Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

The Big Beautiful Bill will kill American hospitals

It’s bad enough that Republicans believe poor Americans should be allowed to die without health care. But if you ever need a hospital, whether or not you have insurance, this could kill you, too. “That’s because each node of the system is interdependent. If the 190 rural hospitals estimated in a recent Center for American […]

Threats to Senate’s July 4 Reconciliation rush

What is sitting before the Republicans to be solved before taking a Reconciliation Vote. Been rush and scramble to get this bill in order to please holdouts and pass before July 4th. Hopefully, some of these critters will start to have a heart. Hopefully they start to think about how their actions will hurt their […]

Day of Remembrance on June 17 . . . Juneteenth

Juneteenth became a federal holiday on June 17, 2021. President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law. When Melynda Price thinks of Juneteenth, she thinks of hope, home, and of heritage. A legal scholar at the University of Kentucky, Price is a fifth-generation Texan whose great-great-grandmother was enslaved in Southeast Texas. […]

Regressive Bill? Yes, in All of History

Robert Reich offering up how bad trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is and the havoc it will cause for low-income Americans. One example? The reversal of Biden’s subsidy increase from 600% to 400% FPL by Trump. It will price many families out of the healthcare market. There is more detail here “House Bill and Healthcare,” Angry […]

Industrial and manufacturing production mixed, but also consistent with the end of front-running

 – by New Deal democrat Today’s second report was for industrial production, including its important manufacturing component.  The data for May was mixed, as total production (blue) declined -0.2%, while manufacturing production (red) increased 0.1% In March I wrote that “I suspect the big increases in February and March in manufacturing, like this morning’s retail […]

Thought there wasn’t a healthcare insurance angle to Trump’s dictator gambit in Los Angeles? Guess again

No pay. no healthcare insurance, no rack to sleep in and probably no mess hall meals somewhere. I am going to guess their being federalized grants them access to regular Army healthcare. Still does not take care of family. Civilian authorities always like the help of Federal Detachments until it comes time to provide essentials. […]

May real retail sales: the front-running of tariffs is over

 – by New Deal democrat We can safely say that the front-running of tariffs is over. As usual, real retail sales is one of my favorite indicators, because it tells us so much about consumers, and since consumption leads employment, it gives us information about the trend in that as well. And this morning’s report for […]

Tariffs Result in a Delayed Fed Rate Decrease

Trump is tossing a hissy because “The FED” has decided to delay any decreases of the FED Rate. Which in my limited opinion of what is going on with a loose cannon government directed by a rogue president is a wise decision. Trump and politicians are not the ones who will bear the brunt of […]

I agree with RFK Jr.

Though it feels weird to say it, RFK Jr and I agree on something: curtailing direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals. “The Trump administration is discussing policies that would make it harder and more expensive for pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to patients, in a move that could disrupt more than $10 billion in annual ad spending. […]

Cuts to Medicaid Threaten Access to Healthcare

Usually, this type of information is pages long and I end up boiling it down, editing it, and sometimes rewriting portions (shhh, do not tell anyone). This report by the AHA is straight forward in what it presents. In fact, Angry Bear has presented information on rural hospitals as detailed by the CHQPR here, here, […]