US Politics

berbatrick

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To the right of a Republican from the south -


Late last year, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives struck a deal to include legislation to lower health care costs in a year-end appropriations package. Their bill, the Lower Health Care Costs Act, would limit the costs of surprise out-of-network medical bills to the amount patients would pay for equivalent in-network care, require pharmaceutical companies to disclose information about drug price hikes, and more.

But the measure was tanked after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) announced his own last-minute counterproposal. Neal’s proposal, which he announced three days after bipartisan Senate HELP Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders announced the Lower Health Care Costs Act deal, consisted of a one-page document outlining an agreement with Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) to move forward with legislation on the matter. The document contained a broad outline of what they would pursue, but he had not yet drafted a bill.

When Neal and Brady released the text of their bill in February 2020, some of the strongest measures from the Lower Health Care Costs Act had been weakened or omitted. Rather than using benchmark prices based on in-network fees for determining what insurers would pay out-of-network providers, the bill calls for voluntary negotiations backed up by an independent arbitration process. Another provision of the Lower Health Care Costs Act requiring drug companies to report to the government 30 days prior to substantially hiking drug prices, including details on company profits, marketing costs, and research and development expenditures, was left out completely by Neal and Brady.

During the period between his Dec. 11 announcement and when he finished his bill on Feb. 7, Neal received $54,000 from more than a dozen lobbyists for companies and interest groups that opposed the Lower Health Care Costs Act, a Sludge review of Federal Election Commission records found.
 

freeurmind

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berbatrick said:
To the right of a Republican from the south -


Late last year, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives struck a deal to include legislation to lower health care costs in a year-end appropriations package. Their bill, the Lower Health Care Costs Act, would limit the costs of surprise out-of-network medical bills to the amount patients would pay for equivalent in-network care, require pharmaceutical companies to disclose information about drug price hikes, and more.

But the measure was tanked after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) announced his own last-minute counterproposal. Neal’s proposal, which he announced three days after bipartisan Senate HELP Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders announced the Lower Health Care Costs Act deal, consisted of a one-page document outlining an agreement with Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) to move forward with legislation on the matter. The document contained a broad outline of what they would pursue, but he had not yet drafted a bill.

When Neal and Brady released the text of their bill in February 2020, some of the strongest measures from the Lower Health Care Costs Act had been weakened or omitted. Rather than using benchmark prices based on in-network fees for determining what insurers would pay out-of-network providers, the bill calls for voluntary negotiations backed up by an independent arbitration process. Another provision of the Lower Health Care Costs Act requiring drug companies to report to the government 30 days prior to substantially hiking drug prices, including details on company profits, marketing costs, and research and development expenditures, was left out completely by Neal and Brady.

During the period between his Dec. 11 announcement and when he finished his bill on Feb. 7, Neal received $54,000 from more than a dozen lobbyists for companies and interest groups that opposed the Lower Health Care Costs Act, a Sludge review of Federal Election Commission records found.
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Lesser of two evils supposedly. The Democrat party is rotten to the core.
 

Drifter

American
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Vote-by-mail under ‘existential threat’ as top US Postal Service official forced out: report

Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman has reportedly been forced out of his position, throwing the leadership of the U.S. Postal Service into further chaos as the agency faces a potentially catastrophic financial crisis and efforts by Trump administration officials to impose draconian changes on the nation’s most popular government institution.

The American Prospect‘s David Dayen reported Tuesday that Stroman resigned from his post earlier this week. “Sources indicate that Stroman was forced out,” Dayen tweeted.

Reports of Stroman’s ouster came less than a week after the USPS Board of Governors announced its selection of Louis DeJoy—a leading donor to the Republican Party and President Donald Trump—to serve as postmaster general as the agency continues to navigate the Covid-19 crisis, which has resulted in a precipitous decline in mail volume. Current USPS chief Megan Brennan, who is retiring effective June 15, has warned Congress that the agency could face financial ruin by the end of September without a rapid infusion of emergency funds.

DeJoy will choose the next deputy postmaster general.

Days before the USPS Board of Governors publicly announced its decision to appoint DeJoy, news broke that David Williams, the vice chair of the board, resigned effective April 30. Dayen, who has been reporting on the Postal Service for years, wrote last week that Williams’ resignation is “distressing” because “nobody is more knowledgeable about the inner workings of the Postal Service than David Williams.”

“He was the longtime Inspector General who wrote the famous (to me, anyway) white paper in 2014 arguing for the return of postal banking,” Dayen wrote. “Worst of all, my sources indicate that this was a resignation in protest.”

Williams was reportedly upset at the Trump Treasury Department’s efforts to use a congressionally approved $10 billion loan to force significant changes to USPS operations. According to the Washington Post, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin “could use the loan as leverage to give the administration influence over how much the agency charges for delivering packages and how it manages its finances.”

“In recent days, the Postal Service’s board has appeared open to some of the Trump administration’s terms,” the Post reported last week.

The 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union accused the Trump administration of exploiting the coronavirus crisis to privatize the agency.

Recent behind-the-scenes machinations at the Postal Service could have immense real-world consequences as the U.S. barrels toward the November elections without a nationwide, universal system in place for mail-in voting, which advocates say is necessary to safely conduct elections amid the coronavirus pandemic.

With Stroman and Williams gone, the USPS Board of Governors, which sets policy for the agency, is now almost completely controlled by Trump appointees. Stroman’s departure leaves the board with five members, short of the quorum required to conduct business.

“Stroman was specifically key on elections and vote by mail—this is not a good sign,” tweeted ProPublica‘s Jessica Huseman in response to reports of Stroman’s resignation.

Stephen Wolf of Daily Kos Elections echoed Huseman’s warning, calling turmoil at the Postal Service “an existential threat to voting safely by mail in November.”

“Trump is intent on installing his partisan lackeys in control of the Postal Service,” said Wolf, “while congressional Republicans try to force it into insolvency so they can privatize it.”
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Once again where are the Democrats on this.
 

berbatrick

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Wisconsin supreme court strikes down governor's stay-at-home order
Justices say Tony Evers lacked authority to extend order through May in ruling that reopens state

The 4-3 decision, written by the court’s conservative justices, also chips away at Evers’ authority to slow the spread of coronavirus and will force the Democratic governor to work with the Republican legislature as the state continues to grapple with the outbreak.

Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Republicans’ behalf, praised the ruling. The state director, Eric Bott, called it “a win for the protection of the separation of powers and the necessary legislative and public oversight in the administrative rule-making process”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/13/wisconsin-supreme-court-stay-at-home-order

(that's a Koch group)
 

Pexbo

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berbatrick said:
Wisconsin supreme court strikes down governor's stay-at-home order
Justices say Tony Evers lacked authority to extend order through May in ruling that reopens state

The 4-3 decision, written by the court’s conservative justices, also chips away at Evers’ authority to slow the spread of coronavirus and will force the Democratic governor to work with the Republican legislature as the state continues to grapple with the outbreak.

Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief on Republicans’ behalf, praised the ruling. The state director, Eric Bott, called it “a win for the protection of the separation of powers and the necessary legislative and public oversight in the administrative rule-making process”.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/13/wisconsin-supreme-court-stay-at-home-order

(that's a Koch group)
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It’s no compensation for the lives that will be lost but it’s important that Republicans are owning the actions that lead to these deaths.

There’s been an obvious plan to hamstring Democrat governed states in order to point the blame at them come the elections. It becomes a bit harder when GOP groups are so public about their obstruction.
 

freeurmind

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/20/andrew-cuomo-new-york-coronavirus-catastrophe

Andrew Cuomo may be the most popular politician in the country. His approval ratings have hit all-time highs thanks to his Covid-19 response. Some Democrats have discussed him as a possible replacement for Joe Biden, due to Biden’s perceived weakness as a nominee. And there have even been some unfortunate tributes to Cuomo’s alleged sex appeal.


All of which is bizarre, because Cuomo should be one of the most loathed officials in America right now. ProPublica recently released a report outlining catastrophic missteps by Cuomo and the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, which probably resulted in many thousands of needless coronavirus cases. ProPublica offers some appalling numbers contrasting what happened in New York with the outbreak in California. By mid-May, New York City alone had almost 20,000 deaths, while in San Francisco there had been only 35, and New York state as a whole suffered 10 times as many deaths as California.
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https://www.propublica.org/article/...y-10-times-the-number-of-deaths-as-california
 

Beachryan

More helpful with spreadsheets than Phurry
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Pexbo

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Don’t feck with the establishment?
 

Adisa

likes to take afvanadva wothowi doubt
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To be fair, that has nothing to do with the establishment. Any defense lawyer worth their salt would do the same.
 

Drifter

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GOP Leader un-endorses Republican candidate for ‘hateful rhetoric’ on social media

On Monday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced he was revoking his endorsement of Ted Howze, the Republican candidate for California’s 10th Congressional District, per Politico.

“In light of Mr. Howze’s disappointing comments, Leader McCarthy has withdrawn his endorsement,” said McCarthy spokesperson Drew Florio. “As the Leader has previously stated, hateful rhetoric has no place within the Republican Party.”

Howze’s support within the Republican Party leadership has collapsed after a series of racist Facebook posts were unconvered, in which he called Black voters “political slaves,” compared young immigrants to pedophiles, and said Muslims are incapable of being good American citizens.

Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) pulled their support for Howze’s campaign.

California’s 10th District is located in the northern San Joaquin Valley and includes some exurban communities of the Bay Area. Democrats won the seat in 2018 when businessman Josh Harder defeated four-term GOP incumbent Jeff Denham.
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Beachryan

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I'm aware of the arguments brought about on here, but please, if you can vote in America in November, do.
 

Pexbo

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sun_tzu said:
He should lawyer up and get avenetti... oh wait... yeah on second thoughts unless he wants to join avenetti he should be careful what he says
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Great topical joke 9/10
 
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