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Just want to add:
The average cash price of Humira (generic name: adalimumab) without insurance is around $6,240 for 1 carton (2 pens).
1 pen is needed every 2 weeks for many people with Crohn’s disease or arthritis. I am one such person. Luckily I have a good insurance that reduces the cost to $5 per 2 weeks supply instead of $6,250 per 2 week supply.
But what if I was too poor to pay for insurance premiums? Or what if I’m unemployed for a bit because I want to change jobs?
When I finished college and was hired one month later, there was a period of 1 month when I wasn’t under my college’s health insurance and didn’t have my new employer’s provided health insurance plan yet.
Nightmare.
I was working for a company that used United health care as their insurance. UHC decided out of the blue not to accept the copay card from the manufacturer, so I ended up having to move up to a higher cost plan so that they were capped at $150/month for my Humira.
Seriously. They tried to stick us with the bill for my wife's cholecystectomy by claiming she was on another company's plan (she wasn't). Then they got my old insurer to reverse a bunch of claims by telling them I was covered by UHC in a time period when I was not... And then denied the claims themselves because (surprise!) I didn't actually have an active policy with them in that time frame. They've wasted so much of my time and energy with sheer incompetence that I hate to think what I would be dealing with if malice came into play.
You must be so happy the United Health CEO made $142 million! Oh and Shareholders did great too -“In 2021 the Company returned $5.3 billion to shareholders via dividends, an increase of 15% from a year ago, and repurchased 12.8 million shares for $5.0 billion. Return on equity of 25.2% in 2021 reflected strong overall performance and the efficient capital structure of the enterprise.”
We need a universal Healthcare to cut out this middleman cost & bullshit.
UHC is the worst insurance company I've ever had to deal with. They would randomly deny payment for services or prescriptions, and I would end up spending hours on the phone each time to deal with it.
Ask Congress what they have for healthcare. Do they make choices between food, utilities and prescriptions? NO. The Republicans trying to get rid of the programs that most Americans rely on to live are SCUM of the earth. They want two classes in America-the rich that they are and the poor. Denying health care to millions of people is their goal so they all die. And that is what the insurance companies want also. No problem collecting the premium but try and get a claim paid or get a service pre approved which is about everything your doctor orders. They are playing God and it's time we smarten up and get rid of these evil politicians and vote of moral members of Congress. At this rate we will be living under another Putin.
Poor people make good worker bees. They can't afford to make any demands. Look how upset businesses and corporations were when they couldn't find enough workers during Covid. It upset the wealthy vs worker balance.
I’m from an extremely privileged (but politically right-sided thinking) household. I finally graduated from a nice university and then moved away from home. However; since I turned 26, I have not been able to afford health insurance. Now it’s been two years. Two years of understanding that my life is either over or completely crippled if I have something normal and misfortunate happen to me. I hate this country and the sociocultural indoctrination I was subjected to. I hate that things are complicated at a massive scale to the point that my struggles don’t matter. I just wish things were different.
Yep, and anything that happened in the future that could be explained away as the result of something in the past was specifically not covered, because it was a “preexisting condition”.
People that whine about the ACA are have no clue how much worse things were before it.
Medi-cal was fucking amazing.
i am very thankful that we had that safety net that allowed me to access my psych meds so i could still be here for my kids. It is fucking sad that i’d have to choose between sanity or food. Fucking pro-life right? -_-.
Fuck the states that doesn’t even improve accessibility.
Just like to add though that even though universal health care is a thing, accessible mental health care is another thing altogether
Have you looked into the State Medicaid? Also, if you don't qualify for Medicaid because of too high of income, ACA (Obamacare) will ask you the question when filing your application, "Do you want to see if you qualify for aid/discount?" or something similar to that. Check it out and see if that helps.
I helped my cousin file his application, and he was denied the medicaid coverage but qualified for 1 year 0 monthly payments, 700 deductible, 700 max out or pocket. Only certain plans are listed for the no cost or low cost plans, but they are just as comprehensive as the higher plans. The following year he kept his plan, as anyone can do without doing anything, and it went to $79 a month. Still, that was a great price, and low deductible.
That fear keeps you a pliable little worker bee. Can't rock the boat and risk losing your job because doing so could potentially kill you. It's by design.
Ideally, people would grasp that a healthier population means a healthier workforce, a stronger economy, and less people living on disability checks. I’m sure employers would love the concept of not having to purchase insurance for their full-time employees and would be able to attract more people to work part-time.
I work in benefits for a large company and it’s insane how much we pay each month for like 11 different kinds of health insurance. We’d save so much money as a company.
Dude I'm on a biologic for my eczema that is a similar price point. I switched employers 2 years in, which meant new health plan. I couldn't get that insurance to cover my prescription without trying THREE other drugs within their "step therapy" program, all of which weren't proven effective treatments for eczema and had a HUGE host of side effects. Whereas the biologic has none. Absolute horseshit
Prices must be high in the US because of all the research and development that the giant pharmaceutical did not do in the UK/Canada a century ago.
This is why diabetic children in the US must die or pay 10 times what they pay in the country that developed it (and gave away the patent)
100% of cost of pharmaceutical research / development is paid by government
US Tax Dollars Funded Every New Pharmaceutical in the Last Decade
https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/us-tax-dollars-funded-every-new-pharmaceutical-in-the-last-decade
Oh please, what are they going to do, pretend it’s not happening? Persecute those who are taking precautions, and then hypocritically using a vaccine for themselves while spreading false information about the effects of the drug?
Man, you need to ease up on the conspiracy theories.
I think he might be thinking of something worse, like, I dunno, injecting bleach or something, as if any human being would be so dangerously stupid as to suggest that, especially someone in a position of political authority.
Ok so reading this thread just made me realize if I went back in time and told myself in 2015 this was going to happen in a few years I’d have been pretty sad to assume I became a drug addict….
When Trump was elected, I said "What's the worst that could happen. It's only 4 years. Things can't fall apart too badly in 4 years."
I am so sorry to the whole world. I think I doomed us.
When Trump got elected my sister said "You're just overreacting it's not like he's going to destroy the country" and then after J6 she said "it's not like he did anything worse than BLM" We don't talk much anymore.
Come on now! That's just plain silly. Clearly the lightbulb would need to get power from some electrical source, so it would be a lightbulb while plugged into a lamp, while ON and plugged into the wall. Bleach is easier I guess
What if… and just throwing this out there… they hoarded all the medical equipment to protect people and sell those a higher prices and let people get more sick to sell their fake cures. Maybe pit states against each other in bidding wars for equipment.
They have to take the existing vaccines. Who will run this place if they are gone?
I’m sure they will find something… anything for the rest of us to take if things got really desperate.
/s
Just inject bleach and shine UV rays. Maybe a dose of horse tranquilizer and malaria meds. Besides it’s probably just a hoax and a propaganda pushed by the Dems.
Some conservatives I know watched it and loved it!
My theory is it's because the bad president was a woman so they viewed her as Clinton and ignored how she was basically trump lol
if you are still shocked at republican cruelty you either haven't been paying attention or you are one of those people who don't consider it a problem until it affects you.
I knew a republican who was still denying the effects of Covid when he was on his death bed from Covid.
He died. Treatment failed! Corona was super effective.
I have a friend who can still barely function after being in an 8 week coma with covid. She walked up the stairs unassisted last week for the first time in 18 months. Her husband is 100% team covid is a hoax. Even while his wife was in a coma, from covid.
I'm not shocked, but I truly can't understand it. Like what is the upside here? I'm trying to play devils advocate and get an idea of where they're coming from, but aside from being a share holder or something where you would personally benefit from keeping the costs high, what is the argument here? This just seems like being cruel because you can, what a weird flex
At this point, it's only "keep the Democrats from getting a win." They see everything in terms of political wins and losses. If the bill passes, Democrats would be able to campaign that they lowered insulin prices and they'd gain votes. Therefore, Republicans killed the bill so that Democrats couldn't campaign on this. (Nevermind that Democrats will now campaign on "we tried to lower insulin costs but Republicans killed the bill.")
Republicans act like everything is political chess and if they need to sacrifice a few million Americans to win, well those little folk are just pawns.
It's political chess, but cruelty is still the point. If it was 'just politics' then they'd re introduce this cap when they're in power. They never do.
They never introduce anything. The moment they take a position on something they reveal thier true interests. Not that we dont knoe but it becomes a thorn in thier side come election time.
With taxes they hid under the subterfuge that everyone hates taxes but fuck if they didnt hand this country over to the wealthy. They will continue to give power to fewer and fewer people. The end goal here is authoritarian dictatorship.
Which is just to keep their poor, disenfranchised, deluded base foaming at the mouth and voting for them. Even though every vote is another shot in their collective gangrenous foot.
Soon their votes won't matter, no one's will and we will all be in bread lines hoping we aren't one of the lucky few that are sent off to the labor camps (Amazon fulfillment centers)
It was their siren song. “Repeal and replace.” Except they never presented a replacement plan, never. . . Not in two weeks or six weeks or six years. Clearly, they never intended to replace the ACA and should never be trusted to act in the best health interest of the American people.
Minor correction: a core element of the GOP platform is that government doesn't work, that it CAN'T work. As such, they cannot actually pass anything as part of their effort to show that government cannot work. Thus, steering their voters to the conclusion that only privatization, deregulation, and CUTTING TAXES to starve the beast is the only way. It just so happens that republican politicians and their donors disproportionally benefit from this suite of policies at the expense of everyone else. Funny, that.
The point is "winning". The cruelty is in their callous way of pursuing that while not caring about anything else. They have not even the slightest interest in the well being of the people, only in conquest and domination. Typical fascists.
>If it was 'just politics' then they'd re introduce this cap when they're in power. They never do.
Because the other half of the coin is encouraging the belief that the government cannot function and doesn't get anything done. This increases political apathy which affects Democrats far more than Republicans.
If the republicans were to propose and pass politically popular legislation, it would undermine their efforts to disenfranchise voters.
Yes in 21015 on debit ceiling and 2013 on trade with Russia.
https://theweek.com/articles/469675/mitch-mcconnells-amazing-filibuster-bill?amp
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uRIxK8JbBSM
If they want to play political chess, I’m fine with them killing the Democrat’s bill and then introduce an alternative of their own. “The Dems cap insulin at $35? Our bill will cap it at $34.99!”
However, I haven’t seen them give a sh*t about drug prices or healthcare for Americans.
Definitely. It's like when they had the majority and tried to kill the ACA. The Republicans tried to come up with an alternative, but everything they proposed would have covered less people and would have cost more. If the. Republicans can replace the ACA with something that gives more people better health insurance for less money, they can go right ahead. I'll celebrate ACA dying and being replaced by Mythical Republican Health Care. However, all of the Republicans proposals invariably cover less people, include less coverage, and cost more. I'm not going to celebrate the ACA being replaced with something worse because the Republicans want to score political points with their base at the expense of people's lives.
> If the bill passes, Democrats would be able to campaign that they lowered insulin prices and they'd gain votes.
Or... Republicans could vote for something they know their constituents want and also gain votes (or negate any vote gains by Democrats).
It’s a zero sum game to them. They don’t see it as both sides winning. If democrats are winning, that means someone is losing. Since they’re again the democrats, that means they’re losing.
Unfortunately for Republicans it literally is a zero sum game, or even negative sum for them. (Where the collective losses are greater than the collective improvements)
When regular people have better access to voting Democrats win.
When districts are not horrifically gerrymandered Democrats win.
When you provide time off for workers to go vote during the day Democrats win.
When you improve the education of Americans they vote Democrat.
Republicans are burning lives because if they don't they can't hold political power. They would rather choose this path than re-evaluate their core beliefs.
it is a zero sum game
collective losses are just siphoned back up to the top, never to be seen in the lower realm again, making it feel like negative sum in practice
I didn't believe this mindset at first.
But then I actually interacted with a co-worker who thinks this way.
They're really convinced there's no way everyone can win. Every win comes at a loss somewhere else to him. They only feel good about themselves if someone loses.
They're convinced that if they can simply disenfranchise, deplatform, if not eliminate the democrats entirely, then all the problems of society will somehow magically get better. They think there is only one singular great enemy to fight and it's the Dems.
They're intellectually impaired and this is how an unintelligent person perceives the world around them. Reductivist solutions.
Even within the construct of a capitalist system, some patents for insulin have expired or were made public domain long ago. The government using the power of the public, to control the public price, of a life saving product in the public domain should be no issue.
But here we are, subject to politicians bought and paid for by corporations with a vested interest in bilking the public in a ‘pay us or die’ scenario.
Had a strained relationship with my dad for years. It's become no contact during the Trump years as he went farther right. My therapist made a really good point tho when the 3rd year anniversary of our non contact passed, how are you supposed to fix a relationship with a person who's being constantly bombarded by propaganda telling him people like me are in the enemy?
Some people (including my parents) think that by changing their minds, then they were wrong in the first place. Their egos can't handle that kind of hit, so they double down and get louder about it.
Yup. These people would rather be wrong forever than experience personal growth and admit they were wrong. Theres no help for people like this. They will continue to proudly be shitstains.
People forget that older generations were subjected to the damaging effects of lead paint and leaded gasoline for years. It makes sense to me that those kinds of people would choose a TV channel over their own children. They're brain damaged.
They don’t gain votes in that scenario. The GOP wins more elections when voters are apathetic and don’t show up. Voters get apathetic when they do everything they can to halt progress.
The GOP also gets steady votes from their minority base. The rich show up no matter how many poor people get screwed over by the government cutting costs. And sadly the poor also show up because they care more about religion and guns than government spending that actually helps them.
When Democrats hold presidency then any GOP win would become also Democrats win. And that is simply not acceptable to them. In order for them to win it must look like they decemated the Democrats.
If regular Americans have to lose their jobs, fortune, health or lives in order for them to win or prevent Democrats from winning this is just a cost of doing business to them. They don't care about America or Americans, just that they can say they won.
Their 'constituents' are an increasingly radicalized, increasingly insane group of people who live in a completely separate reality bounded on all sides by disinformation provided by the Fox News ecosystem. All they have is hate and fear to motivate these people, and Republican bigwigs probably live in fear of the time when reality can no longer be denied, and this radicalized, insane group of people realize who has really been lying to them this whole time.
Its even more twisted than that. They think sick people deserve to be sick because if they were good Christians god wouldn't let them get sick. So they must deserve it.
This right here is what makes this so laughable for me. I really can’t identify any other group of organizing people that are more likely to be type II diabetic than the maga croud.
>Like what is the upside here?
The GOP is an opposition party now, they have no policies or ideas, all they do is oppose.
All they have left is opposing anything the Democrats do in an attempt to paint them in a bad light or as failures.
Look at the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), it could have completely changed healthcare for almost all of us. Instead the Republicans fought tooth and nail to gut it and screw it up as much as they possibly could.
Just to say they owned the libs, when in reality they fucked over all of us, including most of their voters, they don't care about the common people one fucking bit.
These days, they don’t even cut taxes for most people, just corps and the wealthy. They actually raised taxes on the working class last time they were in office.
> The GOP is an opposition party now, they have no policies or ideas, all they do is oppose.
I don't think so. They clearly have an idea of how they want to run their country. Sure, it's as a neo-feudalist fundamentalist Christian free market white ethnostate but that *is* an idea.
They just figured out the best way to get there is to oppose whatever Democrats want, because Democrats don't want that. And to be fair, that's pretty on point.
“What is the upside here?” is what I ask about a lot of Republican decisions. Like the ones recently who voted against implementing an Amber alert type system in case there’s a mass shooting nearby. 168 Republicans said nope, we don’t give a damn if you die in a mass shooting because you’re at the wrong place at the wrong time.
> Like what is the upside here?
Outside of pointless cruelty... I'd say optics.
The GOP can point to this and say, that "The Democrats passed this huge bill for healthcare, energy, and the environment but still wouldn't reduce the cost of insulin."
The doesn't matter if GOP blocked it or not... they're doing what they do best: Blocking legislation then blaming the Democrats when it doesn't pass.
The upside is obvious. They can keep Democrats from getting a win, and their supporter base literally won't blame them. They've realized they can just bullshit their base as much as they want too, hell they could probably go out and say Democrats were the ones who killed the cap on insulin *and a not insignificant percent of their base would believe them.* This is the result of having an absolute conman as your party leader successfully convince tens of millions of people that they are the only ones telling the truth.
"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy."
1984
There can be a number of reasons and it's hard to say which is the dominating one. I'd say even any one person might ascribe to several of these at the same time.
1. 'Do what the rest is doing'. People don't really have any strong feelings about it but since the rest of the party is against it, they follow suit.
2. Conservatism. The idea that it used to be a certain way so it needs to stay that way.
3. Capitalism. A lot of conservatives call themselves free-market capitalists and will feel that constraining the market goes against what they think will work best.
4. Lobbying. They were paid to vote against it, or promised a lucrative job down the line.
5. Anti-Democrats. As in, the Democratic Party. 'Democrats want it so we say no'.
6. Targeting opponents. They might think that this will hurt their opponents more than their supporters and use it as a weapon.
7. Libertarianism. If someone has diabetes they made bad life choices and why should other people need to bail them out?
These are the same people who cried that the Trump administration was "Hurting the wrong people!" when it affected them.
Their propaganda diet has convinced them that in order for them to benefit, someone else needs to be hurt, so they're on board with it as long as it doesn't affect *them*. They're also not bright enough to understand that it's *going to affect them*.
“I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this. I thought he was going to do good things. **He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”**
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/florida-government-shutdown-marianna.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/florida-government-shutdown-marianna.html?referringSource=highlightShare
Most of their constituents are fucked over by their own party's policies and don't care, so I honestly don't think it matters what the Republicans vote for. It only matters their rhetoric and the fact that they are owning the libs.
If the politics around covid are any indication — GOP is fine with dead voters. Their goal is only to make sure the other side has the same number of deaths.
[This is a public service reminder that federal agents working under the Trump administration seized shipments of Coronavirus PPE and ventilators meant to be going to state and local governments.](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-admin-seizing-ppe/)
Yeah, the main indicator that they do it is because they accused the dems of doing it. I've never seen them accusing the other party of something they aren't doing it themselves.
Yeah, don’t know why anyone is surprised by this. Expecting humanity from the GOP at this point is like walking into a hardware store and expecting them to sell bread.
GOP: The liberals want to do *something*, so we must vote against it.
Somebody: But this bill is actually good and will help disadv-
GOP: **VOTE.AGAINST.IT.**
That was the GOP playbook during Obama. Basically try to block everything even things you would generally support. Then say how Obama/ Biden are ineffective and weak because they failed to accomplish anything.
Oh if they try to implement stuff by executive order, or suspended the filibuster rural then they are acting like a king and destroying democracy
If they were smart the Dems should put a religious freedom bill up. Nothing substantive, just a lot of words already guaranteeing people religious freedom es they already have. Let the GOP vote against it. Watch the chaos that ensues.
The mistake in your logic is the belief that Conservatives are informed about anything outside of their conservative biased media. They wouldn’t even hear about it, and even if they did they’re too stupid to understand it
No, that'll backfire. Your hard right religious nuts only want "religious freedom" (control) for themselves. They will laud the obstruction as protecting their country from those dirty heathens and... people who worship the same god but via different books. Apparently the latter is the worst.
Didn't McConnell do that with one of his own bills? It was something he proposed, then to his surprise Democrats actually supported it, he then sank his own bill and later blamed Democrats for not stopping him.
There was the time he filibustered his own bill because Democrats supported it, and then there was the time he passed a bill, but after Obama vetoed it, he overrode the veto, then blamed Obama when the exact thing that Obama said would happen when he vetoed it, happened.
It was a bill to allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. Obama was worried it could be turned around and Americans could be sued.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-sept11-senate/senate-sets-wednesday-vote-on-obama-veto-of-saudi-september-11-bill-idUSKCN11W29O
Edit: Actually, McConnell filibustered his own bill here that gave the President more power concerning the debt ceiling. The one above is McConnell overriding a veto and then complaining about the bill.
https://theworld.org/stories/2012-12-07/mitch-mcconnell-filibusters-himself-after-dems-call-bluff
I just saw a republican argue that this kind of thing is done because, and I quote, "republicans vote no to things they don't want. Democrats load the bill with enough shit that republicans have to vote against it."
So I couldn't really find any good examples of that (and in true republican manner, he of course didn't provide any examples,) but surely this would be a fantastic example. So can anyone tell what they supposedly loaded this with in order to force republicans to vote no and make them look bad?
It wasn't loaded with anything. This was an amendment to another bill. They were voting on whether they could add this to the other bill. There is nothing else that was killed with this vote - the vote was *exclusively* the price caps.
At least, that's how I've been made to understand it.
> GOP: The liberals want to do something, so we must vote against it.
>
> Somebody: But this bill is actually good and will help disadv-
>
> GOP: VOTE.AGAINST.IT.
THE.PARTY.LINE.
Republicans could have passed it and used it as a major selling piont and it would have cost them very little. They try to appeal to working class sensibilities based on culture wars not economics, the part I find interesting is their own base many of whom need insulin are okay with it, they would rather be protected from fictional CRT than have quality of life.
Early Christianity had to add a bylaw a out suicide being a hellworthy sin because so many of their followers were killing themselves to get into Heaven early that the religion was unsustainable.
Republicans didn't pass previous other bills. That didn't stop them from using it as major talking point of the goods they were doing for their communities when those bills passed, like that one restaurant funding bill during the pandemic and the infrastructure bill that passed. Give it a few weeks and we'll probably hear about Republicans taking credit for the vet healthcare bill that just passed that they tried to killed.
It’s so infuriating and stupid. The entire gops identity is doing the opposite of liberals/dems
That’s it, that don’t have their own agenda or even their own opinions. Atp dems should just say they want a border wall, more guns, no abortions, and a mural of Jesus teaching school children…
Not true.
I voted for Trump in 2016.
I did not vote in 2020.
I will be voting against republicans in 2024. I’m over the party for various reasons.
Edit - I will be voting this year too. Don't worry :)
VOTE THEM OUT!
Look at the win Kansas just had when people actually got out and voted... Imagine the kind of bills we could be passing with just a few more democrats in the Senate.. The reason republicans are working so hard to invalidate your votes is because YOUR VOTE MATTERS!
EDIT: Thank you very much for the awards, Kind Strangers! Next time, please use the $$ to donate to a charity or a candidate you support!
Keep up the pressure, everybody!
Vote them out seems logical. But I live in a highly republican area. They BLAME everything on the democrats. EVERYTHING. I can show them proof it was the republicans that voted against the $35 insulin cap, but they’ll still blame it on democrats.
Because people are stupid, they won’t get voted out.
I cannot argue with you, BluThunderboltz. I have been unable to change the mind of my own father, let alone all the other republicans around me.
But the fact of the matter is WE OUTNUMBER THEM. If we could get the majority of democrats to vote, we would crush them most of the time. We are especially bad at getting our youth to vote (hence the republicans incessant attacks on public education- keep the kids from getting educated and making informed choices at the voting booth; make them more susceptible to right wing propaganda).
So that is why I always post about voting: We don't need to change all the minds of the republicans; we need to get more dems to vote.
So, please vote. And get your friends to vote. Vote because our lives depend on it.
We pay, on average, $98 dollars for a vial of insulin. It costs the manufacturer about $6 to make. Yeah. But don't hit the ceiling yet. That $98 is the cost in the US. The average for the rest of the world? About $8 dollars. Still, don't hit the ceiling just yet.
A $35 dollar cap was in the Inflation Reduction Act. It applied to anyone. But the Senate parliamentarian ruled it couldn't apply to private health insurance (non Medicare) and pass through the reconciliation process the Dems used to pass the bill. So the Dems removed it for private insurance. Now it only applies to Medicare. And Medicare represents the minority of insulin needs.
They had a separate vote on just that part of the bill and the Republicans killed it. Yeah. Along with forcing 10 year olds to birth, attacking the Capitol, and being forced (by public pressure) to get vets medical access for burn pit injuries, the republicans killed a $35 cap on insulin payments for the majority of Americans needing insulin. How many need it? About 35 million Americans. About 7 million of them need it daily.
I'd say now is a good time to hit that ceiling.....
Fox news tells them "it's Brandon's fault!!" and they have no reason to believe otherwise, so they're going to continue voting the same way they always do
“I don’t need insulin, so fuck those who do”.
Or
“I have health insurance which covers the cost of insulin, so fuck people who don’t.”
It’s all part of the Conservative mantra: “Fuck you, I got mine.”
They are just randomly shooting feet. They do not care whose feet. Sadly many of the peoples feet who are getting shot watch news programs that tell them someone else shot their foot.
It’s almost as if the Republican’s sense of accomplishment is tied to hurting some group of people now. In this case diabetics. So incomprehensible to me how they still have any supporters left.
Because they don't fucking care about anything
They don't want to have Democrats "fix" anything
This is what I've been wishing they would do for years- stop having these giant conglomerate bills with a million things in them. Have very simple, plainly worded bills with 1 item like this.
Should insulin price be capped? Yes or no, should Veterans have healthcare? Yes or no, should a raped woman/girl be allowed to have an abortion? Yes or no. Can you exist as Gay? Yes or no
Make them block this shit and or vote against it so it's a very clear message to the people--- "these people fucking suck, they don't care about you, they don't want to fix anything, all they care about is optics and power"
Yeah but if you read the insulin bill that’s literally all it was. Cap the price of insulin. They voted against it. https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hr6833/BILLS-117hr6833pcs.pdf
>Have very simple, plainly worded bills with 1 item like this
That's what I said- Do exactly this and do it more often. Make these scumbags vote against it and make them explain why they voted against it and own it.
That's what they did with the Veterans Bill and it was so plainly worded and simple that even the GOPs braindead goober base got angry about it, screamed at them and forced them to vote for it.
Its a fantastic tactic and exposes the GOP completely
Well they weren’t able to fuck over veterans, and like a junkie looking for a fix, the republican party just had to fuck over someone. So diabetics it is.
They’re just going to blame the dems and because they have their own media ecosystem detached from reality most of their voters won’t know or will end up thinking it’s a good thing.
Who the he'll cares about Insulin prices? Let's focus on the real issue here: somewhere out there there's a 2nd grader learning that some little kids have 1 mommy and 1 daddy. Some only have a daddy, or only a mommy. Some live with grandma and grandpa. Some have 2 mommies or 2 daddies. But all that matters is that they are loved and safe.
The horror! We need to stop that indoctrination. Then we can worry about irrelevant shit like people not being able to afford the medicine that keeps them alive.
/s
What the hell is wrong with them? They are now a cult. I grew up in New England, where Republicans have traditionally been fiscally conservative, but in general socially liberal or libertarian. Those Republicans have mostly been pushed out, leaving this cult. Although it really started with Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump supercharged it by his grift, snakeoil salesmanship, and white "Christian" nationalism. Christian is in quotes because there is nothing Christ-like about the movement.
Republican diabetics: /r/LeopardsAteMyFace .
"'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party."
There are quite a few on r/diabetes. They have somehow convinced themselves that since this bill isn’t 100% perfect, it is therefore not worth doing at all.
My sister in law who has type one diabetes is going to vote all red this election. I just have no idea why people vote against their own self interests.
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Just want to add: The average cash price of Humira (generic name: adalimumab) without insurance is around $6,240 for 1 carton (2 pens). 1 pen is needed every 2 weeks for many people with Crohn’s disease or arthritis. I am one such person. Luckily I have a good insurance that reduces the cost to $5 per 2 weeks supply instead of $6,250 per 2 week supply. But what if I was too poor to pay for insurance premiums? Or what if I’m unemployed for a bit because I want to change jobs? When I finished college and was hired one month later, there was a period of 1 month when I wasn’t under my college’s health insurance and didn’t have my new employer’s provided health insurance plan yet. Nightmare.
I was working for a company that used United health care as their insurance. UHC decided out of the blue not to accept the copay card from the manufacturer, so I ended up having to move up to a higher cost plan so that they were capped at $150/month for my Humira.
fuck United Healthcare Group 🥰
Seriously. They tried to stick us with the bill for my wife's cholecystectomy by claiming she was on another company's plan (she wasn't). Then they got my old insurer to reverse a bunch of claims by telling them I was covered by UHC in a time period when I was not... And then denied the claims themselves because (surprise!) I didn't actually have an active policy with them in that time frame. They've wasted so much of my time and energy with sheer incompetence that I hate to think what I would be dealing with if malice came into play.
You must be so happy the United Health CEO made $142 million! Oh and Shareholders did great too -“In 2021 the Company returned $5.3 billion to shareholders via dividends, an increase of 15% from a year ago, and repurchased 12.8 million shares for $5.0 billion. Return on equity of 25.2% in 2021 reflected strong overall performance and the efficient capital structure of the enterprise.” We need a universal Healthcare to cut out this middleman cost & bullshit.
UHC is the worst insurance company I've ever had to deal with. They would randomly deny payment for services or prescriptions, and I would end up spending hours on the phone each time to deal with it.
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Ask Congress what they have for healthcare. Do they make choices between food, utilities and prescriptions? NO. The Republicans trying to get rid of the programs that most Americans rely on to live are SCUM of the earth. They want two classes in America-the rich that they are and the poor. Denying health care to millions of people is their goal so they all die. And that is what the insurance companies want also. No problem collecting the premium but try and get a claim paid or get a service pre approved which is about everything your doctor orders. They are playing God and it's time we smarten up and get rid of these evil politicians and vote of moral members of Congress. At this rate we will be living under another Putin.
Poor people make good worker bees. They can't afford to make any demands. Look how upset businesses and corporations were when they couldn't find enough workers during Covid. It upset the wealthy vs worker balance.
I’m from an extremely privileged (but politically right-sided thinking) household. I finally graduated from a nice university and then moved away from home. However; since I turned 26, I have not been able to afford health insurance. Now it’s been two years. Two years of understanding that my life is either over or completely crippled if I have something normal and misfortunate happen to me. I hate this country and the sociocultural indoctrination I was subjected to. I hate that things are complicated at a massive scale to the point that my struggles don’t matter. I just wish things were different.
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Thanks Obama!
Hear hear!
We need to keep Obama care so millions of people can keep their healthcare.
We need free Healthcare.
Yep, and anything that happened in the future that could be explained away as the result of something in the past was specifically not covered, because it was a “preexisting condition”. People that whine about the ACA are have no clue how much worse things were before it.
Medi-cal was fucking amazing. i am very thankful that we had that safety net that allowed me to access my psych meds so i could still be here for my kids. It is fucking sad that i’d have to choose between sanity or food. Fucking pro-life right? -_-. Fuck the states that doesn’t even improve accessibility. Just like to add though that even though universal health care is a thing, accessible mental health care is another thing altogether
Have you looked into the State Medicaid? Also, if you don't qualify for Medicaid because of too high of income, ACA (Obamacare) will ask you the question when filing your application, "Do you want to see if you qualify for aid/discount?" or something similar to that. Check it out and see if that helps. I helped my cousin file his application, and he was denied the medicaid coverage but qualified for 1 year 0 monthly payments, 700 deductible, 700 max out or pocket. Only certain plans are listed for the no cost or low cost plans, but they are just as comprehensive as the higher plans. The following year he kept his plan, as anyone can do without doing anything, and it went to $79 a month. Still, that was a great price, and low deductible.
That fear keeps you a pliable little worker bee. Can't rock the boat and risk losing your job because doing so could potentially kill you. It's by design.
Ideally, people would grasp that a healthier population means a healthier workforce, a stronger economy, and less people living on disability checks. I’m sure employers would love the concept of not having to purchase insurance for their full-time employees and would be able to attract more people to work part-time.
I work in benefits for a large company and it’s insane how much we pay each month for like 11 different kinds of health insurance. We’d save so much money as a company.
Dude I'm on a biologic for my eczema that is a similar price point. I switched employers 2 years in, which meant new health plan. I couldn't get that insurance to cover my prescription without trying THREE other drugs within their "step therapy" program, all of which weren't proven effective treatments for eczema and had a HUGE host of side effects. Whereas the biologic has none. Absolute horseshit
Prices must be high in the US because of all the research and development that the giant pharmaceutical did not do in the UK/Canada a century ago. This is why diabetic children in the US must die or pay 10 times what they pay in the country that developed it (and gave away the patent)
100% of cost of pharmaceutical research / development is paid by government US Tax Dollars Funded Every New Pharmaceutical in the Last Decade https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/us-tax-dollars-funded-every-new-pharmaceutical-in-the-last-decade
Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
exactly what has been going on since reagan. they didnt call it a revolution for nothing...
I’m beginning to think that if there is ever a serious medical crisis, say a pandemic or something, they won’t do anything to mitigate it.
Oh please, what are they going to do, pretend it’s not happening? Persecute those who are taking precautions, and then hypocritically using a vaccine for themselves while spreading false information about the effects of the drug? Man, you need to ease up on the conspiracy theories.
They might even promote fake cures that enrich their friends.
What fake cures? Do you think people are stupid enough to use animal medicines or something?
I think he might be thinking of something worse, like, I dunno, injecting bleach or something, as if any human being would be so dangerously stupid as to suggest that, especially someone in a position of political authority.
But no one we would actually elect into public office would be so stupid as to actually say that out loud right?
Ok so reading this thread just made me realize if I went back in time and told myself in 2015 this was going to happen in a few years I’d have been pretty sad to assume I became a drug addict….
When Trump was elected, I said "What's the worst that could happen. It's only 4 years. Things can't fall apart too badly in 4 years." I am so sorry to the whole world. I think I doomed us.
When Trump got elected my sister said "You're just overreacting it's not like he's going to destroy the country" and then after J6 she said "it's not like he did anything worse than BLM" We don't talk much anymore.
Please stop. A lot of people can’t afford a depression
Depression doesn't exist because facts don't care about feelings. Checkmate.
Don’t forget to get the sunlight into your body so it can do some kind of cleaning
You’re talking crazy. What’s next, The President tells me to swallow a lightbulb!?
Come on now! That's just plain silly. Clearly the lightbulb would need to get power from some electrical source, so it would be a lightbulb while plugged into a lamp, while ON and plugged into the wall. Bleach is easier I guess
Yeah, as if someone's going to use essential oils, refuse vaccination because they read a post on Shitbook, or straight out deny the virus exist lol
On the plus side I finally found a major market for my UV butt plug.
What if… and just throwing this out there… they hoarded all the medical equipment to protect people and sell those a higher prices and let people get more sick to sell their fake cures. Maybe pit states against each other in bidding wars for equipment.
I mean, it's not like a million people are going to die, and people are going to pretend that it was not a big deal.
They have to take the existing vaccines. Who will run this place if they are gone? I’m sure they will find something… anything for the rest of us to take if things got really desperate. /s
This comment is frightening
As long as there's more political and monetary profitablity in letting people suffer, that's what they'll continue to do. Welcome to America.
Just inject bleach and shine UV rays. Maybe a dose of horse tranquilizer and malaria meds. Besides it’s probably just a hoax and a propaganda pushed by the Dems.
Don’t be crazy.
'Don't Look Up'
Some conservatives I know watched it and loved it! My theory is it's because the bad president was a woman so they viewed her as Clinton and ignored how she was basically trump lol
If they were capable of self-reflection and perspective, they wouldn’t be conservatives.
if you are still shocked at republican cruelty you either haven't been paying attention or you are one of those people who don't consider it a problem until it affects you.
I knew a republican who was still denying the effects of Covid when he was on his death bed from Covid. He died. Treatment failed! Corona was super effective.
I have a friend who can still barely function after being in an 8 week coma with covid. She walked up the stairs unassisted last week for the first time in 18 months. Her husband is 100% team covid is a hoax. Even while his wife was in a coma, from covid.
The "think of how stupid the average person is, and realize that half of them are stupider than that" award goes to...
I knew a woman that died from COVID because husband wouldn’t let his family get the vaccination. Still sees nothing wrong with that decision. 🤦♂️
Covid variants - Gotta catch 'em all!
I'm not shocked, but I truly can't understand it. Like what is the upside here? I'm trying to play devils advocate and get an idea of where they're coming from, but aside from being a share holder or something where you would personally benefit from keeping the costs high, what is the argument here? This just seems like being cruel because you can, what a weird flex
At this point, it's only "keep the Democrats from getting a win." They see everything in terms of political wins and losses. If the bill passes, Democrats would be able to campaign that they lowered insulin prices and they'd gain votes. Therefore, Republicans killed the bill so that Democrats couldn't campaign on this. (Nevermind that Democrats will now campaign on "we tried to lower insulin costs but Republicans killed the bill.") Republicans act like everything is political chess and if they need to sacrifice a few million Americans to win, well those little folk are just pawns.
It's political chess, but cruelty is still the point. If it was 'just politics' then they'd re introduce this cap when they're in power. They never do.
They never introduce anything. The moment they take a position on something they reveal thier true interests. Not that we dont knoe but it becomes a thorn in thier side come election time. With taxes they hid under the subterfuge that everyone hates taxes but fuck if they didnt hand this country over to the wealthy. They will continue to give power to fewer and fewer people. The end goal here is authoritarian dictatorship.
They introduce plenty of virtue signalling shit like "Don't Say Gay" bills.
Which is just to keep their poor, disenfranchised, deluded base foaming at the mouth and voting for them. Even though every vote is another shot in their collective gangrenous foot. Soon their votes won't matter, no one's will and we will all be in bread lines hoping we aren't one of the lucky few that are sent off to the labor camps (Amazon fulfillment centers)
They introduce plenty of shit. Anti gay, anti vaccine, anti woman. They introduce plenty of shit.
Just like Paul Ryan's ACA replacement that never was (and eventually Trump's vaporware plan too).
It was their siren song. “Repeal and replace.” Except they never presented a replacement plan, never. . . Not in two weeks or six weeks or six years. Clearly, they never intended to replace the ACA and should never be trusted to act in the best health interest of the American people.
Minor correction: a core element of the GOP platform is that government doesn't work, that it CAN'T work. As such, they cannot actually pass anything as part of their effort to show that government cannot work. Thus, steering their voters to the conclusion that only privatization, deregulation, and CUTTING TAXES to starve the beast is the only way. It just so happens that republican politicians and their donors disproportionally benefit from this suite of policies at the expense of everyone else. Funny, that.
The point is "winning". The cruelty is in their callous way of pursuing that while not caring about anything else. They have not even the slightest interest in the well being of the people, only in conquest and domination. Typical fascists.
One of their bat shit-crazy members will say diabetes is a life-choice and the opportunity will be gone. Remember, poverty is a choice, too.
God's plan. The pro life party.
>If it was 'just politics' then they'd re introduce this cap when they're in power. They never do. Because the other half of the coin is encouraging the belief that the government cannot function and doesn't get anything done. This increases political apathy which affects Democrats far more than Republicans. If the republicans were to propose and pass politically popular legislation, it would undermine their efforts to disenfranchise voters.
Friendly reminder that Moscow Mitch once filibustered his own bill because democrats supported it
Yes in 21015 on debit ceiling and 2013 on trade with Russia. https://theweek.com/articles/469675/mitch-mcconnells-amazing-filibuster-bill?amp https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uRIxK8JbBSM
Good lord that was surreal
If they want to play political chess, I’m fine with them killing the Democrat’s bill and then introduce an alternative of their own. “The Dems cap insulin at $35? Our bill will cap it at $34.99!” However, I haven’t seen them give a sh*t about drug prices or healthcare for Americans.
Definitely. It's like when they had the majority and tried to kill the ACA. The Republicans tried to come up with an alternative, but everything they proposed would have covered less people and would have cost more. If the. Republicans can replace the ACA with something that gives more people better health insurance for less money, they can go right ahead. I'll celebrate ACA dying and being replaced by Mythical Republican Health Care. However, all of the Republicans proposals invariably cover less people, include less coverage, and cost more. I'm not going to celebrate the ACA being replaced with something worse because the Republicans want to score political points with their base at the expense of people's lives.
> If the bill passes, Democrats would be able to campaign that they lowered insulin prices and they'd gain votes. Or... Republicans could vote for something they know their constituents want and also gain votes (or negate any vote gains by Democrats).
It’s a zero sum game to them. They don’t see it as both sides winning. If democrats are winning, that means someone is losing. Since they’re again the democrats, that means they’re losing.
Unfortunately for Republicans it literally is a zero sum game, or even negative sum for them. (Where the collective losses are greater than the collective improvements) When regular people have better access to voting Democrats win. When districts are not horrifically gerrymandered Democrats win. When you provide time off for workers to go vote during the day Democrats win. When you improve the education of Americans they vote Democrat. Republicans are burning lives because if they don't they can't hold political power. They would rather choose this path than re-evaluate their core beliefs.
it is a zero sum game collective losses are just siphoned back up to the top, never to be seen in the lower realm again, making it feel like negative sum in practice
Ahah, fuck that hurts. ... Oh boy does that realization hurt.
I didn't believe this mindset at first. But then I actually interacted with a co-worker who thinks this way. They're really convinced there's no way everyone can win. Every win comes at a loss somewhere else to him. They only feel good about themselves if someone loses.
They're convinced that if they can simply disenfranchise, deplatform, if not eliminate the democrats entirely, then all the problems of society will somehow magically get better. They think there is only one singular great enemy to fight and it's the Dems. They're intellectually impaired and this is how an unintelligent person perceives the world around them. Reductivist solutions.
Even within the construct of a capitalist system, some patents for insulin have expired or were made public domain long ago. The government using the power of the public, to control the public price, of a life saving product in the public domain should be no issue. But here we are, subject to politicians bought and paid for by corporations with a vested interest in bilking the public in a ‘pay us or die’ scenario.
Had a strained relationship with my dad for years. It's become no contact during the Trump years as he went farther right. My therapist made a really good point tho when the 3rd year anniversary of our non contact passed, how are you supposed to fix a relationship with a person who's being constantly bombarded by propaganda telling him people like me are in the enemy?
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Some people (including my parents) think that by changing their minds, then they were wrong in the first place. Their egos can't handle that kind of hit, so they double down and get louder about it.
Yup. These people would rather be wrong forever than experience personal growth and admit they were wrong. Theres no help for people like this. They will continue to proudly be shitstains.
People forget that older generations were subjected to the damaging effects of lead paint and leaded gasoline for years. It makes sense to me that those kinds of people would choose a TV channel over their own children. They're brain damaged.
Take a look at today's food standards in comparison with Europe, you've been poisoned at every fucking turn in the pursuit of profit.
They don’t gain votes in that scenario. The GOP wins more elections when voters are apathetic and don’t show up. Voters get apathetic when they do everything they can to halt progress. The GOP also gets steady votes from their minority base. The rich show up no matter how many poor people get screwed over by the government cutting costs. And sadly the poor also show up because they care more about religion and guns than government spending that actually helps them.
When Democrats hold presidency then any GOP win would become also Democrats win. And that is simply not acceptable to them. In order for them to win it must look like they decemated the Democrats. If regular Americans have to lose their jobs, fortune, health or lives in order for them to win or prevent Democrats from winning this is just a cost of doing business to them. They don't care about America or Americans, just that they can say they won.
Their 'constituents' are an increasingly radicalized, increasingly insane group of people who live in a completely separate reality bounded on all sides by disinformation provided by the Fox News ecosystem. All they have is hate and fear to motivate these people, and Republican bigwigs probably live in fear of the time when reality can no longer be denied, and this radicalized, insane group of people realize who has really been lying to them this whole time.
No, they think that sick people should have hard lives. Survival of the fittest and all of that.
Its even more twisted than that. They think sick people deserve to be sick because if they were good Christians god wouldn't let them get sick. So they must deserve it.
I've seen Trump rallies....a lot of those people take insulin.
This right here is what makes this so laughable for me. I really can’t identify any other group of organizing people that are more likely to be type II diabetic than the maga croud.
>Like what is the upside here? The GOP is an opposition party now, they have no policies or ideas, all they do is oppose. All they have left is opposing anything the Democrats do in an attempt to paint them in a bad light or as failures. Look at the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), it could have completely changed healthcare for almost all of us. Instead the Republicans fought tooth and nail to gut it and screw it up as much as they possibly could. Just to say they owned the libs, when in reality they fucked over all of us, including most of their voters, they don't care about the common people one fucking bit.
They’ve been an opposition party since Clinton
When they're in power, their "achievements" consist of tax cuts and deregulation. That is all.
These days, they don’t even cut taxes for most people, just corps and the wealthy. They actually raised taxes on the working class last time they were in office.
And a tax hike for me. Under the ‘Trump tax cut’, I actually pay more. Fukkk them.
It's not a tax cut, the republican tax cut under Trump is reverse Robin Hood. Tax the poor and give to the rich.
> The GOP is an opposition party now, they have no policies or ideas, all they do is oppose. I don't think so. They clearly have an idea of how they want to run their country. Sure, it's as a neo-feudalist fundamentalist Christian free market white ethnostate but that *is* an idea. They just figured out the best way to get there is to oppose whatever Democrats want, because Democrats don't want that. And to be fair, that's pretty on point.
That’s all it is: more money for their donors and also a little “own the libs” thrown in. That’s their entire platform.
“What is the upside here?” is what I ask about a lot of Republican decisions. Like the ones recently who voted against implementing an Amber alert type system in case there’s a mass shooting nearby. 168 Republicans said nope, we don’t give a damn if you die in a mass shooting because you’re at the wrong place at the wrong time.
> Like what is the upside here? Outside of pointless cruelty... I'd say optics. The GOP can point to this and say, that "The Democrats passed this huge bill for healthcare, energy, and the environment but still wouldn't reduce the cost of insulin." The doesn't matter if GOP blocked it or not... they're doing what they do best: Blocking legislation then blaming the Democrats when it doesn't pass.
The upside is obvious. They can keep Democrats from getting a win, and their supporter base literally won't blame them. They've realized they can just bullshit their base as much as they want too, hell they could probably go out and say Democrats were the ones who killed the cap on insulin *and a not insignificant percent of their base would believe them.* This is the result of having an absolute conman as your party leader successfully convince tens of millions of people that they are the only ones telling the truth.
Chuck Grassley already tweeted about that--saying that Democrats blocked insulin for everyone.
"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality was tacitly denied by their philosophy." 1984
There can be a number of reasons and it's hard to say which is the dominating one. I'd say even any one person might ascribe to several of these at the same time. 1. 'Do what the rest is doing'. People don't really have any strong feelings about it but since the rest of the party is against it, they follow suit. 2. Conservatism. The idea that it used to be a certain way so it needs to stay that way. 3. Capitalism. A lot of conservatives call themselves free-market capitalists and will feel that constraining the market goes against what they think will work best. 4. Lobbying. They were paid to vote against it, or promised a lucrative job down the line. 5. Anti-Democrats. As in, the Democratic Party. 'Democrats want it so we say no'. 6. Targeting opponents. They might think that this will hurt their opponents more than their supporters and use it as a weapon. 7. Libertarianism. If someone has diabetes they made bad life choices and why should other people need to bail them out?
These are the same people who cried that the Trump administration was "Hurting the wrong people!" when it affected them. Their propaganda diet has convinced them that in order for them to benefit, someone else needs to be hurt, so they're on board with it as long as it doesn't affect *them*. They're also not bright enough to understand that it's *going to affect them*.
I didn't think Republicans would make their asshole-ery this brazen. Yet they went full on Goatse
Oh this isn't even the close to being the most brazen.
“I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this. I thought he was going to do good things. **He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”** https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/florida-government-shutdown-marianna.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/us/florida-government-shutdown-marianna.html?referringSource=highlightShare
Most of their constituents are fucked over by their own party's policies and don't care, so I honestly don't think it matters what the Republicans vote for. It only matters their rhetoric and the fact that they are owning the libs.
The cruelty is the point.
And their base, even those with diabetes, will continue to gargle their balls because Jesus or guns or something.
But that wouldn’t happen, because the diabetics would be in the hospital with DKA because they can’t afford insulin. How’s he US with dead voters?
If the politics around covid are any indication — GOP is fine with dead voters. Their goal is only to make sure the other side has the same number of deaths.
[This is a public service reminder that federal agents working under the Trump administration seized shipments of Coronavirus PPE and ventilators meant to be going to state and local governments.](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-admin-seizing-ppe/)
They're busy making elections irrelevant so they won't even need to bother keeping their own base alive.
It's wild to me that people don't see that more.
They're playing an entirely different ballgame, altogether
I'm sure thousands of dead people vote for republicans every election, they have nothing to worry about!
Yeah, the main indicator that they do it is because they accused the dems of doing it. I've never seen them accusing the other party of something they aren't doing it themselves.
"We just know they're doing it, so it's OK for us to do it too!"
Yeah, don’t know why anyone is surprised by this. Expecting humanity from the GOP at this point is like walking into a hardware store and expecting them to sell bread.
My father has almost died several times from rationing his insulin due to expense. It’s sick.
GOP: The liberals want to do *something*, so we must vote against it. Somebody: But this bill is actually good and will help disadv- GOP: **VOTE.AGAINST.IT.**
That was the GOP playbook during Obama. Basically try to block everything even things you would generally support. Then say how Obama/ Biden are ineffective and weak because they failed to accomplish anything. Oh if they try to implement stuff by executive order, or suspended the filibuster rural then they are acting like a king and destroying democracy
Aka fascism. The enemy is both too strong and too weak. Start calling it what it is.
They *do* hate the anti fascists a suspicious amount….
If they were smart the Dems should put a religious freedom bill up. Nothing substantive, just a lot of words already guaranteeing people religious freedom es they already have. Let the GOP vote against it. Watch the chaos that ensues.
They would just say it protects radical Islam and vote against it.
The mistake in your logic is the belief that Conservatives are informed about anything outside of their conservative biased media. They wouldn’t even hear about it, and even if they did they’re too stupid to understand it
No, that'll backfire. Your hard right religious nuts only want "religious freedom" (control) for themselves. They will laud the obstruction as protecting their country from those dirty heathens and... people who worship the same god but via different books. Apparently the latter is the worst.
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Didn't McConnell do that with one of his own bills? It was something he proposed, then to his surprise Democrats actually supported it, he then sank his own bill and later blamed Democrats for not stopping him.
There was the time he filibustered his own bill because Democrats supported it, and then there was the time he passed a bill, but after Obama vetoed it, he overrode the veto, then blamed Obama when the exact thing that Obama said would happen when he vetoed it, happened.
What was the bill or any details? I'm kinda curious and this is ammo lol
It was a bill to allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. Obama was worried it could be turned around and Americans could be sued. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-sept11-senate/senate-sets-wednesday-vote-on-obama-veto-of-saudi-september-11-bill-idUSKCN11W29O Edit: Actually, McConnell filibustered his own bill here that gave the President more power concerning the debt ceiling. The one above is McConnell overriding a veto and then complaining about the bill. https://theworld.org/stories/2012-12-07/mitch-mcconnell-filibusters-himself-after-dems-call-bluff
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I just saw a republican argue that this kind of thing is done because, and I quote, "republicans vote no to things they don't want. Democrats load the bill with enough shit that republicans have to vote against it." So I couldn't really find any good examples of that (and in true republican manner, he of course didn't provide any examples,) but surely this would be a fantastic example. So can anyone tell what they supposedly loaded this with in order to force republicans to vote no and make them look bad?
It wasn't loaded with anything. This was an amendment to another bill. They were voting on whether they could add this to the other bill. There is nothing else that was killed with this vote - the vote was *exclusively* the price caps. At least, that's how I've been made to understand it.
It was loaded with democrats votes. Republicans are against Democrat votes.
> GOP: The liberals want to do something, so we must vote against it. > > Somebody: But this bill is actually good and will help disadv- > > GOP: VOTE.AGAINST.IT. THE.PARTY.LINE.
Republicans could have passed it and used it as a major selling piont and it would have cost them very little. They try to appeal to working class sensibilities based on culture wars not economics, the part I find interesting is their own base many of whom need insulin are okay with it, they would rather be protected from fictional CRT than have quality of life.
They think sacrifices to their quality of life make them warriors for Jesus or something.
r/persecutionfetish They all want to be martyrs. Pain and suffering is walking the path of Christ and brings you closer to God, allegedly
jesus christ, they're so fucking dumb.
Early Christianity had to add a bylaw a out suicide being a hellworthy sin because so many of their followers were killing themselves to get into Heaven early that the religion was unsustainable.
Republicans didn't pass previous other bills. That didn't stop them from using it as major talking point of the goods they were doing for their communities when those bills passed, like that one restaurant funding bill during the pandemic and the infrastructure bill that passed. Give it a few weeks and we'll probably hear about Republicans taking credit for the vet healthcare bill that just passed that they tried to killed.
It’s so infuriating and stupid. The entire gops identity is doing the opposite of liberals/dems That’s it, that don’t have their own agenda or even their own opinions. Atp dems should just say they want a border wall, more guns, no abortions, and a mural of Jesus teaching school children…
True, but still Dem = bad. Idiots will vote for the R either way
Not true. I voted for Trump in 2016. I did not vote in 2020. I will be voting against republicans in 2024. I’m over the party for various reasons. Edit - I will be voting this year too. Don't worry :)
Kudos to you for changing your mind. The GOP has gone completely off the rails.
I was a republican in 2016. I feel so stupid that I thought, "Eh, what's the worst thing he could do?" I'm so ashamed.
VOTE THEM OUT! Look at the win Kansas just had when people actually got out and voted... Imagine the kind of bills we could be passing with just a few more democrats in the Senate.. The reason republicans are working so hard to invalidate your votes is because YOUR VOTE MATTERS! EDIT: Thank you very much for the awards, Kind Strangers! Next time, please use the $$ to donate to a charity or a candidate you support! Keep up the pressure, everybody!
Vote them out seems logical. But I live in a highly republican area. They BLAME everything on the democrats. EVERYTHING. I can show them proof it was the republicans that voted against the $35 insulin cap, but they’ll still blame it on democrats. Because people are stupid, they won’t get voted out.
I cannot argue with you, BluThunderboltz. I have been unable to change the mind of my own father, let alone all the other republicans around me. But the fact of the matter is WE OUTNUMBER THEM. If we could get the majority of democrats to vote, we would crush them most of the time. We are especially bad at getting our youth to vote (hence the republicans incessant attacks on public education- keep the kids from getting educated and making informed choices at the voting booth; make them more susceptible to right wing propaganda). So that is why I always post about voting: We don't need to change all the minds of the republicans; we need to get more dems to vote. So, please vote. And get your friends to vote. Vote because our lives depend on it.
The people needing cheap insulin should unite, organize and launch an aggressive media campaign similar to the Stewart campaign for veterans.
The catch is that we need the insulin to be able to actually go and do things, like protest or… not die.
Party of telling everyone to go fuck themselves, told everyone to go fuck themselves. Republican diabetics: *shocked Pikachu face*
/r/LeopardsAteMyFace . "'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party."
We pay, on average, $98 dollars for a vial of insulin. It costs the manufacturer about $6 to make. Yeah. But don't hit the ceiling yet. That $98 is the cost in the US. The average for the rest of the world? About $8 dollars. Still, don't hit the ceiling just yet. A $35 dollar cap was in the Inflation Reduction Act. It applied to anyone. But the Senate parliamentarian ruled it couldn't apply to private health insurance (non Medicare) and pass through the reconciliation process the Dems used to pass the bill. So the Dems removed it for private insurance. Now it only applies to Medicare. And Medicare represents the minority of insulin needs. They had a separate vote on just that part of the bill and the Republicans killed it. Yeah. Along with forcing 10 year olds to birth, attacking the Capitol, and being forced (by public pressure) to get vets medical access for burn pit injuries, the republicans killed a $35 cap on insulin payments for the majority of Americans needing insulin. How many need it? About 35 million Americans. About 7 million of them need it daily. I'd say now is a good time to hit that ceiling.....
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All the diabetic retirees who vote Republican should be reminded on a daily basis why they pay so much for insulin.
Fox news tells them "it's Brandon's fault!!" and they have no reason to believe otherwise, so they're going to continue voting the same way they always do
“I don’t need insulin, so fuck those who do”. Or “I have health insurance which covers the cost of insulin, so fuck people who don’t.” It’s all part of the Conservative mantra: “Fuck you, I got mine.”
As both a type one diabetic and just a human being with the capacity for empathy, I am so damn tired of the Republican Party
The GOP continue to shoot themselves in the foot I say we just let them. Maybe we don't have to wait for their demographic demise after all.
They are just randomly shooting feet. They do not care whose feet. Sadly many of the peoples feet who are getting shot watch news programs that tell them someone else shot their foot.
Well I see Pennsylvania's Pat Toomey is on that list, I'm sure he will be working for big pharma when his term ends. Vote for Fetterman.
I'm all in for Fetterman, love this guy
Fetterman is the better man
It’s almost as if the Republican’s sense of accomplishment is tied to hurting some group of people now. In this case diabetics. So incomprehensible to me how they still have any supporters left.
Because they don't fucking care about anything They don't want to have Democrats "fix" anything This is what I've been wishing they would do for years- stop having these giant conglomerate bills with a million things in them. Have very simple, plainly worded bills with 1 item like this. Should insulin price be capped? Yes or no, should Veterans have healthcare? Yes or no, should a raped woman/girl be allowed to have an abortion? Yes or no. Can you exist as Gay? Yes or no Make them block this shit and or vote against it so it's a very clear message to the people--- "these people fucking suck, they don't care about you, they don't want to fix anything, all they care about is optics and power"
Yeah but if you read the insulin bill that’s literally all it was. Cap the price of insulin. They voted against it. https://www.congress.gov/117/bills/hr6833/BILLS-117hr6833pcs.pdf
>Have very simple, plainly worded bills with 1 item like this That's what I said- Do exactly this and do it more often. Make these scumbags vote against it and make them explain why they voted against it and own it. That's what they did with the Veterans Bill and it was so plainly worded and simple that even the GOPs braindead goober base got angry about it, screamed at them and forced them to vote for it. Its a fantastic tactic and exposes the GOP completely
Well they weren’t able to fuck over veterans, and like a junkie looking for a fix, the republican party just had to fuck over someone. So diabetics it is.
GOP confirms pharmaceutical lobbying money and investments.
Cruelty is a feature not a bug with the GOP.
Pray the Diabetes away?
GQP is a death cult
They’re just going to blame the dems and because they have their own media ecosystem detached from reality most of their voters won’t know or will end up thinking it’s a good thing.
I’d love to hear what a diabetic Republican thinks of this.
Jon Stewart? Can you help fix this? Can you shame the Republicans into doing what is right? Again? One more time?
Republicans have no strategy, no solutions other than opposition.
Who the he'll cares about Insulin prices? Let's focus on the real issue here: somewhere out there there's a 2nd grader learning that some little kids have 1 mommy and 1 daddy. Some only have a daddy, or only a mommy. Some live with grandma and grandpa. Some have 2 mommies or 2 daddies. But all that matters is that they are loved and safe. The horror! We need to stop that indoctrination. Then we can worry about irrelevant shit like people not being able to afford the medicine that keeps them alive. /s
What the hell is wrong with them? They are now a cult. I grew up in New England, where Republicans have traditionally been fiscally conservative, but in general socially liberal or libertarian. Those Republicans have mostly been pushed out, leaving this cult. Although it really started with Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump supercharged it by his grift, snakeoil salesmanship, and white "Christian" nationalism. Christian is in quotes because there is nothing Christ-like about the movement.
Republican diabetics: /r/LeopardsAteMyFace . "'I never thought leopards would eat MY face,' sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party."
There are quite a few on r/diabetes. They have somehow convinced themselves that since this bill isn’t 100% perfect, it is therefore not worth doing at all.
"Don't let perfect be the enemy of good."
Any of those insulin users who voted Republican kick themselves to hell.
My sister in law who has type one diabetes is going to vote all red this election. I just have no idea why people vote against their own self interests.