If you’re looking for gaslighting, confirmation hearings are the perfect place to go. The hearings are where gaslighting is raised to an artform. This is where you find out the truth about the Golden Age that Trump has promised us, right here. We all know that the tax cuts for the rich have to come from somewhere so “entitlement” programs are in the crosshairs right now. Now here’s the gaslighting part: Russell Vought, the nominee for Office of Management and Budget (and an architect of Project 2025) conflates Medicare and Social Security with welfare. Do you freaking love it? If you’re able to access health care through Medicare, after working since your teens well into your sixties and if you have a Social Security check, you’re a welfare queen/king. Ain’t that somethin’?
Without Social Security, sure lots of elderly folks will swarm back to the workplace. Without Medicare? They’ll work sick?
— Unknown Caller (@janefourmillion) January 22, 2025
Have you ever fallen out of a hammock? The worst case scenario is that the thing flips over and you go down face first and hard. And that’s an excellent metaphor for what will happen if Social Security and/or Medicare are tampered with. People say that whatever changes are made will not affect current recipients of these programs. Once upon a time I would have trusted that reasoning but nowadays I trust nothing.
But, if we grant that those of us currently on our *benefit hammock* are going to stay there, let me ruin your day with what could happen to our prescription drugs, whether we still get our Medicare benefits and government checks or not. This is depressing as hell.
One of the nearly 200 executive orders that newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed on Tuesday reversed several critical policies that President Biden had put in place. Among those was lowering drug costs for Americans. With the stroke of his pen, Trump removed a $2 price cap on certain generic drugs, did away with a provision that would improve access to high-cost therapies for Medicaid recipients, and ended an effort to expedite the evidence-gathering process for new drugs.
To put it another way, President Trump just opened the door for drug prices to skyrocket. Without the implementation of these and similar plans focused on reducing costs, Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries will continue to face high out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs, and will have limited access to important—sometimes essential—prescriptions. We all know too many Americans already facing challenges paying for prescription drugs. […]
It’s as plain as day: President Trump did away with these cost-saving plans so that his friends in the pharmaceutical industry could profit. Many administrations have tried to take on exorbitant price-gouging of seniors and failed. President Biden succeeded, and many Americans could enjoy these savings for years.
The new Trump Administration has been so brazen as to increase costs on prescription drugs, making it all-too-evident with whom it stands…and it’s not America’s seniors.
True story: I was paying an average of $70.00 per month for prescription meds during the last go round with Trump. Then Joe Biden got in office. I went to the drugstore and the guy said, “$2.74.” I said, “You must have the wrong bag, Sir. I pay about $70.00.” He read the labels and sure enough he had it right. I said, “Listen, you’ll get no argument from me. I’m just amazed Biden did this so quickly.”
Now it’s four years later and I could be thrown back to that, or worse. And $70 is a chunk of change. I put the money I saved from prescriptions into building the business, getting subscriptions to different places so that I could have more resources and write better pieces. I don’t want to have to knock off those subscriptions if I have to sink unnecessary money into drug costs.
But at least I’m blessed to have a business to sink money into. A lot of boomers are living paycheck to paycheck and a sudden increase in prescription drug meds is going to mean letting some other bill go, or going without food or putting off buying shoes or some necessity.
This isn’t right so that Trump’s billionaire buddies can have even more. This is the kind of scenario that has been the pre-sentiment of every revolution. And people may end up taking to the streets.
Trump has blown off questions about how he intends to deal with the economy, as recently as tonight on Fox News. He’s not worried about inflation. None of them are. Here’s what another billionaire had to say about inflation
Not sure why the poor are in such a turmoil over egg prices. If chicken eggs are expensive, eat quail eggs. Or caviar.
In summary, let them eat cake, is what Dimon is trying to say.
— Challenge Your Beliefs (@ChallengeBelief) January 22, 2025
These people have no concept of what it is to have only “x” amount of money and that’s it. And if inflation makes things to where “x” won’t cover it, then you’re screwed. And it’s not just billionaires. I have known many middle class people who live in a delusional world where if you need food, you just go to food banks. They’ve never been to a food bank and they don’t know what’s there. They think food banks are like grocery stores or some such.
No, they are not. You get a lot of refried beans and some canned goods, like stewed tomatoes, prunes, and of course, bread. But that’s not much of a diet or much of a life.
Pushing America towards the oligarchic, klepto-kakistocracy that Trump and his buddies are so eager to impose is a terrible idea. 650 days until the 2026 Elections. Let’s start keeping track. We need to keep tabs on this.
And if you have Republican senators, call and complain. Let them know what you think. Put their feet to the fire. Trump doesn’t care if they get reelected, and they need to start gaming out their own survival above toadying to him.
******
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They’re going to put Biden in jail for causing all of this. Trump noted Joe didn’t pardon himself. Good times America. JUST WHAT YOU ASKED FOR.
My family has had conversations we never imagined would be necessary. Who’s got a big enough house for all of us to move into? Who’s got private pensions as well as Social Security? How much do you have in savings? Hoping for the best; planning for the worst.
I am 75. We exist on Social Security and his pension.My husband is diabetic. Insulin is expensive. I think billionaires need to pay at least 45% in income tax, closer to 59%. And a,wealth tax