On a table in my living room, there is an arresting, kinetic sculpture of a circus tiger by New Mexico artist, Frederick Prescott. Prescott’s sculptures move because he attaches a weight to one of the elements, allowing you to give it a push and watch it move back and forth, slowly and repeatedly. In mine, the weight is attached to the tiger so that, if you give it a tap, the tiger will jump, over and over, through a ring of fire held by a maniacally grinning clown. Looking at that sculpture today reminded me of the phrase, “jumping through hoops”, which, undoubtedly, was coined to describe the taming of these great cats, and their obedience in jumping through rings held by their masters. Over the years, “jumping through hoops” has taken on a broader meaning, and is now widely used to describe the actions of someone having to go through difficult or unnecessary steps in order to achieve a desired outcome. Take Medicaid, for instance. (That was smooth). The fact that the Big Murder Bill cut $990 billion out of the total Medicaid budget meant that it also had to set out ways through which this savings would be achieved. In other words, who would lose their Medicaid funding, and how? Interestingly, they did not do it directly, but through a slew of reasonable-sounding (at least to them) requirements (or hoops). First of all, (first hoop), it added a work requirement which means that individuals aged 19-64 must document at least 80 hours per month of work, volunteer activity or school attendance. Many recipients face serious barriers to employment. They may have disabilities, or may have the need to care for family members, or may have insurmountable transportation challenges. Often, the major difficulty is getting documentation to prove that they are doing the work, as not every employer is set up to provide the required paperwork. When those who were pushing this measure added the work requirement to the bill, they were actually counting on it to force people to drop off of Medicaid and “scored” it as reducing the rolls by five million recipients. Voila! Savings! They had ample precedent. These work requirements had been added to other safety net programs in the past. As a result, many people lost their benefits due to the impossible administrative hassles encountered in trying to get documentation that would satisfy the requirement. Shall I say it again? They are counting on it as contributing to the 990 billion dollar savings. There is also a new requirement, not only to enroll, but to re-enroll every year, (second hoop), filling out renewal forms that include income, household details, residence information, and providing all supporting documents. Renewal used to be automatic. With this new requirement, the Congressional Budget Office estimates an additional two million people will be thrown off Medicaid as they are unable to fully comply. Again, the proponents of these changes are counting on people losing their Medicare because of this new requirement. How else will they reach their 990 billion in cuts? The co-payment has also been raised from $0 in most states to $35 a visit for those earning over $15,000 a year. (third hoop). Studies have shown that even a low co-pay often causes low-income enrollees to forego care. Again, those pushing and voting for the bill are counting on it. Until I was required to take a class on procedure during my first year in law school, I was innocent of the ways in which seemingly innocent processes are often used to create barriers to benefits. You may be a tiger, but the clown holding the ring of fire is out to tame you and break your spirit. And take away your Medicaid. Mocking The Devil Early in the 16th century, Sir Thomas More wrote, “The devil cannot endure to be mocked.” A lawyer, judge, social philosopher and statesman, Sir Thomas rose through the ranks in the court of King Henry VIII, and was named Lord Chancellor in 1529. However, when he opposed the Protestant Revolution and protested Henry’s separation from the Catholic Church in order for the King to annul one of his marriages and name himself the Supreme Head of the new Church of England, Sir Thomas was executed for treason. Being a close ally of the head of state, he knew quite a bit about the Devil. So here we are, almost half a millennium later, and it all looks disturbingly familiar. However, given the multiflorous responses to our particular devil, you can see that mockery is the clear winner for getting under what is reputed to be a scaly and thick skin, but which reveals itself to be delightfully thin. I’m sure you’ve heard a great deal about the South Park season opener roasting the little wanna-be king (literally showing him walking nude through the desert), although most of the best insults and visuals (like his cozying up to the Devil in bed) (or the Devil commenting on the size of Trump’s manhood) were a bit too steamy for network or cable TV. Less has been heard, though, about the colorful language heaped on the ditzy president by those silver-tongued Scots during his recent (golf) swing through their country, making me wish we had hung onto the British ability to use a far more inventive range of expressions, alas, lost to us in the Revolution. When Trump landed in Scotland, he quickly tweeted that the Scots were “taking their country back” (declaring their independence from the EU) “just like we will take America back!” Unfortunately for him, as is the case with virtually every word he writes, says, or thinks, it was dead wrong, and the Scots let him know it. Boy, did they. A few samples of what they called him, tweeting in return, and crudely reminding him that they had actually voted to STAY in the EU: “You cockwombie. You incompressible jizztrumpet. You tiny-fingered, Cheeto-faced, ferret wearing shitgibbon. You muppet. You mangled apricot hellbeast.” And many I just can’t print. One sign, held high for him to see, said, “A bit like Hitler/Only his hands are littler”. They also pelted the area around him with red golf balls painted with swastikas. I think mockery, laughter and disdain will provide some of our most powerful weapons. The ever-weakening white house resident can try to shut down the entire Comedy Central Network, it won’t stop the insults, shaped by the inventive language of comedy. The eternal roast will go on and on, perhaps literally. Finally joined together in one place, he and the Devil can commiserate about the heartbreak of unending mockery for the rest of eternity. |
| Sheila |
