FAFO
The abbreviation is now commonplace. F--- Around and Find Out.
It means people face the consequences of their own acts.
The reader who sent me the quotation in the headline doesn't think Democrats should shut down the government over the health insurance issue.
The U.S. government is in shutdown. The sticking point for Democrats is the subsidies to the ACA's expansion of Medicaid, the program that makes health insurance affordable for America's working poor. Democrats are fighting to keep those subsidies. The Big Beautiful Bill passed by Republicans lets those subsidies end on December 31 of this year. That is what the shutdown fight is about.
My correspondent wrote me saying that she is tired of paying taxes to subsidize people who bite the hand that feeds them. "They say they hate Obamacare, do they? Do without it."
My correspondent has liberal views. She wants higher taxes on wealthy Americans. "They have the priceless benefit of living in a rich country in domestic tranquility, and that costs money. Taxes should be worth it to them." She wants the working poor to have a bigger slice of the pie. My reader is an upper-middle class retiree in Portland, Oregon. She lives well. She pays a lot of taxes. She lives in a neighborhood of fellow Democrats; Kamala Harris beat Donald Trump with 79 percent of the vote in Portland.
She says that she hears all about the resentment felt by Trump voters. Well she is resentful too, she said. Portland subsidizes the rest of the state, and blue states subsidize the red ones. If the beneficiaries of liberal policies don't value them, and instead vote because they like the "make liberals cry" message of a constitutional vandal, then let them experience the consequences. FAFO, she says.
When insurance subsidies end, life will get harder for the working poor. Higher premiums will accelerate a death spiral of cancelled insurance, which will make the insurance pool smaller and sicker, therefore less viable. People will go into medical bankruptcy. Rural hospitals will close. People will put off medical care and get sicker and die. There are consequences.
How much money are we talking about? The formulas are complicated. Here is a link that gives details. Here is a chart from a second article, but the bottom line from this is that poor people will pay more.
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| Kaiser Family Foundation |
Democrats are taking their stand at an imperfect place for political messaging. The lost subsidies are incremental, not black and white. Republicans are damaging a Democratic-coded program of Obamacare, so the disappointment may go against Democrats. Health care affordability is generally a good issue for Democrats, but it needs explanation, which is bad in a political issue. It isn't simple like, "No trans men in women's sports!" or "They are eating your dogs!" Plus, what Democrats propose costs money and voters weigh what's in it for them and who exactly gets the benefit.
Democrats need to harden their hearts, my correspondent tells me. Democrats use up political capital helping people who appreciate the benefit, but not the people who fight to get it for them. Instead, they vote for a con man with an imaginary promise of "wonderful, free best health care ever" when he is in fact helping himself and his billionaire friends get richer. They don't vote on this issue.
I asked my correspondent if she didn't feel guilty and cruel. Won't some innocent, vulnerable people be hurt?
"Yes. But they won't suffer in vain. Their misery will be a lesson. Some will go bankrupt. Some people will stay sick. Some children won't get vaccinations and will get sick or die. People will notice who screwed them. Republicans are in charge. Don't soften the consequences. Nothing Chuck Schumer says will get through to them. They need to experience that they screwed themselves when they voted for Trump. Let them learn that. You write about political messaging. Well, a sick child is a political message."
Then she quoted Poor Richard's Almanack: "Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other."
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16 comments:
Many doctors in rural hospitals, such as Sky Lakes, supported Trump in 2024. Yeah, FAFO. Meanwhile, the "Democrat" party is getting blamed for the "Schumer shutdown," and that blame is sticking, so a different FAFO is on Democrats. This is ridiculous.
I agree with the sentiment, but it’s hard not to resist everything Trump as he is so evil.
She's right. However, by making one issue their banner Democrats may be looking for an exit and Republicans probably will give it to them. If Democrats compromise they will lose and look unprincipled.
Rather than focus on Medicare Democrats should be talking about forcing Republicans to start standing up to Trump. Personally, I'd like to see Democrats push Republicans to promise to impeach, but that's just me. ALSO DEMAND THEY RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES INCLUDING THE NAMES OF THE EPSTEIN 20. HOW ABOUT MIKE JOHNSON READING THE NAMES ON THE FLOOR?
Democrats are fighting for their constituents and to preserve Obamacare, among other things. She is "unencumbered by the thought process." She sounds like she is off her rocker.
She is a cold, hateful person. Easy for her to say, she has a comfortable life. Sick
It’s unfortunate because it goes against liberal (small L) ideals. We want all people to rise with the tide of a flourishing society; to remove barriers and help them reach their God-given right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
But a free society also means people can choose imprudent and even self-destructive choices that always have a ripple-effect. Tragically that ripple-effect of the plurality of voters, will harm even those who could not (children) or did not vote him.
She also sounds like an angry drunk.
They vote for Trump because the other side has consistently shown contempt for them. “Basket of deplorables”, “cling bitterly to their guns and religion”. Incessant accusations of “racism”.
Contempt “trumps” self-interest.
FAFO also applies to the Democrats.
About the militarization of Portland and other US cities: The Orange Predator has a habit of forcing himself on women, i.e., without their consent. Now he is forcing himself on cities, also without their consent. He is a dangerous and deranged predator but the media is silent on his mental state and aggressive behavior. But they were all over Joe Biden for his so-called cognitive decline. Biden didn't give the media the Drama that it craves, so they turned on him.
So are saying MT, that we are essentially ungovernable with a dysfunctional 2 party system?
They voted for the scumbag, let them have the consequences.
The Republicans have always been the party that helps big business. The Democrats help people. Medicare, Social Security, Civil Rights Act, Obamacare, all meant to help people. The Republicans voted against all of them.
I weep for the misguided people whose actions rain down hurt and pain on the unseen and scattered population that is America, too. Instead of FAFO, I favor WWJD? Kindness towards one another will prevail... eventually... or we will surely be lost.
No. I am saying that we need to understand the motivations of voters in order to understand how to appeal to them.
And like I said, in my other comment, contempt “trumps“ self interest.
Those who support a sex offender, fraud, convicted felon, compulsive liar and leader of an attempted coup for the nation's highest office are deplorable.
… said the exponent of the same attitudes that helped cost the Democrats the 2024 election.
Keep it up, and 2026 and 2028 could go the same way.
Perhaps if we nominated candidates even more disgusting than Trump, some of the deplorables would cross over.
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