Looks like we’re going to have to put ourselves on the line over this one:
As a critical deadline for the supercommittee nears, Social Security appears to be on the negotiating table.
In private conversations, and now in public, the idea of changing the social program as part of a deficit-reduction deal is gaining some traction — a move that has been politically unthinkable for years.
In a speech Monday in Louisville, Ky., House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) appeared to raise the stakes on a grand bargain that would include major entitlement changes. Standing with his Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), at the McConnell Center at the University of Lousiville, Boehner said such action would show markets that Congress can tackle the deficit.
“Nothing,” Boehner said, according to prepared remarks, “nothing, would send a more reassuring message to the markets than taking bipartisan steps to fix the structural problems in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.”
Healthcare providers have also complained that because of the scarcity of crucial medicines, distributors have been selling drugs in the “grey market” at 100-fold more than their usual retail prices.
There’s this worrisome bit, though;
However it could take around 18 months for new production to reach the market, the FDA has said.
Erin Fox, pharmacist at the University of Utah says just a handful of companies are the main suppliers for many of the drugs in short supply.
A number of their manufacturing facilities were recently shut for safety upgrades. Shortages of some ingredients are also behind the bottleneck in supply.
But James Speyer, medical director of the clinical cancer centre at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, says the president’s action does not address one key part of the problem – drug profits.
Many of the scarce drugs are cheaper generics that yield low profits to their manufacturers.
However, I’m sure this part of the problem has been “taken care of:” from September 2010;
Looks like the indiscretions that are more likely to sink Herman Cain are these financial allegations, and not sexual harassment settlements. But I will say this one-two punch has opposition research written all over it — Mittens, or Rove working on his behalf? Either way, reporters will seize on this because it’s a much more straightforward story:
Early in his candidacy, Herman Cain may have accepted tens of thousands of dollars in goods and services for his campaign from a tax-exempt organization founded by his top aide, documents from the organization show, raising the prospect of serious violations of tax and election law by both Mr. Cain’s campaign and the organization.
The documents suggest that the nonprofit organization, Prosperity USA, effectively subsidized some early costs of his presidential bid, paying for computer equipment, charter planes and air travel for Mr. Cain or the aide, Mark Block, who is his chief of staff.
Such expenditures would violate federal election and campaign laws, which prohibit tax-exempt groups from engaging in any political activity or contributing to election campaigns, a major problem for Mr. Cain. He spent much of Monday fending off accusations that he had sexually harassed two former employees of a trade association he once led.
The nonprofit’s internal documents cite costs “due from FOH” — apparently short for Friends of Herman Cain, the name of Mr. Cain’s presidential campaign committee — during late December 2010 and January 2011. Those costs include thousands of dollars in travel expenses to Iowa, Louisiana, Las Vegas and Houston for “travel and meetings.” An additional $3,764 was owed for iPads.
“If they are supporting his campaign, whether directly or indirectly, they are violating the law,” said Lawrence H. Norton, an election lawyer at Womble Carlyle and a former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission.
The documents were obtained and posted online by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which reported on the discrepancies on Monday. A spokesman for Mr. Cain did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment, and a lawyer listed on Prosperity USA’s incorporation papers did not return a phone call.
