MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell does a segment on gun violence, the NRA, and Mitt Romney’s propensity for using a lot of words to say absolutely nothing.
Category: Law
Republicans want to raise taxes on the poor. Why?
As the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, Orrin Hatch is the Republican point man on taxes in the Senate. And he’s got a plan. It’s called the Tax Hike Prevention Act of 2013. He’s even got Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate Republicans, as a co-sponsor. Hatch’s plan would extend all the Bush tax…
House Republicans To Boehner: If We Can’t Repeal Obamacare, Shut Down The Government
Since much of the implementation of ObamaCare is a function of the discretionary appropriations process, and since most of the citizens we represent believe that ObamaCare should never go into effect, we urge you not to bring to the House floor in the 112th Congress any legislation that provides or allows funds to implement ObamaCare…
CBO Confirms: The Health Care Law Reduces the Deficit
This afternoon, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest look at the Affordable Care Act – the health care law. This report affirms that repealing the health care law would deny tax credits for millions of middle class families and result in higher deficits and fewer Americans with insurance. Once again, the Congressional Budget…
Senate Republican Plan Raises Far More People’s Taxes than the Senate Democratic Plan
Senate Republicans would raise taxes on millions of families at the end of this year. In fact, based on our analysis, the Senate Republicans’ plan would likely raise taxes on more than 20 million families—about 10 times as many people who would see higher taxes next year under the Senate Democrats’ plan offered by Majority…
Health Providers Support Medicaid Expansion As Govs Draw Line In The Sand
Even as state executives such as Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Florida Gov. Rick Scott remain firm in their opposition to the health law’s Medicaid expansion, health providers such as Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tony Cosgrove express their support for it. The Associated Press: Working Poor Stand At Center Of Medicaid Debate Families like…
Our Broken Political System
Elected politicians would, at least theoretically, be expected to either represent such views or at least respond to them. But you can forget about that. On occasion, democratic pressure can build on representatives to either change a position or lose their jobs, making life sufficiently uncomfortable for them. But this is rarer than a red…
MN GOP Evasiveness On Voter Photo ID Leads To Court Challenge
Several groups will tell the Minnesota Supreme Court on Tuesday that language for a proposed constitutional amendment voters will see on the ballot in November is misleading. An UpTake video review of how Republicans drafted and answered questions about the “voter photo ID” amendment indicates they did not want the ballot language to be very detailed…
Music publisher uses DMCA to take down Romney ad of Obama crooning
A YouTube video produced by the Romney for President campaign got hit by a takedown request on Monday, highlighting the challenges that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act can pose for free speech. For days, President Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney have been trading barbs over Romney’s role in layoffs initiated by Bain Capital…
Administration Warns States Not To Roll Back Medicaid Eligibility
The nation’s top health official signaled Tuesday that states should not try to use the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Obama’s health care law to make it more difficult for low-income people to qualify for Medicaid. While the Supreme Court upheld most provisions of the health law in its landmark ruling last month, the justices…
Justice Department, Texas Face Off In Court Over Voter ID Law
The Justice Department and the state of Texas faced off at trial Monday over the state’s new voter identification law, which the Obama administration claims violates the federal Voting Rights Act. In opening arguments before a three-judge panel in federal district court in Washington, D.C., a lawyer for Texas argued that the photo ID requirement…
Public Opinion Snapshot: Public Says Keep or Expand Obamacare
The public’s view of the law is quite complex: Reservations co-exist with sentiment that most of the law’s changes are necessary and perhaps even need to be expanded. In the latest edition of the Kaiser Health Tracking poll, for example, 53 percent of respondents said Obamacare should either be kept as is (25 percent) or…
GOP To Make 31st Attempt To Repeal Obamacare Act
The House Rules Committee takes up a bill Monday called the “Repeal of Obamacare Act.” And just like it says, the bill would wipe away the president’s Affordable Care Act. A vote of the full House is planned for Wednesday. It’s the first legislative response from House Republicans after the Supreme Court upheld the law….
Congressional GOP Planning Rollback Of Individual Health Law Provisions
As the House Rules Committee schedules a hearing on the bill to repeal the full 2010 health law, Republican members and staff examine how to target individual provisions through budget reconciliation. Politico Pro: Gaming Out Repeal By Reconciliation If Mitt Romney wins the White House and Republicans take back total control of Congress in November,…
Obamacare Is Good for Medicare
The Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare this past week upholding the many benefits included in the law has brought renewed attacks on the health care reform law—even though it expands insurance access and coverage for all Americans in an affordable way. Many opponents are focusing on changes to the Medicare program that will reduce the…
The Facts on Immigration Today
The Obama administration has directed an unprecedented amount of resources to ensuring our southern border is secure and undocumented immigrants (criminal and noncriminal) are deported. In June 2012 the Department of Homeland Security announced they would allow DREAM Act-eligible youth to apply for deferred action, granting them protection against deportation and the ability to get…
Infographic: Obamacare Is a Tax Cut for Middle-Class Families
Below is a link to a great graphic that shows what many people don’t know about Obamacare: very soon most families will be getting large tax breaks because of the law. In fact, the average family purchasing insurance through an exchange will get over $5,000 in annual tax credit. Infographic: Obamacare Is a Tax Cut…
Study: Obamacare Medicaid Expansion Would Dramatically Reduce Numbers Of Uninsured In Conservative States
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation conducted two years shows that all states would see significant reductions in their uninsured populations because of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, at almost no cost to state budgets. But the effect would be particularly dramatic in southern states with low Medicaid participation — the conservative states most likely to…
High Uninsurance In States Prepping To Stymie The Affordable Care Act
Many of the governors threatening to stymie implementation of the Affordable Care Act preside over states with high uninsurance rates, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser data breaks down each state’s population by source of insurance, and by percent uninsured. Unsurprisingly, Massachusetts has the lowest uninsurance rate in the country, thanks to…
GOP governors say Medicaid costs are already breaking states’ backs. Are they right?
The Republican governors vowing to opt out of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion argue the program is already burdening cash-strapped state governments and would be a poison pill for state budgets in the long run. Are they right? When you look at all spending on state programs—including money from both federal and state governments—Medicaid is the single…