A Race to the Bottom

This ad appears in the March 12, 2014, issue of our small-town newspaper:

"ATTENTION SENATE DISTRICT VOTERS:  Recently I have been informed by voters in Senate District 20 that my opponent Barry Usher has contacted them and told them that I had voted for Medicaid expansion.  This is untrue.  I did NOT vote for the expansion of Medicaid, in fact quite the contrary..."

The purpose of states' expansion of Medicaid in the Affordable Care Act is to enable those among us with the least amount of means, those earning 100 per cent below the poverty level, to receive affordable health care.  They would be able to qualify for federal subsidies and thus be able to purchase health care insurance.  Without Medicaid, they most probably cannot.

I can only surmise from the ad above that neither Mr. Ankney nor Mr. Usher want to be known for supporting Medicaid expansion in the Montana State Senate.  Are we really seeking the lowest common denominator now in our country:  see who can do the least to help those most in need?

During 2001-2003, my husband and I serve as Peace Corps Volunteers in Straldja, Bulgaria.  Daily, we can see reminders of the country's poverty, particularly that of the older generation:  pensioners (mostly women) who walk several miles into the country to gather twigs and branches, bundle them onto their backs, and carry them home for heat.  Wheelchairs for the disabled are nowhere to be seen.  Questions from pensioners always for us are about how much money we make as Americans; there is no such thing as Social Security in Bulgaria, no safety net on which to depend.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank my lucky stars for having been born in America.

Now I wonder.  Where is our country headed if the "Party of No" continues to lead us ever downward?  Efforts to trash the Affordable Care Act are only one example.  Others include attacks on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, pensions built up over years of work, school lunches, Head Start, the SNAP program (providing food for working families whose wages can't meet basic needs), etc. -- many benefits about which Bulgarians are so envious.  Meanwhile, there is a segment of our population that is doing very well.  The Koch brothers are an example.  Could people like them, the ones spending billions of dollars on GOP political races, be the reason that those running for office have lost all sense of neighborly decency, empathy, and compassion?  That it's really about the almighty dollar?

Are we becoming a country known more for its poverty rather than for its plenty?  Poverty in spirit as well as poverty in our own economic well-being?  Is this where we are headed -- in a race toward the bottom?