Archive for the ‘Tom Price’ Category

HHS Secretary Tom Price resigned this evening for his misuse of chartered flights. President Trump accepted his resignation. This isn’t a surprise. The “announcement came shortly after Trump told reporters he considered Price a ‘fine man’ but that he “didn’t like the optics’ and planned to make a decision by the end of the day. ‘I’m not happy, I can tell you that. I’m not happy,’ Trump said as prepared to leave the White House en route to his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J.”

President Trump immediately announced that President “Trump would designate Don J. Wright as acting secretary. Wright currently serves as the deputy assistant secretary for health and director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.”

It’s apparent that Democrats are overplaying the CBO’s report on repealing the ACA. It’s apparent after reading this Washington Post article.

That’s apparent based on the opening paragraph of their article, which says “At least 18 million people would lose health insurance in the first year if Republicans move ahead with plans to repeal major portions of the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan, estimates a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.”

The first telling part is when CBO says 18,000,000 “people would lose health insurance in the first year if Republicans move ahead with plans to repeal major portions of the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan.” That sentence alone nullifies the importance of the CBO’s analysis. That’s because Republicans have consistently said that they’d pass the repeal and replace in the same piece of legislation. They’ve also promised to not let anyone get left hanging while transitioning from Obamacare to the new and improved health care system.

This doom and gloom is helping Democrats overplay their hand:

The number of people without insurance would grow to about 32 million within the first decade if congressional Republicans follow a 2015 plan to repeal the health-care law without an alternative, the new report says. It also estimates that health insurance premiums for people buying individual non-group coverage would double within a decade, further complicating GOP promises that people will not lose coverage under their plan.

It’s clear that the new plan to replace the ACA will be significantly different than anything that’s been used before. Further, Democrats are setting themselves up for failure. The only way that the Democrats’ strategy will work is if Republicans totally drop the ball. The chances of that happening with President Trump, Vice President Pence, HHS Secretary Price, Speaker Ryan and Sen. John Barrasso leading the push is virtually nonexistent.

Rest assured that President Trump’s first State of the Union Address will include details of what the replace plan will include. I’d expect that legislation will have been submitted by then. Further, I wouldn’t be surprised if the legislation will gotten its first hearings by then. Once President Trump blasts this information out to the nation, the Democrats’ handwringing and demagoguery will put them in God’s little acre — between a rock and a hard place.

Technorati: Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Tom Price, HHS Secretary, CBO, Paul Ryan, Repeal and Replace, John Barrasso, Republicans, Affordable Care Act, Uninsured, Propaganda, Charles Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Democrats

If there’s anything more disheartening than the Democrats’ dishonesty about the Anything But Affordable Care Act, I can’t find it. Elizabeth Warren’s op-ed is the latest in a lengthy list of dishonest anti-Republican diatribes.

In the opening paragraph of her diatribe, Sen. Warren, aka Pocahontas (according to President-Elect Trump), she said “For eight years, Republicans in Congress have complained about health care in America, heaping most of the blame on President Obama. Meanwhile, they’ve hung out on the sidelines making doomsday predictions and cheering every stumble, but refusing to lift a finger to actually improve our health care system.”

It must be nice to be able to outright lie and never worry that the Corrupt Media will expose you as a liar. The man who will soon be the US HHS Secretary, Tom Price, has introduced the Empowering Patients First Act “in the 111th, 112th and 113th Congresses.” Sen. Pocahontas can criticize Dr. Price’s plan. That’s fair game. She can’t say it doesn’t exist. That’s lying, which isn’t tolerated at LFR.

This is laughable:

Many Massachusetts families are watching this play out, worried about what will happen, including thousands from across the Commonwealth that I joined at Faneuil Hall on Sunday to rally in support of the ACA. Hospitals and insurers are watching too, concerned that repealing the ACA will create chaos in the health insurance market and send costs spiraling out of control.

It’s frightening to think that a US senator is either too blind to see that health insurance premium prices are already spiraling out of control or too dishonest to admit that the ACA, aka Obamacare, has caused health insurance premiums and deductibles to skyrocket.

Why won’t Sen. Pocahontas admit that “Alabama, Alaska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming will have only one insurance company offering plans through the Obamacare health insurance exchange in 2017, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation”? Sen. Warren said that the Republicans’ plan is “repeal and run”, which is catchy. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ plan for passing the ACA was to hide the product until the final product was voted on. Does Sen. Pocahontas remember this infamous quote?

I don’t have a clever slogan for the Democrats’ strategy. I’m just left with the responsibility of telling people how Democrats ignored them while shoving terrible legislation down our throats.

Technorati: Elizabeth Warren, Pocahontas, Affordable Care Act, Nancy Pelosi, You Have to Pass the Bill, Secrecy, Democrats, Tom Price, Empowering Patients First Act, Republicans

If this article is accurate, then it’s safe to say that Democrats are preparing to commit political suicide. The opening paragraph states “Senate Democrats are preparing to put Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks through a grinding confirmation process, weighing delay tactics that could eat up weeks of the Senate calendar and hamper his first 100 days in office.”

It isn’t that these Democrats can stop President-Elect Trump’s cabinet nominees from becoming President Trump’s cabinet secretaries. The Democrats blew that up when Harry Reid was stupid enough to exercise the nuclear option on appointments. The minute Senate Democrats start with these tactics, rest assured that that’s the minute that President Trump schedules a trip to Missouri, Montana, Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, West Virginia and Ohio.

Visits to those states will be to remind voters that their Democratic senators aren’t standing up to their obstructionist leadership. Those visits will remind people that these marshmallows aren’t part of the solution. They’re part of the toxic environment in DC that Trump’s trying to clean up.

Democrats argue that some of the president-elect’s more controversial Cabinet picks — such as Jeff Sessions for attorney general and Steven Mnuchin for treasury secretary — demand a thorough public airing.

“They’ve been rewarded for stealing a Supreme Court justice. We’re going to help them confirm their nominees, many of whom are disqualified?” fumed Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “It’s not obstruction, it’s not partisan, it’s just a duty to find out what they’d do in these jobs.”

Don’t be surprised if Republicans don’t utilize that quote from Sherrod Brown against him during his 2018 re-election campaign. It’d make him look petty.

This won’t make Democrats look like they’re playing fair:

“There should be recorded votes, in my view, on every one of the president’s Cabinet nominees,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). “Having all of these hearings before the inaugural in a thorough and fair fashion seems very difficult to do.”

One of Candidate Trump’s campaign themes was ‘Drain the swamp’. If Democrats play sore losers, which they’re apparently planning, it might be appropriate for Republicans to run on draining the Senate Democrats’ swamp in 2018.

Technorati: Donald Trump, Cabinet Nominees, Confirmation Hearings, Jeff Sessions, Tom Price, Republicans, Sherrod Brown, Richard Blumenthal, Jon Tester, Claire McCaskill, Joe Donnelly, Bill Nelson, Tammy Baldwin, Heidi Heitkamp, Democrats, Election 2018

The perfect Democrat is a toothless Democrat. These days, there’s lots of toothless Democrats in DC. House Democrats have been toothless since January, 2011. Now it’s the Senate Democrats’ turn to feel impotent. They’re feeling impotent because outgoing Democrat Leader Harry Reid went nuclear in 2013. Now that there’s a Republican administration forming, Democrats are finding out that they can complain a lot and little else.

For instance, Sen. Joe Donnelly, (D-IN), said “Tom Price has led the charge to privatize Medicare, and for this reason, I cannot support his nomination” this past week. His statement sounds tough but Price’s confirmation is all but official. Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would love to stop Jeff Sessions’ confirmation as Attorney General because Sen. Sessions will shut down illegal immigration. Thanks to Sen. Reid invoking the nuclear option, he’s toothless.

The best Sen. Schumer, (D-NY), can do is say that Sen. Sessions will get lots of touch questions during his confirmation hearing. It’s impossible to picture Sen. Sessions worrying much about the hearings. It’s difficult to picture any of Trump’s nominees worrying about the Democrats’ toothless trio:

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., seemed to acknowledge that the only real weapon for Democrats is to try to make a good public case against Sessions, and hope the public starts calling for a new nominee. “We’ll be as persuasive as possible in what we say about it, hoping to reach and arouse as many people as possible.”

Good luck with that.

Technorati: Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, Attorney General, Illegal Immigration, Tom Price, Obamacare Repeal and Replace, Republicans, Chuck Schumer, Richard Blumenthal, Harry Reid, Joe Donnelly, Confirmation Hearings, Nuclear Option, Democrats, Elections Have Consequences

Donald Trump’s cabinet keeps getting more impressive. This morning, President-Elect Trump officially announced that he’s picked Rep. Tom Price to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services. According to this WSJ article, “Mr. Trump on Tuesday also named Seema Verma, a consultant who helped Vice President-Elect Mike Pence negotiate a groundbreaking Medicaid deal with the Obama administration, as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.”

Price brings instant credibility to Republicans’ efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. “Mr. Price, a 62-year-old former orthopedic surgeon, is one of several GOP physicians who sought to carve out a leading role in shaping the party’s health policy and, in particular, the party’s alternative vision to Democrats’ Affordable Care Act.”

This past summer, Price told an interviewer “We think it’s important that Washington not be in charge of health care. The problem that I have with Obamacare is that its premise is that Washington knows best.”

Price likely will get lots of criticism from Democrats during his confirmation hearing because he’s written legislation that would repeal and replace Obamacare. Dr. Price won’t have a problem with these criticisms and will likely have some sharp responses to the Democrats’ criticism.

It’s difficult to see Price not getting confirmed. He’s the chairman of the House Budget Committee. He’s the former chair of the House Study Committee, too. In announcing the pick, Donald Trump issued this statement:

“Chairman Price, a renowned physician, has earned a reputation for being a tireless problem solver and the go-to expert on healthcare policy, making him the ideal choice to serve in this capacity,” Trump said in making the announcement official early Tuesday. He added that Price “is exceptionally qualified to shepherd our commitment to repeal and replace Obamacare and bring affordable and accessible healthcare to every American.”

Technorati: Tom Price, Orthopedic Surgeon, Health and Human Services, Seema Verma, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Mike Pence, Vice President-Elect, Repeal and Replace, Confirmation Hearings, Republicans