Friday, July 14, 2017

Progressive Breakfast: Worried Sick About Prescription Costs







MORNING MESSAGE

LeeAnn Hall
Worried Sick About Prescription Costs
Drug corporations are bleeding Americans dry. Too many families have to choose between buying medications or putting food on the table, and the proposed health care repeal will only make things worse.

New Health Care Bill

New version of health overhaul in Senate. NYT:“Senate Republican leaders unveiled a fresh proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, revising their bill to help hold down insurance costs for consumers while keeping a pair of taxes on high-income people that they had planned to eliminate. But the measure was immediately imperiled when two Republican senators, moderate Susan Collins of Maine and conservative Rand Paul of Kentucky, announced they were not swayed — even on a procedural motion to take up the bill next week, a motion to proceed. One more defection would doom the bill and jeopardize the Republicans’ seven-year-old quest to dismantle the health law that is a pillar of President Barack Obama’s legacy.”
From hospitals, doctors and patients, a last gasp of opposition to ACA repeal. WaPo:“Patient advocate groups and Democratic organizers have crowded town halls since February to grill lawmakers. But in recent weeks, a last gasp of advocacy has come from an even wider range of groups and individuals trying to block the Senate health-care bill. Community hospitals have held information sessions. Pediatricians have starred in videos. Patient associations have flown in hundreds of Americans with chronic illnesses to meet with lawmakers and their aides. These events, in turn, have generated tremendous public pressure on the senators who will decide over the next week whether their health-care bill will succeed or fail… ‘It does make a big impact,’ Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said of the advocacy across the country.”

The Color of Justice?

No Federal charges for cop who killed unarmed black man in Ohio. Colorlines:“In September 2014, a Green County, Ohio, special grand jury opted not to indict Sean Williams, the White Beavercreek Police Department officer who shot and killed 22-year-old John Crawford for holding a toy gun in a Walmart near Dayton, Ohio. On Tuesday (July 11), the Department of Justice (DOJ) also declined to charge Williams.”
CA police set K9 on 19-year-old woman mistaken for 30-year-old man. UPI:Police in Bakersfield, Calif., said they are investigating the K9 attack and arrest of a 19-year-old woman officers mistook for a 30-year-old man, an incident the woman’s family blamed on racial discrimination. On June 18, officers mistook the 5-foot-2, 115-pound Tatyana Hargrove for a man they were searching for, Douglas Washington, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall, 170 pounds, bald and has a goatee.”

Bannon Blowback

Bannon, Kushner want to privatize war in Afghanistan. Salon:“Erik D. Prince, a founder of the private security firm Blackwater Worldwide, and Stephen A. Feinberg, a billionaire financier who owns the giant military contractor DynCorp International, have developed proposals to rely on contractors instead of American troops in Afghanistan at the behest of Stephen K. Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, and Jared Kushner, his senior adviser and son-in-law, according to people briefed on the conversations.”
Vatican allies accuse Trump, Bannon of ‘apocalyptic geopolitics.’ The Guardian:“It claims that fake religious arguments are being used to demonise segments of the population – particularly when it comes to migrants and Muslims – and to promote the US as a nation that is blessed by God, without ever taking into account the “bond between capital and profits and arms sales. In this Manichaean vision [where the world is divided between good and evil], belligerence can acquire a theological justification and there are pastors who seek a biblical foundation for it, using scriptural texts out of context,’ the authors write.”

Making Corruption Easier

The bar is getting higher to prosecute public corruption cases. WaPo:“A federal appeals court’s decision to overturn the convictions of former New York State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver shows how public corruption cases have become much more difficult to substantiate in the wake of a Supreme Court decision narrowing what qualifies as corruption, legal analysts said… The appeals court cited the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell (R), who also had his convictions vacated in such a way that lawyers have long warned could have wide implications for others suspected of public corruption.”

More from OurFuture.org:

Why Teachers Don’t Trust Betsy DeVos, And Neither Should You. Jeff Bryant:“‘There is no reason to trust this woman,’ says NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia about Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Indeed, there are plenty of reasons not to trust DeVos, based on her dark-money past and her current behavior.
Tenants March to Stop Giveaways to Wall Street Landlords. Aditi Katti:“While Republicans are proposing severe cuts to low-income housing assistance, they are continuing to subsidize Blackstone and other private-equity housing profiteers.”Trump’s Worst Collusion Isn’t With Russia, It’s With Corporations. Peter Certo:“If Trump’s people did work with Russia to undermine our vote, they should be held accountable. But politicians don’t stand a chance of redeeming our democracy unless they’re willing to take on the corporate conspirators much closer to home.”
Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast and OurFuture.org are projects of People's Action. more »


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