health care reform

A few weeks ago Digby and I went to dinner with Ted Lieu and Ro Khanna, two of Congress' most dedicated legislators-- guys actually looking for ways to make people's lives better. We asked David Dayen to come as well so he could explain the intense research he has been engrossed in involving pharmacy benefit managers. His piece, "The Hidden Monopolies That Raise Drug Prices," is running in the new issue of the American Prospect and it's worth reading in its entirety.

Blue America first met Jeff Merkley almost a decade ago when he was Speaker of Oregon's state House. There seemed so much promise in his candidacy for the U.S. Senate and we endorsed him-- and have never regretted it for a moment. At the time, we introduced him as someone who had been an outstanding and accomplished statewide leader who not only had good ideas, but translated this ideas into legislation.

The other day, Alex Samuels reported in the Texas Tribune that Barbara Bush, the daughter of George W. Bush, was the keynote speaker at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser in Ft. Worth on Wednesday, where she insisted that the work the organization is doing is especially important after the ascension of the Trump Regime.

The third-ranking Republican in the House, Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) is responsible for running a team that counts votes for Ryan and McCarthy. When Ryan releases a trial balloon-- like, say, the Obamacare replacement plan he "leaked" last week-- it's up to Scalise to find out if there are enough votes inside the Republican conference for them to introduce it without having to go make deals with pesky New Dems and Blue Dogs.

Yesterday CNN interviewed John Kasich, who was in Munich for a security conference. Among other things, they asked him about Paul Ryan's and the House Republicans' plans to take away health care from millions of Americans by "phasing out" the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. You can listen to Kasich's response in the short video above. In short, he's appalled.

Polls that came out this morning from CNN and the Washington Post both show that buyers' remorse over Trump is already rampant. CNN's showed that when Trump is inaugurated Friday-- it won't just be ticket scalpers who are suffering.

Whether Putin placed him in the White House or not, Trump— or Pence— is the president. And Schumer’s brilliant strategy of nominating unelectable corporate shills backed by Wall Street to ride into Senate seats on Hillary’s coattails in Pennsylvania, Iowa, Florida and Ohio means the GOP will control the Senate for at the very least 4 more years. That leaves one task to put the breaks on Trump— the 2018 House elections.

The cost of health care vs. the consumer price index for the last ten years (source; click to enlarge). Note especially 2009 and 2010, recession years for the CPI. If you do click through to the source, note that its author apparently doesn't understand the relationship between monopolies and pricing power.

And he meant itYesterday the House passed H.R. 1270, which the Republicans had cutely called the Restoring Access to Medication Act 243-164. Although unheralded, it was the 64th GOP attempt to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act. Every single Republican voted YES-- even the ones who try to pass themselves off as vaguely mainstream-- and 164 Democrats voted NO.

When Hillary attacks Bernie's single-payer health care plan, she acknowledges-- at least when pinned down-- that it's better than her own tepid, incremental proposal... but her argument, and that of her team, is that Bernie's plan could never pass this Congress. You don't say? Nothing that helps ordinary working families that either Hillary or Bernie proposes could pass this Congress. If Bernie is the nominee, the Democrats will surely recapture the U.S.