Make Them Hear You! is a weekly feature on KGNU, produced by Chris Mohr, letting listeners know how they can have their voices heard on issues up before Congress. You can hear it Wednesday mornings at 8.20am during the Morning Magazine.
Donald Trump has called himself a real friend of the LGBTQ community, and last week he demonstrated his support by Tweeting a ban on all transgendered people in any capacity whatsoever in the military. He claimed he consulted with his generals, but this was a lie. “His administration will deny some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBT-rights group GLAAD. People all over the country are contacting Lambda Legal, GLAAD and the Transgender Veteran’s Rights Association to show their support.
In the meantime, the repeal of Obamacare is not going away. The so-called Skinny Repeal bill failed in the Senate, and leaders Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan in the House have been talking about moving on to tax reform. But Donald Trump keeps pushing for repeal of Obamacare, so like a zombie, a repeal bill can come back to life at any time. Senator Cory Gardner voted in favor of a healthcare debate, then voted in favor of the repeal without replace bill, and finally voted in favor of the skinny repeal. I and others have been asking about his opinions on the various healthcare bills, and he consistently refused to answer before anything solid came up for a vote. Well, the votes he made would have cost 32 million and 22 million people their insurance respectively according to the CBO. He has still said almost nothing even after having made the votes.
All I’ve been able to find is this quote: “ I will do whatever I can to rescue Coloradans from Obamacare’s failures. I’ve called for healthcare reform to be a bipartisan process, and I hope that members on both sides of the aisle can work together to develop a healthcare system that works for the American people. I remain committed to reforming our nation’s broken healthcare system, and I’ll continue to work to bring relief to Coloradans being hurt by the negative impacts of Obamacare.” Gardner’s actual votes clearly contradict what he just said.
In the meantime, President Donald Trump is prepared in the coming days to end required payments to insurers under the Affordable Care Act as part of a bid to let “Obamacare implode” and force the Senate to act. “The president will not accept those who said it’s, quote, ‘Time to move on,’” said Kellyanne Conway. The Senate is scheduled to work two more weeks before a summer break.
Sen. Susan Collins said “the uncertainty about whether that subsidy is going to continue from month to month is clearly contributing to the destabilization of the insurance markets.” Collins wants to see Congress appropriate these funds so Trump can’t immediately cut millions off the insurance rolls by executive order.
If you have an opinion about Trump’s threat to terminate the payments to insurance companies to kill Obamacare, or thoughts about transgender service people , now is the time to share those concerns with Congress and contact lgbt rights groups.
