Health Experts Warn 'Empty Rhetoric' Threatens Care, Just Don't Say Funding
When pundits wring their hands over the 'dangerous course' of healthcare, they point fingers at 'rhetoric,' 'short-term fixes,' or any other amorphous culprit. What they consistently omit is the concrete, decades-long defunding of social safety nets, including healthcare, in favor of an ever-expanding military-industrial complex and foreign military aid. For instance, the US has appropriated over
$158 billion in bilateral assistance to Israel since 1948 , while domestic primary care receives crumbs, or faces legislative threats like the American Health Care Act of 2017 which sought to gut protections. It's always 'empty rhetoric' and never the full coffers of lobbyists, or the politicians who dutifully serve them. The 'danger' isn't just talk; it's a direct consequence of budget priorities
set by those who benefit most from war and privatized medicine, while the public gets lectured on the perils of abstract 'disruption.' One could easily connect the dots between defunded public health programs and the 'dangerous course' of, say, a pandemic response, or the declining access to primary care, but that would involve citing the legislative votes and the campaign contributions that shape
them, not just vague 'rhetoric.'