riversedge
riversedge's JournalRetiring Republican lets loose on House health bill
Source: Axios
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, ...............................
"Despite amendments and changes, the AHCA still fails to provide for the needs of my constituents. I will not support a bill that has the potential to severely harm the health and lives of people in South Florida and therefore I remain steadfast in my commitment to vote NO on the AHCA. The recent addition of further funds to high risk pools continues to be inadequate and fails to cover those who need it most. If enacted, the older and poorer South Floridians will be worse off and will find it more difficult to obtain quality healthcare. My constituents should not have to take a step backward in their ability to obtain treatment for any illness and thus, I will vote NO."
Read more: https://www.axios.com/retiring-republican-lets-loose-health-bill-terrible-for-older-sick-peo-2392334795.html
She will have a NO vote for #TrumpCare
https://twitter.com/TheDemCoalition/status/860154381752258561
Wilfredo Lee / AP
Little-Noted Provision of GOP Health Bill Could Alter Employer Plans
Source: WSJ
Last-minute amendment would allow states to obtain waivers from certain Affordable Care Act
Updated May 4, 2017 9:36 a.m. ET
Many people who obtain health insurance through their employers—about half of the country—could be at risk of losing protections that limit out-of-pocket costs for catastrophic illnesses, due to a little-noticed provision of the House Republican health-care bill to be considered Thursday, health-policy experts say.
The provision, part of a last-minute amendment, lets states obtain waivers from certain Affordable Care Act insurance regulations. Insurers in states that obtain the waivers could be freed from a regulation mandating that they cover 10 particular types of health services, among them maternity care, prescription drugs, mental health treatment and hospitalization.
That could also affect plans offered by large employers, health analysts said.
The ACA prevents employer plans from putting annual limits on the amount of care they will cover, and it bars lifetime limits on the 10 essential benefits. But in 2011, the Obama administration issued guidance stating that employers aren’t bound by the benefits mandated by their state and can pick from another state’s list of required benefits. That guidance was mostly meaningless because the ACA established a national set of essential benefits.
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Under the House bill, large employers could choose the benefit requirements from any state—including those that are allowed to lower their benchmarks under a waiver, health analysts said. By choosing a waiver state, employers looking to lower their costs could impose lifetime limits and eliminate the out-of-pocket cost cap from their plans under the GOP legislation.................
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/little-noted-provision-of-gop-health-bill-could-alter-employer-plans-1493890203
?width=860&height=573
From left, CMS Administrator Seema Verma, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Mr. Pence met with House Republicans to lobby for health-care legislation. Photo: Eric Thayer/Getty Images
By Stephanie Armour and
Michelle Hackman
Republicans exempt their own insurance from their latest health care proposal
Source: Vox.com
Republican legislators want to keep popular Obamacare provisions for themselves and their staff.
Updated by Sarah Kliffsarah@vox.com May 3, 2017, 9:17pm EDT
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Update: After Vox reported this story, Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-N.J.) released a statement saying he would close this loophole. Read the story here. The fix, however, will be contained in separate legislation and not offered as part of the American Health Care Act. The version of the bill the House will vote on Thursday still contains the exemption for legislators described below.
House Republicans appear to have included a provision that exempts members of Congress and their staff from their latest health care plan.
The new Republican amendment, introduced Tuesday night, would allow states to waive out of Obamacare’s ban on preexisting conditions. This means that insurers could once again, under certain circumstances, charge sick people higher premiums than healthy people.
Republican legislators liked this policy well enough to offer it in a new amendment. They do not, however, seem to like it enough to have it apply to themselves and their staff. A spokesperson for Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), who authored this amendment, confirmed this was the case: Members of Congress and their staff would get the guarantee of keeping these Obamacare regulations. Health law expert Tim Jost flagged this particular issue to me.
A bit of background is helpful here. Obamacare requires all members of Congress and their staff to purchase coverage through the health law’s marketplace, just like Obamacare enrollees. The politics of that plank were simple enough, meant to demonstrate that if the coverage in this law were good enough for Americans, it should be good enough for their representatives in Washington. .............
Read more: https://www.vox.com/2017/4/25/15429982/gop-exemption-ahca-amendment
ACA is great for Congress, their staff and families but not for the rest of us.
Please call your Reps-of all strips-even if it is say thanks-if they are DEMS.
https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/34fDEwZrh8_M3eip7m9MZvgtLEg=/0x0:3000x2000/920x613/filters:focal(1260x760:1740x1240)/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/54450927/657004826.0.jpg
The crux of the Comey hearing: Sen. Amy Klobuchar question (and other Dem questions)
Sarah Kendzior?Verified account @sarahkendzior 12h12 hours ago
The crux of the Comey hearing: http://shareblue.com/james-comey-accidentally-makes-ironclad-case-independent-russia-probe/ … pic.twitter.com/5uBIxc2UcH
https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/859935178332008448
James Comey accidentally makes ironclad case for independent Russia probe
By Tommy Christopher | May 3, 2017
One of the key themes to emerge from the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on oversight of the FBI was the absolute necessity of an independent investigation into the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia, a case that FBI Director James Comey inadvertently made in powerful fashion.
(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The Trump/Russia investigation was a central subject of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on oversight of the FBI, at which FBI Director James Comey testified for several hours.
While Republicans tried to deflect attention away from the FBI’s ongoing investigation into possible coordination between Donald Trump’s campaign and the Russians, Democrats uncovered key information, and highlighted the need for an independent investigation by a special prosecutor.
Democrats were aided in the latter effort, albeit reluctantly, by Comey himself.
Early in the hearing, Senator Amy Klobuchar asked Comey if he would fully brief the Senate and House intelligence committees on the results of the FBI’s Trump/Russia investigation, and Comey responded that he would only do so if given permission by DOJ:
KLOBUCHAR: I know that you cannot discuss that ongoing investigation. But just one question to clarify, will you commit to ensuring that the relevant Congressional committees receive a full and timely briefing on that investigations findings.
COMEY: In general I can, Senator, I need Department of Justice approval to brief on particular people that we’re investigating. We’ve briefed the chairs and the rankings, including of this committee, on who we have cases open on and exactly what we’re doing and how we’re using various sources of information. I don’t know whether the Department will approve that for the entire intelligence committees, but I’ll lean as far forward as I can.
Klobuchar then noted that Attorney General Sessions is recused from the investigation, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is next in line, and asked “Do you go to him then to get that approval?”
Comey responded that Rosenstein “would be the person to make that decision.” READ all for other Dem questions....................
Sen Chris Murphy: Hey everybody -PASS THE TEST TOMORROW. Do they flood offices tomorrow? Are they a
I will certainly take him up on this challenge and hope you all do too.
Chris Murphy? Verified account @ChrisMurphyCT 53m53 minutes ago
Chris Murphy Retweeted Ezra Klein
Hey everybody - PASS THE TEST TOMORROW.
https://twitter.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/859924697290506244
Ezra Klein?Verified account @ezraklein
This hasty vote will be a test for the anti-Trump resistance. Do they flood offices tomorrow? Are they all over the Capitol?
Ezra Klein?Verified account @ezraklein 54m54 minutes ago
Replying to @ezraklein
Protest moves Congress, but only if sustained. GOP's hope is resistance is exhausted, and those first weeks were unsustainable
75 replies 603 retweets 664 likes
Holly O'Reilly? Verified account @AynRandPaulRyan 21m21 minutes ago
There is a rally at the Capitol at noon.
#VoteNO
https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/859932806511603712
Holly O'Reilly Retweeted
Holly O'Reilly?Verified account @AynRandPaulRyan 2h2 hours ago
Holly O'Reilly Retweeted Topher Spiro
⚡️CALL your MoC's tomorrow morning and say NO to #Trumpcare2.⚡️
If voicemail is full, use @botresist.
Text "Resist" to 50409.
Vote is at 1PM
https://twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/859911633891729408
https://twitter.com/izzyabbysmom/status/859915933502103554
https://twitter.com/votevets/status/859883826583130114
For his next trick, Ted Cruz will probably ask Comey about ACORN.
The Republicans essentially made a mockery out of this hearing!!
Tweet:
Kaili Joy Gray?Verified account @KailiJoy 8h8 hours ago
For his next trick, Ted Cruz will probably ask Comey about ACORN. #comeyhearing
https://twitter.com/KailiJoy/status/859821642205339649
Ted Cruz tries to derail FBI testimony on Trump/Russia by dredging up old discredited IRS “scandal”
By Oliver Willis | May 3, 2017
Sen. Ted Cruz used his time during FBI Director James Comey's testimony on the Trump campaign and Russia to bring up the discredited and long-closed investigation into the IRS' treatment of the tea party movement. Despite Donald Trump's personal attacks on him, Cruz was willing to join the Republican team effort to soften the blow of ongoing Russian revelations.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) used his time during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with FBI Director James Comey to rehash the agency’s closed investigation of the IRS’ supposed — and debunked — mistreatment of the the tea party, rather than deal with Russia and Donald Trump.
Cruz’s failed presidential campaign was a target of malicious smears by Trump, who floated the conspiracy that Cruz was not a citizen, and that his father took part in the JFK assassination.
Nevertheless, Cruz used his time during the Senate hearing on Wednesday to help Trump deflect from the ongoing scandal, instead asking Comey about conservative complaints under President Obama that the IRS had unfairly targeted tea party groups seeking nonprofit status.
.......................
This is the brutal, murderous Philippin dictator that Trump wants to invite to our White House....
Impulsive stupid Trump!
This is the man Trump wants to meet with
By Phelim Kine
Updated 5:31 PM ET, Wed May 3, 2017
Story highlights
Phelim Kine: Trump's implicit support for Duterte's anti-drug campaign suggests a stunning apathy toward its brutal reality
"Phelim Kine is a deputy director in Human Rights Watch's Asia Division. Kine worked as a journalist for more than a decade in China, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Taiwan prior to joining Human Rights Watch. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author. "
(CNN)Angelo Lafuente's family would have good reason to be dismayed by President Trump's "very friendly conversation" with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
It's not likely that the conversation, in which Trump invited the Philippine President to the White House, included discussion of Duterte's murderous tactics in the "war on drugs." Philippine National Police statistics indicate has killed of over 7,000 mostly poor urban Filipinos, including Lafuente.
Lafuente encountered Duterte's drug war on August 18, according to Human Rights Watch, when a police anti-drug raid swept through the neighborhood in Manila's Navotas district, where the 23-year-old small appliances repairman lived and worked.
Four armed men in civilian clothes, accompanied by two uniformed policemen, escorted Lafuente away in a marked white police van. Hours later, police at the Navotas police station presented Lafuente's panic-stricken family members with photos of his bullet-ridden body. The police report attributes his death to "unknown" gunmen and omits any mention that he was last seen alive in police custody.
The circumstances surrounding Lafuente's death are all too common in the Philippines today. Research by Human Rights Watch exposed a damning pattern of unlawful police conduct designed to paint a veneer of legality over summary executions.
Police claim responsibility for 2,717 of the deaths -- all justified, they assert -- but the rest appear to have been carried out by police-backed agents or "death squads." The official numbers of suspected drug users and dealers killed doesn't even include the victims Duterte calls "collateral damage" -- including children killed by stray police bullets.
Trump's implicit support for Duterte's anti-drug campaign suggests a stunning apathy toward its brutal reality. Trump's failure to express concern about the drug war's death toll and his airbrushing of that bloodshed as a legitimate anti-drug operation is more than a grievous insult to injury for family members of victims. Trump is also betraying the few Filipinos courageous enough to speak out against the drug war, notably wrongfully-jailed Senator Leila de Lima, a longtime rights advocate.
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@SenatorLeahy Said it again today, and Ill keep saying it: We need a Special Counsel to investigat
He did great today
Sen. Patrick Leahy?Verified account @SenatorLeahy
Said it again today, and I’ll keep saying it: We need a Special Counsel to investigate #Russian interference in our election. #ComeyHearing
https://twitter.com/SenatorLeahy/status/859837670691938307
https://twitter.com/SenatorLeahy/status/859883972091936773
https://twitter.com/SenatorLeahy/status/859887378059735042
Sen. Patrick Leahy?Verified account @SenatorLeahy 9m9 minutes ago
It's not about keeping America safe, it's about trying to enact a Muslim ban. Discrimination & bigotry have no place in America.#NoBanNoWall
2 replies 7 retweets 18 likes
Sen. Patrick Leahy?Verified account @SenatorLeahy 11m11 minutes ago
https://twitter.com/SenatorLeahy/status/859889570313379840
Comey affirms conclusion in DHS report that undermines Muslim ban rationale.
0 replies 8 retweets 13 likes
Sen. Patrick Leahy?Verified account @SenatorLeahy 14m14 minutes ago
FBI Dir. Comey refutes Trump rationale for Muslim Ban. Says citizenship status alone is not a reliable indicator of a particular threat.
3 replies 12 retweets 19 likes
Sen. Patrick Leahy?Verified account @SenatorLeahy 17m17 minutes ago
Surge in hate crimes is deeply concerning. We must condemn hateful rhetoric wherever we find it. #ComeyHearing
2 replies 5 retweets 20 likes
Sen. Patrick Leahy?Verified account @SenatorLeahy 17m17 minutes ago
Director Comey agreed with me that divisive and bigoted political rhetoric is damaging and makes Americans less safe. #ComeyHearing
New momentum for GOP health care bill after key votes flip
Source: CNN
New momentum for GOP health care bill after key votes flip
By MJ Lee, Lauren Fox, Tami Luhby and Phil Mattingly, CNN
Updated 3:34 PM ET, Wed May 3, 2017
Trump flips lawmakers' vote on health care
Washington (CNN)An eleventh-hour deal has renewed momentum for House Republicans working to repeal and replace Obamacare, as leaders Wednesday furiously lobby undecided or skeptical lawmakers on the plan that has been teetering on the brink of collapse.
House leaders have made clear that if everything goes there way, their preference is to have a vote Thursday. But they won't call a vote unless they believe it will pass.
..........................
The change in mood comes after GOP Reps. Fred Upton and Billy Long met with President Donald Trump at the White House and flipped their votes from "no" to "yes." Trump committed to backing an amendment spending $8 billion over five years to fund high-risk pools and go toward patients with pre-existing conditions.
The new "yes" votes mark an incremental but symbolically important victory for the White House and Republican leaders, who have been trying without success for weeks to revive a health care bill that was pulled from the House floor in March.
Other than Long and Upton, there have not been major switches from the "no" to "yes" category, but several undecided members are seemingly open to the new changes.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/politics/republican-health-care-bill/index.html
Someone posted about these two Reps earlier on DU.
Trump tossed them some money for an amendment.
Holy shit. #Comey on Oct letter: "Yeah, did I know they were going to leak it? Of course." #comeyhea
This makes me sick all over again.
Tommy Christopher?Verified account @tommyxtopher 2h2 hours ago
Holy shit. #Comey on Oct letter: "Yeah, did I know they were going to leak it? Of course." #comeyhearing
https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/859812334696583172
https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/859793396612947969
airforcevet43? @airforcevet43 2h2 hours ago
Replying to @tommyxtopher
So did I do the Bank Robbery???
....No, but I ingeniously set it up
1 reply 4 retweets 15 likes
1 more reply
#MissMeWithYourBS? @Gabbiedrice78K 2h2 hours ago
Replying to @tommyxtopher
That Mercer money doesn't come for free.
0 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
Nikhil? @nikhilsoneja 1h1 hour ago
Nikhil? @nikhilsoneja 1h1 hour ago
Don't buy that he had no other choices than what he did.
0 replies 0 retweets 3 likes
david comfort? @DAVIDCOMFORT 18m18 minutes ago
Replying to @tommyxtopher @JimmyA_Shook1s
#Comey: So if you knew they were going to leak it, you must know WHO leaked it, so why aren't these people being fired & prosecuted NOW?
0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
Justin Thyme? @JustinThyme_HP 1h1 hour ago
Replying to @tommyxtopher @eclecticbrotha
Kind of an "I didn't rob the bank, but I picked the lock on the front door, disabled the alarms, and blew the door off the safe" response!
0 replies 2 retweets 2 likes
Bart Acocella? @BartAcocella1 2h2 hours ago
Replying to @tommyxtopher
was that before or after he said (defensively): I didn't hold a public event, I sent a private letter!
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