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BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI & CROOKED MEDIA Wednesday, July 31, 2019 |
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| HE COULDN'T HEALTH CARE LESS |
| President Trump is reportedly scrambling to find health care policies—any health care policies—that he can adopt and point to during the election as “proof” that he isn’t full of shit.
Three things to remember: 1) Trump’s real record on health care and the agenda he would pursue if re-elected are both terrible; 2) Democrats have a deserved and natural advantage on the issue that they shouldn’t squander; and 3) despite Trump’s lies, the election will be a choice between a future where all Americans are insured and one in which tens of millions of people lose their insurance and pay more for their care.
What’s Trump up to? He wants to roll out a series of modest proposals, taken from Democrats, that would lower prescription drug prices. The catch? Republicans in Congress don’t support ideas like these.
Why does he want to do this? To deflect criticism from his toxically unpopular health care agenda, and mislead the public into thinking he has a more humane approach to health care than Democrats.
Is it possible that Trump’s had a change of heart on health care? No! He’s a huge liar! After promising as a candidate to provide everyone with health insurance, Trump spent his first two years trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Thanks to Trump’s efforts to sabotage the ACA, over a million people, and possibly several million, have lost insurance. The Trump administration has also asked federal courts to wipe the entire ACA off the books and intends to plead that case to the Supreme Court. It’s a really bad record, and no half-measure Trump pretends to support during the election can change it.
What does this mean for Democrats? They should focus on two things: 1) Trump’s abysmal record; and 2) the fact that every Democrat running intends to advance policies that would make insurance better and extend it to millions more people.
Is that what they’re doing? Of course not! Moderate Democratic presidential candidates have accused Medicare for All supporters of planning to take insurance away from over 100 million people who are covered by their employers. In truth, Medicare for All supporters want to replace for-profit health insurance with a universal public plan that would provide more comprehensive coverage than private insurance. It doesn’t help that Medicare for All supporters have attacked moderates, who want to make a public plan optional, for selling out to insurance companies. (In fact, the insurance industry strenuously opposes all Democratic health care plans!)
At last night’s presidential debate, Elizabeth Warren pleaded with the field to be clear, “We are the Democrats. We are not about trying to take away health care from anyone. That's what the Republicans are trying to do. And we should stop using Republican talking points.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed her, saying, “Democrats are united on health care in terms of, we want lower costs for people, we want universal coverage. There are some differences on how to get there but those pale before what Republicans are doing."
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| Over 900 migrant children have been removed from their families at the southern border in the past year, despite the fact that the Trump administration officially ended its family separation policy over a year ago in response to a court order. Earlier this month, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan testified to Congress that separations were “rare” and undertaken only “in the interest of the child.” Reports suggest that is not true and that the pace of separations is increasing, in some cases for infractions as trivial as speeding tickets.
A total of 481 separated children were under the age of 10, and 185 of them were five or younger. Children who were separated from their families between June 2018 and June 2019 spent an average of 68 days in shelters, which violates the so-called Flores Agreement which legally prohibits detaining children for more than 20 days. |
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| What A Debate, amirite? Read our recap of night one of the second Democratic debate in Detroit here → crooked.com/2020
And there’s another one tonight pitting Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Julián Castro against some other people who we still let on the stage. But finish reading this newsletter first.
Watch with us on the Crooked Group Thread → go.crooked.com/groupthread Get our special debate recap newsletter → votesaveamerica.com/subscribe |
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| The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.25 percent today for the first time since 2008 because President Trump has destabilized the economic recovery with reckless trade policies.
The U.S. has reportedly obtained unconfirmed intelligence indicating that Osama bin Laden’s son and potential al Qaeda successor Hamza bin Laden is dead.
North Korea launched a pair of short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Wednesday for the second time in less than a week, according to South Korean and U.S. officials. Are these the love letters from Kim Jong Un that Trump keeps talking about?
Outgoing Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló nominated his possible successor, Pedro Pierluisi, to serve as secretary of state and take over as governor when Rosselló’s resignation takes effect on Friday. Pierluisi previously represented the island in Congress, and reportedly will not seek election to the governor’s office in 2020, but he must first be confirmed by lawmakers, and his confirmation remains in doubt.
The heatwave that roasted Europe has reached Greenland where it will exacerbate catastrophic melting of the world’s second-largest ice-sheet. This month alone, Greenland's ice sheet shed 160 billion tons of ice and the continued melting will flood the North Atlantic with freshwater, causing sea levels to rise, and storms in northwest Europe to become stronger.
Israel has approved plans to build 6,000 new homes for Israeli settlers and 715 new homes for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank territory ahead of noted Middle East peace architect Jared Kushner’s coming visit to the region.
Olympic track champion Caster Semenya won’t be allowed to compete in her signature event at the world championships after the Swiss Supreme Court reimposed hormone restrictions set by the sport’s governing body on some women’s events. The rule, which the court struck down earlier this year, would require Semenya to take testosterone-reducing medication in order to compete.
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| In newly unearthed audio of a conversation between then-Gov. Ronald Reagan (R-CA) and then-President Richard Nixon, Reagan compared black United Nations delegates to monkeys.
“To see those, those monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes,” Reagan complained. Nixon laughed.
All Republicans have identified themselves with Reagan for decades, renamed everything they can after him, and even tried to distinguish themselves from Trump’s grotesque, public racism by associating with Reagan instead. This is a reminder that Trump was less of a departure from Republican politics than many of them would like you to believe.
Though the Nixon Presidential Library has had the audio of the conversation for decades, the racist portion had been concealed to protect Reagan’s privacy. JFC. |
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| Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) became the fifth House Republican to announce his retirement ahead of the 2020 election in the past two weeks, and conveniently buried the news by dropping it in during last night’s debate. The last time House Republicans dropped out at this rate was… the last election. Which didn’t go so hot for them, as we recall. Don’t get complacent—vote, knock on doors, volunteer—but also remember: Republicans love to go on television and pretend Trump’s disgraceful behavior is actually great politics, even if they don’t approve of it. If it were great politics, they wouldn’t quit their jobs. Ignore what they say and watch what they do. |
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