have been tempted to wonder if the most rabid of people you used to think of as your Republican friends inhabit an entirely different planet, listening to Ms. Borelli for a while will help you understand why you feel that way. That Chaffetz and Borelli were chosen by the leadership of the Spokane GOP to speak as representative of the current Republican Party leaves me feeling sad, angry, and frightened for the future of our country. That the woman who poses as representing Eastern Washington in Congress, McMorris Rodgers, could listen to this and then step up to the same podium with her signature smile makes me queasy.

I dread to think the average Eastern Washington voter could listen to, follow, and accept as truth what was uttered in the not-so-smoke-filled room at the Lincoln Day Dinner. In fact, I have Republican friends who, when I mention the assault rifle auction at the dinner, are appalled. My hope is they would also be appalled by the propaganda served there. If not, this country is in for a wild ride.

To end I offer a glimmer of hope. Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, a retired military and a traditional conservative, left Fox News in fear and disgust. I quote from last Monday’s The Weekly Sift:

“Here’s an unforgettable exchange from Wednesday’s Anderson Cooper 360:

Former Fox News military analyst Lt. Colonel Ralph Peters (retired): As a former military officer of the United States, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. And I saw, in my view, Fox — particularly their prime time hosts — attacking our constitutional order, the rule of law, the Justice Department, the FBI, Robert Mueller, and (oh, by the way) the intelligence agencies. And they’re doing it for ratings and profit, and they’re doing it knowingly — in my view, doing a grave, grave disservice to our country.

Anderson Cooper: Do you think, some of the hosts in prime time, do they believe the stuff they’re saying about the Deep State, what they’re saying about the Department of Justice, about the FBI?

Lt. Colonel Peters: I suspect Sean Hannity really believes it. The others are smarter. They know what they’re doing.”

Keep to the high ground,

Jerry

Former Fox News Analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters Calls Network a ‘Destructive Propaganda Machine’