Week in review: in case you missed it.

FEDERAL NONSENSE ROUND-UP FOR WEEK ENDING October 14 2017.

Week in review compiled by:
​ Shalin M., Represent Maryland Volunteer, Baltimore City
and Cristi D., Represent Maryland Chair.

1.)
​**Trump keeps making a misleading claim that the US is the 'highest taxed nation in the world'**

​About:
​President Trump repeated false claims that citizens of the United States of America pay more in taxes than any other nation in the world.
Excerpt: 
"Even looking at the top marginal tax rate for the highest-income earners, the US ranks in the middle of the pack among OECD countries, with the 18th-highest marginal statutory rate.

But the most comprehensive measure by which to judge Trump's claim, combining corporate and individual taxes paid, is tax burden as a percentage of gross domestic product. It compares how much money in a country is put toward taxes with the economic output of the country.

By this measure, the US has the fourth-lowest tax burden of any OECD country, with only South Korea, Chile, and Mexico ranking lower."
Read More:
http://www.businessinsider.com/is-us-highest-taxed-country-like-trump-claims-2017-9
Our Opinion: ​
Mr. Trump's false claims are not only misleading, but inflammatory and divisive. ​

2.)
​**The little red pill being pushed on the elderly: CNN investigation exposes inappropriate use of drug in nursing homes.**
​
About:
Increased and unwarranted prescribing of 'Nuedexta' in nursing homes, the expensive "little red pill" that's meant to treat one very rare condition, at the expense of taxpayers.
Excerpt:
"There has to be a diagnosis for every drug prescribed, and that diagnosis has to be real ... it cannot be simply made up by a doctor," said Kathryn Locatell, a geriatric physician who helps the California Department of Justice investigate cases of elder abuse in nursing homes. "There is little to no medical literature to support the drug's use in nursing home residents (with dementia) -- the population apparently being targeted.
[...]  
At another facility in 2015, also in Southern California, an employee admitted to inspectors that a resident had been given a diagnosis of PBA to "somehow justify the use" of Nuedexta, even though its intended purpose was to control the resident's "mood disturbances" and yelling out.
[...]  
The federal government foots the bill for a big portion of the money being spent on Nuedexta in the form of Medicare Part D prescription drug funding, for people 65 and over and the disabled. In 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, this Medicare program spent $138 million on Nuedexta -- up more than 400% from just three years earlier."
Read the full story: 
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/12/health/nuedexta-nursing-homes-invs/index.html
Our Opinion: 
-Pharmaceutical companies should not be allowed to grow richer by duping the system for more Medicare payouts.
-The relationship between agency and industry is too cozy when nursing homes can become the de facto testing laboratories of loved ones of US citizens and taxpayers.
-It seems to be a strong indictment on regulatory agencies no longer doing the job that they were created to do.
​

​3.)
**Democrats Appoint an Anti-Minimum-Wage Lobbyist to Finance Committee.**

About:
​Reports that the Democratic National Committee has appointed Dan Halpern, Atlanta Native and lobbyist with a record suggesting "a hostility towards [...] worker-friendly policies" to the parties finance committee.
Excerpt: 
"In Halpern’s home state of Georgia, according to Politifact “Senate Bill 314 called for raising Georgia’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, but it didn’t get so much as a hearing.”

Why? Halpern’s people—the Georgia Restaurant Association—claimed that there would be a potential loss of 21,000 jobs, ignoring the increased possibility for consumer spending, for new jobs, for giving hungry people a hand up. Everything must benefit the boardroom, you see, or it’s not worth doing. As Politifact helpfully reminds us, “Georgia’s minimum wage is technically $5.15 an hour (Georgia Code 34-4-3) and has been since 2001. But the vast majority of Georgia employers (some say more than 99 percent) must comply with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which means they have to pay their employees the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.” If given god-like sway over the business, Halpern and his GRA would probably prefer to keep this amount even lower.

Hardly surprising. When a guy is described by the Atlanta Journal Constitution as a “Georgia Democratic moneyman,” it’s safe bet he couldn’t give two hoots in hell for a single mother making minimum wage at McDonald’s."
Read the full story:
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/10/democrats-appoint-anti-minimum-wage-advocate-to-fi.html
Our Opinion:  
​This choice by the Democratic party could impact working people negatively if it leads to continued policy that put's corporate profit before people.
​We will update as we learn more.
​Learn More about Mr. Halpern:
http://www.jackmont.com/about/ownership/daniel-halpern/​