I remember when the tea party first started gaining in popularity. I was curious how people could get caught up in their messaging. All they would say was that this or that was wrong, and it seemed that the Affordable Care Act was one of their main targets. However, they never came up with a workable solution to address the problems they identified. They only saw problems and never worked on solutions. Their mantra was, “I don’t know how to fix that problem (i.e., health care in America), but I know that what you’re doing is wrong.”
Now, with all the hoopla surrounding the confirmation for SCOTUS nominee Amy Coney Barrett, we are once again hearing over and over concern that she will finally bring the ACA to an end. But, once again, the Republican Party is failing to tell us what they will actually do to replace — not just repeal — the ACA. They had two years with total control in Washington, and two more years of White House and Senate control, and yet they have done nothing about health care in America except complain about the ACA. Now, we have President Trump promising that we will have a replacement system that will be much, much better.
While serving on my mission in Virginia, I learned a very important lesson. It’s not necessary to blow out another man’s candle to make your own burn brighter. If the Republican Party came up with a better system — one that was “much, much better” than the ACA — then they wouldn’t need to go through all of these machinations to rid the world of it. It would happen naturally. Instead, all they have given us is promises from a man in whom there is no lack of guile — one who seeks power and riches by fraud and deceit.
Dave McNeill
South Jordan