In today’s news & Poll of the day.

This fire in Santa Barbara is getting worse…

I think this guy has a point…

ALL voters had better wake up because there is no question the Republicans in Red States are laying the ground work to overturn elections at will. For Republican voters who don’t have a problem with it I remind them of an old saying “Be careful what you wish for”.

From Paul Waldman - Washington Post…

“Opinion: Democrats negotiate over whether to shoot themselves in the foot”


Opinion by Paul Waldman
Columnist
Today at 4:02 p.m. EDT


There’s an eternal debate in Washington about how much policy matters to politics, one that reemerges in slightly different forms. Does passing a bill with popular provisions really help you win elections? Do you get punished for passing something unpopular? Does the detailed substance of policies matter, or is the political battle over them just a contest of spin?

But here’s a pointed question Democrats might consider: What if you promise you’re going to do something incredibly popular, then spend months touting it as evidence of how you’re going to help people, and then drop it from the bill you pass?

That outcome is a very realistic possibility on the Build Back Better social infrastructure plan now being negotiated in Congress.

Polls have shown that while Americans don’t really have a good grasp of what’s in the BBB bill, when you tell them, they like just about all of it, from paid family leave to universal pre-K to Medicare covering dental care. But what stands out in every poll as the most popular provision is allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.

The Kaiser Family Foundation just released a new poll that goes into detail on this question, and the findings are striking:

83 percent of Americans favor “allowing the federal government to negotiate with drug companies to get a lower price on prescription drugs for people with Medicare and private insurance.” That includes 95 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of independents and 71 percent of Republicans.

When presented with arguments in favor of negotiation (“Americans pay higher prices than people in other countries, many can’t afford their prescriptions, and drug company profits are too high”) and opposed to it (“it would have the government too involved and will lead to fewer new drugs being available in the future”), 84 percent found the positive argument convincing. Only 33 percent found the negative argument convincing.

After hearing those arguments, the number of people favoring negotiation remained unchanged, though many Republicans moved from “strongly favoring” negotiation to “somewhat favoring” it.

By an extraordinary 93 percent to 6 percent, Americans rejected the pharmaceutical companies’ argument that they need to charge high prices to fund innovative research, instead agreeing that even if prices were lower the companies would still have plenty of money to fund that research.
If there was ever a political home run of a policy change, this would appear to be it.

Right now, Medicare is barred by law from negotiating, which is a key reason Americans pay the highest drug prices in the world. The negotiation provision in the bill would have two effects: It would bring down the prices, and the savings that would produce could then be used to fund other parts of the bill.

The money involved is enormous; according to a recent Rand Corp. study, setting U.S. prices at 120 percent of what governments pay in a group of our peer countries (one of the proposals that has been made) on just 50 top drugs would save the country $83.5 billion a year — or a trillion dollars in savings after 12 years. A Congressional Budget Office analysis in 2019 said the government could save $456 billion over 10 years by having Medicare negotiate prices.

Unfortunately, that also makes it a tempting target for the Democratic centrists who want to slash away at the bill: If the negotiation provision is jettisoned, that means there’s less money to fund the social infrastructure provisions they don’t like.

There is a huge lobbying fight going on right now, with the enormously powerful drug companies pitted against the enormously powerful AARP, which supports price negotiation. The companies have some centrist House Democrats on their side, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) has also made clear that she opposes price negotiation, though Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) supports it.

But it’s one thing to say you don’t like a particular provision, and another to threaten to kill the entire bill if it’s included. After all, everyone has to compromise here.

Right now no one knows whether price negotiation will make it into the final bill. Members are exploring different ways to scale the proposal back that might meet with the approval of the centrists and drug industry allies.

But if it does fall by the wayside, every Democrat will suffer. It’s not just that reducing the price of medicines is absurdly popular. It’s also that Democrats have promised this over and over. If the bill passes without it, a lot of voters are going to decide that Democrats failed them, all the other things the bill does notwithstanding.

And they won’t be wrong.”

Irony of this is the Democrats will pay a price for not delivering what they promised while the Republicans never pay a price for not promising or even offering anything.

10-13-2021…

In Paul Waldman’s latest column in the Washington Post he talks about former running for President in 2024.

But the part that stuck out was this part…

“Even if Republican voters harbor doubts — a recent Pew Research Center poll found that only 44 percent of them want Trump to run again — just about every GOP politician will either dodge the question or endorse the idea of him running.

That creates its own snowball effect: The more Republicans show they won’t stand in his way, the more others will fear stepping out of line, and the more Trump will be convinced he’ll have the whole party behind him if he runs. Which he will.

He’d have no primary opposition. A dozen Republicans may run for president in 2024 if Trump doesn’t, including senators such as Ted Cruz (Tex.), Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.); governors such as Ron DeSantis (Fla.), Greg Abbott (Tex.) and Kristi L. Noem (S.D.); and former Trump officials Mike Pompeo and Nikki Haley. But every one of them knows they wouldn’t stand a chance with him in the race.”

Look at the potential Republicans that would run if former should decide not to run.  Every single one of them is a loser.  

Which brings up the question.  Do the Republicans have any up and coming individuals?   Any shining stars that are flying underneath the radar?

Seriously we need to get rid of this guy…

Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

10/13/21

“If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in ‘22 or ‘24. It is the single most important thing for Republicans to do.”


I have to say if the Republicans are going to continue vote for the likes of Ronnie Jackson, Matt Getz and the rest of those nutcases in Congress then I’m ok if they decide to sit out elections.  But of course our country won’t be that lucky.

Rachel also talked about this statement from former…

Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

10/13/21

Big rally in Michigan yesterday, unbelievable spirit and knowledge of what went on with respect to voting and vote counting in the 2020 Presidential Election. Detroit, considered for many years to be one of the most corrupt places in the United States for elections (and many other things!), had large-scale irregularities so much so that two officials, at great risk to themselves and their families, refused to certify the results, and were sadly threatened. Wasn’t it a fact that aside from other things, there were far more votes than voters? Even the RINOs on the Senate Committee found 289,866 absentee ballots that were sent to people who never requested them, “something that would be illegal.” Why did they viciously kick out the Republican poll watchers? Seventy percent of Detroit’s mail-in ballot counting boards didn’t match, it was a total mess. Why won’t they give respected professionals and representatives at yesterday’s rally the right to do a Forensic Audit of Wayne County (Detroit) and Macomb County? That includes the RINOs in the State Senate and House who for, whatever reason, do nothing but obstruct instead of seeking the truth. Hopefully, each one of these cowardly RINOs, whose names will be identified and forthcoming, will be primaried, with my Complete and Total Endorsement, in the upcoming election. Congratulations on the great rally yesterday!”

One day I truly hope the people of this country understand how unimportant this pathetic little man is.  There is nothing redeeming about this man that given the chance would throw the closest around him under the bus if he felt it would benefit him.