Republicans In Denial (As In Denial Of Any Democrat Proposal)

Posted on 24. June 2011 by admin

Today, Congressional Republicans pulled out of negotiations to resolve the deficit. And (here’s a shocker) they blamed Democrats. Their reasoning is that Democrats insist on tax increases rather than merely relying on more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicare and other programs.

“Let me be clear. Tax hikes are off the table,” said House Speaker John Boehner.

So, according to Republicans, even though the major cause of the deficit is the Bush era tax cuts (primarily for the wealthy), the only way to cut the deficit is by cutting spending for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Planned Parenthood, Public Broadcasting, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Protection Agency, the Department of Education, etc. At the same time, Republicans refuse to consider cuts to subsidies for Big Oil and corporate agriculture which they say would be tax hikes. Of course, they also want to repeal the Affordable Care Act and repeal regulations on the financial industry.

So according to Republicans, when it comes to deficit negotiations, everything is on the table. Except anything that Democrats want.

I guess that’s what passes for “bipartisan negotiations” these days.

An Endorsement No One Should Welcome

Posted on 26. May 2011 by admin

The Houston Chronicle’s Fuel Fix blog reports that Richard “The Dick” Cheney is gaga over Congressman Paul Ryan. “I worship the ground he walks on,” said Cheney. “I hope he doesn’t run for president because that would ruin a good man who has a lot of work to do.”

If voters didn’t already have enough reason to be wary of Ryan following his attempt to gut the Medicare program, this should raise some even larger red flags. Whatever, or whomever, Cheney favors is almost certain to mean greater largess for corporations (especially big oil) and trouble for ordinary working people.

Republican Agenda Has Never Been More Clear.

Posted on 26. May 2011 by admin

Following the vote by House Republicans to cut Medicaid and turn Medicare into a certain-to-fail voucher system, Senate Republicans filibustered a bill that would end oil subsidies to the most profitable companies on Earth. They followed that by doing the same to a bill that would end subsidies for Ethanol.

In doing so, Republicans have made it abundantly clear that they don’t care about cutting the deficit. Not really. If they did, they would gladly trim these subsidies from our budget resulting in savings of billions of dollars.

As evidenced by their assault on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, unemployment insurance, education, women’s health providers, the environment, labor unions, first responders and teachers, they certainly don’t care about ordinary citizens.

What Republicans do seem to care about is protecting the profits of their corporate masters. You know, the large corporations that were given all the rights of citizens by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court so they could anonymously spend millions to elect Republican candidates.

The connection couldn’t be more obvious.

One man’s solution for Medicare and the health care crisis.

Posted on 16. May 2011 by admin

Now that House Republicans have voted to end Medicare and Medicaid as we know them, I believe it’s time to look at the real problems with the system. In addition to Medicare fraud, many of the problems are structural. Not with Medicare. But with the health care industry itself.

Unless the skyrocketing costs of health care are controlled, we will not be able to fix our social insurance programs such as Medicare. Moreover, we will not be able to control our deficits. That is precisely why President Obama and the Democratic Congress chose to focus on health care reform in 2009. Unfortunately, the resulting bill was a compromise with Republicans hell-bent on protecting the insane profits of the health insurance industry and PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America).

Therefore, I humbly offer the following suggestions for consideration:

1 – Create a medical triage system with the entry point being Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioners, rather than MDs. These people are Registered Nurses with additional education and training. They are more than capable of identifying and treating the majority of illnesses and symptoms, as well as writing prescriptions, and they can refer patients to a physician or specialist as needed. However, they are billed at a lower rate than physicians. Implemented nationally, this system could save millions, if not billions, of dollars.

2 – Encourage patients to call medical professionals more often. Ignoring symptoms usually doesn’t make them go away. Patients of all ages tend to avoid talking to medical professionals until they absolutely have to. This often results in illnesses being allowed to advance which, in turn, makes them more difficult (and expensive) to treat. All patients should be encouraged to call or visit with Nurse Practitioners whenever they notice a change in their bodies or a symptom of concern.

3 – Eliminate unnecessary tests and treatments. Currently, (some) doctors order a battery of lab tests and treatments in order to maximize their profits. They also claim to do this as a defensive measure against potential malpractice suits. I believe it’s time to recognize that everyone makes mistakes (including health care professionals). We should try to limit the number of malpractice suits and the size of the awards. At the same time, the medical profession needs to more aggressively weed out those who are responsible for the most egregious errors.

4 – Regulate the cost of pharmaceuticals. Currently, Big PhRMA is able to charge whatever it wants for its products. In some cases, the mark-up on pharmaceuticals is astronomical. An inhaler used by millions of Americans costs $38-$40 in the US. But in other countries, its price is as little as 5 cents!

5 – Create incentives for family practice physicians. Too many of our medical students focus on specialties that offer the greatest return on the investment of their medical education. They reason that, since they will be faced with the daunting task of paying off tens of thousands of dollars in loans, they should choose the specialty that pays the most and faces the least probability of legal issues. As a result, the percentage of family practice physicians and OB/GYN physicians is dwindling. This could be fixed by offering more government scholarship awards and tax benefits to those who choose the traditionally lower paying specialties.

6 – Eliminate the need for the poor and uninsured to use Emergency Rooms for primary care. We’ve all heard stories of people who call an ambulance in order to be transported to the ER to be treated for a common cold. Of course, since many of these people can’t afford to pay for their care, the costs are absorbed by the hospital and passed on to other patients.

Recognizing that many of the stories are likely exaggerated, it is true that people go to the ER when a simple visit to a doctor’s office would suffice at a fraction of the cost. But rather than complain about the phenomenon, we should look at the cause. Often it’s simply because these people don’t have ready access to any other form of care. By creating more and better access such as clinics staffed into the night by Nurse Practitioners, people would be encouraged to seek care through more appropriate means.

7 – Demand that health care providers publish outcomes for the most serious ailments and treatments, and encourage patients to seek out the most successful providers. It is a well-accepted fact that it is less expensive to seek treatment from the most successful providers, even if that means traveling out of state. There are fewer complications and patients tend to recover faster.

8 – Last, and most important, take the profit out of the health care industry for those who aren’t directly involved in providing care. In other words, contrary to Republican beliefs, eliminate the middle men (insurance companies) and allow the government to finance care through taxes and/or withholding. I’d much rather have the government determine the accessibility of medical care than large corporations whose primary goal is to limit care in order to maximize profits.

Now it’s the First Responders’ fault.

Posted on 26. April 2011 by admin

First it was teachers who the Teapublicans blamed for our deficit woes. Now it’s firefighters and police.

In Republican budgets from the House of Representatives to the state houses, budgets for first responders are being slashed. Worse yet, thanks to an amendment by a Florida Republican, the 9/11 first responders are now being subjected to a test of patriotism before the government will accept claims for medical conditions acquired while digging through piles of rubble in search of bodies!

Apparently, some Republicans are concerned that some of these people are terrorists!!! So before voting for a bill that would pay for the medical claims of the 9/11 first responders, they attached an amendment that requires a search into the first responders’ past to make sure they weren’t complicit in the terrorist attacks.

Seriously! You can’t make this stuff up!

Congress is actually questioning the patriotism of the people they once hailed as heroes for rushing into the Twin Towers to help others escape. The very same people who were awarded for bravery by the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress.

Who will they go after next? Grandma and Grandpa? Oh, no…they wouldn’t…would they? Well, who needs Medicare and Social Security anyway? Right?

Maybe the best way to fix the deficit is to do nothing.

Posted on 16. April 2011 by admin

While the government and the media debate the pros and cons of President Obama’s and Congressman Ryan’s competing deficit reduction plans, Ezra Klein of the Washington Post suggests another possibility. Do nothing.

That’s right. Do nothing to address the deficit and growing national debt!

Using a graph based on the Congressional Budget Office’s September numbers, Klein shows what will happen if Congress fails to act. Our national budget would begin to balance itself in two years. And despite the so-called “crises” of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, the budget would remain balanced into the forseeable future.

Given the doom and gloom scenarios of the teabaggers and their Republican allies, how is this possible?

It’s the result of allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire at the end of their 2-year extension, implementing the program that changes the way doctor payments are handled in Medicare, and allowing the Affordable Care Act (so-called Obamacare) to be fully implemented.

That’s it! No privatizing Social Security, no ending Medicaid and no changing Medicare to a voucher system that will likely drive up the cost of health care while dramatically adding to the insurance industry’s bottom line. All we have to do is keep the politicians from further messing things up! (Of course, it wouldn’t hurt if we could stop bleeding money and lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s estimated that those wars have already cost us as much as $3 trillion. A number that’s increasing by the day.)

Remember this as the debate over the deficit escalates between now and the 2012 election. The choice is likely to be between a Republican plan of pulling the safety nets out from under our most vulnerable citizens while lining the pockets of the wealthy. Or enacting President Obama’s plan which will reduce the deficit while continuing to care for the poor, the sick and the elderly. Or doing nothing and returning to Clinton-era tax rates.Personally, I vote for one of the last two options. After all, unless my memory fails me, the decade of the 90s was prosperous for most everyone. Not just the super-wealthy.

The Deficit Scam.

Posted on 29. March 2011 by admin

In a Tea Party-based stupor, Republicans are locked in a battle with President Obama and Senate Democrats over cuts to the sizeable deficit. Of course, rather than look at the real causes of the deficit, they continue to attack Democratic-supported institutions such as labor unions, Public Broadcasting, the Department of Education, Planned Parenthood, the health care reform bill and the so-called “entitlements” of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And, of course, they place most of the blame for the deficit on President Obama.Once again, the Republicans are dead wrong.

According to a report by the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “…the economic downturn, the Bush tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq explain virtually the entire deficit over the next ten years.”

Even the costs of the stimulus bill and financial rescues have had relatively little impact on the deficit. Again, according to the CBPP, “those costs pale next to other policies enacted since 2001 that have swollen the defict.” The CBPP report continues, “Just two policies dating from the Bush Administration – tax cuts and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – accounted for over $500 billion of the deficit in 2009 and will account for almost $7 trillion in deficits … through 2019, including the associated debt-service costs.”

The truth is that the current Republican initiatives to cut the deficit are a ruse. They are merely driven by ideology in an attempt to strengthen their hold on public office. There are only three ways to cut the deficit without harming the middle class and the most vulnerable people in our society: Cut our bloated defense budget designed, not just to protect us, but to force our will on the rest of the world. End corporate welfare such as the obscene subsidies for Big Oil. And raise taxes on those who can most afford it, such as the 400 Americans who control 50 percent of the nation’s wealth.

If you’d like to read the entire CBPP report for yourself, follow this link: http://www.cbpp.org/files/12-16-09bud.pdf

Another WTF? Vote.

Posted on 6. November 2010 by admin

For some time, I’ve wondered why my Republican friends continue to vote against their own self-interest. I do have a few wealthy friends who benefit from Republican policies. But the majority are more often harmed by Republican initiatives.

For example, Republicans talk about tax cuts for the rich being good for small business owners who generate most of the jobs in this country. That may sound reasonable. However, you have to look at what Republican leaders consider small businesses. By their definition of limited ownership, Cargill (the world’s largest privately-held corporation) and Koch Industries (the world’s second-largest privately-held corporation) are “small” businesses. And, of course, extending the Bush-era tax cuts would be very good for them.

The reality is that eliminating the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy would affect only 3% of small business owners.

Republicans have also been at the forefront of providing tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas. They refuse to entertain penalties for large American corporations that move their “headquarters” off-shore to avoid U.S. taxes. Republicans rail against common sense regulations that prevent greedy corporations from destroying our environment and robbing our citizens. Indeed, Republicans actually apologized to BP when the Obama administration demanded it pay for damages to those affected by the massive Gulf oil spill. And virtually all Republicans voted against reform of Wall Street after it collapsed our economy!

So what have Republicans done to earn my friends’ loyalty? Social Security? Nope. That was passed by Democrats over the protests of many Republican. Medicare? Nope. That was passed by Democrats with little to no help from Republicans. Corporate-provided health care and profit-sharing? Wrong again. Employee benefits are the result of labor union fights (literally) against greedy company owners.

So what does the Republican Party do to deserve the undying loyalty of those who work for a living? They lie. And they are very good at it.

Okay, Republicans, now what?

Posted on 4. November 2010 by admin

You lied, cheated and spent your way into control of the House of Representatives. You took control of more governors’ offices. And you took control of 19 more state legislatures.

Much of your success was the result of massive corporate donations and your filibustering of legislation that could have helped turn this economy around – the economy that collapsed on your watch due to your lack of oversight and regulation. Remember?

You blamed your mess on President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Then you talked about “taking your country back,” resorting to 2nd Amendment remedies, if necessary.

You won on promises of less government and lower taxes. So what next?

Plan to cut the size of government? Maybe you haven’t noticed, but the downsizing of state, county and local governments is one of the primary reasons our economy is so slow to recover. We’re losing government jobs faster than private industry can add jobs. Moreover, the lack of government oversight of Wall Street is one of the main reasons we’re in this predicament.

Plan to cut taxes by renewing the ill-conceived Bush tax cuts for the wealthy? Then plan on adding $80 billion to our deficit over the next two years. Want to repeal “Obamacare?” Then plan on adding yet another $138 billion to our deficit over the next 10 years. (Not to mention the fact that you’ll be denying health care access to more than 30 million Americans.)

Plan on cutting the deficit? You could cut half of our bloated $663.7 billion defense budget (not including the Iraq and Afghan wars). But what will you do about the defense contractor jobs you eliminate?

The most radical Republicans talk about eliminating or privatizing all “entitlements” such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They want to get rid of the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Science Foundation, as well. All of that combined would save $1.48 trillion a year, completely offsetting the deficit and leaving us with a surplus of more than $200 billion each year (not including tax cuts for the wealthy, rising health care costs, increased military spending and increased border security).

But we’d have a nation of uneducated, unheathy children and heavily-armed, destitute senior citizens. Try running on that platform in future elections. Or will you do as some Tea Party candidates suggest, and limit voting to landowners or those already in office?

LaMaster's Corner

Politics and opinions

Category Archives: Medicare

An Endorsement No One Should Welcome

One man’s solution for Medicare and the health care crisis.

Now it’s the First Responders’ fault.