Just Some Grumbling and Politics
Republicans are letting rural hospitals, small hospitals, and hospitals at risk close in areas most in need of them due to a lack of funding. We also have t__mp’s Big Beautiful Bill to contend with in the Senate. Some Senators have shown support for it. And some Senators such as Thom Tillis have not shown support or voiced no support for tr__p’s BBB. Then there is old faithful who is always right on witha political remark of caring or not caring what happens. Just some old Politics here.
According to Punchbowl News, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (former Republican leader) gave a short speech saying “failure is not an option” on the bill. Supposedly he added, “I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid. But they’ll get over it.”
That does sound like Grim Reaper McConnell trying on the old coat he wore in the House when he was killing bills. Democrats wasted no time in pouncing on the apparent rhetoric and harvesting any public ill will towards Mitch and Republicans. One thing, or maybe two things the public has not learned . . . not voting and voting for others such as Mickey, Minnie, RFK, etc. does have consequences the same as “not voting.”
A McConnell spokesperson did tell Punchbowl that the senator “was speaking about the people who are abusing Medicaid — the able-bodied Americans who should be working.”
Or put another way, the party is cutting Medicaid, despite protestations to the contrary, and the Americans who will lose their health security are just freeloaders who’ll simply “get over it.”
Well for one thing, I can not imagine McConnell ever being an able-bodied person. He just doe not have the look. The issue of fraud comes up from time to time. It is implied and not necessarily discovered. That which is discovered in quickly taken care of by authorities.
Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) program, designed to coordinate federal, state, and local health care fraud and abuse law enforcement activities. A HCFAC report is published annually, describing health care fraud enforcement actions. Recent analysis of the FY 2023 HCFAC report found no beneficiary fraud in the listing. Providers convicted (of different kinds of fraud against Medicaid and Medicare) included ambulance service providers, durable medical equipment suppliers, diagnostic labs, nursing homes, pain clinics, pharmacies, physical therapists, physicians, and substance use treatment providers. Chasing the little guy does not appear to be of much use.
And then there are humans like Sen. Joni Ernst, She was working to defend her party’s far-right bill after one of her constituents said that people would die as a result of GOP health care cuts. It was at that point when the Iowa Republican said, “Well, we are all going to die” — a line she proceeded to defend as her comment generated a national controversy.
Well, not necessarily you will die as you have access to U.S. government healthcare. If only we could have a similar but national healthcare access.
Newly minted Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego wrote online; “‘They’ll get over it’ ‘We are all going to die, Republicans don’t care if you die as long as they get their billionaire tax cuts.”
There is a whole lot of reality to that comment. Unless you are Mr. Tesla hisself . . . “Musk,” politicians don’t care much for citizens unless there is a crowd of them. The it becomes an “oh-shit” moment to think of something that is not as condescending as McTurtle’s comment.
Anyway, just some thoughts. I confess I stole some things from Steve Benen on MaddowBlog.