Trump’s healthcare tweets of late are stupendous- Perfect needed warnings to Republicans and Democrats
- Hypocrisy of Democrat critics of Trumps HHS nominee
- Say our subject line three times as fast you can
From Gary Bauer at Campaign for Working Families:
Democrats on Capitol Hill yesterday made it clear that they are digging in to defend everything in Obama’s legacy, most especially Obamacare. They came up with a really catchy (NOT!) slogan — “Make America Sick Again” — as their description of what would happen if Obamacare is jettisoned. That was a mistake.
They are dealing with a president-elect who knows how to throw a punch, and he issued the following tweets yesterday afternoon:
“Republicans must be careful in that the Dems own the failed Obamacare disaster, with its poor coverage and massive premium increases like the 116% hike in Arizona. Also, deductibles are so high that it is practically useless. Don’t let the Schumer clowns out of this web. . . massive increases of Obamacare will take place this year and Dems are to blame for the mess. It will fall of its own weight — be careful!”
Then Trump tweeted the following this morning:
“The Democrats, led by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad Obamacare is and what a mess they are in. Instead of working to fix it, they do the typical political thing and BLAME. The fact is Obamacare was a lie from the beginning. ‘Keep your doctor, keep your plan!’ It is time for Republicans and Democrats to get together and come up with a healthcare plan that really works — much less expensive and FAR BETTER.”
By the way, Democrats understand what Trump is getting at. The Washington Times reports that more than a dozen Senate Democrats have expressed a willingness to make major reforms to Obamacare. Not surprisingly, most of the senators involved are up for reelection in 2018.
Notice what Trump called Schumer. You gotta love it. We find these particular communications of Trump among the finest of anyone in years. Note graphics above and below not in originals. Bold our emphasis.
By Richard Pollock at The Daily Caller:
Senate Dems Attacking Trump’s HHS Nominee Also Own Health Care Stocks
At least three Democratic senators own significant health care industry stocks that could undermine their Senate leadership’s push against the nomination of Rep. Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee as Secretary of Health and Human Services, The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group has learned.
Price, a Georgia Republican, has been harshly criticized by Democrats for owning up to $300,000 worth of stocks in major health care companies like Aetna, Amgen, Athena Health, Eli Lilly and Pfizer. Price has been among the most vocal Obamacare critics in Congress.
Top Senate Democrats attempted Thursday to put additional pressure on the Price nomination by requesting an Office of Congressional Ethics inquiry to determine if Price broke any laws by owning the stock.
But the attack on Price could be blunted by the three Democratic senators also owning significant stock in health care firms. The Democrats’ ownership interests were listed in Senate financial disclosure forms reviewed by TheDCNF.
A Trump transition spokesman characterized the Democrats’ attack on Price as “hypocrisy.”
Congress passed the “Stock Act” in 2012 to discourage congressmen from buying and selling corporate stocks based on their insider knowledge of pending legislation.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, owns stock in major insurance companies that benefit from Obamacare, including. Aetna, United Healthcare and Anthem. He also owns stock in many biotech companies, including Amgen, Celgene, Biogen and Gilead, as well as pharmaceutical giant Merck and the prescription-writing company Express Scripts.
Jointly, Whitehouse and his wife also owns stock in CVS Caremark, Bristol Myers Squibb, Biogen, Gilead, Johnson & Johnson. The Whitehouse family’s total investments in the health care industry totals $805,000.
Whitehouse’s estimated net worth is between $9 to 14 million. He was elected to the Senate in 2007
Sen. Tom Carper, a former governor of Delaware, has been in the Senate since 2000 and now sits on the Senate Finance committee, which votes on legislation proposed by its subcommittee on health care. He also is a member of three health care-related caucuses in the Senate.
Carper owns stock in Medtronic, and BioPharma, while his spouse owns stock in Omega Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson. Carper also has shares in tobacco giant Altria and his wife owns stock in Phillip Morris. The Carper family investments in health care interests total $130,000
Virginia’s Sen. Mark Warner is the Senate’s wealthiest member and has extensive investments in the health care industry. He sits on the Senate Finance Committee’s health care subcommittee.
Warner’s investments favor biotech companies, including Holozyme Therapeutics, Intrexon Corporation, Harvest Intrexon Enterprises Fund and MedOptics. His total health care industry stock investments are worth in excess of $1 million.
Warner also owns stock in Ziopharm, which saw its stock fall in June 2016 when it announced that a cancer patient died after being injected with a substance produced by the biotech company. The substance was not part of its main experimental program but the stock plummeted 18% in June and is still at historic lows.
Warner, whose fortune is estimated at nearly $91 million, holds his stock in a blind trust.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York claimed during a Thursday news conference that “Congressman Price had the influence and was actively involved in pushing health care policies, while simultaneously making dozens of trades in companies that would be impacted by those policies.”
Schumer was joined by Democratic senators Patty Murray from Washington State and Ron Wyden from Oregon.
“We don’t know if he broke the law. But there is certainly enough serious questions to warrant a serious investigation,” Schumer conceded.
Phil Blando, a Trump transition spokesman, shot back at the Democrats, telling TheDCNF that “hypocrisy is apparently alive and well this morning in Washington. The same questions being raised today by Senator Schumer about Dr. Price should be directed to senators Carper, Warner, and Whitehouse, who own and have traded hundreds of thousands of dollars in pharmaceutical and health insurance company stocks.”
Blando added that “Price’s 20-year career as an orthopedic surgeon and a fiscal conservative make him uniquely qualified to lead HHS. Today’s stunt is simply an effort to deflect attention away from ObamaCare’s dismal record, including reduced choices and $700 billion in Medicare cuts.”
Price was a practicing orthopedic surgeon for 20 years before being elected to Congress. During the House Obamacare debate, Price led an informal caucus of physician lawmakers who opposed the program.
