Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

I really should read my own blog.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

People are complicated. Love is not.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You are here: Home / Economics / Free Markets Solve Everything / Good News for People Who Like Bad News

Good News for People Who Like Bad News

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My take on New Year’s resolutions was formed watching Ordinary People when I was but a wee lad. In that movie, around New Year’s, Elizabeth McGovern’s Dinah Manhoff’s character shares the resolution “Let’s agree to have a really good year” with one of her friends, and the next we hear about her, we learn she committed suicide. To me, that’s about what a resolution is worth.

If you think that’s a dark tale, I have an even darker one for you: I just returned from a trip to the Dakota heartland, where the real (read: old and white) Americans live. Since the politics of 2019 and most of 2020 will be dictated by them, and since anecdotes are the only way to really know what our mysterious overlords are thinking, here’s one:

The real American town where I grew up is 100 miles from anything else big. (By “big”, I mean over 5,000 in population, with shopping and healthcare services). For the past 75 years, my home town has had a nursing home. For the past 50 or so years, an even smaller town about 20 miles away has also had a nursing home. Together, they housed around 200 patients in facilities close to where those patients had lived for most of their lives. Nobody wants to go the nursing home, but they were both clean, well-run, and nearby.

Well, no more. One of these homes has closed, and the second is closing in the next month or two. The reasons are varied: Some shitty corporation from Jersey bought one of the homes and ran it into the ground; Medicaid reimbursement (applicable to 2/3 of patients in South Dakota) falls an average of $34/day short in paying the expenses of a patient at these small town facilities, and so on. The net of all this is that patients are being moved to homes at least 100 miles away, and in some cases much farther. Decent jobs (by area standards) at those homes are also leaving town.

The South Dakota state legislature is too busy making abortion punishable by drawing and quartering to do anything about this. The Federal delegation, all Republicans, aren’t going to do a god damned thing but shake their heads and sympathize. Everyone’s hands are tied because Tax Cut Jesus won’t let the evil government spend any more money on poors, even if they are old white poors who weren’t poor when they went into the nursing home, but all their money was spent as they lay in a moaning, incontinent fetal ball in the Alzheimer’s wing. Even though these poors might deserve something, the other poors could be brown and undeserving! And, as Tax Cut Jesus clearly said in John Thune’s copy of the bible, “Better that 100 deserving white poors be hauled hundreds of miles from their relatives to die alone, than one undeserving brown poor get a couple of bucks of government money.”

What’s interesting to me is that most of the people I spoke with – and these are old people, mind you, who might end up in the home very soon – had little hope. For a long list of complicated reasons, the home 20 miles away could possibly re-open since it was started by the community years ago. They recently had a successful $500K fundraiser to buy back the equipment in the home from the last management company, which is only step one of hundreds needed to start it up again. And even if they do start it up, the fundamental issue of Medicaid reimbursement not covering the home’s nut remains. You can’t expect to have a bake sale every couple of weeks to pay the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to house the old in this county. That’s the government’s job, but out in Trumpland, any government intervention is by definition evil, so it ain’t gonna happen.

This is what it means to live in a true red state. As long as sluts can’t get abortions and taxes never go up, every other human misery is acceptable.

Reader Interactions

120Comments

  1. 1.

    Dumbspear O'Sparrow

    That wasn’t Elizabeth McGovern’s character who said that. The character you’re thinking of was Karen, played by Dinah Manoff, who I last remember seeing in the 90s sitcom Empty Nest.

  2. 2.

    bobbo

    That was Dinah Manoff. Elizabeth McGovern played the young woman Tim Hutton met in choir, went on date with that went sour, then reconciled at the end when he dropped by her house and they went for a walk.
    (I must have seen that movie 5 times)

  3. 3.

    [Individual 1] mistermix

    @bobbo: Thanks, I fixed it. For some reason that popped into my head today as I was thinking about why I don’t make resolutions.

  6. 6.

    John Reinan

    Mistermix: I’m a news reporter in Minneapolis and would be interested in looking into this. Could you possibly email me and tell me the names of the towns you’re referencing re: the nursing homes? john dot reinan at startribune dot com

  7. 7.

    Cermet

    But as any self respecting stooge living in orange fart country will tell you, “It’s democrats fault for spending so much money on those Nig – clang – ers.” Pure and simple. So they will tell you to vote reptile party and prevent those people from stealing all your well deserved hand outs.

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    I believe that we’re supposed to have sympathy for them, but……
    .but, they live in a world where Medicaid is Rosa Maria and her 3 Anchor Babies and Lakanisha with her 3 kids by 3 different Baby Daddies…

    when, the biggest drain, in percentage of dollars….is Bob and Emily’s Grandma and Grandpa.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    @John Reinan:
    @ Mistermix:

    Wow, that’s wonderful. Having a reporter dig into this story. Good luck, Mr. Reinan. And how delightful to find you lurking here.

    When you write your story (or series), if it pans out, we look forward to seeing it frontpaged here.

  12. 12.

    The Moar You Know

    As long as sluts can’t get abortions and taxes never go up, every other human misery is acceptable.

    This is our national motto, right?

  13. 13.

    BruceFromOhio

    As long as sluts can’t get abortions and taxes never go up, every other human misery is acceptable.

    I have not one, not two, but three Gaia-bothering nitwits in my raft of holier-than-thou in-laws, and I am using this on every single one of them every chance I get. Yes, it’s rude; it’s fully intended to be rude.

  16. 16.

    Ksmiami

    @rikyrah: too bad so sad – thoughts and prayers should cover their expenses rt? Maybe they should have been more responsible

  18. 18.

    Citizen Scientist

    OT (great post for thought, btw I-1): Donnie Theworldisunfairtous is bloviating on and on about something to do with the shutdown on MSNBC right now. Of course, now he’s on to “every one is unfair to us/we spend too much money on other countries/my popularity”. Why do I torture myself?

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: The Lexicon has not vanished. It currently shows up as 4th item down on the Quick Links list. Quick Links is on right had side at the top of every page.

  22. 22.

    patrick II

    Is that $34/day short on expenses needed for their new corporate overlords to turn a good profit? Or has medicare fallen that far behind the actual expenses of care in a nursing home?

  23. 23.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    I resent that these Jesus supporting Angry White Male fellating Red States acting as parasites feeding off on the hard working Blue states. We got regions of in our state, that just acts like the Red State.

  26. 26.

    waratah

    South Dakota state government sounds like Texas. They worry about abortions and who can use what bathroom. Women’s health and education are the least of their worries.

    Would the 34 dollars still hurt if it was run as a non profit?

  28. 28.

    Juice Box

    @patrick II: Medicare doesn’t cover long-term nursing home care, just short-term rehab care. Medicaid covers long-term care once you have spent down your assets. Medicaid is chronically underfunded.

  29. 29.

    Barbara

    Medicaid rates are premised on the idea that Medicaid care will be subsidized by non-Medicaid patients. That premise totally breaks down when it comes to nursing homes in low density population areas, particularly where the average income and asset mix is relatively low. I hope they figure out how to keep at least one of them open, but South Dakota government seems to be particularly insane so I am assuming low odds of success. The state is sufficiently empty that a sitting congressional representative considered it okay to blow through stop signs at 70 mph because the odds of hitting anything were so low. Not, as it happened, low enough.

  30. 30.

    Aleta

    How can towns protect against outside NH/HC corporations and investment companies looking to maximize profit off the health biz? These assisted living homes and small practices/hospitals and independent pharmacies are job sources for townies and returning vets. Meanwhile the state gives a huge tax rebate to some corp that predicts an inflated # of jobs w/o making any real commitment to stick around or hire locally.

  31. 31.

    Citizen Alan

    @schrodingers_cat:

    The headline:

    Liberal revolt threatens to derail House Democrats on their first day in charge

    The very last sentence:

    “It’s a single member who cares deeply about economic policymaking a point about the direction we should go, and hopefully leadership will take it in that spirit.”

    Our liberal media, ladies and gentlemen.

  33. 33.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Liberals such as Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez — and activists on the political left — argue that PAYGO amounts to a legislative straitjacket that could impede their efforts to pass ambitious social programs. And they are especially dubious of its necessity after congressional Republicans waived the law in 2017 to pass a tax bill that added more than $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over its first decade.

    “This is in no way a vote against the leadership; this is a vote against austerity economics that has caused great harm to middle class and working families,” Khanna said in an interview Wednesday. “I don’t think we need to handcuff ourselves in ways that Republicans never have.”

    Ocasio-Cortez announced her opposition in a tweet: “PAYGO isn’t only bad economics . . . it’s also a dark political maneuver designed to hamstring progress” on health care and other legislation.

    So, was AOC really working with Pelosi that one time to arrange that Sunshine Movement protest outside her office, or did Pelosi just save both their asses?

    The co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), said they would support the overall rules package despite their opposition to PAYGO, citing a commitment from House leaders that the provision “will not be an impediment to advancing key progressive priorities” in the new Congress.

    “We all agree that the real problem with PAYGO exists in the statute that requires it,” they said in a statement. “That is why we will be introducing legislation in the 116th Congress to end PAYGO.”

    Ocasio-Cortez appeared to solicit opposition to the PAYGO rule, retweeting a message Wednesday that it would take 18 Democratic no votes to block the rules package. But Khanna said he was not encouraging colleagues to vote against it and otherwise praised Pelosi and incoming Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (Mass.) for the rest of the package.

    Apparently, at the moment it’s really just AOC causing some trouble and the media is amplifying that for their Dems in Disarray narrative.
    Oh and Tim Ryan of course had to get his two-cents in. Still bitter he’s never going to be Speaker.

  36. 36.

    Yutsano

    @schrodingers_cat: Because Democrats must always be shown as in disarray. As in not fit to govern. I just read the actual article, and it’s typical WaPo clickbait headlines. It’s only one part of the entire rules package, and it’s probably something worth dumping. Note that there are others who want to change the law the rulwe is based on. Typical MSM silliness.

  37. 37.

    Sab

    @patrick II: Except for a a month or so of rehab, Medicare does not cover nursing homes and never has. Medicaid covers nursing homes after you have spent down all your assets.

    Why don’t people know this? It has been this way since Medicare started in the 1960s. I have family members who are or are related to medical professionals, and they are only realizing this as they approach their own retirements.

  38. 38.

    [Individual 1] mistermix

    @patrick II:

    Is that $34/day short on expenses needed for their new corporate overlords to turn a good profit? Or has medicare fallen that far behind the actual expenses of care in a nursing home?

    I don’t know. I got both of those numbers from a family member who is involved but he didn’t know exactly how the $34 was calculated. As @Barbara noted above, Medicaid expects other paying customers to keep the boat afloat. Unfortunately in these poor rural towns it doesn’t work that way.

    The company that ran the bigger home is going out of business so I’m assuming there wasn’t a huge amount of profit in that number. Say it’s off by half – $17/day loss per patient is unsustainable, too.

  39. 39.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    It’s all variations on what LBJ said to Bill Moyer when Moyer was a young staffer:

    We were in Tennessee. During the motorcade, he spotted some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs. Late that night in the hotel, when the local dignitaries had finished the last bottles of bourbon and branch water and departed, he started talking about those signs. “I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it,” he said. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

    Source: Moyers, Bill. “What a Real President Was Like.”
    The Washington Post. 13 November 1988.

    And what rikryah says in Post 9.

    Bill Maher, 25 years ago on ‘Politically Incorrect’ said that the biggest welfare queens wore overalls, referencing the farm bill welfare. But to these rurl, white folks, at least them welfare queens are *their* welfare queens, so it’s okay.

  40. 40.

    tobie

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: The premise that the Democrats are an austerity party because of PAYGO rules is absurd. (A) those rules can be waived, (b) it’s the right and responsibility of govt to levy taxes to pay for public goods and services, and (c) the premise of Modern Monetary Theory that countries with their own currency can simply print more money to pay for things sounds like a recipe for inflation and would certainly hasten the pace of a move away from the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency.

  41. 41.

    Butch

    @Citizen Alan: And of course, from the same story, “Beyond Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez, however, opposition to the proposal appeared muted Wednesday.”
    Sigh.

  42. 42.

    gene108

    It is good political strategy by the Republicans in state and federal government. Keep people hopeless and frustrated and believing nothing will ever improve, and it isn’t a long leap to from their to being dedicated to the Republican death cult.

    Get people feeling good about what government can do, what services can be provided, how living standards can be improved and they stop following Republicans.

    Republicans have been terrified by the thought people will ever regain faith in government. That was the whole impetuous over Bill Krystal’s advice to Republicans, over Bill Clinton’s healthcare plan, advocating for Republicans to engage in whole scale obstruction to it, rather than do what minority parties normally do and accept that the President sets the agenda and they make compromises, where they can, for legislation to pass. Only got worse with Newt’s House and keep getting worse.

  44. 44.

    Barbara

    @Aleta: The Washington Post has been doing yeoman’s work on this issue, and the problem is most acute for maternity care. While it’s easy to point to the for profit hospitals that buy community hospitals, many of the community hospitals sell in the first instance because they don’t see how they can otherwise stay open. The sale is often just a sign that the hospital faces daunting odds. In addition, nearly all hospitals count on being able to subsidize some services (like emergency or obstetric care) with other services (like surgery, especially specialty surgery). As people become much more willing to travel further for higher tier services, that bargain has really broken down. So while people want to have a hospital nearby for delivering their baby, they are more than willing to bypass the local hospital to seek neurosurgery or cardiac surgery at a larger, more sophisticated facility further away. It’s a real conundrum, because people deserve high quality care and can’t be tethered to local hospitals that cannot provide higher level services.

    Here are a few articles worth your time:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/can-a-community-hospital-stay-true-to-its-mission-after-sale-to-large-corporation/2018/07/23/77981b28-8ea7-11e8-ae59-01880eac5f1d_story.html?utm_term=.6c6a8d6f2011

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/e4061cdc-25d5-11e8-a227-fd2b009466bc_story.html?utm_term=.b4ab36f7bd5c

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/in-the-tennessee-delta-a-poor-community-loses-its-hospital–and-sense-of-security/2017/04/10/6c550492-1941-11e7-855e-4824bbb5d748_story.html?utm_term=.3b11b6e73295

  45. 45.

    Michael Cain

    I have occasionally been tempted to say to one particular acquaintance, “Good thing you bought that McMansion, ’cause if your party has its way Grandma will be moving in upstairs. How’s your wife feel about changing diapers?”

  46. 46.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    The full quote (I saved it to an email draft):

    “The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of who will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”

    Anne Laurie quoted it in this front page piece from 2009:
    https://balloon-juice.com/2009/10/07/open-thread-lagging-lexicon-indicators/

    I have no idea when Davis first posted it.

  47. 47.

    Ohio Mom

    The version of this story I live is being a special needs Mom in a Midwest suburb where my peers are staunch Republicans even though our DD (developmentally disabled) kids will all need Medicaid as adults (if they aren’t already receiving it under the Waiver program).

    Currently, a spot in a group home or other supervised living situation is around $40,000 a year. SSI (another safety net program they essentially vote against) is less than $9,000 a year; the difference is covered by a Medicaid Waiver.

    To be a DD adult is almost always to be consigned to being poor. Yes there are a few loopholes, like special needs trusts which can help a little, but the bottom line is safety net programs.

    And yet, even when you very gently broach this topic, their hackles immediately raise. The subtext is clear: Dont be ridiculous! We’re white!

  49. 49.

    tobie

    @Yutsano: AOC’s tweet called PAYGO, which is something Pelosi supports, a “dark political maneuver.” Saying the caucus’s leadership has “dark” motives and is engaged in “maneuvering” is dumping on the party. She could argue the merits of her case and explain her commitment to modern monetary theory but that would require a lot more thought and time than a tweet and would complicate the worldview that there are only the virtuous and the self-interested.

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    @Butch

    And of course, from the same story, “Beyond Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez, however, opposition to the proposal appeared muted Wednesday.”
    Sigh.

    Yep. Two (2) representatives are opposed and WaPo blows it up into “DEMS IN DISARRAY!”

    Here’s my prediction — Khanna and AOC will be allowed to stand up and give YouTube-ready speeches, the rules will pass anyway since it’s really just the two of them, and Democrats will then start debating getting rid of PayGo. Win/win for everyone. AOC and Khanna make their constituents happy, Pelosi and the leadership get the rules passed, all is joy and jollity.

    I also suspect that Pelosi is not terribly attached to PayGo anyway, so she doesn’t mind having a debate about ending it once the rules get passed and everyone can get down to business.

  51. 51.

    gene108

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    It’s the “Democrats in Disarray” meme that the Village loves to pieces, which is why I always say wipe them out, all of them.

    From my understanding, Democrats were in disarray, in the late 1970’s, as evidenced by Ted Kennedy’s challenge to Carter’s re-election, as well as after Mondale’s and Dukakis’ losses.

    But that was 30 years ago. The reporters, who were adults in those days are mostly either dead or retired. I don’t know how this has been drilled into “the kids these days”.

  52. 52.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @tobie:
    That really pissed me off. She really is a fucking idiot and I don’t believe for a second anymore that that protest in front of Pelosi’s office that AOC was involved in was in any way coordinated between the two of them. Pelosi used her political skills to save the situation.

  54. 54.

    Mnemosyne

    @tobie

    I’m still convinced that AOC is being mentored by Nancy SMASH herself. Nancy has never cared about what rhetoric her caucus members use as long as they ultimately vote the right way, or she has enough votes to let them posture for their constituents if needed with a “no” vote.

    The longer AOC can maintain her “outsider” bona fides while coordinating her “rebellions” with the leadership, the better it is for all of them.

  56. 56.

    tobie

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: I agree with you 100% and all the reporting I’ve seen is that Pelosi turned what could have been an embarrassing situation into one in which everyone walked away with something. A vote against the rules package tomorrow is also a vote against the Special Committee on the Climate Crisis. AOC is pissed she didn’t get the committee she demanded, as evidenced in her Twitter feed, and tomorrow’s no vote may in part be payback for that.

  57. 57.

    Craig Johnson

    Thanks for the post. i also spent the holiday with family in SD. There are vast swaths of the state (and ND, NE, KS) that simply cannot sustain any meaningful economic activity. No wonder there is no hope, they are populated by slowly dying elderly and the young people are leaving for opportunity elsewhere. Corporate industrial agriculture has standardized, monocultured, and consolidated away small businesses across the land. Get big or get out was the mantra. Walmart and her cousins in the nursing home industry hit.

    And now there is a combination of pride/resentment for those who stay…pride in their “toughness” in the face of adversity and resentment that they didn’t get the golden prize. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I see another Dollar-like Store pop up. These places will dry up and blow away…but the damage will take a long time to heal.

  58. 58.

    Brachiator

    Well, no more. One of these homes has closed, and the second is closing in the next month or two. The reasons are varied: Some shitty corporation from Jersey bought one of the homes and ran it into the ground; Medicaid reimbursement (applicable to 2/3 of patients in South Dakota) falls an average of $34/day short in paying the expenses of a patient at these small town facilities, and so on. The net of all this is that patients are being moved to homes at least 100 miles away, and in some cases much farther. Decent jobs (by area standards) at those homes are also leaving town.

    Medicaid is government welfare. Sacrifices must be made.

    This is shameful, but I don’t know what you can do to change some people’s minds. It reminds me of some recent mass shootings in Southern California. A number of news and radio commentators live in the area, and their friends and family easily might have been victims. And yet none of these people would consider any form of gun control. Not even for a second. They would be willing to see their own friends and children killed rather than reconsider their view on the Second Amendment.

  59. 59.

    patrick II

    @Sab:

    Why don’t people know this?

    Actually I know this, but I am old and the wrong word pops into my typing sometimes. Actually, medicaid for final car is one of my pet peeves. Ordinary people have to give up everything they have saved and hope to leave to their children because in the last days of their lives they must give it all up if they need care. Their “death tax” is functionally 100%. Meanwhile, for people with money who are able to afford long term care insurance or just don’t need insurance at all, there are large not-taxable portions of estates, low taxes on the rest, and much tax avoidable by estate planning. I had a rich friend who told me inheritance taxes are for dumb rich people. The real players don’t pay much, meanwhile they everyday Joe often gives everything up for some late term care.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m still convinced that AOC is being mentored by Nancy SMASH herself.

    Bernie and Nancy are fighting for AOC’s soul. It’s gonna be interesting.

  62. 62.

    jl

    @tobie: That is a very tendentious interpretation of her tweet. And she did very pointedly refer to RoKhanna’s economic argument. I think the original idea of PayGo was as a political maneuver to simply hamstring spending.You want to charge ahead and argue that AOC is specifically charging Pelosi with dark political maneuvering, You can make that argument if you want, but I don’t see anything to force that conclusion.

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: I think you can be somewhat over excitable about very minor things.

    I also took a look at AOC’s twitter stream, and it seems a balanced mix of nods to realism (she retweeted Krugman’s column on wisdom of Dems realizing that they are not going to get all they want on climate change immediately, and they need to plan for after 2020 rather than have stand offs about it now), and advocating for her own causes.

    Respected commenters on this blog are going to stroke themselves out if they blow their nervous system gaskets over every little disagreement in the Democratic caucus.

  64. 64.

    tobie

    @Mnemosyne: I just don’t see this. I could be wrong but I don’t have the sense that’s how Pelosi plays. Kabuki Theater is not her thing.

  65. 65.

    chris

    PAYGO is an excellent way to begin the discussion about cutting defense spending and raising taxes on the well-to-do and corporations to pay for stuff that the “hard workin’ Murkin people” actually want. Just sayin’.

    Also the Green New Deal! has people actually talking about global warming, a discussion which IMHO is sorely needed.

    Looking forward to the arguments over the Manhattan poverty line. ;-)

  66. 66.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @tobie:
    The last straw for me was that “dark political maneuver” comment. It’s one thing to question the wisdom of party leadership; it’s quite another to question their motives and values. I believe that’s what AOC was doing here. That’s wrong. It’s like a play out of the Wilmer playbook.

    I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and I really want to like her. The party could definitely use another passionate WOC that’s able to push the party in a more progressive direction and inspire people, but she’s not it. She could still improve and I sincerely hope she gets a clue soon enough.

  68. 68.

    Gravenstone

    @Butch:

    Beyond Khanna and Ocasio-Cortez

    So, <1% of the Dem caucus is enough to throw everything into "disarray"? Bullshit drama llamas at work.

  69. 69.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @jl:
    I went back and reread what she said and I guess that could be what she meant. But she needs to be more specific with her words and who and what she is referring to. Unless the WaPo didn’t include the full context of her tweet?

  70. 70.

    ruemara

    Watch me shrug. I’ve never had any problems with difference. But these people have been making the choice to destroy whatever aids them if it will snatch even a crumb from someone browner than them. Die alone & poor. You got your wish. Pity it was on an orange monkey paw. My time & energy will go to saving those who are afflicted by your choices and working with people who’ve always spurned your choices. I’m sick of them.

  71. 71.

    Brachiator

    I mentioned in a previous thread how business stories have generally been honest and accurate about who benefits the most from Trump’s tax cuts. A recent Forbes article is pretty blunt about one new provision of the law: Pass-Through Deduction (199A) Will Fuel Wealth Inequality

    The nub of the article comes to this conclusion, based on a report by the official Joint Committee on Taxation

    Our current Congress wants to tax labor income at a higher rate than capital income.

    And to break it down further, even some rich people are more worthy than others.

    The essence of 199A, which has been diluted a bit by the Senate, is that the owners of capital are more important and more entitled to tax relief than people who earn substantial money by their own efforts…

    Let’s consider two forty-year-olds who are both doing pretty well. One is a surgeon named Terry who is making $500,000 per year. Terry is a first-generation college graduate, who has been making this kind of money for a few years and has finally paid down massive student debt. Besides a spouse and a couple of kids, there is a parent to support. If Terry can resist the temptation to live up to that income, she will probably accumulate a net worth of a few million dollars and have a very nice retirement and Terry’s kid will not rack up a mountain of student debt as they prepare for professional life. As of now, Terry’s net worth is negligible. Terry’s economic circumstances are certainly enviable, but let’s look at Robin.

    Robin does a little bit of this and a little bit of that having started out as an art history major but moved onto literature. Robin also has an income of around $500,000 per year mostly from an ESOP that owns the widget company that his father founded. There are also real estate holdings in a family limited partnership. Clearly, Robin does not have a parent to support. As a matter of fact, college for Robin’s kids is paid for by Grandma (that’s the transfer tax efficient way). Robin has a net worth of about $20 million. Even if Robin spends every dime of his income, the net worth will probably grow from unrealized appreciation that will probably never be subject to income tax.

    So who needs a tax break? Robin of course who will get a free $100,000 deduction thanks to 199A. Robin is one of those makers. Terry, the surgeon, not so much.

    Meanwhile, some Republicans want to take tax credits away from lower income taxpayers because, well, you know, they are not deserving enough.

  72. 72.

    Plato

    The stable genius elected by these real murkan folks. Whom the media celebrated as unorthodox.

    Shocked he didn’t drop an “a lot of people don’t know this, but Russia used to be part of the Soviet Union. It’s true folks. It’s true. Putin told me that himself. A lot of the media with their fake news won’t tell you that Russia used to be part of the Soviet Union.”

    — BlueXmas Kel ??? (@bluekel) January 2, 2019

    Trump: "Russia used to be the Soviet Union. Afghanistan made it Russia because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia."

    Trump then goes on to endorse the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Via Fox. pic.twitter.com/oE0fuDLXyz

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 2, 2019

  74. 74.

    tobie

    @jl: I don’t know the origin of PayGo in the US but it’s not some peculiarly American practice. Germany has a PayGo system, as do some Scandinavian countries. That’s why the aging of the population is a problem. The developed world needs more young workers to pay for the benefits of [email protected]chris: is right on. Let’s have a discussion about the trillions we squander on a bloated military budget that could be used for infrastructure, jobs, healthcare, education, and preservation of the environment.

  75. 75.

    jl

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: I wouldn’t trust the corporate press to give the full context to anything.

    I think for the political junkies like us, who follow and policy debates, and political maneuvering and how both are reported, it will be an infuriating couple of years.
    You got AOC, Warren, I hear Brown is feeling around about running in 2020, and you have future leadership like Lieu and RoKhanna mouthing off, these are much more progressive voices than previous Democratic leadership. Corporate hacks see them as a threat, and will simply not give them fair coverage, or any coverage if they can help it.

    It won’t get as bad as what reactionary junk when out through most of the big newspapers in the late 19th century through 1920s, but only because there of the ‘balance’ fetish left in respectable media.

    We need to learn to take deep breaths and count to five, or we will all stroke out before the first Dem primary debates. And, we don’t want to miss those.

  76. 76.

    Gravenstone

    @Brachiator:

    They would be willing to see their own friends and children killed rather than reconsider their view on the Second Amendment.

    “It won’t happen to me (us)” tends to ignore ideology. Far too many people are susceptible to it.

  78. 78.

    karensky

    @[Individual 1] mistermix: Hey, this is a very sad story but very compelling. The reopening of the home 20 miles away is a job for someone like John Oliver or Stephen Colbert. Remember when Oliver paid off millions in medical debt.

    Your piece is a very strong start.

    Thank you for sounding the alarm.

  81. 81.

    Ohio Mom

    @patrick II: I agree.

    Then there is the part where if you spent your entire savings during the look-back period traveling the world in first class, you’re good to go, (completely eligible to have Medicaid pay for a nursing home), but if you give any of your savings away to a family member during those five years, you’re screwed.

    This happened to a distant family member. She couldn’t foresee that in a few years she’d have big health problems and need to go to a nursing home (who could?) and loaned her daughter money to start a business. The business never took off, there was no money to repay the loan, and I don’t know what happened after that but it involved another family member shelling out for an attorney.

    I think we all benefit (of course I do, I’m a Democrat) when working and middle class families can build some intergenerational wealth for themselves.

    There ought to be a way to pass along some of the oldster’s assets AND give them Medicaid eligibility. Maybe it could be a set amount or percentage? Or only for certain purposes, like helping someone go to college, buy a home, start a business — something that could be seen as an investment in the family’s future?

    I don’t know where to begin to shape this sort of policy but the current system is completely unjust.

  82. 82.

    sukabi

    @tobie: sure, can we also agree that everybody brings their own baggage to an argument discussing what a person might have meant on twitter, it’s no better than a textual game of ☎.

    ???

  83. 83.

    JustRuss

    @Barbara:

    Medicaid rates are premised on the idea that Medicaid care will be subsidized by non-Medicaid patients. That premise totally breaks down when it comes to nursing homes in low density population areas

    Yeah, also breaks down in for-profit homes, which aren’t interested in subsidizing anyone. A friend just got her mom into a home, the place they were looking at advised her to move in and pay out of pocket to spend down her assets, then in a couple years she could have Medicaid cover her costs. Before moving in they met with a lawyer who specializes in elder issues, who told them that home doesn’t actually take Medicaid patients, after they took all her money they’d find a way to push her out. Hell of a business model.

  84. 84.

    Brachiator

    @tobie:

    I don’t know the origin of PayGo in the US but it’s not some peculiarly American practice. Germany has a PayGo system, as do some Scandinavian countries. That’s why the aging of the population is a problem. The developed world needs more young workers to pay for the benefits of retirees

    Even Japan is changing its ways in order to deal with this problem:

    As populism and a tilt to the political right has prompted many nations to question once welcoming immigration and refugee policies and embrace xenophobia, a nation with a centuries long reputation for insularity has decided to move in the other direction. With its rapidly aging population and an underwhelming birthrate, Japan is opening its doors to large-scale immigration.

    From The New York Times:

    Under a bill approved by Parliament’s upper house in the early-morning hours, more than a quarter-million visas of five-year duration will be granted to unskilled guest laborers for the first time, starting in 2019.

    Under the new measure, between 260,000 and 345,000 five-year visas will be made available for workers in 14 sectors suffering severe labor shortages, including caregiving, construction, agriculture and shipbuilding.

    The measure also creates a separate visa category for high-skilled workers, who will be allowed to stay for unlimited periods and enjoy greater benefits, including permission to bring their families to Japan.

    As The New York Times points out, over the next 25 years, Japan’s population is set to shrink by 16 million people, or 13 percent. During the same period, the number of old folks in Japan will increase to make up 1/3 of the population. This leaves an incredible vacuum of caregivers, laborers and other positions that must be filled.

    Not everyone is thrilled with the country’s fresh, welcoming approach to immigration. But their feelings on the matter are moot: unless the Japanese start having a shitload of babies, which they’re not, the nation will be in a serious bind when the bulk of their current population becomes too old to be able to keep the nation’s infrastructure and businesses humming along efficiently.

  85. 85.

    Duane

    Missouri’s replacement governor Parsons did a state wide tour to find solutions for the state’s struggling rural medical facilities. The obvious solution of Medicaid expansion was ignored because hateful ideology matters more than anything. So thoughts, prayers, and bake sales it is.

  86. 86.

    jl

    @tobie: PayGo in the US goes back to the 1980s I think. The PayGo budgeting rules I am familiar with in Nordic countries are much more flexible than US version. They operate over the business cycle, and are designed to encourage counter-cyclical versus pro-cyclical national fiscal policy. I didn’t know Germany had some version of it and will look into it.

    I know there are people arguing that US PayGo can be used for progressive as well as reactionary purposes. But I don’t see any good economics behind it, just a political tactic for force debates and put a high public profile on certain budget choices. So, I guess I do think it is a political maneuver, and don’t like it all that much, at least the rigid way the US implements it.

    How about we go Swedish budget PayGo? I’ll be down with that. There are some actual economic arguments in favor of Swedish budget PayGo rules.

    But, my main point was for people not to stroke out over every little intraparty Dem debate.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    I like New Year’s resolutions. I need goals. I have to try really hard just to break even, honestly. The resolutions are so I don’t get worse. No one ever talks about that- how you can go backward.

  89. 89.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: I have a version of that for myself and for when people tell me they need to lose weight: don’t worry about losing weight, concentrate on staying your current weight. Because even if it is too high, it’s lower than it could be.

  90. 90.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: I do too. I see every new day as a fresh start, also the beginning of every week and every month. I don’t always accomplish everything I set out to do. But having goals tells me what I am working towards.

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    @Gravenstone:

    “It won’t happen to me (us)” tends to ignore ideology. Far too many people are susceptible to it.

    That’s just it. Some of the on-air personalities acknowledged that it could have been them or their family. But they at best want new laws to identify “crazy people” who might become shooters. They refuse to consider anything that might reduce the number of guns available.

  94. 94.

    JustRuss

    Uggh, CNN is on in the background, and it seems to be all Mitt vs. Donald. Apparently the people who run our media are still in high school.

  95. 95.

    tobie

    @jl: Thanks for the tip about the Swedish paygo system. I’ll look into it. It sounds like it’s based on the Keynsian idea that when the economy’s strong, you pay down the deficit, and when it’s weak you go into deficit spending. That makes sense to me–with the caveat I am not an economist (IANAE). ?

  96. 96.

    eclare

    @tobie: It definitely does, among other reasons. When my mom was in the hospital, probably half of her nurses and doctors had accents.

  98. 98.

    schrodingers_cat

    @eclare: One third of all doctors are foreign born, similarly the percentage of foreign born dentists, pharmacists and nurses is also 20% or higher. Serving in rural or underrepresented areas can get you a green card faster. So by voting for Orange the rural folks are screwing up their own healthcare and access to it in ways more than one.

  100. 100.

    sukabi

    @JustRuss: been that way for decades. We’re trapped in 8th grade because the on air “personalities” are relitigating their jr. High drama.

  101. 101.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator

    Steve Scalise was fine with BEING SHOT HIMSELF rather than infringe on anyone’s “right” to shoot him.

    At this point, it’s a death cult. ?

  102. 102.

    schrodingers_cat

    I think I would have been a good general, but who knows?

    Serves all those generals serving in the Orange cabinet, right. You sacrificed your reputations for this man. Hope the bigotry and the chance to diss President Obama was worth it.

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    @tobie:

    This reminds me that years ago Robert Reich used to argue that the US needs young immigrants to pay for the social safety net.

    Yep. Ironic, isn’t it, that the official government (via Fox News) position is that some immigrants are vile creatures incapable of becoming citizens, who are also potential murderers:

    Ainsley Earhardt: The government shutdown is “an inconvenience,” but “you deserve to be able to go to sleep at night and not have to worry about being killed by an illegal immigrant.”

  104. 104.

    jl

    @tobie: ” I am not an economist (IANAE). ”
    Count your blessings in this Happy New Year.

    If you have info on German system, please give a reference or link. I can’t find anything on it right now. Never heard of them having a fiscal PayGo.
    Are you sure you are not talking about PayGo pension funding? Budget and pension PayGo are two different types of policies.

  106. 106.

    [Individual 1] mistermix

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    Apparently, at the moment it’s really just AOC causing some trouble and the media is amplifying that for their Dems in Disarray narrative.

    Good, she should cause trouble on PAYGO. It’s just another cudgel to bang down Democratic legislative priorities because “there’s not enough money” as soon as they Dems get some power.

    As for whether it’s being disloyal to Pelosi, I’m sure Pelosi doesn’t give the whiff of a shit about PAYGO in reality. It’s window dressing. AOC is doing what Dems in 90% Dem districts should do – advocate for positions that represent her constituency. If she wasn’t complaining about PAYGO she wouldn’t be doing her job.

  107. 107.

    Heywood J.

    I love seeing people get exactly what they vote for. I keep a big box of “fuck ’em” right under my desk for people like the good folks of South Dakota, and the box is never quite large or full enough. They’re getting what they asked for, good and hard.

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    PayGo in the US was the one of the tools that Bill Clinton used to get us running a surplus after 10+ years of Republicans blowing up the deficit, and it worked really, really well.

    As soon as he was selected by the Supreme Court, W destroyed that surplus with a “tax refund” and re-inflated the deficit with his stupid war in Iraq.

    Republicans hate PayGo because it shows that all of their screeching about the deficit is completely bogus.

    “Progressives” hate PayGo because they’ve absorbed Republican propaganda and are convinced that BClinton allowed Republicans to cut welfare spending without getting anything in return.

    As usual, Democrats are getting blamed for the Republicans fucking things up and then claiming it was really the Democrats’ fault for letting the Republicans lie and cheat.

  110. 110.

    tobie

    @jl: Oh, we all have our crosses to bear. Mine’s just not economics. You’re right that it’s the German pension system that depends on payroll taxes. My mistake. Here’s a link to the proposed German budget for 2019-2022. You’re more equipped to examine it than I am, though it is written for laypeople with clear expenditure and revenue streams.

  113. 113.

    [Individual 1] mistermix

    @Mnemosyne:

    “Progressives” hate PayGo because they’ve absorbed Republican propaganda and are convinced that BClinton allowed Republicans to cut welfare spending without getting anything in return.

    Point me to one place where AOC has referenced this and I will believe you.

  114. 114.

    Don K

    Well, it’s possible those nursing homes are profitable – just that they don’t make the 25-30% ROEs the hedge funds require, so out they go.

    It may be my coastal elite attitude (although I’m in MI now, I was born and raised in NJ), but I’m about out of fucks to give for people who vote for the Leopards Eating Peoples’ Faces Party because Jeebus, abortion, gays, and scary brown people, whose faces then are eaten by leopards.

  115. 115.

    Barbara

    @JustRuss: I can’t possibly comment because I don’t know where you are or anything about the home itself. However, I can categorically state that the vast majority of nursing homes couldn’t possibly survive without Medicaid. There just aren’t enough totally self-funded patients and long term care insurance is still highly unusual.

  116. 116.

    Chris Johnson

    @Yutsano: It is absolutely something worth dumping. PAYGO is shit. It’s for if you want to virtue signal to Republicans who don’t themselves honor it, and rightly so because it is garbage economics.

  117. 117.

    Mnemosyne

    @[Individual 1] mistermix

    The “reply” script is blocked in the browser I’m using, sorry

    Point me to a cogent explanation of why progressives think that PayGo sucks that doesn’t use the word “austerity.” Because claiming that it’s an austerity measure shows that they have no clue what the actual purpose of PayGo is.

    Hint: it was not created to impose austerity during a recession. In fact, it was originally designed to be used when the economy is growing, which is the opposite of austerity.

    If progressives want to argue that PayGo is the wrong policy right now, that’s great, but at least fucking understand that it’s not fucking about “austerity,” morons.

  118. 118.

    Mnemosyne

    @ChrisJohnson

    PayGo did exactly what it was supposed to do in the economy that was right for it, and then the Republicans irresponsibly ripped it up to enrich themselves.

    The only thing that makes it a bad idea is that we now know that the Republicans who are currently in power will grab onto any surplus and spend it like a teenager who got hold of Grandma’s credit card. That’s not the same thing as being a bad policy in a situation where the economy is growing.

    Again, we have to stop pretending that any policy that the Republicans were able to ignore or subvert was an inherently bad policy. If an arsonist burns down a building, how many discussions do we need to have about improving building codes before we can discuss the fucking arsonist who set the fire?

  119. 119.

    AnOuthouse

    I live in upstate NY. We’ve experienced this too. It’s the reason my wife ran for county legislator. Republicans were in charge when the county nursing home was founded. Different republicans decided to get rid of it. They’re mean, stupid, and exist because of nepotism. One party rule sucks. They changed elections to be on off/off years to protect themselves, the cowards.

  120. 120.

    boatboy_srq

    Everyone’s hands are tied because Tax Cut Jesus won’t let the evil government spend any more money on poors, even if they are old white poors who weren’t poor when they went into the nursing home, but all their money was spent as they lay in a moaning, incontinent fetal ball in the Alzheimer’s wing.

    THIS.

    I once said that Florida existed solely to separate people from their money. This was one reason. What the Dakotas are experiencing now, FL has known as common practice for at least three decades.

    Until the US gets over its fear of Creeping-Soshulism-Eleventyone, the nation will continue to impoverish each generation as it reaches that point in retirement when self-sufficiency wanes. And then blame said generation for not planning sufficiently for eldercare costs that weren’t even whispered about when said planning could be done.

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