COVID-19 & Healthcare

Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

The moral depravity of the House GOP "farm bill" continues to be exposed. The New York Times today has a pair of shocking headlines. The first, Millions in U.S. Subsidies Go to Dead Farmers:

The federal government pays millions of dollars in farm subsidies each
year to farmers who have died, because the Agriculture Department lacks
the proper controls to make sure the money it sends is going to the
right people, a government audit has found.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress,
said the problem involved several agencies within the department.

* * *

Controls over crop insurance, in particular, have been questioned after
government investigators found a huge fraud ring last year in North
Carolina that for decades siphoned over $100 million from the program.
The fraud ring involved insurance agents, adjusters, farmers and dozens
of others.

* * *

The findings were released as the House and the Senate prepared to meet
to work out their differences on a farm bill that would greatly expand
some subsidies, like crop insurance. The report raises questions about
the ability of the Agriculture Department to monitor the programs for
waste, fraud and abuse.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Best headline of the day goes to Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

Who's Piggy?

I believe we have now advanced to the Lord of the Flies phase of the shutdown the government over Obamacare primal scream.

He is referring to teabagger Mike Lee To GOP On Obamacare: ‘If You Fund It, You’re For It’:

Tea Party Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) put the GOP on notice Tuesday by
characterizing a vote against shutting down the government by refusing
to fund the Affordable Care Act as endorsing the law outright.

"Defund it, or own it. If you fund it, you're for it," Lee said on the Senate floor.

Lee, joined by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), is
spearheading an effort not to fund the government unless it excludes
appropriations to implement Obamacare. The lawmakers are finding severe resistance within their own ranks, however.

The new "compromise caucus" of the old guard of the GOP which has emerged in the Senate is pushing back against these Tea Party economic terrorists. And it looks as if the terrorist plot to hold the country hostage to extort killing "ObamaCare" is coming undone. Can you hear their primal screams?

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."