Medicare Advantage: Good? Or Bad? Part Two: Medicare Advantage Costs the Taxpayer More
Medicare Advantage: Good? Or Bad? Part Two: Medicare Advantage Costs the Taxpayer More
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFkm7WMxIc8
Month: February 2025
The GOP’s Unreliable Cutter-in-Chief
“The problem for Trump is that for all of his talk of prioritizing loyalty in his second term, he has staffed his administration with a number of conservative ideologues who could have very different ideas about what the government should be doing — none more influential than his likely soon-to-be budget director, Russ Vought.
Vought is a well-known quantity on Capitol Hill from his time as a staffer there, to say nothing of his work as a Project 2025 author and all-around warrior for small government. Republicans there saw his fingerprints on the spending freeze — or the “Vought memo,” as some are calling it.
“This has Russ’s name written all fucking over it,” said one GOP aide who works in appropriations, adding, ”I see a disparity between what Trump wants to do and what Russ wants to do.”
In other words, the battle between fiscal hawks and populists is set to rage not only on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in the coming months, but inside the White House itself.
“There’s an undercurrent of the old Republican Party at play where they’re like, ‘We’re going to cut benefits’ and all this,” the lawmaker said. “And like the new Republican Party is like, ‘Yeah, we don’t care about that.’””
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/01/trump-unreliable-spending-cuts-column-00201754
The Real Reason Trump is Threatening to Seize Greenland
Greenland is super valuable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8j2uWw3WfU
Medicare Advantage: Good? Or Bad? Part One: Introduction and Brief History
A main point to having private versions of Medicare ran by for-profit health insurance companies as an alternative option to Traditional Medicare is to save the taxpayer money by taking advantage of efficiencies gained in private competition and private flexibility while also
Did Tulsi Gabbard Just Blow Her Confirmation Hearing?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-pPgu3PbaU
Trump riles up America’s nicest neighbors
“Anti-American fever peaked in Canada over the weekend after Trump announced the tariffs were on the way. At a pop-up DJ show in Montreal, a digital sign read “F—K TARIFFS.” On Saturday night in Ottawa, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was booed before the Senators went on to blow out the Minnesota Wild. The jeering continued through the weekend at NHL and NBA games across the country.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/03/trump-canada-trade-war-00202240
Musk steamrolls Washington as he remakes the federal government
“Republicans on the Hill are also largely giving Musk and Trump the benefit of the doubt, dismissing criticism from Democrats that they are infringing on their congressional powers. Instead, they are leaning on comments from one of their former colleagues — Secretary of State Marco Rubio — instead of directly grappling with Musk’s actions.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), asked if Trump has the ability to close USAID unilaterally, said the administration’s goal is to ferret out waste.
“I think it’s a lot more about finding out how the dollars are being spent, where they are going and whether or not they’re consistent with this administration’s and our country’s priorities,” he said.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Judiciary Committee, said that it is a “constitutional question” when asked if Trump can end USAID without congressional approval.
“It’s how you define the executive powers of the president of the United States,” he said, “and I can’t define that for you.”
Career government officials, Democratic lawmakers and nongovernmental organizations have scrambled to shine a light on Musk’s efforts, many of which they’ve argued he doesn’t have the legal authority to carry out absent approval from Congress. Even some conservatives have raised concerns over Musk’s actions. So far, though, they have been vastly outpaced by Musk, who has taken to his social media platform X to build public support for shock-and-awe efforts.
Though Musk posted on X throughout the weekend that it was time for USAID to “die” and bragged that he was “feeding USAID into the wood chipper,” it wasn’t until Monday afternoon that Democratic lawmakers held a press conference in hopes of saving the agency.
Likewise, days after Musk’s allies gained access to the Treasury Department’s payments system, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that he and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) would work on legislation stopping the “unlawful peddling.” Schumer said, “It’s like letting a tiger into a petting zoo and hoping for the best.””
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/03/musk-washington-trump-doge-00202227
DOGE’s access to federal data is ‘an absolute nightmare,’ legal experts warn
“The opaque office’s early moves have violated the Privacy Act and cybersecurity laws, according to legal experts, and triggered a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s assault on government bureaucracy.
Legal and security experts are particularly exercised by Musk’s move to shutter the U.S. Agency for International Development and take control of the Treasury Department’s central payments database.
“The scale here is unprecedented in terms of the risk to sensitive personal and financial information,” said Alan Butler of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “It’s an absolute nightmare.”
The Musk-led effort to gain entry into Treasury’s huge payment database drew a lawsuit Monday from two major federal employee unions and left some lawyers who specialize in regulation of such data nearly apoplectic.
Mary Ellen Callahan, former Chief Privacy Officer at the Department of Homeland Security, called DOGE’s access “a data breach of exponential proportions.” “If we lose control of that data, we’ve lost control forever,” she said.”
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“Other lawyers said DOGE’s access could also violate cybersecurity-related laws, like the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2002.
Reports that career employees at the Office of Personnel Management were locked out of key databases by DOGE personnel also triggered deep concern Monday among legal and security experts. A key OPM database was breached by hackers in 2013, prompting widespread outrage from lawmakers and federal workers. The U.S. government blamed the hack on China and said the data could be used to target or enlist federal employees in espionage.
“They’re not following the law, they’re not following any semblance of best practice, they’re just hacking and slashing government IT systems in a way that threatens national security and puts everyone at risk,” Butler said.
Claims by Musk that he is shutting down USAID were met with widespread skepticism as well. USAID was created through an executive order issued by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. But it was formally established as a federal government agency by Congress in 1998, creating doubts about Trump’s authority to simply abolish it or, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested, fold it into the State Department.
“I think it’s the most clearly unconstitutional act that he’s doing,” said Alex Joel, an adjunct professor of law at American University. “He can’t just destroy the whole agency.””
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/03/doge-treasury-usaid-donald-trump-011538
China hits back at Trump’s tariffs and complains to the WTO
“Beijing struck back on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 10 percent tariffs against China, announcing levies of 15 percent on U.S. liquefied natural gas and coal, and 10 percent on crude oil, farm equipment and some autos.
Beijing also set further export controls on rare metals, and announced an anti-monopoly investigation into Google, the search engine owned by Alphabet, and a number of other U.S. companies.
The Chinese measures will take effect on Feb. 10, leaving time for Trump to talk to President Xi Jinping about how to avoid further trade escalation.”
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“Beijing also filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO), invoking its dispute settlement procedure.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/china-hits-back-at-trumps-tariffs-and-calls-on-the-wto/
Trump’s early moves are terrifying Washington. A legal resistance is imminent.
“Trump allies are purging the Justice Department and FBI of perceived enemies. Elon Musk, empowered by Trump, has deployed a band of loyalists to take over the federal spending apparatus managed by the U.S. Treasury. Trump’s temporary pick to lead federal prosecutions in Washington says anyone who resists Musk’s efforts could be breaking “numerous laws.”
The White House is attempting to freeze virtually all federal grants, which nonprofits say is already wreaking havoc on programs for vulnerable Americans. With almost no notice, the administration has dismantled the agency responsible for international aid and offered millions of federal employees a buyout with questionable legal authority. Trump fired many of the internal watchdogs — inspectors general — who would review these decisions.”
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“Many of Washington’s legal veterans say they’re most alarmed and perplexed by Musk and his amorphous role in efforts to make massive, abrupt and ill-explained changes to the operations of the federal government. He routinely uses his social media platform, X, to characterize some government-funded programs as “criminal” and relished, for example, putting USAID — the agency responsible for administering international aid programs — through a “wood chipper.” Those claims of illegality have been coupled with a chorus of Trump’s MAGA allies characterizing the agency as a hotbed of progressive causes, suggesting the agency drew Trump allies’ ire for political reasons.
Musk has sent a team of allies to take control of computer systems at Treasury and in the Office of Personnel Management, which are responsible for delivering appropriated funds and overseeing the entire federal workforce. It’s unclear what responsibilities they have. Amid reports some of those incursions have been met with pushback, Washington, D.C.’s interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin — a conservative culture warrior who was a prominent conspiracy theorist about the Jan.6 attack — offered to use his office to protect Musk’s efforts.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/04/trump-government-retribution-legal-battles-011469