10 Ways Democrats Are Already Rigging The 2024 Election

 It’s no secret by now that Democrats love rigging elections in their favor.

During the 2016 contest, agencies such as the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI willingly partook in a Hillary Clinton campaign-funded operation to convince the American public that Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government to steal the election. The FBI didn’t just launch an investigation into Trump based on “uncorroborated intelligence”; it used the Clinton-funded Steele dossier to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on his campaign.

These kinds of nefarious activities continued into the 2020 election, in which these agencies (along with the CIA) worked overtime to discredit damaging reporting about then-candidate Joe Biden. These departments even went so far as to pressure Big Tech platforms in the months leading up to the election to censor information like the Hunter Biden laptop story when it became public. Like clockwork, these companies acquiesced.

And who could forget Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose “Zuckbucks” flooded local election offices in key battleground states to change how elections were administered and effectively fund a Democrat get-out-the-vote operation?

Now, as the country hurtles towards another intense presidential election, Democrats are once again putting their feet on the electoral scale to rig the 2024 contest in their favor.

1. FBI Targeting of Conservatives

Another facet of so-called “law enforcement” agencies’ election interference is their blatant targeting of conservatives. Within the past few years, the FBI has been caught directing its fire at parents attending school board meetings, Catholics who attend Latin Mass, and innocent pro-lifers, to name a few.

Given these actions, it wasn’t shocking when Newsweek reported on Wednesday that the agency is gearing up to single out supporters of former President Donald Trump as “domestic terrorists” ahead of the 2024 contest. As The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd reported, “Testimony from more than a ‘dozen current or former government officials who specialize in terrorism’ to Newsweek confirmed that this increase in targeting was born out of the FBI’s decision to lump Trump supporters into its expanded definition of ‘domestic extremism.'”

2. Protecting Joe Biden

Former business associates, IRS and FBI whistleblowers, bank records, text messages, emails, reporting from a “highly credible” informant, and even President Joe Biden himself have all corroborated different aspects of the latter’s involvement in his family’s corrupt foreign business ventures. But according to Democrats and their legacy media allies, this is just evidence of a father’s love for his son.

From the moment mountains of evidence began piling up, implicating Biden in playing a major role in his family’s international influence-peddling scheme, Democrats have done all they can to hide, excuse, and obfuscate the massive scandal surrounding the sitting president. With help from the DOJ — which almost got away with offering Biden’s son, Hunter, a sweetheart plea agreement to evade future criminal charges and has routinely hindered investigative efforts into the Bidens — these acts represent a clear attempt by Democrats to hide damning information about the sitting president from the American public ahead of the 2024 election.

3. Trump Indictments

Who needs free and fair elections when you can just throw your political opponents behind bars ahead of a major election? Spanning four separate cases and 91 felony counts, the DOJ and leftist prosecutors’ seemingly coordinated efforts to imprison Trump could not represent a more obvious attempt to interfere in the election process.

4. Zuckbucks 2.0

While 25 states passed legislation banning or restricting the use of “Zuckbucks” in elections, that hasn’t stopped nonprofits like the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) — one of the Zuckerberg-funded groups that meddled in the 2020 election — from attempting to replicate their 2020 strategy for future elections.

Last year, CTCL and other left-wing groups launched the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, an $80 million venture designed to “systematically influence every aspect of election administration” and advance Democrat-backed voting policies in local election offices. Through the use of “scholarships” and low entrance fees, the coalition seeks to make the 2020 private hijacking of election offices look like child’s play.

5. Big Tech Censorship

It’s not surprising the same agencies that pushed Big Tech platforms to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election would continue their censorship practices years later. As indicated in several federal court rulings, the Biden administration has been actively colluding with social media giants like Facebook to suppress commentary and facts posted online that it claims are examples of “misinformation.” Equally alarming is that in spite of these rulings barring such authoritarian behavior, the administration has continued to appeal the decisions to regain the power to stifle speech online.

And these actions don’t even include the efforts undertaken by left-wing groups such as Vote.org, which have pressured Big Tech platforms to adopt plans to combat so-called “election disinformation.”

6. Passing Lax Election Laws

Sometimes the only way to win the game is to change the rules in your favor — and that’s exactly what Democrats have been doing to America’s election laws.

After expanding insecure voting practices such as mass unsupervised mail-in voting and the use of ballot drop boxes during the 2020 election, Democrat-controlled state legislatures have sought to enshrine these policies into law across the country. States such as New Mexico, Minnesota, and Michigan have all adopted sloppy election procedures under the guise of “democracy” and so-called “voting rights.”

7. Lawfare Against Election Integrity Laws

Meanwhile, in states where Democrats don’t hold power, the DOJ and leftist lawyers have stepped in to launch dishonest lawsuits against Republican-backed election integrity laws. For example, the DOJ launched a lawsuit against a Georgia election integrity law requiring voter ID in June 2021, in which the agency parroted the lie that Georgia’s law was designed to “deny[] or abridg[e]” nonwhite Americans’ right to vote.

8. Partisan Voter Registration Paid for by U.S. Taxpayers

Shortly after taking office, Biden took the unprecedented step of ordering hundreds of federal agencies to interfere in state and local election administration. Executive Order 14019 mandated all departments use U.S. taxpayer money to boost voter registration and get-out-the-vote activities. Agencies were also instructed to develop “a strategic plan” explaining how they intended to fulfill this directive.

While the Biden administration has routinely stonewalled efforts by good government groups to acquire these plans, available information reveals an apparently partisan venture aimed at registering voters who are likely to support Democrats. Recent reporting from The Daily Signal indicates agencies such as the Indian Health Service are collaborating with leftist groups like Demos and the ACLU to “register and turn out voters” under Executive Order 14019.

9. Media Attacks on Election Oversight

The Biden bribery scandal isn’t the only subject legacy media continue to lie about. In the months leading up to and after the 2022 midterms, media propagandists launched a full-scale attack on GOP voters seeking to legally observe the elections process. Despite their repeated insistence of a widespread conspiracy of Republicans threatening election officials, there is no evidence to suggest such an assertion is true. In fact, Biden’s own DOJ all but admitted as much last year.

The corporate press’s goals in regurgitating this false narrative are to both cast their political opponents as extremists and dissuade conservatives who have legitimate concerns about election integrity from partaking in legal forms of electoral oversight (such as poll watching).

10. Left-wing Nonprofit Voter Registration Ops

While federal law prohibits tax-exempt 501(c)(3) groups from engaging in partisan voter registration, that hasn’t stopped left-wing nonprofits from skirting the legal system by targeting voting demographics favorable to Democrats.

Organizations such as Restoration of America and Capital Research Center have issued reports in recent months detailing how leftist billionaires bankroll nonprofit groups to register likely-Democrat voters. Instead of explicitly stating they’re registering voters for the Democrat Party, groups like the Voter Registration Project target “people of color,” women, and young people. In other words, they specifically aim to register demographics likely to vote for Democrats.

https://thefederalist.com/2023/10/05/10-ways-democrats-are-already-rigging-the-2024-election/

Netanyahu Says War Will be Long and ‘Difficult’

 Israel is “at war,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, after militants from the Gaza Strip fired over 2,000 missiles and infiltrated southern parts of the country early Saturday. The surprise attack has killed at least 200 Israelis, while at least 230 are dead in Gaza following reprisal strikes by the Israeli military.

The operation by militant group Hamas — which included taking Israeli hostages — was an unprecedented incursion into Israel and may lead to a full-scale assault on Gaza and possible attacks on Hamas allies and supporters around the Middle East.

Netanyahu, in a call with Joe Biden, said Israel is preparing for a long conflict. The president gave a brief public address saying US “support for Israel’s security is rock solid and unwavering.”

All times Israel.

Israel Targets Gaza in Overnight Strikes (12:16 a.m.)

Israeli warplanes struck targets in Gaza overnight, including militant cells it said were trying to enter Israel by sea and through the security fence that encloses the enclave, the military said in a statement.

An operational command center tied to rocket launching and a Palestinian Islamic Jihad post were also targeted, the military said.

Almost 250 Palestinians Killed in Gaza, Hamas Says (12:09 a.m.)

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip reported 232 dead and close to 1,700 wounded on Saturday, following an incursion into Israel by heavily armed Hamas gunmen.

Blinken Urges PA to Help Restore Calm (10:50 p.m.)

In a call with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the attacks and “urged the Palestinian Authority to continue and enhance steps to restore calm and stability in the West Bank,” spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/israel-latest-pm-says-nation-113119177.html

Now Is The Time To Rescue American Autoworkers

 Seventy years ago, the CEO of General Motors could say that "what's good for General Motors is good for America." The auto industry was booming, building upon its wartime expansion as the "arsenal of democracy." Workers shared in the industry's prosperity. A job in the American auto industry delivered an income that could comfortably support a family, and autoworkers found peace of mind in working toward a secure retirement.

But the same cannot be said today. The U.S. auto industry has fallen victim to offshoring and stagnating productivity. While some sectors—particularly tech and finance—have done well, wages in other industries have stagnated. And it's become nearly impossible to raise a middle-class family on a single income.

Now, American autoworkers face a new existential threat. They have been sentenced to death—by electrification.

Through federal mandates and tax subsidies, President Biden seeks to transform the auto industry to fit his Left-wing climate agenda. His administration's premature transition to electric vehicles will cost taxpayers over $100 billion in subsidies for cars most people don't want to buy. While progressives congratulate themselves on EVs being the cars of the future, car buyers don't agree. For most brands, EVs are a loss leader, and EVs sit on auto lots about three times longer than traditional combustion cars.

Washington elites, beholden to special interests and radical environmental activists, downplay the destructive costs an all-EV auto industry would bring. But they cannot escape the truth: With so much of the mining and components manufacturing done in China, the Biden administration's EV mandates have driven up the cost of American cars all while enriching the workers of China.

Have we learned nothing over the last generation? There is no way to build middle-class American prosperity by offshoring our industrial might to a strategic rival. The Biden administration's forced transition to electric vehicles could destroy nearly half a million jobs over the next decade.

We've already seen the job-killing effects of their misguided EV agenda in Northeast Ohio. Up the road from the once-iconic Lordstown Assembly Complex, where 15,000 union workers once assembled millions of cars, now stands a battery plant that employs a fraction of the workers at a fraction of the wages. Many of the components and minerals those cars rely on were produced in China, not the broader American economy. And earlier this summer, we saw the much-heralded electric vehicle company Lordstown Motors file for bankruptcy. During my campaign last year, Democrats assured me that Lordstown Motors would be an example of the prosperity delivered by Biden's Green New Deal. Now it's a monument to industrial failure.

The Biden administration would rather shutter every combustion engine facility in Ohio than admit their EV pipedream is crushing our auto industry. Autoworkers in Cleveland, Defiance, Sharonville, Anna, Lima, Toledo and across the Midwest will be left in the breach—casualties of the far Left's religious zeal for electric vehicles.

To all the autoworkers in Ohio and across the nation: It does not have to be this way.

I will do all that I can in the Senate to protect their jobs and secure a better future for the auto industry. That is why I introduced the Drive American Act to end the EV madness and provide a much-needed boost to American auto jobs. The bill eliminates over $100 billion of Joe Biden's EV subsidies and replaces them with a new credit for gas-powered vehicles produced and assembled in high-wage facilities within the United States. Jeeps built at the historic Toledo Assembly Complex will qualify for my new credit, but only if Stellantis gives the plant's union workers a generous raise.

Today, I will join striking UAW workers on the picket line in Toledo and stand with them in their fight for higher wages and long-term survival. My message to the UAW leadership is simple: I will fight for American jobs and higher wages for American auto workers.

But I need your help. Every time Biden policy drives an auto job overseas, it destroys the bargaining power of the UAW and hastens the day when allegedly American companies tell American workers: "We don't need you. We make plenty of cars in China."

Ohioans have too much to lose. Our state builds more internal combustion engines than any other in our union. Now is the time to reject Joe Biden's disastrous obsession with electric vehicles and rescue the American auto industry.

J.D. Vance is the Republican Senator from Ohio.

https://www.newsweek.com/now-time-rescue-american-autoworkers-opinion-1832466

Thomas Sowell on the Trouble With ‘Social Justice’

 Thomas Sowell is best known for his insights on racial controversies, but race isn’t the main topic of most of his books in a career that spans more than six decades. Mr. Sowell, 93, is an economist who earned a doctorate from the University of Chicago, where his professors included Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek and other future Nobel laureates. His specialty is the history of ideas, and his most recent book, “Social Justice Fallacies,” harks back to his writings on social theory and intellectual history, which include “Knowledge and Decisions” (1980), “The Vision of the Anointed” (1996) and “The Quest for Cosmic Justice” (1999).

In his 1987 classic, “A Conflict of Visions,” Mr. Sowell attempted to explain what drives our centuries-old ideological disputes about freedom, justice, equality and power. The contrasting “visions” in the title referred to the implicit assumptions that guide a person’s thinking. On one side you have the “constrained” vision, which sees humanity as hopelessly flawed. This view is encapsulated in Edmund Burke’s declaration that “we cannot change the nature of things and of men—but must act upon them as best we can” and in Immanuel Kant’s assertion that “from the crooked timber of humanity no truly straight thing can ever be made.”

The opposite is the “unconstrained,” or utopian, view of the human condition. It’s the belief that there are no inherent limits to what mankind can accomplish, so trade-offs are unnecessary. World peace is achievable. Social problems such as poverty, crime and racism can be not merely managed but eliminated. Mr. Sowell begins “Social Justice Fallacies” with a quote from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who expressed the essence of the unconstrained vision when he wrote of “the equality which nature established among men and the inequality which they have instituted among themselves.”

Mr. Sowell has been a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution since 1980. In a phone interview, he describes the central fallacy of social-justice advocacy as “the assumption that disparities are strange, and that in the normal course of events we would expect people to be pretty much randomly distributed in various occupations, income levels, institutions and so forth.”

He says that’s an assumption based on hope rather than experience or hard evidence. “We can read reams of social justice literature without encountering a single example of proportional representation of different groups in endeavors open to competition—in any country in the world today, or at any time over thousands of years of recorded history,” he writes in the book’s opening chapter on “equal chances fallacies.” He acknowledges that exploitation and discrimination exist and contributed to disparate outcomes. But he notes that “these vices are in fact among many influences that prevent different groups of people—whether classes, races or nations—from having equal, or even comparable, outcomes in economic terms or other terms.”

For Mr. Sowell, the tremendous variety of geographic, cultural and demographic differences among groups makes anything approximating an even distribution of preferences, habits and skills close to impossible. The progressive left holds up as a norm a state the world has never seen, and regards as an anomaly something seen in societies all over the world and down through history. “There’s this sort of mysticism that disparities must show that someone’s done something wrong” to a lagging group, Mr. Sowell says. The social-justice vision “starts off by reducing the search for causation to a search for blame. And for so much of what happens, there is no blame.”

To illustrate the point, the book’s chapter on racial fallacies cites recent census data on poverty. “Statistical differences between races are not automatically due to race—either in the sense of being caused by genetics or being a result of racial discrimination,” Mr. Sowell writes. Liberals argue that higher black poverty rates are mainly a product of slavery, Jim Crow and of lingering “systemic racism.” Yet there are pockets of the U.S. populated almost exclusively by white people who experience no racism and who nevertheless earn significantly less than blacks.

The book cites Clay and Owsley counties in Appalachian Kentucky, places “that are more than 90 percent white, where the median household income is not only less than half the median household income of white Americans in the country as a whole, but also thousands of dollars less than the median household income of black Americans in the country as a whole.”

It’s been true for some time, Mr. Sowell says, that black behavioral patterns play a bigger role in racial disparities than racism does. Black married couples have had poverty rates in the single digits for more than a quarter-century. And black married couples “in which both husband and wife were college-educated earned slightly more than white married couples where both husband and wife were college-educated.” He adds that in a landmark 1899 study of blacks in Philadelphia, the race scholar W.E.B. Du Bois “said that if white people were to lose their prejudices overnight, it would make very little difference to most black people. He said some few would get better positions than they have right now, but for the mass it would be pretty much the same.”

Noting today’s black-white wealth disparities, authors including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ibram X. Kendi have advocated reparations in the name of social justice. So have such prominent organizations as the NAACP and Black Lives Matter. Mr. Sowell can’t take their arguments seriously. “The situation of slavery in some ways is much like the situation of conquered people,” he says. “There’s no question whatsoever that conquered people have been treated in a terrible way. Being conquered by the Romans was not a fate you would wish on anyone. But the fact is that the net result has been that those parts of Europe conquered by the Romans have been the most advanced parts of Europe for centuries.

“Similarly, when someone black says . . . ‘I’m worse off because of slavery,’ there’s no way in hell you can say that with a straight face. If you’re going to base reparations on the difference between where blacks today would be if it were not for slavery, then blacks would have to pay reparations to white people.”

Mr. Sowell is no stranger to poverty, prejudice or discrimination. He was born in segregated North Carolina in 1930, orphaned as a toddler and raised in Harlem from age 9. He never finished high school and earned his GED after serving a stint in the Marines during the Korean War. The GI bill enabled him to enroll in college, first at historically black Howard University, before moving on to Harvard, Columbia and finally the University of Chicago.

He says that whether social-justice proponents are pushing for slavery reparations or higher taxes on the rich, their real agenda is the confiscation and redistribution of wealth. Enthralled by what he calls the “chess-pieces fallacy,” progressives treat individuals like inert objects. “I got that from Adam Smith, who had a very low opinion of abstract theorists who feel they can move around people much as one moves around chess pieces,” he says.

“That fallacy takes many forms, and taxation is a classic example.” The fallacy is assuming that “tax hikes and tax revenues automatically move in the same direction, when often they move in the opposite direction.” Liberals say, “ ‘We need more money, so we’ll make the wealthy pay their fair share,’ which is never defined, of course. But the wealthy are not just going to sit there and do nothing.”

A historical example is when “the British decided they would put a new tax on the American colonies. It turns out they not only didn’t get any more revenue, but they lost the tax revenue they had been getting.” In modern times, Mr. Sowell says, studies have shown repeatedly that people and businesses move their money to avoid high tax rates, and that includes migrating from states with higher levies to states with lower levies.

Although the social-justice vision isn’t new, Mr. Sowell observes that these ideas didn’t have much currency before the 20th century, in an era when intellectual elites mostly talked among themselves and reached a far smaller segment of the population. Mass communication changed that by greatly expanding their ability to shape public opinion and, by extension, government decisions: “One example was the period between the two world wars, when intellectuals managed to convince a lot of people that the way to avoid war was to avoid an arms race, and therefore that disarmament was the key to preserving peace.”

The growing influence and arrogance of the social-justice crowd bothers Mr. Sowell, which is one of the reasons he wrote the book. “Someone once said that people on the political left think that they would do what God would do if he were as well-informed as they are,” he says. He’s especially vexed by the quashing of dissent. “The fatal danger of our times today is a growing intolerance and suppression of opinions and evidence that differ from the prevailing ideologies that dominate institutions, ranging from the academic world to the corporate world, the media and government institutions,” he writes. “Many intellectuals with high accomplishments seem to assume that those accomplishments confer validity to their notions about a broad swath of issues ranging far beyond the scope of their accomplishments.”

Mr. Sowell’s own accomplishments cover a broad swath. He’s published more than 40 books, and “Social Justice Fallacies” is his sixth since he turned 80 in 2010. What recommends it is what recommends so many of the others: clear thinking, a straightforward prose style that combines wide learning with common sense, and an uncanny ability to take our preening elites down a notch.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/thomas-sowell-on-the-trouble-with-social-justice-race-economics-black-white-disparities-finance-social-justice-7e2d4a3d

Hello Parts Department and Union Repairs, a 20 Million Airbag Recall is Coming Up

 Regulators hold meeting on its determination that 52 million air-bag inflators made by ARC should be recalled.

Please consider GM Has at Least 20 Million Vehicles With Potentially Dangerous Air-Bag Parts

General Motors has at least 20 million vehicles built with a potentially dangerous air-bag part that the government says should be recalled before more people are hurt or killed.

The number of affected GM vehicles—a figure that hasn’t been disclosed publicly—makes the Detroit-based automaker among the most exposed in a push by U.S. auto-safety regulators to recall 52 million air-bag inflators designed by Tennessee-based auto supplier ARC Automotive, according to people familiar with the matter.

These inflators have been known to explode with too much force during a vehicle crash, sending metal shrapnel flying and hitting occupants in the face and neck with shards. At least two people have been killed, and several others injured in such incidents.

Aside from GM, there are 11 other automakers that have the ARC air-bag inflators covered by NHTSA’s action, including Ford Motor, Volkswagen, Toyota Motor and Hyundai Motor.

NHTSA began investigating these inflators more than eight years ago, after one person was injured and another one killed by metal pieces flung into the cabin by air-bag explosions.

Any Mechanics Tuning In?

I’ll take a wild stab that it would be a 2-hour repair to fix two bags per car.

20 million vehicles multiplied by 2 hours per car is 40 million hours of labor. That’s 1 million work-weeks or about 19,000 work years.

If the repair can be done in an hour, that’s only 9,600 or so man-years.

Factor in the cost of parts and labor. This seems like a big deal.

Given the UAW strike, the timing of this recall could not be worse.

CNN reports UAW strike cost GM $200 million in its first two weeks

Shawn Fain to Give Update Friday Afternoon

Fox News reports Union President Shawn Fain to Give Update Friday Afternoon.

The UAW announced a 2 p.m. “stand-up announcement” from Fain for Friday, Oct. 6.

Earlier this week, Ford made delivered its seventh offer to the union, which included record pay and benefits. Workers would get a pay raise of more than 20%, along with cost-of-living allowances for inflation.

Additionally, all tiers would be eliminated while wage progression would be reduced by more than half the time it takes to earn top wages. Average new hires will earn six figures by the fourth year.

Average new workers will make $100,000 after for years. Wow.

UAW Strike Has the Big 3 Automakers Scrambling for Parts

The strike is now gong on three week.

Parts were an issue from the start as noted in UAW Strike Has the Big 3 Automakers Scrambling for Parts

Total UAW Unit Labor Costs vs Tesla

• Big Three: Analysts estimate $66 an hour
• Tesla: Roughly $45 at Tesla
• UAW Demands: Meeting Fain’s initial demands would boost costs to $136 according to Wells Fargo analysts.

Tesla does not pay more in hourly wages, but via stock options, Musk has made millionaires out of many workers. Stock options are not a company expense. Stock options come out out of shareholders pockets.

For further comparison details of Tesla vs the UAW costs, please see Elon Musk Taunts the UAW, “Tesla Pays Workers More and We Have Fun”

Whatever the UAW Strike Outcome, Elon Musk Has Already Won

“Any wage increase further advances Tesla’s already tremendous cost advantage in EVs over its older U.S. peers, which are contending with generations of legacy expenses while trying to steer a costly transition to electric from gas-powered vehicles,” says a WSJ report.

Meanwhile, the UAW is allegedly holding out for pensions. It would bankrupt GM again and Chrysler again.

An Epic Battle: Ford to Use China’s Battery Technology, GM Wants it Blocked

Finally, please note An Epic Battle: Ford to Use China’s Battery Technology, GM Wants it Blocked

Wage and pension demands are inflationary and cannot compete with Tesla. And there is an epic battle between Ford and GM on battery technology.

Biden is guaranteed to upset someone. That’s what happens when you interfere in the free markets, taking sides.

The industry and Biden’s forced direction are both sick.

https://mishtalk.com/economics/hello-parts-department-and-union-repairs-a-20-million-airbag-recall-is-coming-up/

DEA extends pandemic telehealth rules for prescribing controlled substances

 The Biden administration on Friday extended flexibilities regarding controlled substances to be prescribed via telemedicine. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said in a notice it would allow providers to continue using telemedicine to prescribe certain controlled substances through the end of 2024. 

The temporary rule is meant “to ensure a smooth transition for patients and practitioners that have come to rely on the availability of telemedicine for controlled medication prescriptions, as well as allowing adequate time for providers to come into compliance with any new standards or safeguards,” the agency said.

During the COVID-19 public health emergency, the DEA relaxed its restrictions on controlled substance prescriptions. Previously, patients needed at least one in-person visit, but the administration changed the rule to prevent lapses in care.

Controlled substances covered by the rule include stimulant medications for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety medicines or medications for opioid use disorder.

In February, the agency proposed new rules rolling back those flexibilities before the public health emergency declaration ended on May 13. But the DEA faced immediate backlash from doctors and telehealth groups.

In May, just before the emergency expired, the DEA said it would temporarily extend the pandemic’s telehealth flexibilities through Nov. 11. 

The American Telemedicine Association and its lobbying group ATA Action praised the extension, saying the DEA was taking a “thoughtful and thorough approach to creating the right rules.” 

But the Health Innovation Alliance, a health technology advocacy group that represents providers, insurers, patients and others, said the DEA is needlessly delaying the inevitable.

“While this extension will help millions of Americans access much-needed medications, an extension is not a permanent rule,” the organization said in a statement. “The DEA needs to stop dragging its feet, admit that tele-prescribing is a success, and trust in the medical professionals who are treating patients.”

The agency held a listening session last month where a variety of stakeholders, including patients, doctors and industry groups, urged the agency to extend the rules and change its policy to establish a special registration pathway for remote prescribing.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4242433-dea-extends-pandemic-telehealth-rules-controlled-substances/

Will Medicare Part B premiums go up again in 2024?

 Next year’s Medicare Part B premiums are expected to be announced soon and there is speculation that coverage of another pricey new Alzheimer’s medication could cause monthly costs to go up, echoing what occurred in 2022.

Leqembi received full approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July, becoming the second drug of its kind to hit the market after Aduhelm. The drug comes with an annual cost of $26,500.

While only approved for patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia who are also confirmed to have a brain plaque called amyloid, the pharmaceutical industry expects Leqembi to be popular.

While the medication is not a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, Leqembi is the first drug to demonstrate clinical benefits to patients by slowing down the progression of the disease. This is accomplished by targeting and reducing amyloid plaque in the brain, the buildup of which is linked to cognitive decline.

Leqembi’s manufacturer Eisai estimates about 100,000 people will be eligible to take the drug in the U.S. by the third year of its availability, and Medicare’s coverage of the drug should open up access to it. But some have posited that 100,000 in three years could be a conservative estimate.

Tricia Neuman, KFF senior vice president and executive director for its program on Medicare policy, noted the exact uptake of Alzheimer’s medications among Medicare beneficiaries isn’t known.

The true number of patients who could benefit from Leqembi is unclear because it’s difficult to accurately estimate how many people with Alzheimer’s disease have mild cases.

“The number and proportion of older adults who have [Mild Cognitive Impairment] due to Alzheimer’s disease is currently difficult to estimate because they require population-based prevalence measures of MCI and Alzheimer’s biomarkers, and this line of research is in its infancy,” the Alzheimer’s Association noted in its 2023 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report. 

The criteria for MCI is also different across different studies, further complicating estimates. The Alzheimer’s Association observed that some studies estimate 17 percent of people 65 and older have MCI while others estimate anywhere between 8 and 11 percent.

As KFF noted in a report earlier this year, an uptake of 100,000 would represent 1.5 percent of U.S. adults with Alzheimer’s — an estimated 6.5 million people — and even that degree of use would make Leqembi the third most costly drug to be covered by Medicare Part B.

In 2023, the monthly premium of Medicare Part B fell for the first time in 10 years, going from $170.10 a month to $164.90.

This drop was preceded by a major premium hike in 2022 — 15 percent — that was attributed to Medicare’s coverage of the new Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would later determine that the increase due to Aduhlem was overestimated, leading to the premium being lowered.

The Medicare Board of Trustees estimated the Medicare Part B premium for 2024 could be $174.80 in its annual report released this year, marking a 6 percent increase. This change would not be among the highest jumps seen in recent years. Neuman noted the estimate, put out six months ago, could change due to numerous factors separate from Medicare’s coverage of Leqembi.

“It’s difficult to know exactly what the Part B premium will be in 2024 or how it will be influenced by any given drug, including Leqembi,” said Neuman.

“The Part B premium is influenced by a number of factors, like growth in spending for other services like physician services and hospital outpatient services and the drugs that are administered by physicians,” she added.

When reached for comment on when the final Medicare Part B premium for 2024 will be announced, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) said it expects to release that information some time in the fall.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4242403-will-medicare-part-b-premiums-go-up-again-in-2024/