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CATALYST
MARCH 22, 2017 VOLUME XXXV ISSUE IV
New College of Florida's student-run newspaper
CIW FUNDRAISER AEOLUS JOURNAL pg.
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EMMY PEREZ VISITS pg.
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Nearly 2000 voice concerns to Sarasota Representative Buchanan BYJASON D'AMOURS AND CASSIE MANZ Nearly two thousand energized constituents made their way to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in the early hours of March 18 to exercise a fundamental aspect of democracy the right to voice their concerns at a town hall. Attendees eagerly lined up outside as early as 9:00 a.m. With 5,000 R.S.V.P.s, the 1,736 occupancy limit inside the Van Wezel was quickly filled and speakers were set up outside for the couple hundred who were turned away. Representative Vern Buchanan (R- FL) of Florida’s 16th district, a vast area including Sarasota, Bradenton, stretching east to Myakka City and north to the South Tampa area, held a town hall meeting on March 18. Buchanan’s 75th town hall event comes weeks after efforts by All of Us Sarasota, a local human rights oriented activist coalition, in which members
Healthcare, climate change and Donald Trump’s continued refusal to release his taxes were all pressing concerns for the town hall attendees. For an hour and a half, Representative Buchanan’s constituents belabored him with pointed questions about his and President Donald Trump’s policies. Attendants shouted “Yes or no!” and “Answer the question!” while waving red cards to signify their disapproval. Despite this, Buchanan remained optimistic throughout the town hall. When one woman questioned if the town hall was as scary for him as it is for her, Buchanan replied, “I’m enjoying Cassie Manz/Catalyst it.” “This is what democracy is all Attendees chant, "Answer the question!" and "Yes or No?!" and hold a sign that reads, about,” Buchanan said in a private "Pivot from Trump or Lose in 2018." interview with the Catalyst. “Giving marched into Buchanan’s Sarasota over taxation and a number of other people the right to be heard, and me office to demand a town hall meeting. programs such as social security, listening, primarily. That's my goal, and Buchanan serves on the House medicare, unemployment benefits, looking to try to implement some of Committee on Ways and Means as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Chair for the Oversight subcommittee. Families and the federal welfare continued on p. 5 This committee has a wide jurisdiction program. Dylan Pryor/Catalyst
Republican healthcare plan would leave 24 million uninsured
Photo courtesy of Flickr.com
BY DYLAN PRYOR On March 6, House Speaker Paul Ryan and fellow House Republicans released their long-awaited plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare (ACA). Despite a wealth of bipartisan criticism, the House Speaker insisted that the opportunity was too valuable to wait any longer. A week later, on March 14, an analysis released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) further complicated efforts to pass the bill and breathed new life into pushback efforts when they found that 24 million more Americans would be uninsured by 2026 under
WHAT’S INSIDE
the legislation, with 14 million left uninsured by next year. Notable components of the bill include repealing the ACA, decreasing and modifying premium tax credits by 2020, increasing the ration that insurance companies can charge older subscribers compared to younger subscribers and prohibiting funding for Planned Parenthood clinics and insurance plans which cover abortions. “Thinking of Walter Cronkite, the American healthcare system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system and this plan to me is a direct representation of just how mismanaged healthcare in this country is,” thesis student
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Victoria McCullough said. “To me, as an uninsured, AFAB [assigned female at birth] person, this plan is draconian and hurts more than it benefits.” The CBO is a nonpartisan analytical service for Congress that evaluates, among other things, the economic impact of legislative proposals. The analysis is part of a process called scoring, which according to Professor of Political Science Keith Fitzgerald, essentially evaluates “who wins, who loses, how much of a cost.” “Promising to fix this, without having actually worked on a plan for several years has put them in a real political box, and I think they are rushing
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something out there that is unique in the degree which it’s making everyone with a stake in healthcare upset, and the only support for this bill I’ve seen other than Republican supporters wanting to be behind the President and Congress is from insurers—Anthem, which is a major insurance company—everyone else hates it,” Fitzgerald said. “But it will undoubtedly, if passed in this form, cost a fortune and take away healthcare from millions of people, and that isn’t going to be something that will go down easily.”
continued on p. 5
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