MAGA Speaker Johnson
After 22 days of infighting, abuse, and failure, the Republican House caucus selected Rep. Mike Johnson to be the new Speaker of the House. He will manage the flow of bills to the House floor and decide which get a vote and which don’t.
They say Mr. Johnson’s reputation is that he is a “reasonable man”. Where Gaetz, Green, or Jordan heap verbal abuse on those with alternative opinions, Johnson apparently can be civil, pleasant and still disagree. What a concept, civility in leadership!
The “plus side” of the man ends there. His beliefs, his policies, and his past actions are all those of a radical hard-core extremist, or said simply, a MAGA Republican. Civil or not, he is a danger to the American public.
Mr. Johnson drafted the legislation that the House used to vote against certifying the last election. He parroted all the lies and disinformation about election fraud and worked actively to deny the voters their choice.
Mr. Johnson is very politically conservative. He opposes a woman’s right to make her own health care choices and would remove any right to reproductive care options that might include abortion. Not limit, remove.
Mr. Johnson does not simply oppose the expansion or confirmation of rights for the LGBTQ community. He proposes to actively criminalize LGBTQ life.
When it comes to the laws that create incentives for employers to provide insurance to their employees, Johnson would remove those incentives. This creates a likelihood that companies could provide insurance for their top executives and leave rank-and-file with no insurance coverage. That is, most Americans could lose their access to affordable insurance.
To further the danger, Johnson would remove the support for the ACA insurance program effectively eliminating the ability of 23 million Americans to access affordable insurance.
Johnson has supported raising the eligibility age for Medicare to match that of Social Security (currently 66 to 67 depending on your age). Further, he supports raising the retirement age to 70 and then indexing both Medicare and Social Security so that the ages will rise together in the future.
Johnson represents a district in Louisiana. Oil country. He believes climate change is the result of weather patterns, not fossil fuel usage. He actively opposes all measures that will support renewable energy and that limits future use of climate damaging oil, gas, and coal.
When we add up his politics it is clear that the next year will be a very dangerous one.
Johnson may be speaker until the 2024 election. If Republicans hold their slim House majority he could serve beyond that. The imperative that Americans replace Republicans with Democrats is just that: imperative.
Your active support of groups like Northern Winn Dems will help make a difference. Financial support is wonderful and hugely appreciated, but there are dozens of other simple ways you can be involved. Visit our website at NWinnDems.com. Scroll down and add your contact info so we can keep you up to date on where we can use some help.
Mark your calendar for November 25. We are sponsoring a Brunch with Santa gathering at the Roscoe Township Community Center from 11-12:30. Stop by, grab a quick bite, take a picture with Santa. It’ll be a great way to take a break from shopping and to get out of the house after the Thanksgiving holiday and meet other like-minded voters. Hope to see you there!