Letter: Blind, deaf and toothless

To the Editor:

We have, in the past few years, seen the unprecedented use of hyperbole (exaggeration) and sensationalist rhetoric by the National Republican Party. We had a past president who claimed to be the best president since Abraham Lincoln. We had Sen. Mitch McConnell say that Obamacare would be the worst legislation ever passed, would ruin the economy and would bring death panels to America. The Affordable Care Act now is very popular among the majority of Americans. And, of course, any legislation proposed by Democrats to help the people is labeled “socialism.” Note: the Republicans branded Medicare, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation and the like “socialism” when these fundamental protections were proposed by Democrats.

Now the Biden administration has proposed legislation that would cover glasses, hearing aids and dental under Medicare. This plan also would make the $300-per-month tax credit for dependent children permanent, deliver 3 million disabled and destitute seniors out of poverty, provide Medicaid to the poor in states where Republican governors have turned down Medicaid funding from the federal government, provide child care so that single mothers could work outside the home, provide free community college, and a Conservation Corps to put young people to work battling climate change and helping clean up from mega storm damage, among its benefits.

Of course this legislation is being blocked by 100% of Republicans in the Senate (and two Democratic senators, [Joe] Manchin and [Kyrsten] Sinema).

If the tables were turned and the Democrats where blocking this kind of needed legislation, the billionaire-funded right-wing propaganda machine would be screaming.

I can see Tucker Carlson saying that the “Democrats want to leave old people blind, deaf and toothless.”

No, Tucker, that’s the Republicans’ job.

Call your senators: 202-224-3121.

Jim May

Harvard