New Jeff Merkley Bill Would Prevent Members Of Congress From Owning Stock In Companies Whose Value They Affect

When I met Jeff Merkley in 2007, he was Oegon's state House speaker and a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Gordon Smith. He was a working class guy seeking to join a millionaires club. As minority leader of the state legislature, he directed the successful Democratic drive to win the majority and was unanimously elected speaker in 2006. He ran as an unabashed progressive from day one and Blue America endorsed him. He's never disappointed us and has maintained an "A" rating from ProgressivePunch. This cycle, he and Elizabeth Warren are the only two members with perfect 100% crucial vote scores. In 2016, he was the only senator to endorse Bernie for president. This cycle, like several Bernie supporters, he is competing for early support towards winning the Democratic presidential nomination. I don't know if he'll stay in the race if Bernie decides to run. I feel like he would be tied with Elizabeth Warren as my second choice if Bernie doesn't run. You'll never find him on the list of the Worst Democrats Who Want To Be President.

On Thursday, Merkley penned an essay about a bill he and Sherrod Brown have introduced, the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, that would prohibit members of Congress from abusing their public positions for personal financial gain. Following congressional insider trading scandals in the last couple of years, involving Chris Collins (R-NY) and Tom Price (R-GA), Merkley's bill would ban legislators and top staffers from trading stocks while participating in decisions affecting their value. The next step would be to ban legislators from accepting contributions from companies or executives whose business comes before any committees they serve on, but that isn't a step Merkley and Brown have taken, at least not yet. Merkley:

The Ban Conflicted Trading Act follows two major congressional trading scandals in recent years.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Representative Chris Collins (R-NY) bought nearly $1 million in discounted shares from the Australian pharmaceutical company Innate Immunotherapeutics. Chris Collins sat on the company’s board, while he and his family members owned about 20%--  with a personal investment worth $720,000--  of the company. He sat on the Health Subcommittee of the Committee on Energy and Commerce during that time. On August 8, 2018 Collins was arrested by the FBI, along with his son and son’s father-in-law, for wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, and lying to the FBI in connection with his activities related to Innate Immuno. Representatives Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Billy Long (R-MO), Mike Conaway (R-TX) and John Culberson (R-TX) also bought shares in Innate Immuno.

Meanwhile, in January 2017, it became apparent that then-Health and Human Service (HHS) Secretary nominee Tom Price (R-GA), who sat on the Ways and Means Committee and Health Subcommittee during his time in Congress, had made dozens of stock trades in the health industry over a multi-year period while also acting as a top health care policymaker. While legislating, he advocated for the interests of a company he was invested in, Amgen, without disclosing the conflict of interest. And less than a week after purchasing shares in Zimmer Biomet, a medical devices company, Price introduced legislation to delay a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid regulation until 2018--  a move that would protect the company’s finances. After introducing the act, Price’s reelection campaign received a donation from Zimmer Biomet’s PAC. In total, Price held stock in more than 40 companies that created conflicts of interest for his position as Secretary of HHS.

The Ban Conflicted Trading Act would prohibit members of Congress and senior congressional staff from buying or selling individual stocks and other investments while in office.

New members would be allowed to sell individual holdings within six months of being elected, and sitting members of Congress would be allowed to sell individual holdings within six months after enactment of the bill. Alternatively, members of Congress can choose to hold existing investments while in office-- with no option for trading until they leave office--  or transfer them to a blind trust. Members of Congress would still be allowed to hold widely-held investments, such as diversified mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.

In addition, the legislation would prohibit members of Congress from serving on any corporate boards while in office.

Green Day-@IronStache Guitar Contest Ends Tonight... But, You Know That Artwork Of Trump Shooting Himself In The Foot?

Tonight-- midnight-- we end the Green Day guitar contest. As we mentioned last weekend, Blue America has a signed Fender Squire Bullet Strat that each member of Green Day autographed for me while I was president of their label. Everyone who contributes here-- any amount-- to Randy Bryce's campaign has an equal chance to win the guitar-- pictured below with Randy holding it. We'll pick one person at random in the next couple of days. If you give $1,000 you get a chance to get the guitar. If you give $10 you get the same chance to get the guitar. As I always say when explaining these contests, we're Democrats, not Republicans; that's how we roll. In fact, if you don't have the cash to give and you want the guitar, just send a note to us at Blue America, P.O. Box 27201. Los Angeles, CA 90027 and you'll have the same chance as everyone else. But you better do that immediately because, like I said, the contest is over at midnight.

As of this morning, we had 315 contributions for a total of $7,326.58-- so an average of $23.25. One of those people-- and that's good odds-- is going to be the proud owner of a signed Green Day guitar in about a week. Meanwhile though, so many people who saw the photo of Randy holding the guitar inquired about the artwork directly behind him. Several people asked if they could buy it. Good news:

The artist is Nancy Ohanian, originally from southeast Wisconsin and currently a fine arts professor at Rowan University (where Patti Smith went to school) in Glassboro, New Jersey. In between, she was the editorial cartoonist for the L.A. Times for almost 2 decades and her work is very well known and normally just available through newspaper and magazine syndication. However, she's a huge Randy Bryce fan and sent me a couple of signed prints to sell to benefit his campaign. And how about this for a coincidence? Some years ago Nancy Ohanian gave a talk about art at a middle-school in New Jersey. One of the young students inspired by her that day, David Keith, is now... Randy Bryce's campaign manager! The first one Nancy sent is the imagine of Trump shooting himself in the foot, Active Shooter:

And the second one is just entitled Paul Ryan. (I flipped out when I realized his "desk" is a cheese grater.)

Each one is approximately 16" x 12" and if you're interested, send me a note-- downwithtyranny@gmail.com with your bid. Unlike the guitar these two will go to the two people who are willing to contribute the most to Randy's campaign. Please include your phone number in the e-mail so I can call you.

When Ryan was on Fox with Hannity Friday, absolutely kvelling over a tax cut plan that will be a disaster for the middle class, Hannity complained that some Republican senators "openly trash the president" and asked Ryan about his relationship with Trump. "It’s very good," he avowed. "It is the opposite. We have a great relationship." Hannity asked him if he's happy with Trump's presidency, which most Americans see as an unfolding disaster. Ryan: "I’m very happy... I think the president is giving us the kind of leadership we need to get the country back on the right track." Any big disagreement you have with him, asked Hannity. "No, no," said Ryan. I see a Randy Bryce general election ad in the making, you?

Yesterday Barbara Lee wrote a beautiful endorsement letter for Randy.

You know how Paul Ryan has kept his seat in Congress? By relying on millionaires and billionaires to write big checks to his campaign. Then, after each election, he returns to the House to pass policies that benefit the rich and hurt working families.

Randy Bryce does things differently.

He's an ironworker, a union member, and he's running in Wisconsin's 1st District to unseat Paul Ryan. Randy doesn't accept money from big donors, and he won't be swayed by special interest groups.

The only way Randy will win his campaign against Paul Ryan is if lots of people step up to support him.

Paul Ryan has turned his back on the people of Wisconsin and on the American people. That's why we need Randy in Congress-- someone we can count on to fight for our values.

Randy supports single-payer health care, campaign finance reform, and comprehensive immigration reform. He attended Wisconsin's public schools and understands that all children must have access to quality, affordable education. And he's a lifelong fighter for working people who supports a $15 minimum wage.

We already know that Paul Ryan will pour obscene amounts of money into this race to protect his seat. But Randy has something that Paul Ryan doesn't: a powerful movement of people who want Randy to fight for them in Congress.

There's no doubt about it, this is going to be a tough race. But Randy has a shot at winning it if enough of us step up to show our support.

Meanwhile, on Friday, just after Trump fired his crooked swampy Health Secretary Tom Price for ripping off the taxpayers to the tune of over a million dollars in chartered flights and military planes, Ryan called him "a superb health secretary" and "a good man... His vision and hard work were vital to the House's success passing our healthcare legislation." Ryan is talking about his collaboration with Price to kick between 20 and 30 million Americans off healthcare. That's who Paul Ryan is. Please help Randy repeal and replace him by donating at the No.Trump.NoKKK.NoFascistUSA Act Blue page (by clicking on the Blue America thermometer on the right-- whether you want to guitar or not. And one more reminder-- after midnight tonight that guitar will be part of the history of how an iron worker and union activist, an ordinary American guy, defeated on the the most powerful politicians in America.

How The Trump Regime Has Been Sabotaging The American Health Care System

Obama appointed Andy Slavitt to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2015 and he served until Putin managed to install Trump in the White House. His tweet above caught my attention Friday. It's a shame Tom Price got fired for corruption-- in his case both predictable and inevitable-- instead of for working to destroy the American healthcare system, something he's been doing with the connivance of Trump, Pence, Paul Ryan and the congressional Republicans. When Slavitt tweeted, he was responding to Bloomberg reporter Steven Dennis having posted a letter to Price and Mnuchin from Oklahoma Secretary of Health and Human Service Terry Cline. Here's the letter:

Oklahoma is one of the reddest states in America and one of the most supportive of Trump in last year's election. He beat Hillary 949,136 (65.3%) to 420,375 (28.9%), one of the only states where she didn't hit the 30% mark. Trump won every single county in the state, one, Cimarron County, 89.3% to 6.5%. But even in Oklahoma, state officials are starting to blame the Trump Regime for rising health insurance premiums. Cline blamed Price for missing a deadline for Oklahoma's Innovation Waiver, which could have been used to lower premiums for 130,000 Oklahomans by around 30%.

"After months of development, negotiation, and near-daily communication over the past six weeks, the State and your departments agreed that waiver approval must be received no later than September 25, 2017. As late as last Friday, September 22nd, an agreed upon approval package had been circulated with the state expectation, and federal department promise, that waiver approval would be forthcoming on Monday, September 25. When your departments communicated on Monday that the waiver approval would not be provided, with no reason for the delay or timeframe for approval, the Oklahoma reinsurance program was effectively inoperative for the 2018 plan year. Three days later, beyond health plan commitment and rate filing deadlines, Oklahoma is forced to withdraw our waiver request due to failure of the Departments to provide timely waiver approval... The lack of timely waiver approval will prevent thousands of Oklahomans from realizing the benefits of significantly lower insurance premiums in 2018." Maybe they were flying around on chartered jets partying again.

Price and Mnuchin to Oklahoma patients: "Fuck off!"

Or did Trump order them to do it to sabotage a state where he expected no one to blow the whistle on him and them-- his way of living up to his explicit threats to let the healthcare system implode? There is little question in the minds of officials who have worked in the public health sector, like Slavitt, that Trump and his Regime-- with the connivance of congressional Republicans-- are purposely undermining the healthcare system and attempting to wreck it. Friday, Will Drabold, elucidated on another instance of Price (and Trump) working to purposely screw up healthcare, this time by "delaying" a rule to punish drug makers who price gouge. The rule is another Affordable Care Act regulation, meant to protect low-income and vulnerable Americans, that the Republicans hate.

That rule was created in 2010 under the Affordable Care Act to protect hospitals from being overcharged on prescription drugs that are supposed to be discounted under a program known as 340B. The program, which dates back to the early 1990s, is essentially an agreement between drug companies and the government to discount drugs to hospitals and health clinics that serve high numbers of low-income patients.

The rule mandated by the ACA was written to deter price gouging. Under the rule, if a drug manufacturer is found to have “knowingly and intentionally” overcharged customers, a fine of up to $5,000 could be imposed for each instance of overcharge.

While the rule was supposed to go into effect on Sunday, it’s now been delayed until July. The Department of Health and Human Services quietly logged the delay into the federal register on Thursday.

Thursday’s delay marks the fourth time this year the administration has delayed implementation of a rule that would punish drug companies for price gouging hospitals and patients who are supposed to benefit from discounted drugs.

...While stumping for president, Trump promised to “bring down” the cost of prescription drugs. In a meeting earlier this year with CEOs of pharmaceutical companies, he told them they needed to lower prices. He blasted “RIPOFF DRUG PRICES” in August on Twitter.

But beneath the tweets, consumer advocates, hospital groups and others say Trump has gone back on his campaign promise to penalize drug companies for increasing prescription drug prices. Critics argue the president and his administration do not hold pharmaceutical companies accountable on how they price the drugs they sell to hospitals serving low-income patients because former pharmaceutical executives oversee Trump’s health policies. In fact, a longtime lobbyist for drugmaker Gilead Sciences, Joseph Grogan, who lobbied against the ACA’s 340B rule, now runs the White House group focused on lowering drug prices.

“If you’re looking for ways to combat the high cost of prescription drugs, it doesn’t make sense to attack and limit [340B] in any way,” a Washington health care lobbyist opposed to the pharmaceutical agenda said, speaking anonymously in order to candidly assess the Trump administration.

“Thus far, what we have seen from the [Trump] administration ... has been to hurt the 340B program.”

...When the federal government sought further public comment earlier this year on whether to penalize drug companies that overcharge, hospitals weighed in. They said the penalty was crucial in preventing egregious price increases on discounted prescription drugs. Of 51 comments submitted, 21 supported further delay. All of those came from pharmaceutical companies or industry groups.

Entities like hospitals that receive discounted drugs can no longer sue drug manufacturers after a 2011 Supreme Court decision, forcing them to rely on the “honor system” or pressure from HRSA to ensure the right price.

...Since 2010, 82 rural hospitals in the U.S. have closed. Many of them serve high populations of Medicare and Medicaid recipients, giving them access to 340B discounts, and 40% of rural hospitals operate at a loss, Diane Calmus of the National Rural Health Association, said.

“High drug costs are an issue not only for hospitals, but patients they’re providing care for,” Calmus said. Her group is frustrated with the seven-plus-year delay in implementing the rule to penalize price gouging. ”[Drug] prices are rising dramatically without justification. We see drugs that have been around for a while, jumping by large margins without an explanation.”

...It’s not hard to track the transition of the pharmaceutical industry into Trump’s White House. Just look at the LinkedIn profile for Joe Grogan, the former industry executive who now leads the Office of Management and Budget’s Health Programs.

Grogan joined the Trump administration in March after about a six-year stint as a lobbyist for drugmaker Gilead Sciences. His lobbying disclosure form for the first quarter of 2017 listed Grogan as lobbying on “pharmaceutical policy as it relates to payments under the 340B program” on behalf of a leading prescription drug manufacturer.

Gilead, which has faced criticism for pricing its hepatitis C medication at $1,000 per pill, spent $1,050,000 on three lobbyists, including Grogan, in the first quarter of 2017 alone, according to the same disclosure form.

At the White House, Grogan has taken leadership of Trump’s working group focused on lowering drug prices. In June, Kaiser Health News obtained documents from those meetings that showed pharmaceutical company executives were crafting the administration’s approach to lowering drug costs. Also in June, Politico pointed out that as of then Grogan has not obtained the necessary ethics waiver to work for the government on issues he had previously lobbied on.

The same week Grogan joined the White House, the administration delayed the implementation of the price gouging punishment rule that it further delayed this week. After a delay in May, the government invited further comment on a rule that had already taken seven years to develop.

Illinois emergency room doctor and dedicated Berniecrat David Gill wasn't surprised to see the Trump Regime to start sabotaging the Affordable Care Act. "It comes as no surprise to learn that the Trump administration is taking steps to make health insurance and prescription medication more expensive," he told us last night. "This is the same president who supports proposed health care reforms which would leave 26 million more Americans without insurance, in order to fund an $800 billion tax cut for his fellow residents of the swamp. His hypocrisy knows no bounds. We absolutely must establish a new House Democratic majority in the 2018 mid-terms, to serve as a true check on his gluttonous excesses. My campaign team and I are running hard here in IL-13, to make sure that this is one of the seats that turns from red to blue next year."

Oklahoma has been one of the reddest bastions in the country but there is one bright spot on the horizon, Tom Guild, an unabashed Berniecrat who's looking like he could actually win the Oklahoma City district, OK-05. He helped give us some insight into what happened with the healthcare shenanigans down there. If you want to help his campaign, you can do it here.

Dr. Terry Cline, Oklahoma’s Secretary of Health and Human Services and Commissioner of Health at the Oklahoma State Department of Health recently chided both Washington munchkin secretaries for denying the state of Oklahoma a waiver that would have helped more than 130,000 of our fellow Oklahomans struggling with dramatic increases in premiums. It would have afforded more than a 30% premium reduction for 130,000 Okies who are now forced to buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act rendered virtually unaffordable because of the actions of Trump appointees. Dr. Cline reluctantly withdrew Oklahoma’s waiver request, because the high flyers in Washington, DC (aka The Swamp) did not approve Oklahoma’s request by the date required for it to go into effect for 2018.

The Trump Administration has shamelessly added to the burden of tens of thousands of our citizens in intentionally undermining the ACA and forcing working people in the Sooner State (and elsewhere) to unfairly and unnecessarily shoulder huge health care premium increases. The failure to grant a waiver to the state of Oklahoma reminds us of yesteryear, when the question was asked, “Have you no shame? Have you no sense of decency, sir?” The action of Trump and Trump’s cabinet appointees are despicable and unforgiveable. It is disgraceful to intentionally add to the burden of working families struggling to obtain health care, raise families, and survive. The Swamp is alive and well in the nation’s capital. We need to put a stake through the Swamp Monsters hearts in the 2018 elections and put an end to their disgraceful actions.

Was Preet Bharara About To Charge Tom Price With Stock Swindling When Trump Fired Him?

There was a lot of mystery and a lot of speculation around Trump and Sessions going back on their word and firing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara this week. A lot of speculation. What was he investigating that spooked Trump enough to fire him after asking him to stay on his job? Silly people postulated that it was because Bharara is close with Schumer and that Trump and Schumer had a falling out. That's so stupid it isn't worth spending the time I just spent the time writing it. But yesterday Robert Faturechi, writing for ProPublica, seems to have gotten to the bottom of the mess. And it was something that isn't all that surprising-- the well known crooked dealings of the Trump Regime's HHS Secretary, Tom Price.

The Price scandal is hardly new. The Senate questioned him-- ineffectively about it-- and there was a lot of press as well. The NY Times' David Leonhardt dubbed him Dr. Personal Enrichment, while ripping apart his nomination. He pointed out that statistics and surveys show that the most highly paid sector of medical doctors, orthopedists-- like Price-- "suffer from a professional culture that does not live up to medicine’s highest ideals. Too many orthopedists are rich and think it’s an injustice that they’re not richer. This culture helped shape Dr. Tom Price, the orthopedic surgeon and Georgia congressman who is Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services." Anyone who's followed Price's career well knows it's been entirely based on rapaciousness and unadulterated greed and selfishness. As rich as Price is-- over $10 million rich-- "he hasn’t been content to make money in the standard ways. He has also pushed, and crossed, ethical boundaries. Again and again, Price has mingled his power as a congressman with his desire to make money."

Last March, Price announced his opposition to a sensible Medicare proposal to limit the money doctors could make from drugs they prescribe their patients. The proposal was meant to reduce doctors’ financial incentives to prescribe expensive drugs. (And, yes, if you’re bothered that your doctor has any stake in choosing one drug over another, you should be.)

One week after Price came out against the proposal, he bought stocks in six pharmaceutical companies that would benefit from its defeat, as Time Magazine reported. At the time, those same companies were lobbying Congress to block the change. They succeeded.

It’s a pattern, too. Price has put the interests of drug companies above those of taxpayers and patients-- and invested in those drug companies on the side.

Last year, he also bought shares in Zimmer Biomet, a maker of hip and knee implants. Six days later, according to CNN, he introduced a bill that would that have directly helped Zimmer.

In his defense, a spokesman for Price has said that his broker bought the Zimmer stock and Price didn’t find out until later. That’s certainly possible, but still not acceptable. Members of Congress bear responsibility for their personal stock transactions, period.

A third episode may be the worst. Price accepted a special offer from an Australian drug company to buy discounted shares, as the Wall Street Journal and Kaiser Health News reported.

He told the Senate that the offer was open to all investors, although fewer than 20 Americans actually received an invitation to buy at the discounted price. The stock has since jumped in value, and Price underreported the worth of his investment in his nomination filings. It was a “clerical error,” he says.

Even without any larger context, his actions are disqualifying. He’s repeatedly placed personal enrichment above the credibility of Congress. The behavior is substantially worse than giving money to an illegal immigrant (which defeated a George W. Bush nominee) or failing to pay nanny taxes (which scuttled a Bill Clinton nominee).

But of course there is a larger context. Price has devoted much of his political career opposing expansion of health insurance. His preferred replacement of Obamacare would reduce health care benefits for sicker, poorer and older Americans.

His views have a long history within the medical profession. For decades, doctors used their political clout to help block universal health insurance. They offered many rationales, but money was the main reason. Many doctors feared that a less laissez-faire health care system would reduce their pay.

It’s to the great credit of today’s doctors that they have moved their lobbying groups away from that position and helped extend insurance to some 20 million people. They understand that some principles matter more than a paycheck.

Or at least many of them do.

Yes, some-- but not ole Tom Price. And Bharara had launched an investigation in Price's shady stock transactions. Bharara was following up on a law that prohibits members of Congress using nonpublic information for personal profit. A ProPublica source says that "the investigation of Price’s trades was underway when Trump fired Bharara.

In December, the Wall Street Journal reported that Price traded more than $300,000 worth of shares in health companies over a recent four-year period, while taking actions that could have affected those companies. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, chaired the powerful House Budget Committee and sat on the Ways and Means Committee’s health panel.

In one case, Price was one of just a handful of American investors allowed to buy discounted stock in Innate Immunotherapeutics-- a tiny Australian company working on an experimental multiple sclerosis drug. The company hoped to be granted “investigational new drug” status from the Food and Drug Administration, a designation that expedites the approval process.

Members of congress often try to apply pressure on the FDA. As ProPublica has reported, Price’s office has taken up the causes of health care companies, and in one case urged a government agency to remove a damaging drug study on behalf of a pharmaceutical company whose CEO donated to Price’s campaign.

Innate Immunotherapeutics’ CEO Simon Wilkinson told ProPublica that he and his company have not had any contact with American law enforcement agencies and have no knowledge of authorities looking at Price’s stock trades.

Another transaction that drew scrutiny was a 2016 purchase of between $1,001 and $15,000 in shares of medical device manufacturer Zimmer Biomet. CNN reported that days after Price bought the stock, he introduced legislation to delay a regulation that would have hurt Zimmer Biomet.

Price has said that trade was made without his knowledge by his broker.

In a third case, reported by Time magazine, Price invested thousands of dollars in six pharmaceutical companies before leading a legislative and public relations effort that eventually killed proposed regulations that would have harmed those companies.

Louise Slaughter, a Democratic congress member from New York who sponsored the STOCK Act, wrote in January to the SEC asking that the agency investigate Price’s stock trades. “The fact that these trades were made and in many cases timed to achieve significant earnings or avoid losses would lead a reasonable person to question whether the transactions were triggered by insider knowledge,” she wrote.

What federal authorities are looking at, including whether they are examining any of those transactions, is not known.

Along with the Price matter, Bharara’s former office is investigating allegations relating to Fox News, and has been urged by watchdog groups to look into payments Trump has received from foreign governments through his Manhattan-based business. Bharara’s former deputy, Joon Kim, is now in charge of the office, but Trump is expected to nominate his replacement within weeks.

CBO-- A Bigger Thumbs Down For Ryan's TrumpCare Bill Than Anyone Thought

Here's the whole CBO report on Ryan's Trumpcare proposal. The way Ryan, Pence and Price wrote the bill, 14 million people would lose their health insurance immediately and then coverage would be reduced by 21 million in 2020 and down by 24 million in 2026. Oddly enough, a White House internal analysis is even worse on Ryan's proposal! Trump's own people predict 26,000,000 people will lose insurance during the next decade, 2 million more than what the more cautious CBO reported! Not even Trump voters, whose fault, after all, this is deserve the horrible fate the Republicans have in mind for them. The Washington Post report emphasized that "14 million fewer people would have health insurance next year alone. Premiums would be 15 percent to 20 percent higher in the first year compared with the Affordable Care Act and 10 percent lower on average after 2026. By and large, older Americans would pay 'substantially' more and younger Americans less, the report said. The report from the Congressional Budget Office fueled concerns that the GOP health-care plan would prompt a dramatic loss in health-insurance coverage, potentially contradicting President Trump’s vow that health-care reform would provide 'insurance for everybody' and threatening support from moderate Republican lawmakers."

Ian Millhiser, was much tougher on the Republican bill, writing for ThinkProgress that "approximately 17,000 people could die in 2018 who otherwise would have lived if a House Republican health proposal endorsed by the Trump administration becomes law. By 2026, the number of people killed by Trumpcare could grow to approximately 29,000 in that year alone."

Even though the new head of the CBO, Keith Hall, was handpicked by Paul Ryan and celebrated by HHS Secretary Price who said he would bring an "impressive level of economic expertise and experience," he was ready to slam their report even before it was given. He told White House reporters that the Regime "disagrees strenuously with the report that was put out" and argued that their report looked "at a portion of our plan, but not the entire plan... We believe that our plan will cover more individuals at a lower cost and give them the choices that they want for the coverage that they want for themselves and their family, not that the government forces them to buy." When a reporter asked him to concede that without that mandate to buy coverage, there will be millions of uninsured, he snarled, "No, I wouldn’t concede that at all. The fact of the matter is they are going to be able to a coverage policy that they want for themselves and for their family. They are going to have the kind of choices that they want… So we think that CBO simply has it wrong."

Progressives generally felt that the CBO's report-- on top of the opposition from the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, AARP and from a solid majority of voters-- signals a death knell for Ryan's bill. One congressmember who requested anonymity said that "Price and Ryan are both full of shit. They've been hanging around Trump and Kellyanne too much and forgot about the rigors of reality."

Mark Pocan, who represents the Madison area in Congress said that "The CBO report proves what we already knew-- millions of Americans will lose coverage under Speaker Paul Ryan and President Trump’s plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act. To make matters worse, out of pocket costs will rise especially for older and low-income Americans. At the end of the day, this plan means millions of hard-working Americans will lose coverage while the wealthiest few get a massive tax cut. So much for Trump’s boast to provide 'insurance for everybody,' The CBO report confirms yet another broken promise by President Trump and Republicans in Congress."

Ruben Kihuen, a freshman representing North Las Vegas expressed similar sentiments. "The Republican proposal is just a massive tax cut for the wealthy disguised as healthcare reform. This so-called 'plan' is a direct attack on older Americans, effectively placing a heavy tax on getting older. Republicans should be working to improve on the Affordable Care Act to make health insurance cheaper and more robust for everyone."

Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter talked with her constituents in New Hampshire and found a lot of disagreement with the GOP plan. "Today’s estimate by the independent Congressional Budget Office that 14 million Americans would lose their insurance next year under the Republican health plan should be the nail in the coffin for this draconian proposal, which would not only take away Americans’ insurance but also slash Medicaid, end Medicaid expansion, roll back requirements that insurance cover basic medical services, increase deductibles, and raise premiums for older Americans-- all while slashing taxes for the wealthiest. According to CBO, 24 million people would lose their coverage by 2026, meaning the Republican plan not only erases the gains we’ve made since the Affordable Care Act but would actually leave fewer people with coverage than before the law passed. Now that the Republican health bill’s devastating impact has been laid out in black and white, it’s time for President Trump and Congressional Republicans to join the American people and the health care industry in rejecting this harmful bill, and instead come to the table to find bipartisan solutions that make our health care system work better for everyone."

Pramila Jayapal (Seattle) didn't mince words. "The CBO report," she said, "shows the Republican bill is nothing more than a dangerous ideological wish list that strips 24 million Americans of health care, raises premiums by more than fifteen percent, makes our seniors pay more, and guts Medicaid by almost $1 trillion. All of this in order to give $600 billion in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest amongst us. Americans will pay more for health care and get less coverage. This will be life and death-- literally-- for millions of Americans. This plan is simply not a plan. Republicans who truly care about their constituents will vote no to ripping apart our health care system and leaving millions of families without insurance."

Blue America is in the middle of vetting two new congressional candidates now, Houston cancer specialist Dr. Jason Westin and Katie Hill, an executive of a non-profit that helps veterans find affordable housing, who are, respectively, running against Republican anti-health care backbench conservatives John Culberson (TX-07) and Steve Knight (CA-25). I reached out to both of them for a perspective on the meaning of the CBO report yesterday. First Dr. Westin:

The CBO report analyzing TrumpCare is excellent news for two groups: those determined to shrink the federal government at any cost and the ultra-rich. For everyone else, the CBO analysis concludes that TrumpCare will be absolutely devastating.

The good news? The analysis projects a budget deficit reduction of $337 billion over the next decade. The bad news? How long do you have? The bill would reduce Medicaid funding by $880 billion dollars, or 25%. This drastic reduction would force states to cut services, resulting in fewer Americans receiving less effective care, hurting those most in need including kids, pregnant women, those near the poverty line, and seniors in long-term care. The CBO determined that a staggering 24 million Americans, or 1 out 14 of us, would lose insurance under TrumpCare, increasing the uninsured percentage from the current ~8%, the lowest ever recorded, to ~15%, an increase of 88%. Lastly, the CBO finds that Americans aged 50-64 will see premiums jump “substantially” due to the age tax allowing insurance companies to charge five times more than charged to younger enrollees.

If the non-partisan CBO determined TrumpCare is so very bad, why is it even being considered? Simply put: a massive tax cut of $900 billion over 10 years for the wealthiest Americans. Is there a connection between cutting critical services to create a colossal tax cut for the 1 percenters? The CBO analysis offers none. In short, 24 million Americans, our daughters, uncles, friends and neighbors, will lose their health insurance so that the very rich get even richer. TrumpCare is a reverse Robin Hood bill of the worst kind.

Katie Hill isn't a medical doctor but her concerns are very much those felt by people throughout the L.A. area. "In my community, as it is, far too many people still can't afford healthcare because the premiums are too expensive, deductibles too high, they barely make enough to make ends meet, and they don't qualify for Medicaid or a subsidy through the exchange. We are in a place when we need to be expanding coverage-- not cutting it. The Antelope Valley, a large portion of the district I hope to represent, has L.A. County's highest death rates from lung cancer, diabetes and heart disease, and a very high percentage of people who have only gained access to care because of the Medicaid expansion made possible by the ACA. Cutting that will take some of our poorest, most vulnerable neighbors out of preventative primary care and put them back into the emergency room as uninsured patients. More people will die, and ultimately, taxpayers will foot the bill no matter what. We need to continue to build on the progress made by the ACA. We can't afford to go backwards."

Why Diane Black Has Far More To Fear From Her Constituents In Tennessee Than Justin Amash Does From Michigan Voters

Justin Amash isn't hiding from his constituents and he's not hiding the media coverage of his raucous downhill meetings. He welcomes them and wants Michiganders to know about them. Amash's Grand Rapids-based seat is in a swing district (PVI is R+4); most of the voters coming from Kent (Grand Rapids) and Calhoun (Battle Creek) counties. Obama won it 50-49% in 2008, lost it 53-46% in 2012 and Hillary lost to Trump 51.6% to 42.2%. 3 months ago, Amash did considerably better than Trump-- winning reelection with 203,069 votes (59.6%) to 128,159 (37.5%). He won all 5 counties in the district.

According to the ProgressivePunch crucial votes scores, he's the most likely Republican in the House to support progressive legislation and, in fact, his score so far this year is 40.0, more progressive than would-be Democratic Leader Tim Ryan (D-OH), New Dem leader Jim Himes (CT), Blue Dog leader Kurt Schrader (OR) and over two dozen other Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, who apparently see the Trump-Ryan agenda as more attractive and supportable than Amash does. Amash's 2017 score is 40.0 while reactionary Blue Dogs like Kyrsten Sinema (AZ), Collin Peterson (MN), Henry Cuellar (TX), Jim Costa (CA), Dan Lipinski (IL), Jim Cooper (TN), and Tom O'Halleran (AZ) all have scores of... ZERO. You can see why Ryan and McCarthy prefer Democrats like Sinema and Cuellar way more than independent-minded Republicans like Amash and Walter Jones (NC).

This week, while Ryan's lockstep Republicans were being torn apart by their own constituents in town halls, even in deeply red districts and in every part of the country, Amash was packing in the crowds-- and with a different result than, for example, Tom McClintock found waiting for him in Roseville, in the suburbs north of Sacramento.

More than 600 people showed up to a town hall meeting hosted by Congressman Justin Amash Thursday night. It was his second Grand Rapids town hall in less than a month and it was the second time so many people showed up they had to close the doors and turn people away.

Some Michigan members of Congress have been criticized lately for avoiding constituents.

But town halls are not new for Amash. The Republican says he’s always felt taking unscripted questions from his constituents, in person, is part of the job. But under the new administration, the crowds have been major.

“I like to be here hearing the different perspectives. I’m not afraid of my positions. They’re positions I believe in and positions I ran on,” Amash said... The generally left-leaning crowd gave Amash heat for supporting the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and a bill dismantling the U.S. Education Department. Amash got cheers for his support of immigrant families and civil rights. He told the crowd President Donald Trump needs to release more personal information, up to and including his tax returns if necessary, in order to ease ethical concerns.

But, more than anything, they thanked him for showing up and listening.

16-year old Holly Heathfield came with a group of classmates from Coopersville seeking extra credit in her government class. She asked Amash whether he supported expanded charter schools; she doesn’t, he does.

“Even though I don’t agree with all his views I do respect him for holding these meeting and hearing other people’s opinions. I think that’s really important for the community as a whole,” Heathfield said.

“You can see how hard it is to get people to accept the idea of non-partisan discourse,” Amash said after the event, “Of listening and working together and learning from each other, but I believe that a majority of Americans want something like that.”

The Republican town hall that got all the attention Thursday night was Jason Chaffetz's in the Salt Lake City suburb of Cottonwood Heights, one of the more moderate parts of his district. He was roundly booed by a thousand of his constituents, who are sick of him on a whole array of issues.

The din of the hostile and harassing audience that filled the 1,000 seats of a high school auditorium Thursday night drowned him out.

"Explain yourself," they roared over him.

When the congressman did get a chance to speak, the crowd often didn't like what he had to say. And he knew it.

The town-hall meeting was 75 minutes of tense exchanges between Chaffetz and residents from across the state. They were frustrated by the Utah Republican's refusal to investigate President Donald Trump's potential conflicts of interest. They doggedly pursued him for his initiatives to transfer or sell public lands. They questioned his position on immigration and refugees.

And that was only half of the largely liberal crowd.

About 1,500 people stood outside Brighton High School, too far back to make the cut, their signs reading, "Do your job" and "America is better than this."

...The congressman addressed 13 questions, three focused on public lands and four on investigating Trump. The other subjects jumped from Planned Parenthood to air quality to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Noor Ul-Hasan, a Democratic activist, said, "If you want to continue to look into Hillary Clinton, I don't care. But why aren't you checking out your own president?"

Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said he's looking into comments made by Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to Trump, who plugged Ivanka Trump's fashion line in a national television interview.

"There's no case to be made that we went soft on the White House," Chaffetz said as police nervously patrolled the perimeter of the room. "In terms of doing my job, that's what I'm supposed to be doing."

Melissa Batka Thomas, from Salt Lake City, steadied her shaking hands as she read a quote from Chaffetz in which he called on presidential candidates to release their tax returns and "show everything."

"I'm asking you to explain what your timeline is to uphold your word or why there is a reluctance to do so," she said.

The congressman said, as he has before, that the president is "exempt" from conflict of interest laws. "Until there is evidence that [Trump] has somehow overused that to ingratiate his family …" Chaffetz said before boos cut him off.

...While discussing public-land use and his opposition to Bears Ears National Monument, Chaffetz was greeted by the strongest pushback of the night.

"I hope you do appreciate that not every person has the same viewpoint on the use of public lands," he said. "What we're trying to do is find a balanced approach."

The topic came up again, giving him a chance to speak about his bill to strip Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service employees of their law enforcement powers, an idea that elicited protest from the audience.

"I'm trying to be as representative as I can," he said.

Charlie Luke, a Democratic member of the Salt Lake City Council, wrote on Facebook that the harassment Chaffetz faced "ensured his reelection for as long as he chooses to run."

"It will embolden his majority Republican district," he wrote. "We need to resist, but let's be smart in the way we do it."

This drooling imbecile represents TN-06 in Congress

In November Trump only got 47.2% of the votes in Chaffetz's district, dramatically down from the 78.3% Romney got 4 years earlier. Clinton actually beat Trump in Salt Lake County 175,863 to 138,043. Chaffetz was reelected 186,743 (73.3%) to 68,104 (26.7%), a feat he's unlikely to duplicate in 2018. Halfway across the country in Tennessee, Diane Black, her state's most reactionary member of Congress, represents one of the state's two most backward fascist-oriented districts, TN-06, the north-central Tennessee district composed mostly of the suburbs and exurbs east of Nashville. She won every county in the district-- by a lot-- as did Trump. Trump beat Hillary there 72.6% to 23.7%. Black did nearly as well-- 71.1% to 21.8%. Her Murfreesboro town hall wasn't as raucous as Chaffetz's or McClintock's, but it was no love-fest either. One hundred of her constituents confronted her at an "Ask Your Reps" event hosted by the Middle Tennessee State University's College Republicans.

Mike Carlson, a 32-year-old student from Antioch, Tennessee, said that as an overweight man, he depended on Obamacare to stay alive.

"I have to have coverage to make sure I don't die. There are people now who have cancer that have that coverage, that have to have that coverage to make sure they don't die," Carlson said. "And you want to take away this coverage-- and have nothing to replace it with! How can I trust you to do anything that's in our interest at all?"

Black responded that Obamacare's individual mandate-- which requires everyone to have health insurance or pay a penalty-- still allowed millions, including many young and healthy people, to be without coverage.

"About 20 million people did actually come into the program who were uninsured," Black said. "You don't want to hurt one group of people to help the another. We can help both groups at the same time."

Bohon shot back: "How many of those people were in states where they played a political game with people's lives?"

Black appeared flustered, and declined to continue. "I'm going to pass this one," she said.

Bohon told CNN afterward that as a state employee, she receives health insurance through the state. Her question to Black, she said, was motivated in part by her Christian beliefs, as well as her upbringing in the coal-mining town of Grundy, Virginia.

"Growing up in the community that I grew up, in Appalachia, because we were so poor there that we had to take care of each other," Bohon said.

Both Carlson and Bohon told CNN that they voted for Hillary Clinton in the general election.

The same event hosted by MTSU's College Republican last year was attended by around 30 to 40 people, according to organizers. On Thursday night, the room was quickly filled to capacity while dozens outside chanted: "Let us in! Let us in!"

Black, along with two other GOP local officials, were at first asked questions that had been pre-submitted on the topics of healthcare and tax reform-- a format that clearly frustrated audience members and prompted some to interrupt.

At one point in the discussion, GOP State Rep. Mike Sparks told the room: "I'll be honest with you. As a state representative, I got health insurance. I feel a little guilty."

Multiple audience members could be heard responding: "You should."

While Republicans were suffering through accountabilty sessions with their constituents, House Democrats were at a retreat in Baltimore where they tried to figure out what went wrong in November and how to move forward. As has become too commonplace among House Democrats-- so utterly dominated by timid corporatists-- everyone was all smiles and upbeat, while "progressives privately vented about being lectured to by a speaker from a moderate [note: when Politico writers use the word "moderate," they are invariably referring to corrupt right-wingers, in this case the putrid whores from Third Way] think tank. And several lawmakers worried that the Democratic leadership would be too dependent on consultants and data to chart a course forward, rather than focusing on a clearer vision for the party... [I]t’s obvious from private and public conversations with members and Democratic aides that the caucus is still struggling, trying to unite on a path forward while still fighting about how they got here in the first place."

Silicon Valley freshman Ro Khanna (D-CA) had far more to offer than Pelosi and her sad-sack eggshell-walking lieutenants. "We need to stop doing the autopsies, stop doing all this metric data stuff and listen to the visionary voices. [Trump] didn’t have deep-dive data. He bragged about not polling. He offered a vision based on what he thought was his vision." Khanna proposed including liberal economic thinkers like Robert Reich and Paul Krugman in Democratic Party discussions like the one they were having.

ABC News' John Parkinson and Mary Alice Parks reported more fully on what Khanna had to say.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-California, echoed, "I don’t think that running on Donald Trump’s missteps is going to win. That didn’t work for Hillary."

As she has often repeated since the election, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said again this week that the problem for Democrats during the election was messaging around their own ideas.

"There wasn't that clarity of the message coming through so we could represent we were the party of the working people," she said.

But Khanna and other progressive members in the party argue it isn’t that simple. They contend Democrats need to spend time crafting a clearer, populist economic agenda, in line with the ideas offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign, in order to present a concrete alternative to voters.

“What is the Democrats’ bold economic vision?” Khanna wondered rhetorically, during an interview with ABC News. “People get that the Democratic Party is for the little guy, but that is not a bold economic vision where it is clearly rejecting corporatists past, being populist and future looking and aspirational.”

He argued the passion and energy in the party right now was with the left and that he worries the party was looking for an all-inclusive “lowest common denominator” message to present that all members in the party, including more moderates, could get behind.

“I think the way to win is to be clear, to be bold, to be progressive, to look at where [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren and Sanders are taking the party and if there are 20 or 30 folks who are not onboard with it fine. But it is better to run with a bold, clear, contrasted vision of the future,” he said.

Jim Himes (New Dem-Wall St)

"The energy of this party is with a message of economic populism, of... questioning the rules of capitalism and saying that these rules have been rigged and written in a way that favors concentrated economic interests and need to be changed" was the message Khanna wanted House Democrats to focus on, something that frightens and infuriates the Members from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, like Jim Himes (ex-bankster and head New Dem-CT). Times was obviously discomforted by Khanna's perspective. "We need to be really careful about convincing ourselves that the right answer is to have 'the perfect message,'" said the congressman who has taken $5,547,712 in legalistic bribes from the Finance Sector since first being elected in 2008. "We bristle a little bit at the idea that 'my gosh, this person shouldn’t even be allowed in the room.'"

After the conference Progressive Caucus officers Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) issued this statement on the confirmation of Tom Price as Secretary of Health and Human Services. It's probably no more what Himes or his Third Way buddies would have like to have seen than it is what Chaffetz, Black and McClintock would embrace:

Rep. Tom Price has led the Republican crusade to dismantle Medicare and Medicaid as we know it. As the Chairman of the Budget Committee, Price has advocated for privatizing Medicare, and turning it into a voucher program, which would increase costs and harm our seniors and most vulnerable Americans.

He has worked to defund Planned Parenthood in order to restrict women’s access to comprehensive reproductive health services. And he has introduced legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which would threaten health care coverage for more than 20 million newly insured Americans.

With Price’s confirmation today, it is clear that Republicans are doubling down on their efforts to destroy these fundamental programs and turn health care over to the hands of insurance companies.

Health care is a right, not a privilege. The CPC will oppose any attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, privatize Medicare, or destroy Medicaid. We will fight to guarantee high-quality health care for all regardless of gender, age, or income.

Two More Trump Nightmares Ready For Confirmation-- Pruitt And Price

The confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education last night was a real blow to the Resistance. She's venal and unqualified and she has a toxic agenda that seeks to destroy public education. But Trump has even worse nominees still waiting to be confirmed. After just one Democrat, Joe Manchin, broke ranks and voted with every fucking Republican for cloture, Jeff Sessions as Attorney General is a fait accompli. Labor Secretary-designee Puzder is so mired in corruption that he may never even make it to a full hearing and one gets the feeling he may wish Trump would let him off the hook.

That leaves two especially odious characters, Scott Pruitt for EPA and Tom Price, the monster tasked with destroying the American health care system-- first Obamacare, then Medicaid and finally Medicare. The Republicans actually want to abolish the EPA altogether. As Raul Grijalva reminded his supporters this week, "If you were born after 1970, you have never lived in the U.S. without the protections and standards of the Environmental Protection Agency." Like me, Raul was born before 1970 and wrote that he's "seen what happens when corporations have free reign to pollute our air, water and public lands at the expense of our environment and public health." He doesn't want to see that again, ergo- his alarm about Scott Pruitt (who is being sued himself right now for denying public access to polluter emails).

Pruitt-- Trump's pick to lead the EPA-- has bragged about suing, trashing, and manipulating the agency he's now supposed to lead. Pruitt regularly sued to block nearly every pollution and climate change regulation and he has lied about his deep ties to fossil fuel industry executives.

And now Republicans in Congress have introduced legislation to do away with the Environmental Protection Agency altogether. The EPA is under attack and we need to stand together to fight back.

So much of what we take for granted is directly related to the work of the EPA-- like having clean drinking water or breathing air free from pollution. Before the creation of the EPA, air and water pollution was a pervasive problem in this country, causing serious health risks for millions of Americans.

Without environmental protections in place, corporations will once again have the freedom to dump harmful chemicals in our water supply and pump dangerous pollutants into our air.

That's why I am so concerned by the Trump administration's plans to repeal the EPA's Clean Power Plan, a historic and important policy to reduce carbon pollution and address climate change. Trump has also threatened to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement and open federal lands to oil and gas drilling... Defending our progress over the next four years is going to be hard work. But if we come together to stand up for our values and our environment, our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy the clean water, air and land they deserve.

The Republican Senate (+ Joe Manchin), in confirming Pruitt, is going to make that just all that much harder. He sounds like a complete horror, right? Tom Price is probably even worse! And he'll be confirmed too-- even though it isn't likely he'll get a single Democratic vote. Even too horrible for Manchin, McCaskill, Donnelly or Heitkamp!

In an OpEd for the NY Times David Leonhardt took Price's nomination apart, dubbing the corrupt right-wing screwball Dr. Personal Enrichment. He pointed out that statistics and surveys show that the most highly paid sector of medical doctors, orthopedists-- like Price-- "suffer from a professional culture that does not live up to medicine’s highest ideals. Too many orthopedists are rich and think it’s an injustice that they’re not richer. This culture helped shape Dr. Tom Price, the orthopedic surgeon and Georgia congressman who is Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services." Anyone who's followed Price's career well knows it's been entirely based on rapaciousness and unadulterated greed and selfishness.

Price had a thriving practice near Atlanta before being elected to Congress in 2004. His estimated net worth of more than $10 million (and possibly a lot more) makes him one of the House’s wealthier members.

Yet he hasn’t been content to make money in the standard ways. He has also pushed, and crossed, ethical boundaries. Again and again, Price has mingled his power as a congressman with his desire to make money.

So far, the nominee receiving the most attention is Betsy DeVos, Trump’s choice for education secretary, and she definitely deserves scrutiny. Still, I think Democrats have made a mistake focusing so much on her rather than on Price. He could do more damage-- and his transgressions are worse than those that have defeated prior nominees.

Last March, Price announced his opposition to a sensible Medicare proposal to limit the money doctors could make from drugs they prescribe their patients. The proposal was meant to reduce doctors’ financial incentives to prescribe expensive drugs. (And, yes, if you’re bothered that your doctor has any stake in choosing one drug over another, you should be.)

One week after Price came out against the proposal, he bought stocks in six pharmaceutical companies that would benefit from its defeat, as Time Magazine reported. At the time, those same companies were lobbying Congress to block the change. They succeeded.

It’s a pattern, too. Price has put the interests of drug companies above those of taxpayers and patients-- and invested in those drug companies on the side.

Last year, he also bought shares in Zimmer Biomet, a maker of hip and knee implants. Six days later, according to CNN, he introduced a bill that would that have directly helped Zimmer.

In his defense, a spokesman for Price has said that his broker bought the Zimmer stock and Price didn’t find out until later. That’s certainly possible, but still not acceptable. Members of Congress bear responsibility for their personal stock transactions, period.

A third episode may be the worst. Price accepted a special offer from an Australian drug company to buy discounted shares, as the Wall Street Journal and Kaiser Health News reported.

He told the Senate that the offer was open to all investors, although fewer than 20 Americans actually received an invitation to buy at the discounted price. The stock has since jumped in value, and Price underreported the worth of his investment in his nomination filings. It was a “clerical error,” he says.

Even without any larger context, his actions are disqualifying. He’s repeatedly placed personal enrichment above the credibility of Congress. The behavior is substantially worse than giving money to an illegal immigrant (which defeated a George W. Bush nominee) or failing to pay nanny taxes (which scuttled a Bill Clinton nominee).

But of course there is a larger context. Price has devoted much of his political career opposing expansion of health insurance. His preferred replacement of Obamacare would reduce health care benefits for sicker, poorer and older Americans.

His views have a long history within the medical profession. For decades, doctors used their political clout to help block universal health insurance. They offered many rationales, but money was the main reason. Many doctors feared that a less laissez-faire health care system would reduce their pay.

It’s to the great credit of today’s doctors that they have moved their lobbying groups away from that position and helped extend insurance to some 20 million people. They understand that some principles matter more than a paycheck.

Or at least many of them do.