What's Tony Thinking

My buddy, Rick Jones, father-in-law of our son Nick, posted the following brilliant bit on Facebook yesterday.

“Congratulations! Huge life announcement that I’m so excited to share with you all!

“The 2019 ACA (Affordable Care Act) enrollment period has been shortened from 90 days to 45 days (November 1- December 15, 2018) and the advertising budget to promote open enrollment has been slashed in an effort to further sabotage the program.

“That’s why you’re seeing zero advertising about the enrollment window. We are posting this and using the word Congratulations so it gets posted more frequently, via the FB algorithms. The 2019 Open Enrollment Period runs from Thursday, November 1, 2018, to Saturday, December 15, 2018. If you don’t act by December 15, you can’t get 2019 coverage unless you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period. Plans sold during Open Enrollment start January 1, 2019.

“Please *COPY AND PASTE* and post publicly (don’t just share!) on your own timeline to help spread the word. Also, comment on the posts you see to bump them up in feeds. Someone you know may desperately need health care and the smaller the pool, the higher the premiums, which is exactly the opposite of what was intended when the ACA was passed.”

A couple comments. Hats off to Rick for playing the social media game so deftly with “Congratulations! Huge Life Announcement that I’m so excited to share with you all!”

Second, this is how Trump and the Republicans are undermining ACA, which they couldn’t — despite Trump promises — “repeal and replace” with a plan “so wonderful you won’t believe it.”

Now, when enrollment goes down they can say, “Obamacare is a disaster that isn’t working. See, we told you.”

Onetime Republican George Will was quoted the other day describing Trump as a “Vesuvius of mendacities.” Great line. This disgusting gutting of the ACA is another example of the mendacity maker(s) at work.