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WATCH: Paul Ryan Lies to Former ‘Life Long Republican’ Who Hated Obamacare – Until It Saved His Life

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‘I Want to Thank President Obama From the Bottom of My Heart, Because I Would Be Dead if It Weren’t for Him’ Former Cancer Patient Says

Paul Ryan held a town hall, hosted by CNN Thursday night. One man stood up to ask the Republican Speaker of the House a question. What followed was an embarrassing moment, not only for Ryan, currently the most powerful elected Republican in the nation, but for all Americans, and our Democracy.

“I was a Republican and I worked for the Reagan and Bush campaigns,” Jeff Jeans of Sedona, Arizona, told Speaker Ryan. “Just like you, I was opposed to the Affordable Care Act.”

“When it was passed, I told my wife we would close our business before I complied with this law. Then, at 49, I was given six weeks to live with a very curable type of cancer. We offered three times the cost of my treatments, which was rejected. They required an insurance card. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I’m standing here today alive,” Jeans shared with the Speaker and the audience. 

“Being both a small business person and someone with pre-existing conditions, I rely on the Affordable Care Act to be able to purchase my own insurance. Why would you repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement?” he asked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mek64Teo3w

Why indeed?

According to Ryan, there’s a replacement plan and it’s going to be terrific. 

“Oh, we — we wouldn’t do that,” Ryan told Jeans. “We want to replace it with something better. First of all, I’m glad you’re standing here. I mean, really — seriously,” Ryan added. The audience applauded.

Jeans had another comment, interrupting Ryan to make sure he could get it out: “I want to thank President Obama from the bottom of my heart, because I would be dead if it weren’t for him.”

Ryan went on to spout off a few states that, according to him, people are seeing double-digit increases in their premiums.

Now, first of all, what Ruyan didn’t mention: these are all states with Republican governors or states that had GOP governors when the Obamacare exchanges were being set up. They refused to support Obamacare, forcing the federal government to take over. States where governors embraced Obamacare aren’t seeing huge increases.

Secondly, Obamacare is not responsible for increased premiums, the insurance companies are. So why are Republicans insisting Obamacare is at fault? And why don’t they intervene to fix it?

Because they, more than anything else, want Obamacare to die.

Claiming Obamacare is “collapsing,” which is a lie, Ryan went on to tell another, on national television, misinforming hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.

“The problem with Obamacare — the actuary is called a ‘death spiral,'” Ryan lied to Jeans and the public. “It’s a really kind of ugly, gruesome term, but a death spiral is a mathematical term. They say when the insurance gets so expensive, healthy people won’t buy it because they — it’s just a trade-off. The penalty to not buy is a lot cheaper than buying the insurance, so healthy people won’t buy it; therefore, they won’t go and participate in the insurance pool to cover the losses that sicker people, who have to have insurance, buy it.”

“That’s what’s happening to Obamacare now.”

Again, that’s a lie.

That’s what’s happening to Obamacare now?

“No, it’s not,” responds Steve Benen at MSNBC’s The MaddowBlog. “This isn’t a matter of opinion; it’s a matter of reality. If the Speaker of the House is going to hold forums like these, and speak to national audiences about the state of the health care system, it’s important that he tell the public the truth.” 

And the truth is, if the ACA were in “death spiral,” we’d see declining enrollment numbers, with consumers withdrawing from the system because they can’t afford the premiums and would rather pay the penalty than buy insurance they can’t afford.

Enrollment totals, however, are going up, not down.

Despite higher premiums in parts of the country, and against a political backdrop in which Republicans are desperate to destroy the existing system, Americans are getting health care coverage through the ACA in growing numbers: we learned just this week that 11.5 million consumers bought marketplace plans in 2016, an increase of nearly 300,000 over the comparable period last year.

Just to prove his point, Benen points to a Huffington Post interview this week with Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, who said: “It seems to me that enrollment holding steady amidst tremendous uncertainty about the future of the law and big premium increases is a positive sign. There is no evidence of a market collapse or insurance death spiral.”

So, again, Paul Ryan is lying.

One last point.

The Senate at 1:25 AM (yes, AM) Thursday morning passed a resolution paving the way for the complete and total repeal of Obamacare, with zero replacement plan. Republicans also voted down saving some of the most popular parts of Obamacare, like banning insurance companies from refusing to provide insurance to people like Jeff Jeans who have a pre-existing condition. Also voted down were amendments allowing parents to keep their children on their policies until they are 26.

Right now, as we speak, House Republicans are debating the same Senate resolution to allow them to repeal Obamacare. I say House Republican are debating because the Democrats are fighting like hell to save it.

But on his website Paul Ryan promises this: “there’s going to clearly be a transition period until you can get a new and better system up and running so that people will not have that rug pulled out from under them,” Ryan claims, which frankly can be interpreted two ways. A “transition period” sounds like it could mean a period of time (days, weeks, months, years) where people will not have coverage.

Ryan goes on to say, “we’re advancing . . . legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare at the same time. And it will take time to put all of that into place . . . to get us to a better system to arrest the collapse of this system. And in that meantime, there will be transitions so that you don’t wake up one morning, you know, this year, and you lose your health insurance—that’s not going to happen.”

Paul Ryan and the GOP have been lying about Obamacare for seven years.

Why should we believe them now?

 

 

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News

JD Vance Dismisses Taylor Swift’s Harris Endorsement: Voters Won’t Be Influenced by ‘Disconnected Billionaire’

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12 hours ago

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September 11, 2024

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Senator JD Vance (R-OH) dismissed Taylor Swift’s endorsement of the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign, saying that it wouldn’t sway voters because they wouldn’t be “influenced by a billionaire celebrity.”

Vance appeared Wednesday afternoon on Fox News’ The Story With Martha MacCallum. MacCallum brought up Swift’s endorsement in her interview with the vice presidential candidate.

“But it was interesting last night, that Taylor Swift gave her endorsement of Harris and and Walz right after [the debate]. She has 283 million followers on Instagram, and I’m sure that someone brought your attention that she signed it ‘Childless Cat Lady.’ This is a phrase that you are going to hear in your in your dreams and your nightmares, probably for many years to come. How do you speak to women voters, who, obviously, care about what she thinks?,” MacCallum said.

READ MORE: Trump Refuses Debate ‘Rematch’, Says Harris ‘Was Beaten Badly’

“Well, look, we admire Taylor Swift’s music. But I don’t think most Americans—whether they like her music, are fans of hers or not—are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity, who, I think, is fundamentally disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans. Look, when grocery prices go up by 20%, it hurts most Americans. It doesn’t hurt Taylor Swift. When housing prices become unaffordable, it doesn’t affect Taylor Swift or any other billionaire. It does affect middle class Americans all over our country,” Vance replied.

Swift announced her endorsement of the Harris campaign last night shortly after the debate on Instagram. Alongside a photo by Inez & Vinoodh of her cuddling a fluffy cat, she urged fans to research the candidates. She also called out former President Donald Trump and his fans sharing AI-generated pictures appearing to show Swift endorsing him.

“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” Swift wrote.

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades,” she continued.

She did indeed sign the caption “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady,” in reference to a comment Vance made in 2021 that the country was run by “childless cat ladies” like Harris who “want to make the rest of the country miserable too.” The quote was resurfaced shortly after Vance was named Trump’s running mate. Vance says the remark was “sarcastic” and “willfully misinterpreted” by Democrats, according to The Hill. Harris has two stepchildren.

As for Swift’s net worth, she is indeed a billionaire with $1.1 billion, according to Forbes. The same outlet places Trump’s net worth at $7.5 billion. The majority of that is due to Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social. However, Trump Media has been losing money recently, causing Trump to fall off Bloomberg’s list of the top 500 wealthiest people.

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News

Asif Merchant Faces Additional Terrorism Charge In Hitman Plot to Kill Politicians

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13 hours ago

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September 11, 2024

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asif merchant

Asif Merchant faces additional terrorism charges over a plan to hire hitmen to kill government officials or politicians, according to a new indictment filed Tuesday.

Merchant was initially arrested in July for the assassination plot. Originally, Merchant was only charged with murder for hire. The new indictment keeps the murder for hire charge, and adds one count of attempt to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries. Merchant is from Pakistan, but has ties to Iran, the Department of Justice says.

“The Justice Department will not tolerate Iran’s efforts to target our country’s public officials and endanger our national security,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.  “As these terrorism and murder for hire charges against Asif Merchant demonstrate, we will continue to hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans.”

The Department of Justice says that he flew from Iran to America in April, and reached out to someone he thought could help him find someone to kill either politicians or government officials. That person reported him to law enforcement.

In June, he allegedly met up with the person again to discuss the plot, and confirmed he intended to orchestrate a chain of assassinations in the United States. Merchant asked the person to put him in contact with potential hitmen who would also be tasked with stealing information from targets, planning protests at political events and, ultimately committing the assassination at the end of summer, the DOJ says.

READ MORE: Leaders of White Supremacist Group Terrorgram Charged, Face Up to 220 Years in Prison

Merchant was put into contact with undercover FBI agents posing as criminals. He paid them $5,000 in cash on June 21, and when one of the undercover agents said “Now we know we’re going forward. We’re doing this,” Merchant replied in the affirmative.

Merchant stayed in the U.S. for another three weeks, booking a July 12 flight out of the country. The day he was scheduled to leave, he was arrested.

The complaint doesn’t mention any names of potential targets, but a senior law enforcement official told NBC News in August that former President Donald Trump was a potential target. Iran was said to be plotting to kill Trump in revenge for the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, NBC reported.

Merchant faces a life sentence if he’s convicted of the charges. The case is being heard in the Eastern District of New York.

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STILL A COWARD

Trump Refuses Debate ‘Rematch’, Says Harris ‘Was Beaten Badly’

Published

15 hours ago

on

September 11, 2024

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Former President Donald Trump has declined Vice President Kamala Harris’ offer of a second debate. He compared himself to a top boxer, declaring himself the winner and wondering why he should bother with a rematch.

Trump and Harris had their first debate Tuesday night on ABC. Shortly afterward—less than an hour, according to ABC News—the Harris campaign asked for a followup debate in October. Fox News offered to be the host, which should have appealed to Trump, considering he wanted Tuesday’s debate to be hosted on the conservative-leaning cable news outlet. But apparently, he’s changed his mind.

“In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!’ Well, it’s no different with a Debate. She was beaten badly last night. Every Poll has us WINNING, in one case, 92-8, so why would I do a Rematch?” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday.

READ MORE: MAGA World Threatens to Boycott ABC After Trump’s Disastrous Debate Performance

Though Trump declared himself the winner, that is not a common belief. Many networks declared Harris the winner, including Fox News. Trump is correct that one poll did have him winning 92% to 8%, but that was an online poll from Newsmax. Newsmax is a far-right media outlet. It came to prominence during the 2020 election when Trump turned against Fox News for becoming the first outlet to declare President Joe Biden the winner in Arizona, a battleground state. Newsmax promoted Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud.

Trump shared a number of other polls on his Truth Social account shortly after the debate, but most were from explicitly pro-Trump outlets like the Daily Caller, or were taken on X, formerly Twitter, which has skewed right following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform.

Polls from more mainstream outlets, however, told a different story. Newsweek’s reader poll showed Harris ahead nearly 2 to 1. CNN’s poll had a similar spread, with Harris declared the winner by 63% of viewers. In the Washington Post’s poll of 25 uncommitted swing-state voters, 23 said Harris did better. YouGov’s polling was closer, but Harris still pulled ahead 43% to 32%.

Pundits and experts also awarded the win to Harris. NPR said the debate “wasn’t close.” The New York Times said Harris “rattled” Trump.

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