Florida’s term-limited Republican governor, Rick Scott, launched his campaign for the U.S. Senate on Monday — painting himself as a Washington outsider despite his track record of policy ideas that fall right in line with the Trump administration’s priorities.
“We have to all acknowledge that Washington’s a disaster. There’s a lot of tired thinking up there. Here’s what we shouldn’t be doing — we shouldn’t be sending the same types of people to Washington,” S...
politics
400,000 Virginia residents edge closer to Medicaid expansion after key Republican splits with party
Virginia is inching closer to providing health care to 400,000 low-income residents after a key state Republican signaled this week that he was willing to split with his party and support Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.
Virginia is among 18 states that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), leaving roughly 400,000 in a “coverage gap” — meaning, they’re uninsured because they make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little for subsidized...
400,000 Virginia residents edge closer to Medicaid expansion after key Republican splits with party
Virginia is inching closer to providing health care to 400,000 low-income residents after a key state Republican signaled this week that he was willing to split with his party and support Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.
Virginia is among 18 states that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), leaving roughly 400,000 in a “coverage gap” — meaning, they’re uninsured because they make too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little for subsidized...
In just 24 hours, Scott Pruitt’s scandals blew up into an ethics crisis
From pipeline deals and GOP fundraisers to private jets and pay raises, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s series of scandals has escalated in the past 24 hours.
Pruitt is not a man untouched by scandal. Since coming to the EPA in February of 2017, he has made headlines for expensive first-class travel, secretive private phone booths, and a close relationship with the industries he is charged to regulate.
And on Monday — the same da...
The 2020 Census citizenship question is going to mess with Texas
Last week, the Commerce Department announced that a citizenship question would be added to the upcoming decennial Census for the first time in 70 years. The implications are stark for the entire country, but results could be dire for one state in particular: Texas.
The Census is a constitutionally mandated project, one that meets a number of crucial national needs. But years of funding shortages, stalled efforts to upgrade its technology, and general leadership issues within the Cen...
McDonald’s stiffs employees on promised pay raise
Fast food giant McDonald’s received a deluge of good press in 2015 when the company announced their plans to pay employees at least one dollar above the local minimum wage.
Now, almost three years to the day of that announcement, the few McDonald’s workers who are employed at corporate-owned restaurants have seen no action from the company and are still being paid just barely above minimum wage in their cities.
In a 2015 statement announcing the change, Chief Exec...
An obscure court order should terrify anyone who depends on Obamacare
Last month, Texas federal Judge Amos Mazzant handed down an order in Nevada v. the United States Department of Labor. Everything about this order is bizarre.
The order concerns a pair of lawsuits asking whether an Obama administration rule expanding the class of workers that are entitled to receive overtime pay. It also concerns Judge Mazzant’s apparent belief that he should be allowed to impose his view of this question on federal district judges throughout the count...
Trump spokesman twists himself into a pretzel on immigration reform
After Donald Trump spent the weekend abandoning his pretense that he wants to make a deal to restore protections to the hundreds of thousands of immigrant kids whose Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) protections he unilaterally stripped, his spokesman Hogan Gidley went on Fox News on Monday to blame his decision on congressional Democrats and Barack Obama.
Asked about Trump’s announcement that there would be “no DACA deal,” the White House deputy press ...
Republicans now want to the balance the federal budget after passing $1 trillion tax cut
Congressional Republicans are planning to push a balanced budget amendment when they return from recess in April, Politico reported on Wednesday. The vote comes directly after many of those same Republicans voted to pass two massively expensive measures, a $1.3 trillion dollar spending bill and a $1 trillion dollar tax cut that primarily benefits the wealthiest Americans.
The attempt at a balanced budget amendment is mostly a shiny gimmick meant to gin up support for Republicans as ...
Justice John Paul Stevens isn’t helping the gun debate
Retired Justice John Paul Stevens argues in a New York Times op-ed published Tuesday morning that “a constitutional amendment to get rid of the Second Amendment would be simple and would do more to weaken the N.R.A.’s ability to stymie legislative debate and block constructive gun control legislation than any other available option.”
It’s a provocative claim, but it also raises serious questions about what planet Justice Stevens is living on. As University of Texas...