Destroyer of worlds

 

You may need this statistic

 

Chipping away at Medicare

 

The best president money can buy

 That used to be Dubya.  Trump has swept the title.

More fallout

 

Social Security and Medicare are not out of the woods

 

Stop electing Republicans.

The Clown Car added a new "administrator"

 

And who would that be?

None other than Dr. Oz!  (Thanks, Oprah.)

Oz frequently drew controversy for his touting of quack medical treatments and health-related products. In perhaps the most infamous example, Oz praised the weight loss benefits of green coffee bean extract during a show in 2012.

[...]

While Oz has long been criticized by other doctors for his history of quackery, it was his recent political run for a Senate seat in Pennsylvania that rankled many Americans. Oz was unceremoniously scrubbed from Columbia University’s website in May 2022, ending a 20-year affiliation with the institution. He had officially retired as a professor in 2018. Oz went on to lose his election to John Fetterman (D-Pa).

  Gizmodo

You knew it was coming

Republicans have wanted to destroy and then privatize Medicare and Social Security for ages.  MAGA loyalists aren't going to be so eager when their Medicare and Social Security get messed with.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

We're on our own

What the everloving fuck???

I like to think Steve Bannon is telling them.  

Maybe I'm not so unhappy that Steve Bannon didn't get sidelined.

UPDATE 05:05 pm:  

Well, good!  It's the least you can do.

UPDATE 02/02/2025:

Pwned again

And Trump will be in the White House and taking credit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Who gets the advantage from Medicare Advantage policies?

I don't want to excerpt the whole thing, but the whole thing is worth a read.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Truth

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Substantive proposals

Well, that and national abortion protection.  And home buyers' subsidies.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Medicare proposal

Awesome.  And then can we have dental and vision coverage?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Stop electing Republicans

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Possible good news

Grinches

Anybody remember this? ....

At any rate, I'm sure McCarthy came out with this idea because the rabid right (via Chip Roy and Lauren Boebert) is calling for his head after his debt ceiling deal with Biden.  He's hoping to stave off the threat of being recalled.  He made a deal with THEM in order to become Speaker that any one of them can ask for a vote to toss him.

UPDATE 08:49 am:

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic senate majority leader, was at his desk preparing its pathway soon after Wednesday’s 314-117 bipartisan House vote, and is warning any potential troublemakers to stand aside in order to get the measure approved swiftly and on to Joe Biden’s desk for signature to avoid a national default.

  MSN

UPDATE 06/02/2023:  The Senate has passed the bill.  Biden will sign.  Another needless panic and threat to the stock market and international faith in America's fidelity has passed.

UPDATE 06/03/2023:  And done.

State of the Union sideshow

Mitt Romney had words with George Santos.

MTG treated it as the circus she lives in and creates every day.

“People stand up and clap for the president. I think we can stand up and oppose things he’s saying,” Greene said. “Just like a sports team, right?”

  The Hill

Thus voicing my biggest complaint about American politics today: people treat it like a sporting event instead of the thing that allows them to have a voice in their own government.

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said that the Republicans responded appropriately in some areas, such as to Biden’s Social Security comments. But he said that Greene, who stood and pointed at Biden during her jeers, went too far.

“It’s inappropriate because it then can hurt,” Cramer said. “Our brand is moral authority.”

Not for decades, pal.

Apparently, one of the biggest stinks GOP members made was when Biden said some Republicans want to get rid of Medicare and Social Security. (One would expect them to shout the loudest denials there, because it's true.)

I’ve never seen anything like it in a State of the Union speech – they ran at him like a pack of lemmings and, with a wink and a grin, he politely directed them to the cliff.

  USA Today

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The whole shebang:

Highlights:

UPDATE 10:17 am:

Any time there is a televised event at the House, you can count on Sinema and Greene to be wearing an outfit sure to capture the camera's eye.

UPDATE 02/17/2023:

That was painful

If signed into law, the bill, formally known as the Inflation Reduction Act, would allocate $369bn to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing in renewable energy sources. Experts have estimated the climate provisions of the bill will reduce America’s planet-heating emissions by about 40% by 2030, compared with 2005 levels.

[...]

[The bill allows] Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and [caps] Medicare recipients’ out-of-pocket prescription drug prices at $2,000 a year. Those who receive health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace are also expected to see lower premium costs.

[...]

The legislation includes a number of tax provisions to cover the costs of these policies, bringing in $739bn for the government and resulting in an overall deficit reduction of roughly $300bn. The policy changes include a new corporate minimum tax, a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks and stricter enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service.

  Guardian

Enforcement on whom? And a whole percent on buybacks. Wow. Hope we don't break General Motors.

The final Senate vote was 51-50, with every Democrat supporting the bill while all 50 of their Republican colleagues opposed the legislation. With the Senate evenly divided on the bill’s passage, Vice-President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote.

Totally performative on the part of many, if not all, of the Republicans. They knew the Democrats had the votes, so they didn't have to vote in favor of it. Now, like they did with the infrastructure bill, they'll go back to their constituents and brag about the bill's provisions. And brag about stopping other parts.

The Senate parliamentarian ruled on Saturday that a key healthcare provision, which would have placed inflation-related caps on companies’ ability to raise prescription drug prices for private insurance plans, ran afoul of reconciliation rules. Another proposal to cap the cost of insulin in the private insurance market at $35 a month was also stripped out of the bill after 43 Senate Republicans voted to block the policy on procedural grounds.

[...]

The bill’s narrower focus frustrated the progressive senator Bernie Sanders, who criticized the compromise in a Saturday floor speech. Sanders complained that the legislation would do little to help working Americans struggling to keep up with rising prices, and he unsuccessfully pushed for expanding the bill to further lower healthcare costs.

“This legislation does not address the reality that we have more income and wealth inequality today than at any time in the last hundred years,” Sanders said. “This bill does nothing to address the systemic dysfunctionality of the American healthcare system.”

[...]

According to a report issued by Moody’s Analytics, the bill will “modestly reduce inflation over the 10-year budget horizon”.

I should fucking HOPE inflation will not be ten years in reduction.

The majority leader, Steny Hoyer, has said the House will return on Friday to take up the legislation, and Democrats do not need any Republican votes to pass the bill.

At the very least, Democrats will have another thing to campaign against Republicans on. So there's that.

The government giveth and the government taketh away

Old-timers might get hearing coverage, but their premiums will be gouging them.  So, IF it passes, some seniors will MAYBE break even by getting hearing aids, but those who don't need aids (or have alzheimer's) will be paying for it.

Seniors on Medicare will have to pay more than $20 more per month extra in premiums next year, a large increase that officials in part attributed to possible coverage of a pricey and controversial new Alzheimer's drug.

  The Hill

And of course, it's the pharmaceutical companies who get the benefits.

About half of that increase is due to contingency planning to make sure the program has enough money to pay for an expensive new Alzheimer's drug, if Medicare decides to cover it, an official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said.

Could it be worse? Yes. And it is.

That drug, called Aduhelm and made by the company Biogen, has drawn controversy both for its price, at $56,000 per year, and because the Food and Drug Administration approved it despite doubts from experts about its effectiveness.

But wait. Seniors are getting a cost-of-living increase. It just won't be as large as it would have been.

Administration officials emphasized Friday that most people on Medicare will also be getting a large cost of living increase in their Social Security payments next year, which they said would more than offset the rise in Medicare costs for many seniors.

"Most". "Large".

"Skyrocketing drug prices not only make it harder for seniors to afford the lifesaving drugs they need, but also drive up their health care premiums for doctor’s visits and outpatient care," House Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) said in response to the announcement.

"This double financial whammy simply cannot continue, and that’s why Congress must pass the bicameral Medicare prescription drug agreement that was included in the Build Back Better Act last week."

Yeah? Allowing Medicare to negotiate for reasonable prices was taken out, wasn't it?

In early budget negotiations, it looked as if the Democrats were finally going to take on Big Pharma over spiraling drug prices. Then last week, drug pricing fell out of the bill altogether and it looked as if the drug companies had won again. Now there is a compromise that looks modest but could have real bite.

The drug price regulation Congress is now considering would achieve three main goals. It would limit the amount that Medicare patients can be asked to pay for drugs out-of-pocket. It would restrict how much drugmakers can increase their prices each year. And, for the first time, it would allow Medicare to negotiate directly with drugmakers on prices for their medications.

The provision on price negotiation was the one most substantially changed in the last week: It would apply to fewer drugs, require smaller discounts, and, most critically, shield new drugs from negotiations.

  NYT

So, I wonder which drugs they can negotiate on.

The policy isn’t simply smaller than the original. If enacted, it will save the federal government less money than the legislation passed by the House two years ago. But it is also less likely to hinder the development of new treatments and cures, the experts said.

Great. New drugs only the rich can afford.

The bill text could, of course, change or fail to become law.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.