DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalTrump could quickly doom ACA cost-sharing subsidies for millions of Americans
Even without Congress repealing the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration could undermine the law by unilaterally ending billions of dollars the government pays insurers to subsidize the health coverage of nearly 6 million Americans.
Given that insurers would still be required to provide consumers that financial help, such a move could create upheaval in the ACA’s marketplaces — prompting health plans to raise their prices or drop out, according to health-policy experts in both major political parties.
Intervention by the new president to stop the payments “would precipitate a pretty serious crisis almost immediately” unless Congress stepped in, said James Capretta, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
The money is for a kind of financial assistance that is less familiar than the tax credits the law gives most people for their ACA plan premiums. These “cost-sharing reductions” are designed instead to lower the deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket fees for nearly half the customers this year.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-could-quickly-doom-aca-cost-sharing-subsidies-for-millions-of-americans/2016/12/21/05349066-c2fc-11e6-9a51-cd56ea1c2bb7_story.html?utm_term=.10f126d2b775&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
After a 73-year union, ailing couple finds two hospital beds pushed together offer the best comfort
By Tara Bahrampour December 23 at 5:09 PM
For 73 years — through wars in Europe and Asia and civil rights battles at home, through the assassination of a president and the rise of rock-and-roll — they shared a bed.
He’d be gone sometimes, flying missions during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars, but he always came back to her.
So now, as he lies in a hospital bed unable to say or do much, she lies beside him.
Like many hospitals, Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, where retired Army Col. George Morris, 94, is receiving end-of-life care, allows family members to sleep in a patient’s room on a foldout couch. But for George’s wife, Eloise, 91, a cancer survivor who has suffered two broken hips and a broken shoulder, that would be hard.
So the hospital made a special exception when they admitted him this month: They admitted her as a patient, too — a “compassionate admission,” their doctor calls it. Standard rooms are normally private, but Eloise’s hospital bed was rolled in and pushed up against George’s — a final marriage berth for a husband and wife who met as teenagers in rural Kentucky in the late 1930s.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/we-were-lonely-lonely-when-we-were-apart-and-when-hed-come-home-it-was-just-heaven/2016/12/23/035b3468-c890-11e6-85b5-76616a33048d_story.html?utm_term=.a754fc47b1e0&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1
Chuck Todd: '16 Years Later We May Look at Donald Trump and He's Still President'
by Justin Baragona | 5:34 pm, December 23rd, 2016
At the beginning of today’s broadcast of MSNBC’s MTP Daily, the host was introducing the viewers to a special broadcast where he and a panel would discuss Donald Trump’s shocking election and how he continued to confound experts and expectations.
After playing clips of different times when Trump looked to be dead in the water due to over-the-top comments and scandals, Todd weighed in on how any thoughts that we may not have to deal with Trump as President for a prolonged period of time will be wrong.
In doing so, it seems Todd forgot about the 22nd Amendment. (Or did he?)
“I’ve also heard Donald Trump, boy, he won’t even make it through the first year of the presidency,” Todd stated. “Ah, Donald Trump will get impeached. Ah, Donald Trump will quit the presidency.” Then he tossed this out: “16 years later we may look at Donald Trump and he’s still President of the United States.” Ummm, OK then.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/chuck-todd-16-years-later-we-may-look-at-donald-trump-and-hes-still-president/
Donald Trump plans to shut down his charitable foundation, which has been under scrutiny for months
Source: The Washington Post
By Mark Berman and David A. Fahrenthold December 24 at 4:28 PM
President-elect Donald Trump said he plans to shut down his charitable foundation, a decision that comes after repeated controversies over how it collected and disbursed funds.
In a statement Saturday, Trump offered no timeline for when his foundation would close down, but said he had directed his attorney to take the steps needed to close the charity.
"The Foundation has done enormous good works over the years in contributing millions of dollars to countless worthy groups, including supporting veterans, law enforcement officers and children," Trump said in the statement. "However, to avoid even the appearance of any conflict with my role as President I have decided to continue to pursue my strong interest in philanthropy in other ways."
The Donald J. Trump Foundation has come under intense scrutiny this year after a series of reports in The Washington Post detailing its practices, including cases in which Trump apparently used the charity's money to settle lawsuits involving his for-profit businesses.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/12/24/donald-trump-plans-to-shut-down-his-charitable-foundation-which-has-been-under-scrutiny-for-months/?utm_term=.316bb43d2330&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation
Julian Assange: Hillary Clinton 'Tried to Destroy Us' and Failed
by Josh Feldman | 2:49 pm, December 24th, 2016
Julian Assange is speaking out in a new interview reflecting on Wikileaks’ role in the U.S. election.
Assange spoke with La Repubblica and immediately dismissed the idea that he was in the business of helping Donald Trump. And he has this assessment of how Trump’s team is beginning to form:
As for Hillary Clinton, Assange is far more critical. He claims, “It is clear that she pursued this war in Libya as a staging effort for her Presidential bid.”
more
http://www.mediaite.com/online/julian-assange-hillary-clinton-tried-to-destroy-us-and-failed/
Russia analyst: I was just in Moscow and people are laughing as Putin plays 'that fool' Donald Trump
TOM BOGGIONI
24 DEC 2016 AT 12:37 ET
Discussing a recent flattering letter sent by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Donald Trump, an entire MSNBC panel agreed that the Russians are laughing at the U.S. because they can see Putin treating the president-elect like “a fool.”
Asked by host Sheinelle Jones about Putin’s letter where Trump described Putin’s thoughts as “so correct,” Russia expert Nina Khrushcheva said Trump is playing “right into Putin’s hands.”
“I was just in Moscow and the Russians are saying ‘Look at those fools, look at their their democracy.’ Absolutely,” she said. “‘How could America lecture us on any development, institutions, human rights, democracy, rhetoric when they just elected Donald Trump. He’s such a fool. He’s such a bully. That’s what America deserves and we’re going to take advantage of it.’ And that’s how Russians feel about it, and now it’s taking shape with letters from Vladimir Putin to Donald Trump with their exchange on potential nuclear armament and whatnot.”
Asked to chime in on whether Putin’s relationship with Trump will hinder an investigation into Russian hacking of the the election, intelligence analyst Malcolm Nance said of course it would and laughed at how easily Trump can be manipulated.
more
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/russia-analyst-i-was-just-in-moscow-and-people-are-laughing-as-putin-plays-that-fool-donald-trump/
Lindsey Graham Pushes to Cut U.N. Funding After Vote on Israeli Settlements
Source: Mediaite
by Josh Feldman | 12:04 pm, December 24th, 2016
Senator Lindsey Graham is pushing to cut U.S. funding to the United Nations in response to the U.N. Security Council vote yesterday to condemn Israeli settlements.
Before the actual vote on the resolution yesterday, Graham released a statement warning not just the U.N., but any nation that votes in favor of the resolution, about potential consequences:
Lindsey Graham ✔
@LindseyGrahamSC
If UN moves forward with ill-conceived #Israel resolution, I'll work to form a bipartisan coalition to suspend/reduce US assistance to UN.
1:18 PM - 23 Dec 2016
268 Retweets 506 likes
Lindsey Graham ✔
@LindseyGrahamSC
Any nation which backs this ill-conceived #Israel resolution and receives assistance from the US -- will put that assistance in jeopardy.
1:21 PM - 23 Dec 2016
356 Retweets 596 likes
When the vote took place, the United States abstained and declined to invoke veto power.
In his response, Graham tore into the “reckless” foreign policy of the Obama administration and said, “Regardless of the terrorist attacks they suffer, or the number of rockets fired their way, in the United Nations Israel is always the bad guy.”
Read more: http://www.mediaite.com/online/lindsey-graham-pushes-to-cut-u-n-funding-after-vote-on-israeli-settlements/
Republicans to target unions, expand school choice in states
Source: Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Republicans are poised to use their newly attained capitol dominance to make Missouri the 27th right-to-work state prohibiting mandatory union fees. That is unless Kentucky’s recently crowned GOP majorities can beat them to it.
The race to expand right-to-work laws is just one of several ways that Republicans, who strengthened their grip on power in the November elections, are preparing to reshape state laws affecting workplaces, classrooms, courtrooms and more during 2017.
As President-elect Donald Trump leads an attempted makeover in Washington, Republican governors and state lawmakers will be simultaneously pushing an aggressive agenda that limits abortion, lawsuits and unions, cuts business taxes and regulations, and expands gun rights and school choice.
Republicans will hold 33 governors’ offices, have majorities in 33 legislatures and control both the governor’s office and legislature in 25 states — their most since 1952. Democrats will control both the governor’s office and legislature in only about a half-dozen states; the rest will have politically divided governments.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2016/12/24/republicans-to-target-unions-expand-school-choice-in-states/
Sowing Confusion Through Tweets
December 24, 2016 By Taegan Goddard
“Donald Trump’s sudden embrace this week of a nuclear arms race — and his staff’s scramble to minimize the fallout — underscored an emerging modus operandi for the president-elect: governance by chaos,” the Washington Post reports.
“Since winning the election, Trump has seemed to revel in tossing firecrackers in all directions, often using Twitter to offer brief but provocative pronouncements on foreign and domestic policies alike — and leaving it to others to flesh out his true intentions.”
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https://politicalwire.com/2016/12/24/sowing-confusion-tweets/
It Wasn't Just Turnout
December 24, 2016By Taegan Goddard
Nate Cohn: “Mr. Trump’s gains among white working-class voters weren’t simply caused by Democrats staying home on Election Day.”
“The Clinton team knew what was wrong from the start, according to a Clinton campaign staffer and other Democrats. Its models, based on survey data, indicated that they were underperforming Mr. Obama in less-educated white areas by a wide margin — perhaps 10 points or more — as early as the summer.”
“The campaign looked back to respondents who were contacted in 2012, and found a large number of white working-class voters who had backed Mr. Obama were now supporting Mr. Trump. The same story was obvious in public polls of registered voters. Those polls aren’t affected by changes in turnout.”
“The best data on the effect of turnout will ultimately come from voter file data, which will include an individual-level account of who voted and who didn’t. Most of this data is only beginning to become available. But the limited data that’s already available is consistent with the story evident in the pre-election polling: Turnout wasn’t the major factor driving shifts among white voters.”
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https://politicalwire.com/2016/12/24/wasnt-just-turnout/
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Name: DonGender: Male
Hometown: Massachusetts
Home country: United States
Member since: Sat Sep 1, 2012, 03:28 PM
Number of posts: 60,536
