COVID-19 & Healthcare

(Update) Tea-Publican economic terrorists take Medicare ‘Doc fix’ hostage

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I warned you about this the other day. Tea-Publican economic terrorists plot to take Medicare hostage to delay ‘ObamaCare’.

REDOn Friday, Tea-Publicans took their fifty-second vote to repeal or to undermine “ObamaCare,” this time to delay the individual mandate for five years and to use the $138 billion resulting savings for the annual Medicare “Doc fix.”

For those of you keeping score at home, yes our Arizona “Blue Dogs” Ron Barber and Kirsten Sinema, once again, voted with the Tea-Publicans to delay the individual mandate. HR 4015.

They will argue that having once voted for the delay, they must continue to be consistent. There is nothing admirable in being consistently wrong. Admit your error and move on.

They will also argue that this was a “safety” vote, with no real consequences because the Senate will never take up the bill. So why enable Tea-Publicans with their manufactured crises designed for the conservative media entertainment complex and fundraising appeals to the GOP crazy base? Barber and Sinema just set themselves up to be used by Tea-Publicans as evidence of support for the GOP position.

Congress has less than three weeks to come up with a funding scheme for the Medicare “Doc fix” that the Senate will accept, and the House (likely Democrats and a handful of Tea-Publicans) will pass.

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Teapublican Legislative Update: Guns, Gays, God, & Greed

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It’s so stressful when the Arizona Legislature is in session. It’s like living with an abusive parents because you never know when or where they will strike next– so, we live under a veil of paranoia, waiting for the old grizzled old farts to leave Phoenix and go back to their bunkers.

My head is spinning from all of the crazy bills they considering this spring. One thing predictable is that they are sticking with their long-time playbook: Guns, Gays, God, and Greed. Reading the list below makes me wonder what they have against children, wolves, and the unemployed. Brace yourself.

Thanks to the Pima Dems for compiling this list of bills that are in play. (I have highlighted a few key words to make this easier to sort through.)

In the Senate–

SB 1100: would requiring that school districts lease or sell unused/underutilized buildings to charter schools or private schools. Had its first floor reading Monday.

SB 1227: inspired by the conspiracy theory that the United Nations will order the U.S. government to raze housing developments that don’t meet U.N. environmental standards, this bill would prohibit counties and municipalities statewide from implementing “green” building codes. Had a first reading on the Senate Floor last week, no second reading scheduled yet.

SB 1281: Sponsored by LD-3 Sen. Olivia Cajero Bedford and LD-10 Sen. David Bradley, this bill would provide a back-to-work program for unemployed people needing a career change, including internships while still getting unemployment checks. Passed by a 22-6 vote Tuesday in the Senate and transmitted to the House. 

SB 1351: would allow residents of Pima County who do not live within the Tucson city limits to serve on the Rio Nuevo Board. Also removes the requirement for construction of a hotel at the Tucson Convention Center. Approved by the Senate Monday by a 25-0 vote.

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Tea-Publican economic terrorists plot to take Medicare hostage to delay ‘ObamaCare’

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REDRemember when the media villagers and Beltway bloviators told us that the GOP was done with the economic terrorism of taking America hostage to extort the ransom of killing “ObamaCare,” because this is an election year?

Yeah, they’re all idiots. The job of an anti-government terrorist is to terrorize. It’s their nature.

Sahil Kapur at Talking Points Memo reports, GOP Plots New Round Of Hostage-Taking To Stop Obamacare:

House Republicans expect to vote this Friday on legislation that would risk steep, destabilizing Medicare cuts (the Medicare “doc fix,” threatening a 24 percent cut in physician payments)  at the end of the month unless Democrats agree to a five-year delay of Obamacare’s individual mandate.

It mirrors some of the brinkmanship in the government shutdown fight last fall in that the GOP is using a must-pass bill as a vehicle to chop the Affordable Care Act. Democratic leaders have repeatedly rejected proposals to tinker with the mandate to buy insurance and have warned Republicans not to tie a physician payment fix to their partisan quest to unravel Obamacare.

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Conservative women sure get away with being bossy

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Sheryl Sandberg has sparked a healthy debate with the campaign she started aimed at getting people to stop using the word “bossy’ to describe girls. While it may not seem like a big deal at first, when you think about it and look at the evidence, it’s clear that “bossy” is applied to assertive girls far more often than similarly outgoing boys and is really a euphemism for something else. As Amanda Marcotte puts it:

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The ‘Kochtopus’ crushes the soul of a cancer victim for its anti-Obamacare propaganda

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Last month, the Los Angeles Times‘ business reporter Michael Hiltzik, after debunking one “Kochtopus” Americans For Prosperity “ObamaCare” horror story ad after another, opined Maybe there are no genuine Obamacare horror stories:

Kevin Drum wonders whether there’s a single genuine Obamacare horror story out there, given that virtually every yarn promoted by Republicans or conservatives about people hurt by the Affordable Care Act has deflated like a pricked balloon on the merest examination.

KochIt’s a very good question, inspired by the latest horror story bloomer — the tale of one Julie Boonstra of Michigan, wholesaled by the Koch-founded conservative organization Americans for Prosperity. In a political ad being run by AFP against a Democratic senate candidate in Michigan, Boonstra asserts that “Obamacare” has made her leukemia treatment “unaffordable” and “jeopardized” her health.

But when Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post checked out her story, he found it didn’t hold up. The Affordable Care Act provided her with cheaper coverage than she had before, while allowing her to keep her doctor and maintain her treatment. Kessler didn’t mention it, but Boonstra plainly benefits from another provision of the ACA: the ban on exclusions for preexisting conditions. Patients living in the pre-ACA world of individual health insurance with conditions like leukemia were constantly in danger of losing their coverage and becoming uninsurable. That’s not legal anymore.

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