crickets
crickets's JournalAgreed. Remember the Tea Party? Yeah... good times.
https://www.propublica.org/article/us-emergency-medical-stockpile-funding-unprepared-coronavirusRepublicans took over the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterms on the Tea Party wave of opposition to the landmark 2010 health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The new House majority was intent on curbing government spending, especially at HHS, which administered Obamacare.
Congressional Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell in the Senate and House Speaker John Boehner, leveraged the debt ceiling — a limit on the government’s borrowing ability that had to be raised — to insist that the Obama administration accept federal spending curbs. The compromise, codified in the 2011 Budget Control Act, required a bipartisan “super committee” to find additional ways to reduce the deficit, or else it would trigger automatic across-the-board cuts known as “sequestration.”
Even in the aftermath of the swine flu pandemic, the stockpile wasn’t a priority then. Without a full committee markup, Rehberg introduced a bill that provided $522.5 million to the stockpile, about 12% less than the previous year and $132 million less than the administration wanted. “Nobody got everything they wanted,” Rehberg said.
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What a ghoulish slap in the face. How awful.
On top of it all, Jared the Wonder Jerk has made it almost impossible for any government organization outside of FEMA to get decent supplies without spending millions and resorting to Mission: Impossible tactics to assure delivery. It's just not right. Something has got to give.
eta
She welcomed those tests because unlike the earlier ones, the health board was permitted to use their own lab to process the tests and communicate the results to patients directly.
I am glad to hear they finally got some tests after all. (Not many.) The relief money is still being held up though. *sigh*
Excellent article. Albany is a neighboring town, just down the road.
Their experience with COVID has been brutal to watch, and I applaud how the community is handling this.
How sweet! Thanks so much for posting this.
What an amazing person Emerson is, and how wonderful that she's bringing so much joy to so many people.
I love that someone sent her stamps to start a collection. She probably should -- she's about to get mail with amazing stamps from all over the world. How special though that two of her first collected stamps are of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Take that, Kevin Madden & Chris Christie.
Andrew Cuomo knows that all people matter, and has the moral fortitude to say so.
The families of the dead are still having obituaries published.
They can't hide those. The numbers will come out eventually whether the FL health department likes it or not, and what they've done in trying to hide the data will come back to bite them.
Mnuchin lived at Trump International Hotel temporarily in 2017
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/30/taxpayers-paid-trump-org-more-than-33000-after-steve-mnuchin-moved-into-presidents-hotel-report_partner/According to federal documents, Mnuchin lived at the Trump International Hotel for several months before finally moving into a home in Washington, DC. The suite was paid for by his own funds, but the security that was to guard the New York financier was paid for on the taxpayer dime.
For the Secret Service room, the Trump hotel charged the "maximum rate that federal agencies were generally allowed to pay in 2017: $242 per night, according to the billing records." Most hotels have a "government rate" for rooms. It's unclear if the Trump hotels abide by that. The total bill came out to $33,154. [snip]
"The Secretary was not aware of what the U.S. Secret Service paid for the adjoining room," a Treasury spokesperson said.
Another article, a little more in depth
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-paid-trumps-dc-hotel-more-than-33000-for-lodging-to-guard-treasury-secretary/2020/04/30/cd38e864-8987-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html
The difference, in this case, is that Mnuchin and the Secret Service were paying for rooms in a hotel owned by the same president who had appointed Mnuchin.
He should never have stayed there for conflict of interest reasons, obviously, and it's laughable that the Secretary of the Treasury is unaware that his security's rooms are not paid out of their own pockets.
These people.
Oh how sad.
This isn't just happening in Brooklyn. It's likely happening in many places because the numbers are just so overwhelming. Screw those idiot, selfish protestors. If only they understood that this could happen to them or to their loved ones, and that it is happening to someone's loved ones.
She's right! K&R
Dr. Seema Yasmin
@DoctorYasmin
I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO "NORMAL." NORMAL IS NO PAID SICK LEAVE FOR MANY SERVICE WORKERS. NORMAL IS 27.5 MILLION AMERICANS UNINSURED AND 40+ MILLION UNDERINSURED. NORMAL IS POLITICS OVER SCIENCE AND CRAPPY PANDEMIC PREPAREDNESS.
"NORMAL" IS WHAT GOT US IN THIS MESS.
What the hell happened to you, Lindsey?
BTW, we all see you sitting at home like the rest of us, but the difference is your job is still there for you, your healthcare (the best money can buy!) isn't going anywhere, and your pension is safe. You are stuffed to the gills with the perks of privilege and still can say these things? Jaime Harrison needs to run your worthless self out of office come November.
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