Democratic Achievements

 US job growth was strong in March 2023 resulting in an unemployment rate falling to 3.5% !  A total of 236,000 jobs were added. So what could be fueling this economic growth and job creation ? To date, the Administration has announced nearly $200 billion in funding and over 20,000 projects or awards, which touch over 4,500 communities.  In January 2023, the President has announced awards for regionally or nationally-significant projects including over $2 billion to upgrade some our nation’s most economically significant bridges and over $1.2 billion in Mega grants. These infrastructure investments will create good-paying jobs – including union jobs and jobs that do not require a college degree. The projects will grow the economy, strengthen supply chains, improve mobility for residents, and make our transportation systems safer for all users.  Thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda – including historic legislation signed into law by President Biden ...

 A VERY important thing happened on Tuesday April 4, 2023.  Democracy was saved ! While most people were glued to the news about the orange man with a curved string pancake mullet (or a duck tail) for a hairstyle but my thoughts and prayers and crossed fingers and toes were focused on Wisconsin ! We can thank the Wisconsin Dems for saving democracy.  Huh ? Wisconson Dems just helped elect, by a wide margin (11 points), the progressive candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court Janet Protasiewicz to a ten year term starting this coming August. This election shifts the Wisconsin Supreme Court ideology to 4-3 in favor of progressives. Why is this so important ? For the past 13 years, Wisconsin Republicans have been gerrymandering and rigging the entire election system to: Guarantee a permanent Republican super-majority in the state legislature that is capable of overturning any Governor veto Guarantee a permanent Republican Wisconsin Congressional majority Guarantee a pe...

  130 This is the number of mass shootings in America in 2023 so far. 557 billion This is the total economic cost to the economy from gun violence.  This is equal to 2.6% of the US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and is 5 times the budget of the US Department of Education. Generation Lockdown   Burger Retired Chief Justice Warren Burger, on 12/16/1991, referring to the 2nd Amendment stated that "this has been the subject of one of the greatest pieces of fraud on the American public by special interest groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime". Graham Lindsey Graham says he is opposed to a ban on AR-15s. TN On gun violence in schools, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) just accepts defeat and says "We're not gonna fix it."  In an average year, 1,385 people die by guns in Tennessee and 1121 in Virginia. Biden Passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) in 2022 Executive Order to reduce gun violence . President Biden announced an Executive Order with the goal of inc...

 Americans generally understand that federally funded programs which boost economic activity have some potential to raise the rate of inflation, but recent claims that the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a major contributor to our present rate of inflation are simply not accurate.  Aside from erratic supply chains and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, The Economist attributes federal government outlays during the COVID pandemic as the primary and continuing factor driving inflation in the US. Our government “was a lot more aggressive than others in stimulating the economy during the covid-19 pandemic” according to that analysis which has created a gap between government spending and revenues “more than triple its level before the pandemic and higher than all other big rich countries”. So, it’s fair and accurate to point to COVID-era policies as drivers of inflation. But not the Inflation Reduction Act. In fact, the IRA will over the next decade be a huge brake on...

 Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California was going to wield the power of the 5th largest economy in the world to ... no, not ban the mention of periods in school or ban books or ban drag shows or ban LGBTQ rights ,,, but to shape the medication market for the benefit of all Americans. How, pray tell, is he going to do that ?  California is going to make it's own insulin and sell it at near cost. Last week at a press conference, Newsom announced that California has secured a contract with a generic insulin manufacturer , Civica, to begin making some of the most common types of insulin (glargine, lispro and aspart) towards the end of the year. Warning ! Medical information ahead !  Glargine is a long lasting insulin (typically lasting 24 hours and it is usually injected once a day).  Lispro is a very fast acting insulin but doesn't last very long.  Aspart is another fast acting insulin but may last somewhat longer than Lispro.  This combina...

 Health and Human Services now estimates that 1.5 million people with Medicare would have saved approximately $500 on out-of-pocket (OOP) insulin expense if the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) had been in effect in 2020.   Remember that the IRA caps the OOP cost of insulin per prescription fill to $35.   So, you are asking, why is an average OOP cost of $42 per month ($500 divided by 12 months = $42 per month) such a big deal ?  Yes, that is a savings of $7 per month.  Not much, huh.  These numbers are based on filled prescriptions.  What we don't know is the number of UNFILLED prescriptions that would drive the numbers higher. In my healthcare practice, it was not unusual for people to slow down on insulin use and stretch that bottle further to afford the drug.  This was true of many medications.  God forbid that they drop and break a bottle of insulin or tip over a bottle of pills. Many of my patients were pretty indigent with littl...