Daggdag

I think we should considering placing a price cap on medical services.  We have situations where a hospital will charge upwards of $5000 for a pill that barely costs them 15 cents.  You can't tell me they are paying a nurse anywhere near that to carry a pill from a storage room to a patient, so it isn't labor costs.  It's just greedy scumbags who know they can charge whatever they want and get away with it.

I think we should cap all markups of medical products and services at 250%.  That would mean if the total cost of service to the hospital, including labor and materials, is $1000, then the hospital is only allowed to charge $2500.  They still make a profit, but aren't allowed to charge insane markups/

I think our best chance of getting something passed is having a regulated private insurance system, while expanding medicare into a full public option for those who can't afford private insurance and to fill coverage gaps.  

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There are plenty in this country who do not trust the government enough to give them full control over the healthcare industry, which is why single payer never really gets much support except from progressives and socialists.

A well regulated private market, with a sadety net in place to cover those who fall through the cracks is the best bet and would appease the moderates on the right who are hestitant of single payer.  This is what Obamacare was originally going to be, before the Republicans added in the Individual mandate.  It can be paid for by raising the taxable income cap for FICA.  

I don't have time to write anything that would fit a press conference, but I will support it on twitter and release a press release supporting it.

I think we could get some moderate republicans on board, if we played up the fact that it puts minimum wage in the hands of the states, especially if we do some promotion of it, and get the voters on our side.

I know many in our party consider a federal minimum wage sufficient, but the fact is that even at $15 per hour, a federal wage still leaves millions of families well under a living wage.  

instead, I am considering introducing an amendement to the constitution which would require each state to establish it's own minimum wage, which would be equal to the cost of living in that state, plus 10%.  This would be far more efficient.  The cost of living per state is already calculated by the Office of Labor Statistics and other federal offices.  So, we can add a provision that the states use federal statistics in their calculations, to prevent anyone on the state level from trying to make up their own information.    

Mt character is John Andrew D'Angelo.  He was born and raised in Chicago.  

He owns a large mansion, located just outside of Chicago

While in Washington, he stays in the Federal Suite at the Hay-Adams Hotel, which he has on perminant reserve.

While in Washington, he uses a cheuffered Mercedes-Maybach Pullman Guard limo

He attended the University of Illinois for his undergrad studies, and the University of Chicago for his Masters degree.

OK, this is for everyone describing their new characters?  Where do they live, what was their career prior to running for office?  Where did they go to school?  What kind of cars do they drive?, etc.

The prohibition of Marijuana is a failure, one which has resulted in criminal elements using the law to create wealth and power for themselves, while people who have done nothing wrong except for the use of a drug being labeled as criminals on the same level as murderers and rapists.  The government has no business telling consenting adults what they can and cannot put into their bodies.  Prohibiting the use of a drug is no different than policing the food people eat.  

#LegalizeIt

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Mr. Speaker, I am all for cutting unneeded spending, but it seems to me that the writers of this bill were just randomly selecting programs to cut without actualy looking at how much they would be cutting from the deficit.  By my calculations, cutting the listed programs would not account to even half of the deficit.

If we are going to have a serious go at lowering the deficit, let alone balancing the budget, random spending cuts are not going to cut it.  In my honest opinion, we are not going to have a chance of lowering the deficit with any measure of sustainability without reforming military spending, social security and medical spending, and of course tax reform.  We need to ensure that needed programs still receive necessary levels of funding, while cutting out the spending that is unneeded.  

Ending the war on drugs would be a quick and easy way to cut unneeded spending.  We spend billions of dollars each year to incarcerate non-violent drug offenders whose only crime was drug possession, with no other crimes committed.  This is a waste of time, effort, and money.  The use of a drug, in and of itself should never be considered a crime. The government has no right punish consenting adults for a choice which only effects them.  Legalizing marijuana and at least decrminalizing other drugs, as well as retroactively expunging the records of all those convicted of non-violent drug posession charges, and releasing those currently serving sentences on such charges, would not only clear out our prison system, but would also provide a new source of tax revenue, by taxing legal marijuana production and sales.  

I yield.

OCC: How is it that I just realized that my called myself Senator Storm?

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I'll take Russel 374.  

Mr. President, i am all for federal aid going towards public transport, but when a transpotion system only benefits one state, I would like that state to at least put some effort into funding it themselves and not beg for handouts from the rest of the country.  I yield.

Mr. President, the "problem" is that there is no law in the united states which would prevent some of the more radical elements on the left from enacting policiies which would allow abortion survivors from being excluded from laws prohibiting child neglect.  I believe to ensure that this can't be done, federal regulation is needed.   This is the whole point of section 2.   I yield.

i couldn't figure out how to copy my thing.  but i am a centrist with libertarian social leanings.

Provides that the bill includes a provision which prohibits corporations from using any part of the loans for stock buybacks, exexutive bonuses, or anything else that is not a legit business expense, and allows audits of how the money is being used, and criminal charges for any misuse of loaned funds (sending a CEO and some boardmembers to prison for misuse of government funding would be a pretty good deterent) and I would support that.  

This is where I, the great Daggdag, will place all of my genius bills for your consideration

Mr. President, I wholly support this bill, but I would like to state for the record that I also support the amendment proposed by the gentlewoman from California.  I am a gun owner, and I support the second amendment, and the gun rights of all able minded, law abiding citizens of the United States.  However, the gentlewoman from California is right to point out a great loophole in out system, one which has allowed and still allows violent, militant extremists in out own country to purchase and bare weapons.  Terrorism does not only come from foreign nations.  We have faced the threat of terrorism from our own citizens time and time again.  There is just as much threat from violent extremism from home, be it from ecoterrorism on the left or neo-nazi groups on the right, or anything in between, as there is from any foreign terrorist organization.  And these people being allowed to buy and own weapons makes this threat even worse.  I yeld.

Mr. President, whether or not a living children should be considered a person is pretty straight forward, in my honest opinion.  I am unsure of which states my democrat friend is referring when she says that section 2 infringes on state authority.  I personally do not believe that the question of personhood under contract law can even applied when talking about a living being.  There are no states in this country which do not recognize the personhood of any child who is born.  Section 2 simply requires that this recognition be applied to survivors of abortion, and prohibits states from failing to require parents to provide for the care of such children.  We have seen numerous cases where a parent neglects their child due to them being unwanted, and this can not be allowed. Section 2 is needed to officially criminalize this type of neglect, and to ensure that states and local governments can not put politicies in place in the future which would differentiate between survivors of abortion and any other children when it comes to legal obligations placed on the parents, and other care providers.  I yield.

A release from the Office of Senator Jesse Brody, regarding the veto of the Investment in Opportunity Act by the President.

"Senator Storm is disappointed that the President would veto such a common sense bill.  As the President stated, this bill is a 'step in the right direction', but still chose to veto it.  All of the things that the President believes needs to be done can be handled in  future bills. and the working class need the support this bill can give them now.  The Senator will be voting to overide the President's veto on this bill"

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The official twitter account of Senator Jesse Brody