http://www.dailykos.com/user/Joan McCarter/rss/index.xml News Community Action Copyright 2005 - Steal what you want Sun, 29 Jan 2017 06:38:31 +0000 Sun, 29 Jan 2017 06:38:31 +0000 Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/28/1626110/-F-k-Trump-sign-up-for-Obamacare <p>Popular vote loser Donald Trump is trying to sabotage Obamacare by <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/27/1625943/-You-still-have-four-days-to-get-Obamacare-even-if-Trump-doesn-t-want-you-to-know-that" title="">stopping advertising</a> about enrollment, even<a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/obamacare-message-healthcare-gov-trump-234278" target="_blank"> though some of the outreach wasn’t reversible</a>, but it is still the law of the land, and you can still <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" title="">sign up for coverage through Tuesday, January 31</a>. If you don't need it, make sure any friends or family who might need it get signed up.</p> <p>And while you're at it, retweet this:</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Trump can&amp;amp;#39;t silence us. Open enrollment continues. Sign up by 1/31 to &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GetCovered?src=hash"&amp;gt;#GetCovered&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;: &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/KcxfBabISN"&amp;gt;https://t.co/KcxfBabISN&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ProtectOurCare?src=hash"&amp;gt;#ProtectOurCare&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/evsubYzvf0"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/evsubYzvf0&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Families USA (@FamiliesUSA) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/FamiliesUSA/status/825035563921178625"&amp;gt;January 27, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Trump can't silence us. Open enrollment continues. Sign up by 1/31 to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GetCovered?src=hash">#GetCovered</a>: <a href="https://t.co/KcxfBabISN">https://t.co/KcxfBabISN</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ProtectOurCare?src=hash">#ProtectOurCare</a> <a href="https://t.co/evsubYzvf0">pic.twitter.com/evsubYzvf0</a></p>— Families USA (@FamiliesUSA) <a href="https://twitter.com/FamiliesUSA/status/825035563921178625">January 27, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <p>Get the word out to everyone you know. The more people signed up, the harder it will be for Republicans to take it away. And it will drive Trump (more) insane.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1626110 Sat, 28 Jan 2017 18:30:29 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/28/1625666/-Medical-ethicists-Trump-pick-Tom-Price-presents-a-classic-conflict-of-interest <a href="/campaigns/letter/sign-and-send-a-petition-to-your-democratic-us-senators-delay-every-single-trump-nominee" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="sign-and-send-a-petition-to-your-democratic-us-senators-delay-every-single-trump-nominee" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/letter/sign-and-send-a-petition-to-your-democratic-us-senators-delay-every-single-trump-nominee?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-letter-area-sign-and-send-a-petition-to-your-democratic-us-senators-delay-every-single-trump-nominee-816026" data-href="/campaigns/letter/sign-and-send-a-petition-to-your-democratic-us-senators-delay-every-single-trump-nominee">Campaign Action</a> <p>Medical ethicists have a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/24/1624642/-Trump-s-swamp-creature-Tom-Price-lies-his-way-through-second-hearing-on-the-way-to-confirmation" target="_blank">big, big ethics proble</a>m with Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), former orthopedic surgeon and current nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services. It's all that trading he's done in medical stocks while at the same time working on legislation that affects the companies he's investing in. That and what has all the hallmarks of insider trading. That has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tom-price-biotech-stock-conflict_us_58867e21e4b096b4a2341620" title="">medical ethicists</a> up in arms.</p> <blockquote>Most doctors recite some version of the Hippocratic Oath, pledging to abide by it, Matthew Wynia, director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, told The Huffington Post. [...] <p>The AMA code contends that doctors who engage in research should refrain from “knowingly participating in a financial relationship with a commercial entity with whom they have a research relationship” (section 7.1.4).</p> <p>“You should not have a financial stake in whether the product is eventually found to be beneficial, [because] that might influence your research ― which could end up eventually harming patients,” Wynia explained. [...]</p> <p>“I think it is [similar], and that makes it unethical ― even if not illegal ― to invest in a company if you are involved in making policy that is likely to affect the financial fortunes of that company,” he explained.</p> </blockquote> <p>The investments are bad enough, but Price has also used his position in the House to <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/21/1622434/-Tom-Price-the-Trumpiest-nominee-of-all-now-with-a-hint-of-influence-peddling" title="">advocate for a pharmaceutical company</a> and a specific drug it created that proved to be potentially dangerous. He tried to suppress the findings about the drug, then got a campaign contribution from the company. That should certainly be in violation of the oath about doing no harm.</p> <p>It's all enough for that liberal firebrand paper, <em>USA Today</em>, to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/01/25/tom-prices-stocks-carry-swampy-smell-our-view/97057964/" title="">say nay</a> to Price, saying his stock deals "carry swampy smell" and that his nomination "shows how President Trump isn't draining the ethical swamp in Washington so much as he is creating a new one." It certainly shouldn't be hard for Democrats to oppose this one.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Ethics HealthandHumanServices HHS Nominations TomPrice _1625666 Sat, 28 Jan 2017 16:30:32 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/28/1625161/-Republicans-are-the-death-panel-for-black-American-women <a href="/campaigns/petition/sign-this-defend-planned-parenthood-against-republican-attacks" class="dk-action-link" data-action="petition" data-slug="sign-this-defend-planned-parenthood-against-republican-attacks" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/petition/sign-this-defend-planned-parenthood-against-republican-attacks?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-petition-area-sign-this-defend-planned-parenthood-against-republican-attacks-300220" data-href="/campaigns/petition/sign-this-defend-planned-parenthood-against-republican-attacks">Campaign Action</a> <p>Black women in America have death rates from cervical cancer—a preventable disease—that compare to the rates in developing countries, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/health/cervical-cancer-united-states-death-toll.html?smid=tw-share">according to a study</a> in the medical journal <em>Cancer</em>. And Republicans are poised to make it even worse.</p> <blockquote>“This shows that our disparities are even worse than we feared,” said Dr. Kathleen M. Schmeler, an associate professor of gynecologic oncology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. “We have screenings that are great, but many women in America are not getting them. And now I have even more concerns going forward, with the”— expected — “repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which covers screening, and the closing of family planning clinics, which do much of that screening.” […] <p>In the new analysis, the mortality rate for black women was 10.1 per 100,000. For white women, it is 4.7 per 100,000.</p> <p>Previous studies had put those figures at 5.7 and 3.2. […]</p> <p>Although the study did not explore reasons for the racial disparity, some doctors said it could reflect unequal access to screening, ability to pursue early-warning test results, and insurance coverage. A recent study in the journal Gynecologic Oncology that looked at 15,194 patients with advanced cervical cancer found that more than half did not receive treatment considered to be standard of care, and that those patients were more likely to be black and poor.</p> </blockquote> <p>Between repealing Obamacare (thereby ending those annual screenings done without copay), axing funding for Planned Parenthood, and making crippling cuts to Medicaid by turning it into a block grant, Republicans are sentencing millions of black women to preventable deaths.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare PlannedParenthood repeal Republicans _1625161 Sat, 28 Jan 2017 16:00:30 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/27/1626080/-Dear-Senate-Democrats-A-vote-for-Jeff-Sessions-is-a-vote-for-voter-suppression <a href="/campaigns/letter/send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/letter/send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-letter-area-send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general-299896" data-href="/campaigns/letter/send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general">Campaign Action</a> <p>There's one entirely predictable conclusion to popular vote loser Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/27/1625956/-Even-House-Republicans-aren-t-rushing-to-join-Trump-s-voter-fraud-nonsense" title="">voter fraud obsession</a> and that's a Department of Justice led by Jeff Sessions doing everything in its power to increase voter suppression. Charlie Pierce <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a52607/democrats-senate-jeff-sessions-vote/" title="">nails it</a> with this:</p> <blockquote> <p>If it isn't clear by now, there's a powerful new campaign of voter suppression coming down the road. It doesn't matter whether the sudden amplification of the "voter fraud" meme is due to the fact that the president* is delusional on the subject, or due to the fact that he needed a diversion from the stories about Russian ratfcking that were beginning to pile up on the South Lawn, or simply due to the fact that Republicans suppress votes because they're Republicans. [...]</p> <p>At a moment like this one, it simply will not do to have someone in the attorney general's office who was deemed <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-attorney-general-jeff-sessions-racist-remarks_us_582cd73ae4b099512f80c0c2" target="_blank" title="">too racist to be a federal judge</a> 30 years ago. It will not do to have someone in the attorney general's office who launched <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a52184/jeff-sessions-confirmation-hearing-attorney-general/" target="_blank" title="">a dirty-tricks prosecution of voting-rights activists</a> when he was a U.S. Attorney in Alabama. It will not do to have someone in the attorney general's office who greeted the gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/why-trump-s-choice-of-jeff-sessions-as-ag-is-alarming-voting-rights-advocates" target="_blank" title="">by noting that it was</a> "good for the South."</p> <p>Jefferson Beauregard Sessions <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-07-11/state-voter-id-laws/56155182/1" target="_blank" title="">simply will not do</a>.</p> </blockquote> <p>There is no reason—not a damned one—for any Democrat to vote for Jeff Sessions for attorney general. It doesn’t matter if he’s been a nice colleague in the Senate. You are not going to sway him with your vote. You are not going to convince Trump that he might be able to work with you with your vote.</p> <p>A vote for Sessions is a vote for voter suppression.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Cabinet DonaldTrump Hearings JeffersonBeauregardSessionsIII Nominations Republicans Senate _1626080 Fri, 27 Jan 2017 21:00:28 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/27/1626063/-Secret-recording-shows-depths-of-Republican-disarray-and-fear-on-Obamacare <a href="/campaigns/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-letter-area-share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare-390937" data-href="/campaigns/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare">Campaign Action</a> <p>Behold the power of resistance: Your marches, your phone calls and visits to Republican lawmakers are getting the message through. Those Republicans, meeting this week in Philadelphia to try to plot out a path on Obamacare repeal and replacement, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/behind-closed-doors-republican-lawmakers-fret-about-how-to-repeal-obamacare/2017/01/27/deabdafa-e491-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html?postshare=5241485542205656&amp;tid=ss_tw&amp;utm_term=.28b59752e9fd">are well aware of the political danger</a> they are courting. That goes for Planned Parenthood defunding, as well. A recording of one of the sessions leaked to <em>The Washington Post</em>, and confirmed by attendees, tells the story.</p> <blockquote>Senators and House members expressed a range of concerns about the task ahead: how to prepare a replacement plan that can be ready to launch at the time of repeal; how to avoid deep damage to the health insurance market; how to keep premiums affordable for middle-class families; even how to avoid the political consequences of defunding Planned Parenthood, the women’s health-care organization, as many Republicans hope to do with the repeal of the ACA. <p>“We’d better be sure that we’re prepared to live with the market we’ve created [with repeal],” said Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.). “That’s going to be called Trumpcare. Republicans will own that lock, stock and barrel, and we’ll be judged in the election less than two years away.” […]</p> <p>Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) worried that one idea floated by Republicans—a refundable tax credit—won’t work for middle-class families that can’t afford to prepay their premiums and wait for a tax refund.</p> <p>And Rep. John Faso (R-N.Y.,) a freshman congressman from the Hudson Valley, warned strongly against using the repeal of the ACA to also defund Planned Parenthood. “We are just walking into a gigantic political trap if we go down this path of sticking Planned Parenthood in the health insurance bill,” he said. “If you want to do it somewhere else, I have no problem, but I think we are creating a political minefield for ourselves — House and Senate.” […]</p> <p>Faso continued: “Health insurance is going to be tough enough for us to deal with without having millions of people on social media come to Planned Parenthood’s defense and sending hundreds of thousands of new donors to the Democratic Senate and Democratic congressional campaign committees. So I would just urge us to rethink this.”</p> </blockquote> <p>The message from Senate Democrats has also been received—there will be no bailout from them, so whatever Republicans do, they own it. So now, seven years after the fact and when they're barreling down a path already set toward repeal, they're realizing that they not only don't know what happens next, getting out of it is going to be very complicated: "While the chairmen of several key committees sketched out various proposals, they did not have a clear plan on how to keep markets viable while also requiring insurers to cover everyone who seeks insurance."</p> <p>But here's what's really telling in the parts of this recording quoted by the <em>Post</em>—just one member, Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) talked about what's going to happen to the more than 20 million people who have coverage and might lose it. "We’re telling those people that we’re not going to pull the rug out from under them," he said, "and if we do this too fast, we are in fact going to pull the rug out from under them." The rest of the discussion is entirely about the political risks these Republicans face, not the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1624155/-Researchers-Obamacare-repeal-could-kill-more-than-43-000-people-annually">tens of thousands of people who might die</a>, every year, when their coverage is ripped away.</p> <p>But hey, fear for their personal political futures is far more motivating to Republicans than compassion for the constituents, so keep making those calls. Keep showing up at their offices. Keep letting them know that it's their asses on the line in 2018.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare Recommended repeal Republicans _1626063 Fri, 27 Jan 2017 19:25:16 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/27/1626027/-Dems-voting-for-less-objectionable-picks-Trump-s-UN-envoy-already-making-threats-like-a-mafia-don <a href="/campaigns/letter/e-mail-your-us-senators-block-all-trump-appointees-every-single-one" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="e-mail-your-us-senators-block-all-trump-appointees-every-single-one" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/letter/e-mail-your-us-senators-block-all-trump-appointees-every-single-one?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-letter-area-e-mail-your-us-senators-block-all-trump-appointees-every-single-one-484114" data-href="/campaigns/letter/e-mail-your-us-senators-block-all-trump-appointees-every-single-one">Campaign Action</a> <p>Former Gov. Nikki Haley <a href="https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=115&amp;session=1&amp;vote=00033">won easy confirmation</a> to be UN Ambassador in the Senate this week. Too easily. Way too easily. Only three Democrats—Sens. Chris Coons (DE), Martin Heinrich (NM), Tom Udall (NM)—and independent Bernie Sanders voted against her. Because she was one of those less objectionable nominees, one where Democrats decided they could show they were giving popular vote loser Donald Trump a chance.</p> <p>And <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/27/1626002/-Nikki-Haley-demonstrates-she-s-a-perfect-Trump-envoy-by-threatening-allies-in-her-first-speech">this is what they get</a> in the new UN envoy: a mini-Trump threatening our allies. Here's that <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-un-idUSKBN15B1NG?feedType=RSS&amp;feedName=topNews&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=Social">threat</a>.</p> <blockquote>New U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, pledged on Friday to overhaul the world body and <strong>warned U.S. allies that if they do not have Washington's back then she is "taking names" and will respond.</strong> [emphasis added]</blockquote> <p>That's what you voted for, most of you Senate Democrats. Remember that in the next few weeks when the rest of Trump's nominees come to the floor. This is Trump we're talking about. Anyone who is willing to be in his cabinet knows what they signed up for is going to do his will. Don't be complicit in that.</p> <p>When it comes to being the "loyal opposition," the operative word is "opposition." Put your loyalty behind the millions of us who marched last weekend and who will continue the resistance. </p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) confirmation Democrats DonaldTrump nikkihaley Senate UnitedNations _1626027 Fri, 27 Jan 2017 18:11:11 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/27/1625998/-That-working-retreat-Republicans-are-having-for-Obamacare-replacement-It-s-not-working <a href="/campaigns/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-letter-area-share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare-972230" data-href="/campaigns/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare">Campaign Action</a> <p>After seven years of failure when it comes to Republicans crafting anything to replace Obamacare, only Republicans could have believed they'd come up with something at their retreat this week. Spoiler alert: <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/after-gop-retreat-a-clear-path-to-replace-obamacare-is-still-elusive?utm_content=bufferf776b&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" title="">they failed again</a>.</p> <blockquote>Republicans gathered Thursday morning specifically to discuss what should be in the reconciliation package to repeal Obamacare. Republicans voted to repeal Obamacare earlier this month, but now the hard work of outlining the parameters of that are in the committees' hands, and Republicans say no consensus has emerged. […] <p>So far, what appears to have been settled is a timeline in which Republicans first pass a reconciliation bill that dismantles major parts of Obamacare, akin to the 2015 legislation vetoed by President Obama, but with a few additional “replace” elements—though there were few details of what those provisions would look like.</p> <p>Republicans in Congress would then depend on the Health and Human Services secretary (nominee Rep. Tom Price, a Republican from Georgia, awaits Senate confirmation) to use administrative actions to change other pieces of Obamacare. But there were few details on that front, either, besides the fact that 1,400 administrative items have been identified as within Price's power to change. After that, there would be other replacement bills considered in the regular order, to use Senate parlance, but because they would require 60 votes in the Senate, those would need Democrats to pass.</p> </blockquote> <p>The tearing apart—they've got that part all worked out, mostly. They still have a big issue in whether or not they maintain the taxes and fees under Obamacare because they're going to need them to implement their still-elusive replacement plan. But the taxes have been one of the primary things they've railed against, and the Freedom Caucus maniacs, and they're unlikely to line up for that.</p> <p>But the putting back together? They can't do it. They won't do it. And when they've destroyed health care for millions of Americans? They will own that.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1625998 Fri, 27 Jan 2017 17:03:58 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/27/1625943/-You-still-have-four-days-to-get-Obamacare-even-if-Trump-doesn-t-want-you-to-know-that <a href="/campaigns/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-letter-area-share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare-170183" data-href="/campaigns/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare">Campaign Action</a> <p>Wasting $5 million in taxpayer money already spent, popular vote loser Donald Trump has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-obamacare-enrollment_us_588a9451e4b0230ce61b0b40" title="">stopped outreach efforts</a> to get people signed up on Obamacare before the final deadline of January 31.</p> <blockquote>The Obama administration had already paid for the advertising. An HHS spokesperson told Demko that the Trump administration had decided to cancel the final installment, worth about $5 million, in order “to look for efficiencies where they exist.”  <p>The timing is critical. The open enrollment period for 2017 ends next week, on Jan. 31, and traditionally, signups have surged in the final days before the deadline.</p> <p>Those late signups don’t merely boost the program’s enrollment numbers. They also help insurers to hold down premiums.</p> <p>That’s because insurance depends on premiums from healthy people to underwrite the medical bills of the small minority with serious health problems. And people in relatively good health are precisely the types to postpone enrolling until the very last minute.</p> </blockquote> <p>Enrollments have spiked in the final days of every sign-up period, and young people have been a big chunk of the late enrollees—last year they were 37 percent of the people signing up in the last week.</p> <p>It's actually possible that Trump didn't do this entirely out of spite.</p> <div> <a name="update-1485557665000"></a> </div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1485557665000"> <a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1485557665000"> <span class="timestamp " data-localize-time="" data-epoch-time="1485557665000" data-time-zone="+0000" data-time-format="%A, %b %-d, %Y · %l:%M:%S %p %Z">Friday, Jan 27, 2017 · 10:54:25 PM +00:00</span> · <span class="live-update-user">Joan McCarter</span> </a> <div class="live-update-content"><p>Well, <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/obamacare-message-healthcare-gov-trump-234278" target="_blank">look at this</a>. </p> <blockquote> <p>The Trump administration has reversed plans to scrap all Obamacare outreach in the finals days of the law's enrollment period, a day after the move sparked outcry from the law's supporters and health insurers.</p> <p>HHS officials on Friday said automatic phone calls and other online and digital outreach — including Twitter messages and emails — would continue through the Jan. 31 deadline for obtaining coverage.</p> <div> <div> <div style="text-align:center"></div> </div> </div> <p>Officials also said they were unable to pull back some HealthCare.gov radio and TV advertising that had been purchased by the Obama administration. HHS was able to cancel about $4 million to $5 million in ads, a spokesman said.</p> </blockquote> <p>Outcry is a good thing.</p> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1625943 Fri, 27 Jan 2017 15:07:58 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/26/1625592/-Hundreds-march-against-Trump-Republicans-in-Philadelphia <p>The Republican retreat in Philadelphia <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/26/1625424/-Republicans-retreat-into-confusion-disarray-as-Trump-creates-new-headaches">isn't going so well</a> for them so far, as conflict and chaos created by popular vote loser Donald Trump have confused the proceedings. Outside the meeting rooms, things aren't quite the image of unity and greatness they want to project either, as their leader Trump is <a href="http://www.trentonian.com/general-news/20170126/hundreds-march-in-philadelphia-to-protest-trump-his-plans" title="">greeted by hundreds</a> of angry Americans, marching against his presidency.</p> <blockquote>Chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump has got to go” and “Love not hate, that’s what makes America great,” the throng made its way from just north of City Hall to the nearby Loews Hotel, where House and Senate GOP lawmakers are holding their annual policy retreat. […] <p>The crowds, diverse in age and race, also included a group in wheelchairs.</p> <p>Carrying signs reading “I’ve seen better cabinets at Ikea” and “Hands 2 small, can’t build a wall” the group could only get a block from the Loews Philadelphia Hotel. That’s because two large garbage trucks are blocking the intersection.</p> </blockquote> <p>It couldn't be more fitting, garbage trucks defending the gathering. The garbage isn’t deterring the marchers:</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;100s gathered opposing Trump &amp;amp;amp; &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GOPretreat?src=hash"&amp;gt;#GOPretreat&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;. Security zone for hotel so big we&amp;amp;#39;re by city hall. &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/resistanceinphilly?src=hash"&amp;gt;#resistanceinphilly&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/protectourcare?src=hash"&amp;gt;#protectourcare&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/resist?src=hash"&amp;gt;#resist&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/x05bDpvwDc"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/x05bDpvwDc&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Carolyn A (@doyoucopyover) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/doyoucopyover/status/824658591755935744"&amp;gt;January 26, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>100s gathered opposing Trump &amp; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GOPretreat?src=hash">#GOPretreat</a>. Security zone for hotel so big we're by city hall. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/resistanceinphilly?src=hash">#resistanceinphilly</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/protectourcare?src=hash">#protectourcare</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/resist?src=hash">#resist</a> <a href="https://t.co/x05bDpvwDc">pic.twitter.com/x05bDpvwDc</a></p>— Carolyn A (@doyoucopyover) <a href="https://twitter.com/doyoucopyover/status/824658591755935744">January 26, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump Philadelphia RepublicanRetreat Republicans _1625592 Thu, 26 Jan 2017 19:42:21 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/26/1625557/-Feinstein-delays-Sessions-committee-vote-showing-that-we-need-to-keep-up-the-pressure <a href="/campaigns/letter/send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/letter/send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-letter-area-send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general-433131" data-href="/campaigns/letter/send-a-letter-to-us-senators-block-jeff-sessions-from-becoming-the-next-attorney-general">Campaign Action</a> <p>Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), citing the power behind the massive Women's March all around the country as her inspiration, has <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dianne-feinstein-sessions-womens-march_us_5888dafce4b0737fd5cadcd1?fv0albtjqu3ul3di" title="">delayed</a> a committee vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) nomination to be attorney general.</p> <blockquote>“Many, many millions of Americans are deeply concerned about what the future will bring. That’s a hallmark of what happened this past Saturday in the march,” Feinstein told her committee colleagues Tuesday. “The least we can do is tell them that we’re being as careful as possible in who we place in charge of making these important decisions. For every woman and man who marched over the weekend, we owe it to them.” <p>The Judiciary Committee was set to vote on the confirmation of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) on Tuesday, but the rules allow a member to ask for a one-week delay under certain circumstances. Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) agreed to Feinstein’s request. </p> <p>Feinstein gave a forceful 10-minute speech about the fight for equality that women are still waging ― on everything from equal pay to reproductive freedom ― and pointed to the committee itself as a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joe-biden-legacy_us_5877d9ace4b03688c84399b9" title="">microcosm of that struggle</a> and the importance of making sure women’s voices are heard.</p> </blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Cabinet DianneFeinstein DonaldTrump Hearings JeffersonBeauregardSessionsIII Nominations Republicans Senate _1625557 Thu, 26 Jan 2017 18:42:53 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/26/1625503/-About-that-Obamacare-replacement-plan <a href="/campaigns/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-letter-area-share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare-752874" data-href="/campaigns/letter/share-your-personal-story-with-republican-senators-tell-them-hands-off-obamacare">Campaign Action</a> <p>At the Republican <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/26/1625424/-Republicans-retreat-into-confusion-disarray-as-Trump-creates-new-headaches" title="">retreat</a>, which popular vote loser Donald Trump has upended by being Trump, job number one is figuring out just what it is they're going to do once they repeal Obamacare. It's <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-their-annual-retreat-hill-republicans-want-answers-will-trump-give-them/2017/01/25/15e40fc4-e285-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html?utm_term=.48719ee40c87" title="">going about as well</a> as you'd expect.</p> <blockquote>Interviews with more than a dozen GOP lawmakers revealed a clash of expectations between rank-and-file lawmakers to get started in disassembling Obamacare and party leaders who are all too aware of the obstacles and difficult choices ahead. <p><strong>"Exact, specific and detailed—that's what people want,"</strong> said Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), the chairman of the House Rules Committee. "We're going to own this stuff, and we better be able to explain it."</p> <p><strong>"I don't think you will see a plan,"</strong> said Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi (R-Ohio), chairman of a key subcommittee on health care. <strong>"I think you will see components of a plan that are part of different pieces of legislation that will make up what will ultimately be the plan."</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>Translation: they don't know what in the fuck they're doing. The good news—and it is good news—is they finally actually realize that they're "going to own this stuff," and that they're not going to be bailed out by either their president or their Democratic colleagues. The chances that they figure out a way to <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1625041/-Conservative-realizes-Obamacare-repeal-is-stupid-politically-anyway" target="_blank" title="">just punt on this</a>—pass something meaningless and declare victory—are increasing by the day.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1625503 Thu, 26 Jan 2017 17:20:16 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/26/1625467/-Trump-s-rule-by-edict-creating-chaos-for-his-government-and-Congress <p>Popular vote loser Donald Trump has been very busy his first week in office creating photo opportunities. He particularly seems to enjoy sitting in the Oval Office, surrounded by lackeys and looking presidential while putting his scrawl on orders making America <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1625055/-Spokesman-denies-reports-that-Trump-regime-plans-to-revive-black-sites-and-review-torture-guidelines" title="">torture again</a>, making America <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1625100/-Trump-plans-to-punish-sanctuary-cities-by-undermining-local-law-enforcement-smart-play" title="">a place without sanctuary again</a>, making America <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1624866/-American-lockdown-Trump-curtails-immigration-and-begins-wall" title="">paranoid again</a>, making America <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1624028/-Trump-reinstates-global-gag-rule-ban-on-international-health-groups-offering-abortion-counseling" title="">disregard the lives of women, again</a>. What Trump didn't do, predictably, is <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trumps-flashy-executive-actions-could-run-aground-234200" title="">do the necessary homework</a> to determine if any of these things are actually possible.</p> <blockquote>President Donald Trump’s team made little effort to consult with federal agency lawyers or lawmakers as they churned out executive actions this week, stoking fears the White House is creating the appearance of real momentum with flawed orders that might be unworkable, unenforceable or even illegal. <p>The White House didn’t ask State Department experts to review Trump’s memorandum on the Keystone XL pipeline, even though the company that wants to build the pipeline is suing the U.S. for $15 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter.</p> <p>Defense Secretary James Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo were “blindsided” by a draft order that would require agencies to reconsider using interrogation techniques that are currently banned as torture, according to sources with knowledge of their thinking.</p> <p>Just a small circle of officials at the Department of Health and Human Services knew about the executive action starting to unwind Obamacare, and only less than two hours before it was released. Key members of Congress weren’t consulted either, according to several members. And at a conference in Philadelphia, GOP legislators say they had no idea whether some of the executive orders would contrast with existing laws—because they hadn't reviewed them.</p> </blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Congress DonaldTrump ExecutiveAction _1625467 Thu, 26 Jan 2017 16:36:21 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/26/1625424/-Republicans-retreat-into-confusion-disarray-as-Trump-creates-new-headaches <p>The new Republican regime is off to an extremely rocky start as they meet in Philadelphia to map out the new American dystopia. They're having a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-their-annual-retreat-hill-republicans-want-answers-will-trump-give-them/2017/01/25/15e40fc4-e285-11e6-a547-5fb9411d332c_story.html?utm_term=.03b1c3d2da06">hard time getting down to business</a> because their new leader, popular vote loser Donald Trump, is, well, what he is.</p> <blockquote>House and Senate Republicans began the week expecting specific guidance on what will replace the Affordable Care Act, how quickly taxes might get slashed and how the government will pay for a new border wall and infrastructure plan. <p>But on Wednesday, Trump offered up a fresh set of distractions with a flurry of announcements and early-morning tweets. […]</p> <p>That left Republicans scrambling with few details and fewer answers at a moment when they had intended to secure the opposite. […]</p> <p>The first signs of trouble came at midday Wednesday, when Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) faced reporters in a hotel ballroom here at the start of a two-day party strategy session.</p> <p>They came prepared to talk about health care and the tax code but were barraged with questions about Trump’s latest moves.</p> </blockquote> <p>Thune was asked about voter fraud and said he'd not seen evidence of it (remember that for the future, kids), but that if Trump wants "take that up, that is a decision that obviously he can make." On the attempt to reinstate torture, Thune was a little more forceful saying blankly "that’s banned," pointing to the 2015 law that had overwhelming bipartisan support. Then he tried to "focus on the things that unite us." </p> <p>That didn't really work either.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump House Obamacare Recommended repeal Republicans Senate _1625424 Thu, 26 Jan 2017 15:16:06 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1625145/-Dear-Senate-Democrats-Spare-us-your-tough-tweets-and-start-fighting-on-the-floor <p>Senate Democrats put together this clever little video answering Mitch McConnell's invitation to his "Democratic friends" to "treat President Trump's nominees in the same way that we treated Clinton and Obama," with snippets showing just how McConnell operated for the past eight years. (BTW, Fuckface Mitch, that's "President Clinton" and "President Obama" to you.)</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;This is how Mitch McConnell and Republicans treated President Obama: &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/yeevmbG291"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/yeevmbG291&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/SenateDems/status/824360862043475969"&amp;gt;January 25, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>This is how Mitch McConnell and Republicans treated President Obama: <a href="https://t.co/yeevmbG291">pic.twitter.com/yeevmbG291</a></p>— Senate Democrats (@SenateDems) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenateDems/status/824360862043475969">January 25, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <p>That's great, Senate Democrats—you have a good, long memory for how Mitch McConnell operated to shut down everything from the federal government to the Supreme Court. You put a really great little video together there.</p> <p>Now act on it. Don't just <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/25/1624949/-Democrats-are-not-following-the-successful-Republican-2009-oppose-everything-playbook">pick and choose</a> where to use your tons of dry powder. Save the goddamned country, and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1624974/-How-do-you-even-begin-to-fix-a-Democratic-Party-this-f-d-up-Primaries-could-be-a-start">maybe even your own skins</a>, by fighting ALL the battles.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Democrats DonaldTrump Recommended Senate _1625145 Wed, 25 Jan 2017 21:20:00 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1625074/-Save-Our-Care-smartly-exploits-Republican-disarray-on-Obamacare-repeal <p>Republicans are "retreating" in Philadelphia this week (including a meeting with popular vote loser Donald Trump) to figure out what in the hell they're going to do now they have the Congress and the White House. At the top of the list is figuring out how to deal with Obamacare and the disaster they're about to unleash. Which makes a new, extremely targeted ad campaign from <a href="https://www.savemycare.org/">Save My Care</a> pretty brilliant. From an emailed press release:</p> <blockquote>While Republicans retreat to Philadelphia to debate their plan to repeal and run on health care, Save My Care will launch a digital ad campaign geo-fenced around the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, the site of the GOP's three-day-long meeting. When they check their phones or look at their laptops, Republican Members of Congress and their staff will confront the damage they’ll cause if they move forward with their rush to rip apart our health care system, taking away insurance from tens of millions of people while raising health care costs for millions more.  <p>The digital ads, which are also running in a number of states across the country, are the latest phase of holding Republicans accountable for the promises they've made about health care and the consequences of repeal.</p> </blockquote> <p>The ads will remind Republicans that they have no plan, just in case any of them could forget that. It will also help widen the <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/medicaid-overhaul-republicans-234049">rift</a> that already exists among Republicans, particularly over changes to Medicaid. Plenty of Republicans come from states that expanded Medicaid, and they don't want to have to take the heat of tens of thousands of their constituents being kicked out of the healthcare they recently received.</p> <p>If you need more evidence of a splintering GOP, look no further than the ads a group aligned with House Republican leadership <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/aan-launches-new-obamacare-ad-blitz-234146">is running</a>.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1625074 Wed, 25 Jan 2017 19:25:16 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1625041/-Conservative-realizes-Obamacare-repeal-is-stupid-politically-anyway <p>"Winning" with popular vote loser Donald Trump is like a cold glass of water in the face for conservatives, particularly when they take a close look at what's been their top priority for six years—repealing Obamacare. What we've been trying to tell them all these years—this is a really complicated and huge sector of the economy—is finally breaking through, now that they're in charge of "fixing" it. And they are absolutely clueless when it comes to doing so. Pundit Matt Lewis is the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/25/maybe-on-obamacare-republicans-should-just-punt.html" title="">latest to wake up</a> to reality.</p> <blockquote>Conservative philosophy—from Burke to Hayek—suggests that comprehensive plans are a fatal conceit; the world is too complex to plan. The notion that Republicans could magically “fix” the largest sector of the world’s largest economy is dubious, at best. <p>But that ship has sailed. No matter the fate of the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama already accomplished a huge legacy-guaranteeing paradigm shift: It is now understood that it is the federal government’s job to make sure everyone has access to health care insurance.</p> <p>Even President Donald Trump agrees with this promise of universal coverage, telling The Washington Post recently: “We’re going to have insurance for everybody… There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.” […]</p> <p>Should Republicans actually kick off a new administration by engaging in a fool’s errand that is almost guaranteed to backfire?</p> <p>Sometimes you have to punt.</p> </blockquote> <p>Lewis talked to James C. Capretta, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), who got there way before him: "The idea that in this new political era, Congress and this new administration are going to remake health care is not realistic." His best ideas are, essentially, the elements of the Affordable Care Act. Which brings us back to the argument liberals were making six and seven years ago against it—it was a Republican plan, Romneycare, designed to <em>preserve</em> the private insurance market and to give it even more customers, while at the same time making a guarantee: everyone has access to health insurance and to essential health services.</p> <p>There isn't a Republican plan that can do all that. They can mess around on the edges of this law, but they can't do anything remotely like replacing it, not with the level of coverage that Trump is promising. They break that pledge—that nobody loses their access to health insurance—and they'll have two disasters on their hands. One of them they won't care about—people dying. The other one will be political, and that one is going to matter.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1625041 Wed, 25 Jan 2017 18:34:35 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1624958/-The-Alt-National-Park-Service-shows-how-to-resist <p>After a Badlands National Park employee went rogue Tuesday with a tweet storm on global warming, the totally expected <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1624680/-After-Trump-puts-the-truth-on-lockdown-climate-change-tweets-deleted-from-park-service-account" title="">happened</a>: Trumpco cracked down and the tweets were deleted. </p> <p>But the amazing, and very clever, people in the National Park Service are not going to be silenced. Witness the rebirth:</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Mr Trump, you may have taken us down officially. But with scientific evidence &amp;amp;amp; the Internet our message will get out.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824027764076539904"&amp;gt;January 24, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Mr Trump, you may have taken us down officially. But with scientific evidence &amp; the Internet our message will get out.</p>— AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824027764076539904">January 24, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <p> Follow that account for actions you can take, like this:</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;This is the National Park Service&amp;amp;#39;s Cultural Resources Climate Change Strategy. Pls download before it is removed. &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/oO3ZMVxxwN"&amp;gt;https://t.co/oO3ZMVxxwN&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824070855206600710"&amp;gt;January 25, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>This is the National Park Service's Cultural Resources Climate Change Strategy. Pls download before it is removed. <a href="https://t.co/oO3ZMVxxwN">https://t.co/oO3ZMVxxwN</a></p>— AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824070855206600710">January 25, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Call your representative in Congress and say you object to 640m acres of national land being privatised. &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/resist?src=hash"&amp;gt;#resist&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/0Ndg0gk2l1"&amp;gt;https://t.co/0Ndg0gk2l1&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824100168232538112"&amp;gt;January 25, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Call your representative in Congress and say you object to 640m acres of national land being privatised. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/resist?src=hash">#resist</a> <a href="https://t.co/0Ndg0gk2l1">https://t.co/0Ndg0gk2l1</a></p>— AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824100168232538112">January 25, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Thanks for all your support.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;Please consider donating to the .&amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/NatlParkService"&amp;gt;@NatlParkService&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; and help it keep up its great work. &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/3wzhjrnN4B"&amp;gt;https://t.co/3wzhjrnN4B&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824108251092516864"&amp;gt;January 25, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Thanks for all your support.<br>Please consider donating to the .<a href="https://twitter.com/NatlParkService">@NatlParkService</a> and help it keep up its great work. <a href="https://t.co/3wzhjrnN4B">https://t.co/3wzhjrnN4B</a></p>— AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824108251092516864">January 25, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <p> And fun facts like this:</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Fun fact: The White House is surrounded by NPS land, and during Occupy they supported the protesters despite the mayor&amp;amp;#39;s objection.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824082546816335873"&amp;gt;January 25, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Fun fact: The White House is surrounded by NPS land, and during Occupy they supported the protesters despite the mayor's objection.</p>— AltUSNatParkService (@AltNatParkSer) <a href="https://twitter.com/AltNatParkSer/status/824082546816335873">January 25, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Censorship DonaldTrump NationalParkService _1624958 Wed, 25 Jan 2017 16:58:23 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/25/1624904/-Women-s-March-Garland-blockade-bolster-Democratic-resistance-to-Trump-Supreme-Court-nominees <p>Senate Democrats are not soon going to forget the 11 month blockade Mitch McConnell and his colleagues conducted against Merrick Garland, President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court. That, and the huge march against popular vote loser Donald Trump this weekend are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/politics/donald-trump-supreme-court-democrats.html?smid=tw-nytpolitics&amp;smtyp=cur&amp;_r=0" title="">are fueling</a> their resolve against the kind of nominee Trump is likely to put foward—an extreme one.</p> <blockquote>"I haven’t seen the names," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and a veteran of multiple Supreme Court fights. "But when they had a consensus person with Merrick Garland, every single Republican who raised their hand and solemnly swore before God to uphold the Constitution refused to follow the Constitution and even have a hearing." <p>Top Democrats say they don’t intend to play "tit for tat" with the nomination. But they say they will insist on what they consider to be a mainstream candidate capable of securing at least the 60 votes needed to thwart any filibuster. Otherwise, they promise to do whatever they can to block the nominee. […] </p> <p>Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee, said Democrats were also galvanized by the turnout at last weekend’s protests. He said it would serve as a unifying force for Senate Democrats.</p> </blockquote> <p><span>Good. Here's a promise to our Democratic Senators—continue your resistance and we will continue to have your backs. And if your resolve ever weakens, just remember the words of Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who had the gall to actually </span><a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/24/1624447/-Sen-Orrin-Hatch-craven-pathological-liar-or-amnesiac">say</a><span> "I have never seen a party in the Senate from its leaders on down, publicly commit to not only opposing virtually every nomination, but to attacking and maligning almost every single nominee." And remember that Hatch was the Republican who </span><a href="https://newrepublic.com/minutes/131676/orrin-hatch-said-no-question-merrick-garland-confirmed-supreme-court" title="">touted Merrick Garland</a><span> as the compromise candidate for President Obama.</span></p> <p>That's your opposition, Democrats. Let that example strengthen your spines.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) ChuckSchumer Democrats DonaldTrump SCOTUS Senate _1624904 Wed, 25 Jan 2017 15:00:29 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/24/1624642/-Trump-s-swamp-creature-Tom-Price-lies-his-way-through-second-hearing-on-the-way-to-confirmation <p>Georgia Rep. Tom Price, popular vote loser Donald Trump's pick to be secretary of Health and Human Services, faced a second panel of senators Tuesday in the Finance Committee and another round of questions about his stock purchases as a member of Congress, purchases that have all the appearance of insider trading. More details have emerged about the most troublesome purchase of more than $100,000 worth of stock in the Australian biotech firm Innate Immunotherapeutics in 2016, a purchase he <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tom-price-stock-trades_us_588793fee4b0441a8f712436">failed to properly disclose</a>.</p> <blockquote>On a financial disclosure Price provided to the Office of Government Ethics in December, he listed the value of his stake in Innate Immunotherapeutics in the category of "between $15,001 and $50,000." This failed to include his second purchase of stock at a special price that was available to <a href="http://www.innateimmuno.com/irm/PDF/1285/NoticeofAnnualGeneralMeetingProxyForm">18 investors they selected</a>, including two members of the company's board. He has since estimated that stake to be worth "between $100,001 and $250,000" at the time he filed his disclosure on Dec. 20. The value of his holding in the little-known Australian company has since increased by more than 100 percent.<br> <br> Price <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/health/innate-immunotherapeutics-tom-price.html?_r=0">learned about Innate Immunotherapeutics</a> from Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), a member of the firm’s board, in early 2016. On Sept. 1, when the actual price of a share was $0.31, he purchased 400,613 shares at a price of $0.18 each, for an instant profit of $57,080. Based on the current value of Innate Immunotherapeutics stock on the Australian market, the shares Price bought through this private placement are now worth more than $520,000—more than four times their value at the time of the purchase.</blockquote> <p>Substantially more, as well, than what he claimed in his disclosure a month ago. "Set aside the legal issues," said ranking member of Finance, Democratic Colorado Sen. Ron Wyden. "It is hard to see this as anything but a conflict of interest, and an abuse of positions." Price says that his failure to correctly report the value of his stock is simply a "clerical error." When Wyden asked if he thought it might have been "bad judgement" to conduct this purchase—preferred, private, and limited to a select number of investors—while serving in Congress, Price said "no." Which should be disqualifying in and of itself. He's not even acknowledging it looks bad, much less is unethical.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) confirmationhearing DonaldTrump Ethics HealthandHumanServices HHS TomPrice _1624642 Tue, 24 Jan 2017 21:56:28 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/24/1624581/-Trump-OMB-pick-Mulvaney-Never-mind-Trump-s-promises-we-ll-cut-Social-Security-and-Medicare <p>South Carolina Rep. Mick Mulvaney, nominated to head the Office of Management and Budget by popular vote loser Donald Trump, told senators at his confirmation hearing Tuesday that Trump's promises to leave Social Security and Medicare are <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2017/01/24/Mulvaney-says-he-would-change-Medicare-Social-Security-as-OMB-chief/6141485280199/" title="">going to be broken</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p>Mulvaney, R-S.C., developed a reputation in Congress as an eager supporter of deep spending cuts, and in confirmation hearings as President <a href="http://www.upi.com/topic/Donald_Trump/">Donald Trump</a>'s proposed chief of the Office of Management and Budget, differed with Trump on <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/24/trump-pick-budget-director-promises-cut-debt-backs-medicare-changes/96983660/" target="_blank" title="">entitlement spending</a>.</p> <div></div> <p>"I believe, as a matter of principle, that the debt is a problem that must be addressed sooner, rather than later. I also know that fundamental changes are necessary in the way Washington spends and taxes if we truly want a healthy economy. This must include changing our government's long-term fiscal path, which is unsustainable," Mulvaney said in his opening remarks Tuesday before the Senate Budget Committee.</p> </blockquote> <p>Here’s Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, essentially implying Trump didn’t know what he was talking about in the campaign in making his “totally unrealistic” promises that “make no sense whatsoever,” and asking Mulvaney if he’s been able to explain all that to him and that cuts to Social Security and Medicare will have to be made. Mulvaney says “he knew what he was getting when he asked me to fill this role. [...] I like to think that’s why he hired me.” Watch the video below.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump Medicare MickMulvaney OMB SocialSecurity _1624581 Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:55:00 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/24/1624557/-Trump-names-net-neutrality-foe-as-FCC-chief <p>Popular vote loser Donald Trump has named FCC commissioner Ajit Pai as the commission's new chair, cementing the <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/24/trump-fcc-chief/" title="">anti-net neutrality stance</a> of the new regime.</p> <blockquote> <p>Pai, who was <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/23/trump-taps-commissioner-ajit-pai-to-head-fcc/">named to the position</a> of chairman on Monday by the Trump administration, has been a member of the FCC since 2012. Thus, there is <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/01/20/trump-net-neutrality-opponent-head-fcc/" title="">plenty of evidence available</a> when it comes to his views on net neutrality—and he doesn't like it at all.</p> <p>In a speech in December after Trump won the election, Pai said he wanted to <a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/12/fccs-ajit-pai-says-net-neutralitys-days-are-numbered-under-trump/" target="_blank">"take a weed whacker"</a> to the FCC's regulations. One of the things he had his sights set on was the FCC's Open Internet Order, which was adopted in 2015. That decision made Internet providers "common carriers," and required them to carry data without playing favorites.</p> <p>The new FCC chairman has said that he believes net neutrality is "a solution that won't work for a problem that doesn't exist." Pai has also said he hasn't seen any evidence that consumers are disadvantaged by network providers discriminating between different content or services, and therefore such legislation isn't necessary and harms small ISPs.</p> </blockquote> <p>Pai is also a big fan of big telecom mergers, and a big opponent of requiring them to strengthen the<span> privacy protections of their customers. So it will come as no surprise that big telecom is <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/comcast-att-and-isp-lobbyists-are-excited-about-trumps-fcc-chair/" target="_blank">thrilled with this pick</a>. “This is a terrific appointment for the American consumer and the companies the FCC regulates and we look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Pai in his new role,” says Comcast Senior Executive VP David Cohen, in the kind of double-speak that only a Trump regime can inspire.</span></p> <p><span>This will be a fight. The Daily Kos community made more than 1,000,000 direct contacts with the FCC to support net neutrality, part of a larger coalition that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/10/nipplegate-dethroned-net-neutrality-fcc-public-comments" target="_blank">set a new record</a> for FCC comments. We won’t give it up lightly.</span></p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AjitPai DonaldTrump FederalCommunicationsCommission NetNeutrality Republicans _1624557 Tue, 24 Jan 2017 19:39:07 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/24/1624528/-Republicans-finally-have-an-Obamacare-replacement-plan-which-Republicans-will-never-vote-for <p>Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy (LA) and Susan Collins (ME) have spoken repeatedly about the need to have an Obamacare replacement plan on hand before repealing the law, and now they've got a sort of one. They call it, of course, the <a href="https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/One%20Pager%20(1.20.17)%20(002).pdf" title="">Patient Freedom Act</a> and say it "would take power from Washington and return it to state capitols in order to increase access to affordable health insurance and improve patient choice, while preserving important consumer protections."</p> <p>Here's what they say it does:</p> <blockquote><strong>Repeals:</strong> This proposal repeals burdensome federal mandates imposed by the Affordable Care Act, such as the individual mandate, the employer mandate, the actuarial value requirements that force plans to fit into one of four categories, the age band requirements that drive up costs for young people, and the benefit mandates that often force Americans to pay for coverage they don’t need and can’t afford. <p><strong>Keeps:</strong> This proposal keeps essential consumer protections, including prohibitions on annual and lifetime limits, prohibition of pre-existing condition exclusions, and prohibitions on discrimination. It also preserves guaranteed issue and guaranteed renewability and allows young adults to stay on their parents’ plan until age 26, as well as preserving coverage for mental health and substance use disorders.</p> </blockquote> <p>Based on that fact sheet, this gives the states the option to keep the law nearly entirely intact, if they wished. It gives states three options for covering people: 1) "Reimplementation of the ACA," which would keep most of the law's provisions in place—including the individual mandate and Medicaid expansion—and federal funding would be maintained for all of it at 95 percent of current outlays; 2) "Choose a new state alternative," which would allow states to create new "market-based" systems while receiving, again, 95 percent of the tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies they're now getting, with "per beneficiary grants or advanceable, refundable tax credits" deposited directly in health savings accounts; 3) "Design an alternative solution without federal assistance," which is what it sounds like—states are on their own.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct BillCassidy DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans SusanCollins _1624528 Tue, 24 Jan 2017 18:39:46 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/24/1624178/-The-Republican-blame-Obama-for-Obamacare-repeal-strategy-kicks-off <p>The Trump regime's "alternative facts" machine is already up and running, as pointed out Sunday in a panel on Joy-Ann Reid's <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/theyre-scrubbing-websites-now-joan-walsh-says-trump-plans-to-undermine-obamacare-with-fake-data/" title="">MSNBC show</a>.</p> <blockquote>“People are being hurt by their coverage being diminished, by their opportunities to get insurance being diminished,” Reid explained. “And [White House Press Secretary] Sean Spicer comes out and says, ‘No, they’re not. Nobody is suffering.’ And then you try to find the data on people’s insurance and HHS just doesn’t give it to you.” <p>“That’s where we are,” MSNBC analyst Joan Walsh agreed. “I think we’re really in a place where they’re going to scrub the data. They’re scrubbing websites now. And it’s really a challenge. I know a lot academics and others who are working to preserve the data that they already have.”</p> <p>“They’re going to make it seems like, ‘Oh, well, Obamacare. We told you it’s falling apart,'” Walsh added.</p> </blockquote> <p>The Trumpists have indeed <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622797/-Obama-administration-wants-you-to-know-you-can-sign-up-for-Obamacare-for-another-month" title="">scrubbed the White House's page</a> detailing the accomplishments of the Affordable Care Act. The previous White House, knowing this was coming, took the precaution of <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-record/health-care" title="">archiving it and saving it</a> for posterity, and for everyone who knows better to have it to point to.</p> <p>But make no mistake, the theme from the Trump lie machine is going to be that Obamacare was doomed to fail, as Charles Gaba <a href="http://acasignups.net/17/01/22/conway-yes-trumpprice-may-try-deliberately-create-death-spiral-or-without-congress" title="">points out</a>. Republicans started this back in December, figuring out how to make the disaster they create when they repeal the law without a replacement all Obama's fault. And they're moving forward with that plan. </p> <p>That <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/21/1623144/-Trump-s-Obamacare-executive-orders-yes-he-does-mean-to-repeal-it" title="">executive order Trump signed</a> on Friday, on Obamacare? That's the start. Once his regime refuses to enforce the individual mandate that people have health insurance, that's the beginning of the collapse of the Obamacare system. Not having a guaranteed customer base will likely lead to insurers leaving the market. Even if they can't manage full repeal, they've already begun the process of destabilizing the system, causing enough uncertainty and chaos to take the insurers out of the game. Then, presto, even without having taken action to repeal the law, they can claim that it fell apart all on its own, and it's all President Obama's fault. If we let them.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1624178 Tue, 24 Jan 2017 17:20:28 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/24/1624447/-Sen-Orrin-Hatch-craven-pathological-liar-or-amnesiac <p>In his <a href="https://youtu.be/RU1Jxw8V-d8" target="_blank" title="">opening statement</a> during Tuesday morning's Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Health and Human Services nominee Rep. Tom Price, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch demonstrated a remarkable degree of selective memory. Or maybe he's a victim of amnesia.</p> <blockquote>I'm serious when I say that I am worried about what my colleagues on the minority side are doing to the Senate as an institution. While the overriding sense of comity and courtesy among senators has admittedly been in decline in recent years, <strong>I have never seen this level of partisan rancor when it comes to dealing with the president from an opposing party. </strong><br>   <p><strong>I have never seen a party in the Senate from its of leaders on down, publicly commit to not only opposing virtually every nomination, but to attacking and maligning almost every single nominee.</strong> Let me be clear, I'm not suggesting that the Senate start rubber stamping nominees, nor am I suggesting that any member of the Senate should vote against their conscience or preferences, simply out of respect for tradition or deference. What I am saying is that the same rules and processes, courtesies, and assumptions of good faith that have long been the hallmark of the Senate confirmation process, especially in this committee, should continue to apply, regardless of who is president. If what we're seeing now is the new normal for every time control of the White House changes hands, the Senate, quite frankly, will be a much lesser institution.</p> </blockquote> <p>Senator, let me introduce you to Merrick Garland, whose nomination before the Senate lasted <strong>293 days</strong> without action simply because your party did not want President Obama to have a nominee. </p> <p>Let me also introduce you to your leader, <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/mitch-mcconnell-i-want-to-be-senate-majority-leader-in-order-to-make-obama-a-one-term-president-6645c279b275#.nkind7pzk">Mitch McConnell</a>, who said in 2010: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president. […] Our single biggest political goal is to give our nominee for president the maximum opportunity to be successful."</p> <p>And to popular vote-losing Vice President Mike Pence, who <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/10/25/912915/-GOP:-If-we-win,-there-will-be-no-compromise">said</a> in 2010, back when he was in the House, "And if I haven't been clear enough yet, let me say again: No compromise." Or Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, who <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1624048/-Republican-Tom-Cotton-has-hissy-fit-exposes-himself-as-massive-and-vindictive-hypocrite" target="_blank" title="">blocked a nominee</a> who was a personal friend of Obama’s “to inflict special pain on the president.” </p> <p>Spare us your sanctimony, Senator.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) HHS Nominations OrrinHatch Senate TomPrice _1624447 Tue, 24 Jan 2017 16:10:23 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/24/1624425/-Trump-s-HHS-pick-faces-second-day-of-hearings-under-a-new-ethics-cloud <p>Georgia Rep. Tom Price, popular vote loser Donald Trump's pick to be secretary of Health and Human Services, is facing the Senate Finance Committee today in his second confirmation hearing—and with a brand new <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/health-secretary-nominee-tom-price-proposed-bill-benefiting-his-puerto-rico-investments-1485253807" title="">raft of ethics questions</a> arising from a report in <em>The Wall Street Journal</em>.</p> <blockquote>Three months after investing in four companies with manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico, President Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary introduced legislation that would directly benefit those companies. […] <p>On March 17, Mr. Price bought shares valued at between $1,000 and $15,000 each in drug companies Amgen Inc., Bristol Meyers Squibb Co., and Eli Lilly and Co., as well as medical-device firm Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc., according to congressional disclosure reports.</p> <p>Each company has extensive facilities in Puerto Rico, public filings show. The U.S. tax code until this year permitted companies with Puerto Rico factories to take the same deductions offered to companies with domestic plants.</p> <p>Mr. Price on June 7 introduced House Resolution 5400 that would have amended the tax code to make the provision permanent.</p> </blockquote> <p>His bill did not pass, and the tax deduction expired at the beginning of this year. But here's one instance in which Price sponsored legislation that could benefit his personal stock holdings. Adding to the whole stink of this particular instance is the fact that Amgen's lobbyist for this legislation is Matthew McGinley, who was Price's chief of staff from 2004 to 2011.</p> <p>There are other problems in the materials he submitted to the two Senate committees for review.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Ethics HealthandHumanServices HHS TomPrice _1624425 Tue, 24 Jan 2017 14:53:36 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1624155/-Researchers-Obamacare-repeal-could-kill-more-than-43-000-people-annually <p>David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandleris, both professors of public health at the City University of New York at Hunter College, Lecturers in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and founders of Physicians for a National Health Program, have a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/01/23/repealing-the-affordable-care-act-will-kill-more-than-43000-people-annually/?utm_term=.97323d2b1ca4" title="">sobering message for the nation</a>: repealing Obamacare will be lethal for tens of thousands of Americans every year.</p> <blockquote> <p>The story is in the data: The biggest and most definitive study of what happens to death rates when Medicaid coverage is expanded, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that for every 455 people who gained coverage across several states, one life was saved per year. Applying that figure to even a conservative estimate of 20 million losing coverage in the event of an ACA repeal yields an estimate of 43,956 deaths annually. […]</p> <p><span>House Speaker </span><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__abetterway.speaker.gov_-5Fassets_pdf_ABetterWay-2DHealthCare-2DPolicyPaper.pdf&amp;d=DwQFaQ&amp;c=RAhzPLrCAq19eJdrcQiUVEwFYoMRqGDAXQ_puw5tYjg&amp;r=GzTF0gS-jX9DEUKWLuqpeffZfRRJ1oPJGeR6_2yf5n8&amp;m=tr4dHPMymTGtx7M3mzVH854V5pA5IpzDPG9KLqPA938&amp;s=EZBqph7Gd7S28WONIJ5XrVFXqTjHd1I-5ui7nh8M_OM&amp;e=" title="">Paul D. Ryan</a><span> (R-Wis.) and Rep. </span><a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__tomprice.house.gov_sites_tomprice.house.gov_files_Section-2520by-2520Section-2520of-2520HR-25202300-2520Empowering-2520Patients-2520First-2520Act-25202015.pdf&amp;d=DwQFaQ&amp;c=RAhzPLrCAq19eJdrcQiUVEwFYoMRqGDAXQ_puw5tYjg&amp;r=GzTF0gS-jX9DEUKWLuqpeffZfRRJ1oPJGeR6_2yf5n8&amp;m=tr4dHPMymTGtx7M3mzVH854V5pA5IpzDPG9KLqPA938&amp;s=kjqKr2PYUiAqXfsQNGv4adDm72SlGDK8hDFChDcFcng&amp;e=" title="">Tom Price</a><span> (R-Ga.), who is Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Heath and Human Services, which will be in charge of dismantling the ACA — have advocated in place of the ACA would hollow out the coverage of many who were </span><em>unaffected </em><span>by the law, harming them and probably raising their death rates. Abolishing minimum coverage standards for insurance policies would leave insurers and employers free to cut coverage for preventive and reproduction-related care. Allowing interstate insurance sales probably would cause a race to the bottom, with skimpy plans that emanate from lightly regulated states becoming the norm. Block granting Medicaid would leave poor patients at the mercy of state officials, many of whom have shown little concern for the health of the poor. A Medicare voucher program (with the value of the voucher tied to overall inflation rather than more rapid medical inflation) would worsen the coverage of millions of seniors, a problem that would be exacerbated by the proposed ban on full coverage under Medicare supplement policies. In other words, even if Republicans replace the ACA, the plans they’ve put on the table would have devastating consequences.</span></p> </blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1624155 Mon, 23 Jan 2017 21:13:09 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1624140/-Democrats-demand-more-information-on-stock-purchases-from-Trump-HHS-pick-Tom-Price <p>Georgia Rep. Tom Price, popular vote loser Donald Trump's pick to be secretary of Health and Human Services, has emerged as perhaps <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/21/1622434/-Tom-Price-the-Trumpiest-nominee-of-all-now-with-a-hint-of-influence-peddling">the most ethically challenged</a> of all of Trump's nominees—which is saying a helluva lot. The very strong whiff of corruption hovering around Price has Democratic senators <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tom-price-stock-trades_us_58853631e4b070d8cad3680f?ir=Politics&amp;utm_hp_ref=politics">demanding more information</a> from him to clarify his direct involvement in stock trades related to his actions as a lawmaker.</p> <blockquote>A <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/337255910/Sens-Murray-Wyden-Letter-to-Rep-Price">letter to Price</a> from Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor &amp; Pensions Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, asks for the congressman to hand over the brokerage agreements for two Morgan Stanley accounts and for any other unstated accounts no later than noon on Monday. […]<br>   <p>Now, Murray and Wyden, whose committee will hold a hearing on Price’s nomination on Tuesday, are asking Price to reveal the actual agreements for his two Morgan Stanley brokerage accounts and any other accounts holding stock in Innate Immunotherapeutics or other health care stocks. The accounts the senators are asking for relevant documentation on are labeled “Morgan Stanley #1” and “Morgan Stanley #2” in Price’s financial disclosure form. Democrats have already called for a delay in Price’s hearings until an ethics investigation into his stock trading can be completed. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics asking it to conduct an investigation into Price’s actions.</p> </blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Ethics HealthandHumanServices HHS PattyMurray RonWyden STOCKact TomPrice _1624140 Mon, 23 Jan 2017 20:36:42 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1624137/-Spicer-continues-lying-media-theme-in-Monday-press-conference <p>Popular vote loser Donald Trump's press secretary Sean Spicer held the first official press conference of the Trump regime Monday. Apparently Saturday's <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/21/1623311/-Trump-campaign-goes-further-off-the-deep-end-claims-largest-inaugural-audience-of-all-time">temper tantrum</a> about whether or not Trump had the biggest crowd ever at his inauguration didn't count. </p> <p>Monday's main theme was continuing the attack on the lying media, reaching a crescendo when Spicer <a href="https://twitter.com/BCAppelbaum/status/823620034157309953">spent more than three full minutes</a> attacking the media for "demoralizing" Donald Trump by questioning the crowd size, proving just how thin-skinned his boss really is. The underlying narrative was pretty much just lies, which was clearly intended as the first question of the briefing was given to a <a href="https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/823605420510105600">reporter</a> from Trump's favorite paper, the <em>New York Post</em>, who wrote <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/14/the-strange-leak-of-the-new-expose-clinton-inc.html">an anti-Clinton book</a>, lauded by the far right. The lies were legion, many of which were completely ignored by reporters in the room.</p> <p>Among them: an assertion that there's been a "dramatic expansion of the federal workforce in recent years" to justify the hiring freeze Trump ordered today. This is <a href="https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/823603910145413120">not true</a>. He repeatedly asserted that Trump signed an order "withdrawing" the U.S. from TPP. The U.S. has not signed onto TPP and it's been dead on arrival in Congress—where it would have to be ratified. The U.S. could not be withdrawn from it because we weren't in it. And continuing on trade, Spicer repeatedly asserted China is engaging in bilateral trade agreements. <a href="https://twitter.com/jonathanweisman/status/823611440124805120">It's not.</a></p> <p>In talking about the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1624028/-Trump-reinstates-global-gag-rule-ban-on-international-health-groups-offering-abortion-counseling">global gag rule</a> Trump reinstated today, Spicer said that the U.S. taxpayers were funding abortions overseas. <a href="https://twitter.com/onceuponA/status/823604166270525440">That is not true</a>.</p> <p>Speaking of women, Spicer said the women's march wasn't about opposition to Trump, it wasn't <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/23/1624127/-Spicer-claims-Women-s-March-protesters-weren-t-targeting-Trump-specifically-twitterverse-calls-B-S?_=2017-01-23T12:24:52.292-08:00" title="">"against anything"</a> he said. Contradicting reports that Trump has <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-promised-to-resign-from-his-companies-but-no-record-hes-done-so">not resigned</a> from his businesses as promised, Spicer <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/white-house-says-trump-resignation-papers-not-public-yet">said</a> that those documents showing he had just aren't public yet.</p> <p>In the back-and-forth that resulted in Spicer's extended tantrum about how Trump had been so demoralized by the lying media, Spicer <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/spicer-cia-audience-cheers-report">denied reports</a> that the audience at Trump's CIA appearance on Saturday had been filled with Trump cheerleaders.</p> <p>The volume of disinformation, lies, and Trump-speak is too voluminous to immediately record here. Suffice it to say, there was a flurry of noise and disinformation and that the press corps in the room didn't come prepared to combat it. They're going to have to learn how to do this a lot better.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump SeanSpicer TraditionalMedia _1624137 Mon, 23 Jan 2017 20:31:00 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1624048/-Republican-Tom-Cotton-has-hissy-fit-exposes-himself-as-massive-and-vindictive-hypocrite <p>Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Hypocritville) is <a href="https://twitter.com/SenTomCotton/status/822943153997148161" title="">incensed</a> that Democrats are slowing down the confirmation of popular vote loser Donald Trump's CIA pick, Mike Pompeo. Mr. Cotton, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/opinion/an-obama-nominees-crushed-hopes.html?_r=0" target="_blank" title="">meet Sen. Tom Cotton</a>:</p> <blockquote>In early 2014, after decades of government and nonprofit work that reflected a passion for public service, Cassandra Butts got a reward — or so she thought. She was nominated by President Obama to be the next United States ambassador to the Bahamas. […] <p>[…] Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, put a hold specifically on Butts and on nominees for the ambassadorships to Sweden and Norway. He had a legitimate gripe with the Obama administration over a Secret Service leak of private information about a fellow member of Congress, and he was trying to pressure Obama to take punitive action. But that issue was unrelated to Butts and the Bahamas.</p> <p>Cotton eventually released the two other holds, but not the one on Butts. She told me that she once went to see him about it, and he explained that he knew that she was a close friend of Obama’s—the two first encountered each other on a line for financial-aid forms at Harvard Law School, where they were classmates—and that <strong>blocking her was a way to inflict special pain on the president.</strong></p> </blockquote> <p>Cassandra Butts died of cancer at age 50, just this spring, never having received a confirmation vote. Her nomination dragged on for over 830 days. Because Tom Cotton is a vindictive prick.</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Should we follow Sen Cottons example and obstruct until he dies like he did to Cassandra Butts? &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/aBdTnAtRxP"&amp;gt;https://t.co/aBdTnAtRxP&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/823320369050292224"&amp;gt;January 23, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Should we follow Sen Cottons example and obstruct until he dies like he did to Cassandra Butts? <a href="https://t.co/aBdTnAtRxP">https://t.co/aBdTnAtRxP</a></p>— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovHowardDean/status/823320369050292224">January 23, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) appointments Democrats DonaldTrump Recommended Republicans Senate TomCotton _1624048 Mon, 23 Jan 2017 17:54:35 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1624023/-Schumer-on-Supreme-Court-We-absolutely-will-keep-the-seat-open-if-nominee-isn-t-mainstream <a href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-reject-any-trump-supreme-court-nominee" class="dk-action-link" data-action="petition" data-slug="sign-the-petition-reject-any-trump-supreme-court-nominee" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v2/petition/sign-the-petition-reject-any-trump-supreme-court-nominee?format=js&amp;source=widget&amp;can_widget_id=can-petition-area-sign-the-petition-reject-any-trump-supreme-court-nominee-597674" data-href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-reject-any-trump-supreme-court-nominee">Campaign Action</a> <p>Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/315524-schumer-ready-to-leave-ninth-supreme-court-seat-open">reiterated</a> Sunday that Democrats will not accept an extremist on the Supreme Court.</p> <blockquote>“If the nominee is not bipartisan and mainstream, we absolutely will keep the seat open,” Schumer told CNN’s “State of the Union.” […] <p>Schumer said he is prepared to fight "tooth and nail" should Trump not choose a mainstream nominee.  Former President Barack Obama had nominated Merrick Garland to fill the vacancy. The Senate did not take up Garland’s nomination for a vote.</p> </blockquote> <p>That tough talk is countered by <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/gop-supreme-court-filibuster-nuclear-option-231582" target="_blank">equal</a><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/gop-supreme-court-filibuster-nuclear-option-231582" target="_blank"> bluster </a>from Republicans.</p> <blockquote>“We’re going to confirm the president’s nominee one way or the other. And there’s an easy way and there’s a hard way,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas). “They just need to accept that reality.” <p>“The Democrats will not succeed in filibustering a Supreme Court nominee,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, Cornyn’s Texas colleague. “We are going to confirm President Trump’s conservative Supreme Court justices.”</p> </blockquote> <p>By "the hard way" Cornyn is threatening to nuke the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. That's a way to try to convince eight Democrats that they need to buckle under and vote for whomever Trump nominates. Which is probably not going to work. Here's Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), up for re-election in 2018. Asked if he'll vote for any Trump nominee to preserve the filibuster, he replied "Hell no. I’m going to make sure the guy or gal is qualified to do the job." Likewise North Dakota's Heidi Heitkamp: "You think I’m just going to hand them a vote not knowing who it is?"</p> <p>Cornyn's threat might be an empty one, as some of the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/17/1600870/-Crotchety-Orrin-Hatch-puts-a-big-wrinkle-in-McConnell-s-potential-nuking-of-the-filibuster">old men</a> of the GOP Senate hold the filibuster close to the heart. But if you're relying on the likes of Orrin Hatch to hold on to principles, don't hold your breath. Here he was in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/key-republican-puts-dagger-in-push-to-end-filibusters_us_582caa6ae4b099512f806e7b">November</a>: "I’m one of the biggest advocates for the filibuster." <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/gop-supreme-court-filibuster-nuclear-option-231582">Today</a>: "I mean, [Democrats] set the standard. … They really screwed up the rules. Frankly, they did it for pure political purposes. The Republicans are not limited now." It's a dangerous game for them, doing all this for a Republican president going into office with <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-low-approval-rating-transition-233678">historically low approval ratings</a>. </p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) ChuckSchumer Democrats DonaldTrump SCOTUS Senate _1624023 Mon, 23 Jan 2017 17:12:22 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/23/1623975/-Trump-s-Obamacare-replacement-plan-includes-big-cuts-and-big-changes-to-Medicaid <p>Popular vote loser Donald Trump will <a href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/01/22/us/politics/donald-trump-health-plan-medicaid.html" title="">propose</a> restructuring Medicaid into a block grant program, says his staff, ending the guarantee of the program to low-income people. Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s White House counselor, said Sunday that this change will be a part of the regime’s healthcare plan, and that the move would ensure that "those who are closest to the people in need will be administering" the program.</p> <p>Medicaid is an open-ended entitlement, paid for by both federal and state governments, covering more than 70 million people in the U.S. and more than half of the 20+ million who gained coverage through Obamacare. The "open-ended" part means that it is flexible. If something like an economic downturn means more people lose their jobs and become eligible, states can respond by getting more federal aid. Turning it into a block grant would cap that spending, giving a set chunk of money to the states.</p> <p>That's where it gets thorny. How does the government figure out how much each state gets and when a state's eligible population changes, or medical costs increase to states how will the program adjust to meet those needs? That's what governors—Republican and Democratic alike—want to know, because Medicaid spending is generally the largest line item in state budgets.</p> <blockquote>"We are very concerned that a shift to block grants or per capita caps for Medicaid would remove flexibility from states as the result of reduced federal funding," Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, a Republican, said this month in a letter to congressional leaders. "States would most likely make decisions based mainly on fiscal reasons rather than the health care needs of vulnerable populations." <p>Gov. Robert Bentley of Alabama, a Republican, said that if a block grant reduced federal funds for the program, "states should be given the ability to reduce Medicaid benefits or enrollment, to impose premiums" or other cost-sharing requirements on beneficiaries, and to reduce Medicaid spending in other ways.</p> <p>In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, said he was troubled by the prospect of a block grant with deep cuts in federal funds. "Under such a scenario," he said, "flexibility would really mean flexibility to cut critical services for our most vulnerable populations, including poor children, people with disabilities and seniors in need of nursing home and home-based care."</p> </blockquote> <p>Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) says it will lead to governors having to make "impossible choices." "We should not be forced to choose between providing hard-working older Coloradans with blood pressure medication or children with their insulin." Not expanding Medicaid under Obamacare was one thing many Republican governors could live with, because it maintained a status quo—people who didn't have it would continue not to have it. But this is something that would affect <em>all</em> the governors and their budgets. It would force them to make those hard decisions about who lives and who dies. It's their political necks on the line.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Medicaid Recommended repeal Republicans _1623975 Mon, 23 Jan 2017 15:48:04 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/21/1622923/-Republicans-chased-into-hiding-by-constituents-angry-over-Obamacare-repeal <p>It was a really rough week for Republicans, notwithstanding the inauguration of popular vote loser Donald Trump. The vote they took the week before to repeal Obamacare, even though they don't have a whisper of an agreed upon replacement plan, has enraged their constituents. On top of that, the popularity of the program has jumped, making it <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622679/-Fox-News-Poll-Obamacare-is-more-popular-than-Donald-Trump" title="">more popular than Trump</a>, not to mention way more popular than the Republican congress. That anger was expressed out in public, which has got plenty of Republicans panicked.</p> <p>It all started with House Speaker Paul Ryan being shamed by a fellow Republican, a cancer survivor, on national television.</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;The bad optics that began Paul Ryan&amp;amp;#39;s town hall: Ex-Reagan campaign worker thanks Obamacare for saving his life. &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/bacg2Qk3TL"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/bacg2Qk3TL&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/819799851089047556"&amp;gt;January 13, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>The bad optics that began Paul Ryan's town hall: Ex-Reagan campaign worker thanks Obamacare for saving his life. <a href="https://t.co/bacg2Qk3TL">pic.twitter.com/bacg2Qk3TL</a></p>— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) <a href="https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/819799851089047556">January 13, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <p>"Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I’m standing here today alive," said Jeff Jeans, a cancer survior. "I rely on the Affordable Care Act to be able to purchase my own insurance. Why would you repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement?" Ryan stood there with his sociopathic grin on his face and lied to this man about how they really were going to fix everything, but the damage—and national headlines—were done.</p> <p>And the floodgates for more protests were opened. Head below the fold for the goodness.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1622923 Sat, 21 Jan 2017 17:00:25 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/21/1623144/-Trump-s-Obamacare-executive-orders-yes-he-does-mean-to-repeal-it <p>To all those voters who put Donald Trump in office thinking he didn't really mean it when he said he'd end Obamacare, he meant it. He wants to get rid of your health insurance. Among his first actions in office was signing an executive order <a href="http://www.vox.com/2017/1/20/14343332/trump-obamacare-executive-order">giving</a> "instructions for the federal government to dismantle the Affordable Care Act to the maximum extent permitted by law.'" That doesn’t repeal the law—he can’t do that unilaterally. But here’s what it does:</p> <blockquote>The executive order is a powerful political statement about the health care law, one that directs agencies to "waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay" any taxes or penalties they possibly can. The order doesn’t give Trump any new powers, but does suggest that he wants to move quickly on dismantling major parts of the the health overhaul. <p>"This order doesn't in and of itself do anything tangible," says Larry Levitt, vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "But, it directs federal agencies to start taking steps to use their administrative authority to unwind the ACA in all sorts of ways. This is a signal that the Trump administration is not waiting for Congress to start making big changes."</p> <p>It's the clearest statement so far of Trump's specific priorities on the health care law. In recent weeks, Trump has said he wants to improve health coverage for all Americans, but he's been vague about what that means. This document suggests he may take aim at a piece of the law long-loathed by Republicans, the individual mandate.</p> </blockquote> <p>Here's the part of the order that looks like the mandate: "any provision...that would impose a fiscal burden on any State, or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on an individual." That doesn't mean that the individual mandate to buy insurance ends now, it means he's essentially directing the government to start the process of undoing it.</p> <p>Tim Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee College, and supporter of the law explained to Vox's Sarah Kliff that Trump can't repeal the law unilaterally, so the phrase "to the maximum extent permitted by law" is included in the directives. "What he is saying here is that our general policy is going to be to deregulate," Jost explains. "He's saying, 'I do not want more regulations, we should grant waivers where we can, and give more authority to the states.'" But he also included this: "To the extent that carrying out the directives in this order would require revision of regulations issued through notice-and-comment rulemaking, the heads of agencies shall comply with the Administrative Procedure Act." That means he will follow the established Administrative Procedure Act, an 80-year old law that governs the rulemaking process: "issuing draft rules, accepting comments, sometimes holding public hearings, and ultimately issuing a final rule that takes all the feedback into effect."</p> <p>"I think he’s been advised that he can't repeal the Affordable Care Act through executive action, and now we see where this goes," Jost says. He really means to do it. So what this means right now is that Trump is trying to weaken the law, and particularly the individual mandate. And that, <a href="https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/822653192521519105">says</a> David Anderson, a Duke University health policy analyst, could "make the [market] sicker and on average more expensive. It made lead to carriers reconsidering their participation for the 2018 plan year."</p> <p>For 2017, however, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622797/-Obama-administration-wants-you-to-know-you-can-sign-up-for-Obamacare-for-another-month" target="_blank">Obamacare is open and still taking enrollments through January</a>. </p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1623144 Sat, 21 Jan 2017 15:29:56 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/21/1622434/-Tom-Price-the-Trumpiest-nominee-of-all-now-with-a-hint-of-influence-peddling <p>It's really hard to imagine that the most corrupt of all of popular vote loser Donald Trump's picks would be a sitting member of Congress, but that's what we've got with Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) nominated to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. In addition to the very strong whiff of <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/17/1621570/-More-scandal-for-Trump-s-HHS-pick-Tom-Price-who-s-perfected-legislating-for-personal-profit" title="">insider trading emanating from him</a> now there's the odor of <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/when-a-study-cast-doubt-on-heart-pill-the-drug-company-turned-to-tom-price" title="">influence peddling</a>.</p> <blockquote>The $3 pill known as BiDil was already a difficult sell when a Georgia-based pharmaceutical company bought the marketing rights a few years ago. A treatment for African Americans suffering from heart failure, BiDil had never really caught on, forcing the drug company that developed it to take a buyout offer. One strike against the drug was a 2009 study that raised questions about its safety and effectiveness. <p>So last summer, the new owner of the drug, Arbor Pharmaceuticals LLC of Atlanta, sought to get the study taken down from a government website. For help, the company turned to the office of a congressman to whom the CEO had given the maximum $2,700 campaign donation—Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican nominated by Donald Trump to become head of the Department of Health and Human Services.</p> <p>Over the next few months, one of Price’s aides emailed the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality at least half a dozen times, asking at one point "what seems to be the hold up" in getting the study removed from the website, which aims to help patients, health care providers and policy makers make "better treatment choices." In the end, the agency, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, kept the study online but added a note: “This report is greater than 5 years old. Findings may be used for research purposes but should not be considered current."</p> </blockquote> <p>Now, Price is from Georgia and powerful as chairman of the Budget Committee, so it's not out of bounds for a Georgia-based company to be asking for assistance. Asking for that assistance along with a maximum campaign contribution, though, that's a little iffy. A lot iffy. And really not a good thing when the help being sought is to suppress the fact that a drug developed for African Americans, who represent a sizable population within the state of Georgia, with heart failure has safety concerns! To be specific, the findings were "that BiDil was not actually associated with a significant reduction in death or 2009 hospitalization," and "in all but one of its test groups the drug was associated with significantly increased risk of hospitalization for heart failure."</p> <p>Price himself is a physician, though his specialty is orthopedics, a long way from cardiology. But one would hope a physician, having taken that whole "first do no harm" oath, would be particularly anxious to see that other doctors be informed when a drug they might prescribe is risky. You know, professionally it just seems like the thing to do. Unless you're Tom Price.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Ethics HealthandHumanServices HHS TomPrice _1622434 Sat, 21 Jan 2017 02:30:29 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622873/-Republicans-perform-amazing-disappearing-act-when-it-comes-to-Obamacare <p>After a handful of high-profile and very embarrassing confrontations between angry constituents and Republican lawmakers over Obamacare repeal, many Republicans have just decided the safest thing to do is <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/19/1622273/-Cowardly-Republicans-decide-hiding-from-angry-constituents-is-better-than-running-away-them" target="_blank">practice avoidance</a>—no face-to-face meetings with constituents at all. Take <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/save-obamacare-democrats-are-looking-few-good-stories-n708886" title="">Nevada's Dean Heller</a>.</p> <blockquote>Aisha Crossley is an insurance examiner from Las Vegas, but in Washington this week she did a tour of duty on the front lines in the fight over the Affordable Care Act, armed only with her story about how the law had helped her insure her four kids. <p>"I live paycheck to paycheck and the ACA has allowed my kids to continue to go to the doctor, to continue to be healthy and get what they need. And without it, I don't know where I would be," she told NBC News. […]</p> <p>Crossley wanted to tell her story to her state's Republican senator, Dean Heller, who supports repealing Obamacare. But Heller's office was unable to make the senator or a staff member available without more notice.</p> <p>So Crossley went instead to Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada's newly elected Democrat. "It's great to meet you after seeing your commercials all the time!" Crossley beamed during a private meeting.</p> </blockquote> <p>Not just Crossley:</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;.&amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/DeanHeller"&amp;gt;@deanheller&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/SenDeanHeller"&amp;gt;@sendeanheller&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; ducks more constituents on Obamacare. Including me. cc &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/RalstonReports"&amp;gt;@ralstonreports&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/kEOijYoic8"&amp;gt;https://t.co/kEOijYoic8&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Laura Packard (@lpackard) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/lpackard/status/822215007593074688"&amp;gt;January 19, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>.<a href="https://twitter.com/DeanHeller">@deanheller</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SenDeanHeller">@sendeanheller</a> ducks more constituents on Obamacare. Including me. cc <a href="https://twitter.com/RalstonReports">@ralstonreports</a> <a href="https://t.co/kEOijYoic8">https://t.co/kEOijYoic8</a></p>— Laura Packard (@lpackard) <a href="https://twitter.com/lpackard/status/822215007593074688">January 19, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <p>They must figure avoidance is better than being taped while <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/15/1620767/-Watch-a-Republican-Congressman-run-away-from-his-own-meeting-after-huge-turnout-from-constituents" target="_blank">literally running away from constituents</a>, but they’re going to have to face the music sometime. Like in 2018, when they’re running for re-election and have to show their faces in public. So if they’re scared about the reaction they’re getting now for trying to take health insurance away from millions, do they think it’s going to be any better after it’s done?</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1622873 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 21:18:14 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622869/-Republican-leadership-promise-Nobody-s-going-to-lose-coverage <p>Mark this well. Sen. John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell's number two guy in Senate Republican leadership, told a group of Republican governors on <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-19/republican-governors-balk-as-congress-races-to-kill-obamacare" title="">January 19, 2017</a>, that no one has to worry about losing their health coverage.</p> <blockquote>“Nobody’s going to lose coverage,” Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said after the meeting. “If there’s one word that came up most, it’s flexibility. One-size-fits-all Washington doesn’t take into account the differences between a state like Texas with 28 million people and a state like South Dakota, for example.”</blockquote> <p>Of course, that's total bunk—the flexibility part is code for "block granting Medicaid" and that could result in as many as <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/blog/medicaid-funding-caps-would-lead-to-program-cuts-impede-innovation">21 million people</a> losing their coverage.</p> <p>But Cornyn made that promise. He laid down that marker. We're not going to forget.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump JohnCornyn Obamacare repeal Republicans _1622869 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 20:49:52 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622854/-Note-to-Trump-nasty-women-are-everywhere-and-remember-we-don-t-take-no-ish-from-no-man <p>Another <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622812/-Get-ready-to-march%E2%80%94lets-make-this-one-huge-and-make-it-historic" title="">planeload of women (and allies)</a> going to Washington, D.C. for the  Women's March on Washington, and one righteous, nasty woman flight attendant.</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;Love a nasty woman flight attendant &#x1f44f; Starting our wknd of amazing women because we can&amp;amp;#39;t give up! &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/SpiritAirlines"&amp;gt;@SpiritAirlines&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WomensMarchOnWashington?src=hash"&amp;gt;#WomensMarchOnWashington&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/bWj89inKtJ"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/bWj89inKtJ&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Flor Blake (@FlorBlake) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/FlorBlake/status/822493877810634754"&amp;gt;January 20, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Love a nasty woman flight attendant 👏 Starting our wknd of amazing women because we can't give up! <a href="https://twitter.com/SpiritAirlines">@SpiritAirlines</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WomensMarchOnWashington?src=hash">#WomensMarchOnWashington</a> <a href="https://t.co/bWj89inKtJ">pic.twitter.com/bWj89inKtJ</a></p>— Flor Blake (@FlorBlake) <a href="https://twitter.com/FlorBlake/status/822493877810634754">January 20, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <blockquote>Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived in Baltimore. I just want to know how many of you are going to the March on Washington? [Cheers and whoops] You guys are going to the women's march, right? [More shouts and cheers]  <p>Okay, a round of applause for all the nasty women on board. [Raucous applause]</p> <p>Stay safe. Stay hydrated. Have a good time. Watch out for your fellow sisters. Just remember, we don't take no "ish" from no man.</p> </blockquote> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump Inauguration2017 womensmarch _1622854 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 20:27:35 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622806/-One-of-Trump-s-first-actions-axing-a-middle-class-tax-cut <p>At the top of popular vote loser Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/20/us/politics/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-transcript.html" title="">dark, threatening inauguration speech</a> was this:</p> <blockquote>The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.</blockquote> <p>And then Trump proceeded to the President's Room in the U.S. Capitol to sign orders. Like this one:</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;JUST IN: In one of first Trump admin. orders, Dept of Housing &amp;amp;amp; Urban Dev. suspends reduction of FHA annual mortgage insurance premium rates&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; CNBC (@CNBC) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/822510744998658050"&amp;gt;January 20, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>JUST IN: In one of first Trump admin. orders, Dept of Housing &amp; Urban Dev. suspends reduction of FHA annual mortgage insurance premium rates</p>— CNBC (@CNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/822510744998658050">January 20, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <p>That was a quarter of a percent cut in the mortgage insurance premium for FHA loan holders, announced last week by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and set to go into effect next Friday, January 27. The reduction was <a href="http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/01/breaking-reduction-of-fha-annual.html" title="">estimated</a> to save the average FHA borrow $500 this year. </p> <p>So much for the struggling families all across our land.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump fha middleclasstaxes Recommended _1622806 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 19:08:04 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622797/-Obama-administration-wants-you-to-know-you-can-sign-up-for-Obamacare-for-another-month <p>The Trump regime is just hours old, and it's already <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-record/health-care" title="">erased the Obamacare accomplishments</a> web page. But they can't erase the <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-record/health-care" title="">archive</a> or the achievement.</p> <blockquote>President Obama promised that he would make quality, affordable health care not a privilege, but a right. After nearly 100 years of talk, and decades of trying by presidents of both parties, that's exactly what he did. Today, 20 million more adults gained access to health coverage. We've driven the uninsured rate below 10 percent — the lowest level since we started keeping records — and built stronger, healthier communities through advancements in public health, science, and innovation.</blockquote> <div class="align-center"> <figure class="image-captioned"><img alt="Charts showing lowering of health care costs, dramatic decrease in uninsured rate, between 2010-2016." src="http://images.dailykos.com/images/352771/large/Screen_Shot_2017-01-20_at_11.42.42_AM.png?1484937956" title="Charts showing lowering of health care costs, dramatic decrease in uninsured rate, between 2010-2016."> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> </div> <p>Even if Obamacare is repealed—especially if it is repealed—that won't be forgotten, nor will Americans forget who took it away from them. </p> <p>And Obamacare is still the law of the land. You can <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" title="">still sign up if you need to, until January 3</a>1. In regards to that, here's a parting gift from the Obama administration to the Trump regime.</p> <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;CMS schedules &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/03g8qvUdBz"&amp;gt;https://t.co/03g8qvUdBz&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; ads, outreach to continue under Trump. &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/D2aDvzIvzm"&amp;gt;https://t.co/D2aDvzIvzm&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/N5FVBzwmpI"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/N5FVBzwmpI&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; POLITICO Pulse (@POLITICOPulse) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/POLITICOPulse/status/822214019004203009"&amp;gt;January 19, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>CMS schedules <a href="https://t.co/03g8qvUdBz">https://t.co/03g8qvUdBz</a> ads, outreach to continue under Trump. <a href="https://t.co/D2aDvzIvzm">https://t.co/D2aDvzIvzm</a> <a href="https://t.co/N5FVBzwmpI">pic.twitter.com/N5FVBzwmpI</a></p>— POLITICO Pulse (@POLITICOPulse) <a href="https://twitter.com/POLITICOPulse/status/822214019004203009">January 19, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct BarackObama DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1622797 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 18:49:58 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622769/-Trump-disses-Chief-Justice-John-Roberts-rest-of-Supreme-Court <p>One of the things that happens normally in inauguration week is that the president-elect visits the Supreme Court at the invitation of the Chief Justice, meeting with those justices who are available. But popular vote loser Donald Trump, classless as ever, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-19/trump-chief-justice-roberts-met-briefly-thursday-court-says" title="">didn't do that</a>.</p> <blockquote>Roberts had extended an invitation to Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence to visit the court before the ceremony but it couldn’t be arranged, court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said in an e-mail. Trump and Roberts met at Blair House, across the street from the White House, Arberg said. <p>Trump, during the presidential campaign, called the Republican-appointed Roberts an “absolute disaster” because of the chief justice’s vote to uphold Obamacare.</p> </blockquote> <p>"It couldn't be arranged." So Trump summoned Robert to him, for what was characterized by a "brief" meeting. Remember that, Chief Justice Roberts. Remember the contempt with which this man will treat you.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump JohnRoberts SCOTUS _1622769 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 17:55:59 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622737/-Dear-GMA-delete-your-Twitter-account <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&amp;lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&amp;gt;LIVE NOW: Former Pres. Bill Clinton and wife Hillary Clinton arrive at the U.S. Capitol on &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InaugurationDay?src=hash"&amp;gt;#InaugurationDay&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;: &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/awrxco46Zw"&amp;gt;https://t.co/awrxco46Zw&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; &amp;lt;a href="https://t.co/TPvfca41mO"&amp;gt;pic.twitter.com/TPvfca41mO&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;amp;mdash; Good Morning America (@GMA) &amp;lt;a href="https://twitter.com/GMA/status/822472573719953408"&amp;gt;January 20, 2017&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/blockquote&amp;gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>LIVE NOW: Former Pres. Bill Clinton and wife Hillary Clinton arrive at the U.S. Capitol on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/InaugurationDay?src=hash">#InaugurationDay</a>: <a href="https://t.co/awrxco46Zw">https://t.co/awrxco46Zw</a> <a href="https://t.co/TPvfca41mO">pic.twitter.com/TPvfca41mO</a></p>— Good Morning America (@GMA) <a href="https://twitter.com/GMA/status/822472573719953408">January 20, 2017</a></blockquote> </div> <p><span>That would be Secretary Clinton, winner of the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election, to you.</span></p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) HillaryClinton Sexism TraditionalMedia _1622737 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 16:54:51 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622734/-Ron-Wyden-puts-hold-on-Trump-CIA-nominee <p>Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been doing his damnedest to rush popular vote loser Donald Trump's cabinet nominees to a vote—truncated committee hearings, refusing to require complete vetting and ethics compliance, all to get them to the floor for votes and installed to start the big job of destroying America immediately. But Democrats are <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article127657919.html" title="">doing whatever they can to slow</a> down the train. To that end, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has put a hold on CIA nominee Mike Pompeo.</p> <blockquote>WASHINGTON An objection from Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden could delay the U.S. Senate’s vote to confirm Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency. <p>The vote had been expected to happen on Friday, after the swearing-in of Donald Trump as the 45th president.</p> <p>The move means Trump likely will start his presidency without his own nominee at the head of the CIA.</p> <p>The CIA is locked in a battle with Trump over allegations that the Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind an effort to sway the election in Trump’s favor.</p> <p>“While members of the Senate give Rep. Pompeo’s nomination the careful consideration it deserves, Senator Schumer has asked Vice President Pence to keep Director Brennan on the job over the weekend,” said Matt House, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a statement.</p> </blockquote> <p>This gives at least a few more days for the CIA to continue its role in the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/20/1622661/-As-Trump-is-inaugurated-intercepted-connections-underline-connections-to-Russia" title="">ongoing investigation in Trump associates' ties to Russia</a>. Schumer spokesman Matt House pointed out in a statement that "Director (Michael) Hayden served as a bridge between the Bush and Obama presidencies eight years ago, Director (John) Brennan could play the same role for the incoming and outgoing administrations, if the President is willing to keep him on."</p> <p>Republicans can of course bulldoze right over Wyden's block, but are unlikely to take up Pompeo Friday. They are set, however, to <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/315227-top-gop-senator-threatening-weekend-work-on-trump-nominees" title="">vote</a> on retired Gens. James Mattis and John Kelly, picked to lead the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security, respectively. </p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) CIA DonaldTrump Intelligence MikePompeo RonWyden _1622734 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 16:42:18 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622679/-Fox-News-Poll-Obamacare-is-more-popular-than-Donald-Trump <p>Mandate? Popular vote loser Donald Trump has no mandate. Even Fox News <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/20/14335268/obamacare-more-popular-than-trump-poll" title="">couldn't find one</a> in its latest poll.</p> <blockquote><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/interactive/2017/01/19/fox-news-poll-1117/" title="">A new poll from Fox News</a> finds that 50 percent of voters feel favorably about the Affordable Care Act — a sharp uptick from the 41 percent who felt favorably about the law the last time the network polled, in the summer of 2015. […]<br>   <p>In the Fox News poll, somewhat notably, Obamacare polls as more popular than President-elect Donald Trump, whom 42 percent of respondents view favorably. The law does not poll as favorably as its namesake, President Obama, who receives an approval rating of 60 percent.</p> </blockquote> <p>Ouch.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct BarackObama DonaldTrump Obamacare Recommended repeal Republicans _1622679 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 15:15:09 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/20/1622660/-Trump-s-first-day-promises-or-fourth-day-promises-Whatever <p>Popular vote loser Donald Trump made a lot of promises last October, back in his <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/10/22/1585677/-From-what-he-calls-the-hollowed-ground-of-Gettysburg-Trump-pledges-revenge-on-his-accusers" title="">Gettysburg airing of grievances</a>. Along with vowing revenge on all the women and complaining about a rigged election, he <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-trump-first-day-as-president-20170120-story.html" title="">made a bunch of promises</a> about what he was going to do on his first day as president. He's said he would start with "begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants" and:</p> <blockquote>—Introduce a constitutional amendment for congressional term limits.<br> —Freeze hiring for the federal government to reduce payrolls, although the military, public safety and public health agencies would be exempt.<br> —Ban White House and congressional officials from becoming lobbyists for five years after they leave the government.<br> —Announce plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico or withdraw from the deal.<br> —Formally withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.<br> —Lift restrictions on mining coal and drilling for oil and natural gas.<br> —Remove any Obama-era roadblocks to energy projects such as the Keystone XL pipeline.<br> —Cancel U.S. payments to U.N. climate change programs and redirect the money to U.S. water and environmental infrastructure.<br> —Stop all federal funding to "sanctuary cities," places where local officials don't arrest or detain immigrants living in the country illegally for federal authorities.<br> —Suspend immigration from regions associated with terrorism where vetting is difficult.</blockquote> <p>Of course, what "day one" is has <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/17/1621437/-Trump-and-Pence-have-a-day-one-problem-which-day-is-day-one" title="">caused some confusion</a> for Trump. Cuz, you know, there's just <a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/trump-plans-to-take-off-his-first-weekend-in-office/news-story/4d16f24b31a65f79fcbb18017d9a7ec6">so much he can handle</a> in one day.</p> <blockquote>He told the Times of London: “One of the first orders I’m gonna sign — day one — which I will consider to be Monday as opposed to Friday or Saturday. Right? I mean my day one is gonna be Monday because I don’t want to be signing and get it mixed up with lots of celebration, but one of the first orders we’re gonna be signing is gonna be strong borders.”</blockquote> <p>So maybe we'll get a weekend reprieve before the nightmare really kicks in.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump Immigration _1622660 Fri, 20 Jan 2017 14:36:02 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/19/1622403/-Nearly-400-healthcare-experts-tell-the-Senate-to-reject-Tom-Price <p>Rep. Tom Price's (R-GA) nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services  should be rejected for two key reasons: first, his <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/18/1621920/-Tom-Price-fails-to-answer-key-questions-on-ethics-healthcare-policy-in-first-confirmation-hearing" title="">truly stunning corruption</a> and second, because he would be a nightmare for the health of millions of Americans. Something like <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/nearly-400-health-care-experts-urge-congress-to-reject-trumps-hhs-secretary-27ecb6cf08b#.mvqz5sa8u" title="">400 health professionals</a>—researchers and medical faculty members—have signed an open letter to Congress to tell them to reject Price. Their <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdi9XsK9WTpJsQERyWjLIuzdbaVnJPxKci4EYu2m-h6lRecgg/viewform?c=0&amp;w=1" title="">statement begins</a>:</p> <blockquote>Not only is Congressperson Price accused of compromising himself with insider knowledge concerning stock trades on the health care market, but he has long advocated for changes in our health care system that will have devastating consequences for millions of Americans. Together with other Republicans, Price seeks to privatize Medicare, drastically cut funding for Medicaid and the Child Health Insurance Program, eliminate the Affordable Care Act, end funding for the many services provided by Planned Parenthood, damage women’s access to reproductive health measures more generally, and enable discrimination against LGBT individuals seeking health care.</blockquote> <p>Then follows the litany of programs he would destroy, from Obamacare to Medicaid and Medicare and Planned Parenthood, programs that cover a <a href="http://kff.org/private-insurance/issue-brief/trends-in-employer-sponsored-insurance-offer-and-coverage-rates-1999-2014/" title="">growing number of Americans</a>. </p> <p>And in fact, it's not just people who don't have employer-sponsored insurance who could lose out with Price. He's has his own healthcare plan, one which would: end coverage for preexisting conditions, reduce benefits for people who have employer-sponsored plans, reinstate insurance companies' ability to cap annual and lifetime limits on coverage, and end the guarantee of preventive care without copays. These are all things that <em>everyone</em> with any kind of insurance get through the Affordable Care Act. All of which Price would jettison.</p> <p>He's not going to be making the replacement law, but he would be the voice of the Trump administration in whatever it is Republicans might come up with. He'll be pushing his extreme vision for health care in America. Which looks even worse than what we had before Obamacare, because then we at least had decent Medicare, Medicaid, and Planned Parenthood.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Ethics HealthandHumanServices HHS TomPrice _1622403 Thu, 19 Jan 2017 21:26:30 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/19/1622393/-Republican-governors-who-didn-t-want-Obama-s-Medicaid-money-looking-for-Republican-handout <p>Republican governors who didn't want the cooties associated with taking President Obama's expanded Medicaid are now <a href="https://apnews.com/553476353876416f89e3701fac5ed267" title="">pleading with Congress</a> to cut them in on the deal, but a deal that will destroy Medicaid as we know it.</p> <blockquote>DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican governors who turned down billions in federal dollars from an expansion of Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care law now have their hands out in hopes the GOP-controlled Congress comes up with a new formula to provide insurance for low-income Americans. <p>The other GOP governors, such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who agreed to expand state-run services in exchange for federal help—more than a dozen out of the 31 states—are adamant that Congress maintain the financing that has allowed them to add millions of low-income people to the health insurance rolls. […]</p> <p>Republican governors and lieutenant governors were in Washington pleading their cases with GOP leaders and the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday as the GOP majority has taken the first step to dismantling the law.</p> </blockquote> <p>They might get a few listeners in the Senate, but they sure as hell won't in the House. Speaker Paul Ryan and his Republicans don't give a damn. They don't give a damn about governors and they sure as hell don't give a damn about the people who elected those governors, or themselves for that matter. Who they'll listen to? Gov. Scott Walker, fellow sociopath from Wisconsin.</p> <blockquote>"The simple message is this: Vote to repeal and replace Obamacare immediately and send Medicaid funding to the states in the form of a block grant," Walker wrote last week in a letter to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.</blockquote> <p>And when he gets that money, he can do with it what he likes, unlike existing Medicaid. He can force poor people to pee in cups, to attend mandatory job training, to pay big co-pays—anything he can think of to force people to humiliate themselves jumping through multiple hoops. So many hoops that many would just not apply in the first place. Which is a good way of achieving the goal of <em>not</em> actually covering everybody. That's if he doesn't divert the block grant into other programs. </p> <p>It would also lead to decreased federal funding and ultimately, <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/blog/medicaid-funding-caps-would-lead-to-program-cuts-impede-innovation" title="">as many as 21 million</a> losing the coverage they now have—that's on top of the millions who would be kicked off expanded Medicaid under repeal.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct BlockGrants DonaldTrump Medicaid repeal Republicans ScottWalker _1622393 Thu, 19 Jan 2017 20:56:38 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/19/1622364/-Pence-When-Trump-says-insurance-for-everybody-he-really-means-is-not-that <p>Republicans have been falling all over themselves to walk back popular vote loser Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/16/1621081/-Donald-Trump-promises-beautiful-insurance-for-everybody-Republicans-wince" title="">beautiful insurance for everybody</a> promise. See, what he must have really meant, <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/paulmcleod/republicans-say-they-assume-trump-didnt-mean-to-promise-heal?utm_term=.no6dZJmNO#.bv9ReKWXw" title="">say Republican senators</a> is everybody will have "access" to health insurance. Popular vote losing vice president-elect Mike Pence <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/politics/mike-pence-obamacare-interview-insurance-affordable-for-everyone/index.html" title="">confirms</a>.</p> <blockquote>The incoming vice president also sought to clarify Trump's promise of "insurance for everybody," which also has worried Republicans on Capitol Hill who fear that Trump is overpromising on health care. Pence said he believed Trump's promise of "insurance for everybody" is really about "making insurance affordable for everyone."</blockquote> <p>Note that Trump himself hasn't said what he "really" meant, which makes things a little more complicated for Republicans. They probably figure he'll just go along with whatever they say. But maybe not, when he realizes that what they're talking about when they say "access" is things like Health Savings Accounts, which people who can't afford savings accounts sure aren't going to be able to pay into, and high-risk pools. That's their answer to covering people with preexisting conditions, but it's one that's been attempted and <a href="http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/blog/2015/feb/why-high-risk-pools-still-will-not-work" title="">failed miserably</a> because they cost too much to administer, cost too much for people to purchase, and because of the cost of administration provide minimal benefit. </p> <p>What Republicans are really talking about is a return to the lack of a system that we had before. Which isn't what Trump is talking about. And it sure isn't what the minority that voted for Trump and a Republican Senate had in mind.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump MikePence Obamacare repeal Republicans _1622364 Thu, 19 Jan 2017 20:04:56 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/19/1622304/-Paid-Republican-Activist-Susan-Collins-doesn-t-think-your-fear-about-Obamacare-repeal-is-real <p>Republicans have apparently decided that <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/19/1622273/-Cowardly-Republicans-decide-hiding-from-angry-constituents-is-better-than-running-away-them" title="">avoiding any real contact</a> with voters is the key to not having to confront the disaster that is Obamacare repeal. Refusing to talk to the people they represent is bad enough, but there's also an enraging trend of <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/16/1621177/-After-running-away-from-constituents-over-Obamacare-repeal-Mike-Coffman-decides-to-insult-them-too" title="">insulting and dismissing these constituents</a> as "activists" who are just trying to embarrass them.</p> <p>Case in point, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), most recently seen <a href="https://bangordailynews.com/2017/01/10/politics/susan-collins-delay-obamacare-repeal-to-give-trump-time-to-find-alternative/" title="">complaining</a> about the fact that Republicans were rushing to repeal Obamacare when they didn't have a replacement at the ready. Apparently, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/republicans-look-to-avoid-youtube-moments-in-fight-over-obamacare-repeal/2017/01/18/22bb2048-dd12-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?tid=sm_tw&amp;utm_term=.753013bcc064">she's over that</a>. Real people with health issues they're scared of, well, this is what she thinks of them.</p> <blockquote>Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who represents a state where an estimated 75,000 residents are covered through the Obamacare marketplace, said some activists were spreading "misinformation" about Republicans' intentions. <p>"I think it's really unfortunate that some of these paid activists are scaring people about what's going to happen," said Collins, who has counseled her GOP colleagues to move carefully.</p> </blockquote> <p>Paid Republican Activist Susan Collins doesn't want to hear from her 75,000 constituents who are about to lose their health care. Nice. That'll help her in her run for governor. If you're one of those 75,000 or just care about those 75,000, <a href="https://www.collins.senate.gov/contact" title="">give her a ring or a visit</a>. Let her know you're not a paid activist, but a voter.</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans SusanCollins _1622304 Thu, 19 Jan 2017 18:09:29 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/19/1622273/-Cowardly-Republicans-decide-hiding-from-angry-constituents-is-better-than-running-away-them <p>No one wants to look like Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO), <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/15/1620767/-Watch-a-Republican-Congressman-run-away-from-his-own-meeting-after-huge-turnout-from-constituents">literally running away</a> from constituents angry that he wants to take their health care away. Or like <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/17/1621599/-Member-of-Republican-leadership-booted-off-stage-back-home-in-red-district-over-Obamacare-repeal">Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers</a> (R-WA), who was shouted down in a speech this week by angry constituents. That kind of video is death to politicians. So they came up with a solution: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/republicans-look-to-avoid-youtube-moments-in-fight-over-obamacare-repeal/2017/01/18/22bb2048-dd12-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?tid=sm_tw&amp;utm_term=.753013bcc064">no more face-to-face meetings</a> with constituents.</p> <blockquote>Seven years after unruly Democratic town halls helped stoke public outrage over the Affordable Care Act, Republicans now appear keen to avoid the kind of dust-ups capable of racking up millions of views on YouTube and ending up in a 2018 campaign commercial. Only a handful of GOP lawmakers have held or are planning to host in-person town hall meetings open to all comers—the sort of large-scale events that helped feed the original Obamacare backlash in the summer of 2009. […] <p>Instead, lawmakers are increasingly turning to more controlled forums like telephone town halls, as well as Facebook Q&amp;As and smaller, unpublicized personal meetings that cannot so easily be filmed.</p> <p>John Feehery, a former senior House GOP leadership aide, said lawmakers need to take a "very cautious approach" when it comes to public events.</p> <p>"In this day and age, real-life town halls are very dangerous for all but the most seasoned politicians," he said. "I think John McCain can get away with it and a few others, but most should stick to office hours, really good constituent service or tele-town halls."</p> </blockquote> <p>Cowards. Telephone and Facebook town halls are just what they're doing, so they can mute or ignore constituents who are asking tough questions. Like Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who scheduled a 30-minute Facebook live meeting, but was there for just 11 minutes and only took eight questions, all of which had been vetted by his staff. “<span>Tillis did not acknowledge any of the follow-up questions that popped up in the comments alongside his video, including requests for more details on the GOP replacement plan.” Big surprise.</span></p> <p><span>What are citizens to do? What Rep. Rod Blum’s (R-IA) constituents did: hold a protest in front of his office and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/19/1622236/-Iowa-Republican-finds-himself-on-the-wrong-side-of-constituents-on-Obamacare" target="_blank">invite the local media</a>. That way their stories get told to a much larger audience, and these cowardly Republicans are exposed for what they are.</span></p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans _1622273 Thu, 19 Jan 2017 17:44:23 +0000 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/01/19/1622236/-Iowa-Republican-finds-himself-on-the-wrong-side-of-constituents-on-Obamacare <p>Get used to it, Republicans. The angry crowds you're going to be facing from now on are <a href="http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/People-protest-the-potential-repeal-of-the-Affordable-Care-Act-410783865.html" title="">people whose lives you are jeopardizing</a>, and they're going to let you know about it. Like they did with Rep. Rob Blum, in Cedar Rapids.</p> <blockquote>CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) -- Sara Kissling owns The Sausage Foundry in Cedar Rapids with her husband. She has stage five kidney failure. The Affordable Care Act lets her get coverage with her pre-existing condition. It also helps her afford dialysis treatment and medical equipment. <p>People protest outside 1st District Rep. Rod Blum's (R-Iowa) office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2017. The protesters do not want Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. (Phil Reed/KCRG-TV9)</p> <p>She says, "Without it I would have met my cap within maybe six months. I'd be dead right now anyway, because who can afford $30,000 per month in expenses."</p> </blockquote> <p>Blum failed to materialize to address his constituents, but he probably saw this local news broadcast which you can see below the fold. As did most of his constituents. And let me tell you, Sara Kissling is a very sympathetic—and effective—spokesperson.</p> <p>Keep it up, folks!</p> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Obamacare repeal Republicans RodBlum _1622236 Thu, 19 Jan 2017 16:03:31 +0000