eliminated funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which assists people who need help paying their energy bills.
Lawmakers in cold-weather states have consistently opposed cuts.
On 15 February 2017—before Trump’s administration first announced its proposed budget—Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) were part of a bipartisan group of 45 senators who sent a letter to both the president and OMB calling for “robust funding” for the program in 2016. They said: More than 90 percent of LIHEAP recipients have at least one household member who is a child, elderly, or disabled, and the percentage of households with at least one veteran has grown to 20 percent.
The program helps to ensure that eligible recipients do not have to choose between paying their energy bills and affording other necessities like food and medicine. Following the release of the proposal in May 2017, independent Maine Sen. Angus King—a member of the Senate Budget Committee—said in a statement: Many of the reductions proposed in this budget – from the cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program to LIHEAP – will hammer thousands of people across Maine, including older, disabled, and lower-income people.
Hard working Maine people who pay taxes expect a government that works for them, but they are the ones who will suffer when the tax cuts proposed in this budget directly benefit those who need it least.
**********
During the Christmas holiday at the billionaire's Mar-a-Lago mansion, Trump met his uber wealthy friends and the first thing out of his mouth was "I made you richer."
Yes. Of course.
And let me ask all the so-called "Christians" out there who support Trump: What would Jesus do? Would he have given more tax breaks to the uber-wealthy at the expense of keeping children, the elderly, the disabled and veterans warm over the long cold winter?
You answer that.
Your president already has.
And this:
Trump admin rolling back use of fines against nursing homes.
Those fines against nursing homes? Those would be to punish those nursing homes that abuse grandma and grandpa.
The Trump administration is reportedly rolling back the use of fines against nursing homes that have been cited for violations such as neglect or mistreatment.
The move comes after the nursing home industry requested the change in the Medicare program's penalty protocols, The New York Times reported over the holiday weekend.
Lord Dampnut is very mindful of the nursing home industries' requests to look the other way so that they can make the maximum amount of money while neglecting your grandpa and grandma.
This is MAGA in all its glory!
21 comments:
Hey, he needs that private-jet tax break. Think of the cost of the fuel to get that massive ass up into the sky.
As for the nursing-home rules, Republicans always listen to industry lobbyists first and the public interest second if at all. With health care they've always worried more about whether insurance companies get treated fairly than whether ordinary people get treated fairly.
As deregulation takes hold we get more abuses, more industrial accidents, more pollution, more corner-cutting of every kind -- more sinking toward becoming a Third World society.
Infidel753, I believe we're already there as a Third World society. We've got an authoritarian as leader who admits that the tax cuts were for himself and other billionaires. The corporate tax cuts are forever, whereas the meager tax cuts he gave to the middle and lower classes are not permanent and will end. The average tax cut for the middle class runs to around $720, and the average for people like Trump and his children will be in the millions. So the middle and lower classes got screwed on tax cuts and will lose health care. Welcome to being a Third World countlry.
Trunp's a con man, and he conned the very people who voted for him.
I believe we're already there as a Third World society.
There are a lot of bad signs. For a long time I've been seeing parallels to Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it was losing its position as the world's leading power. The decline was gradual enough that most people didn't really perceive it until the end of World War II, by which time it was pretty much done. The US has been on that trajectory for some time, but Trump and the Republicans generally are making it far worse.
The staggering inequality and loss of social mobility are signs of a sclerotic, stagnant society. In such a society, talent is squandered and wasted. Or it emigrates. The authoritarianism is worse. Britain never had a leader like Trump, even in the 1930s when most of Europe went fascist.
We're making the same mistakes earlier declining superpowers made -- but we don't know it because most Americans know nothing of the outside world or its history and think they have nothing to learn from it (that's one of the mistakes).
In much of Puerto Rico the electric power is still not restored, three months after the hurricane. I can't imagine that happening in a comparable region of Japan or Germany.
All other developed countries, and some semi-developed ones like Iran, have universal health coverage. Norway has had it since 1912, more than a century. We still can't do this. The Republicans are determined that we never will. Workers work harder and harder for barely-rising wages while a tiny parasitic dominant class skims off the extra wealth created.
The government that could get nothing else done all year has passed a huge tax "reform" giveaway to the richest and wants to cut Social Security and Medicare to pay for it. Poor people in cold states and nursing-home residents are abandoned. This is the only government on Earth that denies the reality of global warming. It's the only advanced country that still has mass-scale rejection of evolution. This is not the path to remaining an advanced nation. The future belongs to those who emphasize science and technology and mass education. The way things are going, that won't be us.
Karma would be if Trump ends up in a nursing home on welfare.
Trump talked about the "forgotten man" during the campaign and during his inauguration. His supporters (White blue collar workers) thought he was talking about them... however, he was referring to wealthy people. Anyway, campaign promise fulfilled, MAGA!! The forgotten rich man is "forgotten" no more. :(
If, and it may be a large if, congress reverts to Democratic control of both houses with a democratic President couldn't the tax law be again changed by another act of congress?
If so then it seems the focus ought not be on doom and gloom but rather on preparing for the day in the near future when this is possible. Positive arguments combined with truthful openness and great leadership (something lacking in the most recent campaign) could very well turn the tide. Just pissing and moaning surely won't do the job.
America need positive forward looking leadership with out of the box thinking. Does the present Democratic party and it's leadership offer this? Methinks not.
RN: "America need positive forward looking leadership with out of the box thinking. Does the present Democratic party and it's leadership offer this?"
The Dems worked alone on developing universal health care based on a Republican think tank idea. The ACA wasn't perfect, but it was a beginning to solving a problem that other technologically advanced western democracies have solved. It boggles the mind to know that a superpower that put men on the moon and helped build a space station cannot solve this problem, and it's even more astounding that a 3rd of our voting population would vote for a man and a party that has no leadership on this very important issue. The GOP bleated about Obamacare for 7 years and have absolutely nothing to offer in its place after trying to destroy it. The man the Goopers chose as POTUS promised Americans something better and cheaper and coverage for all and delivered NOTHING. He's a bloated bag of fetid air.
During the Obama administration, Mr. Obama wanted to work on infrastructure, health care and other problems, but the GOP controlled Congress said NO! to everything he tried to pass legislatively, therefore, the executive orders that the Trumper is overturning.
The Dems do have better ideas, the recent elections have shown that the people understand this. What they need to do is look to the younger pols in the party for leadership roles. We don't need to put up tired retreads for POTUS. We need young, vigorous women and men for those leadership roles. They're out there and need to come forward.
Infidel753 Your analysis is correct and depressing. The GOP is a minority party with a miority president, and they've devised ways to grab positions of power through gerrymandering, voter supression, billionaire contributionss, calling corporations "people," and cozying up to the Russians. America once possessed the idea of the common good, but no more. We've become nothing more than warring factions, unable to find common ground.
“Without common ideas, there is no common action, and without common action men still exist, but a social body does not. Thus in order that there be society, and all the more, that this society prosper, it is necessary that all the minds of the citizens always be brought together and held together by some principle ideas” -- Alexis de Tocqueville
Dervish and Jerry, Everything the Trumper talked about during his campaign was a lie, and a majority of the American people understand this, as do our allies. Trump is so disliked and disrespected that our closest ally, Great Britain, doesn't want him to visit, even if G.B. has to, for diplomatic reasons, tolerate his gross and vulgar presence.
The Big Right-Wing "Christian" supporters of Trump already have values that are opposite of how the Bible describes Jesus Christ to have. So it isn't surprising that they believe someone who never even pretended to be Christian until he wanted their worship.
But the Right (as are other Right wings around the world) is much more concerned by identity than issues. Be loyal to our men, and condemn those who are different.
Howard, that is a sad truth. Trump is a "for show" type of Christian, knows nothing about the Bible, and is everything the far right Evangelicals detest in a human being, but they've made their Faustian bargain with Trump and they will never recover from it. They've sold their souls to the Devil for political glory.
You forgot to mention the 102 million middle class who will receive a tax break.
ACA is so great that 9 million signed up. Somehow your definition of success is if 30% of people participate.
Maybe this will allow for an affordable choice that does not include pregnancy benefits for a 27 year old male or 60 year old women. It was a bad program that just got worse and that was by design of the democrats because when it failed it would be replaced by national healthcare so everyone will suffer. There is a way to fix healthcare but that would require both sides to work together and even with slimy reid gone that won't happen.
Shaw, the democratic party leadership is an aging group with many throwbacks to the 60's. Time for young blood and fresh approaches. Hopefully Joe Kennedy III and Seth Moulton, as well as other young dems are given their heads.
Obama was a start, HRC on the other hand was unable to solidly connect and verbalize a vion for the future effectively. I still maintain that Sanders likely would have defeated Trump. While he is an aging pol he was not viewed as part of the old democratic established order, HRC was.
The future rests with the young 30 to 40 somethings, not the 70 and 80 somethings. 2018 and 2020 presents an amazing opportunity. If the democratic party big wigs don't mess it up.
skud: "Maybe this will allow for an affordable choice that does not include pregnancy benefits for a 27 year old male or 60 year old women."
SK: Skud, you seem to not understand what a risk pool is. Whatever health insurance you had 20 or so years ago, you can bet that it certainly factored in the cost of pregnancy benefits, even if only men bought it. I don't know why you don't understand this. It's like living in a city where the local taxes go toward supporting public schools: everyone pays those taxes even if they don't have children in school. The same goes for auto insurance -- you're paying for the likely accident prone insureds in the city where you live.
skud: "...when it failed it would be replaced by national healthcare so everyone will suffer."
SK: We are the ONLY advanced western democracy that does not have national health care insurance. At some point, you'll need to sit down and think about that -- unless you are of the cement-headed crowd that believes you all are right and the rest of the civilized world is wrong, which apparently you and your bretheren believe to the collective astonishment of people with common sense and critical thinking skills. You've been fed rightwing propaganda, and you're gorging on it to the detrement of the health of this country.
As for the Trumpian "tax cuts?" Here is some info that you won't get from watching FAUX NOOZ:
"Benzell, who is otherwise favorable toward the White House analysis, cautioned that "it is certainly possible that this reform will increase top-percentile inequality — that isn’t a focus of our study," he said. "This is another area of disagreement about the bill — not whether it will increase incomes, but how those gains will be balanced between rich and poor."
Separate provisions of the tax proposal may ultimately reduce that $4,000 gain
The lack of a finalized tax bill makes it hard to decisively predict the impact for a typical taxpayer.
What’s been released so far "has lots of missing pieces at this point, many of which will impact the end result," said Kent Smetters, a Wharton School of Business professor and former Treasury Department official during the George W. Bush administration.
Aparna Mathur, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute whose work was cited in the Council of Economic Advisers’ paper, cautioned that if the extra $4,000 is to materialize, it will be dependent on successful implementation and an absence of unexpected hurdles.
"In particular, a tax package that adds greatly to the deficit would likely lead to much lower wage hikes than we would like," she said.
The White House said it would continue to analyze the impact of the bill as new elements come into focus.
That said, the White House has chosen to offer Americans a rosy scenario that could take years to come to fruition, if it ever does at all.
Moral of the story: Don’t count your $4,000 nest-egg until it hatches."
I have blogging friends in Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand. They all truly feel sorry for us in the good ole USA in regards to health insurance and the current occupier of the White House. While they all agree their health care systems aren't perfect they certainly wouldn't trade it for ours.
Possumlady
Shaw, Governments do not lower what you pay in taxes they just shift it and mask the outcome. We really need total tax overhaul to make it simple and Fair but our political elite would have to relinquish power and they are not going to do that. Why should the true rich pay at a much higher percentage than the not rich. Maybe because they can which is a very poor reason.
This whole pity the poor and punish the rich has been going on for centuries and in all regions of the earth. Look at all the trillions spent to reduce poverty yet it hasn't changed for decades. We give all of the power to corrupt politicians and expect them to act in our best interest when the only thing they care about is their own self interest.
How can you become a multi millionaire making 180K a year. Look at how many politicians make millions while "helping" the disadvantaged.
Anon 1324
You need to expand you friends because the only ones who think the Canadian system is good is the healthy. Canada has less population than California and granted our healthcare system is broken it compares very well to Canada. They are taking steps to refine the system and allow physicians to accept private pay but they still have a long way to go.
The British system is very good and provides both public and private healthcare. Our politicians will not change our system because they would lose millions they are paid by the insurance lobby to make sure they don't. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue but a politicians issue because we allow them to accept bribes from lobbyists.
His lordship obama said he was going to cut down on the number of lobbyists and they only increased. If he can't get rid of them how can a normal mortal.
Okay, I counted the blog friends in Canada - seven. They come from Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and small towns around Toronto. Two women have dealt with breast cancer and one woman was dealing with her husband with early onset Alzheimer's who had home health aides before she had to put him in an all day facility in 2012 until his death in February of this year. Again, they were all thankful for their high level of care.
Possumlady
Possumlady, Skud doesn't want to hear success stories about national health care. Every advanced countlkry except the U.S. has national health care, so it must be awful.
skud — “You forgot to mention the 102 million middle class who will receive a tax break.“
skud — “Governments do not lower what you pay in taxes they just shift it and mask the outcome.”
skud, Which is it? Or, are you now arguing with yourself?
Oh JC I firmly believe that our taxes will not go down they will just be put in a different category but in the end we will pay the same or even more. They will cut income taxes for the middle class and will make it up with something else that is not income tax. All this is a ruse and people will believe whatever side they are on. Will corporations bring in billions from off shore, of course not just like they are getting a 15% tax cut. Neither of these are true and neither is the thousands of manufacturing and mining jobs brought back. They will stay off shore and companies will invest in processes and equipment so they can require fewer employees not more increasing their profits which is what they are supposed to do.
Ms. Shaw, Regarding healthcare which is a broken system and cannot be solved by our corrupted elite representatives. Like I stated Anon needs to have more Canadian friends. If I look hard enough I can find a few that liked obamacare who actually paid the full premiums. Even BJ said obamacare was a failure and the -H- should distance herself from it.
You do state correctly that the -H- had more votes. The problem is she only concerned herself with the coasties and the uber rich and got beat. If you poll the middle of the country she is still disliked and DJT has almost a 50% approval rating.
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