In this week’s address, President Obama spoke to the American people about the critical need to strengthen and preserve Medicare for our seniors and future generations, because those who have worked hard throughout their lives should not lose their homes or life savings just because they get sick. Through the President’s Affordable Care Act, nearly…
U.S.A. : More Gun Shops Than Grocery Stores
There are more than 129,817 federally licensed firearms dealers in the United States, according to the latest Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives numbers (as of Aug. 1) . Of those, 51,438 are retail gun stores, 7,356 are pawn shops and 61,562 are collectors, with the balance of the licenses belonging mostly to manufacturers…
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…
How the U.S. manages to waste $165 billion in food each year
Each year, about 40 percent of all food in the United States goes uneaten. It’s just tossed out or left to rot. And that’s a fairly large waste of resources. All that freshwater and land, all that fertilizer and energy — for nothing. By one recent estimate, Americans are squandering the equivalent of $165 billion…
First Lady Announces 125,000 Veterans and Military Spouses Hired Through Joining Forces
Earlier today, I joined with First Lady Michelle Obama at Naval Station Mayport near Jacksonville, Florida as she announced that 2,000 companies had hired or trained an amazing 125,000 veterans and military spouses in the past year through Joining Forces. This effort, combined with policies and legislation put in place by the President have resulted…
License plates scanned at border, data shared with car insurance group
As public scrutiny continues to mount against the use of license plate readers (LPRs) across the country, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has now released government documents showing that such data, which includes precise GPS location, date, and timestamps, in addition to the plate in question, are shared with an auto insurance umbrella organization. The documents, published on Tuesday…
CBO: If nothing changes, we’re in for another recession
Usually the release of Congressional Budget Office economic and budget projections is as dull as that phrase makes it sound. But not these economic and budget projections, released today by the CBO. The main takeaway is that if we go over the fiscal cliff — that is, if we let the Bush tax cuts and…
Poll: Majority Of Voters Say Medicare Needs Only Minor Changes Or None At All
A new round of polls finds that although voters have a slightly favorable view of GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president, running mate Paul Ryan’s Medicare plans are viewed with a greater degree of skepticism. The Wall Street Journal: In Tight Race, Romney Faces Hurdles At a time when the campaign has…
Rep. Steve King: Minority Students “Feel Sorry for Themselves”
On Tuesday, trackers from the super-PAC run by the progressive phone service provider CREDO grabbed footage of King at a town hall meeting in Le Mars lamenting that minority students are falling for a communist victimization narrative promoted by student organizations. King, who recently sponsored a bill to make English the national language, launched into an extended rant…
Guns Enthusiasts Keep Starting Wildfires in Utah
The cause of one of the fires is still being determined, but KSL News reported over the weekend that target shooters had been seen in the vicinity of one of them, and a target shooter admitted to starting another one of the fires. Guns may not kill people, as the argument goes, but apparently they…
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…
SF Public Transit Runs Ads Denouncing Anti-Muslim Blogger’s Ad Campaign
San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency, Muni, has been under fire for accepting ads referring to Arabs and Muslims as “savage” that were placed by anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller. The ads declare that “in any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man”—a paraphrase of an Ayn Rand quote—while also urging readers…
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 US Government Can Track Your Location at Any Time Without a Warrant
Is law enforcement tracking your cell phone’s GPS more like intercepting a phone call or tailing someone on the street? A federal court decision says it’s more like following you—which means the authorities don’t need to get a warrant to find out where you are at any given time. The case involves a marijuana courier,…
White House Kills $473 Million in Earmarks
President Barack Obama’s administration eliminated $473 million in old transportation earmarks today, telling states to reallocate the money by the end of the year or lose it for good. Old earmarks for projects that have not yet been built, from fiscal years 2003 to 2006, have been effectively nixed. Appropriations bills for those years contained…
Middle-Class Economic Security Declines as Wealth Concentration Increases
America’s middle class became poorer and more economically insecure during the Great Recession, as household wealth concentrated in the hands of the rich, according to new Federal Reserve data about the recession and its aftermath. The latest Survey of Consumer Finance data covering the years 2007 to 2010 are yet another reminder that addressing the…
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…