Category: Healthcare

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Domestic Policies Donald Trump Donald Trump Foreign Policies Healthcare News Politics

Let’s Get This Straight: Donald Trump Will Not Be President

He won’t even be the Republican nominee in 2016.

Yes, I know, the New York Times just published a poll that has Trump high atop the GOP field and gaining strength as the one candidate who will keep us safe. He’s everywhere on cable and network news and is a constant topic of conversation on social media. Even Hillary Clinton has stopped dismissing him as a joke and is responding to his absurd claims. This is necessary for now because Trump will not go away on his own. He has to be shown the door and that will happen. It will be messy, but it will happen.

Why am I so sure about the Donald? Because he’s essentially an excellent salesman but a political fraud who knows how to sell himself, and he’s attached himself to a message and a persona that insulates him from criticism for saying outrageously xenophobic, racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and just plain wrong things on a daily basis. What he has done marvelously well is to tap into the country’s fears about terrorism and he has accused the president of not only not doing enough, but of purposely allowing us to be vulnerable.

Trump doesn’t need to repeat the lie about Obama not being a citizen because he has better ammunition: the president is the problem, the other, the un-American, them. He’s also been able to reduce Jeb Bush to a quivering mass of jello, make fun of Marco Rubio’s youth, calls Ben Carson a know-nothing, and says that of course Chris Christie knew about the GW Bridge lane closings despite the fact that not one shred of evidence has been credibly produced that he did.

My question, then, is this: Is this what we want in a President? The answer is no.

The simple reason is that not even Donald Trump can continue to run his campaign this way. As soon as Trump stops saying vile things, he’s finished, because the truth is that he really has no platform, no singular idea other than hate, no economic plan, no foreign policy, no domestic policy and a lifetime of conflicting views on issues on which most Republicans will not ever compromise.

Right now he gets a pass at the debates because of the sheer number of GOP candidates still in the race. Come January, the real campaign begins and I’m assuming that Trump is not going to be prepared for it. Voters will want real answers for their economic problems and they’ll want details as to how Trump is going to carry out his plan to throw out 11 million people from this country and what it would take to barricade us so that other people can’t come in.

They’ll want to know what he wants to do with taxes, legal issues, health care and business policy. He’s said some things about these, but the media and the people will demand answers.  And he either won’t have them or he’ll give vague answers or he’ll do what he’s doing now about national security–he’ll try to fake it. This isn’t the midterm or the early semester quiz. It’s the final exam and Trump is going to fail.

In addition, as the GOP field narrows, Trump is going to need to say even more because there will be fewer voices to take up precious airtime. This is where he will falter because he will need to become less radical and say fewer provocative things. Trump has built his campaign on those two pillars. Once he stops, his reason for running will be gone. The Republican Party is hoping that this happens in January before he can do real damage. I’m not sure the party will get its wish, but ultimately the balloon will deflate.

I’ve certainly been caught off-guard by Trump’s durability and political stamina. It’s delayed the ascent of a viable candidate and will only hurt the GOP for as long as his campaign lingers.

But rest assured my fellow Americans, Donald Trump will not be elected president in 2016. And for that, we can be thankful.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Healthcare ObamaCare Repeal

Well That’s Different – Republicans Vote to Repeal Obamacare

As if this wasn’t tried before, Senate Republicans on Thursday wasted even more tax-payers’ time and money with yet another meaningless vote on a pointless legislation to defund Obamacare.

Not to be outdone, Democrats seized the debate to try to force votes on gun control legislation that could put some Republicans in a politically tough position as the country is reeling from arecent spate of mass shootings.

By voting to nullify Obamacare — the signature domestic accomplishment of the Obama administration — GOP congressional leaders fulfilled a longtime pledge to voters and rank-and-file members to get a repeal to President Barack Obama’s desk, even though he will veto it.

The bill would also cut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood, the women’s health group that provides abortions and has long under GOP scrutiny. Republicans’ passions to cutoff taxpayer dollars to the organization increased in recent months when videos were released that purported to show Planned Parenthood executives selling the tissue of aborted fetuses to researchers

.

While Americans are being massacred by shootings on a daily basis, these jokers in Congress cannot figure out a way to do their job and protect the homeland from ruthless thugs and their easy access to guns.

Instead of bucking the NRA and coming up with a simple background check legislation to make sure people who buy guns are not registered terrorists – an idea supported by a huge majority of Americans – Republicans bring us another attempt to repeal Obamacare, an effort that has been tried and failed well over 60 times.

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Climate Change Domestic Policies Donald Trump Healthcare Immigration Reform News Politics pope francis

Forget Iran: The GOP Goes Nuclear


Francis comes in, John Boehner bows out. There is a certain symmetry to some world events and this is one of those moments.

Here we have a Pope who is speaking forcefully and eloquently about how the issues of the day and all the right wing can do is reject his message as an ill-conceived interference into the political realm. Stay away from climate change and gay rights, they say, and for heaven’s sake, stop talking about immigration. Yet Francis has stayed on message in a way that would make House Speaker John Boehner proud.

Um.

Well, former House Speaker John Boehner, that is. Or at least he will be at the end of October. Poor John tried his best to reign in a fractious caucus of elected government officials who detest government and want it flushed down the sink, or at least shut down so it can’t do more damage to the country, damage like pay out Social Security benefits. Or Medicare. Medicaid. Or keep the national parks open. Get people passports. Inspect our food. Defend the country. Provide funds for the less fortunate. Health care. Investigate crimes. It’s terrible, this United States government we have today.

It’s funny how conservatives have been saying for years that we need to base our actions on religious values and that we have lost our way morally under the weight of godless liberal social policies over the past 70 years. Yet here comes an infallible Pope who can be ignored at will because he has the temerity to say that the United States needs to do more, not less. Take in more Syrian refugees. Care more for the poor. Stop demonizing Muslims. Care for the environment and the globe.

When you put the right wing’s agenda together with the rejection of Francis’s message and stir in the fact that the next Speaker of the House is likely to be an even more conservative than John Boehner, then you will get a party that simply doesn’t like anything. And how do you run and win on that?

Mark this week down as the one that will eventually define the presidential election for the GOP. They have been saying no for far too long and the no backbenchers are about to get a more sympathetic ear for them to yell into. The elites are fighting to rid the field of Donald Trump, and he’ll go eventually, but he won’t go quietly or without tearing down enough of the other contenders to make their jobs more difficult. And the new House leadership is likely to allow some of the less savory bills that Boehner was able to squash to get out of the caucus room and onto the floor.

Pope Francis is actually leading the way for conservatives to re-engage in a balanced conversation. He’s no liberal by any stretch of the imagination. But he is a humanist and he understands that if we don’t take care of everyone, than we really don’t take care of anyone.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Cancer Healthcare

Father Robs Bank to Pay for Daughter’s Chemotherapy

A Michigan man who robbed a local credit union reportedly did so in a desperate attempt to help pay for his daughter’s chemotherapy, according to authorities, ABC News reports.

Brian Randolph, 23, is accused of entering the Vibe Credit Union in South Lyon earlier this month, and passing a note demanding money. The note said that he had a gun hidden in his clothes, but Randolph reportedly never showed a firearm and, according to the authorities, did not actually have a gun with him.

The young father has been charged with armed robbery. His bond was set at $500,000.
According to ABC News, Randolph’s troubles began when his insurance company reportedly stopped paying for his daughter’s chemotherapy treatment. Brialynn, who is one, has retinoblastoma, a cancer that forms in the eye, and needs treatment, that costs thousands of dollars, every four weeks, the site notes.

Randolph told the authorities that it was a last-ditch attempt to get money for Brialynn’s upcoming session.
“I guess it was desperation. Time was ticking right before her actual appointment came up,” Brialynn’s mother, Asia Dupree told WXYZ-TV. “This was after the insurance was cancelled…[We] kept calling. No answer. Voicemails. No answer. No callbacks.”

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Domestic Policies Donald Trump Donald Trump Express Yourself Healthcare News Politics

The Pendulum Swings Back to the Right

Donald Trump gestures while speaking surrounded by people whose families were victims of illegal immigrants on July 10, 2015 while meeting with the press at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, where some shared their stories of the loss of a loved one. The US business magnate Trump, who is running for president in the 2016 presidential elections, angered members of the Latino community with recent comments but says he will win the Latino vote. AFP PHOTO / FREDERIC J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)
 (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

Remember the last couple of weeks of June, when the country seemed a bit more liberal after the Supreme Court had wondrously ruled in favor of marriage equality, the Affordable Care Act and housing? And then the Confederate flags came down?

Slap.

It didn’t happen overnight, but the country seems to have rebounded from that initial leftward-leaning stance and is now back in the throes of the Republican Party’s Krazy Nominatin’ Pizzazzle led by Donald Trump (still) and another thousand or so people who are hoping to be elected president in 2016.

Trump is not backing off his incendiary comments about John McCain’s service during the Vietnam War, doubling down on the idea that there were many uncaptured American soldiers who fought bravely for years but nobody remembers them, and chastising McCain for not only getting captured but having the temerity to be held prisoner for a long time. Trump probably thinks that if McCain was such a he-man that he should have escaped or something, rather than been tortured for real and not just because he didn’t get the skyscraper approval from the Brooklyn Borough Council. Presidential material for sure.  The real test will be in the next poll of Republican voters. If Trump holds his place near the top, then the party is in worse shape than it was four years ago. Slippage will mean that, Ted Cruz notwithstanding (he refuses to criticize Trump no matter what he says), the party faithful know a fool when they see him. Or hear him. Or spot the hair coming their way.

If that wasn’t enough, it seems that support for marriage equality has slipped a bit since the end of June.  On top of that, Republicans in the House have offered new laws that would exempt those people with religious or moral opposition to marriage equality from having to follow the law. I’m sure that President Obama would veto the bill, but this goes to show you that the Supreme Court can say what they want, but evidently that’s not the last word. In the end, those people who oppose and act on their opposition to marriage equality will likely be marginalized or will lose business or might even continue to succeed financially. The bias in the United States is towards more equality, not less.

The political pendulum swung left last month and is coming back to the right. That’s to be expected. How far to the right will determine how entertaining the political discussion will be between now and the first Republican debate on August 6.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Domestic Policies Express Yourself Healthcare Immigration Reform News Politics Racism vote

The Most Important Election of Them All

Well, yes and no. Aren’t all presidential elections the most important election in history? It certainly feels that way, especially if you listen to the media buzz that emanates every four years. The future of the country is at stake. The direction of our foreign and domestic policies will be set by the voters in this election.

So it shall be in 2016, but this time there is some truth to the hype. We’ve just witnessed a few Supreme Court decisions that have profoundly changed the country’s political and social landscape. We are still suffering from the after-effects of the Great Recession. Race has roared back as a flashpoint issue. The world situation is critical (as it always seems to be). And by the end of this month, we’ll likely have over 20 people who’d like to run this government formally declare their intention to do so. Impressive. Or foolish.

Right now I would say that the edge in the race has to go to the Democrats, if for no other reason than they have a clear front-runner in Hillary Clinton and control of the electoral college map. The Republicans are far more split than the left and the remnants of the Tea Party are forcing some of the more moderate candidates to run farther to the right than they’d like. Of course, Bernie Sanders might have that impact on Clinton, forcing her to the left, but she has the advantage of being a known quantity for the past two decades. In addition, more of the Republican candidates are nationally known than are Martin O’Malley and Jim Webb, which means that it will be more difficult for their messages to find daylight.

The Republicans will have the burden to show that they can run the country more effectively than President Obama has during his term. The problem is that more Americans favor the Democratic position on most major issues. Most of the GOP candidates have come out against the court’s marriage equality ruling and want to enact religious freedom laws to protect those people who oppose that decision. These laws might be popular in certain states, but when Indiana tried to enact such a law in March, it met with intense opposition from the business community, the NCAA, and other groups who are committed to a diverse educational and workplace environment. Plus, moderates favor marriage equality, and the GOP will need those voters in key states if it wants to win next November. Rolling back the major civil rights issue of our day will likely be a self-inflicted wound from which the Republican Party will not likely recover.

The same is true, to a lesser extent, on the issues of health care and immigration. The American public is still split on whether the ACA is good policy, but most people want the law to be fixed, not repealed. That the Supreme Court saved the law will provide fundraising fodder for the right, but the GOP cannot afford to take health insurance away from those who already have it under the exchanges. They have floated a fix, but it would repeal the personal mandate, and that would cause havoc because those premiums are  keeping the law afloat. And the health care industry is changing so rapidly because of the law that companies and hospitals would probably oppose anything that cuts into their profits or practices. Remember that the ACA was based on conservative principles. The GOP should recognize that. If they can’t find a way to fix the law, they might find that public opinion turns more to the left, and towards a public health care system that’s the dream of most Democrats.

Donald Trump notwithstanding, the Republicans have a big problem when it comes to immigration. Any candidate that echoes Mitt Romney’s “self deportation” policy in 2016 will lose badly. Marco Rubio supports an immigration plan that is more progressive than the other candidates and he’s paying for it by losing support among conservatives. One of the candidates is going to have to convince the faithful that a new immigration law is in the best interests of the party and the country. That candidate will then have chance at winning the general election.

The Democrats have their own problems because they can’t run too far away from President Obama, but they can’t be too close either. Americans like the idea of more forceful environment action, but don’t like executive orders. They want higher wages and less income inequality, but don’t want higher taxes or government regulation of the economy. And I suspect that most people don’t want the government to punish banks, as Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have advocated.

The Republicans need to present a more positive message to the country about what they’re going to do if elected, not continue to be against everything that the Democrats are for. They have to realize, as the Democrats did in the 1980s, that their policies are not connecting with enough voters for them to win a national election. This election, though, like most, will be fought on economic and security grounds. Again, the GOP is on the defensive as they are seen as the protectors of the wealthy and against spending on infrastructure, public education, and health issues. An arch conservative, like an arch liberal, will not win in 2016. Pragmatism and a vision to move us forward will.

Because this is the most important election of them all.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Domestic Policies Express Yourself Healthcare News ObamaCare Politics the supreme court

The Conservative Court Turns Left

The same court that brought us corporations as people, unlimited political money, abortion restrictions, a step backwards in voting rights, and unequal pay has now thrown some serious bones to the left in the form of a stronger Affordable Care Act and a right to gay marriage. I’m sure that wherever they are, David Souter and Sandra Day O’Connor are smiling just as broadly as President Obama and millions of formerly marginalized United States citizens are across this land.

It just goes to show you that handicapping Supreme Court decisions based on the justices’ questions and demeanor during oral arguments is a dangerous, unpredictable sport. Remember that the Chief Justice asked only one substantial question during the health care arguments, but he surprised almost everyone by writing a rather forceful decision upholding the law. Justice Kennedy was widely seen as the bellwether on marriage equality, and he provided the fifth vote to recognize that dignity comes in many forms.

The Originalist Triplets from Different Mothers–Scalia, Thomas and Alito–certainly didn’t disappoint their right wing adherents by pointing out to us that laws should be read as written and that if marriage was a right, then why didn’t the nation recognize it until now? Never mind that the country didn’t recognize civil rights for African-Americans for over 100 years after the Civil War, and that was with an amendment specifically crafted to remedy that injustice. Justice Thomas’s career-defining quote about how slaves did not lose their dignity because the government allowed them to be enslaved was not only a jaw-dropping bit of incongruity, but also a shocking misunderstanding of what the word means.

But this is the danger of the originalist doctrine. It presumes to know exactly what the Framers meant not only in their time, but in ours. I’m no legal expert, but I’ve committed my professional life to teaching history and my reading is that those men who gathered in Philadelphia were a bit more flexible on legal interpretations than the originalists give them credit for.

Rather than be shocked at what American society has become, I think they would be pleased, perhaps even giddy, at the idea that we’ve become as multicultural, open, democratic and accepting as we are now. I would be disappointed if Madison, Washington, Hamilton or any of the others came to our century and said that we had completely misread the meaning of their words. After all, they included both the elastic clause and the ability to amend the constitution.

Meanwhile, Scalia, Thomas and Alito (and sometimes Roberts) would roll back civil rights laws and would have us believe that the Fourteenth Amendment, the one that guarantees every citizen equal protection of the law, has nothing to say about guaranteeing LGBT Americans, well, the equal protection of the law. or that four words in the health care law were meant as grenades that would blow it up rather than mechanisms to guarantee that less-well-off Americans could get affordable health care. Scalia especially seems to believe that the only rights that Americans have are the ones granted in 1787. How thoroughly regressive.

It’s worth noting that another group, Confederates, also believed they knew the true meaning of the Republic. They wanted to live in a country that allowed states to decide almost all aspects of public policy, protect slavery and Jim Crow, and to nullify federal laws they didn’t agree with. That’s why they broke away and were almost successful in creating such a country. Their loss still resonates in the south and it’s time to bring that era to a close. We shouldn’t destroy every vestige of it, but it’s past time to take down the flags and statues (and put them in museums where they belong), and to rename some streets. We’ll be a better country for it.

What history will more likely remember is the rock-solid support for humanity and progress that the four liberals–Sotomayor, Breyer, Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg–continue to fight for. Their opinions were subsumed under Kennedy and Roberts, but they should rightly be proud, and thanked, for their steadfast support for the citizens of this country.

As we move forward from last week, we need to remember that many states will be required to recognize marriages, but off the alter those states can continue to discriminate based on sexual orientation and use religious belief as a hammer against full equality. I certainly support religious values, but it’s time to recognize that Biblical prohibitions that discriminate, marginalize and promote hate are…wrong.

Bu that’s a discussion for the future. Right now I’m going to buy some rainbow sherbet, kick back, and celebrate America.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Barack Obama Healthcare ObamaCare

President Obama’s Remarks on Supreme Court Obamacare Decision – Video

He didn’t use these words, but his message was the same – Obamacare is here to stay!

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Healthcare ObamaCare

Republican Deception on Obamacare Replacement EXPOSED

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), speaks at the socially conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition "Road to Majority" conference in Washington D.C. on June 20, 2014. McCarthy is the Majority Leader-elect of the United States House of Representatives, elected on June 19, 2014 to replace outgoing Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who will leave the Leader position on July 31, 2014. (Photo by Jeff Malet)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), speaks at the socially conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition “Road to Majority” conference in Washington D.C. on June 20, 2014. (Photo by Jeff Malet)

Republicans are in full control. They now control the House of Representatives and the Senate, and have promised their base to expect fast, sweeping changes to Obamacare when the new legislative session began in January. Much was said and many anticipated seeing a glimpse of the Republican healthcare plan, but so far, nothing. And from the looks of it, nothing will happen in the near future.

A piece written on Salon looked at this Republican quagmire and correctly called it a “massive deception” by congressional Republicans. The piece dug deep and uncovered the reason Republicans promised their version of the ‘Obamacare replacement,’ but failed to deliver. And according to Salon, the reason of course, is Politics.

Speaker John Boehner went on Fox News and promised that his party would agree on an Obamacare replacement plan and that it would come up for a vote before the year was out. “There will be an alternative,” he said, “and you’re going to get to see it.” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy also got in on the act, announcing the creation of “a new working group” consisting of Reps. Paul Ryan, Fred Upton, and John Kline that would “continue to build on patient-centered health care solutions with which to replace Obamacare.”

In keeping with the tired conventions of official Washington, these statements and actions were directed at the “hardworking taxpayers” who were at risk from “the fallout of Obamacare.” But the real intended audience was far smaller: the five conservative justices on the Supreme Court. The high court had, at that point, already agreed to hear arguments in King v. Burwell, the case that threatens to invalidate health insurance subsidies to the majority of states. Republicans obviously wanted the court to endorse the dodgy, bad-faith arguments brought by the plaintiffs, but they also had to consider the implications of a ruling against the ACA. If the subsidies were struck down, the insurance markets in those states would descend into chaos and put people’s lives at risk, and that might give the conservative justices pause.

So, they started sending every signal they could that the Republicans in Congress would be ready to cope with the pandemonium of a ruling against the ACA. McCarthy’s statement announcing the healthcare working group said that it would “develop a contingency plan… to enact in case the Supreme Court rules in King v. Burwell that Obamacare subsidies offered on the federal exchange are illegal.” The message was perfectly clear for those inclined to listen: don’t worry, pull the trigger, we got this.

The day before oral arguments in the case began in March, the three working group members published an op-ed laying out in determinedly vague terms the principles for their Obamacare “off-ramp” proposal. After the oral arguments, the working group released a statement saying “we will be ready to act” if the court rules for the plaintiffs. That was three months ago. The court’s ruling is expected to be released very soon. So where is the “contingency plan” majority leader McCarthy said would be forthcoming back in January?

Well, apparently he’s of a different mind now over whether it’s right and proper for the House working group to weigh in before the Supreme Court has actually released its ruling. According to the Wall Street Journal:

Mr. McCarthy told reporters Monday that Republicans would be prepared regardless of what the court decides, but that they would not unveil a proposal before a ruling.

“Don’t expect us to pre-determine the Supreme Court. We have to first see what their decision is and what we have to solve,” Mr. McCarthy said. Republicans still might release outlines of their response, but not a formal bill, an aide said.

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Domestic Policies Foreign Policies Healthcare News Politics Wisconsin Union Bashing

Afraid of Rubio? They All Scare Me.

Ooohhh! Scary!!! Yes, The New York Times reported last week that many Democrats are most afraid of a presidential match-up between Hillary and…Marco Rubio.

Scary!!!

And why? Because…he has a story! Scary!!! And he’s good looking. And he’s a good speaker. And he’s Hispanic and his father came here from Cuba and he won big time races in Florida. And he was once friends with Jeb Bush who might or might not have promised not to run for president in 2016, which would have opened a spot for Rubio but Jeb evidently doubled back on that maybe promise and now Marco’s really really really scary angry.

Scary!!!

So why am I so, you know, cool about this whole thing? One reason is that once GOP primary voters wake up they’ll realize that Rubio represents everything the Republicans oppose in…Obama. Scary!!!

One term Senator. Check
Makes a good speech. Check
In his 40s. Check
Supports an immigration overhaul that, scary, would lead to a path to legal status. Check
Not a lot of foreign policy experience. Check

Another reason is that the GOP base wants a bona-fide conservative with a record of tax cutting, union-busting and border fence building and that’s not Rubio.

But aside from that, Democrats should not be singularly afraid of any one candidate. They should be quaking in their boots at the thought of any of the announced or near-announced candidates becoming president. All of them have pledged tax breaks for the wealthy and lower taxes for corporations. They’ve all pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act with no credible plan to replace it, keep health care costs down, or to continue to cover those who have already signed up for care. Each one would either strongly advocate for, or at least tolerate, religious objection laws for marriage equality and contraception coverage. They would all mandate government interference in women’s reproductive health issues. They oppose higher minimum wages and believe that public workers pensions are negotiable or expendable. And none of them has any credible plan for world order other than genuflecting in front of Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for American troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Not to mention climate change denial and the unwavering support of the NRA.

That’s a frightening collection of misguided and misbegotten policies that were derided in the 1980s as outlandish pipe dreams, the subjects of journal articles in the 1990s, adopted as the GOP platform in the aughts and now, as mainstream political thought in the teens.

Making any of them a reality? Scary.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Healthcare

39 Years Later, Escaped Prisoner Turns Himself in for Healthcare

Having to choose between health and freedom, he chose health. Like, what’s the point of being free, if you’re dead!

Get healthcare folks, it’s kinda important.

Ronnie Dickinson of Frankfort, Kentucky, turned himself in to authorities with an incredible story, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday: His name isn’t Ronnie Dickinson, he’s been a fugitive for nearly 39 years and he wants to go back to prison for the health care.

Clarence David Moore, 66, called the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office on Monday and said he wanted to turn himself in, the sheriff’s office said. When deputies arrived, they found Moore — who’d been living in Frankfort as Ronnie Dickerson for the last six years — partially paralyzed and unable to walk because of a recent stroke. He was arrested and taken by ambulance to a hospital for examination before he was taken to the Franklin County Regional Jail.

Sheriff Pat Melton told NBC station WLEX of Lexington on Tuesday that Moore said he’d escaped from the Henderson County, North Carolina, Prison Unit in the mid-1970s and has been on the lam for almost four decades.

But as he got sicker, he couldn’t get medical coverage to pay for the complications of his stroke and other health problems, because he doesn’t have a valid Social Security number under his alias.

“You can’t make this up,” Melton said.

North Carolina prison records show that Moore, in fact, escaped at least three times from state prisons — the first time in 1971, as he was serving an eight-year sentence for larceny. He was caught within hours, but he escaped again the next year and remained loose until 1975 before he was captured.

Finally, on Aug. 6, 1976, he vanished again — this time, seemingly, for good.

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Healthcare ObamaCare

Republican Congresswoman Tries to Explain Why Her Facebook Followers Love Obamacare

You knew this was going to happen. Ever since the Republican Congresswoman took to Facebook and asked her followers to post their horror stories about Obamacare and getting mostly positive comments in return, Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers went silent, trying to find a way to paint these positive Obamacare stories as anything but positive.

Well, this is the best the Republican congresswoman had when explaining why her followers loved Obamacare so much. According to McMorris, the parts of the law her followers love are the parts Republicans agree with.

“The stories are largely around pre-existing conditions and those that are getting health insurance up to age 26,” she said. “That’s broad, bipartisan support for those provisions.”

The congresswoman has voted multiple times to repeal the health care law in its entirety, most recently in February on a resolution offered by Alabama Republican Bradley Byrne that would eliminate all aspects of the law, including the pre-existing condition and age 26 provisions. The resolution has not been put to a vote by the Senate.

Again, McMorris has voted numerous times to repeal the law in its entirety, including the “bipartisan” parts. I will file this McMorris person under the “total fail” category!

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