Who do they serve? Congress rife with insider trading, lavish trips, lavish pensions, cushy jobs

As Republicans and Democrats try to woo the American voters to vote for their team, the American people are suffering from the devastating results of their past legislation.  Special interest written legislation enacted by their lackeys in congress has left ordinary Americans bankrupt, unemployed, ignorant and hopeless. 

It’s hard to fathom why they even woo the people when they don’t count their votes anyway.  As American taxpayers fund their lavish lifestyles, trips, health insurance, pension, vacations, retirement as well as that of their extended families, American citizens get austerity.   We’re called takers, lazy slackers looking for a handout by our congressional overlords.  

Through legislation they have cut Social Security payments to people with government pensions, such as teachers who work part-time in the private sector when they cannot afford to live on their salary.  Even though they pay into Social Security for years, lawmakers called them “double dippers”.    Union pensions have been cannibalized and they have been taxed for having “Cadillac” healthcare plans.  Food Stamps have been slashed, Medicare premiums have risen and cuts have been made to the Medicaid program.  There are work requirements for food stamps even though most people on food stamps already work but can’t afford to eat.  But what of congress, are they governed by the same standards?  From Fiscal Times:

Excerpt:

Here’s the true story of what we provide our elected representatives and how that compares to the real world.

Pay:  Members of Congress set their own, not unlike some state assemblies… the rank and file members now receive a tidy $174,000 salary, which is automatically adjusted each year based on changes in the employment cost index. The automatic pay increase was nixed in 2010, partly as a response to the uproar when Social Security payments were held stagnant.

If you’re a House or Senate leader, you get more.  The Speaker of the House gets $223,500, while both minority and majority leaders in the House and Senate take home $193,400.

To put that in perspective, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that just 5.1 million Americans earn more than $150,000 annually out of the nation’s 240.1 million workers. That means members of Congress earn more than 97 percent of the country.

Pensions: Back in 1984—the end of another great recession—furor over legislative pensions ushered in reform. Legislative exemptions from contributing to the Social Security system were eliminated and over-the-top pensions that would pay 50 percent of your highest salary after 20 years of service were replaced with a less-generous pension, plus Social Security.

Now, if you retire at age 55 with 30 years in Congress, you’ll get just 44 percent of your pay—roughly $76,560—versus 71.3 percent ($124,062) of pay under the old formula. Of course, now legislators also get Social Security payments, which can add another $20,000 or $30,000 annually to their retirement income, so they still come out ahead of the game.|

Congressional pensions also are adjusted for inflation. In private industry, where just one in every five workers has access to a traditional pension, payments are about half as generous as legislator’s pensions and retirees rarely get annual boosts to account for the rising cost of living…

More pensions: In addition to the traditional pension, members of Congress participate in the government’s Thrift Savings Plan. If legislators don’t want to save any of their own money, the government will still set aside 1 percent of their pay—that’s $1,740 annually—into the Thrift plan. If members do decide to contribute, Uncle Sam will match another 5 percent of pay for a total contribution from taxpayers amounting to 6 percent of total income, or $10,440. The closest thing that private industry has to the Thrift Savings Plan is your 401(k).

Health care: While about 15 percent of the population is without health insurance, members of Congress are all covered. Their plan is similar to the subsidized plans offered by big companies. In this case, the government pays about 70 percent of the cost of coverage, while legislators pick up the remaining 30 percent. In addition, they have access to dental insurance, vision care, health savings accounts, life and long-term care insurance—that’s similar to the cacophony of lucrative benefits offered by the best American companies.

Perks: There’s free parking, both at the office and at Washington, D.C.-area airports. You get a cheap membership to the house gym, subsidized daycare and access to legislative dining rooms that were once subsidized to the tune of $2 million annually, but are now supposed to be operating at cost, says Sepp…   And like most other executive fringe benefits, the bulk of the perks provided to members of Congress are tax free.

Travel: But the legislative perk to trump all others is travel, says Singer. Not only do you get to fly between D.C. and your home district on taxpayers through the “members representational allowance,” there are lots of ways you can globe-trot on somebody else’s dime. Join a committee, for example, and you can participate in fact-finding trips all over the globe.

Last year’s Congressional junket to talk about climate change in Copenhagen cost taxpayers $550,000, which included so-called “per diem” allowances for hotels and meals that worked out to $2,200 per person, per day.

Technically, legislators are supposed to return any per diem payments that they don’t need to spend, but a recent Wall Street Journal investigation found that rarely happens. One legislator quoted by the WSJ said he’d hesitate to travel so much if he thought he couldn’t just pocket the taxpayer money.

Members say their trips are all about business and fact finding, but they usually take their spouses, Singer says. And it’s tough to figure out just how much members are spending and whether American taxpayers are getting their money’s worth. That’s because international travel comes out of what Singer calls a “bottomless mystery account” operated by the Treasury…

The above is just a fraction of what congress get.  Now a Republican representative has been indicted for insider trading, I’m shocked.  I’m shocked that he was so overt about the insider trading, members of congress are involved in insider trading all the time with no ramifications.  Insider trading was enabled by a quietly passed law that exempted members of congress, their staff and family from laws against insider trading.  From NPR:

Excerpt:

How Congress Quietly Overhauled Its Insider-Trading Law

The legislative process on Capitol Hill is often slow and grinding. There are committee hearings, filibuster threats and hours of floor debate. But sometimes, when Congress really wants to get something done, it can move blindingly fast.  That's what happened when Congress moved to undo large parts of a popular law known as the STOCK Act last week.

A year ago, President Obama signed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act into law at a celebratory ceremony attended by a bipartisan cast of lawmakers.  "I want to thank all the members of Congress who came together and worked to get this done," he said.

The law wouldn't just outlaw trading on nonpublic information by members of Congress, the executive branch and their staffs. It would greatly expand financial disclosures and make all of the data searchable so insider trading and conflicts of interest would be easier to detect.

But on Monday, when the president signed a bill reversing big pieces of the law, the emailed announcement was one sentence long. There was no fanfare last week either, when the Senate and then the House passed the bill in largely empty chambers using a fast-track procedure known as unanimous consent.

In the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., shepherded the bill through. It was Friday afternoon at 12:52. Many members had already left for the weekend or were on their way out. The whole process took only 30 seconds. There was no debate.

Isn’t that the way it is, pass a bill reigning in unlawful behavior by politicians with lots of hoopla, backslapping, and self-congratulating only to revoke it in the dark like cockroaches.  So when we saw the recent indictment of GOP congressman Chris Collins for insider trading it merits looking at what he actually did that was so over-the-top, to get him in trouble. From Business Insider:

Excerpt:

Indicted Rep. Chris Collins shows why members of Congress should not trade stocks

Rep. Chris Collins, a prominent backer of President Donald Trump in Congress, has been indicted on allegations of insider trading, along with his son and his son's fiancée's father.

Collins is on the board of an Australian pharmaceutical company. The US Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that he tipped his son about a failed clinical trial and that the son and associates saved $750,000 by trading on the tip.   This is a really stupid thing to allegedly have done…

Anyway: Rep. Chris Collins, a New York Republican who gave President Donald Trump his first congressional endorsement, has been indicted on allegations of insider trading in a case with an extremely obvious, how-were-you-dumb-enough-to-try-this fact pattern.

Get a load of this

Here's what's laid out in complaints from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (Collins has pleaded not guilty):

Collins sits on the board of Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biopharmaceutical company in which he is also the largest shareholder.

On June 22, 2017, Collins learned that Innate's main drug had failed clinical trials, a grave outcome for Innate's financial condition.  Literally seconds after learning this news, Collins contacted his son, Cameron, who at the time owned 2% of Innate.

Over the following four days, Cameron Collins and several other associates of the Collinses proceeded to liquidate their positions in Innate before the public announcement of the drug failure on June 26, after which the stock fell 92%...

Innate is not an especially large company. As a result, per the SEC: "The sales by Cameron Collins, his girlfriend, and her parents, including Stephen Zarsky, made up more than 53% of the stock's trading volume [on June 23] and exceeded Innate's 15-day average trading volume by more than 1,454%..."

This leads me to a question.  Is Chris Collins an idiot?...  Was it because the trading wasn't on his own account and he thought the SEC wouldn't be able to draw a link between him and [checks notes] his son — even though Collins was already the focus of a congressional ethics investigation related to Innate?

Was it because he thought he and his son could just talk the FBI into the idea that the sales were unrelated to the clinical-trial news? Oops, now Collins and his associates have also been indicted on allegations they lied to the FBI…  

Collins' public defense against these charges has focused on a fact prosecutors do not dispute: Even as his associates were selling, he did not liquidate his own, much larger stake in Innate. That might seem like a tiny bit of prudence in a sea of recklessness — among other matters, Collins would have had to publicly disclose the dates and amounts of his sales under rules pertaining specifically to members of Congress.

But as the SEC complaint says, it's possible Collins didn't sell because he literally couldn't. Unlike his son, he had not completed paperwork to transfer his stock to the US, where one could trade it on the over-the-counter market. His stock was stuck in Australia, where trading of Innate on the Australian Securities Exchange had been halted — because of the impending announcement of the clinical-trial failure.

Open Secrets estimated, based on disclosure forms, that Collins' net worth was nearly $70 million as of 2015.

Is Chris Collins an anomaly?  Are other members of congress humble public servants there to ensure the overall well-being of the “people” they serve?  That question brings me to an article written by one of my fav’s Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone about the dubious, lucrative trading of Senator Bob Corker, who ahem, is retiring this year.

Excerpt:

So Tennessee Senator Bob Corker is in trouble now, because he flip-flopped to vote for Donald Trump’s tax bill after a provision was included that reportedly helps him personally.  Color me not shocked. I spent most of this past summer investigating Corker, whose personal finances have been the subject of inquiry for years…

How do you increase your net worth so significantly while you’re working full-time as a Senator? That is not an easy story to explain.  According to his own disclosure forms, Corker in 2006 carried a series of huge loans.

Corker took office in January, 2007, during the last gasp of the Bush/Rove political juggernaut. The Iraq war had gone south and the Republicans had just been routed in midterms. The financial crisis was just around the corner. And nobody paid attention to the smooth-talking freshman Senator from Tennessee, who turned out to have some financial issues…

It wasn’t until Corker took office and filled out disclosure forms that his finances became public – sort of. Few in the media seem ever to have read the “liabilities” section of Corker’s first disclosure, where the former mayor and construction magnate listed a series of massive outstanding loans. At the low end, Corker appeared to owe a hair-raising $24.2 million. At the high end, $120.5 million.

He had been in debt to some of the nation’s biggest lenders – including somewhere between $12 million and $60 million in debt to GE Capital alone.   Corker had been a construction magnate in Tennessee before taking office, a sort of mini-Trump. Before he ran for office, he sold off his business to a local developer named Henry Luken…

Ten years before reporters would swarm over Trump for (among other things) raising fees at his Mar-a-Lago resorts before making a series of taxpayer-funded visits, Corker tested the limits of the moonlighting possibilities in the legislative branch, essentially becoming a full-time day-trader who did a little Senator-ing in his spare time.

In the first nine months of 2007, Corker made an incredible 1,200 trades, over four per day, including 332 over a two-day period… 

By 2014, when Corker sat on the Senate Banking Committee, a position that gave him regular access to prime information about the future direction of the markets, the Tennessee Senator still had his foot on the gas. He made 930 stock trades that year.

Of his colleagues on the committee, Rhode Island’s Jack Reed made 39 trades, Pennsylvania’s Patrick Toomey 26, and nobody else made any – meaning Corker made 93.5% of all trades made by the legislators most plugged-in to the country’s finances…

Corker’s activities didn’t go completely unnoticed. A few ethics groups and reporters cried foul over the years. He had to amend his Senate disclosures after the Wall Street Journal in 2015 found unreported income from “quick” trades in a Chattanooga company called CBL enterprises. As Fortune noted at the time, Corker went back and made “dozens” of amendments to earlier disclosures, to reveal about $3.8 million in previously unreported income.

Meanwhile, Bethany McLean of Yahoo! News later reported that Corker had invested in a Tennessee hedge fund that made profitable short bets against the housing market with Goldman Sachs… 

Until this week, Corker’s history has been scrutinized only occasionally, and most often because of the role he’s played in an unrelated controversy known colloquially as #Fanniegate.  

This monstrous dispute over the future of the “government sponsored entities” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in which Corker played a loud and conspicuous part, made him enemies among investors who are embittered over the unilateral seizure of the two companies’ profits six years ago, on August 17th, 2012. Corker supported that controversial and unprecedented move, known as the “revenue sweep…”

 When Corker took on Trump this fall – saying the White House was “an adult day care center” and that Trump’s behavior threatened “World War III” – he suddenly became a darling of sorts in the liberal media.  Now, to his critics, he’s a bad guy again, for reportedly doing what he’s always done, acting in his own financial interest while earning a paycheck as a U.S. Senator.

Corker is the norm in congress, they’re like pigs at the trough.  Corker is retiring after engorging himself on America’s largess.  And, he’s not alone.  So when congress critters announce their exit do they lay low and pull their snouts from the taxpayer trough?  No hardly.  From USA Today:

Excerpt:

These lame ducks still fly – on the taxpayer’s dime – often to faraway countries

WASHINGTON – Last September, Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania became the latest in a large cohort of members of Congress to announce his retirement.  About a month later, Dent, a seven-term Republican and former chairman of the House ethics committee, arrived in Italy on the first leg of a six-day, three-nation trip at taxpayer expense that included stops in Belgium and Luxembourg.

The cost to taxpayers for Dent’s trip: nearly $7,000.

His post-retirement announcement travel habits are hardly unique. At least 17 retiring members of Congress have gone on overseas trips after announcing they were not going to seek re-election, according to travel information included in the Congressional Record. All were on the taxpayer’s dime with a total cost of nearly $190,000.

There is nothing illegal about these trips, and all were signed off on by the chairman of the committee under whose authority the trip was taken. But they do raise the issue of how much benefit the constituents in these cases get when their representatives travel shortly before they leave office.

"The problem is many of these trips are really much more like paid vacations than fact-finding trips,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for the good-government group Public Citizen.  “Then when you take a look at retiring members of Congress suddenly jetting around the globe, it really does have every appearance that they’re just in the last minute getting the most of what they can out of the perks of being a member of Congress,” Holman said….

Dent ended up resigning on May 8 of this year and in June began as a senior policy adviser at the international law firm DLA Piper. He also serves as a political commentator for CNN... Dent declined to comment for this story because, he said, he has an exclusivity agreement with CNN that prevents him from talking to other media.

Five retiring members traveled as members of congressional foreign affairs committees, including House committee chairman Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif. and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as well as Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. and Ted Poe, R-Texas…

In many cases, details of these taxpayer-financed trips by members of Congress are not generally available. And what is available in the Congressional Record can be hard to find.

So congressman Charlie Dent resigned on May 8^th as he segued into his new job as a policy adviser at the international law firm of DLA Piper as well as a political commentator for CNN.  How prevalent is this practice?  From The Atlantic:

Excerpt:

An Exodus From Congress Tests the Lure of Lobbying

There’s a wave of lawmakers fleeing Capitol Hill this year, but if recent history is a guide, many of them will put down roots in the D.C. swamp.  There’s a particular moment Representative Tom Rooney can see in his mind, when his fifth and final term in the House comes to an end and he leaves Washington, D.C., for the last time as a member of Congress.

He’ll drive south toward Georgia, crossing over into Florida north of Jacksonville.  He’ll pass that familiar sign, the blue one that says “Welcome to the Sunshine State,” when he reaches the border.  “I made it,” he’ll think to himself.

Every two years, retiring lawmakers like Rooney face a choice: Do they return home to their states and districts, or stay where the political action—and the money—is in Washington? The last several months have seen a rush to the Capitol exits like none other in more than a quarter century: Rooney, a Republican, is one of three dozen members of the House and Senate who aren’t running for reelection or another office this fall...

Some in this year’s class of retirees are more junior members who’ve grown disenchanted with national politics. Rooney, 47, is one of them: “The D.C. rat race has run its course for me,” he told me in a recent interview.

But if recent history is a guide, many of Rooney’s fellow congressional retirees won’t be leaving the Beltway at all…. But once their terms are up, a surprising number of these same politicians don’t return home. They stick around town, joining law firms, think tanks, and lobbying shops. On any given day, ex-lawmakers stalk the corridors of the Capitol complex, kibitzing with their old colleagues as they prod them for votes…

Ex-lawmakers can cash in on their policy expertise and friendships in the Capitol, earning two or three times their $174,000 base salary as a member of Congress…

Members point out that lobbying allows them to use the experience and issue expertise they’ve built over many years in Congress to continue to advocate for causes they believe in. But while that might attract ex-lawmakers to lobbying, it’s not what draws high-paying companies to them: They want the relationships.

The American people are not lazy slackers.  As a matter of fact Baby Boomers largely did everything that was expected of them.  They worked hard, saved, earned pensions, invested in 401K’s, raised their children and took care of their elderly parents.  Now that their well-earned twilight years have arrived, what do they have?  FromZero Hedge:

Excerpt:

"Their Wealth Has Vanished": Baby Boomers File For Bankruptcy In Droves

An alarming number of older Americans are being forced into bankruptcy, as the rate of people 65 and older who have filed has never been higher - at three times what it was in 1991, while the rate of bankruptcies among Americans age 65 and older has more than doubled, according to a new study by the The Bankruptcy Project…

The magnitude of growth in older Americans in bankruptcy is so large that the broader trend of an aging U.S. population can explain only a small portion of the effect. The median senior filing bankruptcy enters the system $17,390 in debt, vs. an average net worth of $250,000 for their non-bankrupt peers.

According to the study, a three-decade shift of financial risk from government and employers to individuals is at fault, as aging Americans are dealing with longer waits for full Social Security benefits, 401(k) plans replacing employer-provided pensions and more out-of-pocket spending on items such as health care.

“When the costs of aging are off-loaded onto a population that simply does not have access to adequate resources, something has to give,” the study says, “and older Americans turn to what little is left of the social safety net — bankruptcy court.”

“You can manage O.K. until there is a little stumble,” said Deborah Thorne, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Idaho and an author of the study. “It doesn’t even take a big thing…”  

The questionnaire asked filers what led them to seek bankruptcy protection. Much like the broader population, people 65 and older usually cited multiple factors. About three in five said unmanageable medical expenses played a role. A little more than two-thirds cited a drop in income. Nearly three-quarters put some blame on hounding by debt collectors…

Meanwhile, by 2013 the average Medicare beneficiary's out-of-pocket health care expenses ate up around 41% of the average Social Security payment, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Moreover, more people are entering their senior years in debt. For many, that means a mortgage - roughly 41% of senior debt in 2016, which is nearly double the 21% rate from 1989, according to the Urban Institute…

What isn't helping is that many older parents report that helping their children contributed to their bankruptcies. Seattle bankruptcy attorney Marc Stern says he's seen parents co-sign loans for $10,000 or $20,000 for their kids, only to find themselves on the hook when their offspring couldn't service the debt.

“When you are living on $2,000 a month and that includes Social Security — and you have rent and savings are minuscule — it is extremely difficult to recover from something like that,” he said.   Others parents had had co-signed their children’s student loans. “I never saw parents with student loans 20 or 30 years ago,” Mr. Stern said.

“It is not uncommon to see student loans of $100,000,” he added. “Then, you see parents who have guaranteed some of these loans. They are no longer working, and they have these student loans that are difficult if not impossible to pay or discharge in bankruptcy, and these are the kids’ loans.”

“They worked all of their lives, and did what they were supposed to do,” he said, “and through circumstances like a late-life divorce or a death of a spouse or having to raise grandkids, have put them in a situation where they are not able to make the bills.”

Every bit of the reasons Baby Boomers wealth has disappeared is the result of legislation written by special interests and enacted by their lackeys in congress.  The Joe Biden Bankruptcy protection for banks legislation made it impossible for student loans to be forgiven in bankruptcy.  Biden’s bankruptcy bill was an onerous thing that protected predatory banks from any losses regardless of their risky actions. 

Just who do they serve?  Baby Boomers wealth hasn’t disappeared, it has been transferred to the very top which includes members of congress.  Almost every member of congress is a millionaire.  They have pensions and savings plans regular people can’t even dream about.  Just who do they serve?  Answer, they serve themselves.

By Patricia Baeten

Politicians can’t be trusted with life and death healthcare decisions for your family

ILLUSTRATION BY LYNE LUCIEN/THE DAILY BEAST

The politicians in America hold their political seats by the grace of billionaires who make or break them.  They are in the seats they hold to ensure a death rate that provides cover for the rich to enrich themselves at the expense of everyday Americans.  The politicians view our military families as dumb animals who do what they are told to protect the assets of the billionaires. 

The Democrats’ party died with the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and the installment of George W. Bush by the Zionist wing of the Democratic Party.  The Republican Party has devolved into the party of death and destruction tasked with destruction of humanity in the cruelest ways possible.  No politician should be allowed to make any decision regarding the health, education, and financial well-being of the American people as they are devoid of morals and compassion.  Any life and death decision must be brought before the people in the form of a referendum that the politicians must abide by.

As our millionaire, pampered, underworked, overpaid political class leave for another vacation/recess before their month-long August vacation the American people are left to fend for themselves against a predatory medical/pharma/banking/military prison system of state sanctioned apartheid.  From Connie Schultz at Creators.com:

Excerpt:

No Recess For The American Public

On Tuesday, public outrage forced the Republicans to postpone their vote to gut the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid.  Two hours later, I stood with a loved one in an emergency room in small-town Ohio and got an earful from the nurse taking care of him.  The nurse, with more than 20 years in the profession, had spent the workday running nonstop and hadn’t heard the news. When I told her, she was relieved — and outraged.

“Thank God,” she said. “They have no idea.” She pointed out toward the row of other examining rooms. “Those senators? They have no idea what we’re dealing with here.”  She was talking about the opioid epidemic.  She was also talking about her daughter.

“We’re one of the lucky ones,” she said. “My daughter was addicted, but she survived — and went to prison.” She waved off my sympathy. “No. She’s 32 years old, and this was the best thing to happen to her. She’s clean now and doing so much better. She told me, ‘Mom, I’m so glad I have a roommate who doesn’t want to date me or kill me.”

Others, she said, are not so fortunate. She sees those addicts every week. Many of them live — thanks to an emergency dose of Narcan, an opioid antidote…  Without Medicaid insurance, more of them will die.  The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on major health care issues in America, offers sobering numbers about our growing opioid epidemic.  A few snapshots:  In 2015, more than 2 million people in America were addicted to prescription opioids, and another 591,000 were addicted to heroin.

Between 2002 and 2015, opioid deaths tripled.  Medicaid covers a range of treatment services for more than 650,000 non-elderly adults with opioid addiction. This is in the states that expanded Medicaid coverage. Of the 26 states with an above-average rate of opioid overdose deaths, eight have not done so…

Between 2000 and 2014, opioid-related inpatient stays increased by 64 percent. Opioid-related emergency department visits increased by 99 percent.  That ER statistic — that’s the one all of us should be citing: Opioid-related emergency department visits increased by 99 percent.

It is impossible to believe that congressional Republicans don’t know this… 

McConnell said there will be no vote to repeal health care until after THE SENATE HOLIDAY RECESS. We have no idea how many of the Republicans will return to their states and face their constituents over the holiday weekend.  What we do know is that there is no recess for the American public.  I keep thinking of that emergency room nurse’s lament: “Those senators? They have no idea.”

The Republicans in congress never intended to get rid of Obamacare, the Republican written healthcare law.  As a matter of fact, they have been quite content with the generous subsidies they have given themselves to pay for their Obamacare while demanding to slash subsidies for the American people who are underserved and actually abused by Obamacare.  From CNS News:

Excerpt:

$174K-Per-Year Congressmen Will Get Special Obamacare Subsidy

Under the OPM deal arranged in August, the average member of Congress who makes $174,000 a year will be able to keep his approximately $10,000 health insurance subsidy, like he used to get under his old plan, before Obamacare.  Congressional staffers who buy through the exchange will also get to keep the subsidies they were receiving.  (See Congress Salary CRS Report.pdf)

Before Obamacare, Congress’ plans were administered by the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) and the government paid a yearly contribution to those plans of $4,966.80 for singles and $10,048.76 for families.  The Obamacare law was supposed to eliminate that FEHBP subsidy but the OPM essentially put it back in.

Here are two hypothetical examples of families buying health insurance, under the current rules, through the Obamacare exchanges: 1) a family of four – two adults both age 58, and two children under age 21 – living in D.C. who run their own small business; and 2) a female member of Congress, age 58, with a spouse and two children living in D.C.

Using the Kaiser Family Foundation Subsidy Calculator, the D.C. family of four making $94,250 a year, or just $50 above the 400% of poverty level, would pay $15,481 a year for their family health plan if they chose the silver plan (the middle-tier plan used by Kaiser). They would receive $0 in subsidy.

The congresswoman and her family living next door makes $174,000. Her income is 739% of poverty level and her insurance plan, at the Silver level, would also cost $15,481.  But the congresswoman would qualify for a subsidy of $10,048.76.

(The Kaiser calculator uses the Silver tier plan for its calculations and the OPM rule requires Congress to purchase at the Gold tier, but the federal subsidies are applicable to either tier plan: Gold, Silver, Bronze.)

UNLIKE THE D.C. FAMILY THAT GETS NO TAX-CREDIT SUBSIDY UNDER OBAMACARE, THE MEMBER OF CONGRESS GETS MORE THAN $10,000 BECAUSE OF THE DEAL ARRANGED AMONG THE CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP, THE WHITE HOUSE, AND THE OPM IN EARLY AUGUST 2013.

Congressional staff members would also qualify for subsidies even if their income exceeds the 400% of poverty level.

It is one set of subsidy rules for the electorate, and a different set of subsidy rules for those who work in Congress.

The American people have been removed from the election process through the legislated campaign finance laws, the exemption for members of congress and their staff from insider trading laws, the ALEC written voter I.D. laws and redistricting to dilute the will of the American people to choose their legislators.  America has become an open air prison with our elected officials our jailors deciding who will live and who will die.  Who will eat and have a roof over their head is dependent upon their degree of subservience to their political masters. 

If there is any doubt that the members of our pampered oligarchical congress serves only their wealthy donors and the special interests who ensure their lifestyles of the rich and famous, one need look no further than the abomination of Obama Care.  The health insurance program written by the Republican funded Heritage Foundation codified into law a healthcare program designed to enslave the American people into a system of government funded profits for the American Medical Association and big Pharma. 

When the American people elected a Democratic President, House and Senate who promised Medicare for all, the Democratic Party betrayed their voters.  Barack Obama, Rahm Emmanuel and the Chicago gang of thugs proceeded to pass a Republican agenda that no Republican administration had been able to pass since the 1970’s.  From The Intercept:

Excerpt:

DEMOCRATIC SUPERDELEGATE, IN ROOM FULL OF HEALTH INSURANCE EXECUTIVES, LAUGHS OFF PROSPECT OF SINGLE PAYER

ACTIVISTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY have provided real momentum to the idea of a single-payer health care system, pressing the issue in California and among leading figures in the Democratic Party.  The mere prospect of single payer, however, has elicited swift derision from some corners of the party, with Dick Gephardt, the former Democratic House minority leader, laughing off the idea at a health insurance conference earlier this month.

“Not in my lifetime,” scoffed Gephardt, when asked if the United States will ever adopt such a system.  Gephardt, who serves as a Democratic “superdelegate” responsible for choosing the party’s presidential nominee, was asked about the possibility of single payer at the Centene Corporation annual investor day conference at The Pierre, a ritzy five-star hotel in New York City…

“There is no way you could pass single payer in any intermediate future,” Gephardt declared. America, he added, has the “greatest health care system in the world, bar none.” And while single payer would provide universal coverage, there would be less quality and innovation without the “involvement of the private sector.”

Haley Barbour, the former Republican National Committee chair, another speaker at the event, chimed in to agree. “Hear, hear. Put me down as agreeing with Leader Gephardt as usual,” Barbour chuckled.

The claim that single payer suppresses innovation is an old argument that does not stand up to scrutiny. Most medical innovation in the U.S. are already government funded, through universities receiving federal subsidies and grants, as well as through the National Institutes of Health. A single-payer insurance system, like Medicare, would simply negotiate for lower prices from providers… 

Despite well-entrenched opposition from much of the private health care industry, political momentum for single payer has enjoyed a rapid boom of late…  When Colorado debated a ballot measure to adopt single payer during the election last year, a small army of Democratic Party consultants descended upon the state to help health care industry interests defeat the measure.

Gephardt, notably, became a corporate lobbyist after serving as a populist Democratic lawmaker from Missouri. His clients have included Peabody Coal and Goldman Sachs, among others. He also serves on the board of Centene, receiving annual compensation of around $315,965 in cash and stock awards.

Yes, Dick Gephardt formally the Minority leader in the Democratic Party and Super Delegate who defied the American people’s will and installed Barack Obama as president in 2008 believes “America, has the “greatest health care system in the world, bar none.”  That is true if you are a pampered, super rich politician in America, but if you are a normal American not so.  Congress has a hatred and disdain for the American people and wants them to “hurry up and die.”  The GOP plan keeps congress’ subsidies while removing subsidies from Americans to give themselves yet another tax break on their ill-gotten gains.   From The Intrepid Report:

Excerpt:

Trump, Republicans seek to euthanize 80 million young and old Americans

 “These county lessons are significant because Medicaid is the largest funder of preventive health, births/pregnancy, drug recovery and mental health treatment services. When we talk about the growing costs of Medicaid, it is prudent to remember the population being served. Of the 80 million individuals covered by Medicaid today, more than 34 million are children under 18 years old, 7.3 million are low-income elderly and 11 million are disabled…

“Low income people—an estimated 23 million—will be stripped of all health coverage. Millions of people will suffer needlessly, and many thousands will die an early death. For the authors of these bills and their corporate backers, this is not an unfortunate byproduct, but the deliberate aim of their health care reform.

For the richest 10 percent who tower above the lower orders and control the political system and its two major parties, the diversion of money from profits and private bank accounts to keep working people alive and reasonably healthy—especially those too old to serve as a source of surplus value and profit—is an intolerable affront.

Life expectancy in America is already declining and mortality rates are rising for the working class, in tandem with the colossal growth of social inequality. The ruling class wants to accelerate this process…”

Blood is flowing from the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Lingchi, or death by 1,000 cuts, is the Republican’s preferred method for turning the American Republic into a corporate and security state while culling the non-productive human herd in America…

Trump and the Republicans—and their woeful Democratic “opponents”—have taken wickedness to a new levels of savageness...  The butchers in the Office of Management and Budget and Treasury could care less about 70 percent of the country’s populace.

In case the death rate isn’t escalating fast enough the “Liberal” Democrats delivered another blow to the American people to ensure death and destruction of the American way of life.  Corey Booker, the Obama wannabe and whore extraordinaire who gained fame as Mayor of Newark trotting around for a photo shoots helping to shovel out his constituents after a snowstorm, is now shoveling favors to big Pharma in the U.S. Senate.  From The Slot Jezebel:

Excerpt:

For Some Reason, Cory Booker and 12 Other Dems Helped Kill a Bill That Would Lower Drug Prices [Updated]

Last night, Senate Republicans took their first leap towards repealing Obamacare by approving a budget procedure that would allow them to avoid a Democratic filibuster. The 13 Democrats who subsequently voted against making drugs cheaper for people deeply undercut the ability of that party to speak with credibility on behalf of the working class.

The amendment, which was proposed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Bernie Sanders, would have allowed the importation of drugs from Canada. Trump has taken a more Democrat-friendly tone on drug prices—at one point during yesterday’s maniacal press conference he accused pharma companies of “getting away with murder,” which sent stocks tumbling—and 12 Republican senators, including John McCain, Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, ended up voting in favor of the bill…

Between 2010 and 2016, a handful of the Democratic senators who voted “nay” were amongst the top Senate recipients funded by pharmaceutical companies: Sen. Booker received $267,338; Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) received $254,649; Robert Casey (D-PA) received $250,730; Michael Bennet (D-CO) received $222,000.

As the former mayor of Newark, Cory Booker faced corruption scandals and increased crime and unemployment levels as his star power outside the state rose. He is heavily favored by Wall Street, with securities and investment firms donating $1.88 million to Booker during the 2014 midterm elections; their second-favorite candidate was Mitch McConnell.

Facing a 2020 lineup that apparently also includes fucking Andrew Cuomo, Democrats certainly appear to be setting themselves up for a massive failure, don’t they?

Corey Booker has his snout firmly entrenched in the Wall Street lobbyist trough.  But no matter how much pay, kickbacks, bribes and perks congress receives it is never enough, they want more.  The Tea Party, the Koch Brothers’ caucus has portrayed themselves as fiscal policemen in congress.  Although much showboating has taken place to give the illusion that they are fiscal warriors for the people, they are just the same politicians with a different mask.  From Huffington Post in 2012:

Excerpt:

Living Large on Capitol Hill

Last year, 21 freshman members of the House of Representatives made a show of sleeping in their offices. Instead of renting apartments and living among the city’s lobbyists, reporters and political hacks, the incoming Republicans wanted to be seen as outsiders, unsullied by the ways of Washington…  Despite a series of ethics reforms targeting things like outside income and unseemly junkets, members of Congress receive grandiose compensation and live a lifestyle that’s too big to fail.

At a town hall meeting in Wisconsin last year, a constituent challenged Rep. Sean Duffy, one of the new Republican couch surfers, about his salary. “I’m just wondering what your wage is and if you guys would be willing to take a cut?” the man asked, according to a video of the event.  The man seemed surprised by Duffy’s answer: Members of Congress make $174,000 a year, the congressman said, after some hemming and hawing.

“That’s three times—that’s three of my family’s­—three times what I make,” the constituent stammered. He described himself as a builder who’d been having a hard time finding work since the economy tanked.  Duffy pushed back against the perception that his salary meant he was a member of the nation’s white-collar elite.

“I guarantee that I have more debt than all of you,” Duffy told the town hall attendees. “With six kids, I still pay off my student loans. I still pay my mortgage. I drive a used minivan. If you think I’m living high off the hog, I’ve got one paycheck. So I struggle to meet my bills right now.”

Duffy may have debts, but the reality is that, when compared to the population at large, members of Congress still manage to live on the uppermost portion of the hog. A congressman’s salary is more than three times the median income of American households—currently about $49,445. That paycheck comes fully loaded, with generous health insurance, retirement benefits and other perks that set lawmakers apart from average Americans—AND SET THEM UP FOR A LIFETIME OF FORTUNE AND COMFORT.

So, all gestures of austerity aside, the guys and gals on the couches are still doing very, very well, thank you.

Amazing that with $174,000 per year and unbelievable package of perks reserved for the rich and famous members of congress, they actually feel that they are underpaid.  They don’t receive enough they want more money so they can move out of their offices.  From Local Kicks.com:

Excerpt:

Chaffetz calls for $2,500 legislator housing stipend

WASHINGTON, DC. - Just days before he resigns from Congress, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said Monday that House and Senate lawmakers should receive a $2,500 per month housing allowance — something he explained would help ease housing costs for members who can’t afford two mortgages or rents.

“I really do believe Congress would be much better served if there was a housing allowance for members of Congress,” Chaffetz told The Hill in an interview in his Capitol office, where he sleeps whenever he’s in Washington. “In today’s climate, nobody’s going to suggest or vote for a pay raise. But you shouldn’t have to be among the wealthiest of Americans to serve properly in Congress.”

The comments from the fifth-term lawmaker suggest that financial considerations were a big part of his surprise announcement in April that he was stepping down from Congress and relinquishing his Oversight Committee gavel.

Yes, American people ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do to better “serve congress.”   Unbelievable but that is what our “Democratic Republic” has devolved to.  Our elected officials do not serve America, the American people serve our “elected” officials. 

These are the people who are deciding whether you and your families live or die.  These are the people who decide whether or not your child will have access to an Epi-pen when they are lying on the ground writhing in pain unable to breathe.  These are the people who decide if your parents after working a lifetime must forfeit everything they have earned in life just to live their   last days in dignity.  From Forbes:

Excerpt: 

Draining The Swamp? Not With Tom Price As Head Of Health 

Rather than “draining the swamp” and appointing respected and ethical cabinet members, PEOTUS appears hell-bent on surrounding himself with people who will rapidly deepen the quagmire.  Explosive new information has come out further suggesting that Rep. Tom Price is one of those, mired in questionable ethical practices. 

Price, ethics and conflicts of interest 

In December, the Wall Street Journal reported that Price “traded more than $300,000 in shares of health-related companies" in just four years, “while sponsoring and advocating legislation that potentially could affect those companies’ stocks.” He did this while serving on powerful, health-related committees in Congress.  In 2015, Price also became Chair of the House Committee on the Budget. 

In August, Price purchased between $50,000 and $100,000 of stock in an Australian biotech company called Innate Immunotherapeutics (ASX: IIL).  The company’s key drug is for multiple sclerosis, known as MIS416, and it is seeking FDA approval. Price bought shares at a steep discount of just 18 cents a share. The offering was not public. The stock price subsequently rose to 90 cents and could go as high as $2. (A second, larger investor was Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), who also sits on an important health committee, and whose family now owns 20% of the Australian company. Collins also sits on the board of Innate Immuno—but hey, there’s nothing to see here.) 

The Kaiser Health News Report notes that Innate Immuno is specifically targeting a U.S. market, given that new drugs here can carry a higher price tag—likely $5,000 per month or more.  The 21st Century Cures Act, which Price supported and which passed Congress in December 2016, will be an asset for Innate Immunotherapeutics, as it will weaken safety testing and clinical trials in order to expedite approval of drugs and devices… 

CNN just reported that last year Price bought shares in Zimmer Biomet (NYSE:ZBH), a medical device manufacturer…   What is quite disturbing, however, is that less than a week later, Price introduced the “HIP Act,” a bill that greatly benefited Biomet financially by delaying implementation of certain new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulations.

Zimmer Biomet expressed its appreciation by donating to Price’s reelection campaign.  “Devices cost $76 billion annually in the United States alone, and the profit margin for devices like defibrillators and prosthetic hips is over 20%...”  “Providers of home medical equipment have ranked as key Price backers, contributing $52,600 to his campaign since 2013.” Home health companies contributed an additional $24,000.

The days of the voters choosing their representatives is over, today the politicians choose their voters.  Our political elite have made insider trading for members of congress and their staff legal.  The laws they pass financially benefit themselves, especially healthcare related laws.  Every agency of the American government has been infested by special interests that effect our lives. 

This 4^th of July as we celebrate Independence Day, we find ourselves enslaved by the very politicians that were elected to preserve our independence.  I guess freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose and that’s all the politicians have left us.  God bless America land of the enslaved, sick and dying for profit.  Politicians who are enriched by the suffering of Americans should never be allowed to make life and death decisions for us and our loved ones.

By Patricia Baeten