“Based on historical standards of material wellbeing and the terms of engagement, our War on Poverty is largely over and a success,” wrote the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors in a report relea...
Donald Trump
Who is Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s pick to replace Anthony Kennedy?
If you could grow a judge in a vat, and design every moment of their life to appeal perfectly to the Republican establishment, the man who would emerge fully-formed from that vat would be Brett Kavanaugh. A two-time Yale graduate, Kavanaugh clerked for the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, worked for Bill Clinton inquisitor Ken Starr, and served as one of President George W. Bush’s top White House aides.
Kavanaugh was a frequent opponent of President Barack Obama’s Envir...
Trump signals an end to Obamacare payment program, threatening sharply higher health premiums
The Trump administration is expected to end a critical Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance payment program that discourages insurers from cherry picking healthier enrollees by compensating them for sicker ones.
The move, should it happen, would rattle insurance companies at the very moment when they’re deciding whether to continue selling ACA plans and setting premiums for 2019.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story:
The suspension ...
5 types of judges Trump could pick to replace Justice Kennedy
So, that happened.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court’s occasional swing-voter, looked over at the racist goon in the White House and said “That’s exactly the sort of person I want to choose my successor.”
In fairness to Kennedy, he likely made this decision because the Trump administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to show conservatives that Trump will nominate the same kind of judges who would have been chosen by, say, Presid...
The courts are not going to save us from Donald Trump
Chief Justice John Roberts is either a very stupid man, or he believes that the rest of us are very stupid.
In the first paragraph of Roberts’ opinion in Trump v. Hawaii, handed down on Tuesday, the Chief writes one of the most literally unbelievable lines to appear in a Supreme Court opinion: “the President concluded that it was necessary to impose entry restrictions on nationals of countries that do not share adequate information for an informed entry determin...
Donald Trump created the border crisis to say these 58 words
As always for Donald Trump, the outcome was not important. The price this time: sobbing immigrant toddlers separated from their parents, wrapp...
This 2011 quote from Jeff Sessions just became really awkward
The Trump administration’s Department of Justice will not defend in court the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s consumer protections, including the ban on discrimination against people with pre-existing medical conditions, it announced Thursday. While Attorney General Jeff Sessions is far from the first to opt not to defend a law he deems unconstitutional, many prominent Republicans — including Sessions himself — were highly critical of the practice jus...
Trump promised to protect people with pre-existing conditions. He just abandoned them in court.
The Trump administration told a federal court Thursday evening that it would no longer defend the Affordable Care Act (ACA), arguing that protections for people with pre-existing conditions are unconstitutional.
The Justice Department filed the brief supporting a lawsuit from Texas and 19 other Republican-led states. In their complaint, the states argue the courts must invalidate the entire ACA because Congress zeroed out the individual mandate, the penalty for not having insurance....
Trump justice department will stop defending key parts of Obamacare
Administration makes rare decision not to defend federal law in court, pointing to changes in the measure due next year
The Trump administration said in a court filing late on Thursday that it would no longer defend key parts of the Affordable Care Act, a rare departure from the justice department’s practice of defending federal laws in court.
It said that the requirement that people have health insurance – the individual mandate – was unconstitutional and that the entire law, ...