It
was the most Republican of times ...
That's the U.S. right now, a nation heading in two diametrically
opposed directions. Where you live in the country has always influenced
how you live. But divergent public policy choices, rooted in sharp
partisan conflict, are heightening the geographic distinctions.
House Republicans this week passed legislation designed primarily to
channel conservative rage and secondarily to vaporize 11 million or so
undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Republicans won't provide
funds to deport the immigrants, and they won't provide a method of
rationalizing those immigrants' existence here. So they will simply
pretend that they don't exist.
In January, the first Republican legislative act of 2015 is expected to
be another vote to repeal Obamacare, the health-care reform that has
been working out better than even its proponents predicted.
.... it was the most Democratic of times.
|
Meanwhile, across the the continent, California Democratic Governor
Jerry Brown also has immigrants and health care on his mind. Brown is
analyzing whether the state can extend its version of Medicaid health
insurance to undocumented immigrants who are covered by President
Barack Obama's executive action on amnesty.
“We’re still evaluating, but the president’s recent action on
undocumented immigrants could perhaps open a door for more coverage of
more people under Medi-Cal,’’ Nancy McFadden, the governor’s top policy
aide, told the Los Angeles Times.
California is not just a blue state with a Democratic governor and
legislature. It's home to almost one in eight Americans. And it has by
far the nation's largest population of undocumented immigrants -- one
in four live there, according to the Pew Research Center.
So in the very near future, undocumented immigrants who reside in
California (some by virtue of having snuck illegally over the border)
may be covered by publicly-funded health insurance while many U.S.
citizens living in Texas and the Deep South will have no access to
health insurance of any kind, thanks to the Republican war on
Obamacare.
[Full
twaddle]