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…
Category: News & Opinion
Even In Florida Swing County, Minds Seem Made Up
Let’s take a picture of America in the latter months of an election year. We want to sense what’s on this country’s mind. So Morning Edition begins a series of reports from First and Main. Several times in the next few months, we’ll travel to a battleground state, then to a vital county in each…
July Heat Records Crush Cold Records By 17 To 1, ‘Historic Heat Wave And Drought’ Fuels Oklahoma Fires
July saw 3,135 new daily high temperature records in the U.S. — over 100 per day. That overwhelmed new cold records by a factor of nearly 17 to 1, as this chart from Capital Climate shows. For the year to date, new heat records are beating cold records by a remarkable 12 to 1, which trumps the…
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 Falsely Accuses Obama Campaign Of Trying To Restrict Military Voting Rights
Obama’s campaign is fighting back, calling Romney’s statement a “blatant attempt to mislead” voters. “This lawsuit seeks to treat all Ohio citizens equally under the law,” Obama for America attorney Bob Bauer said in a statement. “We want to restore the right of all to vote before Election Day.” Under the Obama administration, the Justice…
Obama Super-PAC Plans $30 Million Battleground Ad Blitz
Priorities USA Action, the super-PAC backstopping President Obama’s presidential campaign, isn’t about to let the GOP money machine steamroll the president this fall. To bolster Obama, Priorities is ramping its anti-Romney campaign by buying up $30 million in broadcast and cable TV time in six crucial battleground states—Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the…
Iowa’s GOP Governor Blasts Romney Campaign On Wind Tax Credits: They Need To ‘Come Out Here To The Real World’
Now that Mitt Romney’s campaign has officially declared the candidate’s desire to kill tax credits for wind while maintaining tax credits for the mature oil and gas industries, Midwestern Republicans are not happy. Iowa Republican Representative Tom Latham said Romney’s decision “shows a lack of full understanding of how important the wind energy tax credit…
Study: Romney Plan Increases Taxes On 95% Of Americans
Mitt Romney has been on the defensive today over a new study that found his tax plan would most likely increase taxes on the middle class in order to pay for a hefty tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. The study (pdf) by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center scrutinizes Romney’s plan to pay for a…
Making Our Middle Class Stronger
The American middle class is in trouble. Incomes are stagnant or falling, while the costs of life’s necessities continue to rise, and the risks of falling behind grow. The weakness of our middle class is a problem not just for those who are struggling but also for all Americans because a strong middle class is…
The Tax Trap Springs Shut on Romney
At the outset of his campaign, Romney tried to avoid committing himself, but by February, with GOP rivals outflanking him and facing steady pressure from Republican elites, he declared himself in favor of a 20 percent tax cut, a move greeted with joy from anti-tax activists. But he still attempted to hide the ball. Romney…
CHART: How State And Local Budget Cuts Are Holding Back GDP Growth | ThinkProgress
As the Tax Policy Center noted, “in 2011, the state and local sector contracted 3.4 percent, the largest decline since World War II.” Budget cuts have actually knocked several tenths of a percentage point off of national GDP in each of the last two years and in the first half of 2012, as this chart…
Mitt Romney vs. stubborn facts
John Adams once said, “facts are stubborn things.” These days, another Massachusetts politician has found that saying to ring especially true. While it’s still unclear how Mitt Romney can be the CEO, chairman, president and sole shareholder of Bain Capital, a company that he claims no responsibility for, it’s become increasingly evident that candidate Romney…
Romney: Israel’s Superior Economy To Palestinians Result Of ‘Culture,’ ‘Providence’
Romney at no point mentioned that the Palestinian territories have for decades been occupied without sovereign control, where residents face significant restrictions on movement and employment. “It is a racist statement and this man doesn’t realize that the Palestinian economy cannot reach its potential because there is an Israeli occupation,” Saeb Erakat, a senior Palestinian…
Romney Mocked by 60,000 Londoners; Is This The Man To Represent America?
President Obama was cheered by 200,000 Germans in Berlin. Romney was jeered by 60,000 British in London. Which one would better handle foreign policy?
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…
Study: Decline In Arctic Sea Ice Up To 95% Man-Made
Arctic ice loss has many harsh negative consequences for humanity and the local biodiversity. First, it eliminates a primary habitat for polar bears and other species. “The survival of polar bears as a species is difficult to envisage under conditions of zero summer sea-ice cover,” concludes the 2004 Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, by leading scientists from…
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…
Infographic: America’s High Health Care Costs
See this graphic and three more about the astounding American health care expenditure numbers. Infographic: America’s High Health Care Costs.
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…