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Menu There is no diplomatic solutionIsrael should declare three nos;
no to nuclear Iran, no to two-state solution, no to bi-national state
no to nuclear Iran, no to two-state solution, no to bi-national state
@Sebastien Zorn
I think this constant emphasis on “diversity” and such is doing the exact opposite of what was allegedly intended, namely, make everybody understand and accept each other’s differences (cultural and otherwise).
Instead, it ultimately makes the divisions stronger and makes everyone hate each other more (divide-and-rule, anyone?)
cont. and it is a little disturbing that it is forbidden now for people from other backrounds to play, Blacks, Gays, Latinos Asians, Muslims, transgenders, the handicapped, you name it. But Jews are almost never cast in Jewish leading roles and we’re supposed to say actors shoukd be able to play anything when its us.
In his memoir, “Bring Red,” Howard Fast wrote tgat the party ordered him to cast the young James Earl Jones as a frail, Eastern European Jewish tailor.
it’s all the party line,
That’s where this comes from, you know.
@Reader, cc: Ted You said to Ted:
Actually, it’s possible in another country since we the information is available on the internet and people may have international friends, relatives abd acquaintances.
BUT
I didn’t say anything at the time, but I remember having the same question (But didn’t you grow up in Canada?) when – after I quoted some minor continuity criticisms in “The Amazing Mrs. Maisel,” a show which I also love and have seen the first 4 seasons of more than once – he erupted in fury and snapped at me that he remembered it from his childhood.
Thing is – his audience, me.
She grew up in and goes back and forth between two adjacent neighborhoods where she lived her entire life which are the two adjacent neighborhoods where I have lived and gone back and forth between my entire life: The Upper West Side and Morninside Heights. My uncle – who was a Columbia Professor in the 60s — even lived in her building at 113th and Riverside Drive! In front, There’s a statue of Lajos Kossuth helping a kneeling peasant to his feet! I’m about the age of her youngest child. Though it’s true the 50s were different in significant ways from the 60’s. Still.
But, you woukd never find pork in a kosher butchers and there are no butchers
Hi, Peloni. You said,
The Trumps are working on it:
https://citizenfreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/barron-trump-tall.jpg
@Sebastien Zorn
True.
But in Israel they started to mess it up also years ago by making people buy private insurance in addition to the compulsory national insurance premiums if they want extra/better coverage instead of adding the extra/better coverage to the national insurance basket.
I wonder whether it is part of the “americanization” they might be going through.
@peloni
Governments are NOT businesses and must not be run as such.
Not everything can be run according to the cost/benefit analysis, especially when it comes to the well being of countries and their populations.
The reason the US economy is broken is because the US ruined its economy by letting the giant corporation move the production to China, India, and Southeast Asia in the early 90s.
The US is living on other people’s money – the 30 trillion $$ debt it is never going to repay.
The US doesn’t have a real economy, all it is doing is pumping up its military with other people’s money, and printing more of the “world reserve currency” when the government feels like it.
This doesn’t mean that the politicians are entitled to treat 80% of the population as “useless eaters” and do whatever they want with them because “the system is broken”, allegedly.
@Peloni
DEFERRAL/Suspension/Stoppage/Whatever means that the PAYROLL TAX WAS NO LONGER WITHHELD FROM THE EMPLOYEES SALARIES IN ORDER TO BE ADDED TO THE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE FUNDS.
THEREFORE, the Social Security and Medicare funds were NO LONGER RECEIVING THE MONEY FROM THE TAX!!!!!!!!!!
THEREFORE, these services were being effectively DEFUNDED!!!!!!!!
AND Trump was planning to keep that tax from being added to these funds by continuing to DEFER THE TAX WITHDRAWAL FROM SALARIES, thereby CONTINUING TO DEFUND THEM!!!!!!!!!!
The reason he did it this way (permanently “temporary”) was because it is ILLEGAL TO SIMPLY ABOLISH THE PAYROLL TAX – if he could, he would!
@Reader
If you understand that it was a DEFERRAL then you understand it was not DEFUNDED. Your statement switches back and forth as if these mean the same thing, which of course they don’t. The permanent aspect of the delay in tax collection was, and would only have been, in coordination with a wider reform of Medicaid/Medicare/Heathcare, which was only a proposal, so there was no DEFUNDING associated with the DEFERRAL. So, do explain why you keep using these words interchangeably.
The system is quite broken, by the way. Any system whereby the expenses exceed the costs should be fairly characterized as such. You are not wrong about the political abuses and pharmaceutical corruptions associated with this broken system, which in part, only part, is responsible for it being broken. This is why they needed to be reformed, much as the VA was.
@Reader Yes, we’re saying the same thing about Medicare. Everyone I know who has both Medicare and Medicaid is very happy. There are more doctors you can see on Medicare but you pay little or nothing with no deductibles. My point is that Medicaid should be for everyone. Both are administered by private insurance companies so its very efficient. If you are not planning on getting very sick, Medicare Advantage is much better run with more benefits than straight Medicare. When it’s just the government, you can’t even reach them.
Countries like Israel have a better system.
@Sebastien Zorn
I WAS TALKING ABOUT MEDICARE, NOT MEDICAID.
Medicaid is only for those who are DIRT POOR, the income eligibility levels are very low, more people not old enough for Medicare became eligible with the Obama administration reforms.
There are some people on Medicare who can also use Medicaid (dual-eligible) but it is a pain to use both, from what I heard.
@peloni
As I already mentioned, that “deferral” (I used the term “suspension”) was to continue indefinitely after his reelection because it was illegal to simply abolish the payroll tax.
The “deferred” tax was not going to be collected, and the system is NOT broken, unless you mean the perennial efforts by the politicians to destroy it to enrich the big business and the insurance companies and to impoverish the people.
AND, as I have also already mentioned, people are supposed to come up with other sources of financing a program FIRST, unless they want to destroy the program by DEFUNDING IT FIRST, in which case the tens of millions of the elderly for whom Social Security is the major source of income would be in danger of running out of money way before the alleged reform (which takes a lot of time) would be completed and implemented.
I apologize if I am wrong but you don’t live in the US, right?
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/international-health-policy-center/countries/israel
@Peloni Yes, many people fall through the cracks at all income levels for a variety of reasons. It simply needs to be available to all citizens on demand as in most developed countries.
@Reader
It was a temporary DEFERRAL that would have become irrelevant under the Trump Healthcare/Medicare/Medicaid reform that was to take place under his second administration, which if successful would have reformatted the measures under which the Medicare/Medicaid program was funded if he had the votes to pass his legislation. If not, the DEFERRED taxes would have been collected and the broken system would be, as it is now, still broken.
(2 of 2)
This only covers about half her statement but it is all quite relevant and an archive of the now scrubbed post can be found here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210106202919/https://www.cms.gov/blog/thank-obamacare-rise-uninsured
Regarding the KNN article trashing Trump’s , it was published one month after Trumps famous 4 EO’s taking on Pharma, reducing the price of pharmaceuticals in the US including insolin. Their reasons for doing so can only be guessed at, but I suspect their funding is likely linked to Pharma, and the article you cited was a shot across the bow for his willingness to take on Pharma, in what was likely the first of more contests that wold have resulted had he been able to implement his reforms in his second term.
Regardless, they originally responded to Verma’s statements about the increase number of uninsured being related to Trump’s actions with the following critique:
https://khn.org/morning-breakout/verma-pushes-back-against-dems-accusations-that-uptick-in-uninsured-rate-is-trump-administrations-fault/
So their original claim for the increase in uninsured was that it was linked to the illegal aliens harboring increased concerns about being deported, not due to Trump’s healthcare policies in the article released after Trump’s EOs. They also don’t even respond in the second article to their original claim, simply ignoring the conclusion they had drawn the year before.
/2
@Sebastien
(Part 1 of 2)
Seema Verma was Trump’s head of CMS and was the longest serving head of CMS in US history by far. She is very responsive to criticisms, explaining in ‘wonky talk’ clear enough that most will be able to follow her easily enough. She isn’t political in her comments, beyond thanking Trump for his role in making changes possible under her guidance.
Following a sharp series of Dem criticisms in 2019 regarding the rising numbers of uninsured, she wrote a blog entry on the CMS blog which has since been scrubbed, of course. She asserted that the rise was actualy due to the lack of affordability of the skyrocketing plans which were inherent in ACA. The ACA did nothing to control medical costs which were spiraling ever higher, while simultaneously creating additional billions of dollars of increased administrative costs due to the pricey new regulations required by the ACA. Here is part of what she wrote (well worth reading the entire post):
@Ted
@Edgar
I completely agree. The man is an indomitable force of work ethic, unwilling to manipulated and impossible to be silenced and not willing to quit no matter the rank level of slander or abuse plied at him or his loved ones.
If we had a dozen of him, we’d have an army. If we had two, we’d have a choice. Unfortunately, we have only one Trump and that one is ever ready to showcase the gross incompetence and shocking malfeasance of the rank and file of the uniparty collaborators, who are to be found either shuffling along in his shadow or stalking him from across the aisle, both groups looking to see an end of him and his reforms so they could finally get back to the business of bilking the American people, bombing some foreign nation, and rigging elections to provide their continued rule in perpetuity.
@TED_
I concur 100% in your comment on Trump. No President, even in Wartime, got things done the way Trump did. A pity he isn’t 30 years younger, and wit no stomach.
But…for as long as I can remember, well let me not exaggerate, for the past 40-50 years , it has been grimly said by a multitude of commentators/experts that Social Security would be broke and non-existent within 10 years, some said 6-7.
So how it is still functioning. I have no idea how much it pays nor on what base it stands, nor whether recipients can exist on it, but I thought it was mostly funded by paycheck deductions with equivalent matching contributions from employers. Likely I read
@Reader Low income recipients eligible for Medicaid only pay for medications, at most one or two dollars.
Then there is the Medicaid pool trust program which enables recipients not otherwise eligible for Medicaid to receive at home aides, physical and occupational therapy.
https://www.healthline.com/health/medicare/what-is-medigap#medigap-explained
“What is a Medicaid pool trust?
Pooled trusts allow you to qualify for Medicaid while setting aside some assets for personal and supplemental needs. Special needs trusts can be very useful to disabled individuals who have too many assets to qualify for Medicaid.”
“What is a Medicaid trust?
Community Trust II is a pooled supplemental needs trust (SNT) that allows people with disabilities and older adults seeking home care and other long-term care services to spend-down monthly income that exceeds the Medicaid financial limits.”
@Reader Yes, I mentioned plans F, G, and N. There are others. These are all Medigap plans and they have premiums.
https://www.healthline.com/health/medicare/what-is-medigap#medigap-explained
@Sebastien Zorn
Those who qualify by income don’t have to pay all the premiums.
Even the low-income Medicare beneficiaries still have to pay for the supplemental insurance (Medigap) it is a Medicare premium which also covers the 20% “gap” in the Original Medicare.
The government is trying to push the elderly away from the Original Medicare (where you can go to, basically, any doctor or specialist of your choice) to the private Medicare Advantage plans (42% of all the Medicare beneficiaries now have these plans) but these plans are HMOs and they also have recently been found to illegally withhold Medicare coverage from the patients in order to beef up their profits.
@Sebastien Zorn
Well, wouldn’t it be logical then to set up the alternative source(s) of funding FIRST, BEFORE starting to get rid of the old ones?
In addition, general taxes are prone to change and fluctuation, whereas the special payroll tax is a constant and sole source of funding which is much easier to deal with, if necessary.
@Ted Belman
He suspended the payroll tax which funds 100% of Social Security and 60% of Medicare and he planned to keep suspending it when reelected.
The reason for “suspending” the tax was that it is illegal to abolish it outright – that’s how important this tax is deemed to be.
It WAS funded for the long run:
The corrupt politicians took the money out of the fund and replaced it with what is, essentially, IOUs, and the average Social Security payment would be enough to live on in 1980 but they never raise it enough to keep up with the cost of living.
They are dying to cancel all the so-called entitlements for the “deplorables” while feeling themselves “entitled” to their special “platinum” insurance plans and benefits.
May I ask you a question?
What makes you speak with such authority on the US Social Security program when you are a Canadian?
I posted the information here about Trump’s suspension of the payroll tax months ago, and there was nothing misleading about it – he shut off the funding for these programs under the guise of “putting more money in the pockets of the working people”.
@Ted As one of the articles mentioned, he wanted to fund Medicare out of general taxes, which would solve that problem.
We all know that social security is not funded for the long run. Everyone says we must do something about it.
Trump is a doer.
He doesn’t shy away from problems. He meets them head on.
@Reader @Ted Trump seems to have had contradictory policies concerning health insurance for the uninsured, in practice, but his principled stance on Medicaid was too harsh, in my opinion. It was one of the few areas where I disagreed with him, rhough it might have been partially due to the pandemic, I’m not sure.
For example this program in Texas he extended.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/15/texas-1115-waiver-uninsured-low-income/h
This article seemed to examine his record on Medicaid fairly.
https://khn.org/news/the-trump-medicaid-record-big-goals-yet-few-successes/
Low income elderly people without Medicaid are skating on thin ice because Medicare only pats 80 percent and has premiums.
As tor the Medicaid expansion: Many if not most employers do not pay for health insurance for their employees and premiums and copays are too high for many people to pay. One good thing about Obamacare was that it identified people who were entitled to Medicaid and didn’t know it. Only Medicaid is truly universal healthcare though it doesn’t pay for certain things that are not absolutely, medically necessary . The very fact that AOC called her program Medicare for all showed her ignorance. Drugs remain expensive under Medicare but not Medicaid.
There are special plans, like AARP plans, F, G, or N, administered by private health insurance companies that eliminate copays, but they have additional premiums which vary by state as do income and asset tests, which are invariably terribly low.
Every or almost every industrialized country but the US has universal health care. I looked up: Hungary, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Rumania, among others, in addition to the ones everybody always talks about.
The problem with Obamacare was high premiums and copays. It was the worst of both worlds for many people, which is why many unions got waivers gor their memvers in exchange for political support.
@Reader @Ted Trump seems to have had contradictory policies concerning health insurance for the uninsured, in practice, but his principled stance on Medicaid was too harsh, in my opinion. It was one of the few areas where I disagreed with him, rhough it might have been partially due to the pandemic, I’m not sure.
For example this program in Texas he extended.
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/15/texas-1115-waiver-uninsured-low-income/h
This article seemed to examine his record on Medicaid fairly.
https://khn.org/news/the-trump-medicaid-record-big-goals-yet-few-successes/
Low income elderly people without Medicaid are skating on thin ice because Medicare only pats 80 percent and has premiums.
@Reader
Claims Trump cut Social Security mislead
@Ted Belman
Trump started defunding Social Security and Medicare and planned to continue doing so if reelected.
There are 30 million of the elderly in the US who depend on Social Security for their income.
Of course, some people think of them as useless eaters who deserve to die starving in the streets.
He also said in an interview that economic depressions are good because they clear out the trash.
Trump’s Birthday was June 14. Happy Birthday, Mr. President.
I read so many statements by people who complain that one thing or another is wrong with Trump.
For me, there is nothing about Trump that I would criticize, I don’t know anyone else in America that would succeed to the extent that he has. Who is anyone to criticize him in the face of his awesome success.
Some people say that they don’t like his tweets. Who are they to say anything.. His tweets help him not hinder him..
@Sebastien
That was the line that most struck me.
Donald Trump
President Trump is truly a great man. It’s such a shame to see him being persecuted in this way. Until the people who stole the presidential election from him are brought to justice healing for our country is going to be problematic.