Skip to content

Pence Expanded Medicaid, So Trump Puts Him in Charge of Coronavirus Response

I’m listening to Donald Trump, the man who has tried at every turn to cut Americans’ access to affordable health care, tell us that he’s directing Mike Pence, the guy who can’t explain his boss’s plan to cut Medicaid, to take charge of the current Administration’s effort to keep control coronavirus/covid-19 in the United States.

As governor, Mike Pence did expand Medicaid in Indiana. Does he plan to recommend an executive order mandating that South Dakota and the thirteen other idiot states all get off their blinkered horse and expand Medicaid to ensure that rural and low-income residents can access health care and reduce the coronavirus risk?I’m cool with that policy intervention!

But as for actual experience in dealing with disease outbreaks, Pence has experience botching the job. Consider an outbreak of HIV in Indiana and the Pence policies (or lack of policies) that made it worse:

In a new study analyzing the state’s response and modeling the impacts of alternative actions, researchers from Yale University noted that Indiana state law banned new opioid agonist therapies. Syringe exchange programs were also not available. Had the state detected the outbreak in January 2013 and adopted a robust containment strategy, the vast majority of new infections could have been avoided, concluded authors Gregg S. Gonsalves, PhD, and Forrest W. Crawford, PhD, both of Yale University.

“Initiation of a response on Jan 1, 2013, could have suppressed the number of infections to 56 or fewer, averting at least 127 infections,” Gonsalves and Crawford wrote. “[W]hereas an intervention on April 1, 2011, could have reduced the number of infections to ten or fewer, averting at least 173 infections” [Jared Kaltwasser, “Early Intevention Could Have Prevented Indiana’s HIV Outbreak,” HCP Live, 2018.09.27].

Trump is rambling about how everyone looks to Mike Pence’s “Indiana Model” for guidance on health care. The “Indiana Model” refers to Medicaid expansion, not pandemic response, vaccine research, or anything else relevant to addressing the current public health crisis.

55 Comments

  1. jerry

    The Chubby emperor is apparently high on Adderall, what an incoherent babble. You’re correct on the HIV issue under Pence, Cory. Chubby trumpers rejoice, ya got to listen to your cognitively impaired spokesman this evening… Sad

  2. jerry

    Brace yourselves kiddos, the land of the free is about to become just like China. Stay home and watch Fox News for your daily briefings on what and how to behave. Probably also some preaching from the snake charmers as well…

    “On Tuesday, President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about Covid-19. As he put it, the virus is “under control” in the US and the “whole situation will start working out.” But according to Politico, Trump is privately voicing worries that the impact of the virus will undermine his chances of reelection. His panicked actions of late—including preventing an American from being treated in Alabama, at the request of a fearful Senator Richard Shelby—confirm that this virus is a political event of the first magnitude. While few in Washington have internalized it, the coronavirus is the biggest story in the world and is soon going to smash into our electoral politics in unpredictable ways.”

  3. Debbo

    Medical Moron has now created a way for Prissy Pussy Pency to become almost as repugnant as he is himself. No doubt the uber repressed little man will screw this up, Americans will die and Medical Moron will gleefully throw him under the bus. Then he’ll get the new VP he wants. What despicable doormat might that be?

  4. cibvet

    Straight from the horse’s a__(Limbaugh) “The coronavirus is the common cold,folks”.
    I mean no disrespect to any horses.

  5. mike from iowa

    According to Maggie Haberman of NYT, drumpf claimed coronavirus would be dead by April because he misinterpreted advisers saying warm weather slows the spread of the virus.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-credibility.html

    In his response to the coronavirus, Mr. Trump has made inaccurate or questionable claims, twice misstating the number of Americans infected with the virus and insisting that it “miraculously goes away” when warmer spring weather arrives — a prediction that health experts have said is premature.

    He based that prediction on a comment made at one of his briefings, when an expert noted that temperatures can affect the spread of viruses. Mr. Trump has used that data point as evidence in saying in public and in private to guests at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., that the global outbreak will be behind him by April.

  6. No doubt mike will pray it away.
    Bad as it sounds I can readily think of two people eligible for the two percent.

  7. Debbo

    Medical Moron and his Putrid Pals are busy lying to the US public about the coronavirus for their political advantage. The fact that people will die as a result is irrelevant to them, as it always is to sociopaths.

    Dr. Nancy Messonnier is the CDC spokeswoman on this issue. She has said, “We expect to see more cases of person-to-person spread among close contacts. … The goal here is to slow entry of this virus into the United States.” CNBC quoted her calling for schools to divide students into smaller groups or to close entirely and conduct courses online.

    Putrid Pals have noticed that she is Rod Rosenstein’s sister and the last 3 functioning cells in their brains exploded.

    Via all the usual channels, they’re telling their ignorant minions that covid-19 is really just an over hyped cold and it will go away soon. In addition, they’re saying Dr. Messonnier is a liar. (And believe them, they know liars!) No one should believe anything she says.
    is.gd/ByxONc

    So for ratings and power Putrid Pals, aka, righty media, is deliberately putting the lives of about 25% of the population at risk. That includes children and elders, the most vulnerable.

    I didn’t think I could hate them more.

  8. leslie

    “Now, because this administration* is mainly comprised of ambulatory sacks of greed and stupid in its upper echelons, the program is being looted so a disease doesn’t make the stock market appear to be tanking on the president*’s watch.” Esquire. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a31121417/justice-department-denaturalization-office-william-barr/

    The program: The LIHEAP program makes sure that the poor and the elderly neither freeze in the winter nor broil in the summer.

  9. leslie

    Esq writer asks: Couldn’t the government find the money to deal with the crisis somewhere else in the budget instead of making the lives of the poor and elderly more precarious?

  10. jerry

    Crystal GNOem, not to be upstaged by Pence, said that we’uns here in South Dakota have “very low risk” Apparently, the gov doesn’t know that she sends National Guardsmen to those infected places on a regular basis…and then they come home.

    “PIERRE | The state has created an internal task force to prepare South Dakota for the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Noem said Thursday.

    The Republican governor called the threat of an outbreak in the state “very low.” Shortly before Noem spoke, California officials announced that someone in the state is infected but does not appear to have the usual risk factor of travel abroad or exposure to another infected person.”

    After finding out that the lady in California was not a traveler nor did she make contact with any, it makes me wonder if the US might have been the epicenter of this virus and we just are to damn sick here to know it. Our healthcare is inadequate to deal with this. We lose 56,000 killed each year from the flu, so how do we know what kind of flu killed us?

  11. jerry

    England has 15 beds in the whole of the country to for critical needs.” England only has 15 available beds for adults to treat the most severe respiratory failure and will struggle to cope if there are more than 28 patients who need them if the number of coronavirus cases rises, according to the government and NHS documents.”https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/27/coronavirus-england-only-has-15-beds-for-worst-respiratory-cases

    How many does a state like South Dakota that sends troops to these contaminated places, have? Has Pence been in contact with our state’s health providers? Who’s in charge here? Surely not the gov…we should hope not.

  12. mike from iowa

    Jerry, you can bet people in the US will be the last to know they are in a pandemic because drumpf is scared poopless Dems will use his incompetence on this issue against him running up to the election.

    With Pence in charge of the release of propaganda, we are, insert expletive here, to be sure.
    \
    And Noem is even more clewless than drumpf about communicable diseases. All she knows is how to get government for herself and family.

  13. jerry

    As long as for profit healthcare is our health business model, we will destroy ourselves. Simple as that and we are finding that out right now. In South Dakota, there has not been any public statements on where we are with resources to take care of our people, we have not heard about test kits and their availability (California does not have enough to corral the exposed there). We do have a governor who arrogantly stands to say we don’t have to worry about this here because we are special, I guess.

    No one in the health field is in charge here to coordinate with the shadowy figures in Washington who want to keep information from us citizens. The only thing we now know is that Chubby trump says that the stock market is crashing, something we all see. He does not say what they are gonna do about it as we go over the edge. Complete and absolute republican failure once again.

  14. Debbo

    Good old Acting WH Chief of Staff Mulvaney says Covid-19 is really just a Democratic plan to take down Medical Moron and his GOP enablers. Really.

    is.gd/crOKqs

  15. mike from iowa

    China claims recovered patients are infectious meaning the disease may be harder to wipe out than originally suspected, according to WHO.

    Meanwhile, a California Dem congressman threatened to stomp a mudhole in drumpf junior for declaring Dems want millions to die of coronavirus so they can beat daddy drumpf this fall.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health/world-faces-coronavirus-pandemic-markets-brace-for-global-recession-idUSKCN20M069

    Stoopid effing wongnuts never cease to amaze me with how low they can go and lie.

    https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/congressman-threatens-donald-trump-jr-democrats-coronavirus-959761/

  16. mike from iowa

    Nevermind.
    .

  17. jerry

    Nothing, natta on whose in charge of anything. We are in a deep state of crap.

  18. jerry

    As long as Chubby and the crooks bail out Wall Street bankers nothing else matters. Drop a percentage point (not much wiggle room there) and the market will feel better on it’s sugar high for a while. We need thinkers and doers not crooks and liars running the show.

  19. jerry

    EB5 Rounds and Chubby wants us to line up and be inoculated with a tax cut. There, don’t ya feel better mfi?

  20. mike from iowa

    Dow finished the week down 352 more points ending the week’s losses around 3600 point drop. Doesn’t sound like coronavirus is going away anytime soo. Markets will reflect the speed at which the virus is being transmitted whether drumpf continues to basically ignore the problem or not.

  21. jerry

    First death (that we know of) from the virus. This woman had no contact with any of the known sources. In Washington state. Working test kits still do not exist.

    “Chubby Trump described the person as being a woman in her late 50s and having a high medical risk. He said healthy Americans should be able to recover if they contract the new virus.”

    This advise comes from a morbidly obese man who can barely waddle his fat arse up the steps to his plane. Make sure your obituary is clear that you were healthy as a horse and that you were as surprised as the rest of us on your fate, otherwise republicans will bad mouth you.

  22. jerry

    From Seattle, Washington. More of the Chubby trumpy/republican “hoax”
    “Two people connected to a Kirkland long-term care facility test positive for COVID-19
    A resident in her 70s is in serious condition, and a health employee in her 40s is stable, according to the CDC. Twenty-seven residents at the long-term care facility and 25 employees have symptoms. The long-term facility in Kirkland has 108 residents and 180 employees.”

    So, if you do the multiplication of the whole thing, you come up with a lot of people that will all add to the “hoax”

  23. mike from iowa

    Oregon has two cases in a nursing home. One patient and one worker.

    On a brighter note, saw first robin of the new year late this afternoon.

  24. mike from iowa

    WHITE HOUSE

    Trump rallies his base to treat coronavirus as a ‘hoax’
    At a South Carolina rally on the eve of the Democratic primary, the president also sought to manage expectations about the White House’s response to the outbreak.

    Outstanding leadership on display. Should make America real prowd of this human garbage allegedly in charge.

  25. Debbo

    When their elders and children die, what mental games will Medical Moron lovers play so they can pretend he didn’t hang them out to die — again?

  26. o

    I see the President disapproves of how the response by his administration has been “politicized.”

    “Politicized” apparently has been redefined to mean anything less than fawning, full-throated, messiah-level approval.

  27. jerry

    Have the Republicans come up with any ideas about how to handle an outbreak in South Dakota? Has anyone seen anything in their locals? We’ve known about this since December and the only thing that I’ve heard is that the chances are low here for that. How does she know? Who is giving her advice on this, Chubby or that 8 ball thingy as seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSaS17CSS4c

    Yes, it seems that this is the answer and also to stop drinking Corona Beer. Ah Republican leadership, the failures that keep on failing. Perfect for citizens who expect nothing and get it.

  28. jerry

    Hawaii is still a state. Hawaii, a crossroads between East and West. The decimated CDC under the EB5 Rounds/Chubby trump team supported whole hardheartedly, finally came through with testing that did not require a flight to and from Atlanta, Georgia (a long way away). Amazing typical incompetence from those that steal from successful programs to put wealth in the pockets of their benefactors (rich guys taking care of rich guys).

    “After lengthy delay, state begins local tests for COVID-19 virus
    Governor David Ige said Friday that state health officials can now conduct tests for coronavirus in Hawaii, eliminating the untimely process of having to send physical test samples to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory in Atlanta for analysis.

    That process took five to seven days to complete, accounting for air travel and test times on the ground.

    The state still has not yet received a new set of test kits from the CDC. Instead, state officials worked with federal officials to determine that the defective part that had been included in the original batch of test kits was not essential to being able to test for the COVID-19 virus.”https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2020/02/28/latest-testing-coronavirus-begin-soon-hawaii-are-self-monitoring-statewide/

  29. Debbo

    Medical Moron probably didn’t know he was president of Hawaii or that it is a state. Maybe he’ll go over there and throw paper towels at them.

  30. mike from iowa

    As guv of Indiana, Pence once ejaculated smoking doesn’t kill. But, he wuz wrong! Like usual.

  31. mike from iowa

    This oughta help immensely…..https://tinyurl.com/w8edp4u

    Pence and wasicu wassteys trying to pray away coronavirus.

  32. jerry

    South Dakota has a task force on this, good!

    “There are no reported cases in South Dakota, but Gov. Noem announced Thursday that the state is preparing for the coronavirus even though she considers the risk “very low” here. Noem and the state Department of Health (DOH) have formed a task force to prepare for any potential outbreak of the virus.

    The CDC has deemed the potential public health threat posed by COVID-19 as high — both globally and in the United States. However, the CDC also states that the immediate health risk to the American public from COVID-19 is considered low.
    Yet, the CDC writes that current global circumstances suggest it’s likely the virus will cause a pandemic.” Rapid City Journal 03/01/2020

    Still nothing about the test kits though and their availability to our state.

  33. jerry

    The US is still far behind to protect her citizens with testing for this virus. China, builds hospitals and protection while we build ancient walls like China used to. Quite amazing that one country goes forward and another goes backward, what a reversal of fortunes, thanks Republicans. Now let’s get the leeches out to handle our serious medical needs.

    “China currently has the capability to test 1.6 million people a week for COVID-19, and South Korea has already tested some 65,000 people, reported Science Magazine. As of Friday, fewer than 500 people in the U.S. had been tested, according to the CDC.

    The CDC ignored World Health Organization testing guidelines to devise its own test. But several testing kits sent to states had inconclusive results, so most states had to rely on CDC analysis, creating a backlog, ProPublica reported.

    “We’re weeks behind because we had this problem,” Scott Becker, chief executive officer of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, told ProPublica. “We’re usually up-front and center and ready.”

    Indeed, usually we are “up-front and center and ready”…when we have Democrats watching our well-being.

  34. Debbo

    This is exactly how the great Arab nations became No Longer Great, or, in the words of our Lunatic Leader, “Sh*thole countries.”

    Conservatives, reactionaries, regressives, just plain fear and greed motivated idiots took over. Arab leadership in mathematics, science, language, arts, economics, business and everydamnthing else melted away.

    That is EXACTLY where the GOP is taking the USA. SD is several steps ahead of the nation as a whole in leading the effort.

  35. jerry

    March 1, 2020, still no testing kits in South Dakota. We screen them. That’s like what your mom used to do when she touched your forehead because you had that dopey look.
    Then the Vicks Vapor Rub or as we now call South Dakota Health treatments, screenings.

  36. Debbo

    If you have any cardiac problems, hypertension, anxiety or other reasonable issues for this time and place, I suggest you do not click on this link,
    is.gd/cAd0Zl

    It’s for one of the USA’s top creeps, Alex Jones/Info Wars. The article describes how he’s vigorously scamming his MAGAt dupes into buying Info Wars imperishable foods to cope with the coming catastrophic Covid-19 virus. Such a sleazy person.

    In addition, you know “rabid lefties” actually created the virus in a lab or China did or somebody who is an enemy of “real, patriotic ‘Murcans” and wants to take over the USA. So people will resort to cannibalism very quickly.

    After every incredibly absurd claim, an ad for Info Wars food and stuff commences. Oh, and he’s jacked the prices of the stuff up double what it was last year for the exact same thing.

    Can’t get much lower than him.

  37. Debbo

    Joe Conason writes in National Memo “How ‘Conservatism’ Could Kill us All.” He describes how Medical Moron and the GOP have greatly endangered all Americans through their greedy desire to defund government and their sheer incompetence.

    is.gd/GI3fHF

  38. mike from iowa

    Good article, Debbo. Conason has been a favorite of mine since W J Clinton’s turns as Potus.

  39. mike from iowa

    Washington state investigation says there may be 150-1500 cases of coronavirus.

  40. mike from iowa

    Just got breaking news on phone saying US coronavirus deaths have climbed to six today.

  41. o

    I keep feeling that the administration has such little respect for us that it will lie to calm the waters – lie in ways that are so obviously false they are laughable. But then that has been the pathway for this administration to this point: lie and lie and your followers will give the pass to those lies.

    A meaningful, thoughtful discussion of precautions and perspective (how in may ways the flu is a bigger risk) will not be part of our national discourse because that is not how President Trump communicates or thinks. How does one substitute bombast for argument (for go to move) when trying to calm?

  42. jerry

    From 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. The same kind of stupid that killed us by the millions is being led by the stupidest people we can find. This will not end well. A children’s jump rope poem (1918) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDY5COg2P2c

    “I had a little bird,
    her name was Enza.
    I opened the window,
    and In-Flu-Enza.”

  43. mike from iowa

    9 c-virus dead, all in Washington state with at least a hundred more confirmed cases. What say drumpf? We need a new flu shot. Incompetance on display and at work.

  44. Debbo

    Every time I think the GOP has hit the bottom, they dig to a new low. I guess they don’t mind being the USA’s sewage.

  45. Debbo

    Roger Cornelius Memorial Cartoon by Marty Two Bulls:

    is.gd/v0gANV

    It’s outstanding!!,

Comments are closed.