Weeks into his tenure as Donald Trump’s director of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, former CNBC host Larry Kudlow dismissed estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that the tax cuts and spending bills Trump signed will swell the budget deficit. In a Fox News interview on Tuesday, he claimed that the office’s analyses are “always wrong.”
“Never believe the CBO,” Kudlow told Fox & Friends. “Very important....
politics
A red state just added Medicaid expansion to the November ballot
Utah residents are going to vote on Medicaid expansion in November, after organizers got enough signatures to put the item on the ballot.
The advocacy group, Utah Decides Healthcare, submitted more than 165,000 signatures on Monday to put a “clean” Medicaid expansion on the November ballot — about 50,000 more signatures than required. The news came less than a month after Gov. Gary Herbert (R) approved legislation requesting federal approval for a conservative Medi...
This pro-choice, pro-immigrant Mennonite could be Lancaster’s next member of Congress
LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA — Those outside of Pennsylvania’s Amish country may be surprised to hear of Lancastrians gathering to protest the Muslim ban, or standing in solidarity with Charlottesville, or demanding that their congressman hold a town hall on health care, or calling for a Dream Act. But that open-arms, open-door spirit is embedded into the state’s and county’s history.
Jess King knows that spirit well. The Pennsylvania native, who was born and rais...
We’re saying goodbye to Paul Ryan, but not his horrible health policies
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is on his way out the door.
But while he’s largely failed to implement his vision before retirement — that is, to repeal Obamacare and privatize every safety-net program there is — Republicans aren’t going to stop trying to do so anytime soon. In fact, they’ll likely take cues from his record.
Throughout his time in Washington, Ryan built a career on portraying himself as a deficit hawk, somehow convincing people he...
Cruelty toward the poor trails Paul Ryan’s tenure in Washington
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) announced this week that he will not run for re-election later this year, bringing down the curtain on his long career of antagonism toward the plight of the nation’s poor and disadvantaged people.
Though Ryan’s public persona has been characterized, off-and-on, as something of a serious and deep thinker on issues related to poverty, taxation, and welfare policy, his record — and now legacy — in public life is one of ...
Trump administration weighs letting states drug test people who receive food assistance
The Trump administration is considering a plan that would allow states to require Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — formerly known as food stamps — recipients to undergo drug testing in order to receive benefits, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
According the AP, the proposal would apply mostly to recipients who are able-bodied without dependents and applying to some specialized jobs. It’s a tactic many conservatives have advocated for in ...
Paul Ryan is retiring from Congress
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan will announce to his friends and colleagues Wednesday morning that he will not run for re-election in 2018, according to multiple media reports.
Ryan will join over 30 other Republicans in the House of Representatives who have already announced their retirements earlier this year, an indication that the GOP believes the party may not have what it takes to hold onto the House in 2018. Democrats only needs to pick up 24 seats to take back the chamber.
The real effects of America’s federal taxes
As another tax deadline approaches in the US, it’s worth taking a moment to think about why we fork over a portion of our hard-earned income every year, and what effect the ritual really has.
Pay checks for most Americans stagnated in the last 35 years. Economic forces rew...
A sweeping, multi-state anti-poverty movement kicks off in the age of Trump
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Fifty years after Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized thousands of Americans in an anti-poverty effort popularly known as the Poor People’s Campaign, a group of progressives want to revive the effort on the heels of a sweeping new report surveying poverty in the United States.
Gathered in the nation’s capital on Tuesday, organizers and activists announced a 40-day multi-state action protesting economi...
Trump administration issues new rule chipping away at Obamacare
The Trump administration issued a ton of regulatory changes Monday that chip away at the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Moving forward, states will have more flexibility to set their own standards and people will be given new exemptions to avoid the health care law’s individual mandate penalty.
The 523-page regulation is one that comes out every year, and is intended to outline what ACA plans will look like for consumers next year.
Monday’s rule gives consumers two ne...