American politics 2016: Lawyers, Guns, and D-Money

https://newrepublic.com/article/132942/paul-ryan-making-john-boehner-look-like-legislative-genius

On May 1, the government of Puerto Rico is likely to go into default, without Congressional action helping the U.S. territory deal with its unpayable $73 billion debt burden. Puerto Rico is also one of several regions struggling with the effects of the Zika virus, which is ravaging much of Latin America with debilitating effects on children born to carriers—and is headed into this country. Then there’s the water crisis in Flint, which requires ongoing emergency assistance and raises awareness of lead poisoning in U.S. infrastructure more generally. Meanwhile, heroin and opioid painkiller abuse is causing thousands of deaths per year and affecting virtually every part of the country, particularly rural areas in red states.

No legislation addressing any of this has passed in the House.

These bills are crashing because Ryan won’t do what made Boehner so unpopular among the Republican House caucus: cut deals with Democrats to pass legislation that Republican factions oppose.

Nearly all of these are not Republican priorities so it is not surprising there have been no bills passed, and that Ryan has not pushed for compromise.

Does the word "progressive" actually mean anything today? It seems like every democrat now wants to be called a "progressive" and in a lot of cases it's the "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" type only they won't cop to that description anymore.

holy shit Hastert got jail time

15 months, and a stern talking-to for boytouching

I expected he would get jail time, but not the fifteen months

This review of two books on liberals past & present seems relevant:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/books/review/listen-liberal-and-the-limousine-liberal.html

It's weird to me when people act like any amount of jail time is a walk in the park. 15 months is a long time to sit in a jail cell, especially for a 74-year-old.

apparently he's going to a prison hospital

You think a regular hospital is bad....

There's really nothing like rank-and-file Dems cooing over Obama's comedy skills at the Marie Antoinette Dinner every year to make me wish i was the type who'll pick up and go live in a fucking ashram.

eh I would never give the Dems the satisfaction of thinking I'd give up using deodorant.

The rank-and-file coo over every president's comedy skills.

http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/ap/ny11302161339.grid-6x2.jpg

The Biden sequence almost needs to go into Things that just have to be Tim and Eric skits thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6gOKSVpqDQ

most politicians are performers at heart

^

what's the old expression? politics is hollywood for ugly people?

behind the scenes action on Capitol Hill according to a W. Post editorial and article :

At present, the doctor gets the average price of a drug plus 6 percent, a clear incentive to use higher priced drugs instead of lower priced equivalents. HHS wants to make the reimbursement 2.5 percent plus a flat fee. The idea is to curb Medicare spending on physician-dispensed drugs — which grew from $9.5 billion in 2005 to $22 billion in 2015 — without harming quality of care.

Alas, there is now an uproar against the proposal on Capitol Hill, where the two interest groups most affected, the pharmaceutical industry and certain medical specialties such as oncology, have immense clout. All 14 Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are demanding the Obama administration withdraw the proposal — and all 12 Democrats on the committee have signed a letter raising their “concerns.” Similar moves are afoot among both parties in the House. Lawmakers, echoing the lobbies’ talking points almost verbatim, claim the HHS plan will inflict economic damage on small, independent practitioners who tend to pay higher prices for drugs because they lack hospitals’ bargaining power, thus encouraging industry concentration and limiting patient choices.

The obvious goal is to pressure HHS to weaken its plan before it becomes final in a couple of months. Yet a new analysis by the Evidence-Driven Drug Pricing Project at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center shows that the HHS proposal addresses a real problem and that the opponents’ complaints are probably overblown. Medicare rules do, indeed, encourage physicians to use more expensive drugs instead of cheaper equivalents, and the incentive is strongest with a relative handful of highly expensive cancer drugs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/drug-money/2016/05/01/fd9c9d94-0e1f-11e6-a6b6-2e6de3695b0e_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/medicare-considers-overhaul-of-doctors-payments-for-drugs/2016/03/08/90af35e2-e56c-11e5-a6f3-21ccdbc5f74e_story.html?tid=a_inl

That review Kingfish posted above of the new Thomas Frank book and another author's effort, nicely explains my issues with Frank's polemic style (I haven't read this new one yet, just some past efforts)

the incentive is strongest with a relative handful of highly expensive cancer drugs.

whatcha gonna do for me, Democrats?

NC looking promising:

http://www.vox.com/2016/5/2/11542290/nc-elections-2016-bathrooms

Promising at the governor level, but not at the legislature level there--

But while the law may cost Republicans the governor's mansion, its impact on the state legislature remains very unclear. Republicans have a stranglehold on the body, with the party holding more than 60 percent of the General Assembly's seats. And 53 of those seats — nearly one-third of the entire legislature, most of which are held by Republicans — will go unchallenged because a challenger didn't file to run.

53 seats with no challengers

yeah that's ridiculous

You thought the US Congressional map for NC was bad, check it out on the state level: http://www.ncleg.net/representation/WhoRepresentsMe.aspx

http://i.imgur.com/MKI977m.png

There is a huge deficit of strong Democratic candidates in many parts of the South. The Democrat running for Georgia's U.S. Senate seat is a dude who wears a flat cap:
http://jimbarksdaleforsenate.com/images/logo-barsksdale-01.png

http://fogmann.com/foglog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/ss_Wire_avon.jpg

I'd vote for that hat. Also, A+ use of brown in a political logo.

I'll be pulling for Barksdale, I will, but just throwing this out there

http://i.imgur.com/io32YbD.jpg

This man hasn't ever had a slice of peach cobbler in his entire life.

does that hat have a name beyond 'flat cap'?

I call mine a "Barksdale".

man how cool would it be if Chuck Grassley lost his seat

as cool as learning that Rafael Cruz murdered JFK.

it is kind of amazing that the zodiac killer's dad killed JFK

It's Pat really can't deliver a joke ("...and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in my backyard")

Zodiac Killer Confesses to Murder of Jimmy Hoffa

https://www.facebook.com/rick.friday.3/posts/10208214646576953

I thought Trump's claim was preposterous, without merit and based on nothing resembling fact.

But when I heard the way Cruz denied it, I'm starting to think there may be something to this.

but he would sound like that denying/ridiculing anything

ME: Zodiac Killer struck during late 60s/early 70s - before Cruz was born and while he was an infant.

CRUZ: "This is nuts. Even though I wasn't born then, I am the Zodiac Killer. And I guess I also killed Sharon Tate and participated in the My Lai Massacre."

ME: I guess maybe he is the Zodiac Killer?

American Family Association: Group Says It Is Sending Men Into Women's Restrooms at Target
The effort is intended to show there "is absolutely no barrier" as a result of the retail chain's transgender restroom use policy, a spokesperson for the group said on Breitbart News Daily.

I think people in the women's room would fear some bible thumping fucking creep who volunteered to go into the ladies room at target than they would fear a trans person.. jfc

plz tell me they are going to be in drag

i generally agree; my opinion of Sanders is not high enough to think he will do it

but ya never know...

that was meant to go in prez thread for the Green Party speculation...

you ruined my fantasy of Bernadette Sanders, undercover AFA opponent

in all seriousness though, this is fuckin' enraging. like out of all of the incidents in regards to bathrooms in recent weeks, do they not notice the overwhelming coincidence that the perpetrators have all been...supporters of this bill, and not rapey bogeymen?

idg what's going on exactly here (isn't the primary over??) but paul ryan has a challenger in his district.

http://www.paulnehlen.com/

he has a molon labe tattoo and is endorsed by michelle malkin.

he's running against TPP! vaguely trumpist, i guess? more autocannibalism to look out for

GET YOUR DUMP RYAN
STRESS BALL
CLICK HERE

It seems there is a liberal challenger to Debbie Wasserman Schultz. That would probably be a fine way to spend a couple of bucks if anyone is looking for anyone to donate to. http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/florida/2016/05/8598873/wasserman-schultzs-liberal-challenger-set-announce-1m-haul