Sounds decent on the surface.
My initial thoughts, top of mind:
Would doctors ability to make as much as they wanted be hamstrung by this?
Could it stiffle innovation?
Do you trust the government to actually be able to handle this efficiently?
Did Bernie rail against DOGE? Honestly I don't know.
What do you hope to get for Skubal? Is Torres getting moved as well?
I think doctors will do just fine. If this keeps their year after year increases in line with common folks, I'm good with that.
I don't worry about innovation too much as right now there is no incentive to find cures only treatments. Taking the profit motive out hopefully encourages the medical industrial complex to cure more disease since the motivation is to make things cheaper across the board. During Covid the government awarded big pharma the cash cow of coming up with vaccines and treatments which they did. I'm not going to get derailed about whether they worked or not but that was private sector innovation not the government.
I've never collected medicare, medicaid, unemployment benefits or social security but my family and friends that have don't complain.
I can't remember about Bernie and DOGE so I'm in the same boat as you. DOGE was ignorantly executed. I work in Print/Graphic Arts. We have 200 people in my building. If DOGE came in and just cut 20% without doing a deep dive of who or what is an absolute necessity, this place would have gone under. Yes, I know that some of the wrongs were righted and some folks got their jobs back but I can't imagine they are going to ever be overly enthused about going above and beyond ever again given the buttocks fucking they received. Again, the biggest bloat on the budget is the military industrial complex. They weren't audited at all. In fact their budget got bigger.
I'm over Skubal. I can't even call him Six Inning Skubal anymore. His last two outings have been a robust 5 innings apiece. Going back to last years final playoff game where he left after 6 innings and retired something like 12 of the final 13 batters he faced and was pumping his fist knowing he was done. That really soured me. He should have fought his fat ass off to stay in. Instead, he was all too happy to leave. Cy Young or not, that's not championship level moxy. He pitches one more inning and we most likely win that series and move on.
On to your questions. I want a shut down relief pitcher for him and a right handed bat or as close to a can't miss prospect as we can get. We need a relief pitcher more than we need Skubal. We have Montero to go back into the rotation and Jackson Jobe will be back probably within the month. Hoping Verlander too can pitch down the stretch even out of the bullpen would be a help. I love Gleyber Torres. He is one of the most under appreciated players I've ever seen. That said, he's on a one year deal and would want a raise and multiple year contract to stay. I couldn't justify either given his injuries the last two seasons.
Sorry for the Matthew 6:45 wall of text.
ps. The home run derby being on Netflix pissed me the fuck off last night. I have it but they block it at work and I had to watch on my phone.
