Another Inmate Will Be Helping Run The Asylum (Cont.)

In addition to neo- fascist nihilist Donald "Rump" Trump's Social Darwinist pick for Labor Secretary, meet another of today's "crackpots to be invested with authority over life- and- death decisions": Health and Human Services Secretary- designate Rep. Tom "You'll Pay The" Price (Tea Bagger- GA). He's quite the loon on a mission:

The choice, which Trump’s transition team announced on Tuesday morning, would appear to signal Trump’s determination to proceed with a major overhaul of federal health care programs ― including not just Obamacare, which Republicans have sworn to repeal, but also Medicare and Medicaid.

Price, 62, practiced as an orthopedist for about two decades before winning election to the House of Representatives in 2005.

Once in Congress, Price gained notoriety for his right-wing views ― first as chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative lawmakers, and then as a founding member of the Tea Party Caucus. A constant in his career has been a hostility to government interference with the practice of medicine.  [snip]

In 2015, Price was a chief architect of legislation to repeal Obamacare using the budget reconciliation process ― a special legislative procedure, reserved for certain fiscal matters, that is not subject to filibusters in the Senate.

Both the House and Senate passed a version of that bill earlier this year. And while Obama vetoed it, many Republicans are already pushing to use reconciliation as a way to get Obamacare repeal through Congress again in 2017 ― after which Trump, as president, would presumably sign it.

And Price has said he wouldn’t stop with Obamacare. In mid-November, not long after the presidential election, Price said that Republicans could also use reconciliation to change Medicare, as well. [snip] 

Price has also endorsed transforming Medicaid into a “block grant” ― in other words, giving states a fixed sum of money with which to run the program and then reducing the federal government’s spending on it. 

The Affordable Care Act. Medicare. Medicaid. They're going to do trash it all, regardless of (and perhaps because of) the suffering it will cause millions of vulnerable Americans (and to some, like us, who are not in the "gazillionaire" category like Rump's cabinet picks).

We're about to have at least 4 dark years of "elections have consequences" shoved down our throats.

BONUS:  If it's hard to picture what an out- of- the- mainstream kook this guy is, read on.

BONUS II:  Paul Krugman estimates how many Rump voters who have Obamacare just "shot themselves in the face" but, as Steve M. rightly predicts, won't ever blame Republicans.

(Photo: He's going to enjoy taking away your health and human services.)

J.E.B.! Bush Wants To Phase Out Medicare. No, Really

Third rail alert! Platinum-plated scion of the Bush Dynasty, John Ellis "J.E.B."! Bush told a plutocrat Koch brothers- sponsored event yesterday in New Hampshire that zombie- eyed grannie starver Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan (R-Galt's Gulch) was on to something:  phasing out Medicare:

“And I think we need to be vigilant about this and persuade people that our, when your volunteers go door to door, and they talk to people, people understand this. They know, and I think a lot of people recognize that we need to make sure we fulfill the commitment to people that have already received the benefits, that are receiving the benefits. But that we need to figure out a way to phase out this program for others and move to a new system that allows them to have something – because they’re not going to have anything.”

As Steve Benen explains (at the link), the rate of Medicare spending is down significantly since the passage of the (horrors!) Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  But, with clueless pols like Jeb! pushing for non-starters like a Medicare phase-out instead of strengthening it,  it's likely we'll have the same stasis that's been keeping us from moving forward as a nation.

(Photo:  The "Smart" Bush, with Millionaire Mitt Romney.)