New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home scandal just got a lot worse, it turns out in return for political donations Cuomo gave nursing home executive immunity.

In 2018, Cuomo was in a heated Democrat primary race to run for governor. At the last minute money poured in from a large health care industry group. The healthcare lobbying group poured more than $1 million into Cuomo’s coffers and it was enough to help push Cuomo to victory.

Less than two years after receiving the cash from the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), Cuomo signed legislation last month very quietly giving immunity to nursing home executives from the threat of lawsuits stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. Legal experts believe this provision is the nation’s most explicit immunity protections for the healthcare industry.

More than 5,000 New Yorkers have died in nursing homes and state legislators are doing their best to repeal the bill.

Cuomo snuck in the immunity clause in a small passage of his annual budget.

The GNYHA aggressively lobbied the governor to add the provision, no doubt reminding him of the money they gave provided him to win the Democrat primary. According to the new law, nursing home companies, “shall have immunity from any liability, civil or criminal, for any harm or damages alleged to have been sustained as a result of an act or omission in the course of arranging for or providing healthcare services” to address the Covid-19 outbreak.

Cuomo like most governors had already temporarily granted legal immunity to frontline doctors and nurses, however, this clause was buried in the States annual spending bill and for executives. The legislation covers “healthcare facility administrator, executive, supervisor, board member, trustee or other person responsible for directing, supervising or managing a healthcare facility and its personnel or other individual in a comparable role.”

Democratic assemblyman Ron Kim is leading 14 New York lawmakers to repeal the language in the legislation because the immunity provisions are linked to the higher death rates in nursing homes.

“It is now apparent that negligence by administrators and executives of nursing homes has occurred at an extraordinary degree,” proponents of the legislation argued in a memo accompanying the bill. “[The immunity law] egregiously uses severe liability standards as a means to insulate healthcare facilities and specifically, administrators and executives of such facilities, from any civil or criminal liability for negligence. Repealing this article is a much-needed step to holding healthcare administrators accountable and doing everything possible to stop even more preventable deaths from happening.”

During his campaign for a second term in the general election against his Republican contender, Cuomo received another $2.3 million from the GNYHA. Cuomo’s campaign received over $3 million from nursing home industry donors and their lobbying firms.

Unless the wording in the legislation is changed families who were victims of Cuomo’s horrendous policy will not be able to sue and there will be no accountability.

The feud between Nancy Pelosi and President Trump is only getting hotter.

Pelosi insulted Trump, calling him “morbidly obese.” CNN had to debunk that claim.

Trump responded by suggesting Nance has “mental problems.” Now, Pelosi made another claim that had to be fact-checked.

From Daily Wire:

More From The Web

Pelosi has since responded by… falsely claiming that he told people to “put Lysol into their lungs,” an oft-repeated mischaracterization of Trump’s question about how disinfectants might be used to kill the virus.

Dang, Pelosi. Trump is taking up so much real estate in her head, that she can’t even keep up with the insults.

In response to Trump’s comments, Pelosi claimed he told people to “put Lysol in their lungs.” This is so last week, Nance.

No wonder Trump thinks she has mental issues.

The media tried to pounce on some comments Trump made about disinfectants. They quickly spread the false statement that Trump told people to drink bleach or use Lysol.

This wild mischaracterization was largely abandoned by the media when actual video footage of Trump’s statements spread online.

Yet Pelosi is so out of jabs against the president, she has to dig up this pathetic line.

She sounds like a child shouting, “Well, I’m rubber and you’re glue!”

Honestly, Nance got caught showing some petty shade at Trump’s weight. Trump didn’t even respond to that. He simply expressed a common concern about Pelosi and other Democrats’ mental faculties.

Not only did Nancy continue to complain about Trump’s weight, but she threw out this ridiculous statement.

Does Pelosi have anything else better to do? Trump is working around the clock for Americans.

Each day we see him doing something new to end the crisis and get Americans back to work.

Is Pelosi’s fulltime job now just talking to reporters? Is she on CNN’s payroll now? Or does she actually have something to do in Congress? (Besides pushing massive spending bills?)

SHARE if you want Pelosi voted out in November!

Source: Daily Wire

Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., is interviewed by Congressional Quarterly in his Cannon Building office. (Photo By Tom Williams/Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Congressman Justin Amash announced this morning in an op-ed published by the Washington Post that he is leaving the Republican Party. Once a prominent member of the Tea Party, a conservative political coalition that dominated the Republican Party a decade ago, the Michigan representative now considers himself an independent.

An ideological libertarian, especially on fiscal issues, Amash wrote:

Today, I am declaring my independence and leaving the Republican Party. No matter your circumstance, I’m asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us. I’m asking you to believe that we can do better than this two-party system — and to work toward it. If we continue to take America for granted, we will lose it.

An outspoken critic of America's two-party political system, Amash reiterated his opposition to it in his op-ed, calling the two-party system an "existential threat to American principles and institutions."

Perhaps best known by many for being the lone Republican in Congress to advocate for the impeachment of President Trump, Amash said in an interview with Vox yesterday that "there is room for a third party."

Amash's interview with Vox, in which he cast himself as a politician with integrity as well the rare politician with the answers to this nation's problems that allude both parties, combined with today's news that he's leaving the Republican Party, will serve to fuel speculation that he's gearing up for a 2020 presidential run.

No doubt, even if he doesn't run for president, cutting the cord with the Republican Party gives Justin Amash even more room to be a thorn in the side of Republicans. Having resigned from the Freedom Caucus a month ago, Amash has reached across the aisle to hold hands with Democrats on a variety of issues -- most notably in opposing legislation funding Trump's border wall. He's also a well-known critic of deficit spending, a position that no longer fits with either political party.

Facing an upcoming primary battle in which President Trump has promised to campaign for his challenger, this move frees Amash from the tethers of the Republican Party. He will now be able to avoid the possibility of being primaried and can run in the general election as an independent.