The Washington Post told us in reference to the debate over the health care bill that: "most troubling in the short term is how few in the caucus of 256 House Democrats understand the emerging 1,000-page bill."
It doesn't tell us who this is "most troubling" to. Some of us might find it more troubling that the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and other special interests give tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to the members of Congress who are deciding the structure of health care. We may also find it more troubling that the country will spend an extra $3 trillion on prescription drugs over the next decade because of the patent monopolies that the government gives to drug firms and no one in Congress will even discuss more efficient mechanisms for financing drug research. We might also find it troubling that Congress refuses to discuss reducing the protectionist barriers that allow U.S. doctors to earn twice as much as doctors in other wealthy countries.
It is interesting to know what the Post finds most troubling about the health care debate, but that piece of information belongs on the editorial page, not a front page news story.
A second Trump administration will cement a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court for a generation, and put our collective future in the hands of someone who will be virtually unchecked by our institutions. The country has shifted rightward, and the reverberations will ensue for potentially the next few decades. In this climate, a robust independent media ecosystem will be more important than ever. We're committed to bringing you the latest news on how Trump's agenda will actually affect the American people, shining a light on the stories corporate media overlooks and keeping the public informed about how power really works in this country.
Quality journalism is expensive to produce, and we don't have corporate backers to rely on to fund what we do. Everything we do is thanks to our incredible community of readers, who chip in a few dollars at a time to make our work possible. Any amount you give today will help us continue reporting on what matters to our democracy.
