One of retired Justice Anthony Kennedy’s final acts as a sitting justice was to stare partisan gerrymandering directly in the eye and cry out a resounding “meh.” A pair of cases argued last term were supposed to deliver sharp blows to such gerrymandering. Instead, the Court punted, Kennedy retired, and there is no longer a plausible way to form a majority that could halt this anti-democratic practice.
Yet, even as the Supreme Court refuses to enforce the Constituti...
politics
During unhinged speech, Trump suggests he may still lock up Hillary and mimics MS-13 stabbings
President Trump delivered a nearly 90-minute-long speech in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on Thursday night in which he suggested he may yet lock up Hillary Clinton and smeared immigrants as violent murderers.
When Trump mentioned Clinton, the crowd broke out in “lock her up!” chants. Trump responded by saying, “Some things just take a little bit longer.” He then complained that his Justice Department “only wants to go after Republicans. You look at the ki...
Study finds New York state’s proposed single-payer system financially feasible
A proposed single-payer health care system in New York state is economically viable and could insure a million people currently without coverage, according to a study from RAND Corp. released Wednesday.
The analysis, which looks at the New York Health Act, was commissioned by the New York State Health Foundation. It makes a number of charitable assumptions about the institution and implementation of the single-payer system, but ultimately concludes the plan would be a cost-effective...
Susan Collins backs move to limit transparency for Trump Supreme Court nominee
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — a Republican who has positioned herself as a moderate but who has voted for virtually all of Donald Trump’s far-right judicial nominees — said last month that she would not back a Supreme Court nominee who “demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade,” the 1973 ruling that enshrined abortion rights. But it does not appear that she is very interested in finding out what Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh actually thinks about...
Trump has no clue how people buy groceries
During a speech at a rally in Florida on Tuesday, President Trump indicated he thinks a photo ID card is needed to make purchases at grocery stores.
While making a case for a nationwide voter ID law, Trump said, “you know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card — you need ID.”
But as most Americans are well aware, an ID card is not usually needed to buy groceries. Customers can use cash. And in many cases, even if they use...
‘Medicare-for-All’ program could cost $32 trillion but may also save $2 trillion
What you didn't know about the $32 trillion Medicare-for-All figure in the Koch-affiliated report
The nation’s current political polarization will be no match for its shifting demographics
Like a soothsayer peering into a crystal ball to forecast things yet to occur, demographer William “Bill” Frey scrutinizes national census trends to divine that soon — well within the reach of most Americans alive today — the U.S. population will have no racial majority group.
“This milestone signals the beginning of a transformation from the mostly white baby boom culture that dominated the nation during the last half of the twentieth century to the more globalize...
Think tank in the ‘king of the red states’ assumes power in Trump’s Washington
The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), a conservative think tank and advocacy group, emerged as a political force in the Lone Star State more than a decade ago. While its influence was largely contained to Texas for many years, TPPF has found an eager audience in the White House and is now flexing its muscle on the national stage.
Founded almost 30 years ago, TPPF is a Koch-funded research and advocacy group that touts itself as a defender of liberty and free enterprise. By no m...
Koch-backed study finds ‘Medicare for All’ would save U.S. government trillions
A single-payer Medicare for All system would reduce the amount the U.S. government spends on health care by more than $2 trillion, a Koch brothers-funded study released Monday found.
Research by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University — a libertarian think tank backed by the Koch brothers — projected that the Medicare for All plan championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) would cost the government $32.6 trillion over 10 years. The highly critical report found that ...
Government watchdog: DOE violated federal law with anti-Obamacare tweet
Official DOE Twitter account tweeted Sec. Rick Perry's column on Cleveland.com calling for the repeal of Obamacare.