COVID-19 & Healthcare

‘Roadmap for America’s Ruin’ budget 3.0 – ‘That’s not going to happen’

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Screenshot-18The GOP's alleged boy genius, Ayn Rand fanboy Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), is out today with his "Roadmap for America's Ruin" budget 3.0, which appears to be remarkably similar to the previous two iterations.

As Paul Krugman commented some time ago, The Flimflam Man – NYTimes.com:

[I]t’s the audacity of dopes. Mr. Ryan
isn’t offering fresh food for thought; he’s serving up leftovers from
the 1990s, drenched in flimflam sauce.

Well, there is something new in the Flimflam Man's plan this time: he is keeping the higher top marginal tax rates on the wealthy that President Obama got from Republicans in the fiscal cliff deal; he is, for the third time, keeping the $716 billion in future Medicare costs savings from "ObamaCare" — the very "cuts to Medicare" for which Republicans have twice run hypocritical "Mediscare" campaigns against Democrats; and he is keeping the means testing tax increases on higher income earners under "ObamaCare" while promising to repeal the health benefits provisions of "ObamaCare" for millions of Americans. Ryan Doesn’t Repeal Obamacare: Maintains Cuts And Taxes, Eliminates Benefits.

As FAUX News anchor Chris Wallace matter-of-factly told the Flimflam Man to his his face on Sunday, "that's not going to happen." Once again, this is not a serious budget from someone whom the Beltway media villagers wrongly deem to be serious — he is not.

Progressives Shut Out of Koch Brothers Medicaid Forum

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Loft2013-03-07-2-sm72-sigby Pamela Powers Hannley

Thanks to publicity on this blog, social media, and e-mail blasts, progressives and other Democrats came to the Americans for Prosperity "public forum" on Medicaid expansion last night at The Loft Cinema. Too bad we couldn't get in.

Approximately 20 pro-healthcare reform advocates, plus six journalism students, and two bloggers were shut out of the tightly controlled forum. In addition, City Councilman Steve Kozachik was "uninvited" to participate in the panel. Although public announcements of the event in the Tucson Weekly, the Arizona Daily Star, and the Pima County GOP website didn't say that reservations were required, the only people who were admitted were those who RSVP'd to the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity e-mail blast, linked to this article.

The only two members of Progressive Democrats of American (PDA) Tucson who were admitted are both doctors. (Of course, they were not wearing PDA Healthcare Not Warfare stickers. None of us holding the banner in front of The Loft or trying to distribute Healthcare Not Warfare stickers got in.)

After the jump, read a first hand account by Dr. Eve Shapiro, head of PDA Tucson's healthcare reform issue organizing team, and more about Koz and job creation with Medicaid expansion.

Medicaid Expansion Forum at The Loft Cinema

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Medicaid Expansion Forum A discussion by supporters and opposers of Governor Brewer's plan to implement the ObamaCare Medicaid expansion. The Loft Cinema3233 East Speedway BoulevardTucson, AZ Thursday, March 7, 6:30 – 8:30 pm.Doors open at 6pm. Confirmed: AZ State Senator Steve Farley, AZ Representative Ethan Orr, Dr. Orient, Tom Jenney, AZ Director … Read more

Why does Arizona tolerate the Koch brothers dictating public policy?

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

51For years, the billionaire bastard Koch brothers have treated the Arizona legislature as a wholly owned subsidiary of the "Kochtopus" network of think tanks and political action committees that they and their wealthy friends fund. Several of these Kochtopus entities operate out of the state of Maricopa.

Tea-Publican members of the Arizona legislature are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and they openly carry bills for other Kochtopus entities like the Goldwater Institute and Americans For Prosperity. The Koch brothers are also major financial backers of the Tea Party.

The Kochtopus is an an invidious malignant cancer in the body politic that has made Arizona a regressive backwater and the laughingstock of the nation, a spot previously reserved for states such as Mississippi and Alabama. As I have said before, we need to tear out the Kochtopus network in the state of Maricopa by their roots and salt the ground to make certain that it never grows back again. We need to treat this cancer on the body politic.