Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney held a rally in Lakeland, Florida, on Friday morning, just hours after his much-anticipated acceptance speech at his party’s national convention. Romney must still be tired from last night’s big hurrah. In his stump speech on Friday, he mistakenly referred to the United States as a “company.” With his running…
Category: Election 2012
How Romney’s Economic Plan Would Gut Infrastructure Investments (Like Levees)
As Romney tours the storm damage, it’s worth notingthat government-funded levees prevented far greater damage from occurring in New Orleans, seven years after the city was battered (and the levees failed) during Hurricane Katrina: Isaac’s whistling winds lashed this city and the storm dumped nearly a foot of rain on its desolate streets, but the system…
In Sharp Contrast To GOP, Dems To Highlight Health Care
News outlets are looking ahead to the Democratic convention, which begins Tuesday in North Carolina, and how the parties are prepping for post-convention politicking around health care. Politico: Dems Say They’ll Talk Health Care In Charlotte President Barack Obama’s health care reform law will take center stage at the Democratic National Convention next week, David Axelrod, Obama’s…
How The Media Soft-Plays Paul Ryan’s Lies: ‘Factual Shortcuts,’ ‘Perceived Inaccuracies,’ ‘Questionable Claims’
Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) speech to the Republican National Convention last night was chock-full of bald-faced lies. For example, Ryan blamed the Obama for S&P’s downgrade of our credit rating (despite the fact that S&P blamed GOP policies) and blasted Obama for failing to heed the Bowles-Simpson debt commission (which Ryan torpedoed). Yet political reporters…
REPORT: Seniors Will Pay $60,000 More For Medicare Under Romney/Ryan Plan
The Romney/Ryan proposal to transform Medicare’s guaranteed benefit into a “premium support” structure for future retirees could increase costs by almost $60,000 for seniors reaching the age of 65 in 2023, a new report from the Center for American Progress finds. Current seniors would also have to pay more for preventive, hospital, and physician services…
Never Mind Super PACs: How Big Business Is Buying the Election
US law still bans foreign corporations from participating directly in elections. But after Citizens United, trade associations like API—whose influential members include foreign corporations—are free to spend as they wish, unburdened by disclosure requirements. And these groups have taken full advantage of their new freedoms. While other campaign committees, from labor unions to Super PACs, face…
Ryan takes factual shortcuts in speech
Laying out the first plans for his party’s presidential ticket, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan took some factual shortcuts Wednesday night when he attacked President Barack Obama’s policies on Medicare, the economic stimulus and the budget deficit. Sen. Rob Portman, a former U.S. trade representative, glossed over his own problems when critiquing Obama‘s trade dealings with China. A day earlier,…
Mitt Romney and Ann: the students “struggling” so much that they had to sell stock.
Mitt Romney is going around saying that he made all his money himself, aside from a loan from his dad to buy his first house. Journalists who buy that have short memories. I was living in Massachusetts when Romney first ran for the Senate, and remembered this interview with Ann Romney in the Boston Globe…
Romney-Ryan Medicare Plan Would Cost 29-Year-Olds $331,200: Report
If Romney becomes president and repeals the Affordable Care Act as promised, then retirement would cost $11,100 more for the average 65-year-old and $18,600 more for the average 55-year-old because of higher Medicare premiums and drug costs, according to a report from Harvard economist David Cutler, an Obamacare architect, and the Center for American Progress….
Republican Platform Calls Medicaid a ‘Black Hole.’
Talking about dismantling health care for the poor might seem to clash with balloons and funny hats, but this is a Republican convention, so it fits right in with the celebratory mood. Many in the parade of governors scheduled to speak tonight have long complained about how much they are forced to spend to keep…
GOP team is wrong prescription for patients
One major concern for me and every American is the future of our nation’s health care system. The quality of that system affects us all, and we need details about the candidates’ approach to health care, not high-level talking points. I write this as a lifelong Republican and registered nurse. The foremost priority for me…
Murray Energy Miners Allege They Had To Give Up Pay To Attend ‘Mandatory’ Romney Rally
Earlier this month, Mitt Romney was welcomed for a campaign event at the Century Mine in Beallsville, Ohio, by hundreds of coal workers and their families. Now many of the mine’s workers are saying they were forced to give up a day-worth of pay to attend the event, and they feared they might be fired…
The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era
The leading economic forecasters all believe that at its peak the stimulus added about 2-4% to GDP, the difference between contraction and growth, and saved or created about 2.5 million jobs. (“Saved or created” has become a punchline—Obama joked after his annual Thanksgiving pardon that he had just saved or created four turkeys—but it simply…
2012 or Never for GOP’s White Base
A Republican strategist said something interesting and revealing on Friday, though it largely escaped attention in the howling gusts of punditry over Mitt Romney’s birth certificate crack and a potential convention-altering hurricane. The subject was a Ron Brownstein story outlining the demographic hit rates each party requires to win in November. To squeak out a majority, Mitt…
Paul Ryan: The Man Who Wasnt There
Judged by the entirety of his career, Ryan is merely a good-looking version of a typical Obama-era Republican. He calls for budgetary discipline while exploding the deficit. He speaks of lowering taxes but merely shifts the burden to the middle class. Back in the Bush administration, he rarely met a boondoggle he didn’t embrace. On…
Paul Ryan Cosponsored All the Most Extreme Anti-Abortion Bills
Over his career in the House, GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan has endorsed a number of measures that would limit or completely bar abortion in the United States. Although Ryan’s anti-abortion credentials have gotten plenty of coverage since he was announced as Romney’s veep choice, the full extent of the measures he’s endorsed is breathtaking, and includes…
How’s Medicare Playing In The Florida Senate Race?
News outlets report on how Medicare is shaping the much-watched Florida Senate race as well as how this year’s House candidates that are physicians also tend to be Democrats. Politico: Medicare Shaping Tight Florida Senate Race Rep. Paul Ryan didn’t just inject Medicare smack into the presidential race in swing-state Florida. He also created a new…
Ohio GOP Election Board Member: Our Voting Process Shouldn’t Accommodate Black Voters
Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s recent decision to prohibit early voting on nights and weekends in all districts has many concerned about the effect on voter turnout in the state, particularly among low-income and minority communities. But one Republican Party chairman is content to suppress votes among this vulnerable demographic. Doug Preisse, chairman of…
FAQ: Decoding The $716 Billion In Medicare Reductions
The structure and financing of Medicare, the federal health insurance program that serves seniors and the disabled, has become a defining issue in the presidential and congressional campaigns since GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney picked as his running mate Rep. Paul Ryan. KHN’s Mary Agnes Carey answers some frequently asked questions about the numbers and…
Five Budget Questions Mitt Romney Needs To Answer Now That Paul Ryan Is On The Ticket
Now that Mitt Romney has selected Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to be his running mate, Ryan’s budget plan moves to the center of the presidential campaign. Ryan’s budget is a near-pure distillation of right-wing economic ideology. It would slash basic economic investments, end the Medicare guarantee, decimate the social safety-net, and dramatically cut taxes for…