Month: December 2018

Everyone’s talking about Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, but no one knows what it is

climate, News, politics

The Green New Deal championed by Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is one of the hottest progressive policy ideas around.

But virtually no one knows what it is.

In fact, many in the media and elsewhere who think they know what it means, likely have it wrong. Or aren’t explaining the full picture.

Since the midterms, dozens of U.S. representatives and at least four Democratic senators have pledged support to create a Select Committee to create l...

Read More

There’s no GOP backup plan for the anti-Obamacare lawsuit

Affordable Care Act, health, News, obamacare, politics

Now that a federal judge in Texas has handed down an order striking down the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s individual mandate — and, with it, all 900-plus pages of the health law — what happens next?

That’s the question facing Republican lawmakers whose colleagues are party to the lawsuit, which was filed by 20 GOP-led states.

The lawsuit aims to strike down very popular provisions of the ACA, including but not limited to protections for pre-existing con...

Read More

Even the Cato Institute thinks that Republican judge who struck down Obamacare was wrong

News, obamacare, politics

A Republican judge’s opinion claiming that the entire Affordable Care Act must be struck down is so poorly reasoned that even the Cato Institute denounced it on Wednesday.

Cato, which was originally known as the Charles Koch Foundation, tried and failed to convince the Supreme Court to strike down the key provisions of Obamacare in 2012. The conservative think tank’s health policy director, Michael Cannon, was one of the architects of King v. Burwell, the last p...

Read More

In self-congratulatory tweetstorm, Paul Ryan celebrates his lone victory: tax cuts for the rich

News, Paul Ryan, politics

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is in his final days as Speaker of the House, a job that he only reluctantly took in 2015 and will depart with a dearth of accomplishments. While he will leave office unable to realize his college dream of taking Medicaid away from poor people, he launched a tweet-storm on Tuesday morning celebrating the first anniversary of his sole major legislation: the Trump tax cuts that mostly benefited the rich and big corporations.

He began his tweet-storm by noting he&...

Read More

Tucker Carlson defends anti-immigrant rhetoric as more advertisers drop his show

climate, News, politics

Instead of apologizing for his recent remarks claiming immigrants make America “dirtier” — which have led six advertisers to drop his show — Tucker Carlson doubled down on his rhetoric on Monday night.

The Fox News host bizarrely claimed that the “relatively tiny number of people” who benefit from immigration policies are trying to silence him.

Minted and NerdWallet became the latest companies to confirm on Monday evening they would no long...

Read More