#trumpcare

[garthnadermemestash]

He’s had 8 years to come up with a health care plan

[lily-orchard-archives]

May 5, 2017

[screams-in-agony]

So true.

[Image description:

A text post from Facebook saying

If Trump were truly as clever and savvy as his people claim, he could prove it in one stroke. If you want to prove you’re better than Obama, you don’t achieve that by undoing everything Obama did. You do that by achieving what Obama couldn’t:

Universal Healthcare.

By destroying the corrupt and wildly unpopular insurance system, he’d make himself a true hero to all Americans, left, right, center, for generations to come. It would be an undeniable victory that his opponents could not refute - he’ll they’d have to praise him. It would show that he was able to do what Obama and Biden couldn’t. He can even call it TrumpCare.

But the people around him would never, ever let it happen. His handlers would freak out, and tell him he can’t, so he won’t even try. So sad.]

[darkmaga-returns]

The new fifth column of Democrat and RINO resisters to all things Trump is emerging. Medical care “experts” begin taunting Trump about his never offering an alternative to ObamaCare in his first term. They are incorrect.

The American Health Care Act (AHCA) of 2017, often called "TrumpCare," was a well-reasoned proposal aimed at repealing and replacing ObamaCare. The AHCA, by significantly changing the way health insurance is regulated and funded in America primarily focused on correcting flaws in the individual mandate, providing tax credits based on age rather than income, and allowing states more flexibility in designing healthcare plans… essentially transferring more control to states and away from the federal government. Rational offerings of effective local healthcare plans allowed competition to over time reduce healthcare costs significantly. The offered plans would underscore the strong emphasis on the role of the patient, family, and their physician in healthcare decisions as one could readily see in reading the more concisely written AHCA. TrumpCare was very close to passing in 2017 but John McCain voted no in melodramatic defiance of Donald Trump.

The many hundreds more pages to read in ObamaCare illustrate the emphasis on endless layers of government bureaucrats mandating regulations and influencing healthcare decision-making -- not patients and their providers. As one read the voluminous ACA the line, “and The Secretary shall…” implement this and that regulation predominated the legislative verbiage. The current continuing and mushrooming costs and regulations of Obamacare are readily apparent -- reflecting the continuing lie of Obama that, “you can keep your doctor.”

Hopefully, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Ben Carson, and other advisors to President Trump will review the crucial elements of ObamaCare of 2017 to be offered to the American people again. If it had been implemented in 2017 our current Obamacare floundering financial leviathan would not be America’s problem. Let’s make American healthcare great again.

[mugiwara-lucy]

Will Kamala actually give use free healthcare??!??!

It won't be done overnight but I think so!

STILL waiting for TrumpCare 🤣

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

#15yrsago GOP Senate hopeful got rich diverting corpsemeat from burn victims to enlarge penises https://web.archive.org/web/20080229172359/https://thehill.com/markos-moulitsas/gops-flesh-eating-zombie-candidate-2008-02-26.html

#15yrsago More Abu Ghraib torture photos https://www.wired.com/2008/03/gallery-abu-ghraib/

#10yrsago Akata Witch: young adult hero’s journey of a Nigerian witch https://memex.craphound.com/2013/02/27/akata-witch-young-adult-heros-journey-of-a-nigerian-witch/

#5yrsago Trumpcare added $33B to government healthcare spending, in order to cover 8.9m fewer Americans, who will pay more for less https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-trumpcare-urban-20180226-story.html

#5yrsago Senior Ben Carson staffer says she was demoted for refusing to “find money” to spend on lavish publicly funded perks for Carson’s home and office https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics/ben-carson-office-furniture-whistleblower/index.html

#5yrsago Blue Cross employees are instructed to donate to the boss’s daughter, a “Democrat” who opposes single-payer https://truthout.org/articles/blue-cross-pressures-employees-to-donate-to-opponent-of-single-payer-candidates/

#1yrago Amazon’s $31b “ad business” isn’t https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/27/not-an-ad/#shakedowns

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

January 21, 2025

LDS TITHING FRAUD CASE — LET THE LORD DECIDE

Well, this could be difficult. Attorneys for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints argued in federal court that allegations of fraud involving billions of dollars in tithing collected over two decades cannot be decided in a secular court. That's right Wilson, it means sending it up to a higher power: Let the Lord decide. Which, if you think about it, is a pretty good defense — if it works. Tithing is a sacred obligation, the Mormon attorneys argued, and as such is off limits under the protections of the First Amendment. It amounts to an intrusion of religious thought. No Wilson, church founder Joseph Smith's Urim and Thummim did not foresee this. Nine plaintiffs are suing the church claiming that Ensign Peak Advisors, the church's investment arm, amassed $100 billion from investing tithing, while not spending any of it on charity or religious efforts. Meanwhile, they say the church spent $1.4 billion on the City Creek Center mall in Salt Lake City. This could get a little tricky for God's real estate angels: is money made by investing tithing the same as tithing — or not. The $100 billion investment portfolio came to light in 2019 by an IRS whistleblower. By hiding the largesse, plaintiffs say church leaders defrauded the faithful so they would not stop donating. But as an apostle once said, ignorance is bliss.

TICK TOCK, TICK TOCK... IS TIME RUNNING OUT FOR TIKTOK?

It's off. It's back on. Trump says he'll save it. We'll see. Four years ago, Trump wanted it banned. Now he loves it. Funny how money can change minds. Some 170 million Americans use the app owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Worldwide that number is in excess of 2 billion. TikTok, a video-hosting service, is a whole world unto itself. It connects creators and influences with new audiences and pushes trends in food, fashion and music and just about everything. It also spreads hate speech, far right extremism, antisemitism islamophobia, racism and xenophobia. It added $2 billion to the U.S. economy last year. Originally designed to sell Chinese goods to people all over the world, it has morphed into the globe's most popular website. In 2022, Mark Zuckerberg and his Meta platforms hired a high-powered lobby firm to create strategies and campaigns portraying TikTok as “a danger to American children and society.” It worked and in 2024 Congress passed a law banning the app unless it was sold from Chinese interests. The Supreme Court upheld the law ruling it did not violate TikTok's First Amendment rights. Yes, and money is speech and corporations are people. So now let's see if it's possible to close Pandora's Box.

THIS TIME AMERICA REALLY IS GOING TO BE GREAT AGAIN

This is going to be so much fun. The 47th President of the United States issued something like 100 executive orders on his first day back in the White House. It was planned to overwhelm regulators, Congress, the news media and everyone else. Gone are the days when Republicans, like Utah Sen. Mike Lee, complained that the executive branch had too much power. Here's part of the to-do list: deport everyone with brown skin; end birthright citizenship to keep them brown people from spawning Americans; close the border to avocado trucks, pardon all those Jan. 6 patriots; end the war in Ukraine, maybe now, maybe later; make Canada the 51st state; put tariffs on everything from China, including Hot Wheels; drill baby drill, lower the price of eggs, keep transgender women out of sports; make polluting great again; cut funding to “woke” schools; cut funding to everything else “woke”; make DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs a felony; ban travel to Gaza, Yemen and California; outlaw teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in middle schools; extend tax cuts for billionaires; replace Obamacare with Trumpcare; weaponize the Justice Department to prosecute any and all Trump naysayers. Well, it's a start, anyway. Nobody said making America great again for certain groups was going to be easy.

Post script — That's a wrap for another historic week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of the Village People so you don't have to. Hey Wilson, remember the Village People?They were a late-70s disco group who dressed up as various macho gay-fantasy characters — an Indian chief, a cop, a construction worker, a cowboy. Their name comes from Greenwich Village in Manhattan that had a reputation as a gayborhood. Donald Trump adopted one of the Village People's hits, Y.M.C.A. as a theme for is campaign, although it was known as a gay anthem. The band in 2020 asked him not to use the song after he threatened to shoot Black Lives Matter protestors. They later reversed their decision. The Village People are having another moment and performed at some of Trump's inauguration festivities. The only original member of the band, 73-year-old Victor Willis, said Trump really likes Y.M.C.A. "We know this [won't] make some of you happy to hear, however we believe that music is to be performed without regard to politics. Our song Y.M.C.A. is a global anthem that hopefully helps bring the country together after a tumultuous and divided campaign where our preferred candidate lost." Trump took the stage with the band at a rally on the eve of his inauguration and danced as they sang their 1978 hit. You can't unsee it.

Well Wilson, you and the band can guess what's coming next. Tell the guys to dress the part and take us out with a rousing rendition of Y.M.C.A.:

Young man, there's no need to feel down. I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground. I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town There's no need to be unhappy. Young man, there's a place you can go. I said, young man, when you're short on your dough. You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find Many ways to have a good time. It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. They have everything for young men to enjoy, You can hang out with all the boys... It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. You can get yourself clean, you can have a good meal, You can do whatever you feel... Young man, are you listening to me? I said, young man, what do you wanna be? I said, young man, you can make real your dreams. But you got to know this one thing! No man does it all by himself. I said, young man, put your pride on the shelf, And just go there, to the Y.M.C.A. I'm sure they can help you today. It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.

(Y.M.C.A. — Village People)

[thereverendjoey1959]

The Miracles of Jesus Under Trumpcare

[leaarongmail-blog]

The Miracles of Jesus Under Trumpcare

[debylynncedars]

The Miracles of Jesus Under Trumpcare

[pathstowellness]

Review of The Hacking of the American Mind by Robert H. Lustig MD, MSL

Did you just get the urge for chocolate and pick up a couple of bars or maybe a cake on the way home? Do you consider yourself a chocoholic at times and laugh it off? Are you constantly on your cell phone or social media? What if these cravings for cookies, cell phones, social media, etc that have become endemic to the American culture aren't simply innocent habits but the results of years of biochemical engineering by Big Business to get people hooked? As we pursue the happiness these addictions offer they are damaging not just our minds, but our relationships, and society as a whole according to the author, pediatric endocrinologist, and professor Dr. Robert Lustig in his book The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains. Lustig argues that we have been "hacked" by certain industries that intentionally "obfuscate the link between their products and disease, and to willfully confuse the concepts of pleasure and happiness with the sole motive being profit" (Lustig p 6). He supports his argument with information by delving into various areas including biochemistry, neuroscience, psychiatry, economics, etc. The past forty years of increased addiction and depression are the result of too much pleasure and not enough happiness.

The title of this book caught my attention on the library bookshelf, not having read anything by Lustig previously, but ever the student of mental and physical well-being how this can contradict the practices of our modern society. I'd first thought he might be another "expert" medical professional trying to pass his theories off as reality or serve up another dose of positive psychology, however, as an endocrinologist, Lustig does ground his argument in the underlying science of biochemistry something I found reassuring from the start of the book. "the biochemistry drives the behavior" (Lustig 27) and it is clear this is where he is comfortable as the second and third parts of the book deal exclusively with explaining the chemistry of the dopamine reward pathway and the serotonin contentment pathway. This doesn't leave much room in the book to discuss other areas such as economics and philosophy, which I would have liked to learn more about, but it did make for an engaging read.

Also, Dr. Lustig focuses on hormones in children and his previous book Fat Chance deals with obesity and metabolic syndrome in our society. I have yet to read Fat Chance, but it is apparent that this book also borrows heavily from that research as, although he touches on phones and gambling, sugar seems to be the main villain. Where sugar was a luxury at one time, it is now cheap, easy to procure, and highly addictive. Our society has become stressed and sleep-deprived leading to mental health issues like depression and addiction to processed foods loaded with sugar leading to symptoms of metabolic syndrome: weight gain, cancers, heart disease, diabetes, etc. I'm familiar with the link between sugar and metabolic syndrome, but he also argues for a link between sugar and dementia and Alzheimer's disease. This proves to be more of a correlation than a causation, but it did raise serious concerns for me. After all the medical field had claimed for a long time to not know the underlying causes of Alzheimer's. I recall during the diet fads of the past when fats were labeled the main culprit sugar was put in its place.

There are a few points where I notice when discussing politics, Lustig seems a little out of touch on the healthcare policies of the time he was writing apparently during Donald Trump's presidency claiming at one point that the Affordable Care Act had been repealed and that Trumpcare was on the way.

I appreciate how the author provides suggestions in the last part of the book to win the battle against big business, especially the food industry defined by the four c's: connection, contribute, cope, and cook. Lusting advises that we should connect with our fellow human beings in person and not just online, volunteer for a cause, cope by getting sleep and practicing mindfulness, and cook for ourselves and our family. I have seen different versions of these suggestions in other books and articles and I currently been practicing them myself and have seen great improvement in my life.

I recommend this book to those interested in learning about the biochemistry that underlies our behavior and the serious effects sugar can have on our health. I think sugar's role in keeping us eating poorly and dealing with health effects is the strongest part of The Hacking of the American Mind: The Science Behind the Corporate Takeover of Our Bodies and Brains. I agree with Lustig that the way we live needs to change and changing our diets is the main key. I can speak from experience as I have reduced sugar significantly in my diet with very positive results.

[newslo]

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney: “Don’t Like Trumpcare? Nobody Is Forcing You To Be Poor” https://newslo.com/budget-director-mick-mulvaney-dont-like-trumpcare-nobody-forcing-poor/

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

"I hate obamacare, it's terrible, we need to get rid of it, but I'm the one who saved it, it should be called trumpcare, everybody loves it. No, I'm not going to tell you my plan to replace it."

The housing crisis isn't about a lack of housing, it's about companies buying up properties and jacking up the rent. You can build as many new homes as you want, but if you don't stop the landlords you're doing nothing but putting more money in their pockets.

[scopophilic1997]

scopOphilic_micromessaging_03 - scopOphilic1997 presents a new micro-messaging series: small, subtle, and often unintentional messages we send and receive verbally and non-verbally. 

[posttexasstressdisorder]

End the nightmare...

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]