I have been concerned for some time regarding Trump‘s and Musk’s plans for Medicare and Medicaid. Personally, a portion of the taxes I pay have been to support Medicare, which has been an important part of my ability to pay for medical services. So, the plan is to take away the money that I have invested for my health and send it to the pockets of billionaires.
Michael, the solution that I am excited about is much more far reaching than attempting to put a drastic tax on billionaires. The fact we have gotten to this point shows the incredible inequality of our taxation system and a healthcare system that is already the worst in the world among developed nations.
Thank goodness for “Inequality Media“ as Robert, Heather and their hard-working staff has been completely correct on virtually every topic they bring up. This is why I believe paid subscriptions to Inequality Media is a wonderful way to support them in their work. What they do will become more important as the Trump administration unfolds and implements its egregious plans .
As long as multibillionaires exist they will have political significance, and they will destroy all the benefits of capitalism enjoyed by those lower down the food chain. That is why Adam Smith invented progressive taxation. Taxes served two purposes: 1) to prevent the wealthy from becoming too wealthy, because then they would buy the government and collude to distort the market, which to Smith was central; 2) to spend the revenues on what we would now call infrastructure, which would include healthcare for all.
You might say that you disagree with capitalism, to which I would reply that we don't have capitalism, merely socialism for the wealthy. For what is not paying your taxes but government welfare?
The billionaire class running the show are capitalists in name only (CINOs). In reality, they function as oligarchs or plutocrats. They fail to grasp—or deliberately ignore—that while capitalism offers many benefits, it inherently drives wealth toward the top of the economic pyramid. For capitalism to function equitably, wealth *must* be redistributed through taxation. Yet, this essential mechanism of redistribution is precisely what oligarchs oppose.
I only know a few people who were CEOs but whenever we'd talk, I'd always ask why they did not support Mediacare for all. I'd have to tell them about the collateral source rule, and remind them they could lay off exposure for future medical, health insurance, and that it would cut the cost of stuff like workers comp, liabilty insurance, etc......
I think that if I were a corporate raider, or for that matter, a shareholder. that would be a reason to attack management.
Same goes for stuff like OPEC fixing prices, and foreign control of some of our infrastructure, etc. .
Do the "owners" of the big three automakers not know who are their competitors? When we boost foreign car manufacturing do we not kick ourselves in the ass?
Agree completely. Actual capitalism has a little bit of "socialism" built in to it, precisely through taxation. It was that horse's ass Reagan, with lickspittle sidekick Milton Friedman, who turned Smith on his head. Trickledown is NOT capitalism. Gushdown is.
Trickle-down economics. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith once dubbed it the "horse and sparrow" theory. If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows." --- LOL!
No matter what name you give our current economic system, it is a failing system. Under Trump and MAGA it will devolve further into oligarchy, and our political system will devolve into a kleptocracy. After much study, I have concluded that we must begin to move towards “economic democracy“ as a more egalitarian, contemporary economic, and political system. Wikipedia summarizes some of the current, thinking on economic democracy, and is a good place to start to understand this progressive system.
Marc, what's wrong with Adam Smith's solution, which is very heavy taxation on the wealthy. We had it between 1948 and 1980, then again in the 1990s with Bill Clinton. In all epochs it worked well for all Americans, even those at the top.
Democrats should treat small business owners as part of the neglected class of workers getting hammered by this economy. It's very hard to start and sustain a business these days, as anybody who has tried from scratch knows. Interestingly, the SBA approved a record amount in small biz loans last year. I wonder how many of those who obtained loans voted for Trump anyway. So there's clearly still a serious messaging problem, probably exacerbated by the lack of a wealth tax. I think voters don't take a political party seriously when it tries to claim it's for the little guy but doesn't push harder for things like Medicare for All and a wealth tax to cover the costs.
Kamala made a modest effort to reach out to small business owners with her business tax break proposal, and it fell on deaf ears pretty much, but that doesn't mean it was wrong to try. Democratic politicians need to completely disassociate themselves from oligarchs. Many seem fairly reluctant to do so. Once they do, perhaps when outreach efforts are made to demographics such as small business owners, they'll be believable.
We also shouldn't be pushing for Medicare for All. Medicare collects substantial premiums from Americans, and through Medicare Advantage and Medigap, transfers billions to the private insurance sector, which must be eliminated. The very name, "Medigap" is an admission by lawmakers that core Medicare, as represented by Plan A and Plan B, is insufficient because of its huge *gap* in coverage, including no dental and no vision care, important items of interest for older folks. You want dental care? Get ready to shell out hundreds of dollars per month to your FOR PROFIT Medigap healthcare insurer. Vivek gets nice teeth. You don't.
Thank you for bringing up the complete lack of dental care. I can't even afford to get my infected teeth pulled, and my dental infections are causing physical health problems which - if they don't kill me, they will certainly cause expensive to treat problems that WILL become Medicare's expense.
Paula Dean, consider going to Mexico for your dental work. I did and I got a better job for 30% of the price here. Fortunately I live 90 miles from Mexicali, Mexico. Speaking of honesty in dentistry . . . I had 3 different local dentists with good reputations lie to me about whether 2 crown roots could be used they wanted to do implants which cost much more than a bridge does. My Mexicali dentist did a 3 tooth bridge for me and I saved thousands of dollars as a result.
"When will Democratic health insurance reformers in Congress have major hearings on the advancing corporatization of Medicare under the guise of Medicare Advantage? They should be called "Medicare Disadvantage" plans for all the trapdoors awaiting deceived elderly who were signed up by corporate insurers like United Healthcare and Aetna." --- Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader - a true American hero, falsely maligned by the DNC and scapegoated for the Gore loss while the DNC and the Clintons tried to evade the blame being laid at Bill Clinton's feet for the association with Gore as VP - even though Gore himself tried to distance himself from the Clintons and what they had done. Just as they try to blame Bernie Sanders more recently, they blamed Ralph Nader then when, in fact, he - and Bernie - have been oracles of truth for decades!
The Clintons gave us the war criminal administration of Bush-Cheney and the destructive chaos Bush-Cheney wrought on the world and the U.S., with a direct link to the fascist state we are now facing.
The Rachel Maddow program of 12/16 includes reporting about self-driving Teslas, the history, government regulations and safety standards and what is to come under conjoined fascist twins Musk-Trump or MuskyRump. That automobile safety reporting reminded me of Nader and his automobile safety history. Not hard to see the long strands of power in the U.S. weaving through time and elections, and it's always, always about money and power.
Scratch any forum about the Clintons or Nader or Gore or Sanders and you get an uprising of high dudgeon from the Clinton cult of personality exonerating the Clintons from all responsibility for the right-turns/money-grubbing transformation of the Democratic Party and placing the blame for any election problems on others - Nader, Sanders, Comey, Obama......Russian interference/intervention has been a factor, by all reputable accounts of events, and Hillary as well as Mitt Romney tried to focus Americans' attention on the Russian danger to this country, but the selfish behaviors of too many of our "electeds" has brought all the rest of us to great harm from what is now "our" own government. Ego, arrogance, self-importance, lust for power and riches, or outright corruption and criminality, compete with true patriotism, honor, integrity and decency. We need to side with the latter and communicate those values well with articulateness and eloquence; get in touch with what remains of goodness in America and win the hearts and minds of the good.
The Democratic Party needs to rediscover, or maybe discover, its soul and its values!! Where is the outrage and fight about the Trump ring of corruption and theft schemes that plan to destroy ("finish the job" started in their first administration, they say) the United States Postal Service, to destroy Social Security, to eliminate the Civil Service, banking regulations, public health....and on and on. WHO voted for them to DESTROY the country?!! Surely not even the MAGAts were voting for that. Whether they did or not, the rest of us cannot stand by and let these fascists destroy everything. Get in touch with ALL members of Congress, of all political persuasions, write/call them and do it often. Make them know that there is a large number of voters who despise what they are doing to our government!
The Chamber of Commerce supposedly represents small businesses and many of those businesses join their local and U.S. Chambers of Commerce - and the Chamber of Commerce is rabid Trumpist (and otherwise Republican hard-line before him).
Interestingly the MO Chamber of Commerce has taken stands against some of the bills our GOP legislature is trying to pass and has even endorsed some Dems for Senator and Rep at state level.
But yeah, generally a regressive group. But somethimes they do understand that policies helping the public can also help business.
Small business should be an area Dems can make gains in but I haven't met a Dem florist yet.
Bernie Sanders introduced a Senate bill on May 17, 2024 that would expand dental coverage through Medicaid and Medicare. A Senate Hearing on this was held on May 16, 2024.
Yes -not enough Dems in the retail business in leadership perhaps so consciousness is low. Whatevr the rason, this is an important move Dems could make.
Also let's push for universal healthcare, not Medicare for All, as you state.
Europrean countries have a variety of government and private sector partnerships that work. We should not foreclose other means to the end goal.
at least they were talking more about small business this last election
Agree re Medicare for All. Let's do Universal Healthcare for All. European countries have different kinds of arrangements with public and private players.
Yes, you’re right. And I’m not plugged in very well with what those countries are doing. If I was a lawmaker, I’d want to set up a commission to study these plans and review lessons learned, and apply them to create the best universal healthcare system possible.
"Meanwhile for the poor, let market principles prevail. Don't expect any help from the government. The government's the problem, and not the solution, and so on. That's essentially Neoliberalism. It has this dual character which goes back in history. One set of rules for the rich. An opposite set of rules for the poor." --- Noam Chomsky
Thanks to Hayek, Friedman and disciples. I say disciples because the tenets are held religiously. I could go for a better balance of people friendly and business friendly, but then if you believe these tenets you think they lead to the most people friendly outcomes. A lack of empathy might help you hold to these views, or do these views in practice lead in time to a lack of empathy?
Neoliberalism is an economic and political philosophy that emphasizes the following key tenets:
Free Markets: It champions the idea that markets should operate without government interference, believing that competition and consumer choice drive efficiency and innovation.
Privatization: This involves transferring services and assets from the public sector to private ownership, with the aim to improve efficiency and service quality.
Deregulation: Neoliberalism advocates for the reduction or elimination of government regulations on businesses, to foster a more business-friendly environment.
Fiscal Austerity: It often supports reducing government spending and budget deficits, sometimes involving cuts to social programs, to ensure economic stability.
Individual Responsibility: There’s a strong emphasis on personal responsibility and self-reliance, with less focus on collective welfare and social safety nets.
Globalization: It promotes open international trade and investment, arguing that global economic integration benefits all countries by driving economic growth and spreading prosperity.
"What's wrong with Neoliberal democracy is first of all that it undermines democracy. That's explicit when you introduce privatization, marketization, and so on. That's taking decisions away from people and placing them in the hands of private power. That in itself is anti-democratic."
"If you privatize any service a human being could be interested in, education, water, energy, health, that means democracy is reduced to a silly game. There's nothing left in the political arena. If everything is transferred into the hands of unaccountable private tyrannies (corporations), you can go to the polls, but what are you voting on? Everything has been placed under totalitarian control. It's just an effort to reduce the severe threat of democracy which is hated by every power system." --- Noam Chomsky
Unregulated capitalism, and Free Markets leads to dictatorship. How is easy to discern:
Money makes money. When the rich man deals with the poor man, the rich man sets the rules. There are always more poor men to bargain with. Rich people can invest some of their money to make even more money.
Every business must strive to earn more money, by paying less for labor and goods, and selling goods for as much as possible, and out competing its competitors. As a business gets bigger, it gets economy of scale on it's side. The result is that free markets lead to monopoly. At the monopoly level competition vanishes.
Government doesn't make money, but they can collect taxes. But governments are populated with politicians, and many politicians are suseptable to bribes. The companies with the most disposable money can easily win the bribary contest, and get government rules in their favor. Before you know it you have oligarchy, and dictatorship.
At the other end of the scale, we probably all know someone who who is a lazy bum that knows how to live off of government handouts. And of course we have the hoards of homeless people who don't even know how to get government assistence.
In seeking a government for the common good, we need rules that prevent excess wealth, monopoly and oligarcy at the top, and has ways to get every child a fair chance to be a productive and paid member of society. We need to prevent corruption in government.
Society needs to live in a cage of it's own making. A cage where justice prevails, and mankind protects the earth and it's creatures from exploitation and extinction. Only then can mankind reach it's full potential.
The alternative is the continuation of failed empires, the descent into the physical survival of the 'fittest', and the degradation of all life.
"All of this and a lot more can all proceed as long as the population is passive, apathetic. angry, diverted to consumerism, hatred of the vulnerable, and so on. As long as that remains true, the powerful can do as they like, and those that survive can contemplate the ruins." --- Noam Chomsky
Eloquently stated, Michael, but that is not the way libertarians see the world. To them, progressive taxation is socialism, Marxism, a violation of fairness and individual liberty. It an ideology, a dogma even, and it is deeply embedded in the Federalist Society and in SCOTUS. Many Catholics and Evangelicals have accepted it as compatible with Christianity. Pope Francis calls them hypocrites, which they undoubtedly are. We must confront their ideology and discredit it once and for all.
Socialism can mean the actual economic philosophy or what decades of pro-corporate, right-wing propaganda has convinced the uneducated American laity is socialism. If you mean what stupid Americans call "socialism", which uses the word as a mere name, then you probably mean a situation where the government does anything for the people. In that case, the military, postal service, infrastructure, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public schools, food stamps, police, fire stations, emergency rooms, welfare, bank bailouts (too big to fail), farm subsidies, and anything else that modern culture deems necessary for a civilized society, are examples of "Socialism in America."
But this libertarian position is actually quite stupid. In the American heyday of the 1950s, the maximum rate of taxation was 92%. Are they saying America was a socialist nation then?
The Libertarian position, in my opinion, is not that far from the Rep. party. It reeks of neoliberalism and to hell with the rest of society. I think a society (unified country) cannot exist without careful attention to all its people. Or, maybe, we could just deport all those who Libertarians think are a drain on society: old and the sick, people who protest too much and those who challenge the current economic situation.
Can you tell me where I would find this in Smith's writings? I'd so much like to have a better understanding of what Smith argued and I don't know an efficient place to start.
That's EXTREME cruelty, even for evil billionaires! I would have suggested 90% personally. ONE SINGLE USELESS BILLIONAIRE'S 90% after $1,000,000,000 is STILL enough to help Medicare, Medicaid AND SS stay solvent FOREVER.
What are we to say? "Reach for the stars . . . within our boundaries?"
Senator Elizabeth Warren's 2% wealth tax was a good proposal, but there was so much pushback from the wealthy with their large moneyed power, that a simple reasonable thing like that could not pass. They have broken our Democratic system with their greed and excessive wealth.
if one can afford $250 million to support their favored candidate, they can pay a 2% wealth tax. 2% is very generous for Liz to propose, it prob should be much higher.
I try to Imagine the extremely wealthy leading the shift in primary human motivation from "wealth maximization" to "meeting human needs". It will be slow at first, but it has to start somewhere. The truth is there's enough for everyone. Imagine the planet we could create by caring more about each other.
Stiglitz may be right. The neoliberal economic system tends to produce a more selfish less empathetic public, esp. among the wealthy than if we had progressive capitalism.
Quite honestly, I see little that would cause the extremely wealthty to shift their priorities. Power must be taken away by force. Power rarely gives up power by choice.
Steve, the elephant in the room is Power. Whoever holds it is not inclined to want to give it up. " Power must be taken away by force. Power rarely gives up power by choice." This is what we all, for good reasons, want to ignore and hope for other magical solutions.
Any money the Democrats collected is like a water pistol versus the sea of billions enjoyed by the MAGA "Republicans". Actually, the majority voted against Donald J tRUMP and had a 53% win.
Daniel H Laemmerhirt : this is a modest proposal, since they already have more than they need. When they can buy the Supreme Court. AND the rest of government and remove protections for the humans: They have too much wealth.
Go after the corporate socialists who have invited Wall Street and Big Business to socialize the means of government against the people's necessities and freedoms. It is a government of, by, and for the dominant corporations. Such private power dominating our government in so many reported ways was called "fascism" in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a formal message to Congress.
According to Warren Buffett his secretary is pay 40% total taxes and He ( Warren Buffett ) only pays 17% of his money in taxes. Fair tax rates are in everybody’s best interests. If you wonder why the more you work the less you get it’s partially because you’re a self directed wage slave.
It's because the wealthy and corporate sector changed the Tax Code to their favor over the years. The wealthy and corporate sector have shifted the burden of sustaining the society onto the rest of the population.
Joseph, "...over the years..." indeed. You must mean all those years when we were entralled by Super Bowls, social media, celebrity lifestyles, Trump's going on's, and prince Harry's every move along with his consort? We were so busy!!
Agree. I saw Hakeem Jeffries interviewed two weeks ago, when he was asked a question about what he would be doing after the disaster that had just unfolded. Instead of admitting that it was indeed a fucking disaster, and we have to completely reorganize, he waffled for two minutes without answering the question, using that wretched phrase "going forward" several times. If anyone says "going forward" even once, it usually means they don't know what the fuck they're talking about.
If the DNC continues in its boneheaded way, it will need the "come to Jesus" talk. Third parties will just split the vote.
I don't know anyone but AOC that can force the Democratic party to listen.
Maybe a Warren,AOC, Sanders alliance. I know one thing the DNC hates and fears AOC because she doesn't slop at the trough.
Do you know why the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science act passed congress? Because they all had juicy nuggets and morsels for our corporate masters.
Heather Cox Richardson's article today hits on the subject:
According to Warren Buffett his secretary is pay 40% total taxes and He ( Warren Buffett ) only pays 17% of his money in taxes. Fair tax rates are in everybody’s best interests. If you wonder why the more you work the less you get it’s partially because you’re a self directed wage slave.
Many/most of us recognize the problem. But in a Democracy the majority are theoretically supposed to have the say. Having said that . . . Trump was voted in again . . . and where does Democracy go now?
That's because the Dems like to play strictly by the rules. Not for them to step out of line. But the future that's staring us in the face, beginning Jan. 6, will throw down another gauntlet. I think some hard choices will have to be made.
Exactly. There shouldn’t be billionaires. Stock buy backs should be taxed heavily. The inheritance tax should be increased. There are many things that can be done to get the wealth back from the top 1%.
Piketty thinks we should coordinate with other countries to have a World Wealth Tax. This may be difficult unless all countries cooperate. On the other hand, Bezos and Musk need American consumers and government contracts, and property owners need to raise money from American renters, etc. It may not be that easy just to abscond.
You're a lawyer. Isn't there any legal device to extract their taxes?
I have gone full circle. I now would institute a national sales tax, exempting low income folks and the necssities of life. There is no reason a product made in a foreign country should not bear the tax.
In the 90's I published plans to endow the trust funds. Despite common belief, those benefits do not come from general taxation, are not part of the budget. Our main problem with the SS funds, there are 2 of them, is aberant population growth of the baby boom generation. By 2034 the payment rate should decline. I worked on getting the apex of the curve past that point without further legislation. There is still at least 3 trillion in trust funds.
A wealth tax is tough because the targets move their money around. My wife worked in the US arttorney's office when IRS tried to go after American funds in places like the Caymans, Bahamas. I don't believe that landed gentry should be able to pass everything on.... the estate taxes were fair despite Republican propaganda.
I also remind you that 1. we have a collection problem. and 2. our "allies" have been robbing us blind, fixing prices and undermining our economy while taking control of much of it. IMHO we should recoup all that money.
I'm also big on arbitarge. Japan, Scandinavia, etc are US creditors because they caan borrow at about 1% at home to invest in the US. I'd do a deal.
This plan is morally and ethically wrong and we must do everything we can to stop it!. DOGE is a made-up government “department”. It is just two unelected billionaire bros who have no expertise or government experience, acting as if they have the authority to suggest cuts to our federal healthcare and retirement programs. Most Americans pay into Medicare and Social Security during our working years and rely on these funds during our elder years. Medicare, and Social Security are sacrosanct. So are Medicaid and the Medicaid expansion that is part of the Affordable Care Act. These programs help the poorest among us (especially children) to have healthcare. Elon‘s and Vivek’s presence among Trump’s loud transition team is SO inappropriate. They have no right to mess with our social programs. And even worse, they want to receive another round of huge tax cuts which will add another $5 trillion to the federal deficit.
GET YOUR MITTS OFF OUR FEDERAL BUDGET. Get out of our Senate chambers
where you don’t belong. Aren’t you rich enough? Have you no shame?
Well said, Mary Ann! I fear that those people like the muskrat and vitriol will be on someone's list that will take matters into their own hands like the young man who took out the CEO of the health care company! I don't think they realize just how angry American people will become when they start doing these things. While many of us will fight with protests, petitions and letter writing, there are some that will go farther and make the fight more physical! I wouldn't want to be the orange smear or any of his sycophants when that happens.
I think about how Germany prepared the Jews for extermination by impoverishing them, moving them around and starving them. Plans like these strike me as similar efforts to kill the spirit of resistance by imposing stress overload on whole categories of Americans.
The thing is, Marge, while we can identify it and tell people what is and will happen, these sheep are marching right along like those poor Jewish people did in Germany! They won't realize it until it is too late. We must, must, must unite in our resistance to these absolutely unfit, untrustworthy POSs that are trying to take over our country!
The “sheep” are being intentionally driven into the jaws of the wolves of Wall Street. And they don’t realize they are already in the FOX corrals, on their way to the loading chutes that lead to the slaughterhouse. A mixed metaphor for sure, but you get it.
Maybe, just maybe if they screw enough people, even their MAGAt base, the people will rise up against them.
Who am I kidding. Americans rise up against the oppressor, not as long as their are libs and coastal elites, feminists, queers and trans to own.
I wonder how many people on Medicaid and SNAP voted for Trump, because of say, the trans threat,. I wonder how many even bothered to register to vote,much less cast a ballot.. Not many I suspect.
Peggy, we do have to hope that our better communications and generally more sophisticated knowledge will get the truth out faster even to our Trump-voting brethren. In my experience, when I’ve believed an illusion and then realize what the truth is, I’ve turned on a dime. People can change course quickly.
The UnitedHealthcare CEO was killed by one guy with a pistol walking behind him, we have between 20 and 30 million assault rifles in this country that can reach out a lot farther than 10’, somewhere longer than 1200’. They may be rich but that doesn’t make them smart. Once the security details start getting shot up, there will be a lot fewer security details, and then it’s open season on the 1%. Do they really think it’s worth it to have lower taxes when they already have more than they can spend?
Dick, given how easy it is to acquire weapons of mass destruction coupled with sheer desperation, I predict we are on the brink of society cracking and the billionaires targeted.
I'm almost mad enough myself. I'm a very unlikely assassin, however. I'd be happy to encourage other younger, fitter and trained people, though! Anybody know of an assassin's guild who needs support?
No choice As Frederick Douglass clarifies,” power gives up nothing”. We must take it back. In fact, they demand violence, though we will start nonviolently. The past 45 years with them slieezing along, shaping oligarchy- Nazi .
When you mix in anger, frustration and that pure feeling of helplessness to desperation, yes, there will be a lot more of this physical violence. It's like the fight or flight response. Many true Americans are moving out of the country - the flight response, while other true Americans are standing their ground ready to fight for our Democracy, rights, freedoms and liberties.
“Aren’t you rich enough? Have you no shame?” Mary Ann, would that these people were not completely devoid of empathy and could hear and answer your questions with integrity. But they can’t. Something human is broken or completely missing in them. It reminds me of a quote about the bitterness of being rich and how it cuts them off from friendship and family. Here it is, “Some people are so poor all they have is money.” Healthy people would spend money on friends and family and be satisfied to see the good it does.
No, Mary Ann, they do not have any shame. In fact, they are PROUD of their shamelessness. Brian Tyler Cohen wrote a book about this, called...."Shameless"! I recommend it, it's a quick and easy read.
Mary Ann - I like what you said. DOGE (and the people on it) is as much of an oxymoron as is the Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board. ;)
The republicans want a woman to be forced into giving birth but don’t want to help her once the baby is born. Apparently the rich don’t care how much a person struggles to live and they will be damned to help make that person’s life less miserable. We pay into these programs, and work hard, but now they want to take Our Money/benefits away. How do people not see that trump’s 2017 tax cuts were for him and not for them? He ran an ad saying that he works for “you” and not “they/them” but it was obvious both then and now that it was all billsh*t. He does work for “them” as long as they are rich enough and do something he can benefit from.
All so true! The reproductions of this is homelessness, increased deaths and illnesses, as well as the effects of starvation in the elderly and poor!! A Nightmare
Already we have seen results of the anger pointed towards our corporate healthcare systems. If and when Trump and Musk effectively cut into Medicare and Medicaid benefits, we might find an issue that unites both Republican and Democratic voters as we get pinched in attempting to pay our medical bills.
What is really sad is that with all the polarization that we have, I know that issue for issue there is far more that united us than separates us. Healthcare is one, infrastructure is another, we had a biparison immigration fix. As for the trans issue if the facts were laid out there would be complete agreement, and it would end all the fuss that gets people nuts.
Sorry, VIctor, sin doesn’t have a place here. You do remember the Constitutional assertion concerning the separation of church and state. In these United States “sin” is something that you can put on your self but not your neighbor.
“ It's the money and, for some, also the sin.” Your words in quotes. You included this as if their morality had some bearing on the subject. I called you on it because I’m tired of people who project their niche morals on others. Women are suffering and dying because of this. So, I suggest it’s not a mote point.
Paradoxically Marc, Luigi Mangione comes from a wealthy family of privilege and could affort to travel, purchase fake ID's and a ghost gun. Those who will be hurt by Trump will simply lay there and take it.
I know this because the threat has always been there, and those that are hurt by the threat, don't even vote. If they did, Trump would not be president elect.
"Those that are hurt by the threat don't even vote" isn't true. I voted for Harris and this Trump/Elon stance on Healthcare will completely bankrupt me in about a year. Then I'll lose my house next.
I don't know what relevance it has on whether or not Luigi was estranged.
He did have a lot of money, and access o resources as he traveled quitie a bit, including to and from California, had a lot of forged drivers licenses and the means to purchase a 3d printed "ghost gun" AFIK he was not employed but had access to a lot of money.
Cut them off at the pass. National security is at stake. Where's Biden?
In September, DOJ asserted that Sergey Kiriyenko had created some 30 internet domains to spread Russian disinformation, including on Elon Musk’s X which was formerly known as Twitter. In October, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that Musk had been in contact with Kiriyenko and Vladimir Putin which Dmitry Peskov affirmed.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Kiriyenko
Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue doing so in future, We have interfered (in U.S. elections), we are interfering and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do." https://www.reuters.com/world/us/russias-prigozhin-admits-interfering-us-elections-2022-11-07/
Where;s Biden Daniel. We know, Biden is taking care of himself, when he isn't somnolent
The members of the DNC, the influential and wealthy members of the Democratic party, are busy back pedaling and trying to get on the good side of Trump. Like Joe and Mikka they fear for their lives.
Daniel, please explain what Biden can do in one month with Republicans obeying in advance? And can’t incoming administrations essentially cancel or undo executive orders this close to an inauguration? Seriously, you are one of the smartest and most knowledgeable people among any/all substacks. What solution are you looking toward?
Marge it is not just the month left, but if he had six months left, Biden would do nothing, except maybe some pardons.
He set this whole thing in motion when he appointed Garland as AG and revoked the Schedule F EO 13957, rather than use it as a tool to flush the Aegean stable of all Trump civil service appointees.
John Dean, Watergate fame lawyer, wrote at least three books on the importance of constitutional due process and the dangers of the "unitary executive." Read them!
Your like a skip in a record. Playing over again and again this boondoggle. Our national security is always the skip in that record for the Mighty Wurlitzer to be playing. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674032569
Our country does more to meddle in other affairs than any on earth.
Wrong Rick, other than going off topic, for the benefit of Putin. I can think of two countries who interfere in the affairs of other countries, not for the benefit of corporations, but for the benefit of national goals. Russia and China, Both have their fingerprints all over the Mid East and Africa, and China has its fingerprints all over Africa, the Mid east and Asia, both interfere in the politics of other countries, especially Russia
Always the 'Bad Actor' eh Mr. Farrar. Our truth goes marching on. Fightin those bad actors. Sorry, I find that our own meddling is far more damaging and self serving to our military complex and own oligarchy than any and all bad actors combined in this world. And its sustained by our national security agencies means of propaganda to tailor the public to the Washington Values hypocrisy. Our foreign policy reflects back onto how our economic decline is destabilizing our own country. A weary public giving the huckster Trump another go at it. The empires crumbling.
No argument from me that our meddling in the affairs of other countries for the benefit of corporations has caused many of the worlds problems.
But that is true of all countries, that scramble for resources, whether state motivated or corporate motivated.
But i live in the present, not the past, And in the present the real threat to democracy and freedom comes from the Right,not just the American right, but the fascism of Putin and China.
Freedom, diversity, equity, inclusion is under threat from within and without, it is difficult enough to deal with the threat from within, but to have people try to distract from the threat from without, for the benefit of the threat from without, That's a bridge too far.
Their is only one threat on the table, for us and the world and that is fascism, whether it is the fascism of the right within or the fascism of the right from without like Russia, Hungary, Turkey, China, Israel or Islam.
Those who put blinders on from what the past has done. Likely repeat the mistakes and inequities. Our history of meddling is long and tawdry. Regime change, dictatorships, military quagmires, etc. No, our country stokes anarchy and destabilization. Has done in the past and does still. Ironically the left in this country under Biden supports war and terrorists. As in Syria now. Israel genocide. NATO expansion to the Black Sea. I don't agree with what our foreign relations has wrought. Its unproductive, arrogant and dangerous.
I think our country is misguided by what China's Belt and Road initiative is and Russia's self security determination is. Our country wouldn't allow tactical nuclear weapons any where near our boarders as was demonstrated in the 60's with Cuba. Part of our Monroe Doctrine empire. We'd put them in Turkey prior to that little demonstration.
We've demonstrated for decades now, ignorant solutions with war and by proxy of war. Over 700 military outposts and a military budget approaching nearly one trillion dollars annually. Financial sanctioning that is condemned by international law. We need to get our own crumbling house in order before we level our hypocritic finger at others.
and Trump brazenly admitted that he welcomes foreign assistance in US elections. Isn't this treasonous? Wasn't that the reason Comey was investigating his team?
"For liberal opinion, Russian interference in American elections is the political crime of the century. The effects of the crime are undetectable, unlike the massive effects of interference by corporate power and private wealth, not considered a crime but the normal workings of democracy. Considering the U.S. record of "interference in foreign elections", Russia included, it's laughable." --- Noam Chomsky
Trump is a tool and fool, jerked around by flattery and money, That's how he is controlled, especially by Musk. Musk can and is buying this country, one piece at a time
Musk is an autistic sociopath born with a golden nugget in his mouth, he is not a genius, just ruthless, he trods over people and nations to obtain his goal.
Paradoxically it is liberals, climate concerned liberals, that have made him wealthy by buying his cars.
He has the money to hire the best brains, the designers, engineers to launch his space vehicles and control is communication satellites,.Musk, Russia, and new China and even India are catching up on and are ahead of the US because special interest groups and their politicians whine about the national debt and the budget.
In 1992 Bush and Yeltsin signed a space collaboration agreement and soon America stopped producing space shuttles and contracted with Russia to send up astronauts,
We can't even launch humans into space without Musk (NASA's SpaceX Crew-9)
Every power, every culture, every nation, every empire has collapsed and fallen when it lost it's vitality, by becoming indolent, fat, lazy fractious, Be it Pharonic, Nineveh, Persian, Parthian , Babylon, the Greco Roman, the Islamic, the German, the British and now America.
The well fed gives way to the hungry. A 21st Century America, could never bounced back from a 21st Century Pearl Harbor.
It inevitably loses to a lesser, but hungrier and invigorated force
To start with we don't produce our own parts or equipment anymore, all are produced from potential enemies, err competitors.
We don't mine our own strategic minerals either, We have to import them from countries that can starve us simply by shutting down production or export, or levy their own export tariffs.
The U.S. is 100% reliant on imports for are arsenic, fluorspar, indium, manganese, niobium, and tantalum, which are used in a variety of applications like the production of alloys and semiconductors along with the manufacturing of electronic components like LCD screens and capacitors.
Marc Nevas : similar with Social Security. We pay into it all of our working lives. Now it is threatened by the greed of billionaires who want tax "breaks" , when they often pay little, or no taxes in the first place.
Marc, that is not only the intent, but just a continuation of what has been going on for decades: price-gouging, letting the rich escape paying their fair share of taxes, overcharging for medical care, union-busting, and so much more. The rich folks know just how to talk to the people or rather, some of the people that will make those people feel it is OK to give up their bits of money and power to the rich.
Yes, very sad indeed. To see money, we worked for all our lives, part of what we depend on for good health care, now that we are retired will go to help the rich become richer.
That's been trump's plan the whole time. He's gotten a lot of money from the corps and billionaires. He has to pay those pipers and put a lot of money into his own account. I've been saying we all need to sue for all our Medicare money back. The government guaranteed it as a retirement savings account for us. By taking it, it's theft. Not that they care. If we're all lucky, their banks will crash right after they take away the FDIC and they'll lose everything. Maybe they'll react like so many of the rich did during the Depression.
Professor Reich: i've been a medicaid recipient several times in my life and i can tell you without any hyperbole, that i would literally not be alive today without it. so the fact that the orange jesus, leon and ramaswampy -- concealed under the umbrella of DOGE -- are determined to destroy this program is something that is extremely concerning for me personally, and for me because i actually CARE about other people who might find themselves in desperate situations due to health care costs or needs.
Many working people are already on Medicaid, including those who work at big box stores. We're trying to change the system so that the most expensive care, the care provided in ERs, is reduced. When people don't seek healthcare until they must go to an ER, the overall cost of healthcare gets more expensive, not less expensive.
Gloria, I would not be surprised of the likelihood that corporate owned for profit hospitals will be among the first to turn away ER patients if they cannot come up with a credit card and a good credit report before admittance. This would put a further burden on the non-profit hospitals that are here to truly serve the public. This will affect Republicans as well as Democrats. It is becoming more clear that few of our elected “representatives” no longer represent us.
The Republicans have shown us that long range planning for achieving specific goals work. Personally, I am not waiting for the DNC to “get their act together.” That is why I am becoming an outspoken advocate for a system that structures economics in way that no excess wealth can be accumulated until there is first a rational distribution of resources so that everyone has access to healthy food, adequate clothing and housing as well as access to good quality education and healthcare.
We are the wealthiest country on the planet but have the worst healthcare and a declining quality of education. Everyone should also have access to well paying work so they will have sufficient purchasing power to provide for the necessities of life and our healthcare and education should be free.
Here is a link to compelling essays on a better system and how to implement it.
In 2005, I was turned away from a hospital ER here, to which I had been sent by a local govt. agency for my broken wrist; I even overheard the call made by an ER employee to the agency that had sent me there: 'WHY are you dumping this on us?'
Weeks later, I was sent to a different hospital (but one owned by the same corporation) where my wrist was 'set.'
Marc: Art 12, of the 1936 Soviet Constitution. "if you don't work, you don't eat".
The authoritarian answer to "useless eaters" is to eliminate them, In Tudor England they were expelled from the city and lived in the brush near roads where they would pop up to beg or rob travelers. This led to the name Beggars Bush, and there is still today at least one tavern in Ireland if I recall, and Jordan Point on the James River once housed a settlement called Beggars Bush, before it was founded as Jordan's Journey.
Hitler's solution was final, if they weren't a dependency on a man, they were eliminated. Stalin had the same problem, Moscow had a huge population of wounded war veterans, especially amputees. It embarrassed him and reminded the people of the cost of the war, so in one night the streets were cleared of these wounded vets.
The Republican solution is very libertarian. The non productive can either be eliminated rapidly, or slowly but they will be eliminated. The elderly, the retirees like me are non productive, unless we have accumulated sufficient assets, wealth to maintain ourselves and produce income.
Their attitude is that Social Security and Medicare are a drain on society, and that those who receive the benefits are non productive. That is counter balanced by the fact that expenditure of the benefits, profits private equity funds, and collection of premiums profits financial instiutions.
You have a wealth of facts and stories that are pretty fascinating. My guess is that you have been a lifelong reader of history and true life accounts. I'm guessing that you haven't watched too much TV and that the travel that you've done has educated you. You asked a lot of questions along the way and just kept learning and filing the information. I'm encouraged that your memory is so sharp at your age and you continue to share. You don't seem to be angered by people who question you and those evolved responses speak to a wisdom that formed through non-judgmental approaches. I've enjoyed and learned reading what you write. It makes me think and do more research. You and your wife must have some great discussions.
Where did you see that documentary on food? Netflix
Not Just Christians but all believers,a pox on them, they are a major part of the problem. And I mean believers not just religious either, Religion is just another ideology, a belief system, they come in secular and sectarian forms.
Gloria, that is an excellent point and one those idiots don't understand. For them, the bottom line is they do not care if Americans in the working middle and lower classes die just so long as they keep their filthy lucre! While what they are doing is so painfully obvious to those of us who voted for Democracy, the idiots who voted for the orange man and those who didn't vote at all won't realize it until the deed has been done and they find themselves without what they needed to live in the first place!
If healthcare was health care prevention would save far more $s than not going to ER. As much as I detest RFK jr, he is opposed to the processed food industry which is feeding us poison.
Shop around the edges of the grocery store where the least processed foods are sold, avoid fast foods, become a more knowledgeable consumer and we might become a tad healthier provided our environment remains safe. Then we will not need wormy Bobby to save us. His anti vaccine stance should be enough to prove him unfit for any job in public health .
I watched a documentary last week, about shopping around the edges. This is where you purchase contaminated foods. The FDA is a mirage of the organization it use to be. It doesn't have the staff, the few inspectors that it does have are often co-opted by the corporation that they inspect, and political influence has in essence neutered them.
Fields in California that grow greens, are located next to feed lots, and the feces of the cattle infiltrated the water that feeds the greens. Salmonella outbreaks from eggs.
Processed foods, the aisles people shop, produce endocrine damage, cancer and diabetes.
Loving parents who feed their children breakfast cereals are killing them.
Drop a Twinkie on the sidewalk and not even the fungus or the insects will touch it.
The expiration or best by date on many foods is there because it is required by law, it means nothing because it is forever food.
Yes we do, convenience trumps all. I tried to tell my youngest daughter, that she was poisoning her children when she bought Fruit Loops, she got very angry and didn't want to hear it, because if it weren't for convenience food she would have to cook breakfast or at least boil water to make oatmeal.
RFK Jr is crafty. He uses bait-and-switch tactics. First he tells you something you are likely to agree with, the he gradually walks you deeper and deeper into conspiracy territory. He is being considered for an important position in government, because he is a Tim Mellon mercenary, and TM hates the federal government (aka "deep state").
The question is, why do people wait until it is an emergency? Are they not insured? Is their insurance full of clauses? Prevention includes annual physicals, timely testing (such as mammogram, colonoscapy and so forth).
Many patients do not have a primary care doctor.It is getting more difficult to find them. Many GP doctors. Are becoming "Concierge' practices. Adding $1000 or more (subject to change) fees just to remain a patient in their practice. After decades, I had to leave my general practitioner recently. I will see a nurse practitioner temporarily, until another practice can accept me in January. If I'm lucky.
Tim : when my husband's doctor had to leave the Soldier's Home during Covid, I found him a doctor nearby. He has never met the man. But has seen a nurse practitioner in his practice, ever since. He is fine with it.
You might want to stay with your nurse practitioner. They will send you to a specialist as indicated, just as a primary doctor will do. They are often more conscientious, and a study I read questions their use in ERs because they order more tests than doctors do, so they are more expensive for insurance.
Dee of the Terrace ; Ironically, my state was often touted as a Great place for medical care, and it has attracted more residents and businesses because of that. But as practices get more busy, some Primary Care practices have been swamped, allowing shorter visits, and not liking the stingy reimbursements of insurance industry. There are medical colleges and teaching hospitals with cutting edge medical knowledge, But, as necessary as the Primary providers are, with requirements for patients for receiving referrals to these specialists, more students are going into the specialties. They get more money, period.
There's a shortage of "family doctors" here in Canada as well. Seems a phenomenon apres Covid. Why, I don't know. Generally speaking they've always been short outside of highly populated areas, in rural, far north, etc. We have a shortage in any case, which is concerning.
The Covid virus/pandemic has highlighted many shortcomings here in delivery of healthcare.
Same here Lesley, almost. I am 85 my BP is normal, I get semi annual blood draws for Metabolic Panel, AIC, CBC and all but the A1c is normal, I get the blood draws because of I have hereditary insulin resistance, runs in my mother family, not my fathers. I had lung cancer that metastasized to he brain in 2017, a cranitomy and radiation took care of the brain tumor, Immunotherapy took care of the lung cancer and have been in remission for 7 years. Because of the cancer and diabetes I get semi annual check ups, blood draws, CT Scans and MRI's, to date all good. Another CT scan on Thursday fingers crossed, MRI on Saturday, visit Monday with oncologist.
But what has happened is that I have changed the way that I eat, as much as possible fresh food, no meats, as far as possible only complex carbs. No processed foods,and if interested and you don't have time to prepare meals, there are a few companies that make frozen meals, that are chemical free, whose ingredients are the meat and vegetables only. Amy's is one Evolve is another. Also eat small portions.
All those suggestions are valuable. There are places to go to clean yourself out too. Also many people do not pay attention to intestinal and colon care. If you can't afford to go to a place you and a friend can go on a clean out diet or do a controlled fast. It's very helpful to have the support of another person. I did a 14 day water only, Dr supported and tested, fast that was life changing for me. I tried raw food only, for a while (no animal products) and that was incredible. It's a challenge to stick to that so I don't do that so much anymore. I went to a raw food and wheatgrass place for 3 months and worked as a volunteer there to learn the basics.
You can buy freeze dried wheatgrass online. I talked to and saw the results of this method with everyone who came there.
As usual, Republicans are penny wise but pound foolish. Then, of course, we have libertarians who believe that we have too many people, and some poor people must die.
My son-in-law, who is so disabled he can only leave the house to go to the doctor, and I, a retired widow, rely on Medicare and Medicaid. I mean, take $200 out of my $1500 a month for a premium and I don't have much left for rent and utilities.
I can tell you from personal experience, that one CEO was a good start. My wife has Advanced Progressive MS, I fought with my insurance 3 months for per-authorization for a drug on their approved list, at one point the providers office called the insurance to ask them how to fill out the form to get it approved. I fought with them for 4 months, over infusion therapy for her.
Most people who go in for some bullshit office visit and pay their $30 co-pay and everything is fine, don't understand there is a problem. That is, until they are faced with something that will actually cost the insurance company money, then they realize how truly fucked the system is.
In this country you can't throw a rock without being under the thumb of some corporation, everything in this country has been monetized. Health care, education, existence... everything has a price tag. Greed has no boundary... just like stupidity.
No need for a list, they ALL do it….home infusion nurse here. My client today is going through it right now- 7 years of IVIG, which is well documented in preventing her from becoming non ambulatory, is now being denied by the Same insurance company over an administrative change - her spouse (retired last year) just went on Medicare- she is now paying COBRA through the spouses former employer, they are appealing the denial- but no more IVIG will be delivered until there is approval. At $10,000 a treatment, it’s in the insurance’s best interest to drop her. They’d rather see her in a wheelchair than pay for treatment that keeps her on her feet. It’s pathetic
My wife goes through the University of Washington MS Center, they were able to get it through using medical necessity. Since she had breast cancer they can only use her left arm for the infusion, which requires an IV nurse, because her veins are narrow. So, basically, every 6 months we prepare for a fight.
I think you have hit on the most important point - everything is being monetized. In the years when the infrastructure for the Internet was first envisioned the major players were universities and government agencies. In our naivete we thought the Internet would be the great equalizer. Like public education, a public good. I never dreamed it would become a for-profit enterprise, keeping the less advantaged outside its vaulted gates.
Gutting Medicare is another needless and cruel act that proves that the “family values” party doesn’t value families in the slightest, especially if they’re poor. They are #ProSTRIFE and inducing suffering has become part of the GOP brand.
Sadly, I'm not sure I can be shocked anymore by any horrendous thing Trump and his gang members do, but I am shocked that almost half of US children live in families that make less than $43,000. Obviously, the 0.01% have eaten the American Dream and now plan on swallowing the rest of the country.
Hello anil. The American voters have been told this story about the destructive plans of the GOP for decades by the DEMs, unions and any one else with any decency in their heart. They have chosen not to listen and the number of folks eating up the GOP lies and hateful bullshit has only increased. I have a number of family members who have been GOP for years and not rich. Just average working class folks. When I explain to them what DT, Project 2025 and the Wall Street thieves are up to they just look at me with glazed over eyes and say.... oh, they wouldn't do that. I tell them they have just bet their SS, Medicare and other great benefits brought to them by the DEMs to find out. Good luck... GH
Had to look it up - and then saw that I must have encountered it before, as my wife is a big Outlanders' fan, and after seeing the cite, recalled hearing it.
and then Kipling wrote a short story about how the leopard got his spots. I cannot remember a word of it, but I know that I enjoyed it, as I do most Kipling.
I love fiction, but officially stopped reading it in November, 1988, as it felt like it was imperative to focus on non-fiction, given 'what was going on at the time,' and have seen no reason since to re-assess that, though I have bought a few books of fiction I haven't read in that time.
Maureen, 40% of Americans could not come up with $400 for an unforeseen financial crisis. They don’t have the savings, friends with savings, or credit to borrow $400. They live in a constant state of fear.
Thanks for this summary. This is exactly what I'm afraid of: the MAGAts in charge will work to achieve their goals through complex steps...and it will end up hurting a population that insists on seeing the world as simply as possible. They'll never notice what's happening to them, and even if they do, they'll never believe it.
"Nope, I know the tv shows truckloads full of bodies leaving the city, but that's because the media lies and COVID is fake! Fauci said one thing, then said something slightly different 10 months later. He's a libtard, not a scientist!!! Global warming CAN'T exist because last Tuesday was hot as hell!"
The Dems must keep their own messages simple in tying GOP moves to the inevitable pain voters will experience. If they cannot win this part of the information war, if they are unable to deliver the truth and make it stick, prepare to watch millions of people become convinced the Republican-driven Medicare problems are somehow caused by Hillary's emails.
This is the primary reason that I may have to eventually find a way to leave the country.
I am disabled and cannot work, my costs for medical care and medications are all paid by Medicaid. If I lose that coverage I lose the ability to get the care that I need to survive.
Me too. And now having just turned 66, I am on Medicare and Medicaid. I researched moving to Scotland (including costs to just move, let alone pet costs for them to enter with me). I have to be honest, no country wants you if you’re retired and/or disabled. Political asylum is a possibility or applying to a university to continue my PhD. Many of us are screwed. However, the bright side is thinking of the look on those billionaires faces when they try to touch SS and Medicare and are confronted with millions and millions of the Grey Legion (hair, that is!). Haha. Ever piss off an older person who has the time to research and doesn’t care about speaking up, speaking out, using their political and economic clout? They are in for a long overdue reckoning, and that includes politicians on both sides of the aisle!
Remember Maggie Coon, the Grey Panther? I saw her speak one time. She was a fabulous advocate for aging people. You are SO right about the Grey Legion!
As I age I'm wondering if I may need to leave the country as well. If I have a stroke or accident and end up in a nursing home or something, whatever medicare and my medigap union insurance won't cover, will be gone...home, car and any other valuables attached to pay bills. If I sell my house and move to say, San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, things would be different. There are Drs there for regular check-ups. I had a broken wrist down there and the surgery was perfect. I had it gone over by a surgeon at Swedish here and he said he could not have done any better. I could have a person come and check on me at home. I'm thinking about it and doing research. At 77 years I don't need life saving techniques applied. I wouldn't want that. Maybe I'll take up sky diving. It would fit in nicely with the life of adventure I've enjoyed.
Medicaid coverage has been expanded through previous Democratic and Republican administrations. Now, under this one, it is threatened. I guess it is clear that health care is not considered a human right, the only thing that is considered a right is making the richest Americans even richer.
The murder of the United Healthcare CEO should have been a wake up call for the wealthy. By cutting Medicaid and other programs that benefit the poorest among us and many others is not a good idea. DOGE, if it ever comes to be a government agency, better be prepared for some backlash. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction!
The wealthy and corporations have IGNORED us for 45 years. It has taken me time to see clearly that as Frederick Douglas said,” power never gives itself.. it must be TAKEN “ . No more pussy foot. Boycott . Shut your legs ladies, the white boys see all you have given as their property!”. Non-violence will be hastened to violence as they will not stop.
Calvinist Americans are sadists. These policies were all clearly articulated by the GOP and the Trump team long before the election. These policies could not have been avoided by having a better "story" on the progressive side. These policies are the result of anger, stupidity, and cruelty.
I am unfortunate enough to be a resident of Texas, and “my” Senators are the loathsome Cornyn and Cruz. I write them angry letters daily. Cornyn does not care what his constituents think, and my impression is that he is quite open in his contempt for those who will not give him the rubber stamp of assent. Cruz is a very egregious enfant terrible, sending machine-written, circumlocutious replies that seem guaranteed to irritate. You have to remind these animals, continually, that you are a constituent and your views count for something. They keep getting re-elected time and again, along with the monsters in Texas’ executive and legislative branches. Cruz’ most recent opponent was a young Congressman from Ft Worth, an ex-football player who played the “Republican lite” game. He voted for 9495. I voted for him, but it was more of a case of anyone-but-Cruz than anything else. I would not vote for him again: I would vote for None of The Above.
Many TexMAGAs favor repeal of the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913 and providing for the direct election of Senators. Many historians credit the efforts of the Populist Party of the 1890s for the advancement of this Amendment. If the yahoos of TexMAGA had their way, Senators would be chosen by fascist, Christian Nationalist state legislators in Austin.
Texas’ state song, which I loathe, makes reference to the “glorious Alamo”. There is nothing glorious about a fortress where everyone inside was slaughtered. At the end of 1967, when Lyndon Johnson was going all over the place delivering lectern-pounding tirades demanding a firmer commitment in Vietnam, I believe it was Walter Lippmann who wrote, “Mr Johnson is applying to this disaster the do-or-die rhetoric of the Alamo —- which, as we know, was not a glorious success.”
Freedom for the wolves means death to the sheep. The oligarchs want us to die for their freedom, not ours. Who benefitted from the slaughter at the Alamo and who still benefits from the story? I just read that there is a movement toward a for-profit health insurance system in Ukraine. The war isn't even over, as far as I can tell.
Apparently media tiptoes on the repug eggshells & now any 'rape' verbiage is sugar-coated. Here's what's coming : the rape of Planet Earth, as they rapaciously drill out the oil & minerals, demolish regulations, smite the wilderness, foul the air & waters. The world is their oyster. Until there's no more oysters.
It seems like a worse addiction. I know people recognizing they can overcome drug addictions. This greed-thing they have, humanity & Earth doesn't matter to their bank accounts. muskito wants to be a trillionaire, rumpus wants to be a billionaire, & this whole planet is the price of their glee for adding more zeros to their wealth. WTF is wrong with their wives, Everyone abiding them is complicit.
I lived in Austin two years and saw what was happening there and left. I empathize with your angst. Move, if you can, to a place with better ethics, like MN,VT, CO etc.
This is like the corruption of the Roman Empire when that was at its worst. The wealthy will get 90% of everything and everybody else is on their own. That should tell you how the Roman empire rotted from the inside out.
Putin must be jumping for joy. Same with Xi. They won’t have to do a thing. They will just have to wait for us to fall apart.
Oh what a tangled web.... Those morons that voted for Trump but will be losing their Medicaid WILL most likely vote against the GOP/MAGA in future elections -- UNLESS they die before then. (I'm sure that's part of the GOP's goal.) Just like everything Bad was blamed on Biden from 2020 through 2024, Bad Things that happen in 2025-2028 WILL be blamed on Trump. He can't hide behind Musk, because it was Trump who empowered the DOGE co-chairs. The word WILL get out for no other reason than the Dems will be blasting that info across all Media sources. (If the morons choose to not believe what the Dems tell them, then consider it Natural Selection In Action and they _deserve_ all the Bad landing on them.)
But if the GOP does implement much/most of Project 2025, one of two things will occur: 1) They will have become so powerful that it will have become all but impossible to dislodge them from their seat of Power. America will no longer be America, ever again. 2) After bankrupting the government with all of their "Steal from the Poor and give it to the Rich" policies, they will accept that they will lose control by 2028. By then, it won't matter: they will be owning EVERYTHING worth owning. The Economy will be soooooo bad, they will be offering wages at the rate of pennies-on-the-dollar that workers will be **eager** to accept. And with their massively swollen wealth, they will simply BUY the overwhelming majority of legislators, thereby retaining their control of government.
I don't think the Project 2025 folks will stop with Medicaid. They want to privatize all of Medicare so everyone will have to participate in the scam "Medicare" Advantage plans. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford a Medicare Plan F Supplement plan. I have never had a claim denied with that plan from United Healthcare (so far). But I certainly have had friends and relatives with Advantage plans go through the delay, depose, deny gristmill.
Yes, Georgia. I selected Medicare supplement as well. I have a complex medical condition and under Medicare Disadvantage the GOP wouldn’t have to worry about me voting against them. I’d be dead.
I have been concerned for some time regarding Trump‘s and Musk’s plans for Medicare and Medicaid. Personally, a portion of the taxes I pay have been to support Medicare, which has been an important part of my ability to pay for medical services. So, the plan is to take away the money that I have invested for my health and send it to the pockets of billionaires.
There's a simple solution to all this nonsense Marc, and that is the Sanders plan to tax any wealth above $1 billion at 100%.
Michael, the solution that I am excited about is much more far reaching than attempting to put a drastic tax on billionaires. The fact we have gotten to this point shows the incredible inequality of our taxation system and a healthcare system that is already the worst in the world among developed nations.
Thank goodness for “Inequality Media“ as Robert, Heather and their hard-working staff has been completely correct on virtually every topic they bring up. This is why I believe paid subscriptions to Inequality Media is a wonderful way to support them in their work. What they do will become more important as the Trump administration unfolds and implements its egregious plans .
As long as multibillionaires exist they will have political significance, and they will destroy all the benefits of capitalism enjoyed by those lower down the food chain. That is why Adam Smith invented progressive taxation. Taxes served two purposes: 1) to prevent the wealthy from becoming too wealthy, because then they would buy the government and collude to distort the market, which to Smith was central; 2) to spend the revenues on what we would now call infrastructure, which would include healthcare for all.
You might say that you disagree with capitalism, to which I would reply that we don't have capitalism, merely socialism for the wealthy. For what is not paying your taxes but government welfare?
The billionaire class running the show are capitalists in name only (CINOs). In reality, they function as oligarchs or plutocrats. They fail to grasp—or deliberately ignore—that while capitalism offers many benefits, it inherently drives wealth toward the top of the economic pyramid. For capitalism to function equitably, wealth *must* be redistributed through taxation. Yet, this essential mechanism of redistribution is precisely what oligarchs oppose.
I only know a few people who were CEOs but whenever we'd talk, I'd always ask why they did not support Mediacare for all. I'd have to tell them about the collateral source rule, and remind them they could lay off exposure for future medical, health insurance, and that it would cut the cost of stuff like workers comp, liabilty insurance, etc......
I think that if I were a corporate raider, or for that matter, a shareholder. that would be a reason to attack management.
Same goes for stuff like OPEC fixing prices, and foreign control of some of our infrastructure, etc. .
Do the "owners" of the big three automakers not know who are their competitors? When we boost foreign car manufacturing do we not kick ourselves in the ass?
I can go on for a month.
Agree, even wrote a book about it 5 years ago. Corporate America could save (in 2019) $1 trillion per year.
Agree completely. Actual capitalism has a little bit of "socialism" built in to it, precisely through taxation. It was that horse's ass Reagan, with lickspittle sidekick Milton Friedman, who turned Smith on his head. Trickledown is NOT capitalism. Gushdown is.
Trickle-down economics. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith once dubbed it the "horse and sparrow" theory. If you feed the horse enough oats, some will pass through to the road for the sparrows." --- LOL!
"We don't have capitalism, merely socialism for the wealthy". Well said. This needs to be repeated!
Socialism for the rich; capitalism for the poor.
No matter what name you give our current economic system, it is a failing system. Under Trump and MAGA it will devolve further into oligarchy, and our political system will devolve into a kleptocracy. After much study, I have concluded that we must begin to move towards “economic democracy“ as a more egalitarian, contemporary economic, and political system. Wikipedia summarizes some of the current, thinking on economic democracy, and is a good place to start to understand this progressive system.
Marc, what's wrong with Adam Smith's solution, which is very heavy taxation on the wealthy. We had it between 1948 and 1980, then again in the 1990s with Bill Clinton. In all epochs it worked well for all Americans, even those at the top.
Neoliberal economic policies over the last 40 years have brought us to this edge of collosal failure.
...and we already know that the new Dep't of "Justice" will be the Dep't of INJUSTICE.
Privatizing profits and socializing losses is another way to say it.
Democrats should treat small business owners as part of the neglected class of workers getting hammered by this economy. It's very hard to start and sustain a business these days, as anybody who has tried from scratch knows. Interestingly, the SBA approved a record amount in small biz loans last year. I wonder how many of those who obtained loans voted for Trump anyway. So there's clearly still a serious messaging problem, probably exacerbated by the lack of a wealth tax. I think voters don't take a political party seriously when it tries to claim it's for the little guy but doesn't push harder for things like Medicare for All and a wealth tax to cover the costs.
Kamala made a modest effort to reach out to small business owners with her business tax break proposal, and it fell on deaf ears pretty much, but that doesn't mean it was wrong to try. Democratic politicians need to completely disassociate themselves from oligarchs. Many seem fairly reluctant to do so. Once they do, perhaps when outreach efforts are made to demographics such as small business owners, they'll be believable.
We also shouldn't be pushing for Medicare for All. Medicare collects substantial premiums from Americans, and through Medicare Advantage and Medigap, transfers billions to the private insurance sector, which must be eliminated. The very name, "Medigap" is an admission by lawmakers that core Medicare, as represented by Plan A and Plan B, is insufficient because of its huge *gap* in coverage, including no dental and no vision care, important items of interest for older folks. You want dental care? Get ready to shell out hundreds of dollars per month to your FOR PROFIT Medigap healthcare insurer. Vivek gets nice teeth. You don't.
Thank you for bringing up the complete lack of dental care. I can't even afford to get my infected teeth pulled, and my dental infections are causing physical health problems which - if they don't kill me, they will certainly cause expensive to treat problems that WILL become Medicare's expense.
Paula Dean, consider going to Mexico for your dental work. I did and I got a better job for 30% of the price here. Fortunately I live 90 miles from Mexicali, Mexico. Speaking of honesty in dentistry . . . I had 3 different local dentists with good reputations lie to me about whether 2 crown roots could be used they wanted to do implants which cost much more than a bridge does. My Mexicali dentist did a 3 tooth bridge for me and I saved thousands of dollars as a result.
no dental insurance covers periodontal treatment. I found that out. $800 treatment. But the alternative of no treatment is much more expensive.
"When will Democratic health insurance reformers in Congress have major hearings on the advancing corporatization of Medicare under the guise of Medicare Advantage? They should be called "Medicare Disadvantage" plans for all the trapdoors awaiting deceived elderly who were signed up by corporate insurers like United Healthcare and Aetna." --- Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader - a true American hero, falsely maligned by the DNC and scapegoated for the Gore loss while the DNC and the Clintons tried to evade the blame being laid at Bill Clinton's feet for the association with Gore as VP - even though Gore himself tried to distance himself from the Clintons and what they had done. Just as they try to blame Bernie Sanders more recently, they blamed Ralph Nader then when, in fact, he - and Bernie - have been oracles of truth for decades!
The Clintons gave us the war criminal administration of Bush-Cheney and the destructive chaos Bush-Cheney wrought on the world and the U.S., with a direct link to the fascist state we are now facing.
The Rachel Maddow program of 12/16 includes reporting about self-driving Teslas, the history, government regulations and safety standards and what is to come under conjoined fascist twins Musk-Trump or MuskyRump. That automobile safety reporting reminded me of Nader and his automobile safety history. Not hard to see the long strands of power in the U.S. weaving through time and elections, and it's always, always about money and power.
Scratch any forum about the Clintons or Nader or Gore or Sanders and you get an uprising of high dudgeon from the Clinton cult of personality exonerating the Clintons from all responsibility for the right-turns/money-grubbing transformation of the Democratic Party and placing the blame for any election problems on others - Nader, Sanders, Comey, Obama......Russian interference/intervention has been a factor, by all reputable accounts of events, and Hillary as well as Mitt Romney tried to focus Americans' attention on the Russian danger to this country, but the selfish behaviors of too many of our "electeds" has brought all the rest of us to great harm from what is now "our" own government. Ego, arrogance, self-importance, lust for power and riches, or outright corruption and criminality, compete with true patriotism, honor, integrity and decency. We need to side with the latter and communicate those values well with articulateness and eloquence; get in touch with what remains of goodness in America and win the hearts and minds of the good.
The Democratic Party needs to rediscover, or maybe discover, its soul and its values!! Where is the outrage and fight about the Trump ring of corruption and theft schemes that plan to destroy ("finish the job" started in their first administration, they say) the United States Postal Service, to destroy Social Security, to eliminate the Civil Service, banking regulations, public health....and on and on. WHO voted for them to DESTROY the country?!! Surely not even the MAGAts were voting for that. Whether they did or not, the rest of us cannot stand by and let these fascists destroy everything. Get in touch with ALL members of Congress, of all political persuasions, write/call them and do it often. Make them know that there is a large number of voters who despise what they are doing to our government!
The Chamber of Commerce supposedly represents small businesses and many of those businesses join their local and U.S. Chambers of Commerce - and the Chamber of Commerce is rabid Trumpist (and otherwise Republican hard-line before him).
Small businesses and corporations are two totally different animals.
Interestingly the MO Chamber of Commerce has taken stands against some of the bills our GOP legislature is trying to pass and has even endorsed some Dems for Senator and Rep at state level.
But yeah, generally a regressive group. But somethimes they do understand that policies helping the public can also help business.
Small business should be an area Dems can make gains in but I haven't met a Dem florist yet.
Thank you for this.
Bernie Sanders introduced a Senate bill on May 17, 2024 that would expand dental coverage through Medicaid and Medicare. A Senate Hearing on this was held on May 16, 2024.
https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-introduces-legislation-to-address-americas-dental-crisis/
Thank you for this! I did not know. For anyone else following this note, here is the tracker for the bill:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/4357/text
Again, thank you. Good ole Bernie.
Yes -not enough Dems in the retail business in leadership perhaps so consciousness is low. Whatevr the rason, this is an important move Dems could make.
Also let's push for universal healthcare, not Medicare for All, as you state.
Europrean countries have a variety of government and private sector partnerships that work. We should not foreclose other means to the end goal.
at least they were talking more about small business this last election
Agree re Medicare for All. Let's do Universal Healthcare for All. European countries have different kinds of arrangements with public and private players.
Yes, you’re right. And I’m not plugged in very well with what those countries are doing. If I was a lawmaker, I’d want to set up a commission to study these plans and review lessons learned, and apply them to create the best universal healthcare system possible.
"Meanwhile for the poor, let market principles prevail. Don't expect any help from the government. The government's the problem, and not the solution, and so on. That's essentially Neoliberalism. It has this dual character which goes back in history. One set of rules for the rich. An opposite set of rules for the poor." --- Noam Chomsky
Thanks to Hayek, Friedman and disciples. I say disciples because the tenets are held religiously. I could go for a better balance of people friendly and business friendly, but then if you believe these tenets you think they lead to the most people friendly outcomes. A lack of empathy might help you hold to these views, or do these views in practice lead in time to a lack of empathy?
Neoliberalism is an economic and political philosophy that emphasizes the following key tenets:
Free Markets: It champions the idea that markets should operate without government interference, believing that competition and consumer choice drive efficiency and innovation.
Privatization: This involves transferring services and assets from the public sector to private ownership, with the aim to improve efficiency and service quality.
Deregulation: Neoliberalism advocates for the reduction or elimination of government regulations on businesses, to foster a more business-friendly environment.
Fiscal Austerity: It often supports reducing government spending and budget deficits, sometimes involving cuts to social programs, to ensure economic stability.
Individual Responsibility: There’s a strong emphasis on personal responsibility and self-reliance, with less focus on collective welfare and social safety nets.
Globalization: It promotes open international trade and investment, arguing that global economic integration benefits all countries by driving economic growth and spreading prosperity.
"What's wrong with Neoliberal democracy is first of all that it undermines democracy. That's explicit when you introduce privatization, marketization, and so on. That's taking decisions away from people and placing them in the hands of private power. That in itself is anti-democratic."
"If you privatize any service a human being could be interested in, education, water, energy, health, that means democracy is reduced to a silly game. There's nothing left in the political arena. If everything is transferred into the hands of unaccountable private tyrannies (corporations), you can go to the polls, but what are you voting on? Everything has been placed under totalitarian control. It's just an effort to reduce the severe threat of democracy which is hated by every power system." --- Noam Chomsky
Unregulated capitalism, and Free Markets leads to dictatorship. How is easy to discern:
Money makes money. When the rich man deals with the poor man, the rich man sets the rules. There are always more poor men to bargain with. Rich people can invest some of their money to make even more money.
Every business must strive to earn more money, by paying less for labor and goods, and selling goods for as much as possible, and out competing its competitors. As a business gets bigger, it gets economy of scale on it's side. The result is that free markets lead to monopoly. At the monopoly level competition vanishes.
Government doesn't make money, but they can collect taxes. But governments are populated with politicians, and many politicians are suseptable to bribes. The companies with the most disposable money can easily win the bribary contest, and get government rules in their favor. Before you know it you have oligarchy, and dictatorship.
At the other end of the scale, we probably all know someone who who is a lazy bum that knows how to live off of government handouts. And of course we have the hoards of homeless people who don't even know how to get government assistence.
In seeking a government for the common good, we need rules that prevent excess wealth, monopoly and oligarcy at the top, and has ways to get every child a fair chance to be a productive and paid member of society. We need to prevent corruption in government.
Society needs to live in a cage of it's own making. A cage where justice prevails, and mankind protects the earth and it's creatures from exploitation and extinction. Only then can mankind reach it's full potential.
The alternative is the continuation of failed empires, the descent into the physical survival of the 'fittest', and the degradation of all life.
"All of this and a lot more can all proceed as long as the population is passive, apathetic. angry, diverted to consumerism, hatred of the vulnerable, and so on. As long as that remains true, the powerful can do as they like, and those that survive can contemplate the ruins." --- Noam Chomsky
yeah I'm busy watch those drones Joseph. Clearly aliens.
And on-line gambling passed in MO. Yahoo. Everybody have a double whiskey.
I like Canadian Club. lol.
Maybe it would be advisable to point out that your comment is ironic...?
Eloquently stated, Michael, but that is not the way libertarians see the world. To them, progressive taxation is socialism, Marxism, a violation of fairness and individual liberty. It an ideology, a dogma even, and it is deeply embedded in the Federalist Society and in SCOTUS. Many Catholics and Evangelicals have accepted it as compatible with Christianity. Pope Francis calls them hypocrites, which they undoubtedly are. We must confront their ideology and discredit it once and for all.
Socialism can mean the actual economic philosophy or what decades of pro-corporate, right-wing propaganda has convinced the uneducated American laity is socialism. If you mean what stupid Americans call "socialism", which uses the word as a mere name, then you probably mean a situation where the government does anything for the people. In that case, the military, postal service, infrastructure, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public schools, food stamps, police, fire stations, emergency rooms, welfare, bank bailouts (too big to fail), farm subsidies, and anything else that modern culture deems necessary for a civilized society, are examples of "Socialism in America."
But this libertarian position is actually quite stupid. In the American heyday of the 1950s, the maximum rate of taxation was 92%. Are they saying America was a socialist nation then?
The Libertarian position, in my opinion, is not that far from the Rep. party. It reeks of neoliberalism and to hell with the rest of society. I think a society (unified country) cannot exist without careful attention to all its people. Or, maybe, we could just deport all those who Libertarians think are a drain on society: old and the sick, people who protest too much and those who challenge the current economic situation.
Can you tell me where I would find this in Smith's writings? I'd so much like to have a better understanding of what Smith argued and I don't know an efficient place to start.
Cindy, I admire your diplomatic way of asking for elaboration and clarification. Something tells me that you have a rebuttal in mind....
Yes!
If you can afford a subscription.
That's EXTREME cruelty, even for evil billionaires! I would have suggested 90% personally. ONE SINGLE USELESS BILLIONAIRE'S 90% after $1,000,000,000 is STILL enough to help Medicare, Medicaid AND SS stay solvent FOREVER.
What are we to say? "Reach for the stars . . . within our boundaries?"
Senator Elizabeth Warren's 2% wealth tax was a good proposal, but there was so much pushback from the wealthy with their large moneyed power, that a simple reasonable thing like that could not pass. They have broken our Democratic system with their greed and excessive wealth.
if one can afford $250 million to support their favored candidate, they can pay a 2% wealth tax. 2% is very generous for Liz to propose, it prob should be much higher.
Definitely!
I try to Imagine the extremely wealthy leading the shift in primary human motivation from "wealth maximization" to "meeting human needs". It will be slow at first, but it has to start somewhere. The truth is there's enough for everyone. Imagine the planet we could create by caring more about each other.
Opportunity knocks.
Stiglitz may be right. The neoliberal economic system tends to produce a more selfish less empathetic public, esp. among the wealthy than if we had progressive capitalism.
Quite honestly, I see little that would cause the extremely wealthty to shift their priorities. Power must be taken away by force. Power rarely gives up power by choice.
Steve, the elephant in the room is Power. Whoever holds it is not inclined to want to give it up. " Power must be taken away by force. Power rarely gives up power by choice." This is what we all, for good reasons, want to ignore and hope for other magical solutions.
weak dems....they collected millions over the last 4 yeas and got nothing done to stem this tide.
Any money the Democrats collected is like a water pistol versus the sea of billions enjoyed by the MAGA "Republicans". Actually, the majority voted against Donald J tRUMP and had a 53% win.
Daniel H Laemmerhirt : this is a modest proposal, since they already have more than they need. When they can buy the Supreme Court. AND the rest of government and remove protections for the humans: They have too much wealth.
And corporate tax should be 50% at least.
Go after the corporate socialists who have invited Wall Street and Big Business to socialize the means of government against the people's necessities and freedoms. It is a government of, by, and for the dominant corporations. Such private power dominating our government in so many reported ways was called "fascism" in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a formal message to Congress.
According to Warren Buffett his secretary is pay 40% total taxes and He ( Warren Buffett ) only pays 17% of his money in taxes. Fair tax rates are in everybody’s best interests. If you wonder why the more you work the less you get it’s partially because you’re a self directed wage slave.
It's because the wealthy and corporate sector changed the Tax Code to their favor over the years. The wealthy and corporate sector have shifted the burden of sustaining the society onto the rest of the population.
Joseph, "...over the years..." indeed. You must mean all those years when we were entralled by Super Bowls, social media, celebrity lifestyles, Trump's going on's, and prince Harry's every move along with his consort? We were so busy!!
Exactly! Divert peoples attention to the things you listed.
The Rich Get The Tax code They Payed For With Above And Below The Table.
The Workers Get The LeftOvers and are highly taxed . Not just Federal Taxes But The Combination of Federal , State , and Local Taxes.
He Who Has The Gold Makes The Rules…
Let’s Get Something Straight I seen outer Countries and got the Most Part The USA is Good but it could be Better…
1938...
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/henry-ford-grand-cross-1938/
Higher wages for their workers,etc—-tax breaks for them that produce Economic Development cities and towns from sea to shining sea.
When the government returns to the tax rates that made America great in the 1960’s, corporations will find loopholes.
No worries.
To avoid paying taxes they will invest in Research and Development, H
There is no solution Michael, if the Democrats, the progressives, don't have a Trifecta.
Agree. I saw Hakeem Jeffries interviewed two weeks ago, when he was asked a question about what he would be doing after the disaster that had just unfolded. Instead of admitting that it was indeed a fucking disaster, and we have to completely reorganize, he waffled for two minutes without answering the question, using that wretched phrase "going forward" several times. If anyone says "going forward" even once, it usually means they don't know what the fuck they're talking about.
If the DNC continues in its boneheaded way, it will need the "come to Jesus" talk. Third parties will just split the vote.
I don't know anyone but AOC that can force the Democratic party to listen.
Maybe a Warren,AOC, Sanders alliance. I know one thing the DNC hates and fears AOC because she doesn't slop at the trough.
Do you know why the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science act passed congress? Because they all had juicy nuggets and morsels for our corporate masters.
Heather Cox Richardson's article today hits on the subject:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/december-17-2024
Isaid before after the 1968 election I quit voting, I ascertained that both parties were two sides of the same coin.
Only when Trump came down the escalator and opened his mouth did I register to vote. I am done, except with local and state elections.
We need the magas once they get an education from tRump.
Actually Michael, If we just taxed the very wealthy like everyone else (24%), it would cover everything!
According to Warren Buffett his secretary is pay 40% total taxes and He ( Warren Buffett ) only pays 17% of his money in taxes. Fair tax rates are in everybody’s best interests. If you wonder why the more you work the less you get it’s partially because you’re a self directed wage slave.
Many/most of us recognize the problem. But in a Democracy the majority are theoretically supposed to have the say. Having said that . . . Trump was voted in again . . . and where does Democracy go now?
good luck getting dems to get anything done. They had 4 years and got nothing done to stop this trend....we still have Citizens United.
That's because the Dems like to play strictly by the rules. Not for them to step out of line. But the future that's staring us in the face, beginning Jan. 6, will throw down another gauntlet. I think some hard choices will have to be made.
they had a majority more in theory than reality.
Exactly. There shouldn’t be billionaires. Stock buy backs should be taxed heavily. The inheritance tax should be increased. There are many things that can be done to get the wealth back from the top 1%.
The top 1% are still paying a lot of taxes. The problem is with the top 0.001%.
I stand corrected
The only solution that I can think of between moral and spiritual health vs. death would be a new world system of Global Jubilee:
Universal 'Wealth Reform' Capped @ $20M
@ Michael. Not that simple. They just move.
Deport them and ban them from returning.
Piketty thinks we should coordinate with other countries to have a World Wealth Tax. This may be difficult unless all countries cooperate. On the other hand, Bezos and Musk need American consumers and government contracts, and property owners need to raise money from American renters, etc. It may not be that easy just to abscond.
You're a lawyer. Isn't there any legal device to extract their taxes?
I have gone full circle. I now would institute a national sales tax, exempting low income folks and the necssities of life. There is no reason a product made in a foreign country should not bear the tax.
In the 90's I published plans to endow the trust funds. Despite common belief, those benefits do not come from general taxation, are not part of the budget. Our main problem with the SS funds, there are 2 of them, is aberant population growth of the baby boom generation. By 2034 the payment rate should decline. I worked on getting the apex of the curve past that point without further legislation. There is still at least 3 trillion in trust funds.
A wealth tax is tough because the targets move their money around. My wife worked in the US arttorney's office when IRS tried to go after American funds in places like the Caymans, Bahamas. I don't believe that landed gentry should be able to pass everything on.... the estate taxes were fair despite Republican propaganda.
I also remind you that 1. we have a collection problem. and 2. our "allies" have been robbing us blind, fixing prices and undermining our economy while taking control of much of it. IMHO we should recoup all that money.
I'm also big on arbitarge. Japan, Scandinavia, etc are US creditors because they caan borrow at about 1% at home to invest in the US. I'd do a deal.
Love it! Genius idea, and fair, too.
He has pressed this for several decades and now, he has far fewer votes to influence.
This plan is morally and ethically wrong and we must do everything we can to stop it!. DOGE is a made-up government “department”. It is just two unelected billionaire bros who have no expertise or government experience, acting as if they have the authority to suggest cuts to our federal healthcare and retirement programs. Most Americans pay into Medicare and Social Security during our working years and rely on these funds during our elder years. Medicare, and Social Security are sacrosanct. So are Medicaid and the Medicaid expansion that is part of the Affordable Care Act. These programs help the poorest among us (especially children) to have healthcare. Elon‘s and Vivek’s presence among Trump’s loud transition team is SO inappropriate. They have no right to mess with our social programs. And even worse, they want to receive another round of huge tax cuts which will add another $5 trillion to the federal deficit.
GET YOUR MITTS OFF OUR FEDERAL BUDGET. Get out of our Senate chambers
where you don’t belong. Aren’t you rich enough? Have you no shame?
Well said, Mary Ann! I fear that those people like the muskrat and vitriol will be on someone's list that will take matters into their own hands like the young man who took out the CEO of the health care company! I don't think they realize just how angry American people will become when they start doing these things. While many of us will fight with protests, petitions and letter writing, there are some that will go farther and make the fight more physical! I wouldn't want to be the orange smear or any of his sycophants when that happens.
I think about how Germany prepared the Jews for extermination by impoverishing them, moving them around and starving them. Plans like these strike me as similar efforts to kill the spirit of resistance by imposing stress overload on whole categories of Americans.
The thing is, Marge, while we can identify it and tell people what is and will happen, these sheep are marching right along like those poor Jewish people did in Germany! They won't realize it until it is too late. We must, must, must unite in our resistance to these absolutely unfit, untrustworthy POSs that are trying to take over our country!
The “sheep” are being intentionally driven into the jaws of the wolves of Wall Street. And they don’t realize they are already in the FOX corrals, on their way to the loading chutes that lead to the slaughterhouse. A mixed metaphor for sure, but you get it.
Maybe, just maybe if they screw enough people, even their MAGAt base, the people will rise up against them.
Who am I kidding. Americans rise up against the oppressor, not as long as their are libs and coastal elites, feminists, queers and trans to own.
I wonder how many people on Medicaid and SNAP voted for Trump, because of say, the trans threat,. I wonder how many even bothered to register to vote,much less cast a ballot.. Not many I suspect.
I am afraid it's too late...the people voted and now they will also pay the price of their choice.
And they STILL won't figure it out....
Peggy, we do have to hope that our better communications and generally more sophisticated knowledge will get the truth out faster even to our Trump-voting brethren. In my experience, when I’ve believed an illusion and then realize what the truth is, I’ve turned on a dime. People can change course quickly.
The UnitedHealthcare CEO was killed by one guy with a pistol walking behind him, we have between 20 and 30 million assault rifles in this country that can reach out a lot farther than 10’, somewhere longer than 1200’. They may be rich but that doesn’t make them smart. Once the security details start getting shot up, there will be a lot fewer security details, and then it’s open season on the 1%. Do they really think it’s worth it to have lower taxes when they already have more than they can spend?
As I said elsewhere in this substack, there isn't enough security in the world to keep any of them safe.
Dick, given how easy it is to acquire weapons of mass destruction coupled with sheer desperation, I predict we are on the brink of society cracking and the billionaires targeted.
Yes,Peggy Freeman. I agree. Will more CEOs be targeted? If so, would they finally make changes.
I'm almost mad enough myself. I'm a very unlikely assassin, however. I'd be happy to encourage other younger, fitter and trained people, though! Anybody know of an assassin's guild who needs support?
Don't give Trump a pretext for imposing a state of emergency. That would be the worst thing you could possibly do.
We will not be intimidated or life in fear of what the orange idiot might do.
We are going to be seeing more domestic terrorism, last week was just the beginning….
No choice As Frederick Douglass clarifies,” power gives up nothing”. We must take it back. In fact, they demand violence, though we will start nonviolently. The past 45 years with them slieezing along, shaping oligarchy- Nazi .
Peggy I was thinking along same lines. Desperation drives people to do crazy things.
When you mix in anger, frustration and that pure feeling of helplessness to desperation, yes, there will be a lot more of this physical violence. It's like the fight or flight response. Many true Americans are moving out of the country - the flight response, while other true Americans are standing their ground ready to fight for our Democracy, rights, freedoms and liberties.
doge is a dodge-the answers to your questions are no and no
Georgia has a work requirement for medicaid benefits. It is very “successful “ in reducing expenditures, less enrollees = less costs. Thanks GOP !
“Aren’t you rich enough? Have you no shame?” Mary Ann, would that these people were not completely devoid of empathy and could hear and answer your questions with integrity. But they can’t. Something human is broken or completely missing in them. It reminds me of a quote about the bitterness of being rich and how it cuts them off from friendship and family. Here it is, “Some people are so poor all they have is money.” Healthy people would spend money on friends and family and be satisfied to see the good it does.
No, Mary Ann, they do not have any shame. In fact, they are PROUD of their shamelessness. Brian Tyler Cohen wrote a book about this, called...."Shameless"! I recommend it, it's a quick and easy read.
Mary Ann, long story short, no, they have no shame.
Mary Ann - I like what you said. DOGE (and the people on it) is as much of an oxymoron as is the Presidential Intelligence Advisory Board. ;)
The republicans want a woman to be forced into giving birth but don’t want to help her once the baby is born. Apparently the rich don’t care how much a person struggles to live and they will be damned to help make that person’s life less miserable. We pay into these programs, and work hard, but now they want to take Our Money/benefits away. How do people not see that trump’s 2017 tax cuts were for him and not for them? He ran an ad saying that he works for “you” and not “they/them” but it was obvious both then and now that it was all billsh*t. He does work for “them” as long as they are rich enough and do something he can benefit from.
Of course they have no shame...
All so true! The reproductions of this is homelessness, increased deaths and illnesses, as well as the effects of starvation in the elderly and poor!! A Nightmare
No, they don't have any shame !
Already we have seen results of the anger pointed towards our corporate healthcare systems. If and when Trump and Musk effectively cut into Medicare and Medicaid benefits, we might find an issue that unites both Republican and Democratic voters as we get pinched in attempting to pay our medical bills.
What is really sad is that with all the polarization that we have, I know that issue for issue there is far more that united us than separates us. Healthcare is one, infrastructure is another, we had a biparison immigration fix. As for the trans issue if the facts were laid out there would be complete agreement, and it would end all the fuss that gets people nuts.
"Facts matter, even if you don't like them." --- Noam Chomsky
The basic trans issue is that people don't want to pay for their treatments. Same applies to abortion. It's the money and, for some, also the sin.
Sorry, VIctor, sin doesn’t have a place here. You do remember the Constitutional assertion concerning the separation of church and state. In these United States “sin” is something that you can put on your self but not your neighbor.
Sorry, Larry, but you are addressing the wrong person.
“ It's the money and, for some, also the sin.” Your words in quotes. You included this as if their morality had some bearing on the subject. I called you on it because I’m tired of people who project their niche morals on others. Women are suffering and dying because of this. So, I suggest it’s not a mote point.
Paradoxically Marc, Luigi Mangione comes from a wealthy family of privilege and could affort to travel, purchase fake ID's and a ghost gun. Those who will be hurt by Trump will simply lay there and take it.
I know this because the threat has always been there, and those that are hurt by the threat, don't even vote. If they did, Trump would not be president elect.
"Those that are hurt by the threat don't even vote" isn't true. I voted for Harris and this Trump/Elon stance on Healthcare will completely bankrupt me in about a year. Then I'll lose my house next.
Agree that the most vulnerable are the weakest. However we don’t know if Luigi was estranged from his family. No assumptions
I don't know what relevance it has on whether or not Luigi was estranged.
He did have a lot of money, and access o resources as he traveled quitie a bit, including to and from California, had a lot of forged drivers licenses and the means to purchase a 3d printed "ghost gun" AFIK he was not employed but had access to a lot of money.
Cut them off at the pass. National security is at stake. Where's Biden?
In September, DOJ asserted that Sergey Kiriyenko had created some 30 internet domains to spread Russian disinformation, including on Elon Musk’s X which was formerly known as Twitter. In October, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that Musk had been in contact with Kiriyenko and Vladimir Putin which Dmitry Peskov affirmed.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Kiriyenko
Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue doing so in future, We have interfered (in U.S. elections), we are interfering and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do." https://www.reuters.com/world/us/russias-prigozhin-admits-interfering-us-elections-2022-11-07/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_interference_in_the_2024_United_States_elections
Where;s Biden Daniel. We know, Biden is taking care of himself, when he isn't somnolent
The members of the DNC, the influential and wealthy members of the Democratic party, are busy back pedaling and trying to get on the good side of Trump. Like Joe and Mikka they fear for their lives.
Daniel, please explain what Biden can do in one month with Republicans obeying in advance? And can’t incoming administrations essentially cancel or undo executive orders this close to an inauguration? Seriously, you are one of the smartest and most knowledgeable people among any/all substacks. What solution are you looking toward?
Marge it is not just the month left, but if he had six months left, Biden would do nothing, except maybe some pardons.
He set this whole thing in motion when he appointed Garland as AG and revoked the Schedule F EO 13957, rather than use it as a tool to flush the Aegean stable of all Trump civil service appointees.
I am optimistic that even some Republicans are patriotic.
No doubt Daniel, Patriot, patrirachal, paternalism have the same root, the latin word pater, for father.
August Casesar and his law of Pater Familia which gave the father of the family life and death control, (sans consequences) over wife and children.
This is the patriotism of the right, patriarchalism.
I hope so!!!
@Marge. Justice Roberts, when he worked for Reagan, worked out the "unitary executive" therory. At this poind don't have to invoke it, but....
I don't know whether Trump was complicit, but everything can be put on hold until we find out.
John Dean, Watergate fame lawyer, wrote at least three books on the importance of constitutional due process and the dangers of the "unitary executive." Read them!
Your like a skip in a record. Playing over again and again this boondoggle. Our national security is always the skip in that record for the Mighty Wurlitzer to be playing. https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674032569
Our country does more to meddle in other affairs than any on earth.
Wrong Rick, other than going off topic, for the benefit of Putin. I can think of two countries who interfere in the affairs of other countries, not for the benefit of corporations, but for the benefit of national goals. Russia and China, Both have their fingerprints all over the Mid East and Africa, and China has its fingerprints all over Africa, the Mid east and Asia, both interfere in the politics of other countries, especially Russia
Always the 'Bad Actor' eh Mr. Farrar. Our truth goes marching on. Fightin those bad actors. Sorry, I find that our own meddling is far more damaging and self serving to our military complex and own oligarchy than any and all bad actors combined in this world. And its sustained by our national security agencies means of propaganda to tailor the public to the Washington Values hypocrisy. Our foreign policy reflects back onto how our economic decline is destabilizing our own country. A weary public giving the huckster Trump another go at it. The empires crumbling.
No argument from me that our meddling in the affairs of other countries for the benefit of corporations has caused many of the worlds problems.
But that is true of all countries, that scramble for resources, whether state motivated or corporate motivated.
But i live in the present, not the past, And in the present the real threat to democracy and freedom comes from the Right,not just the American right, but the fascism of Putin and China.
Freedom, diversity, equity, inclusion is under threat from within and without, it is difficult enough to deal with the threat from within, but to have people try to distract from the threat from without, for the benefit of the threat from without, That's a bridge too far.
Their is only one threat on the table, for us and the world and that is fascism, whether it is the fascism of the right within or the fascism of the right from without like Russia, Hungary, Turkey, China, Israel or Islam.
Those who put blinders on from what the past has done. Likely repeat the mistakes and inequities. Our history of meddling is long and tawdry. Regime change, dictatorships, military quagmires, etc. No, our country stokes anarchy and destabilization. Has done in the past and does still. Ironically the left in this country under Biden supports war and terrorists. As in Syria now. Israel genocide. NATO expansion to the Black Sea. I don't agree with what our foreign relations has wrought. Its unproductive, arrogant and dangerous.
I think our country is misguided by what China's Belt and Road initiative is and Russia's self security determination is. Our country wouldn't allow tactical nuclear weapons any where near our boarders as was demonstrated in the 60's with Cuba. Part of our Monroe Doctrine empire. We'd put them in Turkey prior to that little demonstration.
We've demonstrated for decades now, ignorant solutions with war and by proxy of war. Over 700 military outposts and a military budget approaching nearly one trillion dollars annually. Financial sanctioning that is condemned by international law. We need to get our own crumbling house in order before we level our hypocritic finger at others.
Actually there is another threat. Climate.
and Trump brazenly admitted that he welcomes foreign assistance in US elections. Isn't this treasonous? Wasn't that the reason Comey was investigating his team?
"For liberal opinion, Russian interference in American elections is the political crime of the century. The effects of the crime are undetectable, unlike the massive effects of interference by corporate power and private wealth, not considered a crime but the normal workings of democracy. Considering the U.S. record of "interference in foreign elections", Russia included, it's laughable." --- Noam Chomsky
Noam never misses the opportunity to absolve others by pointing to the US.
The problem is he is one-sided in his critiques.
Ah, but you have it REVERSED, Dear Mr. Nevas! It goes "Musk and Trump." Bunkerboy is ALWAYS the weakest link in ANY chain.
Trump is a tool and fool, jerked around by flattery and money, That's how he is controlled, especially by Musk. Musk can and is buying this country, one piece at a time
Musk is an autistic sociopath born with a golden nugget in his mouth, he is not a genius, just ruthless, he trods over people and nations to obtain his goal.
Paradoxically it is liberals, climate concerned liberals, that have made him wealthy by buying his cars.
He has the money to hire the best brains, the designers, engineers to launch his space vehicles and control is communication satellites,.Musk, Russia, and new China and even India are catching up on and are ahead of the US because special interest groups and their politicians whine about the national debt and the budget.
In 1992 Bush and Yeltsin signed a space collaboration agreement and soon America stopped producing space shuttles and contracted with Russia to send up astronauts,
We can't even launch humans into space without Musk (NASA's SpaceX Crew-9)
Every power, every culture, every nation, every empire has collapsed and fallen when it lost it's vitality, by becoming indolent, fat, lazy fractious, Be it Pharonic, Nineveh, Persian, Parthian , Babylon, the Greco Roman, the Islamic, the German, the British and now America.
The well fed gives way to the hungry. A 21st Century America, could never bounced back from a 21st Century Pearl Harbor.
It inevitably loses to a lesser, but hungrier and invigorated force
To start with we don't produce our own parts or equipment anymore, all are produced from potential enemies, err competitors.
We don't mine our own strategic minerals either, We have to import them from countries that can starve us simply by shutting down production or export, or levy their own export tariffs.
The U.S. is 100% reliant on imports for are arsenic, fluorspar, indium, manganese, niobium, and tantalum, which are used in a variety of applications like the production of alloys and semiconductors along with the manufacturing of electronic components like LCD screens and capacitors.
Marc Nevas : similar with Social Security. We pay into it all of our working lives. Now it is threatened by the greed of billionaires who want tax "breaks" , when they often pay little, or no taxes in the first place.
Marc, that is not only the intent, but just a continuation of what has been going on for decades: price-gouging, letting the rich escape paying their fair share of taxes, overcharging for medical care, union-busting, and so much more. The rich folks know just how to talk to the people or rather, some of the people that will make those people feel it is OK to give up their bits of money and power to the rich.
Yes, very sad indeed. To see money, we worked for all our lives, part of what we depend on for good health care, now that we are retired will go to help the rich become richer.
That's been trump's plan the whole time. He's gotten a lot of money from the corps and billionaires. He has to pay those pipers and put a lot of money into his own account. I've been saying we all need to sue for all our Medicare money back. The government guaranteed it as a retirement savings account for us. By taking it, it's theft. Not that they care. If we're all lucky, their banks will crash right after they take away the FDIC and they'll lose everything. Maybe they'll react like so many of the rich did during the Depression.
Professor Reich: i've been a medicaid recipient several times in my life and i can tell you without any hyperbole, that i would literally not be alive today without it. so the fact that the orange jesus, leon and ramaswampy -- concealed under the umbrella of DOGE -- are determined to destroy this program is something that is extremely concerning for me personally, and for me because i actually CARE about other people who might find themselves in desperate situations due to health care costs or needs.
Many working people are already on Medicaid, including those who work at big box stores. We're trying to change the system so that the most expensive care, the care provided in ERs, is reduced. When people don't seek healthcare until they must go to an ER, the overall cost of healthcare gets more expensive, not less expensive.
Gloria, I would not be surprised of the likelihood that corporate owned for profit hospitals will be among the first to turn away ER patients if they cannot come up with a credit card and a good credit report before admittance. This would put a further burden on the non-profit hospitals that are here to truly serve the public. This will affect Republicans as well as Democrats. It is becoming more clear that few of our elected “representatives” no longer represent us.
The Republicans have shown us that long range planning for achieving specific goals work. Personally, I am not waiting for the DNC to “get their act together.” That is why I am becoming an outspoken advocate for a system that structures economics in way that no excess wealth can be accumulated until there is first a rational distribution of resources so that everyone has access to healthy food, adequate clothing and housing as well as access to good quality education and healthcare.
We are the wealthiest country on the planet but have the worst healthcare and a declining quality of education. Everyone should also have access to well paying work so they will have sufficient purchasing power to provide for the necessities of life and our healthcare and education should be free.
Here is a link to compelling essays on a better system and how to implement it.
https://crisistransition.substack.com/archive
In 2005, I was turned away from a hospital ER here, to which I had been sent by a local govt. agency for my broken wrist; I even overheard the call made by an ER employee to the agency that had sent me there: 'WHY are you dumping this on us?'
Weeks later, I was sent to a different hospital (but one owned by the same corporation) where my wrist was 'set.'
Marc: Art 12, of the 1936 Soviet Constitution. "if you don't work, you don't eat".
The authoritarian answer to "useless eaters" is to eliminate them, In Tudor England they were expelled from the city and lived in the brush near roads where they would pop up to beg or rob travelers. This led to the name Beggars Bush, and there is still today at least one tavern in Ireland if I recall, and Jordan Point on the James River once housed a settlement called Beggars Bush, before it was founded as Jordan's Journey.
Hitler's solution was final, if they weren't a dependency on a man, they were eliminated. Stalin had the same problem, Moscow had a huge population of wounded war veterans, especially amputees. It embarrassed him and reminded the people of the cost of the war, so in one night the streets were cleared of these wounded vets.
The Republican solution is very libertarian. The non productive can either be eliminated rapidly, or slowly but they will be eliminated. The elderly, the retirees like me are non productive, unless we have accumulated sufficient assets, wealth to maintain ourselves and produce income.
Their attitude is that Social Security and Medicare are a drain on society, and that those who receive the benefits are non productive. That is counter balanced by the fact that expenditure of the benefits, profits private equity funds, and collection of premiums profits financial instiutions.
You have a wealth of facts and stories that are pretty fascinating. My guess is that you have been a lifelong reader of history and true life accounts. I'm guessing that you haven't watched too much TV and that the travel that you've done has educated you. You asked a lot of questions along the way and just kept learning and filing the information. I'm encouraged that your memory is so sharp at your age and you continue to share. You don't seem to be angered by people who question you and those evolved responses speak to a wisdom that formed through non-judgmental approaches. I've enjoyed and learned reading what you write. It makes me think and do more research. You and your wife must have some great discussions.
Where did you see that documentary on food? Netflix
And the self-proclaimed, so-called, "Good Christians" are all for it---until they or their Grandma are affected.
We can't fix the depth of stupid in the USA until we stop celebrating mediocrity and improve the education of young people.
Not Just Christians but all believers,a pox on them, they are a major part of the problem. And I mean believers not just religious either, Religion is just another ideology, a belief system, they come in secular and sectarian forms.
Gloria, that is an excellent point and one those idiots don't understand. For them, the bottom line is they do not care if Americans in the working middle and lower classes die just so long as they keep their filthy lucre! While what they are doing is so painfully obvious to those of us who voted for Democracy, the idiots who voted for the orange man and those who didn't vote at all won't realize it until the deed has been done and they find themselves without what they needed to live in the first place!
If healthcare was health care prevention would save far more $s than not going to ER. As much as I detest RFK jr, he is opposed to the processed food industry which is feeding us poison.
Shop around the edges of the grocery store where the least processed foods are sold, avoid fast foods, become a more knowledgeable consumer and we might become a tad healthier provided our environment remains safe. Then we will not need wormy Bobby to save us. His anti vaccine stance should be enough to prove him unfit for any job in public health .
I watched a documentary last week, about shopping around the edges. This is where you purchase contaminated foods. The FDA is a mirage of the organization it use to be. It doesn't have the staff, the few inspectors that it does have are often co-opted by the corporation that they inspect, and political influence has in essence neutered them.
Fields in California that grow greens, are located next to feed lots, and the feces of the cattle infiltrated the water that feeds the greens. Salmonella outbreaks from eggs.
Processed foods, the aisles people shop, produce endocrine damage, cancer and diabetes.
Loving parents who feed their children breakfast cereals are killing them.
Drop a Twinkie on the sidewalk and not even the fungus or the insects will touch it.
The expiration or best by date on many foods is there because it is required by law, it means nothing because it is forever food.
and yet we subsidize its production.
Yes we do, convenience trumps all. I tried to tell my youngest daughter, that she was poisoning her children when she bought Fruit Loops, she got very angry and didn't want to hear it, because if it weren't for convenience food she would have to cook breakfast or at least boil water to make oatmeal.
But he eats Big Macs with the felon. (?)
He a hypocrite?
RFK Jr is crafty. He uses bait-and-switch tactics. First he tells you something you are likely to agree with, the he gradually walks you deeper and deeper into conspiracy territory. He is being considered for an important position in government, because he is a Tim Mellon mercenary, and TM hates the federal government (aka "deep state").
The question is, why do people wait until it is an emergency? Are they not insured? Is their insurance full of clauses? Prevention includes annual physicals, timely testing (such as mammogram, colonoscapy and so forth).
Many patients do not have a primary care doctor.It is getting more difficult to find them. Many GP doctors. Are becoming "Concierge' practices. Adding $1000 or more (subject to change) fees just to remain a patient in their practice. After decades, I had to leave my general practitioner recently. I will see a nurse practitioner temporarily, until another practice can accept me in January. If I'm lucky.
GPs are not available in my rural area, just nurse practitioners. All of them are women. I have found that they provide me excellent healthcare!
Tim : when my husband's doctor had to leave the Soldier's Home during Covid, I found him a doctor nearby. He has never met the man. But has seen a nurse practitioner in his practice, ever since. He is fine with it.
You might want to stay with your nurse practitioner. They will send you to a specialist as indicated, just as a primary doctor will do. They are often more conscientious, and a study I read questions their use in ERs because they order more tests than doctors do, so they are more expensive for insurance.
Tests are costly, and many are unnecessary. There is a test racket, which, of course insurance doesn't like.
It is indeed harder to find primary care Drs. and because of that moving within the US is tricky.
Dee of the Terrace ; Ironically, my state was often touted as a Great place for medical care, and it has attracted more residents and businesses because of that. But as practices get more busy, some Primary Care practices have been swamped, allowing shorter visits, and not liking the stingy reimbursements of insurance industry. There are medical colleges and teaching hospitals with cutting edge medical knowledge, But, as necessary as the Primary providers are, with requirements for patients for receiving referrals to these specialists, more students are going into the specialties. They get more money, period.
There's a shortage of "family doctors" here in Canada as well. Seems a phenomenon apres Covid. Why, I don't know. Generally speaking they've always been short outside of highly populated areas, in rural, far north, etc. We have a shortage in any case, which is concerning.
The Covid virus/pandemic has highlighted many shortcomings here in delivery of healthcare.
More work needs to be done
I haven't gone to a doctor for 25 yrs. We are an organic food household. No GMOs, zero cornsyrup. Prevention thru healthy food.
Same here Lesley, almost. I am 85 my BP is normal, I get semi annual blood draws for Metabolic Panel, AIC, CBC and all but the A1c is normal, I get the blood draws because of I have hereditary insulin resistance, runs in my mother family, not my fathers. I had lung cancer that metastasized to he brain in 2017, a cranitomy and radiation took care of the brain tumor, Immunotherapy took care of the lung cancer and have been in remission for 7 years. Because of the cancer and diabetes I get semi annual check ups, blood draws, CT Scans and MRI's, to date all good. Another CT scan on Thursday fingers crossed, MRI on Saturday, visit Monday with oncologist.
But what has happened is that I have changed the way that I eat, as much as possible fresh food, no meats, as far as possible only complex carbs. No processed foods,and if interested and you don't have time to prepare meals, there are a few companies that make frozen meals, that are chemical free, whose ingredients are the meat and vegetables only. Amy's is one Evolve is another. Also eat small portions.
I always enjoy your posts. Sending you good vibes for everything positive. You are a survivor. And you got my thinking about Amy's enchiladas now !!
All those suggestions are valuable. There are places to go to clean yourself out too. Also many people do not pay attention to intestinal and colon care. If you can't afford to go to a place you and a friend can go on a clean out diet or do a controlled fast. It's very helpful to have the support of another person. I did a 14 day water only, Dr supported and tested, fast that was life changing for me. I tried raw food only, for a while (no animal products) and that was incredible. It's a challenge to stick to that so I don't do that so much anymore. I went to a raw food and wheatgrass place for 3 months and worked as a volunteer there to learn the basics.
You can buy freeze dried wheatgrass online. I talked to and saw the results of this method with everyone who came there.
and avoid sugar like the drug it is.
It takes time(off of work) and money (for deductibles) for people that are lucky enough to have insurance to see a primary care physician.
Time off work to keep a doc appointment. Is that a thing? Seriously?
If it is, you're in more trouble than I thought.
That is most certainly a thing for millions of people!
And more people die, because having a regular physician, they will catch things with early detection testing.
I think there's a law that demands care in the ER for people who are at deaths door.
I have to look that up but no matter what, care is provided because if it weren't there would be piles of bodies outside the ER.
EMTALA, yes.
As usual, Republicans are penny wise but pound foolish. Then, of course, we have libertarians who believe that we have too many people, and some poor people must die.
Doctors who treat Medicare patients who are paying huge taxes and treated like crap should be reported. Ageism. They aren't doing their job.
This is what they voted for.
My son-in-law, who is so disabled he can only leave the house to go to the doctor, and I, a retired widow, rely on Medicare and Medicaid. I mean, take $200 out of my $1500 a month for a premium and I don't have much left for rent and utilities.
GrrlScientist, yes! And I have a complex immune disorder. If my Medicare is converted to the for-profit Medicare Advantage scam, I would not survive.
Absolutely, GrrlScientist!
You have my sympathy.
I can tell you from personal experience, that one CEO was a good start. My wife has Advanced Progressive MS, I fought with my insurance 3 months for per-authorization for a drug on their approved list, at one point the providers office called the insurance to ask them how to fill out the form to get it approved. I fought with them for 4 months, over infusion therapy for her.
Most people who go in for some bullshit office visit and pay their $30 co-pay and everything is fine, don't understand there is a problem. That is, until they are faced with something that will actually cost the insurance company money, then they realize how truly fucked the system is.
In this country you can't throw a rock without being under the thumb of some corporation, everything in this country has been monetized. Health care, education, existence... everything has a price tag. Greed has no boundary... just like stupidity.
Who is your insurance provider Jim? We need to compile a list of insurance companies that deny essential services.
No need for a list, they ALL do it….home infusion nurse here. My client today is going through it right now- 7 years of IVIG, which is well documented in preventing her from becoming non ambulatory, is now being denied by the Same insurance company over an administrative change - her spouse (retired last year) just went on Medicare- she is now paying COBRA through the spouses former employer, they are appealing the denial- but no more IVIG will be delivered until there is approval. At $10,000 a treatment, it’s in the insurance’s best interest to drop her. They’d rather see her in a wheelchair than pay for treatment that keeps her on her feet. It’s pathetic
My wife goes through the University of Washington MS Center, they were able to get it through using medical necessity. Since she had breast cancer they can only use her left arm for the infusion, which requires an IV nurse, because her veins are narrow. So, basically, every 6 months we prepare for a fight.
Have you tried reaching out to a foundation ton ask for help/backing?
You are right Susan, they all do it. What is needed is a list of Health Insurance providers, and at the top would be Medicaid Advantage.
I assume United Health care would top the list
All of them. That’s the list!
Then we need to list them for the benefit of others
Jim, I am so sad and SO angry for you and your wife.
I think you have hit on the most important point - everything is being monetized. In the years when the infrastructure for the Internet was first envisioned the major players were universities and government agencies. In our naivete we thought the Internet would be the great equalizer. Like public education, a public good. I never dreamed it would become a for-profit enterprise, keeping the less advantaged outside its vaulted gates.
Gutting Medicare is another needless and cruel act that proves that the “family values” party doesn’t value families in the slightest, especially if they’re poor. They are #ProSTRIFE and inducing suffering has become part of the GOP brand.
It’s eugenics- they want everyone not like them to die
The cruelty is the point.
Sadly, I'm not sure I can be shocked anymore by any horrendous thing Trump and his gang members do, but I am shocked that almost half of US children live in families that make less than $43,000. Obviously, the 0.01% have eaten the American Dream and now plan on swallowing the rest of the country.
Didn’t the American voters know that,A LEOPARD CAN’T CHANGE HIS SPOTS.
Hello anil. The American voters have been told this story about the destructive plans of the GOP for decades by the DEMs, unions and any one else with any decency in their heart. They have chosen not to listen and the number of folks eating up the GOP lies and hateful bullshit has only increased. I have a number of family members who have been GOP for years and not rich. Just average working class folks. When I explain to them what DT, Project 2025 and the Wall Street thieves are up to they just look at me with glazed over eyes and say.... oh, they wouldn't do that. I tell them they have just bet their SS, Medicare and other great benefits brought to them by the DEMs to find out. Good luck... GH
So I am correct in the assumption that the majority of American voters are stupid & Gullible!
But I think it applies to humans everywhere that’s why the world is in such a mess!
Tower of Babel = Fourth Estate. No shared understanding in the US thanks to foxy…Now, more obvious propaganda in the billionaire owed newspapers
Yes, it surely applies to humans everywhere.
At least the American voters who cast their ballot for DT are stupid and gullible in my opinion. Thanks for your thoughts... GH
Bad things always happen to somebody else, maybe them, but not us.
But, I didn't think the leopard would eat MY face!
See: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/15/us/trump-immigrant-deportations-rome-georgia.html
Sadism and masochism are all too common among 'Americans.'
Almost Eugene, there is empathy for the tribe and family, bot not for the sassenach
Had to look it up - and then saw that I must have encountered it before, as my wife is a big Outlanders' fan, and after seeing the cite, recalled hearing it.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Sassenach
That saying,. Anil, harks back to Voltaire, who wrote a man cannot change his character anymore than a leopard can change his spots.
and then Kipling wrote a short story about how the leopard got his spots. I cannot remember a word of it, but I know that I enjoyed it, as I do most Kipling.
I never read kipling, outside of the classics, which I read around the age of 12, I haven't read much fiction.
I love fiction, but officially stopped reading it in November, 1988, as it felt like it was imperative to focus on non-fiction, given 'what was going on at the time,' and have seen no reason since to re-assess that, though I have bought a few books of fiction I haven't read in that time.
Maureen, 40% of Americans could not come up with $400 for an unforeseen financial crisis. They don’t have the savings, friends with savings, or credit to borrow $400. They live in a constant state of fear.
Making them prime victims for Trump's snake oil.
One can be impoverished and literate; literacy skills should be enough to kill any interest in supporting Trump or Trumpers.
People who are terrified and desperate find it hard to use their cognitive skills.
Thanks for this summary. This is exactly what I'm afraid of: the MAGAts in charge will work to achieve their goals through complex steps...and it will end up hurting a population that insists on seeing the world as simply as possible. They'll never notice what's happening to them, and even if they do, they'll never believe it.
"Nope, I know the tv shows truckloads full of bodies leaving the city, but that's because the media lies and COVID is fake! Fauci said one thing, then said something slightly different 10 months later. He's a libtard, not a scientist!!! Global warming CAN'T exist because last Tuesday was hot as hell!"
The Dems must keep their own messages simple in tying GOP moves to the inevitable pain voters will experience. If they cannot win this part of the information war, if they are unable to deliver the truth and make it stick, prepare to watch millions of people become convinced the Republican-driven Medicare problems are somehow caused by Hillary's emails.
Climate change increasingly will make insurance not afforable and thus fewer mortgages. This could even lead to a financial collapse at some point.
You would think Dems could make hay with this, but not so sure anymore.
This is the primary reason that I may have to eventually find a way to leave the country.
I am disabled and cannot work, my costs for medical care and medications are all paid by Medicaid. If I lose that coverage I lose the ability to get the care that I need to survive.
Me too. And now having just turned 66, I am on Medicare and Medicaid. I researched moving to Scotland (including costs to just move, let alone pet costs for them to enter with me). I have to be honest, no country wants you if you’re retired and/or disabled. Political asylum is a possibility or applying to a university to continue my PhD. Many of us are screwed. However, the bright side is thinking of the look on those billionaires faces when they try to touch SS and Medicare and are confronted with millions and millions of the Grey Legion (hair, that is!). Haha. Ever piss off an older person who has the time to research and doesn’t care about speaking up, speaking out, using their political and economic clout? They are in for a long overdue reckoning, and that includes politicians on both sides of the aisle!
Remember Maggie Coon, the Grey Panther? I saw her speak one time. She was a fabulous advocate for aging people. You are SO right about the Grey Legion!
Yes, that’s exactly who popped into my mind!
As I age I'm wondering if I may need to leave the country as well. If I have a stroke or accident and end up in a nursing home or something, whatever medicare and my medigap union insurance won't cover, will be gone...home, car and any other valuables attached to pay bills. If I sell my house and move to say, San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, things would be different. There are Drs there for regular check-ups. I had a broken wrist down there and the surgery was perfect. I had it gone over by a surgeon at Swedish here and he said he could not have done any better. I could have a person come and check on me at home. I'm thinking about it and doing research. At 77 years I don't need life saving techniques applied. I wouldn't want that. Maybe I'll take up sky diving. It would fit in nicely with the life of adventure I've enjoyed.
Derek, I totally understand. Those of us with disabilities and/or complex health conditions have everything to lose.
As do the millions of us on Medicare
Including me. Medicare Disadvantage is a scam that profits by denying care. If they convert, I will not live long.
They’re nothing but a bunch of dogebags.
🤣🤣🤣
Medicaid coverage has been expanded through previous Democratic and Republican administrations. Now, under this one, it is threatened. I guess it is clear that health care is not considered a human right, the only thing that is considered a right is making the richest Americans even richer.
'The ONLY legitimate purpose of government is extractng money from those who have less of it than I do!'
It’s our only obligation…to become fodder for the wealthy. There are no rights.
The murder of the United Healthcare CEO should have been a wake up call for the wealthy. By cutting Medicaid and other programs that benefit the poorest among us and many others is not a good idea. DOGE, if it ever comes to be a government agency, better be prepared for some backlash. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction!
The wealthy and corporations have IGNORED us for 45 years. It has taken me time to see clearly that as Frederick Douglas said,” power never gives itself.. it must be TAKEN “ . No more pussy foot. Boycott . Shut your legs ladies, the white boys see all you have given as their property!”. Non-violence will be hastened to violence as they will not stop.
The message I perceived from L. M. is stand up to the bastards; take one for the team.
100% agree, Keith!
Calvinist Americans are sadists. These policies were all clearly articulated by the GOP and the Trump team long before the election. These policies could not have been avoided by having a better "story" on the progressive side. These policies are the result of anger, stupidity, and cruelty.
I am unfortunate enough to be a resident of Texas, and “my” Senators are the loathsome Cornyn and Cruz. I write them angry letters daily. Cornyn does not care what his constituents think, and my impression is that he is quite open in his contempt for those who will not give him the rubber stamp of assent. Cruz is a very egregious enfant terrible, sending machine-written, circumlocutious replies that seem guaranteed to irritate. You have to remind these animals, continually, that you are a constituent and your views count for something. They keep getting re-elected time and again, along with the monsters in Texas’ executive and legislative branches. Cruz’ most recent opponent was a young Congressman from Ft Worth, an ex-football player who played the “Republican lite” game. He voted for 9495. I voted for him, but it was more of a case of anyone-but-Cruz than anything else. I would not vote for him again: I would vote for None of The Above.
Many TexMAGAs favor repeal of the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913 and providing for the direct election of Senators. Many historians credit the efforts of the Populist Party of the 1890s for the advancement of this Amendment. If the yahoos of TexMAGA had their way, Senators would be chosen by fascist, Christian Nationalist state legislators in Austin.
Texas’ state song, which I loathe, makes reference to the “glorious Alamo”. There is nothing glorious about a fortress where everyone inside was slaughtered. At the end of 1967, when Lyndon Johnson was going all over the place delivering lectern-pounding tirades demanding a firmer commitment in Vietnam, I believe it was Walter Lippmann who wrote, “Mr Johnson is applying to this disaster the do-or-die rhetoric of the Alamo —- which, as we know, was not a glorious success.”
Freedom for the wolves means death to the sheep. The oligarchs want us to die for their freedom, not ours. Who benefitted from the slaughter at the Alamo and who still benefits from the story? I just read that there is a movement toward a for-profit health insurance system in Ukraine. The war isn't even over, as far as I can tell.
Gloria..." Freedom for the wolves means death to the sheep"...that statement sent shivers up and down my spine! The very essence of billionaires plan.
Is there an ounce of humanity.left to be found in these leeches...?.Just how much is too much....?
Apparently media tiptoes on the repug eggshells & now any 'rape' verbiage is sugar-coated. Here's what's coming : the rape of Planet Earth, as they rapaciously drill out the oil & minerals, demolish regulations, smite the wilderness, foul the air & waters. The world is their oyster. Until there's no more oysters.
Lesley...under the boot of the cult master your proficy seems to be this country's future. How could so many be duped by this menace to democracy?
Beggars the imagination!
I so hope I am wrong, or something intervenes.
They are ADDICTS to money and power. Just like coke & heroin. Never enough. Insatiable.
Lesley & Viki...
Sadly...very sadly...think you are both Spot On!
At least we can meet each other on this site & no there's still decency around.
It seems like a worse addiction. I know people recognizing they can overcome drug addictions. This greed-thing they have, humanity & Earth doesn't matter to their bank accounts. muskito wants to be a trillionaire, rumpus wants to be a billionaire, & this whole planet is the price of their glee for adding more zeros to their wealth. WTF is wrong with their wives, Everyone abiding them is complicit.
Substack sending women down the alley of being ignored.
I lived in Austin two years and saw what was happening there and left. I empathize with your angst. Move, if you can, to a place with better ethics, like MN,VT, CO etc.
what is Dm?
Direct message, there has been a plague of scammers trying to con people.
Relocation
This is like the corruption of the Roman Empire when that was at its worst. The wealthy will get 90% of everything and everybody else is on their own. That should tell you how the Roman empire rotted from the inside out.
Putin must be jumping for joy. Same with Xi. They won’t have to do a thing. They will just have to wait for us to fall apart.
Oh what a tangled web.... Those morons that voted for Trump but will be losing their Medicaid WILL most likely vote against the GOP/MAGA in future elections -- UNLESS they die before then. (I'm sure that's part of the GOP's goal.) Just like everything Bad was blamed on Biden from 2020 through 2024, Bad Things that happen in 2025-2028 WILL be blamed on Trump. He can't hide behind Musk, because it was Trump who empowered the DOGE co-chairs. The word WILL get out for no other reason than the Dems will be blasting that info across all Media sources. (If the morons choose to not believe what the Dems tell them, then consider it Natural Selection In Action and they _deserve_ all the Bad landing on them.)
But if the GOP does implement much/most of Project 2025, one of two things will occur: 1) They will have become so powerful that it will have become all but impossible to dislodge them from their seat of Power. America will no longer be America, ever again. 2) After bankrupting the government with all of their "Steal from the Poor and give it to the Rich" policies, they will accept that they will lose control by 2028. By then, it won't matter: they will be owning EVERYTHING worth owning. The Economy will be soooooo bad, they will be offering wages at the rate of pennies-on-the-dollar that workers will be **eager** to accept. And with their massively swollen wealth, they will simply BUY the overwhelming majority of legislators, thereby retaining their control of government.
I don't think the Project 2025 folks will stop with Medicaid. They want to privatize all of Medicare so everyone will have to participate in the scam "Medicare" Advantage plans. I am fortunate enough to be able to afford a Medicare Plan F Supplement plan. I have never had a claim denied with that plan from United Healthcare (so far). But I certainly have had friends and relatives with Advantage plans go through the delay, depose, deny gristmill.
Yes, Georgia. I selected Medicare supplement as well. I have a complex medical condition and under Medicare Disadvantage the GOP wouldn’t have to worry about me voting against them. I’d be dead.
I hope not Marge... I enjoy your comments. Keep them coming! GH
It's very simple: KILL MEDICAID=KILL PEOPLE!
'And what gets GOP members off like killing?'