https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxhwjPgJGbU
All hands are on deck and the drive to earn as many votes as possible is the primary purpose of the latest Biden/Harris Campaign that hopes to persuade Nikki Haley supporters to, temporarily at least, join the Democratic team to protect the nation's Democracy against the MAGA Fascist Donald Trump.
The ad, called "Save America. Join us." first showcases many of Mr. Trump's insults toward his former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Governor.
Among the insults were calling her:
The piece also reminds Haley's supporters that they are not welcome in the MAGA camp (unless they swear loyalty to it) and Trump repeatedly says that he does not need Haley voters.
The ad concludes with the caption: "Save the Country. Join us."
Commenting on the ad, Biden/Harris Communications Director Micheal Tyler stated:
“Donald Trump has made it crystal clear he doesn’t want support from voters who cast their ballot for Nikki Haley so let us be equally clear: there is a home for everyone on this campaign who knows Donald Trump cannot be back in the White House. Joe Biden is building a broad and diverse coalition of voters who want more freedoms not less, who want to protect our democracy, and who want to live in a country that is safe from the chaos, division, and violence that another Donald Trump presidency would bring.”
In seeking to broaden a coalition from the left to the center-right that would guarantee victory in November (especially in states like Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina,) the Biden/Harris Campaign is right to reach out to disgruntled Republicans, like the ones who are still voting for Haley in primaries weeks after she dropped out.
If this new coalition the Democrats are trying to forge needs (really) more convincing, please view the two latest ads from the Lincoln Project that show how low, and incompetent, the House Republican Caucus has become and how Donald Trump is obedient to only one person: Vladimir Putin.
in the ad, called "The Stupid Party," the Project shows conservative commentators aghast at the House Republican's incompetence and chaos.
Citing the House Republican conference in "disarray" with Representatives resigning and reducing their narrow majority to one vote, the ad highlights Majorie Taylor Greene's motion to oust current Speaker Mike Johnson after he made a deal with the Democrats to fund the government.
If successful in her motion, Republicans would make history for throwing out two speakers in one year.
Not exactly what the stuff of legends here.
The clip even had Newt Gingrich, the historic precursor to this MAGA insanity from the 1990s, calling the Freedom Caucus "a disaster."
The ad has Fox commentators calling the Republican House Majority "a dysfunctional embarrassment."
It ends with Laura Ingraham commenting, "This is why conservatives call the GOP the stupid party."
The second ad, called "On the Take," shows the symbiotic relationship between Mr. Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
The first part of the narrative reminds voters that Russia actively helped Trump win the Presidency in 2016 with Putin actively praising him.
The middle part demonstrates Trump falling for Putin's flattery and taking Russia's side at various points in his Presidency, putting their interests over the United States and calling the Russian leader smarter than Biden and the Democrats.
The narrator also points out that Trump is willing to let Russia defeat Ukraine and attack N.A.T.O. members who are not current on their bills.
The ad concludes with the narrator stating:
"He (Trump) doesn't have a good relationship with Putin. He owes Putin. Trump's not just on the other side. He's on the take."
As President Biden remarked to then-President Obama at the White House following the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA,) “this is a big f---king deal.”
And it still is.
For 14 years, the ACA, or Obamacare, or Romney Care before the one-time Republican Massachusetts Governor and current Utah Senator disowned his health care plan for the federal level in 2008, has helped millions of Americans across the country.
Thanks to its provisions:
The Biden/Harris Administration has also signed into law, a Prescription Drug Benefit that reduces medicine costs for seniors like a $35.00 maximum to purchase insulin. The Administration has also adopted executive actions that “improve contraception access and affordability – including for over 1.4 million Arizona women.”
In celebrating the 14th anniversary of the passage of the ACA, President Biden issued a statement, saying:
“The Affordable Care Act is without a doubt, the most consequential piece of health care legislation in decades, providing millions of Americans with the freedom and security to live the life they want without the fear that one accident or illness will bankrupt them and their families.
“When I ran for president in 2020, I promised the American people that I would protect the Affordable Care Act from partisan attacks and build on it. That’s exactly what I’ve done: getting more people affordable health insurance, lowering prescription drug prices, and giving families more breathing room. Now more Americans have affordable health insurance than ever before, premiums are down, and enrollment is at an all-time high. We took on Big Pharma – and won, capping insulin at just $35 per month and out-of-pocket prescription costs at $2,000 per year for seniors.
“We can’t take this progress for granted. Extreme MAGA Republicans have voted over 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Just this week, Trump’s allies in the House proposed a budget that would gut this life-saving legislation. Donald Trump was just one vote away from getting it done the last time he was in power. Now, he’s determined to try again, running to ‘terminate’ it – and to cut Medicare and Social Security while he’s at it.
“Trump wants to take us back to a time when health insurance companies could deny coverage to Americans with heart disease or diabetes or asthma. When you couldn’t leave a dead-end job because you couldn’t risk losing your health insurance. When a 22-year-old kid could be kicked off his parents’ plan because he graduated from college. When insurance companies could cut people off halfway through chemo because they'd reached the limit of what they were willing to pay. I won’t let that happen.
“I am fighting to build on our progress, not take us backward. Let’s lower more prescription drug costs, cap insulin costs for everyone, and expand healthcare coverage so more people can get the care they deserve. It’s not hyperbole to say that affordable health care for millions of people is on the line in November. I am more determined than ever to beat back MAGA Republican attacks and make health care a right and not a privilege in America. I know that we will.”
Unfortunately, Donald Trump, if re-elected in 2024, wants to attempt again to take away the ACA from the American People. If he and a Republican Congress came back into power:
The thought of the ACA, a personal and economic lifeline for millions, being stripped away if Donald Trump and a Republican Congress return to power is alarming and distressing to millions of Americans who have had the benefit of health and economic security for years now, thanks to the health care law’s provisions, for themselves and their families.
Two Arizonans, Physician Assistant Amanda Shelley (a person who was a guest of President Obama at his 2014 State of the Union Address) and Telecommunications Construction Manager Steve Gomez graciously took the time to discuss how the ACA has helped them and their families (In Mr. Gomez’s case, his eight-year-old son, Anthony.)
They also described their dread at the prospects of Donald Trump and Republican Congressional Majorities returning in 2024 and taking away their health and economic security.
The questions and their response are below.
Amanda Shelley: “So in 2013, I decided to move from my urgent care practice to a very small practice, taking care of patients in assisted living and memory care units. The practice was so small that it didn't offer insurance and I had pre-existing conditions that would prohibit me from having access to coverage on the open market. So, I decided to pay for COBRA for the rest of that year knowing that I'd be able to get coverage in 2014 under the ACA.”
“I started my coverage on the first of 2014 and it turned out it was just in time because on January 3, I started having some pretty severe abdominal pain and ended up going to the emergency room. Thanks to a kind of strange presentation and complications took a few days to figure it out but I ended up having surgery on the 6th of January.”
Had I not had the coverage, (because I had exhausted Cobra and actually went a month without insurance) I definitely would have thought twice about going to the emergency room because “I am a healthcare provider, I can handle this,” thinking. Also, the financial implications were huge.”
“As a single mother, even with a great profession, I was always just one major illness or injury away from having the rug pulled out from under me financially. And so that kind of coverage allowed me to seek care when appropriate thereby literally saving my life based on what the outcome was and saved my financial stability as well.”
“I had seen this pattern of waiting until things were truly an emergency in my patients for years prior to the passage of the ACA. Not only with regards to acute problems, but I've also seen many, many patients put off screenings and routine care for things like diabetes, high blood pressure, mammograms, and colonoscopies. So, I know that the ACA has saved many lives beyond just my experience with it. And so, for me, that is one of the reasons that I feel that Biden is our only option as far as the two candidates are concerned. We need to have him back in office for another four years so that we can continue to get affordable access to care for millions of people.”
Steve and Anthony Gomez: “Our reason for this just arrived home for school. In September of 2015, this little man was born and shaped where we are and what our fight is. He was born with a heart condition called transpositions of the greater arteries. They went in to try to repair it. Unfortunately, the surgery was not successful, and we ended up having to list him for a transplant. The transplant was successful. He's a thriving eight-year-old little boy now. Unfortunately, he had to receive some amputations as well as a result of his treatment in the PCH CVICU. At that time, we were fortunate we had employer healthcare at that particular time. My wife's practice that she was working at provided us with great healthcare. But we saw what this was coming in and in the first ten weeks of his life, his entire stay at Phoenix Children's Hospital, with surgeries and everything else amounted to well over $3 million in EOB’s that came through in 10 weeks.”
“Beyond that, it isn't like they you know as the transplant team continually says it's like transplant is not a full-on cure. It's just an abatement and it's another symptom. It's another disease, unfortunately. He has care. It wasn't that everything was right. We have had therapies. We've had follow-up appointments. One year we spent every other week from Christmas Eve to St. Patrick's Day in the ER like clockwork. So, we've had therapies, you know all kinds of solutions things that we're working on because of those amputations and his limitations. And those expenses continued to grow and the point that my wife was kind of forced to transition out of her employee role because they couldn't cover our family anymore. It was a very small practice, and they were just basically at the point where they had to make a decision about how it was going to impact the rest of the employees, so we transitioned and we've been getting our insurance, through the marketplace. As expensive and as costly as it is, it's still so reassuring to know that because of his pre-existing conditions, he can't be denied coverage. Again, the three million dollars for ten weeks would in a lot of times we looked it up at the time that would have blown the benefit cap at the time for the plan that we were on and because of the ACA, those things don't affect him anymore and doesn’t affect families like us. We would be in financial ruin if we had had to figure out another way to cover his healthcare or would definitely would have been a picking-and-choosing lifestyle changes. Whatever we would have had to do because his care is not an option. It's something that we know we need to do. We want to keep him around. We enjoy this little boy. We like having him around. Knowing that the ACA will provide that protection will provide that coverage for those with pre-existing conditions he will not have to worry about that as he eventually leaves our insurance as eventually, he leaves our coverage and goes and does his own thing to become a productive member of society. That's how it's impacted us. We know that it's the biggest impact is going to be down the road when it comes time for him to do his own thing, but he will not be denied because he was born with a condition that you know necessitated additional care.”
Anthony being able to stay on your health insurance, per the ACA, until he's 26 is very helpful.
“That's huge. It's huge and we would definitely cover him as long as we possibly can. It's great that it covers up to that point. But even beyond that as being an adult being and having his own family and not having to worry about his own health care as a man is something that we look forward to and making sure that the ACA not only stays in place but is strengthened and continues to be expanded. We've taken advantage and I hate using that term of the Medicaid expansions because of his conditions. The State of Arizona AHCCCS system will pick up some of this as a secondary. It took a lot of mind-shifting for me because I can take care of mine. Those things and those expansions are in place to help families like ours across the state in this case and other Medicaid are there to help families across the country, so they do not have to, as my wife loves to say, living under a bridge because of medical insurance and medical costs.”
Steve Gomez: “Yeah. He would still be here because we would have found a way.
I'm not going to give up. We went the first year plus not sharing our story and dealing with a lot of things. Family wise and friends wise get people in and out of our lives because a lot of people couldn't handle it but my wife and I refused to give up and we still refused to give up so he'd still be here if the ACA wasn't in place. We just might not be here. We have a beautiful home. We have a beautiful lifestyle, and it would change things then. We would make the adjustments. We'd have to. We'd find a way, but not having to scratch and claw and figure out if I am going to sacrifice paying the electric bill? Am I going to sacrifice a little bit of groceries because we have to pay for his prescriptions that were at one point between 400 and 700 dollars a month respectively for an infant?
It's not having to have those worries to keep us up at night and put us in the poorhouse.
Please tell us how you can cover your son’s prescription drug costs?
“Because of the Medicaid expansion, the secondary insurance; most of that stuff has been done under the Arizona emergency care services.”
The expansion of Kids Care has been helpful to your family in that regard.
“Yes”
Amanda Shelley: My answer is much like Steve's. I would have found a way. I most likely would had to file bankruptcy. I would not have been able to live where I don't have my son who just turned 18 come up through the great schools that we have. I would have had to choose parts of town that I would not feel as safe in and not have as good of opportunities for him because of the financial component.”
Mr. Gomez: You didn't file bankruptcy either, right?
Steve Gomez: “No, we did not, and kind of as Michelle was saying, we were fortunate. We've put our son in a smaller private school because the community aspect and the ability for them to build and work with his challenges has been so huge. And it's something that he is such a beloved member of that school community, and we would have been able to do something like that. We had a fairly bad interaction with the public school system when it came to his care and his education, and we were very thankful that we didn't have to go that route. And I would really attribute that to the fact that we were not placed in financial turmoil and we did not have to look to file bankruptcy in order just to meet the medical costs.”
Amanda Shelley: “Right, and I would hope that I would have come to the decision that okay, yeah, you really have to go but I have seen many of my patients wait until it's too late and either pass away or you know having much more severe heart disease after ignoring a heart attack. So, it is definitely a lifesaver..”
Amanda Shelley: “I think it’s incredible work that needs to be supported. I don’t understand why it’s not being supported from both sides of the aisle. It's saving lives. It's trying to increase access and really make the playing field fairer for all Americans when it comes to going up against these huge insurance companies. So many of us have been victimized, essentially by insurance companies, whether it's because of the pre-existing condition thing prior to the ACA or things like the surprise billing things like that. Those are all things that the President has really stood up for the American people for and so of the two candidates, he is the only option that we have to make sure that continues.”
Steve Gomez: “What she said. I think that the efforts of President Biden and the Administration have been great, especially with as much opposition that he received from the Republican Party. I don't understand why this isn't a commonsense deal. There is one thing that Trump did say during his candidacy the first time was that yes, we have the smartest people. Yes, we should be able to do better than the rest of the world does as far as health care. Then why didn't he when he had full control of government? Why was that an issue then? And the progress President Biden has made now I think is astronomical and you know should be lauded. There should be even more. We should be looking at what this can not only do for health care and saving lives but if you going to go the economic aspect, like Ms. Shelley said, is that getting those checks early on and getting things taken care of now which a lot of people don't do because they are afraid of the health care expenditure. That saves money in the long run. If you take care of yourself in the long run, then my favorite examples for myself have been my dental work. I am horrible at going to the dentist. I'm horrible at doing the checkups.
Great to have you know avoid that hundred dollars a year to go to the dentist or whatever. It is 50 bucks for the fluoride a year. I think that so much work to be done. President Biden is the only one who is going to do it between the two candidates. He's the only one who has a logical plan and has a desire to continue moving forward. I mean just taking at that and to help the American public with making sure that healthcare remains a top issue and then knowing that they're taken care of.”
Steve Gomez: “I don’t want to think about what can happen to be honest. There's no plan. There's no plan on that side of the aisle and I strongly feel that way. I am nervous for people like my son, for Miss Shelley, and for a number of people that I've met throughout this journey. They could lose coverage. The pendulum could swing back, and the insurance companies could hold all the cards again and just decide you know what, It's not in our best interest to cover you anymore. It's not in our best interest to offer plans through the marketplace not in our interests to hold the marketplace open any longer. It's undoing not only what the work that's been done in the legislature but it’s undoing the work that people have been doing and taking care of themselves and care of their own health care. That's what keeps us up at night. That's what makes us concerned. Literally every two years because you have the midterms that are just as nerve-racking for us and I got a joke, but it's a comment that I made to a friend of mine. I posted my story to Facebook and something on commemorating the anniversary of the ACA passage and he's like, oh I saw your health care story. I'm like, yeah,
it's fighting season again. It's time to go and the thought of having to start over and to start from scratch and start from less than square one for families like ours is just terrifying.” STOPPED AT 20:29
Amanda Shelley: “I don't think about the impact as much for myself personally as I do for my patients. To watch patients, pull away from healthcare is heartbreaking and causes so much distress both in their personal lives, but also time lost at work and the cost to the family members that are taking care of them. I really feel like Steve says they have no plan. If they were to pull the ACA, we would as a country, certainly be paying the cost for decades to take care of all these people that no longer have insurance.”
Steve Gomez: “The ACA, when presented as the Affordable Care Act and not Obamacare, is truly supported by a very large majority of the people of the country because I think people are starting to understand what it's doing for families and how to put this nicely, how many of them are so against the thought of receiving help from Obamacare. But once you explain to them that they're getting help from the Affordable Care Act, they love that.”
“It can only get better. I mean one of the things that that I've stood by is that nothing gets passed in my world in construction. Rev Zero is your first revision of anything. Nothing gets built by Rev Zero. There are always changes. There are always improvements. As the ACA has started and evolved into where it is now and where it can go, it's a system that's in place to help so many people and to make our country healthier. It's not just about keeping people alive. It's about the fact that it can make our country so much healthier, and they can really improve the lives of so many. And It's something we're fighting for. It's something that we've been fighting for since 2016 when we joined. Since we have our story out there and have met a lot of great people, it's something that I think a lot of Americans would fight for if they knew more about the fight and it means so much to so many and it needs to continue to grow.”
To remind Arizonans and the American People about the perils of a second Donald Trump Presidency to their health care, the Biden/Harris Campaign released a new ad called "Flatline."
The theme of the ad is to be afraid. Be very afraid of what will happen to your affordable and quality health care if Donald Trump and the Republicans return to power. Also, remember to vote this November and stop the MAGA Republicans from turning the clock back on health care reform and security. Someone in your family or you may depend on it.
The Trump Campaign is fast ruing the day that his surrogates like his daughter-in-law went on the airwaves, saying that the country was better off four years ago with her father-in-law running the country than President Biden.
It has not taken long for commentators in the world of nonfiction (this writer included) to refute that assertion and the Biden/Harris Campaign, which is flush with cash compared to the 'I have to pay my lawyers and put up half a billion bond' Trump one, wasted no time producing a digital ad for social media, reminding people of the historical reality.
The ad starts with Trump asking Ronald Reagan's historic question on social media: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago."
The ad then shows empty store shelves at the height of the Coronavirus Pandemic this time four years ago when the supply chain fractured and people could not buy food products or essentials like toilet paper.
The piece then shows people in the background lining up to take Coronavirus tests, people going to food banks and isolated from their families in hospitals, Mr. Trump advocating for the injection of disinfectant to help combat the COVID-19 virus and rating his handling of the pandemic a ten.
When a clip of dead bodies in the background, the ad broadcasts a reporter asking, "What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared," Trump responds, "I'd say you're a terrible reporter. That's what I'd say."
The next clip shows Mr. Trump saying, "I don't take responsibility at all." With clips of dead bodies being gathered, he says "I think we're doing really, really well."
Someone, probably a journalist, asks, "How? A thousand Americans are dying a day."
Trump insensitively responded, "They're dying. That's true. And it is what it is."
The Biden/Harris Campaign, in their statement that released the ad, offered some additional statistical data, further reminding people of how bad it was in 2020, including:
Biden-Harris 2024 Spokesperson Ammar Moussa also commented:
“Let’s talk about four years ago: under Trump’s egregious mismanagement, hundreds of thousands of Americans died who didn’t have to, crime shot up, our economy crashed, he fomented violence in the streets, and he even told us to inject ourselves with bleach.
“Americans remember March Madness, proms, weddings, and celebrations being canceled, waiting in line for toilet paper and essentials, businesses shutting down, and losing loved ones – all because Trump failed to prepare for and then couldn’t lead when we needed him the most.
“The only thing to happen four years ago to make Americans’ lives better was Donald Trump losing to Joe Biden.”
Without a doubt, Donald Trump's words and actions make him the vilest major party candidate for President in United States History.
Numerous articles in the Blog for Arizona archives over the last eight years demonstrate this. Here is a reminder of just a few of the lowlights of Mr. Trump's disastrous impact on the country and the American People.
Mr. Trump's actions at rallies over the last week further demonstrate his unfitness for office and the danger he poses to the country.
First, he continues to glorify the January 6 domestic terrorists as hostages and patriots.
Again, they are not hostages and patriots. They are terrorists, criminals, and traitors.
Second, at the same rally in Ohio, Mr. Trump, with his zest for vengeance and retribution, said there would be a bloodbath across the country for the auto industry and the nation as a whole if he was not reelected.
Reacting to this perceived threatening comment, Biden/Harris Campaign Spokesperson James Singer issued a statement that read:
“This is who Donald Trump is: a loser who gets beat by over 7 million votes and then instead of appealing to a wider mainstream audience doubles down on his threats of political violence. He wants another January 6, but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”
The Biden/Harris Campaign also wasted no time, releasing a social media ad, depicting Mr. Trump and his allies' lowest hits about racist comments, the bloodbath comment, and the January 6 Domestic Terrorists.
The ad is correct. Donald Trump has shown who he is time and time again. How is this man the presumptive Republican nominee again based on his track record?
At the same Ohio rally, Mr. Trump said illegal immigrants "were not people in my opinion...These are animals."
This is the same Donald Trump who also refers to immigrants as "vermin" and "poisoning the blood." Hitler could have said that. Hitler did say that towards Jews and other groups deemed by Nazis to be unfit in his rise and time in power in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.
Finally, Mr. Trump showed his Anti-Semitic colors again. Who can, as the Biden/Harris Campaign reminded voters in a statement, forget this ad he posted against Hillary Clinton:
Or the fact that Mr. Trump frequently meets and associates with individuals and groups on the White Nationalist Right that are openly Anti-Semitic.
This is really ironic since his daughter converted to Judaism and his grandchildren are Jewish.
Yesterday, March 18, the Duce want to be repeated his assertion, made several times in the 2020 campaign, that "any Jew that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves."
Like walking and chewing gum at the same time, you can be Democratic, Pro-Israel, and Anti Bibi 'the Israelis Trump' Nethanayu at the same time.
The Biden/Harris team and the Democratic National Committee wasted no time again in condemning Mr. Trump's Anti-Semitic remarks.
Spokesperson James Singer wrote:
“The only person who should be ashamed here is Donald Trump."
“Donald Trump openly demeans Jewish Americans and reportedly thinks Adolf Hitler ‘did some good things.’ He has said the only people he wants counting his money are ‘short guys wearing yarmulkes,’ and praised neo-Nazis who chanted ‘Jews will not replace us’ as ‘very fine people.’
“Trump is going to lose again this November because Americans are sick of his hateful resentment, personal attacks, and extreme agenda.”
Democratic National Committee Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd offered in a DNC statement:
“Donald Trump is the one who should be ashamed of himself: He dines with neo-Nazis and white supremacists while parroting hateful demagogues on the campaign trail. He even reportedly claimed Hitler ‘did some good things.’ Jewish Americans deserve better than the appalling, offensive attacks Trump continues to launch against the Jewish community.”
The American People should also not forget that the great dealmaker (perhaps the biggest lie of all,) can not come up with the almost half a billion dollars to cover the bond for his appeal on a court decision finding him liable for business fraud.
Donald Trump is the vilest major party candidate for President in United States History.
Hopefully, the great majority of the American People will realize that when they go to the polls this November.
Make
Enjoy the latest ads from the Harris/Walz Campaign and The Lincoln Project. They focus on Republicans supporting Harris, Trump's coward...