CONCEDE WHAT?

                                                    

from sam 6/30/2016

THEN

From the office of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders - a brief reminder that neither the Democratic nominee for President, Hillary Clinton, nor the NewYorker everyman paper ,the Daily News, ever "got" Bernie - or perhaps understood him all too well: Here is the "Bernie Buzz" of - NOVEMBER 29, 2012

  

The Face of Class Warfare

BLANKFEIN FACTS

Lloyd Blankfein was paid $16.1 million in 2011, a 14 percent increase, while Goldman's earnings fell 47 percent During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs received a total of $814 billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $10 billion bailout from the U.S. Treasury »
Goldman Sachs received a $278 million refund from the IRS in 2008, even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion that year »

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein came to Capitol Hill this week to call for cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. As Congress and the White House are negotiating a year-end deficit deal, Blankfein blustered about the need to “lower people’s expectations” about their retirement and health care. He was loose with his facts. He spoke with all the sympathy for someone struggling to get by on a $14,000-a-year retirement that you’d expect from a Wall Street banker paid $16 million last year. To Bernie, Blankfein’s attack on working families is obscene. “Think about the arrogance of these guys on Wall Street who were bailed out by the middle class of this country when their greed and recklessness nearly destroyed the financial system, and now they come to Capitol Hill to lecture Congress and the American people about the need to cut programs for working families,” Bernie said. “This is what class warfare is all about.”

NOW

And here is this morning's -June 30, 2016- almost incoherent editorial from that NY Daily News

B.S. from B.S.: Bernie Sanders sees a vast conspiracy behind middle- and working-class economic woes

• Editorials

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, June 30, 2016, 4:10 AM

Throughout his energetic, failed campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders portrayed Americans as victims of a rigged system. Now, he has revealed that he also views them as dupes and dolts.
The New York Times on Wednesday published an Op-Ed by Sanders that drew note for his continuing refusal to endorse Hillary Clinton. More interesting were these two sentences:
“The global economy is not working for the majority of people in our country and the world. This is an economic model developed by the economic elite to benefit the economic elite.”
In other words, a cabal of the very rich has exerted a hidden hand around the globe that has driven down standards of living for the many so that the few can live gloriously.
Since well before this presidential campaign — and brushing off President Obama’s economic puffery — the Daily News Editorial Board has highlighted the falling fortunes of working- and middle-class Americans.
Sanders marshals just some of the evidence in the Times, reporting that 60,000 factories have closed in the U.S over the last 15 years, that the country has lost 4.8 million manufacturing jobs, that the median male worker makes $726 less annually than in 1973 and that nearly 47 million Americans live in poverty.
Spanning more than four decades, the downward trend has reduced the middle class from claiming almost two-thirds of the national income in the 1970s to just 43% today.
During those 40 years, Americans voted Democrats and Republicans into and out of the White House and into and out of control of Congress — with markedly changing approaches to rapidly evolving economic challenges.
Democrat Jimmy Carter weathered two recessions and the Federal Reserve’s radical action of imposing sky-high interest rates to tame inflation.
Republican Ronald Reagan introduced so-called Reaganomics, which called for lower taxes and less government.
Democrat Bill Clinton brought “Clintonomics,” which included a large tax increase, low interest rates and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Republican George W. Bush favored tax cuts. Obama eliminated those cuts on the wealthy and established Obamacare.
But do not be fooled, says Sanders, who has always been way too smart to be fooled. Concealed behind the bipartisan turbulence, the “economic elite” established an “economic model” that was successfully designed to fatten their wallets regardless of America’s ballot box choices.
Sanders’ simple-minded conspiracy theory is worthy of a politician on the order of Donald Trump. Come to think of it, billionaire Republican Trump and Democratic Socialist Sanders are both selling patent-medicine remedies after both men diagnosed the public as just plain dumb.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
For this their genius editorial writer arose early and boozy-eyed to make sure this crap was posted by 4:10AM. Now lets see an editorial about those unavailable transcripts of Hillary's $600,000 "speeches" to Lloyd and the boys and girls at Goldman Sachs.

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY RISES FOR US ALL:

Believe it or not the House of Representatives has quite a few capable and very qualified men and women...well women, anyway, who could and should and would make a

fine President of the United States. Unfortunately, they are not candidates for our exalted presidency. Among them is Representative Janice Schakowsky of Illinois. A voice for democratic and progressive values she recently celebrated a birthday (May 26) and we at the American Appoggiatura just wanted to wish her a happy one. Abigezunt




TOP TEN ABUSES OF THE ``SELECT INVESTIGATIVE PANEL'' REPUBLICANS -- (House of Representatives - May 25, 2016)

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   The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) for 5 minutes.

   Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday 181 Democrats wrote to Speaker Ryan to ask the Republican Select Panel to Attack Women's Health--that is what we call it--to be shut down.
   From the outset, this investigation has been a political weapon to punish women, doctors, and scientific researchers, not an objective, fair-minded, or fact-based search for the truth.

   Here are the top 10 reasons to shut down this partisan panel immediately:

   One: The select panel is a waste of taxpayer money.
   Republicans are wasting taxpayer dollars in their chasing of inflammatory allegations of anti-abortion extremists.
   Three Republican-led House committees, 12 States, and one grand jury have already investigated charges that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal tissue for a profit. None found any evidence of wrongdoing.

   Two: The select panel is an attack on women's rights.
   Republicans are using the panel as part of their campaign to deny women access to legal reproductive health services, including abortions--the panel comes at a time when Republicans have voted repeatedly to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides health services to over 3 million American women and men each year--to eliminate family planning services, and to restrict access to abortion.

   Three: The select panel is harming scientific research.
   Republicans are using the panel to intimidate scientists into stopping legal fetal tissue research on treatment for cures for diseases and conditions that afflict millions of Americans, including multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and spinal cord injuries. Some medical research outfits have already been canceled.

   Four: The select panel is just partisan politics.
   Republicans are conducting an unfair, one-sided, and partisan campaign. They refuse to put indicted video maker David Daleiden under oath, who made those highly edited tapes against Planned Parenthood, while issuing subpoenas and demanding sworn testimony from law-abiding researchers and doctors.
   Republicans have suppressed facts that contradict their preferred partisan narratives. For example, they refused to hear directly from tissue procurement companies while they publicly accused them of misconduct based on misleading and inaccurate staff-created exhibits that lacked any sourcing or foundational information.

   Five: The select panel is a McCarthy-like witch hunt:
   Mirroring the bullying behavior of Senator Joe McCarthy, Republicans are demanding that universities and clinics name names of their researchers, graduate students, lab technicians, clinic personnel, and doctors. When Democrat Jerry Nadler asked Chair BLACKBURN to explain why she needs to amass this database of names, she responded: No, sir. I am not going to do that.

   Six: The select panel threatens innocent lives.
   Republicans are putting researchers and doctors at risk by publicly naming them as targets of their investigation and creating a database of names.
   On May 11, Republicans issued a press release that publicly named a physician who had already been the target and the subject of violence by anti-abortion extremists. That physician was never contacted to voluntarily provide information before he received a subpoena. 

 Seven: The select panel is dangerous.
   Republicans are refusing to protect confidentiality despite known risks and tragedies, such as the murders of three people at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood women's health clinic. That murderer echoed the words of our Republican chairman of the select committee.
   The killer used words like ``no more baby body parts.'' Even after they promised to protect confidentiality, the committee said: We will not assure that witnesses' names or any of the other names used in the deposition will remain private.

   Eight: The select panel is an abuse of power.
   Republicans are abusing congressional subpoena power. The overwhelming majority of their unilateral subpoenas--30 of 36--have been sent without any effort to obtain voluntary compliance.
   We should provide physicians, medical researchers, and others with an opportunity for them to provide information voluntarily. A subpoena should not be the first contact they have with Congress.

   Nine: The select panel excludes Democrats.
   Republicans have consistently refused to work with Democratic panel members. They have refused to discuss or to even give Democrats copies of their unilateral subpoenas until after they have been served, which is in violation of the House.

   Ten: The select panel bullies witnesses they don't like.
   It is time, Mr. Speaker, to end this panel right now.


WHY WE NEED TO LOWER PRESCRIPTION DRUG PRICES -- (Extensions of Remarks - May 25, 2016)

[Page: E795]  GPO's PDF
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SPEECH OF HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY OF ILLINOIS IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2016

• Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to submit the following article, written by Heather Block. I encourage all of my colleagues to read this short and powerful piece, which provides us with yet another personal testimony highlighting the need to lower the price of prescription drugs and support the Medicare Part B Demonstration Project proposed by CMS. In this article, Ms. Block describes ``what it is like to have stage 4 cancer, and to fear bankruptcy as much as cancer due to our health system and the lack of drug pricing regulation''. Sadly, her story is not unique. Across this country, millions of people who are already facing devastating health issues suddenly find themselves in dire financial straits due to the cost of prescription drugs. Let us not forsake the wellbeing of the many for the financial gain of the very few. I ask you to join me in taking the side of people like Heather by supporting CMS's proposal.HEATHER BLOCK may 23, 2016 I testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health last week. It was a big deal for me. As I told my brother, I want my niece to know that we can speak to the powers that be--even individuals like me, without any group or organization to back me up. I want her to know that our voices can still be heard in America.
  I testified about what it is like to have stage 4 cancer, and to fear bankruptcy as much as cancer due to our health system and the lack of drug pricing regulation. I also said that I support a Medicare proposal to evaluate ways to lower drug costs. It would reduce financial incentives that could encourage doctors to use more expensive drugs, while trying several different approaches that would improve quality of care and potentially cut drug costs for taxpayers and patients.
  I felt like most of the Representatives had already made up their minds. Probably not due to the actual proposal, but to the pressures placed by groups that would lose money if the so-called Medicare Part B Demo is launched. I joked before I testified that I might ask, ``Could anyone that doesn't receive any money from the pharmaceutical industry, raise their hands,'' and that I would probably be the only one with a hand raised in the room.
  Turns out my joke wasn't that far off-base. Imagine my surprise when Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) pointed out that two of the five witnesses had several pages of identical testimony--identical down to the highlights. What that says to me is that the pharmaceutical industry lobbyists are so confident of their power that they can be sloppy.
  I do not have that luxury. I have limited time; no one knows how much with stage 4 cancer and certainly limited means. My friends jokingly call me ``Dona Quixote.'' But I feel urgency around the issue, and I do appreciate Representative Peter Welch for pointing out this urgency.
  I know I cannot be alone. Other patients are slowly being bled dry by the cost of our life saving drugs
  While the Medicare Part B Demo will not solve the problem of high prescription drug spending, it's at least a thoughtful step in the right direction. I hope to keep pushing and reminding everyone of the urgency of this issue. Americans recognize that the cost of drugs is not sustainable but no one knows what to do. And so far, no one knows how to overcome the money and power being mobilized by the drug companies to keep their profits high, even as patients go bankrupt
  While the Medicare Part B demo may not be perfect, it's at least a step in the right direction when everyone else seems to be more interested in standing still.
  Let's proceed.
  Heather Block served as a witness for the Energy and Commerce's Health committee hearing on the proposed Medicare Part B Payment Demonstration Project on May 17, 2016.
  
  

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