Showing posts with label Freedom Caucus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freedom Caucus. Show all posts
Thursday, June 13, 2019
Inside President Donald Trump's Plot To Destroy His GOP Nemesis | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC
Trump and allies are reportedly working to squash Republican Congressman Justin Amash, the lone republican backing impeachment. But that’s not all, Amash also breaking with the GOP by resigning from the Freedom Caucus and voting to hold two Trump cabinet officials in contempt. New reports show that the White House is now looking to challenge Amash in his Michigan primary.
Friday, July 27, 2018
Nick Turse | Cameroon Is a Close US Ally - and Its Soldiers Carried Out a Shocking Execution of Women and Children
26 July 18
Nick Turse | Cameroon Is a Close US Ally - and Its Soldiers Carried Out a Shocking Execution of Women and Children
Nick Turse, The Intercept
Turse writes: "A soldier walks alone down a dirt road with an automatic rifle strapped to his back. It's an innocuous beginning to a disturbing video."
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Nick Turse, The Intercept
Turse writes: "A soldier walks alone down a dirt road with an automatic rifle strapped to his back. It's an innocuous beginning to a disturbing video."
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U.S. soldier waves an American flag. (photo: Getty)
Tom Engelhardt | Three Failing Experiments: Mine, America's, and Humanity's
Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch
Engelhardt writes: "There was a period in my later life when I used to say that, from the age of 20 to my late sixties, I was always 40 years old; I was, that is, an old young man and a young old one. Tell that to my legs now."
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Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch
Engelhardt writes: "There was a period in my later life when I used to say that, from the age of 20 to my late sixties, I was always 40 years old; I was, that is, an old young man and a young old one. Tell that to my legs now."
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House Freedom Caucus leaders Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Jim Jordan (R-OH). (photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
House Republicans' Attempt to Impeach Rod Rosenstein Is a Total Clown Show. Here Are the Receipts.
Aaron Rupar, ThinkProgress
Rupar writes: "House Freedom Caucus leaders Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Wednesday introduced articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Suffice it to say the five articles Meadows and Jordan put together fail to make a persuasive case that Rosenstein needs to go."
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Aaron Rupar, ThinkProgress
Rupar writes: "House Freedom Caucus leaders Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Wednesday introduced articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Suffice it to say the five articles Meadows and Jordan put together fail to make a persuasive case that Rosenstein needs to go."
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Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, proposed requiring that student borrowers seeking debt relief prove that they had fallen into financial distress or that their colleges knowingly deceived them. (photo: Tom Brenner/The New York Times)
Betsy DeVos Proposes to Curtail Debt Relief for Defrauded Students
Erica L. Green, The New York Times
Green writes: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos proposed on Wednesday to curtail Obama administration loan forgiveness rules for students defrauded by for-profit colleges, requiring that student borrowers show they have fallen into hopeless financial straits or prove that their colleges knowingly deceived them."
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Erica L. Green, The New York Times
Green writes: "Education Secretary Betsy DeVos proposed on Wednesday to curtail Obama administration loan forgiveness rules for students defrauded by for-profit colleges, requiring that student borrowers show they have fallen into hopeless financial straits or prove that their colleges knowingly deceived them."
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This image released by Showtime shows Jason Spencer in a scene from the series 'Who Is America?' starring Sacha Baron Cohen. (photo: Showtime/AP)
Racist US Lawmaker Forced to Quit After Sacha Baron Cohen Show
teleSUR
Excerpt: "A U.S. lawmaker who yelled racial slurs and dropped his pants on a prank cable TV show after being told it would intimidate terrorists offered a terse resignation letter to the speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives late Tuesday."
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teleSUR
Excerpt: "A U.S. lawmaker who yelled racial slurs and dropped his pants on a prank cable TV show after being told it would intimidate terrorists offered a terse resignation letter to the speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives late Tuesday."
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Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has promised a 'new Pakistan' that is free of corruption. (photo: Amjum Naveed/AP)
Imran Khan Claims Victory in Pakistan Elections
Memphis Barker, Guardian UK
Barker writes: "The former international cricket star Imran Khan has declared victory in Pakistan's general election, hailing what he described as 'the fairest' vote in the country's history, despite widespread allegations it was rigged in favour of his Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party."
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Memphis Barker, Guardian UK
Barker writes: "The former international cricket star Imran Khan has declared victory in Pakistan's general election, hailing what he described as 'the fairest' vote in the country's history, despite widespread allegations it was rigged in favour of his Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party."
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Gray wolves are threatened by budget riders that would remove protections. (photo: AP)
These Six Species Are About to Be Sacrificed for the Oil and Gas Industry
Jake Bullinger, Guardian UK
Bullinger writes: "Republican-led changes to the Endangered Species Act put plants and animals across America at risk. Here are the ones you should be most concerned about."
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Jake Bullinger, Guardian UK
Bullinger writes: "Republican-led changes to the Endangered Species Act put plants and animals across America at risk. Here are the ones you should be most concerned about."
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Thursday, March 22, 2018
The Daily 202: Winners and losers in the spending bill
The Daily 202: Winners and losers in the spending bill
2. Defense contractors: The Pentagon gets $144 billion for new hardware, including missile defense. It’s the biggest increase since the Iraq war was launched 15 years ago.
3. Dean Heller: The Nevada Republican is the most vulnerable senator up for reelection in 2018, and he blocked efforts by the Energy Department to revive the unpopular nuclear storage program at Yucca Mountain. The ads write themselves.
6. Big Bird: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will get $465 million in federal funding. Appropriators also rejected Trump’s push to eliminate the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.
7. The integrity of our elections: “While a Democratic push to win provisions protecting special counsel Robert S. Mueller III did not succeed, the bill does include hundreds of millions of dollars to combat potential interference from Russia or others in the November midterm elections,” Mike DeBonis and Erica Werner report. “The federal Election Assistance Commission will receive $380 million to dole out to states to improve their election-related cybersecurity. And the FBI is set to receive $300 million in counterintelligence funding to combat Russian hacking."
7. Transparency: The bill was released late on the night before the House votes to pass it. Negotiations were conducted behind closed doors, and dropping it at the 11th hour leaves little time for people to scrutinize the many handouts to special interests until after they’ve gone into effect. This is no way to run a government. (Here’s the full bill if you want to peruse it yourself.)
But, but, but: There are two notable exceptions. The Congressional Research Service now must publish online all the reports it prepares for lawmakers. The Secret Service will be required to release an annual report on travel costs for people under their protection, specifically adult children of the president. This is designed to expose how much taxpayers are spending to safeguard Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump on their overseas business trips.
The FDA said it has seen an uptick in an “unusual” cancer linked to breast implants in the past year, with the number of reported cases rising from 359 to 414. Health officials noted that the death count has remained unchanged. (New York Times)
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Saturday, September 9, 2017
RSN: Charles Pierce | Let's Talk About This Alleged "Coup" Against Paul Ryan
08 September 17
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FOCUS: Charles Pierce | Let's Talk About This Alleged "Coup" Against Paul Ryan
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "I'm no fan of the current Speaker, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, and he's transparently one of the worst legislative leaders in American history."
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Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "I'm no fan of the current Speaker, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, and he's transparently one of the worst legislative leaders in American history."
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Friday, May 12, 2017
RSN: Republican Lawmaker [NJ Rep. Tom MacArthur] Key to Health Bill's Passage Lambasted at Town Hall
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It's time for UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE just like every other Industrialized Nation!
12 May 17
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Republican Lawmaker Key to Health Bill's Passage Lambasted at Town Hall
Adam Gabbatt and Lauren Gambino, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Tom MacArthur, the New Jersey congressman who has been celebrated in conservative circles for helping pass the Republican healthcare bill, came back down to earth with a bang on Wednesday night when he was booed, heckled and generally chastised during a nearly five-hour town hall meeting."
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A constituent asks a question of Tom MacArthur at the tumultuous town hall. (photo: Dominick
Constituents heckle and boo Tom MacArthur, calling him a ‘killer’ as 500 people gather for New Jersey event: ‘I don’t think I’ll vote for him again’
om MacArthur, the New Jersey congressman who has been celebrated in conservative circles for helping pass the Republican healthcare bill, came back down to earth with a bang on Wednesday night when he was booed, heckled and generally chastised during a nearly five-hour town hall meeting.
In Willingboro, hundreds showed up to lambast MacArthur, most fuelled by their congressman’s intervention to revive the ailing American Health Care Act (AHCA).
MacArthur was branded a “weasel”, a “killer” and an “idiot” by constituents angry at his amendment to the bill, which would allow states to opt out of rules that protect individuals with pre-existing conditions from being charged more for healthcare coverage. This stipulation proved enough to satisfy the hard-right Freedom Caucus and the bill – which would probably see millions of Americans lose their healthcare coverage – passed the House on 4 May.
The majority of Republicans who voted for the bill are not holding public events this week, despite being on recess. Those who have dared face voters have been pilloried. Aware of this, MacArthur kicked off his town hall at 6.30pm with a promise to respond to every single question, for “as long as it goes”. He was still being quizzed by angry residents at 11.20pm.
More than 500 people had gathered outside the Kennedy Center in Willingboro, just across the Delaware river from Philadelphia. It was a lively and loud scene, a number of voters chanting, waving signs and generally causing a ruckus.
“Our health matters more than Tom’s net worth,” one banner read. A sign showed a picture of MacArthur with “I took your healthcare” written on his forehead. Another described MacArthur, a former insurance executive who was elected in 2014, as “MacWeasel”.
Claudia Storicks, a former nurse who has been on disability for the past two years, had travelled from Pemberton, New Jersey. She has diabetes and charcot foot – a weakening of the bones caused by nerve damage – and was using an electric scooter. She is insured under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Obama administration legislation the AHCA seeks to replace.
“It was the only insurance that I could afford,” she said. “I’ve been able to afford my medication and my doctor’s visits because I’m on the ACA. Otherwise I probably would have lost my house and my foot.”
Storicks voted for MacArthur in 2016 – “he’s a businessman and I thought he had a good sense about taxes,” she said – but now described herself as “very angry” at the prospect of the ACA being repealed.
“That would mean that my diabetes would get out of control, my foot would probably get worse, and I’d probably end up in hospital and losing my house.”
Medford, New Jersey, resident Jay Wilder, 72, was first in line. He arrived six hours early. “I’m really worried about pre-existing conditions because I dealt with it when I was going from my job before I had Medicare,” he said.
Wilder had had a heart attack and said he couldn’t afford healthcare. “I just lived without healthcare, hoping that nothing would happen. It was very difficult because when you’re 64 years old you start having health issues.”
The anger outside the venue set the tone for the event itself. MacArthur walked out to Coldplay’s A Sky Full of Stars, and to a similarly tepid round of applause from the 250 people who had made it inside. The congressman smiled and offered his hand to a man wearing a green shirt, sitting in the front row. The man kept his arms folded and thrust his head away.
The four hours and 50 minutes that followed were no less hostile. MacArthur had asked constituents not to boo him but that proved to be in vain. People repeatedly told him he had “blood” on his hands.
A man who had received a kidney transplant feared what would happen to people like him under the AHCA. A resident whose wife had recovered from breast cancer was concerned that she would “always have a pre-existing condition” and did not want that to determine which state she lived in.
A woman had brought her two young children, one of whom had learning difficulties, and objected to them potentially being placed in a “high-risk pool” – an aspect of MacArthur’s amendment designed to assist people with pre-existing conditions, but which could lead to higher health insurance costs.
MacArthur’s responses – that only 7% of Americans were in the individual market, that people would not lose their insurance (the Congressional Budget Office, in its assessment of an earlier version of the bill,said 24 million would probably do so), and that “there are loads of other people who don’t agree with you” – did not placate the crowd.
Nor did his response to repeated chants calling for single-payer healthcare.
“Government bureaucrats can be very dangerous when they have power” to make decisions on people’s health, MacArthur said, prompting one woman to tell the congressman she would prefer that scenario than “someone in an office” of an insurance company making the same decisions.
‘Something was awoke in me’
Just 14 of the 217 Republicans who voted in favor of the AHCA are holding public events this week. Those who have ventured out have not been warmly received.
On Monday, Rod Blum of Iowa walked out of an interview with a local television station and was then roundly booed at an event in Dubuque. On Tuesday, David Brat, a congressman from Virginia, was jeered and booed at a town hall in Midlothian, near Richmond.
Constituents waved red signs that said “shame” and “nope”, a gesture suggested by the progressive Indivisible organization, which aims to use Tea Party-esque, assertive tactics to oust Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections. Charlene Thompson, a Brat constituent, said she cried when the House approved the AHCA.
“Something was awoke in me,” she said. “I just gave birth last summer. I fought long and hard to have that guy and to think that I would be considered a pre-existing is just awful.”
In New Jersey on Wednesday, people began to quietly leave the MacArthur town hall at about 9.30pm. But at least 25 stayed until the bitter end. Storicks, who sat patiently in her scooter for hours, was one of the last people to speak.
She told the congressman about how she relied on the ACA for medication related to her illnesses. Storicks said she would suffer under the Republican plan “because I was born with bad genes”.
MacArthur stuck to the answer he had given all night: that high-risk pools would actually protect people like Storicks, and that people would not have to pay more due to a pre-existing condition – claims which are heavily disputed by health experts.
Storicks was not convinced.
“I get he’s an insurance man and he’s coming at this from an insurance and business perspective and it’s all about profits and minimizing costs,” she said, “but I’m frustrated because I don’t think he’s really of a mind to change his opinions.
“But next year the public will have a chance to speak. And I don’t think I’m going to vote for him again.”
http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/43514-republican-lawmaker-key-to-health-bills-passage-lambasted-at-town-hall
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
RSN: Scott Galindez | Universal Health Care From Prenatal to Grave
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FOCUS: Scott Galindez | Universal Health Care From Prenatal to Grave
Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
Galindez writes: "What many people don't realize is the Freedom Caucus killed Trump/Ryan care because it covered too much. They didn't want their donors from the insurance industry to be forced to pay for things like prenatal care, an ambulance to get you to the hospital, or prescription drugs."
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Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
Galindez writes: "What many people don't realize is the Freedom Caucus killed Trump/Ryan care because it covered too much. They didn't want their donors from the insurance industry to be forced to pay for things like prenatal care, an ambulance to get you to the hospital, or prescription drugs."
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Universal Health Care From Prenatal to Grave
28 March 17
magine if everyone had health care from conception to death. I'm sure there are members of the Freedom Caucus who want health care for the unborn. It seems they care less about people after they are born. You see, after birth they care more about keeping pictures of dead presidents in their wallets.
What many people don't realize is the Freedom Caucus killed Trump/Ryan care because it covered too much. They didn't want their donors from the insurance industry to be forced to pay for things like prenatal care, an ambulance to get you to the hospital, or prescription drugs. They almost got their way: on the eve of the non-vote, Trump and Ryan agreed to get rid of the minimum coverage regulations that came with Obamacare.
They claimed they were defending our freedom not to have to pay for what we don't need. Nonsense. Your insurance company is not billed for things you don't use. Just because a plan has to cover prenatal care doesn't mean a young man's insurance company has to pay for prenatal care for him.
The Freedom Caucus was not representing you and me. They were looking out for insurance industry lobbyists who wanted to go back to the days when they could sell you junk. The only freedom on their agenda was for insurance companies to have the freedom to let you die.
The politics of health care and insurance are complicated things. Health coverage doesn't have to be. The conflict between the Libertarian philosophy of everyone for themselves and the progressive belief that we should take care of each other is not an easy one to bridge. The solution is very simple, just not likely politically. Single payer is the answer, and I want to take on some of the myths that make single payer a difficult move politically.
Myth: It Will Cost Too Much
Medicaid is a perfect model for what single payer would look like in the end, except that all doctors would see all patients. I know some of you are screaming at your keyboard the right question: why do many doctors not see Medicaid patients? Because they have a better deal and can make more money from patients with private insurers. I hear people argue that if the government were the single payer, then the health care industry would find it easier to rip us off. The exact opposite is true. The government does a better job of negotiating prices with providers. Insurance companies are willing to pay more to get exclusive access for their patients. The government doesn't need to increase the size of their networks. As the only payer, the government could set the prices like they do with Medicaid and keep costs down.
Medical providers would be forced to accept all patients, since there wouldn't be any with insurance that will pay more than the government. So yes, being a doctor would become less profitable. The trade-off would be everyone is insured, so everyone becomes a paying patient. It works all over the world.
Myth: Single Payer Causes Long Lines
Well, I guess it is not a myth. Of course lines are longer: everyone can afford to be in the line. For elective surgeries in countries with universal health care, there are waiting lists. In our current system, there are shorter lines because people go without procedures they need because they can't afford them. Gone would be the days that people went without based on their finances. Of course, people with money come from Canada to get to our shorter lines if they can afford it. It would be hard though to find a Canadian who would trade their "coverage" for ours. They just have to wait a little longer for elective procedures.
Myth: We Will Have to Pay More
You would pay higher taxes, but you would pay no premiums, no deductibles, and you would get your prescriptions for free. I hear you screaming, nothing is free. Of course, it isn't free; we pay for it in our taxes. Gone would be the days when you went into debt to pay your medical bills.
How Do We Get There?
Simple, add a public option to the Affordable Care Act. The government will negotiate plans like they do with Medicaid and not have profit built into their negotiations. They will create plans that the insurance companies will not be able to compete against. We can slowly transition to single payer, working out the kinks as we go. Before you completely dismiss this proposal as too radical, remember even Hillary Clinton supported a public option in the last election. Of course the Republican Congress is not going to approve a public option, but if voters see through the Republican agenda and make 2018 a change election, we can nominate and elect a President in 2020 who will support a public option.
We just have to stop watering down our message to become "electable." The people are ready for change, not more establishment politics. There was a candidate in 2016 who understood that. Polls now rate him as the most popular politician in America.
Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott moved to Des Moines in 2015 to cover the Iowa Caucus.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/42724-focus-universal-health-care-from-prenatal-to-grave
Sunday, March 26, 2017
RSN: Charles Pierce | Sad Paul Ryan Is Sad
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FOCUS: Charles Pierce | Sad Paul Ryan Is Sad
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "The ghost, it was given up around 3:30 on Thursday afternoon, at least for 12 hours or so. Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, took one in the chops when a vote of his well-camouflaged tax-cut bill was postponed until Friday morning."
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Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "The ghost, it was given up around 3:30 on Thursday afternoon, at least for 12 hours or so. Speaker Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin, took one in the chops when a vote of his well-camouflaged tax-cut bill was postponed until Friday morning."
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