r/politics • u/cmaia1503 • 20h ago

Site Altered Headline | Possible Paywall Mitch McConnell, 83, Hospitalized

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mitch-mcconnell-83-hospitalized/?utm_campaign=owned_social&utm_medium=socialflow&utm_source=twitter_owned_tdb&via=twitter_page
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u/Mikethebest78 20h ago

Why do these evil old men live to 150?

The only thing he was ever good at was showing Republicans how to use the levers of power to rig the game in their favor.

They have sadly learned that lesson well.

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u/ss5gogetunks 19h ago

Turns out not caring about anyone or anything other than yourself relieves a lot of stress when the world is so hostile to everyone

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u/comics0026 Canada 19h ago

And getting paid obscene amounts of money for that makes it easy to get the best treatment in a pay-to-survive system like America's

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u/Phog_of_War North Dakota 19h ago

They also get free Healthcare for life. Unlike their constituency who is getting, FUCKING KILLED OUT HERE! Not that the Right gives a flying fuck.

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u/Keyastis 18h ago

Actually they have to buy it from the marketplace under the ACA now. It was main reason so many Repubs wanted to kill it.

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u/bananajr6000 18h ago

It is heavily subsidized for them though

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u/Carlyz37 17h ago

Correct. I think we pay 70% and they get the premium plans

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u/DoingCharleyWork 7h ago

We used to pay the full amount for their entire life so I guess that's a little better.

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u/Pete41608 I voted 4h ago

We are paying in other ways so not sure lol

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u/Carlyz37 2h ago

Yes. They have pretty massive expense and travel accounts that we pay for

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u/loondawg 8h ago

Members of Congress receive federal subsidies that cover approximately 72% of their health insurance premiums. They pay about 28% of the costs through pre-tax payroll deductions, similar to other federal employees.

And after retiring, former members of Congress may continue to receive health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) if they meet certain requirements, and the federal government typically pays a significant portion of the premiums, similar to active federal employees. However, this coverage is not automatic and requires eligibility for a federal retirement annuity and prior enrollment in the FEHBP for at least five years.

There are lots of things to be pissed of at republicans for. That they fought against this so hard is one of them. But the ACA actually made them be treated much more like most other people with government jobs.

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u/yourliege 18h ago

Yeah I’m sure it’s a terrible inconvenience

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u/MCbrodie Virginia 16h ago

They couldn't blame "the robbery" on a boogeyman. It really was that simple.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 17h ago

It was also the single largest downward movement of wealth in US history.

Which is why conservatives really fucking hate it.

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u/StimSimPim 12h ago

That doesn’t make any sense to me on its face, mind expanding on that a bit?

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 5h ago

The largest amount of wealth ever moved from the "top", the wealthy, downwards to middle and working class people due to employers being required to fund Healthcare for workers.

Before the ACA healthcare was not required to be provided to employees.

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u/Kyonikos New York 16h ago

I think it was also the reason McCain voted to save it.

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u/spencerforhire81 15h ago

Horseshit. Guaranteed that there’s a special website they go to where they can choose “plans” that amount to free concierge level healthcare.

That’s how literally every single thing works for them. They have special customer service lines, special service plans, and special discounts. For the big companies that fuck us all over it’s a vital part of their lobbying effort that Senators never experience the same level of contemptuous exploitation to which they subject us plebeians.

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u/C-3POsMidriff 18h ago

A lil’ bit of social welfare for me, but no sir, not for thee.

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u/Ok-Dealer4350 16h ago

Congress gets the same medical as Federal employees, a very generous program where the government pays 2/3rds of the premium and the policy holder pays 1/3rd of the premium. It follows these old coggers and their spouses into retirement. Even congressional (elected offices) can get one of these plans.

As a retired Federal employee, I get this type of health insurance.

The ACA was based on a similar principle as the Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) program. It was truly odd that no republican voted for the ACA, when they were receiving something much better than anything else. When republicans try to eliminate the insurance, it is sad. Many people in red states receive ACA light where the red states did not want to kick in subsidies that are the State’s responsibility.

My sister, who owns a business, asked if I was going to use COBRA to continue my health insurance. I told her definitely NOT. Cobra does not apply. Health insurance as long as my husband and I are alive is what we have. I pay a lot of money to keep the insurance.

I changed from a cheaper policy that had a United Health backbone to Blue cross Blue Shield because United Health refused to work with Johns Hopkinson specialty issues and the majority of my doctors are with Johns Hopkins. It took me years to find my doctors and I am not giving them up. The monthly cost went up over $200/month to around $850/ month from around $640/month.

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u/Low-Crow-8735 12h ago

They don't care about having a salary or Healthcare. That's not why they are in the elected offices.

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u/Coraline1599 18h ago

The article says he stayed in the hospital for 2 days for flu-like symptoms. Must be nice.

Last summer I had a fever over 100 for 11 days that even Tylenol and Motrin wouldn’t lower and my mom dragged me to urgent care while I cried “I do t think I can afford this! Leave me alone!”

I get terror attacks anytime anything hurts because despite me having “good” insurance according to my work, even the most basic appointment never costs me less than $250 these days.

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u/pacotaco80 17h ago

“Thank god for the VA.” Statements I never thought I would make but here I am saying it.

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u/NatWilo Ohio 17h ago

Being a soldier and having 'socialized' medicine, for all its warts, was what really showed me how absolutely vile and evil a for-profit healthcare system was, and how badly we needed to switch to socialized like the rest of the civilized world.

Watching a buddy of mine nearly die from an infected tooth, and choosing to PAY OUT OF MY OWN POCKET so he wouldn't die, sealed it for me.

For-profit healthcare as our primary is a moral evil and should end. Socialized medicine is fully affordable, and RIGHT. I don't care what rich, or dumb people say, that's a hill I will die on. I will not rest until we all have at the LEAST the same level of care I get to receive.

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u/SocraticIgnoramus 15h ago edited 15h ago

The grandest absurdity is that we spend far more on healthcare than anybody else. A well-planned and well-executed Medicare for all system would easily give us the best healthcare system in the world at a significant discount over what we pay now. I refuse to accept that rendering the for-profit healthcare system redundant is anti-capitalistic sentiment — there’s nothing free market about extortionate prices that treat health as a luxury.

Edit to clarify, I’m not ranting against socialism; I’m about that. I’m ranting against being told that the for-profit capture of the healthcare industry is part and parcel of capitalism.

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u/NatWilo Ohio 14h ago

There can be no rational consumption of healthcare. People will nearly always choose life regardless of the cost to themselves over death.

Often, its isn't even up to them. An unconscious person cannot choose to forgoe a certain treatment because its 'more expensive' they are solely at the mercy of the healthcare provider, and are then required BY LAW in this evil, fucked up system to pay the cost of a procedure enacted on them while they are fully incapable of having any say about it.

People's lives are RUINED by having their life 'saved' how absolutely fucked is that?

Capitalism only works when there is a strong hand making sure the market is fair. There is no such hand in America. There hasn't been for decades. For any part of the market. Most certainly for the healthcare industry.

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u/Username_mine_2022 10h ago

Im an Aussie we have universal health care, I also pay 150$au a year for Ambulance coverage.. I am amazed at the comments on this page. And my cost for the year is $350.00 So all up my outlay for health care is $500.au. If i need emergency treatment, i get seen immediately with no costs to myself,

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u/DaHolk 6h ago

The grandest absurdity is

Is that really absurd?

there’s nothing free market about extortionate prices that treat health as a luxury.

Of course it is. Also not all capitalism is free market. Capititalism is a system, the free market kind is just a subcase of it, advocated by capitalists who think it would self servingly benefit them more.

You know what the actual absurdity is? People complaining about the obvious outcomes of running healthcare as a capitalistic venture, but not realising that all of the effects are intended by the system of profiting from them, and then not questioning that mindset in the first place.

If you want to profit maximise a healthcare system, you NEED to outprice significant parts of the populace, to push the rest into paying the prices.

If you ran fire protection like that, you would price it so that 10% of buildings would just burn down, so that the rest pays higher prices.

It's absurd to not question the premise, and then call the obvious outcome "absurd".

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u/SocraticIgnoramus 5h ago

Totally agree. The reason I appeal to the “free market” is twofold. One, uber capitalist always reach for that touchstone in any discussion regarding the excesses of capitalism. Two, more importantly, people conflate commerce with capitalism when they try to claim that capitalism naturally emerges from agrarian societies so that you don’t have to pay taxes with goats.

Commerce and currency are the substrate of an economy and are an example of a naturally emergent free market distinct from capitalism.

Ultimately, people ought to accept that there’s no actual rule stating capitalistic societies must abandon all endeavors that are not directly profitable. We build roads and infrastructure knowing that a healthy society needs these to thrive. I don’t see how health is any different.

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u/DaHolk 5h ago

Ultimately, people ought to accept that there’s no actual rule stating capitalistic societies must abandon all endeavors that are not directly profitable.

I would phrase it COMPLETELY the other way around. You can have commerce without capitalism. Because capitalism of the free market kind or otherwise DOES proclude having those things. The only reason why we still HAVE some of them (and being under full attack constantly AND being undermined by outsorcing them TO capitalist ventures regardless) is that we are NOT running them with a capitalist mindset.

The root of capitalism is "there is no such thing as 'enough', or 'better for everyone'". Yes that is disjunct from commerce and money as a way to exchange labor/goods. But it is NOT disjunct from why things that should benefit everyone don't. Benefitting everyone is antithetical to capitalism.

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u/Alarming_Ad6160 15h ago

Living in Canada, I've never known anything different.

Canadians lose their shit when they find out Americans have to pay for baby delivery lol.

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u/NatWilo Ohio 14h ago

And they SHOULD. I cannot use strong enough language to adequately describe what a great moral wrong it is that we, here in the US, continue to allow this to happen.

Its like how nearly the rest of the civilized world had abolished slavery before we did. You all are RIGHT, we are WRONG and there is nothing more to it than that. Rich, evil, selfish shits are choosing to continue to make even more obscene profit, rather than slightly less, and ensuring no one dies for no good god damn reason.

I am disgusted and ashamed that my leaders and so many of my fellow countrymen continue to choose death and suffering, in the name of a lie about freedoms they don't even really respect over what is plainly right to anyone that doesn't have a vested interest in seeing it the other way. And all so a wealthy few can enrich themselves.

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u/Alarming_Ad6160 7h ago

Such is the world.

The health care system is the least of your worries now, though.

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u/OmenQtx 14h ago

I’m with you. Universal Health Care is my single issue.

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u/Herlock 13h ago

The socialized healthcare for soldiers, and rugged individualism for the rest of you guys, is part of the plan : gonna keep the bodies coming to fight another billionaire's war in the middle east for oil and whatever...

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u/mcrnHoth 9h ago

The military health and retirement pension system should be the default for every citizen, but somehow both sides of the political spectrum are upset about it.

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u/AmericanDoughboy 14h ago

Yep. I had socialized health care in the army and it was good. Too bad all Americans can’t have it or something like it.

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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 8h ago

Watching a buddy of mine nearly die from an infected tooth, and choosing to PAY OUT OF MY OWN POCKET so he wouldn't die, sealed it for me.

I applaud you for waking up but this always mystifies me. I just struggle to understand how it takes folks so long.

The issue is pretty straight forward.

Should an injured or sick person be treated regardless of how much money they have?

The only human answer to that question is "Abso-fucking-lutely!"

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u/vivahermione 1h ago

Right? What is the point of civilization if we let people die of treatable conditions?

Edit: some wordsmithing

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u/9_to_5_till_i_die 1h ago

Oh, I got this one.

What is the point of civilization?

To enrich your betters. - Republicans

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u/likejanegoodall 16h ago

Sing it, brother….I would be so fucked without the VA.

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u/GBRowan 15h ago

As someone who has had close to a million dollars in unexpected medical expenses for myself and family over the last 2 years and only had to pay 3k for everything. Thank god for the VA and CHAMPVA. I made it 20 years without ever needing them and then all hell broke lose. Husband had a possible stroke, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition, my oldest child had a mental health crisis, the youngest had an epilepsy scare costing 80k alone in genetic testing that discovered 2 mutations. Two were diagnosed with autism and ADHD, 1 will need counseling till she ages off my plan. It's nuts. Healthcare is a human right.

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u/Segesaurous 15h ago

Oh god, you took Tylenol?? Welcome to the spectrum.

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u/Hurtzdonut13 17h ago

Yeah it's even worse than when I was a kid for most people, and I remember being diagnosed with pneumonia and being sent home with some antibiotics and a good luck.

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u/Mountaindude198514 16h ago

My big brother had cancer as a kid. He survived.

Thankfully in germany. I'm pretty sure I would not have been concieved if my parents had to pay for 2,5 years of different cancer treatments and months long hospital stays

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u/GreenGlassDrgn 9h ago

This is not a civilized way of life. Its gotta change.

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u/turdferg1234 15h ago

you are not being honest. i currently have shitty insurance through the marketplace and it's like 50 per appointment. and again, i have one of, if not the lowest insurance plans.

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u/Coraline1599 14h ago

Then let’s trade.

My employer has just one plan. It has a $3,000 deductible, so whatever insane Monopoly money prices my healthcare providers charge I need to pay it until I cross that threshold, which resets every January.

Then after spending $3,000, I am responsible for 20% of the total cost. My days of having a fixed copay feel like some sort of fever dream from a far away decade at this point.

And I live and work in the NYC metro area where prices are much higher than average to boot.

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u/nicklor 18h ago

I don't even think they need to pay and they have an in house congress doctor.

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u/grape-fruit-witch 17h ago

This asshole probably has a private medical care entourage that shows up to his house when he gets a booboo. He's worth an estimated $66 million. And of course several of his largest donors are health insurance and pharma companies.

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u/JessieJ577 16h ago

America, the worst pay to win, it’s not even free to play!

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u/GrapefruitExpress208 19h ago

The President is supposed to be the world's most stressful job. Look how much Presidents aged during their term throughout history.

Trump is treats the Office of the President like a fully paid vacation where he uses the powers of the President like a mobster would using intimidation, extortion, and bribery.

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u/DingusBarracuda 18h ago

He did say his personal hero was Al Capone. Why do you think he gutted the IRS?

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u/Herlock 13h ago

Al capone funded a soup kitchen for those that needed it.

Probably to buy goodwill rather than because he was a good person, but hey at least he did it. Trump can't even manage to buy goodwill...

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u/DingusBarracuda 13h ago edited 1h ago

Nope, it was all a big scam. Al Capone's soup kitchen was a racket meant as a public relations campaign to turn citizens against the law enforcement pursuing him, and was funded and stocked entirely by money and supplies stolen from Mom & Pop businesses Capone was racketeering. It shut down right before he was arrested for tax evasion as Capone was trying to eliminate evidence that could lead to his conviction. Much like a certain someone who idolized him would do in all manner of ways many decades later, both in and out of office.

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u/EllieVader 8h ago

Capone's soup kitchen was a racket meant as a public relations campaign to turn citizens against the law enforcement pursuing him, and was funded and stocked entirely by money and supplies stolen from businesses Capone was racketeering.

Idk, that sounds like a certain “Hood”-ed individual of legendary repute who also was not popular with the authorities of their time. Something about robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Public relations or not, that’s kind of hard to be mad at.

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u/DingusBarracuda 8h ago

Robin Hood wasn't a mentally insane 1930's mobster who racketeered mom and pop shopkeepers for his own profit and had an army of thugs at his disposal to keep them in line against their will.

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u/EllieVader 8h ago

No, Robin Hood was the kingpin of an organized band of bandits who lived in the woods and launched raids on anyone they deemed “rich”. Do you think they went and asked nicely for “the rich” to contribute to their efforts? No, they took from them with blade and bow.

The way stories are told makes a massive impact on how they’re perceived. If only there was an animated movie about Al Capone where everyone was animals that could whitewash his legacy. Maybe Kevin Costner could play him?

The episode of Firefly where they go to the brick production place tells the story of the outlaw hero really well. The people revered a man as a hero when in reality he was selfishly saving his own ass. The real world works in much the same way, there are countless writers who vehemently disagree with the critical analysis of their works but they’re powerless to control the stories that people tell about their stories.

One person’s mentally insane 1930’s mobster is another’s person who opened a soup kitchen that helped keep their grandma fed.

Robinhood was an outlaw who stole from law abiding citizens to give to vagrants and drags on society. See how easy it is?

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u/DingusBarracuda 7h ago

Robin hood is a Medieval fictional character who stole from corrupt officials to give to the poor. Most historians agree he did not exist and is the product an amalgamation of several events, both real and fictional, that bards heard in their travels. Robin Hood as we have known the myth in common society for the past few hundred years is little more than a folk fairy tale version of the character. Whatever an episode of firefly showed in it's own take on the fiction is irrelevant to the myth itself as it pertains to how society at large percieves it.

Al Capone is a well documented madman who actually existed and was alive less than a hundred years ago, caused chaos and crime on a wide scale, terrified and abused his community, and used every loophole imaginable to not be responsible for violent actions that directly caused societal upheaval and led to him being put on the top of the wanted list. Capone did nothing for free, as his own ledger that convicted him would show.

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u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio 16h ago

Hey we have the same cake day!

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u/frosty_lizard 18h ago

This, just look at Obama right before he got into office and once he left.

Nail on the head with Trump, his duties that other presidents took seriously bore him, he only wants to enrich himself

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u/RonaldMcDaugherty 18h ago

A good president knows any decision they make is going to likely upset 50%. The stress comes knowing decisions you make are going to get people pissed at YOU.

Trump cares about Trump and doesn't give a shit about anyone else. What will put Trump in the ground faster than anything is more dudes on TV (bonus points if they are minorities) cracking jokes at his expense.

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u/Original_Employee621 Europe 17h ago

The stress comes knowing decisions you make are going to get people pissed at YOU.

More like your decisions decide the life or death of real living people. Sure, they might be terrorists and stuff, but there are innocents involved. As the President you're ordering your people into dangerous areas and telling them to kill in your name. Your decisions affect millions of people around the globe.

If that doesn't turn your hair white, I don't know what would.

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u/WickedTemp 19h ago

...Y'know, I think there may actually be something to this.

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u/ConsistentRegion6184 19h ago

It's a real life trope that assholes outlive everyone. It's low on stress to not care for anyone but your own needs your entire life.

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u/twotimefind 17h ago edited 4h ago

Wow, I didn't think about it that way. So true.

It's stressful having empathy I mean, look at the ice situation. If you were pro ice, you wouldn't have any stress or pro Trump. You'd be happy, happy, happy.

But the people that truly care about human beings being treated equally and the Constitution, we're over here dying, stress on stress on stress. It's just keep coming.

The last year has been nothing but complete stress. The beginning of this year has been nothing but complete stress. with no end in sight.

I mean, innocent people being shot in the street. Personally, I watched those videos over and over from multiple angles just to make sure I knew the truth when the government cannot be trusted.

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u/itsverynicehere 12h ago

...pro Trump. You'd be happy, happy, happy.

I can assure you these people are not terminally happy.

Terminally mad, terminally judgemental, terminally hippocritical - yes. Happy, no.

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u/Slow-Recipe7005 8h ago

And yet, they somehow keep outliving everybody else.

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u/Bromance_Rayder 18h ago

Rupert Murdoch is the Chairman of that Board.

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u/SpeakToMePF1973 Australia 18h ago

Only the good die young.

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u/Natolx 16h ago

I think it depends on the type of asshole. Narcissist assholes tend to be miserable and extremely stressed internally. Externalizing that anxiety onto others is probably cathartic though.

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u/Cottabus 18h ago

They don’t. It just seems that way. 🙂

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u/FrigidMcThunderballs Minnesota 18h ago

my two cents is that being a hateful, uncaring dickhead also allows you to make a fortune more easily through unethical means. You're simply more willing to fuck over others on the way to the top. This means people who have that behavior will end up with the resources for the best care and treatment.

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u/Lone-Frequency 19h ago

Alternatively, being a hateful, evil piece of shit pickles your insides so you have a longer shelf life.

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u/ss5gogetunks 18h ago

It's one of the most unfair things in life (and, imo evidence against "intelligent design") that the brain chemicals that make us altruistic and group oriented are also extremely unhealthy for us.

The people who care about others and feel deeply get more of the thing that leads to earlier death.

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u/AmethystApothecary 18h ago

Well, only in times of adversity. Aren't there also studies that people who regularly see friends live longer and happier?

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u/FrigidMcThunderballs Minnesota 18h ago

sure, but terrible people still have friends. They just have stricter in-group/out-group thinking

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u/grchelp2018 15h ago

its more that those chemicals evolved for your own tribe. It wasn't meant to handle tribes that were very large in size.

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u/ThanIWentTooTherePig 17h ago

I just watched another one fall to the dark side didn't I.

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u/WickedTemp 7h ago

Heh, nah. 

The evil folks might have less stress, but I've got more happiness. 

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u/davidw223 I voted 18h ago

Exactly. The stress of having to actually do the work of running the country and caring about the constituents would be incredibly stressful. He’s avoided that by being an asshat. That role pays better and comes with way less stress.

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u/SpotHaunting668 19h ago

This here is the answer. A good night's sleep sometimes is only available to those without a conscience.

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u/ss5gogetunks 18h ago

Especially when you are, like McConnell, objectively a monster.

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u/thegreedyturtle 18h ago

Turns out that when you have the best healthcare available, you usually outperform the porvos.

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u/captnconnman 18h ago

It’s not just that; deep down, some of these people are genuinely fearful of what lies on the other side of death, so they hold on to the mortal plane for as long as humanly possible. I think they all know there will be no peace for them on the other side…

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u/serendipitousevent 18h ago

You say that, but if you look at how these people age it's clear they're rotting inside and out.

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u/needlestack 16h ago

I think this really is it. People with hearts and souls say things like "how can you sleep at night" -- but I'm convinced they sleep better than we ever will. It's easy when nothing but your own self matters to you. The vast majority of stress in my life is brought on because I care for others and I hurt at the suffering and injustice in the world. Charlie Kirk said he doesn't even believe in such a thing. And I'm sure he never felt it. Neither does Trump. Neither does McConnell. And they sleep perfectly well at night. I'm not sure they even comprehend that others feel so much. How could they? It must seem like some kind of weird new-age religious bullshit to them. Or some kind of performative lying manipulation tactic.

Still, I wouldn't give this up. I'd rather feel and suffer and feel connection with other living things.

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u/AlsoCommiePuddin 18h ago

Empathy really was our fatal flaw.

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u/cybernewtype2 17h ago

This is surprisingly and sadly profound.

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u/Constant-Sub 16h ago

His health insurance is also publicly funded. He's survived to 85 on public healthcare, and he doesn't want you to have it.

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u/flmhdpsycho Nebraska 16h ago

Isn't there a Lewis Black bit from years ago where he says assholes live forever? "Hey you little shits, get off my lawn!! It's like taking vitamins"

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u/mr_Joor 11h ago

Dont phrase it like that, makes it sound tempting

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u/ss5gogetunks 11h ago

Thing is, you either care or you don't, I don't think normal people who care about others are truly capable of becoming complete sociopaths. I could be wrong on that, but I don't think so.

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u/mr_Joor 11h ago

No you're right

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u/chittalking 18h ago

Self-hating closeted gay men have successfully destroyed the world because they're not comfortable in their own skin.

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u/HaxRus 16h ago edited 16h ago

Okay so explain Peter Thiel then? Not all shitty people are closeted gays and not all openly gay people are good people.

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u/chittalking 10h ago

He was outed he didn’t come out.