Tuesday Open Thread [7.31.12]

View from the ISS at Night from Knate Myers on Vimeo.

Have you actually sat down and read the Texas Republican Party’s platform? To quote John Harvey: “While I am hardly in agreement with everything forwarded by the Democrats (and have taken aim at President Obama on a number of occasions, especially with respect to his desire to balance the federal budget), it is difficult to believe that what the Republicans put together during their convention in Fort Worth was even written in the 21st century.”

The latest NBC-WSJ poll finds Mitt Romney’s “overall favorable/unfavorable score remains a net negative — a trait no other modern presumptive GOP presidential nominee (whether Bob Dole, George W. Bush or John McCain) has shared.” Jason’s joke post from last week was not far off the mark.

Steven Perlberg reports that, according to data from the Centers for Medicare And Medicaid Services (CMS), more than 5.2 million seniors and people with disabilities have already saved nearly $4 billion on prescription drugs “as a direct result of the Affordable Care Act.”

The CMS data also showed that over 1 million people with Medicare saved an average of $629 on prescriptions in the “donut hole” coverage gap since the beginning of the year. So far in 2012, Medicare coverage for generic drugs in the coverage gap has risen to 14 percent, saving Medicare beneficiaries a total of $687 million. Over the next few years, the government will cover more and more of brand-name and generic drugs until donut hole is closed in 2020.