Voting-rights groups that virtually stopped registering voters in Florida for a year as they challenged the state’s new restrictions on elections now are scrambling to get people there registered for the November 6 election. The effort in Florida – a large, politically divided state that is crucial in the nationwide race between Democratic President Barack…
Category: Law
States Watch Calif. As It Builds Exchange; Red State Officials Wrestle With Opposition To Law And Need To Implement It
News outlets report on both the progress and difficulties states are facing as they attempt to establish health exchanges and meet other health law requirements. Meanwhile, Vermont is hoping to move beyond the federal law as it tries to set up a single-payer system. The New York Times: California Tries To Guide The Way On…
Obamacare Is Working
Despite predictions from opponents that Obamacare was going to take away your private health care and force everyone into government coverage, the numbers show definitively that’s not happening. For the first time in a decade, the rate of private health insurance coverage didn’t go down. The biggest beneficiaries of the new law are young people…
Romneys Shifting Stance On Health Law Makes Waves
The GOP presidential nominee’s comments Sunday that he would keep parts of the health law triggered questions about how he would cover those with pre-existing conditions, and reinforced doubts within his own party about his commitment to repealing the overhaul. Campaign aides attempted to clarify the comments. The New York Times: It Will Be Tricky…
STUDY: Obamacare Led To Record Drop In Uninsured Young Adults
According to the National Health Interview Survey, 33.9 percent of people between the ages of 19 and 25 lacked health insurance in 2010. The following year, after the Obamacare provision had taken effect, that number dropped to 27.9 percent. By the CDC’s estimates, that means 1.6 million young people gained coverage between 2010 and 2011,…
Obama Appoints As Many Women Judges In One Term As Bush Did in Two
Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Judge Stephanie Rose to a federal court in Iowa, making her the 72nd woman appointed to the federal bench by President Obama. Coincidentally, 72 is also the same number of women President George W. Bush appointed to the bench during his entire presidency — meaning that Obama accomplished in under one term…
The Health Care Law is Saving Americans Money
Last September, we also put in place new rules that ensure that every single rate increase of 10 percent or more is reviewed on either the state or federal level. For the first time, we have been able to guarantee Americans that no matter what state they live in, insurers will no longer be able…
5 Ways the Obama Administration Revived the Auto Industry by Reducing Oil Use
In addition to the successful bridge loans there are five other major Obama administration policies that helped the auto industry and the nation by creating jobs, reducing oil use, saving families money, and cutting pollution: Fuel-economy and carbon-pollution standards for 2012 to 2016 model cars sparked job growth in automobile manufacturing and increased automobile sales….
Paul Ryan and Todd Akin Partnered On Radical Personhood Bill Outlawing Abortion And Many Birth Control Pills
Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that Rep. Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin R-MO and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan both cosponsored the bill that introduced America to the despicable term “forcible rape.” As it turns out, this may only be the second most sweeping attack on reproductive freedom that both men partnered on. Ryan and Akin also…
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…
The Conservative Takeover of State Judiciaries
Since the New Deal, despite several attempts, no state in our nation has shifted to a system for seating state court judges that makes these judges more vulnerable to politics. But that might well change this year. This November, ballot measures in three states would politicize state courts in an unprecedented way, calling into serious…
FAQ: How Paul Ryan Proposes To Change Medicare
Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s choice for vice president, has provoked consternation from Democrats and anxiety among some congressional Republicans with his proposals to reshape Medicare. The Republican-controlled House, along party lines, twice approved his proposals to overhaul the popular social insurance program for the elderly and disabled by giving beneficiaries…
Paul Ryans Plan For Medicare: Essential Reading
By choosing Wis. Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has put Medicare on the table as a major 2012 campaign issue. Ryan has had a long-standing interest in restructuring the health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. In 2010, Republicans won a majority in the House…
Ten Takeaways From Pennsylvania’s Voter ID Trial
The two-week trial challenging the constitutionality of Pennsylvania’s voter ID law ended today. Here’s what we learned from the proceedings. Suffice to say, Pennsylvania Republicans didn’t come out looking very good. 1. A lot of voters don’t have valid voter ID. University of Washington political scientist Matt Barreto, a witness for the plaintiffs (the suit…
GOP Is For Tax Cuts, Unless They Help You Buy Insurance
During a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday, House Republican lawmakers grilled the director of the Internal Revenue Service on his agency’s ruling allowing qualified individuals to get tax credits to buy health insurance in federal health insurance exchanges. The Associated Press: Republicans Grill IRS Commissioner On Health Care House Republicans on Thursday grilled the head of the…
Romney praises health care in Israel, where ‘strong government influence’ has driven down costs
Romney’s point about Israel’s success in controlling health care costs is spot on: Its health care system has seen health care costs grow much slower than other industrialized nations. How it has gotten there, however, may not be to the Republican candidate’s liking: Israel regulates its health care system aggressively, requiring all residents to carry…
2012 Summary of Voting Law Changes
The Brennan Center’s Voting Law Changes in 2012 report analyzed how a series of laws imposing new restrictions on who can vote and how could significantly change the electoral landscape. As states continue to introduce and consider new restrictive measures, we will be updating the summary below and this detailed compilation of potentially restrictive laws…
Spree Killings Growing More Frequent and More Deadly
A report released in 2011 by the bipartisan Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition—called “Fatal Gaps: How Missing Records in the Federal Background Check System Put Guns in the Hands of Killers”—notes that states and federal agencies are basically ignoring the federal law requiring that records about dangerous people, including those with serious mental illnesses, be…
When Congress fails
The Obama administration is acting unilaterally to give states more flexibility in designing their welfare programs. This is something Republican and Democratic governors have wanted for some time, and the White House has been clear that they do not intend to permit states to ease up on work requirements — ““no plan that undercuts the…