My local congresscritter, Rep. Juan Ciscomanni (AZ-6) held a Town Hall last night. Great, you think, right? Well, except that it was a Zoom Call, and he sent the announcement out AFTER it was over.
So much for allowing us to seek redress of our grievances.

Correction. It is back now. But this is a worrisome sign that the systems are not able to keep up with inquiries. Imagine how someone who relies on those benefits to live would feel.

Social Security is broken. Just tried logging into the website and cannot get through. I tried all three verification methods, still nothing. I was just checking, so no harm to me, yet.

Hoo Boy, if they are trying to anger voters, they are doing a great job.

FwHB - Part I

Thankfully I have good insurance, so I’m not on the hook. My interest in all of this is mostly curiosity. I will follow up with a Part II to tell the tale of what is actually paid and by whom.

After this I am seeing all the Drs I need to as insurance will pay for all of it.
5/5

FwHB - Part I

The last time I saw a bill that high was from my car accident in 2007. Then the ICU charged $100,000 a week, not per day. I do not remember the exact amount that my insurance paid of that, maybe something like $20,000 per week.

4/5

FwHB - Part I

The fun part is that I see the hospital’s bill, the one that I had already paid $3,000 for. It's for the surgery and 3 days in the ICU. It is $335k. Yup, over $100k a day. That is the “retail” amount, my insurance will discount that and then pay most if not all of the balance.
3/*

FwHB - Part I

The bills are rolling in. I got a bill from the surgeon, net for me about $2000. I can pay that & get $$$ back from the hospital. I’m not wild about it, but can afford that. So, I checked what was billed to my insurance, and I see a few small bills totalling $1000 or so.
2/*

Fun with Hospital Bills - Part I

I had surgery early in March. I'm better now and am looking out for the bills as they roll in. Up front the hospital nudged me to pay 3 grand, and knowing that I have a high deductible, I went ahead and paid them. That is almost all of my $3600 deductible.
1/*

2/2
A popular meme making the rounds says that tanking the economy makes it possible for Trump and cronies to buy businesses cheaply.

Another factor to consider is that when the economy does poorly, interest rates drop. This benefits those cronies, AND the federal debt payment costs drop too.

So, it seems that the new administration is trying to intentionally swerve the economy into a recession. I have looked at their actions and cannot really come up with a different reason for what they are doing.

1/2

And he just got defrocked by the (U.S.) Anglican Catholic Church.

#1 cont. And before you think that this cannot work due to the complexity of the tax laws, think again. Just do a process flow analysis and look for bottlenecks. Look for the factors that cause a person to have to decline the estimate and file their own more detailed return. Then fix those. /3

#1 cont. With the higher standard deduction, they know the number of dependents (which you could be allowed to update), and a few other data points and it's all done.
Self-employed and those with rentals would still have to file, but why not actually put the service into "government service"? /2

Serious suggestion #1. Why doesn't the IRS send us an estimated tax bill? For all of the people who get a paystub and W-2, why can't the govt just send them an estimated tax statement? The IRS gets your W-2 and 1099s, 1098s for interest and other taxable income. They have the data. /1

/5 final one: One big catch to throwing out so many things at one time is that they have to defend all of them at once, and try to implement them all. That will take away from their efforts to accomplish much of that agenda. Remember Obama, he got ONE big policy into force in his first two yrs.

/4 A major reason for this flurry of effort is that this President is term limited and will soon be a Lame Duck, facing opposition within their party as well as from the other party. 2026 we will see elections for Congress, and a couple dozen potential presidential candidates running to replace him.

/3 The further reality is that so many things they are trying to do requires action by Congress. And Republicans have narrow margins in both houses, making it harder to get thing done without running afoul of extremists in their own caucus. And without those extremists they need votes from Dems.

/2 The catch at trying to do everything all at once is that of course they make mistakes. One Executive Order has already been suspended, pending further appellate review. Another, apparently aimed at Transgender persons missed the mark since it explicitly talks about a person's "Sex", not Gender.

1/ Just an observation on the flurry of things being done or attempted by the new administration. They are literally throwing things against the wall in an effort to see what sticks. But that is also intentionally done so that we, those who follow the laws, can only address or resist some of them.

Having fun navigating health care. Mom is getting better, but now they say her cough is due to bronchitis. So far it's been Pneumonia (December), RSV (January 4th-10th), and now the big B.

Photo of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde.

This is the face of courage and compassion. Thank you Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde for speaking truth to power on behalf of the marginalized.

OK. So it is a new era, and like it or not, Trump is the President again. There is a lot of anger and fear floating around, but we cannot escape the reality of thsoe facts.
My focus for now will be on protecting those who are vulnerable and reminding us all of what we voted for.

Just a reminder, the President of the United States is Joseph R. Biden, Jr. His term does not end until January 20th.

Very true, we all did try to warn them.

The one thing we can do for the next four years is to repeatedly remind people when these things happen. We must remind voters that the promises made to them are not being delivered, and that the things we all were concerned could happen are happening.

I never really did Twitter (nor "X"), so this is interesting. So far it is a fun ride.

My suggestion for a new WaPo slogan: Democracy dies in ignorance, one edition at a time

Are they hoping to kill people? Or raise overall medical costs? Because if a diabetic person skips doses for any reason, that's the result of this change.

/4 Just the facts, Ma'am
In a typical year prior to 2019, between 12,000 and 51,000 Americans died annually from the Flu or pneumonia.

From 2020 through mid-2024, over 2,000,000 Americans have died from COVID, the Flu, or Pneumonia. Do the math, that's an average of 400,000 a year (in five years).

3/ tl:dr
If you are sick, take precautions. If you can, stay home and avoid being around others. Masking up if you have to go out, and try to stay away from people and interact as little as possible. Wash your hands often, and avoid direct contact with others.

Did we learn nothing from COVID?

2/ Mom lives in an Assisted Living place, so she caught these bugs, pneumonia and then RSV, because someone who was sick didn't take precautions. Like staying home if at all possible, or masking up if you have to go out.

Did they learn nothing from COVID?