Tuesday Open Thread

6 thoughts on “Tuesday Open Thread”

1. The chronic urge for bipartisanship with a bunch of AMORAL LIARS is a weakness, not a strength.

   The Trump Budget:

   Cutting Medicare by $266 billion

   The Trump budget document, titled “An American Budget: Major Savings and Reforms,” proposed cutting a net $266 billion under the category, “Medicare: Eliminate wasteful federal spending.” Among other things, Trump’s budget changes the way patients are reimbursed for post-acute care, making it harder for physicians to refer patients to other providers, and “limits hospital payments associated with early discharge to hospices.”

   Cutting Medicaid by $1.1 trillion

   The Trump budget proposes cutting Medicaid, under the simple guise of “reforms,” by $1.1 trillion over 10 years. The goal is to encourage states to transition away from the Medicaid expansion that Obamacare allowed, in part by imposing a “Medicaid per capita cap and block grant with the Consumer Price Index.”

   Cutting Social Security by $72 billion

   The budget document lists “Reform disability programs” in line for a $72 billion decrease over the 10-year budget window. This includes explicit cuts to Supplemental Security Income programs and Social Security Disability Insurance programs, both managed by the Social Security Administration.

   Of course, SFL Bennet’s website says we need to make tough decisions now, like cutting these social programs, so we can get the national debt under control. 

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   1. Especially tragic when one-note"progressives" use these issues not to talk about policy, but to gripe about a legislator for not being "pure" enough.

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      1. Who knew that Republicans would now use the deficit to preach cutting the social safety net and gutting the Affordable Care Act?  It's a shocker I tell ya.

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         1. Shocker indeed.  My beef is that with ZappAhab, it's not about issues, it's about bitching about "SFL" Bennet at any opportunity, then getting mad that he isn't taken seriously.

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   2. Show me where Bennet's website says that. In 2012 and 2015, Bennet was calling for a balanced budget and reducing debt – that's true.

      And this January, he made a statement decrying the plethora of short term stop-gap funding bills. But nothing, ever, about cutting social service programs, that I've seen Bennet advocate.

       

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2. Part of my social services working career involved social security disability. There is room to cut there. But cuts should be coupled with a more effective state vocational rehabilitation program to actually help people with medical problems to return to gainful employment.

   FWIW, I stopped taking “One Note Samba” (Z.) seriously a long time ago. He occasionally makes more sense than Moderatus, but not often.

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