I'm sure millions of folks getting their revised premium bills will decide to write a check for just $13 more, and drop a note in the envelope that say "Please bill the remaining balance to Dr. Mehmet Oz."
This is all like knowing how a movie ends. As Prof. Krugman intimates, most of what's happening now was in Project 2025, and many of us warned about this last year – but others waved it off and didn't believe it, while Trump "played dumb."
But did you ever in your lifetime think that we would see bogus propaganda like that posted on an official United States Government website? Unreal.
I agree, look at the good work most are doing, not obeying in advance! And fired for upholding principles, law firms I know hanging tough. Generalizing about lawyers isn’t productive, as is generalizing about most things.
It's easier for people like Ryan above to proliferate on their prejudices and grievances than to look at the world somberly, connect the dots and arrive at sound observations.
I am wondering how the military is feeling about the government they currently serve. I mean the wealthy donor that Trump got to pay military only donated enough to pay each family around $100. Lucian K. Truscott IV, said that when he found out his cook was stealing food for his family and others because people did not earn enough to feed their families properly he had them sign up for what was then instead of SNAP, and which has morphed to SNAP. Military is supposed to go attack the people for Trump when he does not care to pay or feed them. Will anyone in the military figure out who is behind their suffering? Americans have a president who hates the people, or tolerates them, depending on whether or not they supplicate to him. It is sickening and it is NOT NORMAL!
I first learned about the Bonus army through one of Joseph Bruchac books. I think it was "Two Roads." He tells stories of Native Americans, so that is the perspective he approaches the Bonus Army from. I read that but decided not to share it with my fourth grade students because some of the material was too difficult to discuss.
The judge has a history of being overruled — another shortcut to bypass the democratic process.
A Democratic filibuster doesn’t qualify as an “emergency,” and the law doesn’t say it does. If they refuse to end the filibuster, then letting SNAP benefits expire is a political choice they’re making. To democrats, the bigger goal outweighs the harm, and SNAP recipients are just collateral damage.
Isn’t this really a question for the courts? You can’t run SNAP for the next year on funds that don’t exist — there simply aren’t enough of them. We’re not at war, there’s no natural disaster, and COVID is long over.
What’s happening now is a Democrat filibuster that’s blocking the budget and, as a direct result, cutting off SNAP. That’s not an emergency — that’s politics. The Democrats are using the people who depend on SNAP as human shields to force through their own agenda, and the ones paying the price are the poorest Americans.
They can damn well pull a few billion out of that $170B that's been shoveled into ICE to fund tRump's private Gestapo. Or, grab some of that ridiculous ballroom money.
Aaron, you've been hanging around that golden calf too long.
"The Democrats [Republicans] are using the people who depend on SNAP as human shields to force through their own agenda, and the ones paying the price are the poorest Americans."
There is no “filibuster,” as you keep calling it. The holdup is that the Rs need several D votes to pass the big ugly budget and aren’t getting them, no matter how many times they vote. The Ds are smart enough to know that there will never be any negotiation on healthcare if they give in to the Rs. Because the R’s promises aren’t worth anything. They lie. Its a trademark of this regime. 👹
Not quite: what they want passed now is called a “Continuing Resolution,” which usually maintains the status quo for some period. In this case, about three more weeks.
What republicans were supposed to do—the only actually must do task since they took office back in January—was pass a budget by September30th. That they haven’t even come close to a real and new budget is way under reported. Funding the government with a series of short term CRs, as they’re called, is both irregular and improper.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. The Republicans have the majority vote — they already passed the funding bill. It’s the Democrats who stopped it with a filibuster.
There’s no scenario where this ends with Republicans voting to advance a government takeover of healthcare. That’s what this whole standoff is about — Democrats trying to use the shutdown as leverage to lock in new entitlements before the next election. It won't work. Take a breath - do you see the democrats winning. I don't feel it. It seems they are on the losing side of a political issue. So far, the left wing press is covering for them. But there is a time limit. We already know the democrats could care less about SNAP funding, and I don't think the findings of their hack judges is going to hold.
The worst thing about Oz is that he is not a “fake” doctor, he was (is?) a highly respected cardio thoracic surgeon…he’s just an unbelievably bad person
I believe that the same is true of Dr. Ben Carson. He was supposedly a renowned heart surgeon but found that there was more money in politics.
That is an affliction that is more prevalent on the right side of the political spectrum. It is possible to make huge sums of money running for office and appearing on television and writing books. You don't need to be elected to rake in the dough.
I mis-spoke about Ben Carson, I forgot that he was a pediatric neurosurgeon. I should’ve remembered that because my late husband was a neurosurgeon and he couldn’t stand Carson. My husband was a kind man unlike Carson. And a dear friend of his was a pediatric neurosurgeon who was a wonderful human being.
I am a retired doc - I still pay attention to stuff like that. The important thing about Carson and Oz is that doctors are not immune to propaganda and the lure of money and power drew both of them into tRump's fold.
Just because you are competent at your job doesn't make you renowned. Tens of millions of people are very good at their jobs whether they are rocket scientists or bus boys in a restaurant.
I've never heard anyone say, "Man, that is the best job of clearing tables I've ever seen, and yet there is someone that's the best."
And when you are on a project team oftentimes the "best" person isn't a great team player and the project drags along. I've seen this happen in the several hundred IT projects I've worked on.
DeMarco in his book Peopleware says that sometimes you need to remove a team member to get it back untracked.
I knew a woman, a nurse, who had heart surgery by Dr. Oz. She had done a research and he was a good heart surgeon. Correct point about Dr. Ben Carson. By all counts a good heart surgeon. And here in Massachusetts, in Boston area, we have the example of a heart surgeon who took over running Steward health care, which resulted in the shutting down Carney hospital which was in a more disadvantaged neighborhood. Meanwhile that Dr was traveling around in a huge yacht in Europe. These heart doctors have no heart themselves.
A man dies and finds himself standing in front of the Pearly Gates. As St. Peter is slowly going over the details of the man's life, the man notices someone dressed in surgical scrubs walking around inside Heaven. "Wow!" says the man. "That surgeon must have really saved a lot of lives!"
St. Peter doesn't even look up before replying "Oh, that's just God. Sometimes he likes to think He's a surgeon."
Hahaha. I once had a surgeon with zero bedside manner skills & as such REFUSED to accept any knowledge I had gained through a support group for our very rare cancer. I called her ‘The Goddess’. She was an absolutely gifted surgeon but I refused to do follow up with her & insisted on seeing the chief of her dept. for my first post op follow up. He was training a brand new resident that day & made the mistake of asking me why I wouldn’t see her — to which I replied ‘oh, you mean the goddess?’ They both burst out laughing. Point made. I continue to follow up with him to this day.
The variation that's popular in aviation circles. A pilot gets into Heaven and an angel is showing him around. Eventually the pilot asks if there's a small airport in Heaven. "Certainly" says the angel and they boogie on over to a little place with a grass runway.
There's a v-tail Bonanza in the pattern. It comes in with the gear up, cartwheels, and is a total wreck. The Bonanza pilot climbs out, walks over to another Bonanza, takes off, does one pattern, and makes another disastrous gear-up landing.
The new immigrant to Heaven is astonished and asks the angel "what's going on?" The angel replies "Oh, that's just God. He thinks he's a doctor."
For those of you outside the aviation community, the v-tails were very popular with doctors and are tricky to fly. Doctors seldom had the spare time to create and maintain the piloting skills needed to fly them safely. The planes acquired the nickname "Fork-tailed Doctor Killer."
The old V-tail has been replaced by the Cirrus SR-22T as the new doctor/lawyer killer. Guy gets his private certificate, then hands over $750,000 for a brand new Cirrus that is faaar more capable an aircraft than the new owner will ever be a capable pilot. But, hey! It's got all this fancy automation, so no need to REALLY learn how to fly!
Sounds familiar...I don't know exactly what kind of plane it was, but a very capable (and egotistical) local vascular surgeon crashed his into an apt bldg parking lot on his way from KY to a convention in Chicago, killing his wife and, ultimately, himself. He was a great surgeon, but I'm thinking he could have driven up from here in a few hrs and still be alive today... ego is a dangerous thing.
I remember another pearly gates joke that is at least close to on topic, although it may not be so funny anymore. St. Peter is at the pearly gates for an VIP arrival. The important new resident turns out to be Sigmund Freud. St.Peter greets him: Dr. "Freud, it's a great honor to have you here. I wonder if I could ask a favor." "Of course, anything," Freud replies. "Would you consider taking on a patient for analysis?" the Saint replies. "Certainly, who
is it" asks Freud. St. Peter looks around nervously and replies "Well, it's Him." You don't mean ...?" replies Freud. "Yes, I'm afraid so, he suffering from paranoid delusions of grandeur" says the Saint. Freud asks what the symptoms are. St. Peter answers "He imagines he's a United States District Judge."
I think he decided that "First, do no harm" wasn't really an important part of his oath, thus it's okay to push bogus supplements, worthless remedies, and useless devices on the sick and desperate.
There are indeed quite a few sociopaths in Medicine, a few of them have ended up in the Senate. However, the greatest concentration of sociopaths is in the Trump administration.
I remember a small group of pre-med males in one of university classes in the mid 80s. Not one expressed a desire to help humanity, only to make a lot of money. I decided that day to never become one of their patients.
I taught medicine back in the day. I advocated unsuccessfully for making personality testing (MMPI) a requirement for admission with a high score on the Sociopathy Scale a disqualifying measure.
If I were granted godhood, I would remake medical education in the U.S. so that getting into medical school was actually merit and ability based, and getting the education is free. Then I would remake the entire medical industry so that doctors--ALL of them--are government employees. Nobody gets rich, but nobody ends up poor, either.
The goal is to attract people into medicine who love the idea of helping and curing others while discouraging those who see gold in them thar ills.
In Finland, teachers just starting their professional lives make the same as doctors doing the same. The idea is valuing those who are important to the nation while not thinking that "valuing" means they have to be millionaires.
I caught the beginning of a talk on NPR in which the speaker started off with "You can tell I'm a doctor because I'm Indian." It was intended as a joke and got a laugh.
My husband worked for the FDA during the 1990s and 2000s, so he had experience dealing with surgeons in panels overseeing pharmaceutical standards. His conclusion -- surgeons are mechanics and never have and never will understand disease, drugs, etc. Oz, Makary, and Carson, all surgeons.
The fact is, the US has a generally appalling system of health care, by far the most expensive in the world and by far the least efficient.
Years ago, Ed Eichhorn and I wrote a book detailing how high quality access could be extended to all Americans, regardless of income, for about 13% of GDP (rather than the current 20%), thus saving a trillion dollars a year.
It sold just 800 copies and disappeared without trace.
The cost of the National Health Service in the UK is 11% of our GDP. It's not perfect but means that someone does not become bankrupt and impoverished because they have the misfortune to develop cancer (or a recurrence following treatment).
As of 2023 the cost of healthcare as a percentage of GDP was ~18% in the U.S. versus an average of ~10% for all OECD countries. This extra spending gets us the privilege of dying two years younger, at 78.7, than the average person in all the OECD countries (80.7). And amongst the wealthy OECD countries we lag even more, e.g. we live 6 years less than the avg. Japanese person, 5 years less than the Spanish and Italians, 4 years less than the French.
Some blame this gap on our lifestyle, but the biggest factor is infant deaths. The United States ranked 33rd out of 38 OECD countries with a rate of 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The U.S. is a country plagued by sociopaths. The wealthy ones are insatiably greedy and cruel. The wannabe wealthy get their kicks punching down, taking glee fighting the poor rather than poverty.
Yes Peter, the US ranks with Kazakhstan, but what the GOP does not dare say is that nearly all of those deaths were black and Hispanic infants, so they don’t care.
Fair - ironically a great deal of the bureaucracy was brought in under the Conservatives more than decade ago. Despite its imperfections it offers a high standard of universal healthcare.
Knowing the Conservatives, I suspect this bureaucracy was designed to hold down costs by denying healthcare - same as US. It had the opposite effect.
The UK (and the US) could greatly improve care and hold down costs by firing the bureaucrats and letting doctors run things again - like in the Good Old Days.
Amongst other things they introduced a complex 'internal marketplace' which has generated substantial transaction costs whilst railing against 'penpushers' in the NHS. Ironically the OECD has reported that the UK's spending on health administration is 2%, well below the international average. I hate to think of how much of US healthcare expenditure is made up of administrative costs with the complexity associated with the insurance system.
I’m a doctor in US I read mammograms. In UK program of a mammogram every three years is half useless. In Us half the radiology studies I see ordered are unnecessary. I’m not fond of either solution.
That's really depressing. The worst part is, finding a fix for heath care in the US isn't a unicorn hunt. There are multiple working models to emulate.
MAGA despises any kind of universal healthcare. I suspect it’s because they don’t want their taxes paying for poor people’s care. Could be a race angle too.
It’s the only explanation for why Canada has universal healthcare but the US doesn’t.
In my province, it was introduced in 1965. At the time the population was mostly all white.
There is a race angle. Plus, through an accident of history, US corporations started to offer health insurance during WW2 to get around wartime wage controls. So the horrible (non)system the US has is a combination of general contempt for the poor, combined with a quirk of wartime restrictions. Now so many pigs are feeding at the trough, they can't/wont fix the system, even though it's going to destroy the US economy.
Between 1965 and 1980 the increase in healthcare costs were similar under Canada’s single payer and the USA’s Medicare. Today, 45 years later, USA’s healthcare costs are double that of Canada’s. Administration accounted for the largest share of this doubling in cost (39%), followed by providers’ incomes (31%), and more intensive provision of medical services (14%). For double the cost US citizens get: higher infant mortality rates, lower life expectancy, no universal healthcare. Critics of Canada’s wait times for non-critical services ignore the millions who must wait FOREVER for healthcare in the U.S.
It's truly amazing what people in the US put up with. It's the biggest demonstration of the "Stockholm Syndrome " in the world. The US Healthcare "system" is literally going to destroy the US, but they can't seem to fix the system. Getting US healthcare costs down to Canada's level would save $2.5 trillion/yr.
Sorry that book disappeared. Like so much knowledge and information and wisdom these days. Keep speaking, please. Your voice and info are needed for the post-rump society.
Brazil, a medium income country (& great inequality) has a free health system, which includes sophisticated organs transplants). It has 210 million people. It is difficult to understand how the US has such an expensive and unavailable to all health system. The wonders of wild capitalism.
But we don't have capitalism. Adam Smith would have thoroughly approved of universal healthcare.
What we actually have is socialism, not for the common man mind you, but for the wealthy. For what else is not paying your taxes but government welfare?
The problem is that for the last 40 years the wealthy have not been paying their share of taxes, with the result that they now have amassed enormous wealth, and with that wealth they have bought the government and pretty much destroyed the market.
This is something Smith dreaded. His solution was very simple: Tax the Rich!
Oz is not a fake doctor which is the real tragedy. He was a top cardiothoracic surgeon at NYC Columbia Presbyter hospital which is why Oprah had him on her show. He was a top expert in his field before he became a grifter.
The guy who really started the anti-vax scam was also a reputable doctor, Andrew Wakefield who falsified data about the measles vax causing autism because he was despising in his own vaccine.The UK yanked his license but it was too late. The US media gave a platform to parents like Jenny McCarthy who were convinced that the vaccine caused their kids’ autism but rarely reported on Wakefield’s con job.
Then there is Dr. Ben Carson who became chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins when he was only 33.
I am glad my physician father did not live to see these men corrupt the field he cared about so much.
Dr. Oz is lying and he knows it. To be in the Republican party these days you must have one attribute skill over all others, the ability to lie with a straight face and enough conviction to convince others, including yourself, you are telling the truth. In other words, a sociopath with no morals working solely to enrich your sponsors at the expense of everyone else.
The thing about Dr Oz is that he told a blatant lie that will be proven false to every person insured by ACA when they receive their premium notice. Lying is fundamental to the Trump regime, that they do it even when it’s exposed in real time.
Aetna Medicare Signature PPO. Monthly plan premium went from $79 to $94. 79/94 is 84.04...% . They also established a new $500 deductible on drug costs with new charges running from $2 to full cost of each prescription. Co-pays are also up a bit.
It is amazing that every magat is now infected with "Trump Math Syndrome", in which good numbers are inflated 100 times and bad numbers are divided by 10. This is easier to hide in real estate, estimated death from opiods, and made up numbers for Saudi investments. A bill arriving through the mail slot has a certain inescapable clarity...
Let it be clear that Dr. Oz is a real MD. People have to remain aware that MDs and ODs can represent the most dangerous quacks in the population. These are the ones more likely to follow self-interest, personal experience or attractive fads than those physicians with the discipline to keep up with the high-quality journals for their fields, or even participate in research themselves (science).
I did learn two new things about Dr. Oz today:
- He served in the Turkish military (listen for the sound of MAGA heads exploding).
I not inclined to think that these guys aren’t smarter than that and simply know what blatant lies they want to peddle. After all Dr Oz built an entire career selling snake oil. I think he knows his craft.
Thanks for sharing. I quit NYT about 1 year ago along with the WP both papers were being complicit in Trump propaganda. I guess better late than never in realizing a dictator.
A longtime reader if NYTimes and WashPo, I also ended my subscriptions. And in this case, their “are we starting to lose democracy” is lame. We don’t have one now. We don’t have rule of law. The bigger questions, as i see them, are how much worse will it get, and how do we reclaim our democracy!
And even now, after reading the first 2 references, their take is still rather milquetoast. Stating the Trump administration is ‘starting to’ rather than the truth, which is the Trump administration ‘has’. I stopped reading after these first 2 (of 12) examples of how your democracy is slipping into autocracy. Because…well, truth matters.
Same here, though I think I acted earlier, since I follow some leftish sources that showed me how bad they are. But I reopened the online accounts recently, having seen some honest stuff from them. (They are pretty much ubiquitous.) And this is extraordinarily forthright.
I think Donald Trump is alienating too many swing voters. Strengths in Numbers says voters now prefer Democrats over Republicans by 6% in 2026. A very healthy margin.
There is a direct connection between the coming-into-existence of the whole "Trump era" and the obvious fact that he sells a lot of papers and generates a lot of entertainment "value." Trump is the human personification of what philosophy refers to as a category mistake; there is no way he should be where he is. His political incarnation is a direct indictment of our culture and its values and our education system.
I am continually amazed and astonished that the rethuglicans have spun abject, unvarnished cruelty into a 'winning' strategy. And a lot of them claim to be devout Christians... except they think the Jesus of the Bible is too woke. Obviously, I got on the wrong bus and ended up in Bizarro World.
I had the misfortune to attend a couple of fundie services. There were people having seizures in the aisle at one - they called it "speaking in tongues." Christ was never mentioned. All of the preaching came from Paul, who was not known for his kindness.
I remember when Msgr Montini became pope after the death of John XXIII and chose the name Paul (VI). Our local paper quoted an old Italian woman in St Peter's Square saying 'oh, that's too bad. Saint Paul hated women.'
This was over ten years before Ronnie became President. It was also in western South Carolina, where it was probably regarded as normal. I had been picked up for driving without a license and the county prison officials thought it was edifying for all of the inmates to attend. A friend paid my fine the next day and that was that.
I'm in hope that the statement Americans will try all the wrong things but finally will do the right thing. This tendency to want to follow blindly a person of a cult base is disturbing. Needful to keep banging on the drum calling out the absurdities, cruelties, and social murdering that is happening. I think on a one on one basis a large amount of our prople are compassionate and caring. It does confound me that so many fall into center of being oblivious to the threat hanging at their doors but their ox have not been gored as yet.
Not all Christians want to stop SNAP, fuel assistance , or Obamacare. Many of us are not wanting to be governed by the dictator and did not vote for his Project 2025.
We are trying to do what Jesus would do and giving time and money to pantries etc.
I feel genuinely sorry for Christians who take Christ's teachings seriously, because I can well imagine how it must feel to be tarred with the same brush as that being applied to self-styled "Christians" who'd most likely have him deported or lynched if he descended among them without identifying himself beforehand.
How did you vote? Do you watch Fox? Are you aware they are splicing video clips to create the illusion of a (manufactured) riot? Cities are not on fire. In fact violent crime was already greatly reduced in the cities invaded by ICE. Second, the most violent cities are in the South with Memphis leading the pact. Lastly, does your church stand up against this outrage?
Memphis tends to be slightly democratic based on voting results in recent elections. Compared to other nearby cities, Memphis has more republican voters. Compared to the nation as a whole, Memphis leans more democratic.
Highly educated populations with bachelor’s degrees or higher tend to vote for more liberal candidates. In the Memphis area, 30.23% of all adults have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. Educated women are far less likely to vote for conservatives, and in Memphis women make up 51.99% of the population.
Older Americans tend to vote more conservatively. Members of the Boomer and Silent generations (born 1928-1964) more often vote for Republicans while GenX, Millennials (born 1965-1996) and younger generations consistently support Democrats. The median age in Memphis is 38.1, which is younger than the national median age of 38.1.
Is Memphis a political battleground? Across all types of political contests in Memphis, including state, local and presidential elections, races come within five percentage points 7% of the time.
Not all of those who claim to be Christian follow their path. Many follow Christ's teaching on charity to others: Matthew 5-7. Matthew 22:36-40. Matthew 25:31-46. Mark 12:28-34. Many other passages. As Michael Brook says, Jesus would be appalled at what these "Christian" Fundamentalists claim is Jesus' directions. They apparently read a different bible than I do.
That seems like a good point about fundamentalism. The fundamentalist versions of each religion have more in common with each other than they have with other adherents within their own faith-tradition.
Except for one thing: they hate those other faiths.
I guess that's a good thing - or else they might all team up.
James I would be appalled. In his time, the priests pretty well ran the roost, since the Bible (and virtually every legal text) was only available in Latin, and the priests cherry-picked the teachings. Their preachings tended to be rather hostile to him at the time.
While his command to translate the Bible to what passed for English at the time was only targeted towards the nobility (the common people couldn't read), still, it pulled a lot of the teeth from the priests in Scotland and England.
The people now have become too lazy. They don't read the text for themselves.
The unlimited power Trump&Co seem to have has really gone to their heads.
What is interesting to me is the pettiness of their actions:
So we see: Russel Vought strutting, boasting about and glorifying his devastating US government destruction. Stephen Miller's public chest thumping about the US Navy attacking fishing boats, and his ICE gestapo imprisoning day-laborers and hairdressers in concentration camps. Trump himself quacking about a third term and a Nobel prize while sneakily tearing down ⅓ of the White House in order to build himself a throne room. Wildly fluctuating tariffs based upon Trump's senile feelings on any given day. Heads of vital Agencies engaging in dress-up cosplay.
And, if the described drug situation in Trump's first term is any guide, they are probably all drugged from their toes to the tips of their hair.
Thank you. It’s very sad. On Halloween night a neighbor left out a box of whistles-to alert the public if ICE was seen-some of us are trying to reduce this illegal activity-bs!!-and help protect
The idea that Republicans cause misery this extreme and also call themselves Christians just shows there is nothing authentic in their actions - it’s all a performative power grab.
"And Jesus sent for the lepers and the blind, and said unto them, "Ye shall pay me a fee of all that you have and more. Then shall I send you into the wilderness afflicted still. Meanwhile, be sure to tip the billionaires on your way out."
My favorite part is where he multiplies the loaves and fishes and instructs his disciples to hand them out to the crowd, saying "But be sure to use your gaydar and don't give any to people whose sexuality doesn't align with our heteronormative views." Yeah, they knew that word even back then.
The don't appear to have much point to their power grab, other than enriching themselves further. Proj 2025's goal seems to be creating a religious-techno fascist state. The US Gov has opened the door wide to another devastating pandemic. But I see no examples of any of those men creating or building anything. Empire wrecking is a lot easier than Empire building. And, as the old saying goes "Rome wasn't built in a day."
The point is always the same for the inner circle of GOP-ness: lowest possible taxes and deregulation. Everything else is just whatever it takes to keep power. Racism, pretend "heartland values", limited government, the rule of law, fiscal discipline - all of those ideas are just whatever-it-takes-to-win. The goal is lowest possible taxes and deregulation.
what i am saying is that the people in the GOP who most represent its cruelty snd racism are actually just tools for the heart of the party that is just about low taxes and de-regulation
For the record - in 2024, the total cost of SNAP benefits represented .015 of the total fed spending of $6,800,000,000,000. SNAP provided 41,700,000 Americans - the vast majority of whom are children, aged, disabled and/or the working poor - with an avg monthly benefit of $187.54, or $2.08 per meal.
Republicans aren't just nasty SOBs, they're CHEAP, nasty SOBs.
Meanwhile, the American voters who are most damaged by Republican cruelty continue to be irrational, illogical and ill-informed and vote for the very pols who are intentionally and cruelly knee-capping them. Go figure.
"Think of how ignorant the average person is, then realize half of them are more ignorant than that." - George Carlin
For years I've been asking for the answer to a question, and with no success...
Can you name any legislation...
1) Either proposed, or even simply supported by the GOP,
2) For the purpose of helping working-class, middle-income Americans,
3) Anytime in the past 75 years?
The closest answer I can find is the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), though it's not really geared specifically toward middle-America. And the GOP certainly didn't propose it. And now the GOP has thrown those once-valued voters under a big bus.
But in all the time I've pointed this out to MAGA, not a single one has ever expressed the slightest concern. Apparently hating brown people trying to feed their families requires less thought...
To be fair, Nixon did propose and pushed through the EPA-something that helped clean the air and water for all-poor people often being the ones down stream. Republicans don’t seem too proud of that accomplishment now.
This Congress has been the least productive Congress ever. And no one is to blame but the Republicans, they have the House, Senate and the White House .. OK, all but the part they knocked down illegally.
We need to keep reminding those around us that we elected Congress to legislate, not sit at home collecting a check and avoiding their job.
Time to 'make a deal' John Thune and Mike Johnson ... it's your fricking job.
I have often thought about that very same question.
In my lifetime I have not seen a single bill the GOP has proposed to help Americans in any way, except for the upper class and wealthy.
It's all about lowering taxes.
They love telling people to pull yourselves up by your bootstraps, get a job, and make your own way. Yet, they never take into account those born into poverty, the lack of food to thrive as a child, the lack of education, or those with disabilities.
They believe everyone is born with an equal start in life.
They are greedy, pretentious, and uncaring. Always have been and always will be.
Unfortunately, Alex, while ALL true, and perhaps even occasionally successful one-on-one, it's not necessarily a successful argument overall for Dems.
All it takes is for a few million MAGA to present the option of restoring slavery in order to "benefit middle-America", and suddenly no one is listening.
Not that I'm a fan, but the earned income tax credit (EITC) was first proposed and signed by President Ford (1970's) and it was substantially expanded by President Reagan in the 90's. The child tax credit (CTC) was also initially proposed, supported, and expanded by Republican policymakers (with bipartisan support).
Republican's philosophy is Social Darwinism. Survival of the fitest in their view, and in their view the only measure that matters is how much money you can make and accumulate. It's everyone else has no value Capitalism at its finest!
They believe that helping the "weak" is hurting the Human Race, especially "The strong", which, of course, are how they define themselves. "Strong, cunning predators". Nope. They are leeches, sharks, vultures: parasites and scavengers. They see the US in ruins as a perfect scavenging ground for themselves.
Dems have done a good job framing the issues, but they should also make the point the bill the Senators refuse to pass only had 1 Dem vote in the House, so is barely 'bipartisan'. GOPers in the House essentially just created a bill without Dems' input, then shoved it forward to the Senate, and now it means nothing when it goes to a POTUS to sign, when he can just rescind whatever he doesn't like, and re-allocates monies on his whims. Also, why do we read news reports today that Hegseth and Rubio have each moved into what is known as 'military housing'?
Seems it was Derek Tran, of Orange County, Ca., who voted for the Continuing Resolution on 9/19/25. The one Dem vote is why GOPers in the Senate claim it's a 'bipartisan bill' from the House.
Recent vote, 10/28, “But on Tuesday, a vote to advance that Republican stopgap failed to advance for the 13th time, with no change in the caucus’s defectors from the other 12 votes. Only two Democrats — Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) — along with Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats, broke ranks and supported the measure.
I believe there's another, less conspiracy theory oriented reason, that Johnson is preventing the House from session and it's pretty simple - the American Fascist Party is establishing the Unitary Executive's ability to spend without Congressional Authority.
The one major systemic balance the House holds over the President is power of the purse. The President is required to faithfully execute the laws as enacted - something Trump clearly is NOT doing. If the House isn't in session, no budget can be enacted, therefore the President can continue to rule and spend autonomously. The fatally corrupt Supreme Court will uphold Trump's actions and PRESTO, we have a dictator, with full funding and spending capability. Congress need not even exist after that.
It's all part of the plan folks.
Epstein is a convenient distraction, the files have long since been destroyed - no way is the government going to let them be released - hundreds of Captains of Industry, Politics, religion and god knows who else are in there. It's not just Trump, it's everyone, hell Johnson himself could be in there for all we know.
Mmmm, I don't think the files are truly gone ... paper copies maybe but blackmail is the kind of currency that never really disappears, particularly in a scandal this big, covering so many influential men. How else has Trump and Maga brought so many to heel and so quickly? How did Epstein make his money? Why is Ghislane Maxwell still alive? Leverage. Influence. Threats.
We don’t need the Epstein files. We just need the perpetrator’s names read aloud in Congress so that the victims can proceed publicly without being sued into homelessness.
The real kicker in all of this is that delaying action on ACA subsidies for much longer will lock in the premium increases because insurers and exchange won't be able to make any changes. Voters will have an entire year of paying (or not affording) dramatically increased premiums before the mid-terms.
Meanwhile, I note a major comeback of a type of news story that seemed to have vanished a decades ago: Insurers refusing coverage for life-saving procedures and medications. NBC Nightly News has run three of these in the last week, highlighting the profit-over-people motivations of American health insurance.
Remember: According to Republicans, the only thing wrong with American healthcare is the fact that YOU get too much of it.
Now the republicans have a further problem. They have been trying to convince people that the democrats are responsible for the shutdown, but now Trump just came out and said they should end the filibuster to reopen the government. He never can stay on script.
I don't want to see children starve or people go without healthcare, but I hope Republicans' refusal to govern gives Americans some appreciation of what the government has done for them when it is functioning.
"The mask is ripped off right now, ahead of schedule." I think Trump's obvious mental and physical decline has precipatated the rush -- Vought, Miller, et al, need to get power consolidated before even the MAGA faithful notice that he has dementia. Trump is being given dementia tests (Montreal Cognitive Assessment or other) twice a year, plus MRIs -- this is not a schedule for people who do not have symptoms. And he states that the recent test was hard. Even those of us who don't watch him are aware that he is not functioning at the same level as he did a year ago. If you've had relatives with dementia (and I hope you've not!) you will be aware that the symptoms can come and go -- some days are better than others, some days some things make sense and other days, not so good.
It's crystal clear. The GOP/MAGAs real and only agenda is the destruction of the Federal government. Healthcare and food assistance for the poor are merely some of the near term damage.
Trump is preparing for "war" in American cities as he starves and sickens it residents and illegally drags non-white residents into detention for deportation.
Surely there is one republican woman in the house or one republican man with a daughter that know the right thing to do is to sign off on releasing the Epstein files. This could open the house so that the representative from AZ could be sworn in, the VICTIMS of Epstein could be treated with respect and they could get to work on ending the shutdown. Of course, this would take some courage from just one republican and why be courageous when they can be cruel? In summary, the stalemate in the house is in the hands of a single republican, right!
All the Dems and 4 republicans have signed on to release the Epstein files. One more house member has to sign on and Grijalva has agreed to be the final vote. My point is, one more house republican should sign on to be the final vote. Why is it always the Dems that have to do the work the republicans should be doing themselves. Why can’t the they find one other republican who thinks having sex with children is wrong?
As usual, “fake” Dr. Oz has zero clue what he’s talking about because he’s too blinded by his own partisan bullshit.
I'm sure millions of folks getting their revised premium bills will decide to write a check for just $13 more, and drop a note in the envelope that say "Please bill the remaining balance to Dr. Mehmet Oz."
That’s a great idea. 💡
NPR :
A judge is set to decide whether SNAP benefits can be cut off on Saturday
October 30, 20253:29 PM ET By Tovia Smith
https://www.npr.org/2025/10/30/nx-s1-5591347/snap-food-stamp-benefits-tro-court
Let’s hope it’s one that has a conscience.
This is all like knowing how a movie ends. As Prof. Krugman intimates, most of what's happening now was in Project 2025, and many of us warned about this last year – but others waved it off and didn't believe it, while Trump "played dumb."
But did you ever in your lifetime think that we would see bogus propaganda like that posted on an official United States Government website? Unreal.
We are lost.
Or salvaged.
If we're talking about salvage, I'm quite sure China is picking up on every opportunity that the Trump Administration gives them.
They're buying the coffee from highly-tariff'd Brazil, Canadian lumber, any rejected US scientist that's interested (Europe gets most of the rest).
I don't know where vaccine R&D will go, but Europe has the regulations and India has the production facilities to shift that away from the US, too.
Or at the least values the law.
A lawyer with a heart and a brain? You’re dreaming…I vote for the cautionary principle at best.
Guess you don't know many lawyers. The good ones care about people and are smart. The old tropes are nonsense.
I agree, look at the good work most are doing, not obeying in advance! And fired for upholding principles, law firms I know hanging tough. Generalizing about lawyers isn’t productive, as is generalizing about most things.
It's easier for people like Ryan above to proliferate on their prejudices and grievances than to look at the world somberly, connect the dots and arrive at sound observations.
For judges, professional pride can fill the bill.
I am wondering how the military is feeling about the government they currently serve. I mean the wealthy donor that Trump got to pay military only donated enough to pay each family around $100. Lucian K. Truscott IV, said that when he found out his cook was stealing food for his family and others because people did not earn enough to feed their families properly he had them sign up for what was then instead of SNAP, and which has morphed to SNAP. Military is supposed to go attack the people for Trump when he does not care to pay or feed them. Will anyone in the military figure out who is behind their suffering? Americans have a president who hates the people, or tolerates them, depending on whether or not they supplicate to him. It is sickening and it is NOT NORMAL!
Time for another Bonus Army to camp out around DC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
I first learned about the Bonus army through one of Joseph Bruchac books. I think it was "Two Roads." He tells stories of Native Americans, so that is the perspective he approaches the Bonus Army from. I read that but decided not to share it with my fourth grade students because some of the material was too difficult to discuss.
With the existing extreme court a decision to restore funding to SNAP will be held until the extreme court rules, maybe next June.
So the ruling just came in restoring SNAP funding. I have an errand for the next 2 hours; I expect the stay will be in place before I get home.
Hearing on Monday early afternoon.
Gov't to report to and in Court.
Thank you!
The judge has a history of being overruled — another shortcut to bypass the democratic process.
A Democratic filibuster doesn’t qualify as an “emergency,” and the law doesn’t say it does. If they refuse to end the filibuster, then letting SNAP benefits expire is a political choice they’re making. To democrats, the bigger goal outweighs the harm, and SNAP recipients are just collateral damage.
Withholding SNAP benefits is illegal. There was a contingency plan for a shutdown that has obviously been overruled.
Isn’t this really a question for the courts? You can’t run SNAP for the next year on funds that don’t exist — there simply aren’t enough of them. We’re not at war, there’s no natural disaster, and COVID is long over.
What’s happening now is a Democrat filibuster that’s blocking the budget and, as a direct result, cutting off SNAP. That’s not an emergency — that’s politics. The Democrats are using the people who depend on SNAP as human shields to force through their own agenda, and the ones paying the price are the poorest Americans.
They can damn well pull a few billion out of that $170B that's been shoveled into ICE to fund tRump's private Gestapo. Or, grab some of that ridiculous ballroom money.
Aaron, you've been hanging around that golden calf too long.
"The Democrats [Republicans] are using the people who depend on SNAP as human shields to force through their own agenda, and the ones paying the price are the poorest Americans."
160,000 new cases in the last month. Who the H are you?
There is no “filibuster,” as you keep calling it. The holdup is that the Rs need several D votes to pass the big ugly budget and aren’t getting them, no matter how many times they vote. The Ds are smart enough to know that there will never be any negotiation on healthcare if they give in to the Rs. Because the R’s promises aren’t worth anything. They lie. Its a trademark of this regime. 👹
Not quite: what they want passed now is called a “Continuing Resolution,” which usually maintains the status quo for some period. In this case, about three more weeks.
What republicans were supposed to do—the only actually must do task since they took office back in January—was pass a budget by September30th. That they haven’t even come close to a real and new budget is way under reported. Funding the government with a series of short term CRs, as they’re called, is both irregular and improper.
Sorry. You’re right. I forgot how behind they are. 👹
You don’t know what you’re talking about. The Republicans have the majority vote — they already passed the funding bill. It’s the Democrats who stopped it with a filibuster.
There’s no scenario where this ends with Republicans voting to advance a government takeover of healthcare. That’s what this whole standoff is about — Democrats trying to use the shutdown as leverage to lock in new entitlements before the next election. It won't work. Take a breath - do you see the democrats winning. I don't feel it. It seems they are on the losing side of a political issue. So far, the left wing press is covering for them. But there is a time limit. We already know the democrats could care less about SNAP funding, and I don't think the findings of their hack judges is going to hold.
Like hell I will - I'll send the payment to my effing repugs that resulted in this travesty.
Love it!!
Sorry, but the Lizard of Oz lives in a fantasy bubble with no known address.
The worst thing about Oz is that he is not a “fake” doctor, he was (is?) a highly respected cardio thoracic surgeon…he’s just an unbelievably bad person
Oz WAS a real doctor until he discovered he could make more money in FAKE medicine, so that makes him a FAKE doctor in my eyes.
I believe that the same is true of Dr. Ben Carson. He was supposedly a renowned heart surgeon but found that there was more money in politics.
That is an affliction that is more prevalent on the right side of the political spectrum. It is possible to make huge sums of money running for office and appearing on television and writing books. You don't need to be elected to rake in the dough.
Except, Carson was a Pediatric Neurosurgeon.
For comparison, Ralph Northam former VA Gov was a pediatric neurologist. Not every doctor in politics is evil and greedy. Just certain ones.
There seems to be a competition in rethuglican circles - they are trying to beat the others out in their race to the bottom.
Noteworthy: He's a Democrat.
Name me one that is isn't. Why leave a prosperous livelihood to show how inhumane you can be?
I mis-spoke about Ben Carson, I forgot that he was a pediatric neurosurgeon. I should’ve remembered that because my late husband was a neurosurgeon and he couldn’t stand Carson. My husband was a kind man unlike Carson. And a dear friend of his was a pediatric neurosurgeon who was a wonderful human being.
He had a rep for taking 'Lost Cause' cases where the patient was made worse by his ministrations. He reportedly had quite the malpractice docket.
Thanks for that correction. I should stop relying on memory and check my facts. Have a nice day.
I am a retired doc - I still pay attention to stuff like that. The important thing about Carson and Oz is that doctors are not immune to propaganda and the lure of money and power drew both of them into tRump's fold.
And how is this different. He made money ergo he is a repug
Just because you are competent at your job doesn't make you renowned. Tens of millions of people are very good at their jobs whether they are rocket scientists or bus boys in a restaurant.
I've never heard anyone say, "Man, that is the best job of clearing tables I've ever seen, and yet there is someone that's the best."
And when you are on a project team oftentimes the "best" person isn't a great team player and the project drags along. I've seen this happen in the several hundred IT projects I've worked on.
DeMarco in his book Peopleware says that sometimes you need to remove a team member to get it back untracked.
I often say "Everyone has at least one area of expertise that is better than anyone else in the world - you are a world winner!"
Actually, AFAIK, it's exclusive to the right side of the political spectrum.
Religious ministers and preachers too. They abandoned actual Christianity to make a better living as maga christian nationalists.
I knew a woman, a nurse, who had heart surgery by Dr. Oz. She had done a research and he was a good heart surgeon. Correct point about Dr. Ben Carson. By all counts a good heart surgeon. And here in Massachusetts, in Boston area, we have the example of a heart surgeon who took over running Steward health care, which resulted in the shutting down Carney hospital which was in a more disadvantaged neighborhood. Meanwhile that Dr was traveling around in a huge yacht in Europe. These heart doctors have no heart themselves.
Old joke:
A man dies and finds himself standing in front of the Pearly Gates. As St. Peter is slowly going over the details of the man's life, the man notices someone dressed in surgical scrubs walking around inside Heaven. "Wow!" says the man. "That surgeon must have really saved a lot of lives!"
St. Peter doesn't even look up before replying "Oh, that's just God. Sometimes he likes to think He's a surgeon."
Hahaha. I once had a surgeon with zero bedside manner skills & as such REFUSED to accept any knowledge I had gained through a support group for our very rare cancer. I called her ‘The Goddess’. She was an absolutely gifted surgeon but I refused to do follow up with her & insisted on seeing the chief of her dept. for my first post op follow up. He was training a brand new resident that day & made the mistake of asking me why I wouldn’t see her — to which I replied ‘oh, you mean the goddess?’ They both burst out laughing. Point made. I continue to follow up with him to this day.
And I hope your results continue to be excellent!
The variation that's popular in aviation circles. A pilot gets into Heaven and an angel is showing him around. Eventually the pilot asks if there's a small airport in Heaven. "Certainly" says the angel and they boogie on over to a little place with a grass runway.
There's a v-tail Bonanza in the pattern. It comes in with the gear up, cartwheels, and is a total wreck. The Bonanza pilot climbs out, walks over to another Bonanza, takes off, does one pattern, and makes another disastrous gear-up landing.
The new immigrant to Heaven is astonished and asks the angel "what's going on?" The angel replies "Oh, that's just God. He thinks he's a doctor."
For those of you outside the aviation community, the v-tails were very popular with doctors and are tricky to fly. Doctors seldom had the spare time to create and maintain the piloting skills needed to fly them safely. The planes acquired the nickname "Fork-tailed Doctor Killer."
The old V-tail has been replaced by the Cirrus SR-22T as the new doctor/lawyer killer. Guy gets his private certificate, then hands over $750,000 for a brand new Cirrus that is faaar more capable an aircraft than the new owner will ever be a capable pilot. But, hey! It's got all this fancy automation, so no need to REALLY learn how to fly!
My cousin was a neurologist and had a v-tailed bonanza. I flew with him a few times, and didn't realize I was rolling the dice.
Sounds familiar...I don't know exactly what kind of plane it was, but a very capable (and egotistical) local vascular surgeon crashed his into an apt bldg parking lot on his way from KY to a convention in Chicago, killing his wife and, ultimately, himself. He was a great surgeon, but I'm thinking he could have driven up from here in a few hrs and still be alive today... ego is a dangerous thing.
I remember another pearly gates joke that is at least close to on topic, although it may not be so funny anymore. St. Peter is at the pearly gates for an VIP arrival. The important new resident turns out to be Sigmund Freud. St.Peter greets him: Dr. "Freud, it's a great honor to have you here. I wonder if I could ask a favor." "Of course, anything," Freud replies. "Would you consider taking on a patient for analysis?" the Saint replies. "Certainly, who
is it" asks Freud. St. Peter looks around nervously and replies "Well, it's Him." You don't mean ...?" replies Freud. "Yes, I'm afraid so, he suffering from paranoid delusions of grandeur" says the Saint. Freud asks what the symptoms are. St. Peter answers "He imagines he's a United States District Judge."
Let's hope this joke still works
It's been said that psychopaths make the best surgeons - because they don't feel anything.
They do have very large egos. You have to, to perform that job.
The Rs have a bunch of those people in Congress. They have decided to destroy people's lives and enrich themselves rather that practice medicine.
Excellent point
I think he decided that "First, do no harm" wasn't really an important part of his oath, thus it's okay to push bogus supplements, worthless remedies, and useless devices on the sick and desperate.
Just like the rest of society, there are quite a few sociopaths in Medicine. They are drawn by the money. the prestige, and the power.
There are indeed quite a few sociopaths in Medicine, a few of them have ended up in the Senate. However, the greatest concentration of sociopaths is in the Trump administration.
Stephen Goebbles Miller insisted that all Cabinet Secretaries have a Psychopathy Scale score of at least 38/40.
🤣🤣🤣
They're psychopaths, all of them.
I remember a small group of pre-med males in one of university classes in the mid 80s. Not one expressed a desire to help humanity, only to make a lot of money. I decided that day to never become one of their patients.
I taught medicine back in the day. I advocated unsuccessfully for making personality testing (MMPI) a requirement for admission with a high score on the Sociopathy Scale a disqualifying measure.
If I were granted godhood, I would remake medical education in the U.S. so that getting into medical school was actually merit and ability based, and getting the education is free. Then I would remake the entire medical industry so that doctors--ALL of them--are government employees. Nobody gets rich, but nobody ends up poor, either.
The goal is to attract people into medicine who love the idea of helping and curing others while discouraging those who see gold in them thar ills.
That would be an ideal entry point to a badly needed single payer system. We really need to ditch the damned for profit insurance industry.
In Finland, teachers just starting their professional lives make the same as doctors doing the same. The idea is valuing those who are important to the nation while not thinking that "valuing" means they have to be millionaires.
I cannot disagree with you!
I caught the beginning of a talk on NPR in which the speaker started off with "You can tell I'm a doctor because I'm Indian." It was intended as a joke and got a laugh.
indeed, the power makes them feel invincible
Not invincible, just able to bury their mistakes.
That’s why I had to use quotes. Although I doubt he practices much anymore because he’s too busy making an idiot of himself on TV.
No kidding. It’s pretty shocking how his head seemed to be turned after Oprah made him famous…although Oprah is no prize lately either
And making a fortune in the process.
He doesn't have to work very hard to get there.
My husband worked for the FDA during the 1990s and 2000s, so he had experience dealing with surgeons in panels overseeing pharmaceutical standards. His conclusion -- surgeons are mechanics and never have and never will understand disease, drugs, etc. Oz, Makary, and Carson, all surgeons.
Oprah anyone? ‘Hillbilly’ eulogy anyone?
Exactly.He was trained at Harvard Medical School and practiced at Columbia for a few years.He’s just a bad character as you say.
He hasn't performed a surgery in years. If practice makes perfect, what does lack of practice make? He's not a doctor any more.
Was. He blew his credibility to rake in millions promoting snake oil.
He just wants to get rich and will throw any scruples he once had, under the bus.
He just wants to get rich and will throw any scruples he once had, under the bus.
Oz is a doctor, he knows better, and he's lying.
The fact is, the US has a generally appalling system of health care, by far the most expensive in the world and by far the least efficient.
Years ago, Ed Eichhorn and I wrote a book detailing how high quality access could be extended to all Americans, regardless of income, for about 13% of GDP (rather than the current 20%), thus saving a trillion dollars a year.
It sold just 800 copies and disappeared without trace.
The cost of the National Health Service in the UK is 11% of our GDP. It's not perfect but means that someone does not become bankrupt and impoverished because they have the misfortune to develop cancer (or a recurrence following treatment).
As of 2023 the cost of healthcare as a percentage of GDP was ~18% in the U.S. versus an average of ~10% for all OECD countries. This extra spending gets us the privilege of dying two years younger, at 78.7, than the average person in all the OECD countries (80.7). And amongst the wealthy OECD countries we lag even more, e.g. we live 6 years less than the avg. Japanese person, 5 years less than the Spanish and Italians, 4 years less than the French.
Some blame this gap on our lifestyle, but the biggest factor is infant deaths. The United States ranked 33rd out of 38 OECD countries with a rate of 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The U.S. is a country plagued by sociopaths. The wealthy ones are insatiably greedy and cruel. The wannabe wealthy get their kicks punching down, taking glee fighting the poor rather than poverty.
Yes Peter, the US ranks with Kazakhstan, but what the GOP does not dare say is that nearly all of those deaths were black and Hispanic infants, so they don’t care.
The NHS could also be improved immensely by drastic reductions in the bureaucracy.
Fair - ironically a great deal of the bureaucracy was brought in under the Conservatives more than decade ago. Despite its imperfections it offers a high standard of universal healthcare.
Knowing the Conservatives, I suspect this bureaucracy was designed to hold down costs by denying healthcare - same as US. It had the opposite effect.
The UK (and the US) could greatly improve care and hold down costs by firing the bureaucrats and letting doctors run things again - like in the Good Old Days.
Amongst other things they introduced a complex 'internal marketplace' which has generated substantial transaction costs whilst railing against 'penpushers' in the NHS. Ironically the OECD has reported that the UK's spending on health administration is 2%, well below the international average. I hate to think of how much of US healthcare expenditure is made up of administrative costs with the complexity associated with the insurance system.
I’m a doctor in US I read mammograms. In UK program of a mammogram every three years is half useless. In Us half the radiology studies I see ordered are unnecessary. I’m not fond of either solution.
That's really depressing. The worst part is, finding a fix for heath care in the US isn't a unicorn hunt. There are multiple working models to emulate.
MAGA despises any kind of universal healthcare. I suspect it’s because they don’t want their taxes paying for poor people’s care. Could be a race angle too.
It’s the only explanation for why Canada has universal healthcare but the US doesn’t.
In my province, it was introduced in 1965. At the time the population was mostly all white.
There is a race angle. Plus, through an accident of history, US corporations started to offer health insurance during WW2 to get around wartime wage controls. So the horrible (non)system the US has is a combination of general contempt for the poor, combined with a quirk of wartime restrictions. Now so many pigs are feeding at the trough, they can't/wont fix the system, even though it's going to destroy the US economy.
Between 1965 and 1980 the increase in healthcare costs were similar under Canada’s single payer and the USA’s Medicare. Today, 45 years later, USA’s healthcare costs are double that of Canada’s. Administration accounted for the largest share of this doubling in cost (39%), followed by providers’ incomes (31%), and more intensive provision of medical services (14%). For double the cost US citizens get: higher infant mortality rates, lower life expectancy, no universal healthcare. Critics of Canada’s wait times for non-critical services ignore the millions who must wait FOREVER for healthcare in the U.S.
It's truly amazing what people in the US put up with. It's the biggest demonstration of the "Stockholm Syndrome " in the world. The US Healthcare "system" is literally going to destroy the US, but they can't seem to fix the system. Getting US healthcare costs down to Canada's level would save $2.5 trillion/yr.
Sorry that book disappeared. Like so much knowledge and information and wisdom these days. Keep speaking, please. Your voice and info are needed for the post-rump society.
These days, we would save close to $2 trillion. This could be donated to Trump's billionaire buddies.
Or to his ballroom. Then he could make it with real gold.
Brazil, a medium income country (& great inequality) has a free health system, which includes sophisticated organs transplants). It has 210 million people. It is difficult to understand how the US has such an expensive and unavailable to all health system. The wonders of wild capitalism.
But we don't have capitalism. Adam Smith would have thoroughly approved of universal healthcare.
What we actually have is socialism, not for the common man mind you, but for the wealthy. For what else is not paying your taxes but government welfare?
The problem is that for the last 40 years the wealthy have not been paying their share of taxes, with the result that they now have amassed enormous wealth, and with that wealth they have bought the government and pretty much destroyed the market.
This is something Smith dreaded. His solution was very simple: Tax the Rich!
My long time household cleaning helpers, Brazilians, fly back there to get treated, even with air fare much cheaper.
https://www.alibris.com/Healing-American-Healthcare-A-Plan-to-Provide-Quality-Care-for-All-While-Saving-1-Trillion-a-Year-Volume-1-Edward-C-Eichhorn/book/51603982?matches=8. ***But still available!*** Published 2019, people!
What's the title?
It’s available on hoopla!
The book “Healing American Healthcare” is still available. I’ve seen it on Barnes and Noble and other bookstore’s websites.
Oz is not a fake doctor which is the real tragedy. He was a top cardiothoracic surgeon at NYC Columbia Presbyter hospital which is why Oprah had him on her show. He was a top expert in his field before he became a grifter.
The guy who really started the anti-vax scam was also a reputable doctor, Andrew Wakefield who falsified data about the measles vax causing autism because he was despising in his own vaccine.The UK yanked his license but it was too late. The US media gave a platform to parents like Jenny McCarthy who were convinced that the vaccine caused their kids’ autism but rarely reported on Wakefield’s con job.
Then there is Dr. Ben Carson who became chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins when he was only 33.
I am glad my physician father did not live to see these men corrupt the field he cared about so much.
OZ is an idiot and a-hole to the 100th degree, IMO.
Dr. Oz is lying and he knows it. To be in the Republican party these days you must have one attribute skill over all others, the ability to lie with a straight face and enough conviction to convince others, including yourself, you are telling the truth. In other words, a sociopath with no morals working solely to enrich your sponsors at the expense of everyone else.
The thing about Dr Oz is that he told a blatant lie that will be proven false to every person insured by ACA when they receive their premium notice. Lying is fundamental to the Trump regime, that they do it even when it’s exposed in real time.
Not just there. I just got my Medicare info for 2026. A 19% increase in the basic premium.
Is that for an Advantage or supplemental plan? Regular Part B went up 11.2% which is $21.50.
Aetna Medicare Signature PPO. Monthly plan premium went from $79 to $94. 79/94 is 84.04...% . They also established a new $500 deductible on drug costs with new charges running from $2 to full cost of each prescription. Co-pays are also up a bit.
94-79 = 15
15/79 × 100 = 19%
Thanks.
Always nice to have a numbers person around!
Oz has a dual masters from Penn: the MD and a Wharton MBA in marketing. He’s not dumb, he’s just selfish.
I never said he was dumb. But somehow he still regularly makes an idiot of himself on TV. Go figure.
I was going for, from more or less the get-go he’s been at least as eager to build his brand as to practice medicine.
I disagree - he knows perfectly damned well its a lie.
It is amazing that every magat is now infected with "Trump Math Syndrome", in which good numbers are inflated 100 times and bad numbers are divided by 10. This is easier to hide in real estate, estimated death from opiods, and made up numbers for Saudi investments. A bill arriving through the mail slot has a certain inescapable clarity...
Or he’s just openly and happily lying.
I know it's not cool to criticize Ste. Oprah, but she has a lot to answer for promoting "Dr" Phil, Dr Oz and IIRC she promoted JD Vance's box as well?
If I recall, at the time she was promoting them, they were legit. Something definitely did seem to change with each of them, and it is odd…
I think it's more of a case that they were able to look normal but underneath they were all scammers to some degree.
Dr. Oz like most elected Republicans are not blinded, they see what you and I see.
Rather, they are bold face liars.
This is not new. It is also not confined to elected Republicans.
Oz knew he was going to lie before the words left his lips.
Let it be clear that Dr. Oz is a real MD. People have to remain aware that MDs and ODs can represent the most dangerous quacks in the population. These are the ones more likely to follow self-interest, personal experience or attractive fads than those physicians with the discipline to keep up with the high-quality journals for their fields, or even participate in research themselves (science).
I did learn two new things about Dr. Oz today:
- He served in the Turkish military (listen for the sound of MAGA heads exploding).
- He got his MBA when he got his medical degree.
I not inclined to think that these guys aren’t smarter than that and simply know what blatant lies they want to peddle. After all Dr Oz built an entire career selling snake oil. I think he knows his craft.
He was flat out lying to say the average medical insurance would go up $13.00
Cruelty is an understatement. It's called social murder
The New York Times has written an explosive editorial, “Are We losing Our Democracy.”
Read it at this free link:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/31/opinion/trump-autocracy-democracy-report.html?unlocked_article_code=1.xk8.UYDT.nhJ61mf2ZgCc&smid=url-share
Are we losing our humanity
Thanks for sharing. I quit NYT about 1 year ago along with the WP both papers were being complicit in Trump propaganda. I guess better late than never in realizing a dictator.
A longtime reader if NYTimes and WashPo, I also ended my subscriptions. And in this case, their “are we starting to lose democracy” is lame. We don’t have one now. We don’t have rule of law. The bigger questions, as i see them, are how much worse will it get, and how do we reclaim our democracy!
In high school, 1965, the New York Times was part of my curriculum. How they have fallen.
And even now, after reading the first 2 references, their take is still rather milquetoast. Stating the Trump administration is ‘starting to’ rather than the truth, which is the Trump administration ‘has’. I stopped reading after these first 2 (of 12) examples of how your democracy is slipping into autocracy. Because…well, truth matters.
The reality is the Trump administration is still abiding, at least partially, by many restraints.
Part of the reason is they need cooperation to go much further, and there are too many willing to resist.
It takes time to condition people to cooperate.
When Prof. Krugman left the NYT, I took the money I was wasting there and got a subscription here instead.
I still subscribe. They have a lot of other reporting on a huge range of subjects. Plus they have huge archives.
I don’t usually read their editorials though. Better late than never.
Me, too.
.
Same here, though I think I acted earlier, since I follow some leftish sources that showed me how bad they are. But I reopened the online accounts recently, having seen some honest stuff from them. (They are pretty much ubiquitous.) And this is extraordinarily forthright.
What took them so long?
Better slow than never. And they beat the Supreme Court. ;)
I'm just afraid it's too little, too late.
I think Donald Trump is alienating too many swing voters. Strengths in Numbers says voters now prefer Democrats over Republicans by 6% in 2026. A very healthy margin.
https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/new-poll-voters-want-democrats-to
Voter's remorse is common in midterms.
That's why I think all these "predictions" that these newly gerrymandered districts will go R is perhaps overblown.
Thank you for sharing this editorial.
Bit slow on the uptake there, Gray Lady.
“Are We losing Our Democracy.?"
Well, DUH. Most of us realized that when Trump "fake won" the 2024 election.
Thank you for the link. As a former subscriber to NYT, I did not see this editorial.
Interesting. The editorial board at NYT is finally starting to wake up.
There is a direct connection between the coming-into-existence of the whole "Trump era" and the obvious fact that he sells a lot of papers and generates a lot of entertainment "value." Trump is the human personification of what philosophy refers to as a category mistake; there is no way he should be where he is. His political incarnation is a direct indictment of our culture and its values and our education system.
I am continually amazed and astonished that the rethuglicans have spun abject, unvarnished cruelty into a 'winning' strategy. And a lot of them claim to be devout Christians... except they think the Jesus of the Bible is too woke. Obviously, I got on the wrong bus and ended up in Bizarro World.
They worship at the church of the tactical blue eyed Jesus, to borrow a bit from Neal Stephenson .
I had the misfortune to attend a couple of fundie services. There were people having seizures in the aisle at one - they called it "speaking in tongues." Christ was never mentioned. All of the preaching came from Paul, who was not known for his kindness.
I remember when Msgr Montini became pope after the death of John XXIII and chose the name Paul (VI). Our local paper quoted an old Italian woman in St Peter's Square saying 'oh, that's too bad. Saint Paul hated women.'
This was over ten years before Ronnie became President. It was also in western South Carolina, where it was probably regarded as normal. I had been picked up for driving without a license and the county prison officials thought it was edifying for all of the inmates to attend. A friend paid my fine the next day and that was that.
Love "rethuglicans".
I started calling them that back in tRump 1.
I'm in hope that the statement Americans will try all the wrong things but finally will do the right thing. This tendency to want to follow blindly a person of a cult base is disturbing. Needful to keep banging on the drum calling out the absurdities, cruelties, and social murdering that is happening. I think on a one on one basis a large amount of our prople are compassionate and caring. It does confound me that so many fall into center of being oblivious to the threat hanging at their doors but their ox have not been gored as yet.
it's called christianity
It's called American fundamentalist "Christianity", which is not anything that the actual Jesus Christ would recognise. In fact, he'd be appalled.
Like on South Park
Not all Christians want to stop SNAP, fuel assistance , or Obamacare. Many of us are not wanting to be governed by the dictator and did not vote for his Project 2025.
We are trying to do what Jesus would do and giving time and money to pantries etc.
I feel genuinely sorry for Christians who take Christ's teachings seriously, because I can well imagine how it must feel to be tarred with the same brush as that being applied to self-styled "Christians" who'd most likely have him deported or lynched if he descended among them without identifying himself beforehand.
"Reckon they'd just nail him up if he came down again." Kristofferson.
I point out that MAGA Christians are the Phiarisees of our time.
How did you vote? Do you watch Fox? Are you aware they are splicing video clips to create the illusion of a (manufactured) riot? Cities are not on fire. In fact violent crime was already greatly reduced in the cities invaded by ICE. Second, the most violent cities are in the South with Memphis leading the pact. Lastly, does your church stand up against this outrage?
Voted blue for KH . Don’t watch Fox except very rarely to see what they are doing that mesmerizes so many Americans.
Memphis tends to be slightly democratic based on voting results in recent elections. Compared to other nearby cities, Memphis has more republican voters. Compared to the nation as a whole, Memphis leans more democratic.
Highly educated populations with bachelor’s degrees or higher tend to vote for more liberal candidates. In the Memphis area, 30.23% of all adults have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. Educated women are far less likely to vote for conservatives, and in Memphis women make up 51.99% of the population.
Older Americans tend to vote more conservatively. Members of the Boomer and Silent generations (born 1928-1964) more often vote for Republicans while GenX, Millennials (born 1965-1996) and younger generations consistently support Democrats. The median age in Memphis is 38.1, which is younger than the national median age of 38.1.
Is Memphis a political battleground? Across all types of political contests in Memphis, including state, local and presidential elections, races come within five percentage points 7% of the time.
A bit rude, I think
huh?
Not all of those who claim to be Christian follow their path. Many follow Christ's teaching on charity to others: Matthew 5-7. Matthew 22:36-40. Matthew 25:31-46. Mark 12:28-34. Many other passages. As Michael Brook says, Jesus would be appalled at what these "Christian" Fundamentalists claim is Jesus' directions. They apparently read a different bible than I do.
That seems like a good point about fundamentalism. The fundamentalist versions of each religion have more in common with each other than they have with other adherents within their own faith-tradition.
Except for one thing: they hate those other faiths.
I guess that's a good thing - or else they might all team up.
Fundamentalism is a form of tribalism.
Which means they don't tolerate other tribes.
Nor others in their religious group open to other tribes.
"The Devil can cite scripture for his own purpose." The Merchant of Venice.
So can the bunny-hugging Christians.
There's no need to go to old supernatural beliefs: Embrace Humanism (whether religious or secular) and be a *kind* person rather than a tribal bigot.
James I would be appalled. In his time, the priests pretty well ran the roost, since the Bible (and virtually every legal text) was only available in Latin, and the priests cherry-picked the teachings. Their preachings tended to be rather hostile to him at the time.
While his command to translate the Bible to what passed for English at the time was only targeted towards the nobility (the common people couldn't read), still, it pulled a lot of the teeth from the priests in Scotland and England.
The people now have become too lazy. They don't read the text for themselves.
The unlimited power Trump&Co seem to have has really gone to their heads.
What is interesting to me is the pettiness of their actions:
So we see: Russel Vought strutting, boasting about and glorifying his devastating US government destruction. Stephen Miller's public chest thumping about the US Navy attacking fishing boats, and his ICE gestapo imprisoning day-laborers and hairdressers in concentration camps. Trump himself quacking about a third term and a Nobel prize while sneakily tearing down ⅓ of the White House in order to build himself a throne room. Wildly fluctuating tariffs based upon Trump's senile feelings on any given day. Heads of vital Agencies engaging in dress-up cosplay.
And, if the described drug situation in Trump's first term is any guide, they are probably all drugged from their toes to the tips of their hair.
Don’t miss this video about the Epstein Memorial Ballroom (only a minute long).
https://youtu.be/BbiXMQwBEaA?si=0HRRqGnjoMd6oL42
Reminds me of Randy Rainbow’s stuff. He has his own YouTube channel and is quite talented.
Thank you. It’s very sad. On Halloween night a neighbor left out a box of whistles-to alert the public if ICE was seen-some of us are trying to reduce this illegal activity-bs!!-and help protect
Oh my gosh, you’re so damn right.
I’m from Chicago and they’re even stealing candy from babes and their parents on Halloween!
The idea that Republicans cause misery this extreme and also call themselves Christians just shows there is nothing authentic in their actions - it’s all a performative power grab.
"And Jesus sent for the lepers and the blind, and said unto them, "Ye shall pay me a fee of all that you have and more. Then shall I send you into the wilderness afflicted still. Meanwhile, be sure to tip the billionaires on your way out."
My favorite part is where he multiplies the loaves and fishes and instructs his disciples to hand them out to the crowd, saying "But be sure to use your gaydar and don't give any to people whose sexuality doesn't align with our heteronormative views." Yeah, they knew that word even back then.
And the fact that He charged $500 a plate as a fundraiser!
I like the part where he invited more money changers into the Temple.
The don't appear to have much point to their power grab, other than enriching themselves further. Proj 2025's goal seems to be creating a religious-techno fascist state. The US Gov has opened the door wide to another devastating pandemic. But I see no examples of any of those men creating or building anything. Empire wrecking is a lot easier than Empire building. And, as the old saying goes "Rome wasn't built in a day."
The point is always the same for the inner circle of GOP-ness: lowest possible taxes and deregulation. Everything else is just whatever it takes to keep power. Racism, pretend "heartland values", limited government, the rule of law, fiscal discipline - all of those ideas are just whatever-it-takes-to-win. The goal is lowest possible taxes and deregulation.
It's really as simple as that.
And: sadistic.
mostly just self-interested greed and indifference for anyone who is in the way
what i am saying is that the people in the GOP who most represent its cruelty snd racism are actually just tools for the heart of the party that is just about low taxes and de-regulation
For the record - in 2024, the total cost of SNAP benefits represented .015 of the total fed spending of $6,800,000,000,000. SNAP provided 41,700,000 Americans - the vast majority of whom are children, aged, disabled and/or the working poor - with an avg monthly benefit of $187.54, or $2.08 per meal.
Republicans aren't just nasty SOBs, they're CHEAP, nasty SOBs.
Meanwhile, the American voters who are most damaged by Republican cruelty continue to be irrational, illogical and ill-informed and vote for the very pols who are intentionally and cruelly knee-capping them. Go figure.
"Think of how ignorant the average person is, then realize half of them are more ignorant than that." - George Carlin
Where did asshole Republican Higgins get the $420/month from? Did he just pull it out of his ass like Donnie Demento always does?
It’s important that the billionaires get their tax cut. /s
People like Stephen Miller will enjoy seeing starving people dying on the streets. Sadists are in charge of the USA!
Only if they're brown.
Chris, Miller will enjoy seeing anyone dying or dead in the gutter. Just moreso if they are brown
It seems we are living in a "golden age" of cruelty and stupidity.
For years I've been asking for the answer to a question, and with no success...
Can you name any legislation...
1) Either proposed, or even simply supported by the GOP,
2) For the purpose of helping working-class, middle-income Americans,
3) Anytime in the past 75 years?
The closest answer I can find is the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), though it's not really geared specifically toward middle-America. And the GOP certainly didn't propose it. And now the GOP has thrown those once-valued voters under a big bus.
But in all the time I've pointed this out to MAGA, not a single one has ever expressed the slightest concern. Apparently hating brown people trying to feed their families requires less thought...
To be fair, Nixon did propose and pushed through the EPA-something that helped clean the air and water for all-poor people often being the ones down stream. Republicans don’t seem too proud of that accomplishment now.
True, but that wasn't done through legislation, GOP supported or otherwise. Nixon was certainly full of surprises (like opening China!)
And that's more of benefit universally.
Thank you, Laura. (Of the few responses, this has been the most common.)
Nixon also enacted SS COLA increases. Dems may have proposed it but he went along with it.
This Congress has been the least productive Congress ever. And no one is to blame but the Republicans, they have the House, Senate and the White House .. OK, all but the part they knocked down illegally.
We need to keep reminding those around us that we elected Congress to legislate, not sit at home collecting a check and avoiding their job.
Time to 'make a deal' John Thune and Mike Johnson ... it's your fricking job.
I have often thought about that very same question.
In my lifetime I have not seen a single bill the GOP has proposed to help Americans in any way, except for the upper class and wealthy.
It's all about lowering taxes.
They love telling people to pull yourselves up by your bootstraps, get a job, and make your own way. Yet, they never take into account those born into poverty, the lack of food to thrive as a child, the lack of education, or those with disabilities.
They believe everyone is born with an equal start in life.
They are greedy, pretentious, and uncaring. Always have been and always will be.
Unfortunately, Alex, while ALL true, and perhaps even occasionally successful one-on-one, it's not necessarily a successful argument overall for Dems.
All it takes is for a few million MAGA to present the option of restoring slavery in order to "benefit middle-America", and suddenly no one is listening.
And that sort of dishonesty is what they do best.
Not that I'm a fan, but the earned income tax credit (EITC) was first proposed and signed by President Ford (1970's) and it was substantially expanded by President Reagan in the 90's. The child tax credit (CTC) was also initially proposed, supported, and expanded by Republican policymakers (with bipartisan support).
ShadowSpring,
Thanks for your time and interest!
The truth is always best, and it seems that you may be the first person to find this particular unicorn!!!
Republican's philosophy is Social Darwinism. Survival of the fitest in their view, and in their view the only measure that matters is how much money you can make and accumulate. It's everyone else has no value Capitalism at its finest!
They believe that helping the "weak" is hurting the Human Race, especially "The strong", which, of course, are how they define themselves. "Strong, cunning predators". Nope. They are leeches, sharks, vultures: parasites and scavengers. They see the US in ruins as a perfect scavenging ground for themselves.
Really
Dems have done a good job framing the issues, but they should also make the point the bill the Senators refuse to pass only had 1 Dem vote in the House, so is barely 'bipartisan'. GOPers in the House essentially just created a bill without Dems' input, then shoved it forward to the Senate, and now it means nothing when it goes to a POTUS to sign, when he can just rescind whatever he doesn't like, and re-allocates monies on his whims. Also, why do we read news reports today that Hegseth and Rubio have each moved into what is known as 'military housing'?
Noem as well ... anticipating blow back for their crimes against humanity, and canines.
Who was the Dem?
Seems it was Derek Tran, of Orange County, Ca., who voted for the Continuing Resolution on 9/19/25. The one Dem vote is why GOPers in the Senate claim it's a 'bipartisan bill' from the House.
Fetterman
Fetterman isn't a member of the House of Representatives. He's a Senator.
Of course…feel bad for the people of PA for the rug pull on him.
Recent vote, 10/28, “But on Tuesday, a vote to advance that Republican stopgap failed to advance for the 13th time, with no change in the caucus’s defectors from the other 12 votes. Only two Democrats — Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) — along with Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats, broke ranks and supported the measure.
I believe there's another, less conspiracy theory oriented reason, that Johnson is preventing the House from session and it's pretty simple - the American Fascist Party is establishing the Unitary Executive's ability to spend without Congressional Authority.
The one major systemic balance the House holds over the President is power of the purse. The President is required to faithfully execute the laws as enacted - something Trump clearly is NOT doing. If the House isn't in session, no budget can be enacted, therefore the President can continue to rule and spend autonomously. The fatally corrupt Supreme Court will uphold Trump's actions and PRESTO, we have a dictator, with full funding and spending capability. Congress need not even exist after that.
It's all part of the plan folks.
Epstein is a convenient distraction, the files have long since been destroyed - no way is the government going to let them be released - hundreds of Captains of Industry, Politics, religion and god knows who else are in there. It's not just Trump, it's everyone, hell Johnson himself could be in there for all we know.
As Trump has said, he is now Speaker of the House. I'm not sure he was joking.
Mmmm, I don't think the files are truly gone ... paper copies maybe but blackmail is the kind of currency that never really disappears, particularly in a scandal this big, covering so many influential men. How else has Trump and Maga brought so many to heel and so quickly? How did Epstein make his money? Why is Ghislane Maxwell still alive? Leverage. Influence. Threats.
Ghislane Maxwells safe deposit box
We don’t need the Epstein files. We just need the perpetrator’s names read aloud in Congress so that the victims can proceed publicly without being sued into homelessness.
The real kicker in all of this is that delaying action on ACA subsidies for much longer will lock in the premium increases because insurers and exchange won't be able to make any changes. Voters will have an entire year of paying (or not affording) dramatically increased premiums before the mid-terms.
Meanwhile, I note a major comeback of a type of news story that seemed to have vanished a decades ago: Insurers refusing coverage for life-saving procedures and medications. NBC Nightly News has run three of these in the last week, highlighting the profit-over-people motivations of American health insurance.
Remember: According to Republicans, the only thing wrong with American healthcare is the fact that YOU get too much of it.
Now the republicans have a further problem. They have been trying to convince people that the democrats are responsible for the shutdown, but now Trump just came out and said they should end the filibuster to reopen the government. He never can stay on script.
I don't want to see children starve or people go without healthcare, but I hope Republicans' refusal to govern gives Americans some appreciation of what the government has done for them when it is functioning.
Good point. Hope springs eternal...
It has been said that you should never attribute to malice that which is sufficiently explained by incompetence.
In the case of the GOP, I think it's both.
"The mask is ripped off right now, ahead of schedule." I think Trump's obvious mental and physical decline has precipatated the rush -- Vought, Miller, et al, need to get power consolidated before even the MAGA faithful notice that he has dementia. Trump is being given dementia tests (Montreal Cognitive Assessment or other) twice a year, plus MRIs -- this is not a schedule for people who do not have symptoms. And he states that the recent test was hard. Even those of us who don't watch him are aware that he is not functioning at the same level as he did a year ago. If you've had relatives with dementia (and I hope you've not!) you will be aware that the symptoms can come and go -- some days are better than others, some days some things make sense and other days, not so good.
It's crystal clear. The GOP/MAGAs real and only agenda is the destruction of the Federal government. Healthcare and food assistance for the poor are merely some of the near term damage.
Trump is preparing for "war" in American cities as he starves and sickens it residents and illegally drags non-white residents into detention for deportation.
It's maximum cruelty not caring.
Surely there is one republican woman in the house or one republican man with a daughter that know the right thing to do is to sign off on releasing the Epstein files. This could open the house so that the representative from AZ could be sworn in, the VICTIMS of Epstein could be treated with respect and they could get to work on ending the shutdown. Of course, this would take some courage from just one republican and why be courageous when they can be cruel? In summary, the stalemate in the house is in the hands of a single republican, right!
There are enough ... thats why Johnson doesn't want to swear in the new democrat who will tip the scale!
All the Dems and 4 republicans have signed on to release the Epstein files. One more house member has to sign on and Grijalva has agreed to be the final vote. My point is, one more house republican should sign on to be the final vote. Why is it always the Dems that have to do the work the republicans should be doing themselves. Why can’t the they find one other republican who thinks having sex with children is wrong?
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