The standard method

Only the Republicans could craft legislation that takes health care away from millions of Americans, raises the price for the poor and elderly, and at the same time hands out billions of dollars in tax breaks to the rich. They use the word “access” to health care, stating that Americans should have the right to choose. I believe that is simply a way for the Republicans to rid themselves of any responsibility for the thousands of people (Americans) who will get sick and die for lack of health care.

It seems it is standard Republican method to rake blood from the backs of the poor to temporarily sate the appetites of the super-rich, all the while preening and posturing and declaring themselves loyal, patriotic public servants, staking even more claim to what they perceive as the moral high ground. Their champion in the White House has declared that everybody will be covered, but how can anyone in their right mind believe anything that Donald Trump says?

But even the so-called Obamacare Lite isn’t enough for many of the Republicans, who want to totally abolish any form of universal care, claiming it’s just another entitlement that we can’t afford. National debt-conscious keepers of the fold the Republicans are, at least until another financial crisis, a war or two, handouts to the big pharmaceuticals or tax breaks for the rich show up on their to-do list, when the time is right. What they apparently want is to turn America into a Third World country, with a destitute, poverty-ridden working poor and a super-rich ruling class that calls all the shots. They’re getting plenty of help from the Trump administration, which is playing copycat with the Russian model as their dream state.

JOEL EMERSON Elkins