It's clear that the Koch brothers and the politicians they've bought are willing to do anything to stop the Affordable Care Act from implementation. They've been planning the shutdown since day one of Obama's reelection. What's not clear at all, to me anyway, is why? Why do multi-billionaires find it such a threat? Surely, it's not, per se, that people who've been heretofore left out of the system will finally have a way in. There's nothing about poor people getting access to health care, in and of itself, that threatens their empire. Is there?
The only thing that makes sense, if that's the word, to me, is that they're deathly afraid that the ACA will work as hoped, and that once people have access to decent care, and once they figure out they've been lied to by the right-wing scream machine, they'll be grateful Democratic voters for a long time. Even then, why should that be such a big deal that the the KBs are willing to cause worldwide chaos to prevent it?
Greed. That's the only thing I can think of. In particular, their billions aren't enough for them: they want free reign to do whatever they want, to workers, to the land, to our future, in order to make more and more money. And when Democrats are in control, such things as regulations -- concern for the environment, worker safety, that sort of silly thing, which are anathema to pure corporate greed -- are on the table. Which, if your only goal is personal profit, is to be avoided at all costs, including the hundreds of millions they're spending to fight the ACA.
Why else would it be so critical to them? And, assuming I'm right (happy to hear better explanations: my email address is onsite), isn't that a special kind of greed? A kind that's so all-consuming there's no amount of success and wealth that's enough, no point at which one can stop thinking about personal aggrandizement and begin to consider the larger implications? I mean, I think I'd be ready to call it quits after my first billion or two.
So, even if the explanation is as I said, it's still beyond understanding in even the most basic human terms. I'll give them this: in today's Republican party they've found the perfect forum. In the Tea Party, the perfect substrate of gullibility. And, of course, along with other billionaires like R. Murdoch, the perfect platform of propagandistic persuasion in right-wing media.
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