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Embattled Steward Health Care chief Ralph de la Torre said Wednesday that he will not comply with a subpoena to testify at a Senate hearing next week on the collapse of his hospital system, setting up a showdown with lawmakers who are threatening to hold him in contempt.De la Torre did not rule out appearing before Congress eventually, but said through an attorney it would be “wholly inappropriate” to testify before his company emerges from the complex bankruptcy proceedings that have followed for-profit Steward’s spectacular downfall. And that process took a substantial step forward Wednesday, as a federal judge overseeing...

a worrying majority of Democrat voters are completely ignorant of the political positions of Kamala Harris... voters who backed Joe Biden in the 2020 election ... ... A whopping 81 percent of those polled were totally clueless about Harris’ support for the elimination of private health insurance. ... Harris made a stand on the issue while sparring with other Democratic candidates leading up to the 2020 election, backing the single-payer system dubbed “Medicare for all” ... Most people polled are also unaware of Harris’ work as border czar under Biden. Harris and her mainstream media allies have worked hard to...

Former President Donald Trump laid out his economic policies and vision for the country at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, promising to keep intact the Affordable Care Act, Social Security and Medicare. In front of a crowd of thousands that began forming a day earlier, Trump maintained a positive attitude about the November election, which is in 83 days. “We are going to defeat Kamala Harris, we are going to win back the White House in a historic landslide, and we are going to take back our country,” Trump said. He added that his political movement is the...

'The program is in a death spiral,' former domestic policy adviser to former President Trump says In a move critics say is designed to shield the Biden-Harris administration from election fallout, the administration has leveraged taxpayer funds to mask upcoming increases in Medicare premiums. Under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was intended to cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries, insurers are poised to significantly hike monthly premiums, with average bids for Part D plans expected to triple by 2025. In response to potential voter backlash, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rolled out a three-year "demonstration...

Possibly very true. Also possibly very true: The US might need to strike actual gold to afford it. Nevertheless, Donald Trump has emphasized his desire to find new places to cut taxes in order to generate real economic growth. Those ideas are also clearly aimed at finding inroads into traditional Democrat constituencies. A proposal to end taxes on tips has a lot of appeal for low-income servers, who are likely younger voters, and both are key demos for Kamala Harris and other Democrats. It didn't woo the culinary union leaders, but it might appeal to their members.His latest proposal clearly...

Former President Donald Trump announced his intention to eliminate taxes on Social Security checks if he regains the White House. This announcement comes as part of a larger strategy outlined by the Republican National Committee (RNC) in their 2024 GOP Platform released earlier this month, titled “Make America Great Again!” This comprehensive platform is inspired by the enduring vision of former President Donald Trump. “The Republican National Committee (RNC) Platform Committee adopted President Donald J. Trump’s 2024 Republican Party Platform with overwhelming support– a pro-American agenda that stands in stark contrast to the record of weakness, failure, and dishonesty created...

Like Bidenflation? How about hyperinflation?That's what's on tap with Kamala Harris's tax-bigger, spend-bigger agenda, which Axios outlined this morning:Vice President Kamala Harris has used her first days as Democrats' likely nominee for president to make it clear that she'll pursue big — and expensive — parts of Joe Biden's domestic agenda that never made it across the finish line.Why it matters: Harris is signaling that even as Democrats play defense on Biden's mixed economic record, she's eager to go on offense for the next four years.Her plans include pushing for nearly $2 trillion to establish universal pre-K education and improve...

In 2019, then-Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a Democrat presidential candidate, bragged that she had “always” supported the single-payer Medicare for All program. “I have always supported Medicare for All, I was very happy to sign onto Bernie [Sanders’] bill, and I give Bernie, frankly, a lot of credit for moving the conversation to where it is now,” Harris said in 2019 when running for the Democrat nomination for president. However, she said her version of Medicare for All, wherein Americans would still have the option to receive a private insurance plan, was similar to Medicare, where seniors can choose traditional...

The White House on Wednesday explained what President Biden meant when he misspoke and said “We finally beat Medicare” in last week’s presidential debate. “He meant to say he beat big pharma,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a briefing when asked about the president’s words. “I mean, that’s what he meant to say.” The statement about Medicare by the president last Thursday night left some confused, and the president has faced an overall negative review of his performance in the debate against former President Trump. The debate, in which Biden spoke with a raspy voice and stumbled...

Seniors are expected to face $33 in out-of-pocket expenses each month after Medicare Advantage cuts. "Joe Biden has cut Medicare Advantage for the last two years. Did you know that? He’s cut your Medicare Advantage, which is a total betrayal of seniors. And just check, you’ll see it. He has cut you down for two years straight."

Trump Reacts To Biden's 'We Finally Beat Medicare' Gaffe At First Presidential Debate

Just when you think things couldn’t get worse on the fiscal front, Washington once again manages to exceed expectations. One couldn’t help but get that impression from the latest update to the nation’s (poor) budget situation.The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently released revised estimates of the nation’s budget and economic outlook over the coming years. While the prior version of the document, released in February, didn’t exactly show a fiscally responsible federal government, the intervening four months saw lawmakers digging taxpayers — that’s you and me — into an even deeper hole.More Spending by Congress and BidenOverall, CBO increased the...

Texas AG Ken Paxton and Montana AG Austin Knudsen have filed a joint lawsuit against the Biden administration over its rule to fund transgender procedures with taxpayer dollars under Medicaid and Medicare.

WASHINGTON — A former business associate of James Biden has agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to defraud Medicare of $51 million through a lab-testing company linked to the first brother. Keaton Langston, 39, admitted to using pharmacies, durable medical equipment companies and a laboratory in which he had a financial interest to bill for unnecessary tests and orders, the Justice Department disclosed last week in court filings. James Biden, 75, has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing and has sought to distance himself from Langston, whose father Joey Langston also was associated with the first brother. Keaton Langston founded...

Interest payments on the nation’s ballooning debt just eclipsed spending on defense and Medicare, worrying policy experts who have warned this threatens to undermine U.S. economic stability. In the first seven months of fiscal year 2024, which began in October, spending on net interest surged to $514 billion, surpassing spending on both national defense ($498 billion) and Medicare ($465 billion). In fact, interest costs have topped spending on veterans, education and transportation combined. Rising debt will continue to put upward pressure on interest rates," the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonpartisan group that advocates for lowering the...

On May 6th, the 2024 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund was released. It’s a very long title for a report that simply tells us the financial state of Medicare and project the future financial solvency of the program. One claim of the report is Medicare solvency has been extended 5 more years than the 2023 projection, and won’t go broke until 2036. But as with all things involving the Biden Administration, that isn’t the entire story.The 261-page report should be a purely factual...

EXCLUSIVE — The Athens Neighborhood Health Center, Indiana Health Centers, and Mariposa Community Health Center collectively sit on over $58 million in assets and receive regular checks from the federal government. As federally qualified health centers registered as tax-exempt nonprofit organizations in Georgia, Indiana, and Arizona, respectively, they cater to low-income patients benefiting from Medicaid and Medicare. The FQHCs, along with their counterparts, are set for a windfall thanks to President Joe Biden earlier this year freeing up $4.4 billion for them, the most substantial annual funding increase in a decade. The taxpayer-backed health centers, however, also have something else...

Social Security will live to see another year before its trust funds cumulatively run out of money, and Medicare Part A’s trust fund depletion date gained another two years – but the clock is still ticking for the government to fix the insolvency issue. Without any changes in the next 13 years, Social Security beneficiaries can expect to see a 20% cut to their Social Security checks in 2035, according to the Social Security and Medicare Board of Trustees report released on Thursday. For Medicare Part A beneficiaries, the cut is 10% to their scheduled benefits. The Old-Age and Survivors...

Made an appointment to see a medical specialist affiliated with a large hospital and teaching institution located in Tampa, Florida. The appointment was made two months in advance, the office was that far booked up and its services apparently that much in demand. On the day of the appointment, I arrived twenty minutes early, produced my insurance and identity cards, and was given a portable tablet to complete some documentation. Just about everything I had to electronically sign on the tablet was about disclosing my personal medical history to anyone who asked for it, and agreeing that anything done to...

Joe Biden's re-election campaign is repeating the naked lie, over and over again, that President Trump wants to cut elderly people's Social Security and Medicare. Some of those elderly voters believe him, as recent polling has shown. But he's already played Mr. Slasher on Medicare Advantage, the immensely popular supplemental health insurance program favored by more than half of seniors, and he plans to cut it more. Democrats hate this program because it allows its buyers choice in what kind of coverage they would like to have on their policies. According to an important op-ed on RedState from the Heartland...