Month: January 2018
This is what happens when you trust Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell managed to convince Senate Democrats to vote to fund the government on Monday on the strength of his word. Based on even his recent track record, that word is worth very little.
McConnell said Monday, before a vote to fund the government through February 8, that he would take up legislation to address the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that President Donald Trump rescinded last year. McConnell promised to do so if there w...
‘Trump hasn’t just done a good job, he’s done a great job’ – the view from Muncie, Indiana
Gary Younge spent a month in the ‘archetypal’ US town before last year’s election. The people swung for Trump, but how do they feel a year on?
Griffin Timmerman, six, is a runner. Given the opportunity, the small, lively boy, who has autism and prefers to play on his own, would just keep going. He once ran into the road; this is one of the reasons why his family moved out of Muncie, Indiana, to the country, giving him more space and free rein for his energy.
It is also why his ...
42 people now own the same amount of wealth as the bottom 3.7 billion people in the world
Last year saw the biggest increase in the number of billionaires in history — a new one every two days — bringing the number of global billionaires to 2,043. Nine out of 10 of them are men, according to new report from Oxfam released Monday, which details the ways global inequality thrived in 2017.
Last year, the wealth of that elite group increased by $762 billion, enough to end global poverty seven times over, and between 2006 and 2015, according to Oxfam, ordinary wor...
The New Health Care: Kentucky’s New Idea for Medicaid Access: Pass Health Literacy Course
A lot of people could do with a little more health and financial literacy, not just Medicaid recipients. But linking it to retaining medical eligibility may not make sense.
Call for pitches: Economic Policy
ThinkProgress is looking for freelance pitches on the real world impacts of economic policy on the everyday lives of Americans.
The decisions made by lawmakers on issues like tax credits, the minimum wage, health care mandates, or paid leave can mean a life of wealth and dignity for some and one of deprivation and hardship for others.
We want stories about the human side of these issues. Tell us about the importance of social safety net programs — like welfare, Medicai...
Oregon to ask voters to decide how to pay for skyrocketing Medicaid costs
A special election on Tuesday asks Oregonians whether they approve of a tax on hospitals, health insurers and managed care companies that would leave Medicaid, as it is now, untouched
The government just shut down. Here’s how it happened.
Many federal government agencies and services officially shut down midnight Saturday, after the Senate rejected a short-term spending bill that would have funded the government through Feb. 16.
The first government shutdown since 2013 came after months of confusing and contradictory statements by President Donald Trump, often on Twitter, and an unwillingness by Republicans to include legislation to protect “DREAMers.” Roughly 800,000 undocumented immigrants who have lived in the U....