Tag: Medicare

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Congress GOP Healthcare

Mike Johnson: Republicans Have No ‘Intention’ Of Cutting Medicare, ‘But…’

Throughout the 2024 election season, Donald Trump and his Republican allies repeatedly promised they would protect and secure both Medicare and Social Security and not make a single cut to either program.

That, however, was then, and now that the GOP has won control of both the White House and Congress, it’s clear that they have every intention of taking a meat cleaver to social programs so they can give another round of tax cuts to rich douchebags like Elon Musk.

How do we know that Republicans are going to cut the two programs? All you have to do is listen to what Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) said at a press conference today.

CNN correspondent Manu Raju asked Johnson what the GOP had planned for the two entitlement programs.

“Look, the president has made very clear, Social Security and Medicare have to be preserved,” Johnson replied. “And we are not, no one is coming in with the intention of cutting benefits in any way or anything.”

Johnson quickly added, “But we have to look at all spending and look at it very deliberately while maintaining those commitments. The Republican Party is not going to cut benefits, okay? We’ve made that very clear over and over and over.”

“We do know, however, at the same time, there are many, many areas of fraud, waste and abuse.”

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Republican doublespeak, here’s what Johnson actually meant: We promised not to cut Medicare, but we lie about everything and we lied about that, too. Cuts are coming. You can count on it.

So don’t be the least bit surprised when the first GOP budget after Trump’s inauguration features cuts to food stamps, programs for seniors, and enormous tax cuts for the richest Americans, including greedy South African douchebags like Elon Musk, who personally bankrolled Trump’s victory to the tune of at least a quarter of a billion dollars.

Bend over, America! Republicans are about to screw all of us while saying it’s for our own good.

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Donald Trump Jr. Healthcare WTF?!

Trump’s Proposed Medicare Chief: Uninsured Americans ‘Don’t Have A Right To Health’

Even though he lost a bid for the U.S. Senate and is widely seen as a laughingstock among respected members of the medical establishment, Donald Trump nominated Dr. Mehmet Oz to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shortly after winning the 2024 presidential election.

However, comments Oz made several years ago to the National Governor’s Association could derail his chances of getting confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

In 2013, Oz told governors attending a conference that any Americans without health insurance “don’t have the right to health,” and should instead be provided with “a way of crawling back out of the abyss of darkness of fear over not having the health they need.”

How would that be accomplished? According to Oz, physicals in a “festival-like” setting would suffice for the uninsured.

“You can screen thousands of people for almost nothing, and you allow a conversation and take place in more of a festival-like setting,” Oz said. “It’s not scary, and I mentioned earlier that almost everybody’s come into our … physicals has a job, but a lot don’t have insurance.”

“Give them a way of crawling back out of the abyss of darkness of fear over not having the health they need, and give them an opportunity, cause they don’t have the right to health, but they have the right to access a chance to get that health.”

So if you’re without insurance, Dr. Oz thinks all you deserve is a 15-minute mini exam from a doctor at a health festival.

But what if you’re diagnosed with a serious illness at one of Dr. Oz’s traveling medical shows and still lack insurance? Are you wished good luck or would he advocate the immediate termination of your life because you’re a strain on the American healthcare system?

Senate Democrats are making it clear that they aren’t inclined to approve Oz to head the Medicare and Medicaid programs, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) noting that Oz has frequently called for privatizing Medicare via Medicare Advantage plans.

Warren said she has “concerns about your advocacy for the elimination of Traditional Medicare and your deep financial ties to private health insurers.”

It remains to be seen if Oz can secure the votes he needs for confirmation. But if he does, don’t be surprised if the U.S. medical system becomes yet another thing only the wealthiest Americans can access and afford. The rest of us, it seems, will have to suffer and die while Dr. Oz and his money-grubbing buddies further enrich themselves.

 

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GOP Joe Biden

Jake Tapper Calls Bullsh*t On Rick Scott’s Bogus Claim That Joe Biden ‘Cut’ Medicare

Rather than admitting that he wants to dramatically slash spending on Social Security and Medicare, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is now trying to shift blame for his heartless plan and suggest that others are the ones who have cut the programs.

But CNN anchor Jake Tapper is having none of Scott’s bullshit, and he called him out Thursday on the network, noting the the senator had tried to suggest that Tapper himself had reported Biden cut Medicare by billions of dollars.

Speaking with CNN host Kaitlan Collins, Tapper began:

“You interviewed Senator Scott about his proposal, about the fact he did, in Rescue America, call for all federal legislation to sunset after five years and then it could be brought back up if Congress chooses to do so. Then he started saying that Democrats tried to cut Medicare spending. You pointed out what he was talking about was not a cut. It was allowing Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drugs, and then he tried to use something I said — I was very surprised by this — back in 2017 as his defense to that. Take a listen to this little excerpt.”

In the video clip, Scott remarks:

“Okay, Kaitlan, let me just read you something Jake Tapper said. This is back when Republicans were proposing reducing the cost of Medicaid. He said — Jake Tapper said, ‘I know the Trump Administration is excited that Medicaid will go back to the states where they have more control and can experiment and be more efficient, but without question, $880 billion is a cut.”

That led Tapper to rightly note:

“So, he didn’t include the quote where I talked about that the cut was analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office. Here’s what I actually said back in 2017. So the context here is I was quoting the CBO on its analysis for a proposal from Medicaid, and I was asking the Health and Human Services secretary, Tom Price, how that cut as, defined by CBO, didn’t violate Trump’s campaign promise to never make such a cut.”

Collins concurred with Tapper that Scott was blowing smoke out of his butt:

“Yeah, and really the issue here that it’s a separate matter, Jake.It’s what was most confusing to me as we were talking about this … what is happening here in the Inflation Reduction Act is that they reduced drug prices. Basically the government can negotiate drug prices. so basically their spending money. And reducing money is not the same as reducing drug prices. It makes the provision more beneficial to those recipients. That was not the point of the interview, was which was to talk about the plan he proposed, which, he told me this morning, does not believe a mistake. To roll out this plan that would sunset all this including Medicare, including Social Security every five years unless it was authorized by Congress. That is at the heart of the matter.”

Republicans have been dying to cut Social Security and Medicare for years. If you doubt that, consider what Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said in 2010:

“It will be my objective to phase out Social Security — to pull it up by the roots and get rid of it.”