The Romney campaign has deflected criticism of the former governor’s business record as head of Bain Capital by insisting that he cannot be held responsible for its actions following his departure in February of 1999. However, SEC documents unearthed by Mother Jones directly contradict the campaign’s assertion that Romney broke all ties with Bain after…
Romney Left Bain Later Than He Says, Documents Show
David Corn published an important story Monday morning about Mitt Romney’s time at Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney co-founded. Using documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission, David proves that Romney was involved with Bain’s investment in Stericycle, a medical waste firm that has been criticized by opponents of abortion rights for disposing of…
Everything you ever wanted to know about Canadian health care in one post
The Canadian health care system was built around the principle that all citizens will receive all “medically necessary and hospital physician services.” To that end, each of Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories finance and run a statewide health insurance program. There is no cost-sharing for the health care services guaranteed under federal law. While…
Whats Ahead On The Post-SCOTUS Decision Landscape
After the Supreme Courts decision last week upholding the health law, news outlets analyze what comes next in terms of the laws implementation, the obstacles it faces and its impact on various parts of the health system. MORE: Whats Ahead On The Post-SCOTUS Decision Landscape – Kaiser Health News.
Justice Scalia should resign
Justice Antonin Scalia needs to resign from the Supreme Court. He’d have a lot of things to do. He’s a fine public speaker and teacher. He’d be a heck of a columnist and blogger. But he really seems to aspire to being a politician — and that’s the problem. So often, Scalia has chosen to…
11 facts about the Affordable Care Act
In the past week, both Alec MacGillis and Sabrina Tavernise have written articles touching on how little the uninsured actually know about the Affordable Care Act. Given that polling shows the law remains unpopular even as its component parts — with the notable exception of the individual mandate — are very popular, it seems they’re…
Awaiting The Court Ruling, A Consumer Guide To Health Reform Law
The Supreme Court is expected to rule within a week on some key constitutional challenges brought by states against the 2010 health care overhaul law. The decision will have sweeping ramifications for consumers, state officials, employers and health care providers, including hospitals and doctors. While some of the key features don’t kick in until 2014, the still-controversial…
Genetically modified grass blamed for mass cattle deaths in Texas
A form of genetically modified grass is being cited as the likely culprit in the sudden death of a herd of cattle in Central Texas, according to CBS News. Preliminary tests revealed that the grass, an altered form of Bermuda grass known as Tifton 85, had mysteriously begun producing cyanide gas. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are…
Want to read the over 300 lies Romney has told in the past few months?
For those who are watching the 2012 presidential race closely, Mitt Romney’s penchant for falsehoods is hard to miss. Michael Cohen summarized the issue nicely this week in a piece for The Guardian: Granted, presidential candidates are no strangers to disingenuous or overstated claims; it’s pretty much endemic to the business. But Romney is doing something very different…
Expect gas prices to fall below $3
Is it possible the average price at the pump could be below $3 a gallon by the time leaves begin to change? Absolutely, according to experts who follow fuel price trends, and some areas of Georgia have already broken the barrier. At one station in Macon on Friday, unleaded regular was selling for $2.90, and in Duluth and…
Dell Becomes 21st Company To Drop ALEC
Computer technology giant Dell has decided to drop its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a right-wing corporate front group behind the spread of voter suppression laws and Stand You Ground legislation. SOURCE: BREAKING: Dell Becomes 21st Company To Drop ALEC | ThinkProgress
Flawed Voter Purge Underway In Georgia
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that after a state-level investigation, Fulton County, Georgia identified at least 2,400 voters it believed to be registered to vote at vacant lots. Like with the Florida purge, county elections officials began sending letters to those voters to determine whether they lived at those address. Unfortunately, as with Florida, they ran…
Republicans Holding Nearly 3 Million Transportation Jobs Hostage For 6,000 Temporary Oil Jobs
The deadline for new transportation funding is June 30, and if the calendar flips to July without a compromise, as many as 1.9 million workers could lose their jobs, at least temporarily. The Senate version of the bill, if adapted, would create an additional one million new jobs as well, according to Department of Transportation…
Yes, Iraq Definitely Had WMD, Vast Majority Of Polled Republicans Insist
A Washington Post poll in September 2003 found that nearly 70 percent of all Americans were convinced that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks — even though he was not. Bush, Cheney and others consistently linked al Qaeda to Hussein in speeches they gave in the run-up to war, and the…
Great Recession Doubled Wealth Gap Between Whites And African-Americans
The Great Recession took its toll on millions of Americans, but its effects hit minorities hardest. The housing crisis was especially brutal for minorities, many of whom were pushed into bad mortgages by the nation’s biggest banks. The loss of 600,000 public sector jobs also hit hard, since black and Latino workers are more likely…
Health insurance plans owe $1.1 billion in rebates
In a new report, the Obama administration found that 12.8 million Americans will receive rebates this year, with an average value of $151 per household. “The big improvement here is a better value for the premium dollar,” said Mike Hash, interim director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. “What this standard encourages…
Austerity Is Hammering State Economies
Public spending cuts, while on the rise worldwide, are bad for the U.S. economy. U.S. states provide a good illustration of this principle. Since the start of the Great Recession 20 states have cut public spending while 30 states expanded spending. Those that cut spending have fared worse economically than those that expanded spending. The…
The price of a do-nothing Congress
The latest employment data indicate that the U.S. job market is in a holding pattern — the price we pay for a do-nothing Congress focused more on austerity than job creation. Our economy added 69,000 new jobs in May, for an average of 96,000 over the past three months, with a downward revision of 49,000…
Heritage Foundation ‘Expert’ Cannot Cite Voter Fraud
The one example of the sort of fraud these strict voter ID laws allegedly aim to stop that Darling could site was conservative filmmaker and convicted law-breaker James O’Keefe. O’Keefe’s approach was to break a law intentionally to prove how easy it is to break a law and to then claim that the law is…
Big Money And The Ballot Box
You wouldn’t think politicians would have any trouble raising enough money these days. The presidential race is expected to be a billion-dollar affair, and spending records have been shattered at the congressional level. But many candidates are being outgunned by superPACs and other outside groups with nearly unlimited funds at their disposal. Those dollars have…