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C0RI0LANUS

(3,015 posts)
Wed Feb 12, 2025, 11:03 PM Feb 12

Aging Members of Congress Receive Superb Medical Care and Refuse to Disclose Details of Their Secret Hospital

Last edited Thu Feb 13, 2025, 05:54 AM - Edit history (2)


Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) receives a COVID-19 vaccine from Dr. Brian Monahan, attending physician to Congress, in her office in Washington, 18 Dec 2020.
(Photo: Anna Moneymaker / The New York Times via AP)


According to a Congressional Research Service report, it costs a member of Congress just $650 a year for nearly unlimited medical care. That includes not only access to on-site X-rays, lab work, and physical therapy, but also free referrals to Washington-area military hospitals, which provide the best care in the country free to members, also on the taxpayer’s dime.


The Gerontocracy on Capitol Hill Receive Excellent Treatment

In the past two months alone, 82-year-old Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) was discovered to be living in an assisted-living facility with a dementia ward in her final months in office; 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) won a high-profile leadership position on the House Oversight Committee after revealing he is battling highly terminal esophageal cancer; 82-year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) fell twice on Capitol Hill just months after blacking out during a press conference; 84-year-old former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) fell and broke her hip in Luxembourg; and 76-year-old Rep. John Larson (D-CT) appeared to suffer a stroke on the House floor. (Larson’s staff has said it was a bad reaction to a new medication.) Local Washington pharmacists have said they fill prescriptions for things like Alzheimer’s drugs written by staff in the OAP.

What has eluded attention is the highly secretive hospital, housed on Capitol Hill and funded by taxpayers, that provides both emergency and primary care to an aging political class, which some have come to describe as a gerontocracy. It also runs classified programs known only to some members of Congress. Aside from the OAP, members of Congress have access to Obamacare health plans.



-edit-


USN RADM Brian Patrick Monahan is the Attending Physician to Congress. He looks like a nice Irishman.

In addition to this outstanding medical care, members of congress have access to a DCANG passenger jet for international trips called CODELs (I flew on one and received a delicious USAF meal). By salary, perks, and benefits, across party lines senators and congressmen have more in common with each other than the constituents they serve, like a politburo.


Sources:

https://prospect.org/health/2025-02-12-aging-members-congress-office-of-the-attending-physician/

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30064
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eppur_se_muova

(38,914 posts)
3. From the beginning, TX has paid its state Legislators very little. Result: only rich people could serve without bribery.
Wed Feb 12, 2025, 11:34 PM
Feb 12

This was deliberate. Only wealthy gringos -- no brown people -- could afford to run for office; for most Texans, serving in office would have left them broke, which left them very open to bribes. "The three B's" -- beef, broads, and bourbon were the currency of rich businessmen (originally ranchers, later oilmen) who wanted to buy influence in the Lege.

Robert A. Caro wrote about this in his biography of LBJ -- LBJ's father attempted to serve in the Lege w/out being independently wealthy, and his family lived in poverty as a result. LBJ learned a lesson from this he -- proved very corrupt when he gained office himself, putting his wholly owned businesses in his wife's name to avoid disclosing his real income and real net worth.

Starving your Representatives won't make them more honest, it will force honest people to refrain from running, encourage dishonesty once elected, and leave their offices captive to lobbyists. Yes, they're pretty much captive now, due to the extremely high costs of running campaigns in the age of the modern press. Cutting their salaries will make things worse. If you want to reign in Congressional excesses, push for campaign finance reform. It's badly needed for all kinds of reasons.

C0RI0LANUS

(3,015 posts)
5. Indeed, CrispyQ.
Thu Feb 13, 2025, 12:19 AM
Feb 13

Members of congress HEAR about the miseries of the people, but they themselves don't LIVE in the miseries. This graphic is a bit dated, but you get the idea.



The people closest to the pain should be in charge. In our system, we have the opposite.


One Democrat bucked the system. JFK donated his entire presidential salary to charity because he didn't need the money. He's the POTUS who established USAID and the Peace Corps to help poor people worldwide.



CrispyQ

(39,493 posts)
11. I'd forgotten my governor, Polis, was one of congress' richest men.
Thu Feb 13, 2025, 10:59 AM
Feb 13

No wonder he's voiced some Trump friendly comments.

I didn't realize JFK established USAID. Thanks for that fact!

C0RI0LANUS

(3,015 posts)
13. You're most welcome, CrispyQ. Dem Gov. Jared Polis made pro-Trump comments? I didn't catch it.
Thu Feb 13, 2025, 02:44 PM
Feb 13

Kid Berwyn

(20,021 posts)
12. Until Joe Biden, they let Trickle Down stand.
Thu Feb 13, 2025, 11:49 AM
Feb 13

Now, for some reason, it's back and its pro-kleptocracy adherents are tearing up any legislative progress the government has made to make life better for ALL Americans, since Reconstruction.

MAGA lurkers: Look it up.

C0RI0LANUS

(3,015 posts)
14. Hi Kid Berwyn: You said it. We're heading towards antebellum Dixie, an era without social safety nets.
Thu Feb 13, 2025, 03:14 PM
Feb 13

The legislation the GOP wants to enact may as well eliminate all taxes on the wealthy, just like the pre-IRS era when Uncle Sam relied on tariffs for revenue. The 19th century Robber Barons gorged themselves off the sweat of American labor while depleting her natural resources and ethnically cleansing the West of indigenous people. Now techno-fascists and oligarchs are enriching themselves while we ethnically cleanse the US of brown-skinned people in Operation Wetback II. The 21st century version of the Slave Patrol are the volunteer migrant hunters. MAGAts would love to have an all-white military too.









Source:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/24/politics/pentagon-report-white-supremacists/index.html

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