The budget plan for 2014 being advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., includes a proposal to give states more authority over Medicaid. Meanwhile, the bill being considered by the Senate to fund the federal government through the end of this year does not include the funds for the exchanges that the administration wanted. The Washington Post:…
Author: TRP
ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 198,000 Jobs In February
Private sector employment increased by 198,000 jobs from January to February, according to the February ADP National Employment Report®, which is produced by ADP®, a leading provider of human capital management solutions, in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. The report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment…
Anti-government extremist groups reach record levels, say experts
The number of American “patriot” extremist groups has reached a record level, according to a new study, and experts are warning of a wave of anti-government violence. A report released Tuesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center counted 1,360 “patriot” extremist groups in 2012 — up by 7% from 2011. The study defines patriot groups…
Sequestration And How The ‘Liberal Media’ Keep Blaming Obama For Republican Behavior
As key observers have noted in recent days, the facts on sequestration are not in dispute: Obama has made repeated offers to meet Republicans in the middle with a proposed deficit reduction plan built around a mix of spending cuts, reform to entitlement programs, and revenue increases. Republicans have countered by saying they will not…
Obama Reaches Out to GOP on Spending
President Barack Obama is following through on his search for a “caucus of common sense” with that rarest of presidential commodities — his own time. The president’s poor relationships with most rank-and-file congressional Republicans are well-known. He rarely calls lawmakers personally — something that was especially true in the past year and a half as…
Obama Job Approval Takes Brief Hit From Budget Sequester
Obama averaged 51% job approval in Gallup Daily tracking from Feb. 26-28 — Gallups three-day average immediately prior to the sequester. The budget sequester went into effect as scheduled on March 1 after Obama and Republican leaders met but did not reach an agreement to delay it. Then, in the first two days of the…
Activists, Lawmakers Wrestle With Medicaid Expansion
This aspect of the health law is a hot topic in Texas, Florida, California and Missouri — among other places. Meanwhile, a Medicare trustee questions the viability of the federal funding commitment. The Hill: Medicare Trustee Doubts Future Funding For Medicaid Expansion A Medicare trustee is questioning whether the federal government will maintain its commitment…
Explaining The Factors Behind Health Care Spending’s Modest Increases
USA Today analyzes this trend and details some of the reasons that could be driving it. USA Today: Health Care Spending Is Transferred Out Of ICU Health care spending last year rose at one of the lowest rates in a half-century, partly the result of cost-saving measures put in place by the 2009 health care…
Four Things To Know About The Next Big Budget Battle
Now that the sequester has taken effect, there’s a new phrase that keeps popping up in Washington: the “continuing resolution.” If Congress doesn’t pass a continuing resolution by March 27, the government will run out of money and will likely shut down. Here’s a list of four things you might want to know about how…
No, Obamacare Wont Cause Younger Americans Premium Costs To Skyrocket
With Obamacare on the pathway towards full implementation, critics have attempted to point out every perceived flaw in the health reform law to marshal public opinion against it. Recently, reform opponents have focused their sights on the rule that prevents insurers from charging seniors more than three times the premiums they charge younger Americans,…
Marijuana Legalization May Be Unstoppable
On Tuesday, US Attorney General Eric Holder told America to expect a decision “soon” on how he’ll respond to the recent legalization of pot by Colorado and Washington state. To which the rest of the country has basically said, “Whatever, dude.” The same day, legislative committees in New Mexico and Hawaii approved bills to decriminalize…
This is why Obama can’t make a deal with Republicans
My column this weekend is about the almost comically poor lines of communication between the White House and the Hill. The opening anecdote was drawn from a background briefing I attended with a respected Republican legislator who thought it would be a gamechanger for President Obama to say he’d be open to chained CPI — a…
Cornell NYC Techs Alarming Ties to the Israeli Occupation
When Community Board 8, which represents Roosevelt Island and the Upper East Side of Manhattan, met last November, Cornell representatives described the campus as an engine of job growth, entrepreneurship and technological innovation for New York City. Despite the marketing, many Roosevelt Island residents had reservations about the proposed campus. Some raised concerns about the…
Obama, the puppet master
President Barack Obama is a master at limiting, shaping and manipulating media coverage of himself and his White House. Not for the reason that conservatives suspect: namely, that a liberal press willingly and eagerly allows itself to get manipulated. Instead, the mastery mostly flows from a White House that has taken old tricks for shaping…
It’s official: The feds will run most Obamacare exchanges
Friday was a very important day for health policy days. It was the last day for states to tell the federal government whether they wanted any part in running the Affordable Care Act health exchanges come 2014. The federal government did not get many takers. Some of the most closely watched states, including Florida and…
The Cost of the Death Penalty to California
Here is an infographic from the California Innocence Project about the cost of maintaining a death row in the California penal system. Embedded from CA Innocence Project
Thousands at climate rally in Washington call on Obama to reject Keystone pipeline
Thousands of protesters gathered on the Washington’s National Mall on Sunday calling on President Barack Obama to reject the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline proposal and honor his inaugural pledge to act on climate change. Organizers of the “Forward on Climate” event estimated that 35,000 people from 30 states turned out in cold, blustery conditions…
Guantnamo Hearings Reveal Chaos at Camp Justice
At issue this week were defense lawyers claims that intelligence and security surveillance measures have violated the sacrosanct principle of attorney-client privilege, obstructing their ability to effectively represent the accused. In late January, courtroom audio feed – which runs on a 40-second delay to media and observers seated behind Plexiglass – was abruptly cut off…
Democrats offer bill to curb Big Oil’s tax benefits | Reuters
Senate Democrats on Wednesday introduced a bill to eliminate billions of dollars in tax benefits enjoyed by big oil and gas companies, one day after President Barack Obama renewed his call for plugging tax loopholes in his State of the Union address. Obama and fellow Democrats for years have targeted oil and gas tax breaks,…
Where were Marco Rubio’s new ideas?
After an election, the winning party typically tries to pass the policies it campaigned on while the losers go back to the drawing board to try to work up a more appealing agenda. But last night’s dueling speeches revealed, strangely, the reverse. President Obama’s agenda has become much more ambitious since the election, ranging from…