Biden Bits: Keep It Going…

Biden Tweets Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

President Biden’s public schedule for Thursday 03/02/2023

9:30 AM The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing
Closed Press
10:30 AM In-Town Pool Call Time
In-Town Pool
12:40 PM The President departs the White House en route the Senate Democratic Caucus Lunch
South Grounds In-Town Travel Pool
1:00 PM LunchThe President attends the Senate Democratic Caucus Lunch
Closed Press
2:10 PMThe President arrives at the White House
South Grounds In-Town Travel Pool
2:30 PM Press BriefingPress Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

Press briefing @2:30 p.m. D.C., time.


President Biden has tweeted…

He’s posted 3 tweets so far for Thursday…

AP News reported “today” that rescuers were continuing to search for survivors of the horrific train crash that occurred in Greece on Tuesday just before midnight. According to the AP the passenger train and the freight train were traveling in opposite directions on the same line near the Vale of Tempe, “a river valley about 380 kilometers (235 miles) north of Athens.”

Forty-three people have been killed; the death toll is likely to raise. Greece’s firefighting service has said 57 people remained hospitalized as of Wednesday with six in intensive care. Fifteen others were treated and then released from the hospital. 200 people were unharmed or suffered minor injuries.

Most of the passengers on board the passenger train appear to be young people according to Larissa’s chief coroner, Roubini Leondari DNA samples will be needed for identification purposes.

A Stationmaster at the trains last stop has been arrested though no name has been given. He is expected to appear in court sometime Thursday. Transportation Minister Kostas Karamanlis has resigned his post. The Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis said it appeared the rail accident was “mainly due to a tragic human error,” he offered no further details.

EuroNews.com reported on Thursday that protests have erupted as anger mounts over the worst rail disaster in the country’s history.

In the capital Athens, several hundred students protested outside the headquarters of the national rail service, Hellenic Train. What began peacefully turned more confrontational with riot police using tear gas to disperse stone-throwing protesters. No arrests were recorded. 

Similar protests occurred across the country, including in Thessaloniki and the northern city of Larissa, near where the passenger train carrying hundreds of people crashed into an oncoming freight train.

Railway workers’ associations called strikes, halting national rail services and the subway in Athens, to protest working conditions and what they described as a lack of modernization of the Greek rail system. 

EuroNews.com. 03/02/2023.

Remarks from Virginia 02/28/2023…

President Biden: Rural hospitals across the country that depend on Medicare [Medicaid] to cover uncompensated care could close their doors.  Already, more than 500 rural hospitals across the country are in risk of closing. You know what the statistics show?  If, in fact, you have a serious accident and you’re in a rural community, you have a four times greater chance of dying than if you had the same exact accident in a com- — in a — in a community that is more populated, because you can’t get to the hospital.  You can’t get — Many places throughout the Midwest, you have to drive 30, 40 miles to get to a hospital.  By that time, you’re dead.  Not a joke.  It’s not hyperbole.  It’s a fact. And so, folks, look — in fact, 2- — from 2010 to 2021, over 130 hos- — rural hospitals did close.

From the White House a fact-sheet; The Congressional Republican Agenda: Repealing the Affordable Care Act and Slashing Medicaid (02/28/2023).

Rural Hospitals Would Be Forced to Close

  • More of the over 500 rural hospitals at risk of closure could close. The ACA, especially its expansion of Medicaid, helped cut hospital uncompensated care by about $12 billion, helping hospitals, especially rural hospitals, stay afloat. Between 2010 and 2021, nearly three-fourths of rural hospital closures were in states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion, with research finding that expansion disproportionately improved rural hospital margins and helped avert rural hospital closures. If the ACA is repealed, and millions lose coverage, closures among at-risk hospitals could increase significantly.

You can find a breakdown of each linked item in Tuesday’s Biden Bits


Remarks from Virginia 02/28/2023…

President Biden: If you get rid of the Affordable Care Act, it would mean that more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions would lose the critical protections they have now.  The only reason people with preexisting conditions, who don’t have private insurance, are able to pay is because they have the Affordable Care Act.  (Applause.) 

From the White House a fact-sheet; The Congressional Republican Agenda: Repealing the Affordable Care Act and Slashing Medicaid (02/28/2023).

If Republicans are successful in repealing the Affordable Care Act and making deep cuts to Medicaid:

Millions of Americans Will Have Higher Health Care Costs

  • More than 100 million people with pre-existing health conditions could lose critical protections. Before the ACA, more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing health conditions could have been denied coverage or charged more if they tried to buy individual market health insurance. Republican repeal proposals either eliminate these protections outright or find other ways to gut them.

You can find a breakdown of each linked item in Tuesday’s Biden Bits


When the post was posted for Wednesday, President Biden had tweeted 4 times. He added 7 tweets giving him a Wednesday Tweeting Total of 11 tweets and 0 retweets.

Remarks from Virginia 02/28/2023…

President Biden: Medicaid also pays for nursing home care for about two thirds of all Americans who live in nursing homes. Cut Medicaid, and the quality of care in nursing homes goes down because the help goes down, the salaries go down, access goes down.

From the White House a fact-sheet; The Congressional Republican Agenda: Repealing the Affordable Care Act and Slashing Medicaid (02/28/2023).

Worse Care for Seniors and People With Disabilities

  • Over 7 million seniors and people with disabilities could receive worse home care, with ballooning wait lists for those still in need. The number of people on home care wait lists has dropped by 20 percent since 2018. This progress would likely be reversed under a block grant or per-capita cap because there would be fewer dollars available for home care services, an optional benefit in Medicaid. Faced with large federal funding cuts, states would almost certainly ration care. That would likely mean wait lists for home care in the 13 states and DC that don’t currently have them, and skyrocketing wait lists in 37 states that do.
  • Hundreds of thousands of nursing home residents would be at risk of lower quality of care. Over 60 percent of nursing home residents are covered by Medicaid. With large cuts in federal funding, states would be forced to cut nursing home rates to manage their costs, as many states have done during recessions. Research shows that when nursing homes are paid less, residents get worse care.

You can find a breakdown of each linked item in Tuesday’s Biden Bits


FYI: The text under the broadcast link was an error by the poster of the tweet not a Twitter error.

The YouTube is 13 minutes and 33 seconds long. His full remarks can be found here.


Nomination Announcement Remarks 03/01/2023…

President Biden: Julie knows in her bones as well the people who get up every morning and go to work and bust their necks just to make an honest living deserve something — someone to fight on their side to give them an even shot.  Just a — just a shot so they don’t get stiffed.  Well, that’s been happening to too many workers for much too long. 

President Biden: It’s my honor — and I mean it sincerely — my honor to nominate Julie Su to be our next Secretary of Labor.  (Applause.) 


The video snip is 59 seconds long.

State of the Union 02/07/2023…

President Biden: You know, we pay more for prescription drugs than any nation in the world.  Let me say it again: We pay more for prescription drugs than any major nation on Earth. For example, 1 in 10 Americans has diabetes.  Many of you in this chamber do and in the audience.  But every day, millions need insulin to control their diabetes so they can literally stay alive.  Insulin has been around for over 100 years.  The guy who invented it didn’t even patent it because he wanted it to be available for everyone. It costs the drug companies roughly $10 a vial to make that insulin.  Package it and all, you may get up to $13.  But Big Pharma has been unfairly charging people hundreds of dollars — $4- to $500 a month — making rec- — record profits.  Not anymore.  (Applause.)  Not anymore.

From Lilly.com; Those who need a savings card can visit our Insulin Value Program site, answer two questions, and immediately download it. The only exclusions to this $35 Lilly insulin solution are people enrolled in federal government insurance programs. Federal law provides that Medicare Part D beneficiaries also pay no more than $35 per month for insulin. Beyond the changes listed above, we’ve also made significant price reductions to our branded and non-branded insulins.

You can find the drug companies full announcement in Wednesday’s Biden Bits.


Remarks from Virginia 02/28/2023…

President Biden: Republicans have been trying to undo the Affordable Care Act since it passed 13 years ago. They voted to change or repeal the act — this is a fact; it’s on the record — more than 50 times in four years that it existed.  Fifty times. And they made repealing it part of virtually every Republican budget since the law was passed, from the Trump administration budgets to congressional budgets to their budget plans from just this past year. So let’s be clear about the consequences. If you get rid of the Affordable Care Act, it would mean that more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions would lose the critical protections they have now.  The only reason people with preexisting conditions, who don’t have private insurance, are able to pay is because they have the Affordable Care Act.  (Applause.) 

From the White House a fact-sheet; The Congressional Republican Agenda: Repealing the Affordable Care Act and Slashing Medicaid (02/28/2023).

If Republicans are successful in repealing the Affordable Care Act and making deep cuts to Medicaid:

Millions of Americans Will Have Higher Health Care Costs

  • More than 100 million people with pre-existing health conditions could lose critical protections. Before the ACA, more than 100 million Americans with pre-existing health conditions could have been denied coverage or charged more if they tried to buy individual market health insurance. Republican repeal proposals either eliminate these protections outright or find other ways to gut them.
  • Up to 24 million people could lose protection against catastrophic medical bills. Before the ACA, insurance plans were not required to limit enrollees’ total costs, and almost one in five people with employer coverage had no limit on out-of-pocket costs, meaning they were exposed to tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills if they became seriously ill.
  • Tens of millions of people could be at risk of lifetime benefit caps. Prior to the ACA, 105 million Americans, mostly people with employer coverage, had a lifetime limit on their health insurance benefits, and every year up to 20,000 people hit that cap and saw their benefits exhausted just when they needed them most.
  • Millions of people could lose free preventive care. The ACA requires private health insurers to cover preventive services, like cancer screenings, cholesterol tests, annual check-ups, and contraceptive services, at no cost. Before these requirements were in place, millions of Americans with health insurance faced cost sharing – sometimes high costs – for these services, which is part of why the ACA resulted in increased use of critical preventive care.
  • Over $1,000 average increase in medical debt for millions covered through Medicaid expansion. Repealing the ACA, in particular the expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults, would reverse major gains in financial security. Within the first two years of the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid, medical debt sent to collection agencies dropped by $3.4 billion, and there were 50,000 fewer medical bankruptcies. Among people gaining coverage through expansion, medical debt fell by an average of over $1,000. Expansion states also saw significant drops in evictions compared to non-expansion states.
  • Tens of millions of people could see their prescription drug coverage scaled back. Prescription drug coverage is an optional benefit under Medicaid. If states faced large cuts to their federal Medicaid funding, millions of Medicaid enrollees could see their coverage scaled back or have a harder time getting their prescriptions because of extra red tape.

Millions of Americans Will Lose Their Health Insurance

  • 40 million people’s health insurance coverage would be at risk. Over 16 million people have signed up for ACA marketplace coverage for 2023, over 22 million people are enrolled in Medicaid expansion coverage available due to the ACA, and another 1 million people have coverage through the ACA’s Basic Health Program. The total number of people with some form of ACA coverage has risen significantly since 2017, when the Congressional Budget Office estimated the House-passed repeal bill would grow the ranks of the uninsured by 23 million.
  • An additional 69 million people with Medicaid could lose critical services, or could even lose coverage altogether. Slashing federal funding for Medicaid would force states to make Medicaid eligibility changes that would make it harder to qualify for and enroll in Medicaid coverage. States would also likely consider capping or limiting enrollment, cut critical services, and cut payments rates, making it harder for people with Medicaid to access care.
  • Thousands more preventable deaths each year. The ACA Medicaid expansion is preventing thousands of premature deaths among older adults each year, research finds, likely because it improves access to care, including medications to control chronic conditions and preventive care such as cancer screenings. ACA marketplace coverage also prevents premature deaths.

You can find a breakdown of each linked item in Tuesday’s Biden Bits


The Junk Fees Prevention Act is at this time a proposal proposed by President Biden, information on the proposal can be found @White House.gov Fact-sheet; President Biden Highlights New Progress on His Competition Agenda posted on 02/01/2023…


The YouTube is 34 minutes and 26 seconds long. President Biden begins his remarks at the 6 minute and 54 second mark. His full remarks can be found here.


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About Tiff 2519 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.