August, 06 2020, 12:00am EDT
Progressives Call On Democrats To Stay Firm On Election Funding, Reject Any Deal That Omits It
Today, as Congress continues negotiations this week for the next relief package, Stand Up America issued the following joint statement with Color of Change, Indivisible, Let America Vote / End Citizens United Action Fund, and Public Citizen:
"Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans are willfully ignoring the threat this pandemic poses to our democracy in an effort to suppress the vote. They are threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans by holding our economy and our democracy hostage through their inaction.
WASHINGTON
Today, as Congress continues negotiations this week for the next relief package, Stand Up America issued the following joint statement with Color of Change, Indivisible, Let America Vote / End Citizens United Action Fund, and Public Citizen:
"Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans are willfully ignoring the threat this pandemic poses to our democracy in an effort to suppress the vote. They are threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans by holding our economy and our democracy hostage through their inaction.
"If Republicans believe we can afford $8 billion for defense contractors and nearly $2 billion to remodel the FBI headquarters, then we can certainly afford $3.6 billion in federal funding for safe, secure elections and a deadline extension for the Census Bureau to ensure communities of color aren't erased on the census.
"Republicans cannot be allowed to suppress the vote in the middle of a pandemic--and that's why we support Democrats in both chambers, who are staying firm and using their leverage to protect our democracy by ensuring that election funding, census funding, and an extension of the census reporting deadline are included in a final brokered deal.
"Anything less would not only hurt our elections this year, but damage our democracy for years to come--and that's why Republicans cannot be allowed to get away with census and voter suppression."
Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that new money for election administration needs to be in the bill for it to have a chance of getting through the House.
Stand Up America is a progressive advocacy organization with over two million community members across the country. Focused on grassroots advocacy to strengthen our democracy and oppose Trump's corrupt agenda, Stand Up America has driven over 600,000 phone calls to Congress and mobilized tens of thousands of protestors across the country.
LATEST NEWS
'Two Genocidaires v. the World': US, Israel Oppose Lifting Cuba Blockade
"The world has spoken—it's time for the U.S. to listen and lift the blockade."
Oct 30, 2024
The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday once again overwhelmingly urged the U.S. government to end its decadeslong blockade on Cuba, with just the United States and Israel voting against the measure and Moldova abstaining.
The UNGA's other 187 members present voted to adopt the nonbinding resolution on "the necessity of ending the economic, commercial, and financial embargo imposed by the United States" against the Caribbean island.
This is the 32nd straight year that the U.N. body has approved a resolution against the embargo that began in 1962.
"The U.S. and Israel stand isolated as the only two votes against," Democratic Socialists of America's International Committee said after the Wednesday vote. "The world has spoken—it's time for the U.S. to listen and lift the blockade."
Though a few other nations have
opposed the resolution over the years, Michael Galant of Progressive International and the Center for Economic and Policy Research noted that this vote was "two genocidaires v. the world."
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its yearlong assault of the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 43,163 Palestinians and injured another 101,510, according to local officials in the Hamas-governed enclave. The U.S. Congress and Biden administration have given Israel billions of dollars in weapons and opposed U.N. cease-fire resolutions.
CodePink's Medea Benjamin responded to the Wednesday vote with a video shared on social media, saying that Israel "loves blockades, because it's doing its own blockade of Gaza," and "is dependent on the United States to carry out its genocide."
"Now this is not just some idle vote," she said of the approved resolution. "This blockade that the U.S. maintains is a form of economic warfare. It's no exaggeration to say that now, when there is an economic crisis in Cuba, the U.S. blockade, which keeps Cuba from using the financial markets, from having normal trade with countries all over the world, is actually leading to deaths, leading to people going hungry, leading to people lacking food and medicine that are essential for their lives."
"And that's why the United States must be condemned for this ongoing horrific, inhumane, and illegal blockade," Benjamin added.
Cuba's representative delivered similar remarks to the UNGA on Wednesday. As
Reutersreported:
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said in a speech before the assembly that what is often referred to as the U.S. trade embargo is a "blockade" because the web of laws and regulations complicate financial transactions and the acquisition of goods and services not just from the United States but internationally.
"The blockade against Cuba is an economic, financial, and trade war which qualifies as genocide," said Rodriguez, charging the U.S. policies were deliberately aimed at promoting suffering among the Cuban people to force change in the government.
Some international observers praised the countries who did condemn the blockade. Middle East expert Assal Rad declared, "This is the real international community."
Manolo De Los Santos, a founder of the People's Forum and a researcher at Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, said that "this overwhelming consensus is in contrast with the indifference of the United States, which continues to deny any responsibility for sanctions while tightening its stranglehold on Cuba."
Earlier this month, the People's Forum published a letter in The New York Times to U.S. President Joe Biden, warning that he has "exactly 90 days to reverse" former Republican President Donald Trump's "brutal policy on Cuba."
Biden was vice president a decade ago when then-President Barack Obama "opened a hopeful new chapter in U.S.-Cuba relations by taking the first steps toward normalization," the letter details. "People in both countries were optimistic that Cuba and the United States could become neighbors rather than Cold War enemies. However, Trump dismantled that policy, imposing pain and suffering on the Cuban people."
"Removing the state sponsors of terrorism designation would allow Cuba to engage in financial transactions and restore its electrical grid, as well as address shortages of food and medicine to alleviate the immense hardship faced by the Cuban people, who have endured over 62 years of economic strife under the embargo," the letter adds. "It's time to act. Let Cuba live!"
Biden faced similar pressure in August, when hundreds of legal experts and groups called on him "to comply with existing international law by ending the use of broad unilateral coercive measures" particularly in "cases such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela."
The U.N. vote comes as early voting is underway for the November 5 election in which Trump is facing Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris.
Neither campaign provided details on each candidate's position when contacted by Reuters earlier this week, though Morgan Finkelstein, national security spokesperson for Harris, said that the Democrat "stands with the people of Cuba as they fight for their rights after decades of repression and economic suffering at the hands of the communist regime" and "will stand up to all authoritarians—including the very leaders that Trump has praised and embraced."
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Report Details Record-Breaking Health Threats of Climate Crisis, Fossil Fuel Subsidies
"No individual or economy on the planet is immune from the health threats of climate change," said a lead researcher.
Oct 30, 2024
Over $1 trillion spent each year on subsidizing fossil fuel production must be redirected to public health efforts, said the experts behind a new annual report monitoring progress on the climate and global health.
The 2024 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, published Tuesday in The Lancet by the Lancet Countdown at Universiy College London (UCL), found that delayed action on the climate emergency is exposing people across the globe to record-breaking threats, with 10 of 15 indicators showing that specific health threats have reached "concerning new levels."
"This year's stocktake of the imminent health threats of climate inaction reveals the most concerning findings yet in our eight years of monitoring," said Marina Romanello, executive director of the Lancet Countdown and a senior research fellow at UCL. "Once again, last year broke climate change records—with extreme heatwaves, deadly weather events, and devastating wildfires affecting people around the world."
With 2023 named the hottest year on record earlier this year by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service, the researchers behind the new report found that the average person experienced an additional 50 days of dangerously hot weather that would not have happened without fossil fuel extraction heating the planet.
Heat-related deaths among people over age 65 reached the highest level ever recorded, 167% higher than in the 1990s and more than double the 65% increase that was expected if temperatures hadn't changed since then.
An additional 151 million people across 124 countries experienced moderate or severe food insecurity last year, an increase that was associated with extreme drought that affected almost half of global land area.
"We must cure the sickness of climate inaction—by slashing emissions, protecting people from climate extremes, and ending our fossil fuel addiction."
Changing climate conditions across the globe and the flooding that has come with more frequent hurricanes and tropical storms are also fueling a rise in the transmission of infectious diseases like dengue fever, according to the Lancet Countdown, and warmer coastal waters contributed a record-high number of cases of the bacterial infection vibriosis last year.
"The mosquitoes that spread infections like dengue fever epidemics are reaching new countries, and gradually moving north," said Anthony Costello, a professor at UCL Institute for Global Health and co-chair of the countdown.
But despite those indicators and others, said Romanello, "we see financial resources continue to be invested in the very things that undermine our health."
Researchers expressed optimism about rising investments in renewable energy, but warned that new fossil fuel investment accounted for more than a third of new energy spending in 2023, and 84% of world governments continue to subsidize fossil fuel production despite clear warnings from scientists that oil and gas extraction have no place on a pathway to limiting planetary heating to 1.5°C.
Governments are "in effect paying an estimated $1.4 trillion dollars per year to worsen the crisis," reportedThe Hill.
Meanwhile, "only 68% of countries reported high-to-very-high implementation of the legally mandated capacities to manage health emergencies in 2023," according to the Lancet Countdown. Just 35% of countries reported having early warning healthcare systems for heat-related illness.
"No individual or economy on the planet is immune from the health threats of climate change," said Romanello. "The relentless expansion of fossil fuels and record-breaking greenhouse gas emissions compounds these dangerous health impacts and is threatening to reverse the limited progress made so far and put a healthy future further out of reach."
Total carbon emissions from fossil fuel combustion reached nearly 40 gigatonnes last year, a 1.1% increase from 2022, contributing to high levels of air pollution as well as changing climate conditions.
"National-level net subsidies exceeded 10% of national health spending in 55% of the countries, and 100% in 27% of them," reads a visual summary of the report. "These funds could be redirected towards supporting the transition to clean energy sources, protect vulnerable populations from soaring climate change risks, and enable a healthy future."
Redirecting fossil fuel subsidies "would provide the opportunity to deliver a fair, equitable transition to clean energy and energy efficiency, and a healthier future, ultimately benefiting the global economy," said Romanello.
Released less than two weeks before world governments are set to convene in Azerbaijan for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29), where climate finance is expected to be a key issue, the report calls for "new strategies and finance for implementation" in order to protect global public health from climate disasters.
"These must acknowledge climate change's effects on health and related systems, assess risks and vulnerabilities, and incorporate resilience to shocks," reads a joint brief by the Lancet Countdown and Médecins Sans Frontières, also called Doctors Without Borders. "Adequate, predictable, and unified climate finance for adaptation and technical support is urgently needed to enable ministries of health and their implementing partners to adopt forward-thinking strategies, integrate anticipatory actions, and enhance flexibility and agility in their operating models."
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the report shows "we must cure the sickness of climate inaction—by slashing emissions, protecting people from climate extremes, and ending our fossil fuel addiction—to create a fairer, safer, and healthier future for all."
To shift resources toward a "zero-emissions future," said Costello, "people's health must be put front and center of climate change policy to ensure the funding mechanisms protect well-being, reduce health inequities and maximize health gains, especially for the countries and communities that need it most."
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Dems Warn of 'Rampant' Medicare Advantage Abuses as Trump's GOP Aims to Boost For-Profit Plans
"Many of these plans are a maze of prior authorization word salad designed to deny seniors the coverage they're already paying for," said Sen. Ron Wyden.
Oct 30, 2024
A trio of leading congressional Democrats expressed alarm Wednesday about increasingly widespread abuses and care denials by for-profit Medicare Advantage insurers as allies of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump aim to massively expand the for-profit program.
"We are writing to express our concerns on ongoing problems with Medicare Advantage (MA) that seem to be getting worse," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), and Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.) wrote in a letter to Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
"We are concerned that in many instances MA plans are failing to deliver, compromising timely access to care, and undermining the ability of seniors and Americans with disabilities to purchase the coverage that’s right for them," the Democratic lawmakers continued. "We continue to hear alarming reports from seniors and their families, beneficiary advocates, and healthcare providers that MA plans are falling short, and finding a good plan is too difficult."
Wyden, Pallone, and Neal pointed specifically to MA plans' growing use of prior authorization, a complex, barrier-ridden process whereby doctors must demonstrate a proposed treatment is medically necessary before the insurer will cover it.
The process is notorious for harming patients—sometimes fatally—but 99% of MA enrollees are required to obtain prior authorization for at least some medical services, according to the health policy research group KFF.
"Overuse of prior authorization is not only harmful to patients, it hinders healthcare providers' ability to offer best-in-class service," the congressional Democrats wrote, pointing to MA plans' increasing use of artificial intelligence-backed algorithms to decide whether to accept or deny patients' coverage claims.
The lawmakers also voiced concerns about MA plans' deceptive marketing practices—which are particularly dangerous to people with disabilities, as they could potentially be duped into enrolling in an MA plan that doesn't meet their health needs.
"We call on CMS to use every regulatory, oversight, and enforcement tool at the agency's disposal to rein in rampant misuse of prior authorization, simplify the experience of choosing a Medicare plan, and put an end to rampant marketing abuses," the lawmakers wrote.
The Democrats' call for a crackdown on MA abuses stands in stark contrast to a plan put forth by Project 2025, which has proposed making Medicare Advantage the default enrollment option for the nation's seniors—a change that one critic said would mean "destroying Medicare as we know it" while providing a huge boon to private insurance companies.
Though Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, some 140 people who served in his first administration helped craft the far-right agenda, and one architect of the proposals said earlier this year that the Republican nominee is "very supportive of what we do."
The Guardian's Jessica Glenza reported this past weekend that "one of Republicans' only healthcare policy specifics involves further privatizing" Medicare by boosting Medicare Advantage, privately run plans that have proven significantly more costly than traditional Medicare without obvious improvements in quality of care—leading some experts to call for the program's abolition.
Glenza noted that Project 2025's healthcare proposals were authored by Roger Severino, who previously served as Trump's director of the Office of Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Just over half of the Medicare-eligible population in the U.S. is currently enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, according to KFF.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, a nonpartisan congressional agency, has estimated that the federal government will spend $83 billion more funding MA plans in 2024 than it would have paid to cover the same patients under traditional Medicare.
A recent analysis by the Center for American Progress (CAP) projected that "if making MA the default option for enrollees were to expand the proportion of Medicare beneficiaries in MA to 75%... wasteful spending could approach an eye-popping $2 trillion over 10 years."
"Project 2025 would put more control in the hands of profit-driven corporations by making MA the default enrollment option for Medicare beneficiaries," CAP concluded. "Corporations, not doctors or patients, would be able to control what care an even greater number of enrollees can and cannot receive, while enriching their bottom lines and threatening Medicare's future."
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