COVID-19 & Healthcare

About that Tea-Publican boycott (sabotage) of health insurance: practice what you preach

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Reuters reported last week that Tea-Publican economic terrorists and a phalanx of "Kochtopus" organizations are mobilizing a counter-offensive against "ObamaCare" including town hall meetings, protests and media promotions to dissuade uninsured Americans from obtaining health coverage through the health insurance exchanges. Republicans prepare for 'Obamacare' showdown, with eye to 2014 elections:

"The best way to get the juices of that
right-wing electorate and activist group going is to attack Obamacare –
make everything that happens look awful and voters will rebel against
it," said Norman Ornstein, an expert on congressional politics at the
conservative American Enterprise Institute.

"It's
a belief that if they highlight this, and sabotage it as much as they
can, and if it's disruptive, that that will work for them in the
mid-terms."

The White House and Department of Health and Human Services are well aware of their opponents' political maneuvers.

"There
are folks out there who are actively working to make this law fail,"
Obama said in a speech on Wednesday, condemning the opponents' effort as
"a politically motivated misinformation campaign."

NRCC’s ‘pants on fire’ – the $700 billion lie that will not die returns

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Liar-LiarThe GOPropaganda machine is shameless. No matter how many times the lie has been debunked and refuted, they continue with their Big Lie because propagandists know that if you repeat it often enough, there are enough ignorant dumbasses out there who are going to believe it is true because they heard it somewhere.

The GOPropaganda machine is going to try for the third consecutive election cycle in a row to recycle the $700 billion lie that will not die (up fro $500 billion in 2010). See, (Updated) Fact Check: Romney-Ryan 'pants on fire' – the $700 billion lie that will not die.

Though Republicans opposed the creation of Medicare in 1965, sought deep cuts to ensure that it “wither on the vine”
in 1990s, and now support a dramatic restructuring (vouchers) that would
substantially privatize Medicare, the National Republican Congressional
Committee is out today with ads criticizing Democrats for cutting $716 billion
from the program — the lie that will not die returns. Politicians Celebrate Medicare’s 48th Anniversary With Attack Ads:

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick’s (D-AZ) “vote against the Republican balanced
budget isn’t the only vote that hurt Medicare recipients,” says an NRCC
release first published in Politico’s Morning Score.
“Kirkpatrick has also opposed fully repealing ObamaCare, which gutted
Medicare by $716 billion.” Similar ads will target Reps. Ron Barber
(D-AZ), Scott Peters (D-CA), Patrick Murphy (D-FL), Carol Shea-Porter
(D-NH) and others.

Happy birthday Medicare

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social
Security Amendments establishing Medicare and Medicaid. The guest of
honor at the signing ceremony was former President Harry S. Truman, who
fought for most of his political career to achieve this goal. (h/t Daily Kos for photo).

Johnson

LBJ signs Medicare into law, with Harry S. Truman watching.

Congressman John Conyers, Jr. penned an op-ed for The Hill today, Happy 48th birthday, Medicare:

As I reflect on my 48 years in Congress, at the positive policies
created and those that have had not so positive effects, the enactment
of Medicare is a bold highlight.

I voted for its original passage out of the House during my first
summer as a congressman, during a time that was very different from the
America of today. Prior to Medicare’s creation, only half of older
adults had health insurance, with coverage often unavailable or
unaffordable to the other half because of limited incomes and policies
that cost nearly three times as much for the elderly than the young.

Medicare’s positive impact was more than just extending medical
coverage to more than 19 million elderly citizens in its first year. A
significant requirement of its implementation was provider compliance
with Title VI of the then recently passed Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Almost overnight, this requirement effectively brought an end to segregation in hospitals.

The new ‘compromise caucus’ push-back against Tea-Publican hostage taking

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Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

The latest Tea-Publican economic terrorist threat is the “kill Obamacare or else”
demand: the GOP will refuse to continue to fund the government and
force a governnment shutdown in a last-ditch attempt to coerce Democrats
into surrender to their 39 votes (and counting) to kill "ObamaCare." The House will take its 40th repeal vote next week.

Arizona's Senator John McCain is trying to halt the Tea-Publican insurrection's descent into madness. McCain to Republicans: Forget about any more crazy debt ceiling hostage taking. Sen. McCain is among a bloc of Republican senators comprising a new Compromise Caucus at odds with the Tea-Publican economic terrorists who want to destroy the government.

Today, Sen. McCain and the Compromise Caucus was joined by Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC): "I think it's the dumbest idea I've ever heard of," he told reporters.
"Listen, as long as Barack Obama is president, the Affordable Care Act
is going to be law." Gov’t Shutdown Threats Over Obamacare ‘The Dumbest Idea I’ve Ever Heard’.

Krugman: GOP brinksmanship against Americans

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Paul Krugman blogs at the New York Times, To The Brink, Again:

Krugman.pngIf John Boehner
is to be believed — which, admittedly, is a real question — Republicans
are once again willing to push America into default and/or shut down
the government if they don’t get their way. As Greg Sargent
points out, this is amazing — and what’s equally amazing is how this is
being treated as normal. Politics ain’t beanbag; but “I’ve got a bomb
strapped to my chest, and the whole room gets it if you don’t hand over
the money” is not normal tactics, especially if pursued repeatedly.

* * *

To the extent that there ever was an economic justification for this
brinksmanship — the claim that we were on the verge of a debt crisis,
the claim that slashing spending would boost the economy — that
justification has collapsed in the face of declining debt projections
and overwhelming evidence that austerity has large negative impacts in a
slump.