On the campaign trail, candidate Trump promised to save hundreds of billions of dollars standing up to the pharmaceutical industry, and said he’d “negotiate like crazy” to bring down Medicare prescription drug prices.
Allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies for better prices has long been a goal for progressives, and when voters heard Trump stray from the Republican party orthodoxy, railing against Big Pharma as he asked for their support, many ...
politics
Health Department secretary open to national Medicaid work requirements
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told a Senate panel Thursday that he’s willing to work with Congress on legislation that would require people to work a designated amount of hours or lose Medicaid.
States that want to implement Medicaid work requirements have so far sought federal permission to do so, by waiver, but now, Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-LA) is aiming to go further by proposing that the federal government impose work requirements across the board in ever...
Pharmaceutical giant paid Michael Cohen over $1 million — for work he was ‘unable’ to complete
The drug giant Novartis paid Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney and longtime “fixer,” more than $1 million for health care policy consulting work — and then continued to pay him even after the company quickly realized Cohen couldn’t help them.
Cohen signed a one-year contract with Novartis in February 2017, at the cost of $100,000 a month, allegedly to advise the company on “how the Trump administration might approach certai...
Trump reportedly won’t sign farm bill unless it includes work requirements for poor people
President Donald Trump is expected to tell lawmakers Wednesday that he intends to veto the farm bill unless it includes tighter work requirements for individuals receiving food stamps, two people familiar with the deliberations told the Wall Street Journal.
Work requirements for food stamps, known officially as the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), are the most controversial portion of the farm bill, which provides funding for SNAP and must be re-authorized by the ...
Trump tries to fix deficit caused by tax cuts by cutting billions from children’s health care
The Trump administration is set to ask Congress to claw back $15 billion in federal spending. If passed, it would be the largest “rescission” package passed in American history.
Nearly half of the cuts — roughly $7 billion — would come from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a program many low-income families depend on for coverage. The White House claims the cuts will not have an impact on the program, which currently has an enrollment of about 9 mill...
Trump administration stops short of approving the most restrictive Medicaid policy yet
The Trump administration just denied Kansas’ request to create an unprecedented “lifetime limit” on Medicaid, a federal insurance largely for the poor and disabled.
“We seek to create a pathway out of poverty, but we also understand that people’s circumstances change, and we must ensure that our programs are sustainable and available to them when they need and qualify for them,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma ...
Meet Noel Francisco: The man who will supervise Mueller if Trump fires Rosenstein
Even before he became Donald Trump’s top Supreme Court advocate, Solicitor General Noel Francisco was a magnet for Trumpian causes. Francisco was one of the tobacco industry‘s top appellate advocates. And he represented the coal company at the heart of a deadly mining disaster — a coal company owned by Trump’s Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
In the Supreme Court, Francisco convinced the justices to effectively strip President Obama of the recess appointments ...
Rubio tries to defend tax law stance, only manages to insult an intern and further muddy waters
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is once again defending the Republican tax law, just days after he said there’s no evidence it has helped American workers.
On Wednesday, Rubio tried to indignantly correct a Politico story that said he is “walking back” his earlier criticisms of the recently-passed Republican tax overhaul, insulting an intern and failing to make his point any clearer in the process.
The tax overhaul, passed and signed into law last December, raises t...
Rick Santorum says he wishes Trump would stop lying
Former Pennsylvania senator and CNN commentator Rick Santorum said on Wednesday that President Trump “has a problem” with lying, during an interview with CNN’s New Day.
“The president says things that don’t comport with the facts,” Santorum told host Chris Cuomo. “I don’t like calling people liars, but the reality is this president has a problem. And I have said that over and over again. I wish he wouldn’t go out and say...
Arizona election results provide further optimism for 2018’s crop of Democratic candidates
Conservatives nationwide breathed a sigh of relief following Tuesday night’s special election for Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District, as former State Sen. Debbie Lesko clinched a hard-fought victory over Democratic candidate Hiral Tipirneni — but they may not want to get too comfortable.
Lesko won the seat vacated by former Republican Congressman Trent Franks, who resigned in December amid allegations that he had offered $5 million to a former aide and repeate...