In a classic Kinsley gaffe, the Republican State Leadership Committee released a report boasting that the only reason the GOP controls the House of Representatives is because they gerrymandered congressional districts in blue states. The RSLC’s admission came in a shockingly candid report entitled, “How a Strategy of Targeting State Legislative Races in 2010 Led…
Category: News & Opinion
Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under ‘Anti-Business’ Obama
Business executives like to portray the Obama administration as the “most anti-business” in history, creating an “increasingly hostile environment for investment and job creation.” However, the data tells a far different story. According to a Bloomberg News analysis, corporate profits have grown by 171 percent under Obama, the most in the post-war era: U.S. corporations’…
Republicans worry they’ll lose House if they botch debt talks
There’s growing angst among Republicans that the party’s House majority could be at risk in 2014 if the deep GOP divisions that emerged during the recent “fiscal cliff” negotiations persist in looming negotiations over a slew of budgetary issues. Even as Republican officials maintain the GOP majority is safe, several lawmakers and longtime activists warn…
Conservative Groups Start New Congress With Dose of Reality
The same conservative activist groups that continue to cause the GOP establishment so much heartburn are approaching the 113th Congress and the 2014 election cycle with what might appear to be a surprising level of sobriety and realism. To varying degrees, these organizations acknowledge the limits of Republican power in Washington, recognizing that the GOP…
Obama Unveils Gun Control Policies, Including Mental Health Provisions
The plan includes a variety of executive actions which touch the health care system, including clarifications that the health law does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes and that no federal law prohibits health care providers from reporting threats of violence to law-enforcement authorities. Politico: Obama Announces Guns Pan President Barack Obama on Wednesday announced what…
So What’s Up with Filibuster Reform?
There’s a core of very strong advocates for changing the filibuster, centered around Sen. Jeff Merkley (D) of Oregon. There are various details. But the gist of his plan is the so-called ‘talking filibuster’. The minority can still hold things up but you really have to talk on the floor to do it. So…
Scott in a very bad position
40% of Republicans would prefer someone else Scott’s approval rating is just 33%, with 57% of voters disapproving of him. Scott’s numbers had gradually improved over the course of 2012, but these numbers represent a regression from early November when he was at a 37/48 spread. Scott meets with near universal disapproval from Democrats (21/71)…
GOP congressman: Akin’s rape comments were ‘partly right’
A Georgia Republican congressman said that former Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, R, was “partly right” in asserting that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely become pregnant. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., a former obstetrician-gynecologist, said at a town hall meeting that Akin was “partly right” in his controversial suggestion, which was widely cited as a factor…
Lobbyists Who Profit From Senate Dysfunction Fight Filibuster Reform
Two years ago, I took a screen shot and saved a tidbit from Duffield’s now-deleted consulting website. Duffield’s firm, still lobbying and called Endgame Strategies, was quite candid in it’s pitch to potential corporate clients to use “backbench Senate Republicans” to block legislation (emphasis added): Managing Holds and Filibusters. Your organization has an interest…
How to Save the Democratic Party
A new party—not a third party, but a real second party representing authentic alternatives, as befits a democracy—is therefore urgently needed. Fortunately, the nucleus of such a party already exists, however captive-like and timid, inside today’s Democratic Party. (The late Senator Paul Wellstone called it “the democratic wing of the Democratic Party.”) For this nucleus…
New York Governor Announces $1 Billion Green Bank And $1.5 Billion Solar Program
In his State of the State address yesterday, Cuomo outlined plans for a new billion-dollar “green bank” to leverage private funds for deploying clean energy technologies, announced a 10-year expansion of the state’s solar program by increasing funds $150 million per year, and named a new cleantech czar to oversee the efforts. The cumulative impact…
States Continue Efforts To Advance Health Exchanges
States look for creative ways to publicize the online marketplaces where people can shop for and purchase coverage beginning next fall. Meanwhile, Minnesota legislators introduce a measure to set up such a market, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott releases new, much smaller estimates of the cost of expanding that state’s Medicaid program. Politico: States Struggle…
Obama political machine to be fired up, ready to go for second term
Senior Obama campaign aides are currently working on the specifics of how to restructure Obama for America, but are considering several different options such as converting it to a 501c4 or perhaps a super PAC, a source familiar with the campaign said. The new campaign organization will be headed by Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager…
Florida Gov. Rick Scott Wants A Favor—From Obama
Last June, after the Supreme Court decision making the Medicaid expansion optional for the states, Scott said he won’t take the money. But when Florida hospitals realized Scott’s decision could cost them about $650 million a year in other federal payments, they started lobbying furiously to get him to change his mind. So now,…
U.S. oil imports are falling to their lowest level since 1987
The United States isn’t nearly as reliant on foreign oil as it used to be. Imports of crude oil and other petroleum products are on pace to drop to 6 million barrels per day by 2014, according to new forecasts by the Energy Information Administration. That’s the lowest level since 1987. It’s also just half…
AIG considers suing government for bailing it out, world implodes in on itself
Fresh from launching a branding campaign to try to rechristen itself as a paragon of patriotism, the giant insurer American International Group is reportedly weighing a step that would remind America just why everyone got so darn mad in the first place. The board of AIG, according to the New York Times, is weighing whether…
In U.S., Democrats Re-Establish Lead in Party Affiliation
An average of 47% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic in 2012, compared with 42% who identified as or leaned Republican. That re-establishes a Democratic edge in party affiliation after the two parties were essentially tied in 2010 and 2011. The estimates are based on an…
Medicaid Cost Estimates Trigger Florida Flap
Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s concerns about the health law’s Medicaid expansion during a meeting Monday with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is continuing to draw criticism that he is exaggerating the potential cost. The Associated Press: Fla. Gov. Under Fire For Health Care Cost Estimate Gov. Rick Scott is again facing criticism that he is overstating the potential…
Florida Governor Inflates Cost Of Medicaid Expansion By 2,600% To Avoid Implementing Obamacare
Internal email messages uncovered by Health News Florida reveal that Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) is knowingly citing inaccurate cost estimates to justify his refusal to expand Florida’s Medicaid program. Though the governor’s office is fully aware that the numbers are wrong, Scott continues to use them anyway, the documents show. Florida, which has one…
Obama’s Budget Is Running Late
The Obama administration’s fiscal 2014 budget is widely expected to arrive late on Capitol Hill, possibly not until sometime in March, primarily as a result of uncertainty created by fiscal cliff negotiations. The White House and Office of Management and Budget have not said when the budget will be released. By law, the spending proposal…