Tag: Medicare

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VP Harris Calls Out The Hypocrisy Of “Pro-Lifers” Who Consistently Vote Against Laws Meant to Financially Assist Parents

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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris sat down for an extensive interview with CNN’s Dana Bash(06/27/22), where she discussed the bombshell Supreme Court decision striking down Roe v Wade, and other issues confronting the Biden administration as we approach the crucial midterm elections this Fall. One of the major highlights of the interview was when VP Harris called out the “abject obvious hypocrisy” of “pro-life” Republicans in Congress, who talk a big game about “right to life”, yet at every turn vote against measures intended to improve the financial situation of parents. It appears congressional Republicans only care about the life of the baby before they are actually born.

Asked by host Dana Bash whether the federal government will step in and help mothers who will be forced to have babies they can’t financially support, VP Harris responded(video at 0:10):“I’m so glad you raised that point because I’m going to say this, and here’s the abject obvious hypocrisy. Those people who say that they do not want to allow a woman to choose, to make the decision with her priest, with her rabbi, with her pastor, that instead the government is going to interfere and make the decision for her. Those same people are the ones who voted against the extension of the child tax credit, the same ones who voted against a tax cut for families to pay for child care, the same ones who are voting against paid family leave, the same ones who vote against putting resources into public schools. I was doing work on maternal mortality. We are pushing to say that for example, Medicaid should be extended for post-partum care from 2 months to 12 months. These are the same people who reject the notion of expansion of medicaid.”

Asked what the Biden administration can do in the form of executive action, VP Harris said that this is a democracy, and therefore Congress is the proper venue for effectively addressing issues related to the reproductive health of women. She said as it currently stands, “the numbers are not there” and so the filibuster remains an obstacle, even though Democrats control the White House, the Senate and the House. VP Harris said codifying Roe v Wade will become a reality if Democrats pick up more seats during the upcoming midterms–a tall order which I suspect will not sit well with already frustrated Dem voters.

Asked to weigh in on whether Supreme Court Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch lied under oath during their Senate confirmation hearings, VP Harris responded:“I never believed them. I didn’t believe them. That’s why I voted against them.” She added, “It was clear to me when I was sitting in that chair as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that they were very likely to do what they just did. That was my perspective, that was my opinion, and that’s why I voted like I did.”

As about what the Biden administration is doing to assist working families drowning under high inflation and gas prices, VP Harris pointed out that a lot of this has to do with Putin’s war in Ukraine, and that the Biden administration is working closely with our allies around the world to rectify the situation. She also pointed out the things the Biden administration is doing locally to ease the financial burden on working families, namely, lowering the cost of prescription drugs and child care.

Asked about the January 6th investigation, and whether given her background as a prosecutor, she would bring criminal charges against former President Trump, VP Harris cleverly dodged the question, saying jokingly, “As a former prosecutor, I never comment on another prosecutor’s case.”

Importantly, VP Harris finally settled the lingering rumors that keep popping up in various sections of the mainstream media about President Biden possibly opting out of 2024, or picking a different running mate. She gave host Dana Bash a plain an simple answer to that question: “Joe Biden is running for reelection, and I will be his ticket mate. Full stop.”

Hopefully this will put an end to the annoying MSM rumors about a broken Biden-Harris 2024 ticket. Seriously MSM, there are much more pressing issues to focus on–in 2022!!

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Sen Joni Ernst Busted Again Talking About Cuts To Medicare, Medicaid, SS

Sen Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)

An audio recording of Sen Joni Ernst(R-Iowa) telling a group of GOP donors that there needs to be “changes”(read cuts) to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security has surfaced. You’ll remember that Sen Ernst made similar remarks at a town hall in September 2019 where she said Congress needs to meet behind closed doors to address these programs–essentially gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in secret.

In the latest audio, a person at the GOP event can be heard saying, “Even without the additional spending we’re already going bankrupt…the biggest driver of that being entitlements. It is interesting hearing your classmate [Sen]David Perdue. He’s been pretty frank about the changes that need to happen with Medicare and Medicaid. Are you on the same page with him on that?

Sen Ernst responded, “I think we [Republican Senators]all are because we all understand our non discretionary spending is growing like this. Everybody focuses on the discretionary spending because that’s what we have control over in Congress. The rest is on auto pilot and it’s out of control. So we have to figure out ways to honor the commitments that have been made and make changes for the future.”

For the record Sen David Perdue(R-GA) has been very vocal about his desire to reign in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security spending in an effort to address the ballooning federal deficit. Sen Joni Ernst has also flirted with this idea previously but unlike Sen Perdue, is afraid to say so in public. Why won’t Sen Joni Earnst, who is up for reelection in 2020, look Iowans in their eyes and tell them that she wants cuts to their Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits?

Bottom line folks, Americans elect politicians and send them to Washington with the understanding that the said politicians will in turn look out for their interests. All national polls indicate that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security remain very popular programs among Americans, including Iowans. Where, as here, Sen Joni Earnst appears hell bent on gutting such programs, she owes Iowans an explanation–publicly. Simply put, Sen Ernst should tell Iowans in public, what she says all the time at private GOP gatherings and that is, she wants cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security programs. Iowans deserve a Senator who will level with them.

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Sen McCaskill Slams GOP Over Their Hypocrisy On Deficits


In their last televised debate before the November elections, Senator Claire McCaskill(D-MO) and her GOP challenger Josh Hawley sparred over a whole host of issues most notably, the all important healthcare fight. In what should be the closing argument for any Democrat running for office this November, Sen McCaskill laid it out perfectly; “The Republican party loves to talk about debt and deficit until they are in charge and then its crickets, its absolutely crickets. So yes we vow to look at all of it. No cuts to social security, no cuts to medicare. As I said, Josh Hawley is proposing cuts to medicare..”




Good news for Democrats is the people of Missouri think Sen McCaskill won the debate. Hopefully this translates into votes.

Bottom line voters in Missouri need to come out in large numbers and send the beloved Dem senator back where she belongs–in the U.S. Senate batting away for the working poor. Simply put, a vote for GOP’s Josh Hawley is a vote to gut medicare, medicaid and social security so as to address the deficits caused by GOP’s tax cuts for the rich.

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Ted Cruz Doubles Down On His Preexisting Conditions Lies

Sen Ted Cruz’s Interview On Fox26 Houston

After MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow recently exposed how Republicans vying for Congress this November, including Sen Ted Cruz, have resorted to outright lies regarding their record on Obamacare’s preexisting conditions, one would think that the said GOP candidates would do the reasonable thing and at least back off from their provable lies. This is especially so given the fact that former President Obama himself, the pioneer of Obamacare has also recently gone public ridiculing GOP’s lies regarding his signature healthcare achievement, and specifically its popular preexisting conditions rules.


Turns out Sen Ted Cruz is not your “reasonable person” because instead of backing off from his outright lies on preexisting conditions, he has done an interview with a local Houston TV station doubling down on them. In his interview on Houston’s Fox26 station, Sen Ted Cruz said, “We[GOP] want instead lower premiums, more access, protect preexisting conditions. Beto is trying to tell some falsehoods about that but everyone agrees we’re going to protect preexisting conditions but make health insurance more affordable.”

The full Ted Cruz interview is available here but the relevant clip is below.

Think about that folks, Sen Ted Cruz has been the biggest opponent of Obamacare and specifically, its preexisting conditions rules. He is even on record as having argued that Obamacare’s preexisting conditions rules are unconstitutional.

Now days before the November elections, he goes on TV and proclaims that he, not Democrat Beto O’Rourke is the champion of Obamacare’s preexisting conditions–with zero push back from the local Fox26 host. What alternative universe is Senator Ted Cruz and the Fox 26 TV host living in? Folks we can’t let Ted Cruz lie his way back into the U.S. Senate. We must make sure Texas voters know his real record, which is to knock people with preexisting conditions out of affordable healthcare options.

In the interview Ted Cruz also lied about Beto’s record on medicare when he said “What Beto is proposing is taking 200 million people who aren’t on medicare, many of whom haven’t paid into the system, including illegal aliens and putting them all on medicare. That would bankrupt medicare.” For the record, Beto has never advocated medicare for illegal aliens and again this is an issue the Fox26 host could easily have known is false and pushed back on but instead let Cruz’s big lie stand.

Bottom line folks, ever since Trump became President we are confronted with several crises, chief among them the “lying crisis”. Throughout history politicians have been known to embelish their positions on various issues. What we are witnessing today however, where a candidate for the U.S. Senate, who is known as a major opponent of Obamacare’s preexisting conditions goes on TV and shamelessly declares that he has always been for preexisting conditions, represents a totally new phenomenon that we need to take very seriously. Simply put, a reasonable argument can be made that Sen Ted Cruz’s current stance on preexisting conditions is borderline fraud, which should disqualify him from holding any public office, let alone being a U.S. Senator. 

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Joe Biden Slams GOP For Plans To Gut Medicare, Medicaid & Social Security

During a campaign stop in Florida for Dem Senator Bill Nelson, former Vice President Joe Biden delivered what grassroots Democrats have been clamoring for all along as we head into midterms 2018–confronting the GOP over their plan to gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security so as to resolve the massive deficits caused by their recent tax cuts for the rich.

In classic Joe Biden fashion, he went after the GOP’s shady scheme saying, “Mitch McConnell the Senator from Kentucky is straightforward….he says we have this gigantic debt now, we have to cut social security, medicare and medicaid. Folks, folks they are being straight up about it, they are coming at it. This is what people desperately need and they’ve never been able to take it away from us before and I wanna tell you something, If Bill[Sen Bill Nelson] does not win and we don’t take back the House and Senate, they will take it away.”

This is precisely the campaign message Democrats all over the country need as we approach midterms 2018 and you don’t have to take Yours Truly’s word for it.




Bottom line as Yours Truly has said before, going after the GOP’s plan to gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social security is the sure-fire way to victory for Democrats in midterms 2018 and beyond. As for old Joe, maybe just maybe, this is his ticket to the White House in 2020. Simply put, healthcare is by far the number one priority for Democrats and indeed a large chunk of independent voters going into the 2018 midterms and quite possibly the 2020 general elections.

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Mitch McConnell Confirms GOP Plans To Cut Medicare, Medicaid & Social Security

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all but confirmed what most Democrats including Yours Truly have always suspected, that the GOP’s ultimate plan is to gut the three key entitlement programs Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security using the argument that they are the biggest contributors to the national debt.

Asked by a Bloomberg host what the GOP plans to do about the record $779 Billion deficit, Sen McConnell responded, “Its very disturbing and its driven by the three biggest entitlement programs that are very popular, Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. That’s 70% of what we spend every year…there’s been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of those programs. Hopefully at some point here we will get serious about it, we haven’t been yet.” Translation? If the GOP wins both the House and Senate this November, expect drastic cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

While it is a fact that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are indeed the biggest contributors to the national debt, what Republicans conveniently leave out of the debate is that this was true even before they passed their massive tax cuts that favor the rich. As a matter of fact prior to the GOP passing the massive tax bill, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office(CBO) warned that the tax bill would severely worsen the national debt problem. So Republicans knew their tax cuts for the rich would balloon the already high national debt, rammed them through anyway, and are now trying to shift the blame to the working poor by arguing for cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Several mainstream media outlets confronted key GOP members of congress about the wisdom of pushing through the massive tax cuts knowing full well that it would worsen the national debt problem. The answer given by House Speaker Paul Ryan, a well known deficit hawk was that there was nothing to worry about because the tax cuts would spur massive economic growth which would take care of the deficit problem

It appears now given Sen Mitch McConnell’s recent comments to Bloomberg that Speaker Ryan was lying all along. The GOP knew full well the tax cuts would create a massive national debt which they would then use as an excuse to gut the three key entitlement programs–Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security–a lifelong goal for GOP Super Donors Koch Brothers.

Bottom line it is not a surprise that the GOP is now going after Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. The important thing is that there is a surefire way of stopping the corrupt GOP dead in their tracks--voting in midterms 2018. Simply put, Democrats must campaign heavily using the argument that the GOP wants to gut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, programs that have predominantly helped the poor in order to sustain their reckless tax cuts for the rich. Now that is a winning campaign message for Dems both for the House and U.S. Senate.

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Dems Must Kill PA’s ConCon Measure Before A Vote

Pennsylvania is a crucial swing state in Presidential elections. Democrats have traditionally done very well in PA. Obama for example won PA both in 2008 & 2012. Hillary Clinton was favored by pollsters to win PA in 2016 but surprisingly lost to Donald Trump. The fact of the matter is there is a lot of Dem support in PA and as we approach Midterms 2018, it is important that Dems point out GOP’s efforts to change the constitution


Pennsylvania’s Constitutional Convention proposal HR100 was introduced in the PA Legislature on March 20, 2017 and has 7 sponsors–all Republicans. According to the PA Legislature website, the proposal is still lying in the PA Legislature with no vote taken on it yet.

That leaves us with only 7 PA GOP ConCons to go after(proposal sponsors). They are up for reelection so its important that we kick them and their ConCon proposal out of the PA Legislature in Midterms 2018

Here’s a HANDY LIST of the 7 PA GOP State politicians pushing Koch Brothers/ALEC’s radical plan to change the U.S. Constitution and thereby eliminate Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security

Bottomline, because Pennsylvania is a crucial swing state where Dems have traditionally done well, the DNC must wage the NoConCon war there–especially in this midterm election year. Surely Dems can flip these 7 PA State House seats blue.

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Dems Must Wage NoConCon War In Wisconsin

In a recent post Yours Truly suggested that Democrats needed to wage the NoConCon war in Michigan because it was a Dem-friendly state. Well the same applies for neighboring Wisconsin

On Nov 7 2017 the Wisconsin Senate passed AJR20 the state’s constitutional convention proposal. 19 Wisconsin GOP State Senators supported the ConCon measure. Sadly not all of them are up for reelection this year.


Here’s a Handy List of Wisconsin GOP State Senators up for reelection this year, who backed Koch Brothers/ALEC’s radical plan to change the U.S. Constitution opening up the door for elimination of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security under the guise of “Balanced Budget Amendment.”

The interesting thing about Wisconsin is that the Dems really fought back the Senate GOP ConCons. The same day the WI Senate GOP passed the ConCon measure, Dem State Senator Chris Larson (seen in the picture below) addressed demonstators who chanted “hands off my constitution”.

State Senator Chris Larson addressing NoConCon Demonstrators

Another Dem State Senator Kathleen Vinehout also slammed the GOP’s ConCon measure warning that it could degenerate into a “runaway” convention, basically a free-for-all where everybody’s constitutional rights would be at the mercy of GOP politicians–VERY SCARY. Yours Truly will reach out to these Wisconsin State Dems to see if they can mobilize a nationwide NoConCon movement.

The proposal passed the Wisconsin House on a 60-37 vote. There are 21 Wisconsin GOP House Reps who sponsored the ConCon bill. However three of them, Chris Kapenga, Dave Craig and Frank Lasee have since become State Senators.  Of the three, only Sen Kapenga is up for reelection in 2018 and Yours Truly has included him in the HANDY LIST of State Senators(see gallery above). The Handy List of WI House Reps is therefore down to 18 and here are their “mugshots”

Bottomline, because Wisconsin is similar to Michigan and Minnesota in that they are all Dem-friendly states, the DNC must wage the NoConCon war in Wisconsin–especially in this midterm election year.

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A Handy list of Texas GOP Politicians Pushing Koch Brothers/ALEC Radical Plan To Change The U.S. Constitution

In a previous post, Yours Truly highlighted a radical plan by the Koch Brothers and their outfit American Legislative Exchange Council(ALEC)  to get  Republican-controlled State legislatures to support their effort to Amend the U.S. Constitution and thereby ELIMINATE programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that have greatly benefited the poor.



This rare constitutional maneuver referred to as Constitutional Convention (aka #ConCon in Twitter circles) or Convention of States would require the approval of 34 State Legislatures for it to initiate (begin debate). However for any proposed amendment to be ratified, it would require the approval of 38 State Legislatures. Because this is such a radical maneuver by the Koch Brothers and their State GOP enablers, our target should be to prevent them from getting to the 34 states required to begin the constitutional amendment process.

Texas has traditionally been a hotbed of Republican politics. It follows therefore that the Koch Brothers/ALEC would push their radical Constitutional Convention campaign heavily in the state---and they have. All elected Republican politicians in Texas have bought into the ConCon idea, from The Governor, Lt Governor, the two U.S. Senators and virtually all GOP State elected officials. The Texas Senate for example approved the ConCon idea on February 28, 2017 on a 20-11 straight party line vote. The same thing happened on May 4, 2017 when the Texas House of Representatives, adopted the Senate's proposal on a 94-51 straight party line vote. You would think that on an issue as consequential as changing the U.S. Constitution, the Texas GOP would at least strive for some support from Democrats, but no, they are controlled by what Koch Brothers/ALEC want, not what is in the best interests of the State. 

Given the heavy investment Koch Brothers/ALEC have made in Texas as a ConCon state, it naturally follows that Texas also has to be ground zero for the #NoConCon movement--people like Yours Truly, opposed to Koch Brothers/ALEC radical idea to amend the U.S. Constitution. That of course begins by knowing who our enemies are--The Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Lt Governor Dan Patrick and the Texas GOP State Senators, without whose support the radical Koch Brothers/ALEC agenda would be dead on arrival

Below are the 20 Texas State Senators who supported Koch Brothers/ALEC radical plan to change the U.S. Constitution. Governor Abbott, Lt Governor Patrick and most of the GOP State Senators below are seeking re-election this November. Because the said Texas Senators are supporting Koch Brothers/ALEC's radical plan to kick Grandma and Grandpa out of their Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, let's return the favor and kick these shameful Republicans out of Austin this November. We owe that much to poor Grandma and Grandpa. 

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