1/22-23 Weekend Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Sanders: ‘anti-democratic’ Republicans to blame for Biden woes, not just Manchin and Sinema

Bernie Sanders on Sunday sought to turn fire aimed by Democrats at two of their own, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, onto Republican senators he said were “pushing an anti-democratic agenda”.

“Republicans are laughing all the way to election day,” the Vermont senator told CNN’s State of the Union. “They have not had to cast one bloody vote which shows us where they’re at.”

But the Vermont progressive also confirmed that he will campaign against Manchin and Sinema, both Democrats, should they face viable primary challengers.

Manchin, from West Virginia, and Sinema, from Arizona, have blocked Democratic priorities including the Build Back Better spending plan and, this week, voting rights reform.

Their refusal to contemplate reform to the filibuster, the rule which requires 60-vote majorities for most legislation, meant two voting rights bills in answer to Republican attacks on voting in states were always doomed to fail.

On Saturday, Sinema was formally censured by her state party. Sanders said he supported that move. He also confirmed his threat to campaign against Sinema and Manchin in 2024.

“If there was strong candidates prepared to stand up for working families who understand that the Democratic party has got to be the party of working people, taking on big money interests, if both candidates were there in Arizona and West Virginia, yes, I would be happy to support them.”

But, Sanders insisted, “it’s not only those two. It is 50 Republicans who have been adamant about not only pushing an anti-democratic agenda but also opposing our efforts to try to lower the cost of prescription drugs, trying to expand Medicare … to improve the disaster situation in home healthcare, in childcare, to address the existential threat of climate change.

“You’ve got 50 Republicans who don’t want to do anything except criticise the president and then you have, sadly enough, two Democrats who choose to work with Republicans rather than the president, and it will sabotage the president’s effort to address the needs of working families in this country.”

Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press, Sanders insisted the Biden administration made “a great start”, in part with a Covid relief bill passed with just 50 votes and the casting vote of Vice-President Kamala Harris, but was now bogged down thanks in large part to Manchin and Sinema.

“The president and the Democratic Congress,” Sanders said, “… looked at the economic crisis that was caused by Covid. We passed the American Rescue Plan … and we also passed along the way the strongest infrastructure bill that has been passed since Dwight D Eisenhower … We were off to a great start.

“And then I will tell you exactly what happened. Fifty members of the Republican party decided that they were going to be obstructionist … and then you had two United States senators joining them, Mr Manchin and Senator Sinema.

“For five months now there have been negotiations behind closed doors trying to get these two Democratic senators on board. That strategy, in my view, has failed. It has failed dismally. We saw it last week in terms of the Voting Rights Act. We now need a new direction.”

Asked if he was frustrated, Sanders told CNN he was.

But, he insisted, “we need to start voting. We need to bring important pieces of legislation that impact the lives of working families right onto the floor of the Senate. And Republicans want to vote against lowering the cost of climate change, home healthcare, whatever it may be. And if the Democrats want to join them, let the American people see what’s happening.

“Then we can pick up the pieces and pass legislation.”

Some Democrats advocate splitting Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan into separate bills, in order to pass what they can.

Sanders conceded that most such legislation will not pass, given Republican obstruction and the machinations of Manchin and Sinema. Bringing bills to the floor, he conceded, would really be about electoral politics ahead of midterms this year in which Republicans expect to take back the House and possibly the Senate, and the presidential contest in two years’ time.

“Once we know where people are at,” he said, “then we can say, ‘All right, look, we have 50 votes here, we have just one vote here, 49 votes here.

“But what has bothered me very much is Republicans are laughing all the way to election day. They have not had to cast one bloody vote, or two, which shows us where they’re at. And we’ve got to change.”

Got some labor news too, including a Bernie tweet.

Join us in the comments. Happy weekend!

Bernie Fights Yuge Medicare Increase and OT 01/12&13/22

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Sanders Demands Refunds for Seniors Hit by Medicare Premium Hike

Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday demanded refunds for seniors who have been hit by the 2022 Medicare premium hike after federal health officials recommended limiting the program’s coverage of Aduhelm, the unproven and expensive Alzheimer’s drug responsible for a large chunk of the premium increase.

In a statement, Sanders said CMS officials’ preliminary decision Tuesday to restrict coverage of Biogen’s Aduhelm to patients taking part in approved clinical trials was “an important step forward.” CMS’ final decision on the drug is expected by April.

“I urge the administration to immediately lower Medicare premiums by at least $11.50 a month and to provide a refund to 57 million senior citizens for the premium increases that have already gone into effect this month,” Sanders continued. “I would also urge the president to reinstate and expand the reasonable pricing clause that requires drug makers who have benefited from taxpayer-funded research to charge reasonable prices for drugs and treatments.”

“Americans should not have to pay an outrageous price for a drug that their tax dollars helped develop,” he added.

CMS’ announcement Tuesday came just 24 hours after Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra instructed federal officials to “reassess” the increase in monthly Medicare Part B premiums to $170.10 in 2022, up from the previous year’s level of $148.50—one of the largest premium hikes in the program’s history.

Becerra did not provide a specific timeline for action.

The Washington Post’s Amy Goldstein noted Monday that “beginning with this month’s checks, which start to be issued this week, Social Security has a 5.9% cost-of-living increase for 2022, but many people on Medicare may first notice that the relatively large premium increase for their health insurance is cutting into the size of their checks.”

CMS has attributed roughly half of the 2022 Medicare premium increase to “additional contingency reserves” needed for the program’s potential coverage of Aduhelm, which the Food and Drug Administration approved in June despite experts’ vocal warnings that the drug had not been shown to be effective at slowing Alzheimer’s-induced cognitive decline.

In his statement Tuesday, Sanders pointed to the fact that Aduhelm—now priced at $28,000 annually—”was rejected for coverage by the Veterans Health Administration and at least a half a dozen private health insurance companies in the United States, while 10 out of the 11 experts on the Food and Drug Administration’s advisory council voted against approval of the treatment.”

“Biogen’s outrageous original price for Aduhelm, $56,000 per year, is the poster child for how dysfunctional our drug pricing system has become and it is the perfect example of why Medicare should be negotiating drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry,” said Sanders. “If the administration takes no action, Medicare recipients will continue to see their biggest premium increase in history, all because of Biogen’s greed. That cannot be allowed to happen.”

Dr. Michael Carome, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, also applauded CMS for proposing to limit Medicare’s coverage of Aduhelm, the accelerated approval of which led several FDA advisers to resign in protest.

“Implementation of this proposed decision would significantly mitigate the damage done by the Food and Drug Administration’s reckless decision last year to approve [Aduhelm] despite the lack of scientific evidence that the drug provides any clinically meaningful benefit to Alzheimer’s patients with respect to cognitive function outcomes and clear evidence that it can cause serious brain injury,” said Carome.

“Unlike the FDA,” he added, “CMS wisely chose to follow the scientific evidence.”

Welcome to Wednesday!

1/7-9 Weekend News Roundup & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

U.S. Details Costs of a Russian Invasion of Ukraine

The Biden administration and its allies are assembling a punishing set of financial, technology and military sanctions against Russia that they say would go into effect within hours of an invasion of Ukraine, hoping to make clear to President Vladimir V. Putin the high cost he would pay if he sends troops across the border.

In interviews, officials described details of those plans for the first time, just ahead of a series of diplomatic negotiations to defuse the crisis with Moscow, one of the most perilous moments in Europe since the end of the Cold War. The talks begin on Monday in Geneva and then move across Europe.

The plans the United States has discussed with allies in recent days include cutting off Russia’s largest financial institutions from global transactions, imposing an embargo on American-made or American-designed technology needed for defense-related and consumer industries, and arming insurgents in Ukraine who would conduct what would amount to a guerrilla war against a Russian military occupation, if it comes to that.

Such moves are rarely telegraphed in advance. But with the negotiations looming — and the fate of Europe’s post-Cold War borders and NATO’s military presence on the continent at stake — President Biden’s advisers say they are trying to signal to Mr. Putin exactly what he would face, at home and abroad, in hopes of influencing his decisions in coming weeks.

snip

While the Commerce and Treasury Departments work on sanctions that would maximize America’s advantages over Russia, the Pentagon is developing plans that have echoes of the proxy wars of the 1960s and ’70s.

Understand the Escalating Tensions Over Ukraine
A brewing conflict. Antagonism between Ukraine and Russia has been simmering since 2014, when the Russian military crossed into Ukrainian territory, annexing Crimea and whipping up a rebellion in the east. A tenuous cease-fire was reached in 2015, but peace has been elusive.

A spike in hostilities. Russia has recently been building up forces near its border with Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s rhetoric toward its neighbor has hardened. Concern grew in late October, when Ukraine used an armed drone to attack a howitzer operated by Russian-backed separatists.

Ominous warnings. Russia called the strike a destabilizing act that violated the cease-fire agreement, raising fears of a new intervention in Ukraine that could draw the United States and Europe into a new phase of the conflict.

The Kremlin’s position. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has increasingly portrayed NATO’s eastward expansion as an existential threat to his country, said that Moscow’s military buildup was a response to Ukraine’s deepening partnership with the alliance.

A measured approach. President Biden has said he is seeking a stable relationship with Russia. So far, his administration is focusing on maintaining a dialogue with Moscow, while seeking to develop deterrence measures in concert with European countries.

To underscore the potential pain for Russia, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, spoke with his Russian counterpart two weeks ago and delivered a stark message: Yes, he said, you could invade Ukraine and probably roll over the Ukrainian military, which stands little chance of repelling a far larger, better armed Russian force.

But the swift victory would be followed, General Milley told Gen. Valery Gerasimov, by a bloody insurgency, similar to the one that led to the Soviet retreat from Afghanistan more than three decades ago, according to officials familiar with the discussion.

General Milley did not detail to General Gerasimov the planning underway in Washington to support an insurgency, a so-called “porcupine strategy” to make invading Ukraine hard for the Russians to swallow. That includes the advance positioning of arms for Ukrainian insurgents, probably including Stinger antiaircraft missiles, that could be used against Russian forces.

More than a month ago, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, created a new interagency planning cell to examine a range of contingencies if Mr. Putin goes ahead with an invasion. The cell, which reports directly to Mr. Sullivan, includes representatives from the National Security Council, the intelligence agencies and the Departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Energy and Homeland Security.

The cell is attempting to tailor responses to the many types of attacks that could unfold in the next few weeks, from cyberattacks aimed at crippling Ukraine’s electric grid and pipelines to the seizure of small or large amounts of territory.

Intelligence officials said recently that they thought the least likely possibility was a full-scale invasion in which the Russians try to take the capital, Kyiv. Many of the assessments, however, have explored more incremental moves by Mr. Putin, which could include seizing a bit more land in the Donbas region, where war has ground into a stalemate, or a land bridge to Crimea.

Several officials familiar with the planning say the administration is looking at European nations that could provide more aid to support Ukrainian forces before any conflict, as well as in the initial stages of a Russian invasion.

Lt. Col. Anton Semelroth, a Defense Department spokesman, noted in December that the United States had already committed over $2.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, including $450 million in 2021 alone. Over the past three months, it has delivered 180 Javelin missiles, two patrol boats, ammunition for grenade launchers, machine guns, secure radios, medical equipment and other items that U.S. officials describe as defensive in nature.

But the planning cell is considering more lethal weaponry, such as antiaircraft weapons.

After visiting Ukraine last month, Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Massachusetts and a former Marine officer, said that in his view, “We need to make any incursion by Russia more painful — Day 1 painful, not six months from now painful.”

“We have a short window to take decisive action to deter Putin from a serious invasion,” Mr. Moulton said in an interview. “I worry our current deterrent tactics are responding to an invasion rather than preventing it.”

One option likely to be discussed at NATO this coming week is a plan to increase, possibly by several thousand, the number of troops stationed in the Baltics and in Southeast Europe.

Jake Sullivan is a Hil hawk.

More news, tweets, perspectives in the comments below. This serves as an open thread.

1.4-5-6 Open Threads

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Hope all Nesters and Lurkers had a good and healthy Holiday Season. 🙂 The big attention-getter at my casa is the daily monitoring of the James Webb Telescope. The latest is the opening and tightening of the protective Sun Shield. So far, so good. The success involved in this mission is astounding when one stops to think about it. I can’t wait until the initial cosmic data starts to arrive. The Hubble Space Telescope was/is a monstrous achievement. James Webb will be a worthy successor. All hail human knowledge done peacefully. Our Nest is Open. 🙂