Rep. Jason Smith (r): talk, talk, talk

24 Monday Feb 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Healthcare, social media

Tags

8th Congressional District, ACA, chutzpah, gaslighting, health care, Hypocrisy, Jason Smith, missouri, Obamacare, social media, Twitter

Chutzpah, too.

Rep. Jason Smith @RepJasonSmith
For our community, access to care isn’t just a talking point – it’s a matter of life or death. Last week, I continued my fight for rural healthcare and met with Director Carroll of the @ONDCP and @GovParsonMO for a roundtable in Cape Girardeau.
[….]
9:49 AM · Feb 24, 2020

Hypocrisy, they think it’s a good look.

The replies, as always, are priceless:

You have devoted your entire career, both in the Missouri General Assembly and in the Congress, to blocking healthcare for working people in your District. Besides the health effects, your actions have resulted in closed hospitals in your District.

you’ve been active in preventing access.

You want to protect folks with pre-existing conditions — but at a higher price for them. Currently the ACA which you oppose makes it illegal to consider pre-existing conditions in pricing. So you want to repeal the ACA to change that? Why? Keep your filthy hands off the ACA.

How about helping Missouri expand Medicaid to save rural hospitals. It was Gingrich’s and Heritage’s plan. Time to stop being stupid because of Obama. He’s done. You can try thinking with you own brain now. 36 states accept our federal expanded Medicaid dollars. And Gov. Pence.

You voted to kill my insurance.
#shuttheFupyouliar

Yes Jason, it can be life or death, but your voting record tells a different story than this talking point.

Oh please. You voted to take away healthcare from Missourians

Um… @RepJasonSmith voted against ACA – the exact opposite of which you are telling people today. What’s up with that?

Medicaid expansion would automatically cover 200,000 more Missouri residents and save us $100 million! The feds cover 90% of the cost. [….]

At this point you’re just punking us.

Getting scared, bro? Remember when you celebrated voting to repeal the ACA with no replacement? Yeah, I do. Y’all brought beer in to celebrate. You’ve been fighting to TAKE AWAY healthcare, you lying PoS.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): bless her heart

15 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

4th Congressional District, ACA, gaslighting, health care, Obamacare, social media, Twitter, Vicky Hartzler

Over two years ago:

GOP Aims To Kill Obamacare Yet Again After Failing 70 Times (July 29, 2017)

It didn’t happen. It was all about repeal anyway.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) [2018 file photo].

This afternoon, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):

Rep. Vicky Hartzler @RepHartzler
Our healthcare system is failing. High premiums force many to forgo insurance; sky-high deductibles mean they can’t afford to use it.

I look forward to working with @HouseGOP on a plan to protect those with pre-existing conditions and give Americans more control over healthcare.
2:59 PM · Oct 15, 2019

Yeah, right.

Medicare for all would work great.

Some of the responses:

I dunno. Ever think about something like the Affordable Care Act?

GOP had control for 2 years and came up with nothing.

Rich coming from someone who tried her damndest to eliminate health care coverage for millions of Americans.
#Hypocrite

How? You had full control for two years and the only thing you tried to do with healthcare was take it away!

Yep.

JUST STOP LYING!!! The @GOP wants to gut healthcare and you know it!!! Do your job stand up for us and against the criminal in the Oval. Hawley barely won you and @RoyBlunt have an up hill climb after you crapped on the small family owned farms. Get to work and impeach him!!!

Nah, she’s all in.

Why don’t you/they already have one. Trump PROMISED during his 2016 campaign that he had the BEST plan, with better coverage and lower premiums than the ACA.

Ask him to show you THAT great plan!

(Or was that a false promise, just like yours . . . . )

They were never going to create one, they were just going to take the one people had away.

So I guess that TWELVE YEARS you and your @GOP handlers said you were working hard on a superior replacement for the ACA was a lie?

Give or take a few. Actually, around eight years for Representative Hartzler (r).

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Are you on drugs?

21 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

4th Congressional District, health care, missouri, prescription drugs, social media, socialism, Twitter, Vicky Hartzler

Most of us are.

Yesterday, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):

Rep. Vicky Hartzler @RepHartzler
Pelosi’s one-size-fits-all approach to tackle prescription drug prices doesn’t address the root causes. Her drug price plan is filled with socialist price controls that stifles research and innovation.

This isn’t right. We can do better. We have to work together.
10:23 AM · Sep 20, 2019

Ah, socialism, the current right wingnut republican buzzword.

“…Her drug price plan is filled with socialist price controls that stifles research and innovation…”

NIH funding contributed to 210 approved drugs in recent years, study says
By Megan Thielking [….] February 12, 2018

…Federally funded studies contributed to the science that underlies every one of the 210 new drugs approved between 2010 and 2016…

Pharmaceutical corporations need to stop free-riding on publicly-funded research
By Jason Cone, opinion contributor — 03/03/18 01:00 PM EST
…Pharmaceutical companies have perpetuated a myth that high prices are necessary in order to compensate for the risks and investments they undertake when developing drugs. And governments like the U.S. — the biggest funder of global health research and development (R&D) — have let them…

Or did Representative Hartzler (r) really mean “stifles exorbitant profits and CEO compensation”?

Meanwhile, there was much hilarity in some of the comments to Representative Hartzler’s (r) Pharma Tweet:

Girl, you’ve taken $1.1M+ in farm subsidies.

Tell me about how you hate socialized programs again.

So Hartzler loves socialism…as long as she’s getting the benefits personally. Screw poor, sick, and hungry kids, though, eh?

Wrong, her [Pelosi] drug price plan protects the American consumers!!!
#UnAmerican #CorruptGOP

You aren’t trying. You aren’t working together. She could come out tomorrow and support a GOP plan and you’d still call it socialist. Piss off. This is 100% fixable and your fault for doing nothing.

Granting @HHSGov limited authority to negotiate prices on 250 *branded* prescription drugs that lack generic or biosimilar competitors & represent the greatest cost to Medicare, with a cap at 120% of market price in 6 other countries…Is “Socialism”?

Republicans haven’t done sh*t except try to take healthcare AWAY.
Your prez is trying to repeal what little we have left. Who believes anything republicans say anymore?

Hey the GOP has done absolutely nothing yet, so I’m sure after this really informed tweet you will get right back to doing nothing!

Republicans had the majority in the House for 10 years, and the only thing that happened were attempts to repeal the ACA 60 some odd times. Discuss actual policy specifics and details on alternatives, and we can talk.

You do not seem to be representing anyone but the GOP brand, GOP buzz words and your own self interests. Healthcare, insurance and prescription drug costs are unaffordable for your constituents. Not for you or Congress though. How about a Town Hall on the topic?

Open public town hall? Not gonna happen.

Good grief; is there anybody out there who buys this garbage rhetoric? Capitalism is not doing sick people any favors. Time to try something new.

Tweet out your plan that’s better in detail. I will be waiting.

We see what you did there. Tweet/detail.

It seems like the new buzz word for the republicans is “socialist”

Hey, we already said that…

Big Pharma has been paying the GOP for years to not allow Medicare to negotiate prices. I remember watching debate on the House floor in 2003 when the Medicare reform bill was passed. The Democrats wanted to include limits to rising Rx prices. The GOP would not allow it.

#socialist says what?

You mean greed, right!

You can do better? You have done NOTHING for YEARS!!!

So what is your plan because this is a serious issue and it seems like Pelosi actually wants to deal with it?

Socialist farm subsidies and bailout money is good but socialist approaches to help people get affordable prescription drugs are bad. You’re a bigly hypocrite!

You mean socialist, like the massive farm subsidies you collect?

Republicans only criticize but NEVER come up with feasible ideas for healthcare & drug costs! You are not helping the matter. If u have criticism then u better come back with a viable solution. Ur the problem!

What is your plan Vicky? That’s right, more of the same, the GOP plan of working Americans getting screwed to make the rich even richer.

Socialist? You clearly don’t understand the meaning of the word. I am beginning to doubt your abilities.

Nice cut and paste Vicky. Follow the line and deflect.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r) [2016 file photo].

Campaign Finance: it’s healthy

05 Thursday Sep 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in campaign finance

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

campaign finance, health care, initiative, Medicaid expansion, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission, a total of $1,396,465.00 in support of an initiative campaign for Medicaid expansion in Missouri:

C190918 09/05/2019 Missourians for Healthcare Prospects for Missouri 460 Nichols Rd Kansas City MO 64112 9/3/2019 $396,465.64

C190918 09/05/2019 Missourians for Healthcare BJC Healthcare 4249 Clayton Avenue Suite 310 St Louis MO 63110 9/4/2019 $250,000.00

C190918 09/05/2019 Missourians for Healthcare Health Forward Foundation 2300 Main Street Suite 304 Kansas City MO 64108 9/4/2019 $750,000.00

[emphasis added]

The committee:

C190918: Missourians For Healthcare
Committee Type: Campaign
Po Box 144
Jefferson City Mo 65102
Established Date: 07/26/2019
[….]
Ballot Measure History
Ballot Measures Election Date Subject Support/Oppose
Medicaid Expansion 11/03/2020 Medicaid Expansion Support

They definitely appear to be serious about this.

Well?

03 Friday May 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Josh Hawley, social media, US Senate

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

ACA, health care, Josh Hawley, missouri, Obamacare, social media, Twitter

Josh Hawley (r) [2016 file photo].

This:

Pamela Merritt @SharkFu
The only questions anyone should have for Josh @HawleyMO should be about his plan to maintain healthcare access if his lawsuit guts ACA. He placed healthcare in peril for thousands of Missourians. Where’s the policy? What’s the plan? Hello? How do you sleep at night?
7:40 PM – 2 May 2019

“…How do you sleep at night?”

Probably doesn’t. Working out? Shopping for wine? Oh, wait, that’s during the day…

By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes…

21 Thursday Sep 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in US Senate

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ACA, Cassidy-Graham, Claire McCaskill, health care, missouri, Obamacare, repeal, Roy Blunt, Trumpcare, U.S. Senate

Another morning and the republican controlled U.S. Senate has brought back zombie Trumpcare.

Sunrise in west central Missouri.

Sure, 32 million people will lose access to affordable health care. What could go wrong?

You all know what to do. To the phones. In the streets.

But it’s a dry heat

29 Saturday Jul 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

#resist, Arizona, health care, Planned Parenthood, Trumpcare, Tucson

There were a number of “Our Lives on the Line” rallies supporting Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA across the country today. The rally in Tucson started at 10:00 a.m., in the July morning heat, with over thirty individuals attending.

OFA, Planned Parenthood, and LUCHA were among the sponsoring organizations.

“Our Lives On the Line” rally, Rudy Garcia Park, Tucson, Arizona, July 29, 2017.

There are thousands of health care stories:

Much like the Indivisible events in Kansas and Missouri, many attending these rallies tell their health care stories.

Previously:

Sen. Roy Blunt (r): there are thousands of health care stories (July 25, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – July 14, 2017 (July 14, 2017)

Talking about health care at Sen. Roy Blunt’s (r) office in Kansas City – July 14, 2017

14 Friday Jul 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist, Roy Blunt, US Senate

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

#resist, ACA, health care, Indivisible, Kansas City, missouri, Roy Blunt, Trumpcare, U.S. Senate

Again. Like the last six months.

Again. At noon today over forty constituents showed up at the building entrance for Senator Roy Blunt’s (r) Kansas City office at Tenth and Walnut to express their opposition to Trumpcare.

“Trumpcare costs lives”

Nope. Still no open public town halls in Missouri with Senator Roy Blunt (r).

A healthcare story”

“Healthcare not wealthcare”

Again. Two staffers from Senator Blunt’s (r) office came out to the building entrance to listen and take notes.

Two staffers.

“Listen to us”

There’s a lot of frustration. Speakers asked why Senator Blunt (r) won’t hold an open public town hall or bother to show up at one of these regular events to listen to them. They wonder if their words here today and in the past are even reaching him.