The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
Shortly before the shutdown, Trump hectored U.S. admirals and generals summoned by would-be Defense Secretary Hegseth. Prior to Trump’s incoherent political sound bites, Hegseth denounced “fat troops, including fat generals and admirals … .” Then a corpulent Trump shuffled up to harangue the brass. He demanded that they join in combating the “war from within” and use U.S. cities as “training grounds for our military.” The stony-faced admirals and generals did not give Trump the obsequious adulation he demands and does not deserve.
But the Constitution is always paramount for military leaders. Despite Trump’s un-American rule as a tinpot dictator, the U.S. is still not a dictatorship. Jimmy Kimmel is back on TV. Lower federal courts and occasionally the Supreme Court check Trump. We still have a free press and democratic unions. Moreover, Americans can protest and vote. To get to a full-blown dictatorship Trump needs to generate fear and paralysis. Resist!
A central issue in the shutdown is preserving the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Make no mistake, Trump and the GOP-led Congress want to eviscerate the ACA. A democracy gave us the ACA. A tinpot dictator wants to take affordable quality health care coverage away. That is why congressional Democrats, including Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, are standing up to Trump. If a GOP-led Congress and Trump can extend expiring tax breaks and dodges for the rich they can certainly extend expiring health care tax credits for middle and working class Americans and rescind draconian Medicaid cuts.
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The White House has refused to negotiate with Democratic congressional leaders, cancelling one scheduled meeting with a volley of insults. Trump realized that put the onus on Republicans, and held a perfunctory meeting with Democratic and Republican leaders on the eve of the shutdown, followed by an AI-generated, bigoted video attacking Democratic leaders; unprecedented partisan shutdown notices on government websites; withdrawal of federal grants to mostly Democratic-led states; threats to do away with critical federal programs and to fire many federal workers. Moreover, the GOP-led House adjourned, while still getting paid.
However, there’s a crisis in health care affordability and coverage. Senator Baldwin has been hitting this point for months: expiration of ACA health care tax credits, which help over 20 million Americans buy affordable private health care insurance. Out-of-pocket premium payments will shortly soar 75 percent on average. Similarly, insurers plan on doubling existing premiums (before ACA tax credits are used) to 18 percent on average. Millions, including hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites, will lose coverage or see their premiums skyrocket (Medicaid cuts are mostly delayed until after the 2026 elections).
Wisconsin GOP Representative Derrick Van Orden’s bold-faced hysterical lie that Democrats want “taxpayer-funded free health care for illegal immigrants” is intended to distract and inflame. Listen to Baldwin: “I’ve been fighting to keep the government open and keep health care costs down for millions of working families who are staring down a health care cliff.” Call congressional Republicans and the White House. We can’t live in fear and paralysis.
– Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.
