Author: hearseeno

Analysis | Why Republicans were in such a hurry on health care

By Matt O’Brien  March 25 at 8:45 AM

But there’s a reason the GOP was pushing a bill that would have taken
everything people don’t like about the healthcare system and made it
worse. That’s the fact that it would have allowed them to pass two
permanent tax cuts for the rich. Anyone, you see, can pass a tax cut
that expires after ten years. But if you want to make it last—and you
don’t have 60 votes in the Senate—then you need to find a way to pay for
it (or at least look like you did). Taking health insurance away from
poor and sick people would have done that just for the Obamacare taxes,
which primarily hit people in the top 1 or 2 percent. Indeed, as you can
see below in the chart from the Urban Institute,
the combination of tax cuts for the rich and benefit cuts for the poor
that was the GOP healthcare plan would have been a reverse Robin Hood
that redistributed income from people making $50,000 or less to
mostly those making $200,000 or more.

Now, the crazy thing is that this first tax cut for the rich (in the
form of Obamacare “repeal and replace”) would have made a second one
(this one coming in the form of “tax reform”) look more affordable.

That’s
because, due to parliamentary rules, tax reform can’t lose any revenue
outside the 10-year budget window if it’s going to be permanent. The
question, though, is lose any revenue compared to what. If
Republicans had repealed Obamacare’s $1 trillion worth of taxes before
they did tax reform, that’s $1 trillion less they’d have to come up with
to make it look like tax reform wasn’t losing any money. Now, without
those phantom savings, tax reform, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan admitted, will be “more difficult.”

Analysis | Why Republicans were in such a hurry on health care

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH: March 24

pocochina:

HEALTH CARE:

ACA REPEAL FAILS!
Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the bill, which means that the Republican
majority didn’t even bother to vote on it. This is huge. If you
showed up for this – if you called, protested, went to a town hall
– you helped save tens of thousands of lives.

While nothing is
stopping Republicans from trying to repeal Obamacare in a different
way, a defeat this humiliating
is likely to discourage them from trying in the foreseeable future.
Ryan and Trump can’t throw each other under the bus fast enough,
the various factions in congress have turned on each other, and
they’re still on the hot seat for being filthy traitors. (I guess
they did get tired of winning!) Meanwhile, Schumer is breaking some kind of record for smug
concern-trolling, and the once and future Speaker literally kicked off her shoes for
a celebratory little dance on the Capitol lawn.
And rightly so, because this was only possible because of Democratic
discipline and solidarity. Anyone who tells you the two parties are
the same but Democrats are flops is trying to screw with you.

To be clear:
human dumpster fire
and possible criminal
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price still has a lot of
power to undermine the bill. Congressional Republicans can and will
pull every shady trick in the book to sabotage it just out of spite.
They are also in a position to wreck American public health by
destroying access to reproductive health care, poisoning us by
gutting environmental regulations, and trashing workplace safety
laws. People have to stay engaged. And also, if a few more folks had
bothered to be engaged six months ago we could be celebrating
progress instead of avoiding disaster.

All that’s
important! But what’s most important is that the millions of people
who would have suffered or died if the Republicans had gotten their
way are not going to lose access to their health care.

RUSSIA:

Remember on
Monday (WE WERE SO MUCH YOUNGER THEN) when the House Intelligence
Committee had that public hearing into Russian interference? That was
supposed to be the first public hearing on the issue, with a second
one scheduled for early next week. The committee’s credibility came
into question on Wednesday, when committee chair Devin Nunes found
out…..something, which he shared immediately with the Speaker of
the House before running over to the White House, but has still not
disclosed to the rest of the committee.
Today he decided – abruptly, and again without any input from the
rest of the committee – to cancel Tuesday’s hearing.

Nunes was
actually somewhat involved in this story before he decided to make a
scene yesterday. He was on the Trump transition team – that is, the
group of people who help to staff an administration between Election
Day and Inauguration Day. Just that he is in such a powerful and
sensitive position during these investigations is pretty sketchy.
When asked about people now under suspicion of collaboration, Roger
Stone and Carter Page, he pretended not to know who they were. Like,
you probably recognize their names, even if you’re not paying close
attention, but he was on the transition team and somehow didn’t
know ‘nuthin.

Amnesia seems to
have been contagious on the Trump transition team: Mike Pence was the
head of the transition team and yet claimed to be unaware of former
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had been talking to the
Russian ambassador before Inauguration Day.
When Flynn was exposed in mid-February, Pence lied about not knowing
what Flynn had done. He had been briefed on January 26th
that Flynn had been recorded in those conversations with the Russian
ambassador by former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates. Yates was
fired four days later.
At the time, it appeared as if this was due to her refusal to defend
the unconstitutional Muslim ban.

And that’s
where we come back around to Tuesday’s hearing, for which Sally
Yates was one of three people scheduled to testify publicly. Again, nobody – not even the rest of the Intelligence Committee – knows why Nunes canceled the hearing.

So! A good news/baffling news end to the week. Keep your eyes peeled.

theonion:

WASHINGTON—Explaining that the legislation would create major gaps in treatment for tens of millions of people, a new report released Thursday by the American Public Health Association found that anxiety disorders induced by Donald Trump’s presidency will not be covered under the new GOP healthcare bill. “Under the proposed American Health Care Act, those experiencing anxiety over the impact of the Trump administration on the economy, civil rights, or the environment, or just suffering from generalized distress over the future of the nation, will have to pay exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses for any therapies required to cope,” said policy analyst Jason Coates, adding that not even the groups who will need treatment most, such as immigrants, women, and the poor, would be covered. “Even as President Trump continues to enact more of his controversial agenda and make antagonizing public statements, millions will remain vulnerable to the resulting mental health issues. And if left untreated over an entire four-year term, they could develop into more serious conditions that will end up costing taxpayers much more in the long run.” The report also acknowledged, however, that Trump-related anxiety would result in billions of dollars in savings for elder care due to the shortened lifespan of many seniors. 

It’s Time to Make Birth Control Accessible Over-the-Counter, For Everyone

drst:

tyrannosaurus-trainwreck:

knitmeapony:

killerblackberrypie:

sourcedumal:

talesofthestarshipregeneration:

At last, new paper from Johns Hopkins Medicine puts the critics to rest. The team of researchers reviewed copious data related to teenagers who take oral contraceptives and found they are indubitably capable of taking the pill responsibly—in fact, many already are. Therefore, the team strongly urged that birth control pills become over-the-counter drugs for adolescents as well as adults. The researchers’ findings were published on March 14th in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

“We tried to review the scientific evidence and list of benefits to a decision [to make birth control available over the counter],” co-author and Columbia University professor John S. Santelli told Gizmodo. “The bottom line of the paper is that we think adolescents are fully capable of taking the pill correctly. We strongly urge that there not be a restriction of age about [how a person can obtain] oral contraceptives.”

MORE

This is so important. Make it otc. Eliminate gatekeeping and let folks have access universally

So honest question.

Before you go on BC there’s usually a blood panel and a bunch of questions, not to determine if you’re mature enough for BC, but to determine whether going on hormones is something your body can handle. Like, if you get migraines with auras, you’re at a much more significant risk for stroke, and hormonal BC is usually *not recommended*. There are other conditions that folks can have as well, where adding hormones to their body could lead to life-threatening situations.

If we make BC OTC, thus meaning people don’t get tested for these conditions, how do we keep hormonal BC from killing people?

The same ways we do with every other over-the-counter drug.  There are huge packets of counterindications and warnings and things in every bottle of medicine you buy.  Some have to do with medication interaction, some with conditions, etc etc.

I have literally never had a doctor even suggest bloodwork before prescribing birth control.

Most of the doctors I’ve seen who’ve prescribed BC have seen my bloodwork, though. Even if they didn’t do a draw for that specific reason, they’ve seen my lab results.

This also wouldn’t solve the “hormonal BC doesn’t work for anyone over 150 lbs” problem.

Oooo, yeah.  No.  If they ever can fix the relationship between progesterone and increased blood pressure, then sure, OTC would be fine.  I tried about six different oral contraceptives in my 20′s and 30′s and each one increased my blood pressure within a couple months.  

It’s Time to Make Birth Control Accessible Over-the-Counter, For Everyone

flourish:

aviewfrommercury:

asgardreid:

aviewfrommercury:

asgardreid:

If you’re awake between 3 AM and 6 AM you’re appropriating lycanthrope culture and you need to go to sleep and check your privilege

This is blatant vampire erasure.

Go write a sad poem about it

My name is Vlad
and wen its nite
or wen the wolves
art pohsting shite
and all discourse
haf gon to dogs –
i stay up late.
i clik ‘reblog’

i hit reblog so hard i got whiplash thank you @redgoldsparks