By Greg Sagan The election coming up in 16 months carries consequences unlike any other mid-term in my lifetime. This election will either reinforce and sustain the path we're on -- or change it. The path we're on today is perilous, not just for ourselves and our allies but also for the world. This path is embodied in the political philosophy, such as it is, of Donald Trump and in the collective behaviors of those who support him. I know that there were a lot of people who voted for Trump last year. You know that even more people voted for Hillary Clinton. I know that as president, Trump has a lot of followers in District 13, and you know as much about their motives as anyone. But there is no question that Trump campaigned on a message that strikes at important institutions, practices and values of America, or that he promised a number of things to you which he is not going to do. Many of these promises dealt with issues that directly affect your wallet. The health care bill passed by the House and, as I write this, being re-written in the Senate will result in far fewer Americans insured, at substantially higher premium costs, with higher deductibles, smaller payments to providers, and little protection for pre- existing conditions. Seniors can expect to pay as much as five times more for their health insurance than they pay today. The plan we know about carries with it considerable tax relief for insurance companies and the wealthiest people in America, which is another way of saying that Republicans believe the wealthy are taxed too much and you and I aren't taxed enough. Our public education system will see voucher programs that take your tax dollars away from public schools and give them to private schools most of our children will never attend. We have yet to see a real tax reform bill, but we must be prepared to expect lavish tax cuts for the wealthy and paltry cuts -- or no cuts at all -- for the rest of us. What little we know about Trump's proposed budget for next year includes draconian cuts to environmental protection, health sciences, earth sciences and other programs designed to keep us healthy and productive. His retreat from NAFTA will hit Texans especially hard, mainly cattle ranchers and wheat farmers. His stated intention to build an impregnable wall between the United States and Mexico will inflict major economic damage on the communities along both sides of the border. Along with these disturbing signs are hints that our spending on national defense may rise to around $700 billion a year, a price tag that bodes ill if you're hoping that your taxes will go down by very much. These plans enjoy wide support among congressional Republicans, including our own representative in the House, Mac Thornberry. Thornberry has even stated lately that the increase in defense spending is necessary to correct major defects in that department, a claim that forces us to ask what we've been doing with the current $650 billion annual allocation that an increase of another $50 billion is going to solve. Much of the nation's attention on the way Republicans want to run America is focused on health care, and the mesmerizing object of that focus is the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. For six years the Republicans have been telling us that Obamacare is a blight on the body politic, that they would repeal it as soon as they had the power to do so, and that their own version of an American health care bill would be vastly superior. When they did finally capture the country's governmental power, we found that they had no plan at all, far less a better one. During his campaign, Trump bleated daily that Obamacare was "a failure" and that he would see to it that America had a plan that kept the most popular features of Obamacare, a plan that covered everyone, a plan with lower cost and more choices. The version Trump and the members of Congress recently celebrated on the White House lawn did none of these things, and the Senate's version, now being hammered out in total secrecy, probably won't stray too far from the House version. But either one will almost certainly be an early Christmas present for those with the most money. Incidentally, if you would like to know just how bad this nobly named "American Health Care Act" really is, just consider that in the House version the people who passed it aren't compelled to use it. That's right, members of Congress can continue to buy their health insurance, with federal subsidies, through Obamacare's D.C. insurance exchange. So you may be comforted to know that even if you don't have access to health care by this time next year, Thornberry will. So the next election will have an array of serious questions for us to answer, most of which can be grouped together under this one: Is the Republican Party failing America? My own answer to that is, "yes." As a matter of fact, the Republican Party today is showing itself to be a danger to Americans, even to Republicans, and its members are not interested in hearing your complaints, your suggestions or your fears. And that's why I'm running for Congress, as a Democrat, next year.