Hartmann Report

Just the overcharges happening right now in that scam are costing Americans over $140 billion a year: more than the entire budget for the Medicare Part B or Part D programs… President George W. Bush and Republicans (and a handful of on-the-take Democrats) in Congress created the Medicare Advantage scam in 2003 as a way of routing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of for-profit insurance companies. Those companies, and their executives, then recycle some of that profit back into politicians’ pockets via the Citizens United legalized bribery loophole created by five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court. Just the overcharges happening right now in that scam are costing Americans over $140 billion a year: more than the entire budget for the Medicare Part B or Part D programs. These ripoffs — that our federal government seems to have no interest in stopping — are draining the Medicare trust fund while ensnaring gullible seniors in private insurance programs where they’re often denied life-saving care.

If the six Republican justices rule the way the oligarchs who support their extravagant lifestyles want, America could be a very, very different place in just a few years… Republicans are “this close” — just a matter of months away — from ending Social Security, a goal they’ve worked toward ever since 1935. They’re hoping to use six Republicans on a corrupted Supreme Court to get there. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse points out, in his book The Scheme and his YouTube series about same, that American oligarchs launched a campaign to seize control of the Supreme Court — and, thus, the American government — over 40 years ago and they’re now close to their goal of turning America back to the 1920s.

Sunlight and accountability are still the best disinfectants and America needs to close this ugly chapter in our history with a sense of both finality and justice… Kevin McCarthy is humiliated, the first Speaker in history to have been thrown out of his office by his own party (or any party, for that matter), and the House has been thrown into chaos. By Matt Gaetz, a bizarre congressman under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for sex trafficking minor girls in Florida. Putin, Xi, and MBS are loving this, as it freezes America’s ability to defend our democratic ally Ukraine, further destabilizing the international order and providing China with a model for their hoped-for attack on Taiwan. And because Putin is loving it, Trump mandated it to his followers in Congress. Along with other actions that have taken a bite out of average Americans’ hide.

Either the GOP will be crushed to near irrelevance in the 2024 elections, or they will win enough power to end the American experiment. Which will it be? “Thirty years ago,” Damon Linker told The Guardian, “if I told you that a bunch of billionaires and intellectuals on the right are waiting in the wings to impose a dictatorship on the United States, you would have said that I was insane.” Now, however, the senior lecturer at Penn State University’s Department of Political Science and author of the Notes from the Middleground Substack newsletter has reconsidered. “But it’s no longer insane,” Linker writes. “It’s now real. There are those people out there.” And, Linker notes, “The question is: will they get their chance.” The simple reality is that they already have had their chance in multiple Red states, and when we watch what they’re doing with it we see that step-by-step, day-by-day the GOP is inching towards full-blown fascism. Now they’re calling to end democracy and replace our president with a “Red Caesar.”

So now it’s largely up to us. You and me. People who value democracy and want to see a world safe from tyrants and wannabee tyrants like Putin, Xi, MBS, and Trump… Russia is not just at war with Ukraine; they’re also in a cold war with us. And last week Putin got a significant victory in that war, which is now being fought on the battleground of social media and the Internet. Representative Matt Gaetz and Senator Rand Paul helped lead Putin’s victory this week in his cold war with America by stripping aid for Ukraine out of the continuing resolution to keep our government funded for the next 45 days. It was a clear signal from Republicans in Congress to Putin that if he can just hang on long enough, his propaganda efforts will eventually lead America to drop out and hand Ukraine over to them. It was also a signal to China, Japan, Australia, South and North Korea, and Taiwan that America can’t be trusted to defend allied democracies when they’re physically attacked by larger authoritarian states. By increasing the chances of an aggressors’ victory, the GOP’s continuing resolution encourages authoritarian states like Russia and China and, thus, made the world less safe.

Left to its own logic, Big Business cares only about profit. With the rules that are currently in place, Big Business is encouraged to ruthlessly pursue profit at the expense of workers, communities, and the environment. Just like in the game of Monopoly, this will eventually result in a situation where one person, or company, owns nearly everything (at least sector by sector). This happened with the railroads at the end of the 19th century, with the electric lines at the beginning of the 20th century, and with copper telephone lines in the mid-20th century in America under the Bell System, aka “Ma Bell.” Each time, it has taken the heavy hand of government to break up these monopolies, because monopolies aren’t just bad for consumers, they’re also bad for the economy as a whole.

The Best of the Rest of the News. — Are we on the verge of an imminent shutdown over “nothing?” — Chief justice urged to make Alito and Thomas step aside in megadonor cases. — Trump’s NY fraud trial starts next week and it’s probably not going to go well for him. — They’re prosecuting the Trump officials who tore kids from their families! — What will be the impact of homes being unaffordable for 99% of Americans? — “Danger Will Robinson” Alert!! The architect of the Texas abortion ban is trying to get his hands on thousands of patient records! — Geeky Science! Why is ADHD So Often Overlooked & Misdiagnosed in Older Adults? — Good News! All electric big-rigs are coming

Can we rescue our nation from the treasonous Republicans, who are trying to shut down our government to help Putin while they continue to bow and scrape to The Rapist Who Would Be King? Speaking at an event in Phoenix honoring the late Republican Senator John McCain, his old friend President Joe Biden forcefully pointed out how Trump and the movement he leads — the MAGA movement — fundamentally reject democracy and the historic American ideals that have made our country a beacon to the world for over 200 years... While there are plenty of countries and dictators all around the world who would like to tear our democracy down, the “threat” Biden was referring to is coming from within our country, from within our political system, from within a Republican Party that has been captured by a man who has repeatedly taken the side of dictators against his own nation.

Why are Democrats Fighting with One Hand Tied Behind Their Backs? Republicans in the House of Representatives today are opening a phony “impeachment hearing” using Hunter Biden as a foil to try to destroy Joe Biden politically. (They never even held a vote to establish a committee for that purpose: this is purely theatre.) Meanwhile, Democrats in the Senate have an opportunity to examine some actual, egregious, and destructive-to-the-country crimes committed in the White House by Trump and his family members that they’re apparently going to whiff. They need to hear from us.

The man who so inspired Ayn Rand’s fictional heroes was named William Edward Hickman, and he lived in Los Angeles during the Roaring Twenties... Tonight is the Republican debate, where we’ll probably hear lots of predictable rants about crushing the “welfare state” and restoring “freedom” and “self-reliance.” So, once again, why are Republicans so cruel and why do they seem so fond of libertarianism? Why does Greg Abbott put razor wire in the Rio Grande river? Why does Donald Trump target people for assassination by his followers? Why does Ron DeSantis revel in keeping tens of thousands of low-income Florida children from getting Medicaid?