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Precautions against Covid-19 infection have been stepped up at the White House but are hampered by the cramped and poorly ventilated conditions in the West Wing, Kevin Hassett, a special adviser to Donald Trump on the pandemic response, said on Sunday.
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has been talking to Fox News Sunday about the Trump administration’s attempts to reopen and restart the stalled US economy, and whether there will be another huge stimulus bill. Democrats who control the House want one of those but the White House doesn’t – that’s the short version.
The White House is “absolutely pushing for a payroll tax cut”, Mnuchin says. Most observers think that is a non-starter, because Democrats won’t let it. Payroll taxes, meaning deductions from regular paychecks, include funds for Social Security and Medicare, vital social benefits.
Related: US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?
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Month: May 2020
[Correspondence] Unfortunate distinction or corporate protectionism by design?
We commend the Editors for bringing to readers’ attention the “unfortunate distinction” of Canada's otherwise laudable publicly funded Medicare.1 The effects of this distinction on health, such as poor adherence, poor health outcomes, and avoidable hospital admissions, are well documented.2,3
[Correspondence] The Global Kidney Exchange programme – Authors’ reply
Marta López-Fraga and Beatriz Domínguez-Gil make their point about our Health Policy on the ethics of the Global Kidney Exchange (GKE) programme1 by asking us to imagine that Alyson, an Ohio farmer, is willing to donate a kidney to her daughter but unable to afford the surgery. Medicare pays for kidney transplantation surgery in the USA, even for people younger than 65 years, so there is no way in which GKE could prevent Alyson's daughter from receiving a kidney from her mother. Kidney transp...
Trump admin looks to end cruelty of nursing home COVID-19 secrecy
Rachel Maddow reports on a promise by Seema Verma, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to publish coronavirus nursing home statistics, which are not available to the public in some states.
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RBG says women are being “tossed to the wind” in Supreme Court birth control case
The US Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in controversial cases about religious and moral objections to contraception coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The Trump administration expanded existing “conscience exemptions” dramatically but a nationwide injunction has so far blocked the new rules from going into place.
The justices’ phone debate was long and sometimes painfully technical. However, distilled, the issue at the heart of these matters is relatively simp...
Trump’s pick for federal court ‘too inexperienced’, Democrats say
Justin Walker, 37, is facing a Senate confirmation hearing as Mitch McConnell restarts push to confirm federal judges
A federal judge nominated to the nation’s second-most powerful court said on Wednesday that he was writing as an academic and commentator when he criticized as “indefensible” a supreme court ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act.
Justin Walker, a 37-year-old protege of the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and the supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh...
Supreme Court Divided Over Obamacare’s Contraceptive Mandate
The justices considered whether the Trump administration may allow employers to refuse to provide free insurance coverage for birth control on religious or moral grounds.
Democrats spar with controversial Trump court pick over ObamaCare, Kavanaugh
Senate Democrats sparred with a controversial circuit court nominee on Wednesday over his positions on the Affordable Care Act and his relationship with Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.Democrats repeatedly ra...