Weekend Open Thread

11 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

1. The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Invent Here, Make Here Act on Tuesday. According to Baldwin’s office, the bipartisan bill would ensure that federally-funded innovations are manufactured in the U.S. and not in adversarial countries.

   See Democrats are short-sighted xenophobic morons too.

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   1. Yep.  

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2. We tried to tell you – Project 2025 is in motion and Veteran Health Care is going to get slashed and burned to the ground…

   Hegseth and Collins’ push for cutting veterans health benefits alarms servicemembers and veterans groups

   In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, (Former VA Secretary) Dr. David Shulkin said some of Hegseth’s ideas were not outlandish – he agrees that veterans should have some access to private care, particularly if VA wait times for an appointment are excessive. But he also said that Hegseth, as an outsider with no experience at the VA or in health care, didn’t understand the “complexities” of the system he was trying to completely reshape.

   “At the time, I was telling him, ‘I’m here on the ground, I know the reality,’” he told CNN in an interview on Wednesday. “I see the patients, the veterans with PTSD. I’ve been a doctor my whole life in the private sector. I know my hospitals that I ran didn’t have the capability to care for these patients. I’m not just going to give [veterans] a voucher and say, ‘Good luck.’”

   https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/07/politics/pete-hegseth-doug-collins-veterans-health-care/index.html

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   1. Last time I heard an argument about VA hospital care & "private hospitals" as an alternative, the private groups were not faster to get to an appointment, not more comprehensive in coverage, not more effective, and not cheaper. 

      Other than that, I guess it was fine that money was shuffled out to the private health care systems.

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      1. Yeah those factie-thingies:

         "Nearly 80% of VA medical facilities received a four or five-star rating in the most recent Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) conducted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

         By comparison, 40% of non-VA hospitals received those same star ratings."

         And VA healthcare is generally more efficient than private care. VA healthcare uses electronic record sharing, so all doctors and specialists a veteran sees have access to the same medical information. VA also uses time-saving options like telemedicine. 

         Money quote: The key finding was that, while the VHA employs similar percentages of doctors and nurses compared to the private sector, it employs far fewer administrative personnel as a percentage of its workforce—about a 6 percentage-point difference, Himmelstein said. “This translates to, if the private sector healthcare organizations staffed in the same way as the VA did, they would employ about 900,000 fewer administrative personnel.”

         https://www.usmedicine.com/agencies/military-health-system/va-healthcare-found-to-generally-be-more-efficient-than-private-care/

         But yeah, let's buy into multiple years of Faux News coverage and Blabbering quotes from MAGA podcasts that the VA is inefficent and too costly.
          

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   2. Worst case scenario: Hegseth gets confirmed as Sec Defense, and cuts or “privatizes”; Va health care. Veterans and their families protest in the streets. Does Hegseth then command troops to fo subdue or arrest fellow veterans? 

       I think there would be massive disobedience to unlawful orders.

      I also don't think that Hegseth will get confirmed when it comes down to it.

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      1. Hegseth does not have the needed background and experience to run a business with an annual budget of $900 billion, probably more with all the off-budget stuff, and nearly three million employees; uniformed, civilian, and contract. That’s the easy way out without getting into all his personal life issues.

         I’m curious why one would think that Hegseth being confirmed as Secretary of Defense gives him immediate authority over the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is a separate Cabinet-level department.

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         1. You are correct, CHB. there has been talk of merging VA healthcare with the Pentagon, but it’s always been shot down.

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         2. In by itself, the no-account O3 in the SecDef chair would have no effect on the VA. But there's a LOT of coordination between DoD and the VA, esp in terms of sharing medical records for disability compensation and continuation of treatment. One major program I could see cut is the Soldier Readiness Unit, which helps wounded soldiers recover from injuries in order to transition  back to Active Duty or separate from service with a VA service-connnected disability awarded prior to hitting the street. Fort Carson has a great program in place, but I can see the Orange Clown Posse labeling it as "woke" and cutting it.

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3. "…they didn't listen, they're not listening still. Perhaps they never will."

   *Don McClean.

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4. Colorado is still on Trump's mind. 

   On Meet The Press this morning, Trump continued to insist

   Trump also repeated his false claim that gangs have taken over an apartment building in Aurora, Colorado.

   “We’re getting the worst gang probably with MS-13, and the Venezuelan gangs are the worst in the world. They’re vicious, violent people,” Trump said. “And you’ve seen what they’ve done in Colorado and other places. They’re taking over, they’re literally taking over apartment complexes and doing it with impunity. They don’t care.”

   Welker pointed out during the interview that local police officials have refuted that claim.

   NBC had an extensive fact check.  Another observer said

   Aaron Rupar  @atrupar

   Trump’s evidence for his lie that migrant gangs are taking over parts of Colorado is that he says it all the time at his rallies

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