As many Americans direct understandable outrage at our broken, immoral, for-profit healthcare system in light of Brian Thompson's murder, the outrage is — curiously — not directed, as it should be, towards the man many Americans just elected president.

William Lindsey :toad:

"Billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were on Capitol Hill today where they met with lawmakers to explain their vision for the Department of Government Efficiency, the group designed to cut the U.S. budget."

#Trump #ElonMusk #healthcare #HealthInsurance #EconomicElites #Medicare #Medicaid #SocialSecurity
/3

December 5, 2024

Yesterday a gunman assassinated the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, as he arrived at a meeting of investors in New York City.

(heathercoxrichardson.substack.com)

William Lindsey :toad:

"Neither they nor the lawmakers shared much with the press, although Fox Business played a video of Representative Ralph Norman (R-SC) saying that that 'nothing is sacrosanct,' and that 'they're going to put everything on the table,' including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid."

#Trump #ElonMusk #healthcare #HealthInsurance #EconomicElites #Medicare #Medicaid #SocialSecurity
/4

William Lindsey :toad:

"In view of today’s news about healthcare, it’s probably worth remembering that Musk has called for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and that Project 2025 has called for making Medicare Advantage—the privatized Medicare in which UnitedHealth specializes—the default enrollment option for Medicare."

#Trump #ElonMusk #healthcare #HealthInsurance #EconomicElites #Medicare #Medicaid #SocialSecurity
/5

William Lindsey :toad:

"This would essentially privatize Medicare for the 66 million people who use it, but since Medicare Advantage costs taxpayers about 6% more than Medicare, this would not create the savings Musk is supposed to be finding."

#Trump #ElonMusk #healthcare #HealthInsurance #EconomicElites #Medicare #Medicaid #SocialSecurity
/6

William Lindsey :toad:

"Andrew Perez of RollingStone reported today that election financial disclosures filed yesterday revealed that Elon Musk was the secret funder of the 'RBG PAC,' a Super PAC created just before the election that claimed Trump had the same position on abortion as the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg."

#Trump #ElonMusk #healthcare #HealthInsurance #EconomicElites #Medicare #Medicaid #SocialSecurity
/7

William Lindsey :toad:

"Bridget Bowman, Ben Kamisar, and Scott Bland of NBC News reported tonight that Musk spent at least $250 million to get Trump elected. In addition to the $20.5 million to the RBG PAC, he put $238 million into the America PAC. Musk also supported Trump through free advertising and commentary on his social media platform X."

#Trump #ElonMusk #healthcare #HealthInsurance #EconomicElites #Medicare #Medicaid #SocialSecurity
/8

William Lindsey :toad:

"On Thursday, Lucy once again pulled the football away from Charlie Brown at the last moment--to no one’s surprise. Republicans dropped all pretense of helping the 'little guy' whose support Trump courted during the election."

~ Robert B. Hubbell

#Trump #ElonMusk #healthcare #HealthInsurance #EconomicElites #Medicare #Medicaid #SocialSecurity
/9

The 2026 election begins today.

December 6, 2024

(roberthubbell.substack.com)

William Lindsey :toad:

"Instead, Republicans made clear that the working class, unions, retirees, veterans, and disabled Americans will be roadkill in the headlong rush to extend Trump's 2017 tax cut for millionaires and big corporations.

The proposed cuts show that Trump was lying to the working class, using them as pawns to pay for the extension of the 2017 tax cuts for millionaires and corporations."

#Trump #ElonMusk #healthcare #HealthInsurance #EconomicElites #Medicare #Medicaid #SocialSecurity
/10

William Lindsey :toad:

"Capitalism and healthcare do not mix. ...

The U.S. doesn’t have healthcare; it has wealthcare. A system that denies care, defends those denials with bureaucracy, and deposes families into bankruptcy."

~ God

#Trump #ElonMusk #healthcare #HealthInsurance #EconomicElites #Medicare #Medicaid #SocialSecurity
/11

Thou Shalt Not Deny People Health Insurance

Capitalism and healthcare do not mix.

(www.thegodpodcast.com)

CartyBoston

@wdlindsy Trump and Musk are not even in office, this healthcare system is the result of generations of greed and ignorance - both Republicans and Democrats - of those who happen to have some money.

William Lindsey :toad:

"Why are the [bank] stocks soaring today? Because the war on junk fees is over, and the banks have won. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is probably dead, a likely victim of 'government efficiency.'

Expect those junk fees to come roaring back shamelessly, aimed right at the citizenry that bailed out the very banks that charge them. No CFPB in the way, no Biden executive actions to be bothered with."

~ MOtoCO

#Trump #Musk #banks #EconomicElites
/12

Bank Stocks are Up Significantly. Everyone Should Know Why.

Correction below: ABA contributed $2.2M, not $2.2B for the 2024 cycle. I got a little carried away with the $B from the bailout funding. My apologies. Open Secrets. Bank of America is trading above $47 today, up about 12 percent since the election....

Daily Kos (www.dailykos.com)

William Lindsey :toad:

"The American Bankers Association contributed over $2.2M to candidates this cycle. Roughly 2/3rds of that went to Republican candidates. It’s payback time. ...

Watch out, we’re entering open season on banking customers. Again. They expect big profits on their political contributions, and they will get them."

#Trump #Musk #banks #EconomicElites
/13

William Lindsey :toad:

@CartyBoston And you do expect Trump and Musk to reform this broken system, right? All indicators are that this is their intent.

Democrats constantly caved to Republican blackmail as they pushed through the Affordable Care Act — but only one party has consistently and bitterly fought attempts to reform our for-profit healthcare system. Both-sidesing this story is simply dishonest.

CartyBoston

@wdlindsy People suffered while Hillary Clinton fucked around learning politics, I am bitter.

I'm sorry to be expressing here, of course we need to hold Trump accountable.

William Lindsey :toad:

Heesoo Jang offers interesting contextual information — very much related to the matters discussed in the thread above — about what is driving South Koreans to resist Yoon's authoritarianism:

"Adding to these failures is a healthcare system on the brink of collapse, where prolonged medical staff shortages, exacerbated by budget cuts, have caused long-term disruptions in patient care."

#SouthKorea #Yoon #healthcare #EconomicElites
/14

South Korea: The Deeper Story Behind the Unrest

President Yoon's surprise martial law declaration is a culmination of longstanding tensions – and offers lessons to the world.

(zeteo.com)

William Lindsey :toad:

"Instead of addressing these structural issues, the government has opted for a hasty increase in medical school quotas – a move experts warn will only further destabilize the system.

Yoon’s economic policies have similarly drawn heavy criticism for favoring the wealthy with tax cuts while reducing public welfare budgets, deepening inequality between South Korea’s elites and its struggling middle and working classes."

#SouthKorea #Yoon #healthcare #EconomicElites
/15

William Lindsey :toad:

@CartyBoston The power is all in Trump's and Musk's hands now, all in Republican hands — institutional power, that is.

Railing at failures of Democrats who have been up against enormous odds with Republican violation of norms and Republican determination to serve the super-rich seems to me misplaced rage. And the Democratic party absolutely does need to offer a more radical option to these and other issues if it ever regains any power.

CartyBoston

@wdlindsy It's not a contest, either people have access to care or they don't.

The ACA was an *enormous* step forward and there have been no other steps forward, at best we as advocates have been pretty ineffective over a long period of time.

FunGuy2PlayWith

@wdlindsy
NOW is the time to switch to a Credit Union. Some are better than others but many have ways for normal folk to join even if you don't qualify in a traditional sense via the American Consumer Council (ACC).

I love SDFCU.

https://www.sdfcu.org/membership

William Lindsey :toad:

“The great [unifying] theme [of Trump’s appointees] is how many of them are massively rich. I saw on Alex Wagner’s show Thursday night that the combined net worth of Joe Biden’s Cabinet was $118 million.

“The total net worth of Trump’s Cabinet? It’s at least $13.3 billion….”

~ Michael Tomasky

#Trump #ElonMusk #EconomicElites
/16

Trump has handed Democrats a fast way to build some working-class cred

Fighting Words. What got me...

(newsletter.tnr.com)