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- Confirmation week continues for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
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Ivanka Trump will testify before the January 6 committee this afternoon.
The Guardian confirmed that former president Donald Trump’s oldest daughter, and former senior White House adviser, will speak to the panel virtually.
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US domestic policy
The Ten Year War review: Obamacare, Trump and Biden’s battles yet to come
Jonathan Cohn’s study of the fight for healthcare coverage delivers depth, dish and much for Democrats to ponder
Once upon a time, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was unpopular, viewed by many as welfare redux. Barack Obama’s promise that “If you like your healthcare plan, you’ll be able to keep your healthcare plan”, didn’t exactly work out. By the middle of the 2010s, so-called Obamacare had cost the Democrats both houses of Congress.
Related: The Good American review: Bob Gersony and a better foreign policy
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Ex-Obama official warns US health system faces ‘tsunami’ over coronavirus
Andy Slavitt, formerly Medicare and Medicaid administrator, tweets outline of threat after ‘Trump’s months-long denial’
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Hospitals in the US could be overrun by coronavirus cases in little more than a week, a former Obama administration senior health official has warned, fearing a “tsunami-like” escalation that would leave tens of thousands in need of inpatient medical care but unlikely to receive i...
Bernie Sanders’ plans may be expensive but inaction would cost much more | Robert Reich
Facing existential challenges, we must spend heavily on a Green New Deal, Medicare for All and similar plans
In Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, the former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg charged that the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders’ policy proposals would cost $50tn. Holy Indiana.
Larry Summers, formerly chief White House economic adviser for Barack Obama, puts the price tag at $60tn. “We are in a kind of new era of radical proposal,” he told CNN.
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Koch-backed group fights paid sick leave laws as flu sweeps US
The lobbying group that led the assault on Obamacare has targeted movements across the US to ensure workers can get needed time off
This week marks 25 years since Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, which gives US workers the right to unpaid time off to care for themselves and close family members.
It took another decade for some to win paid sick leave, when San Franciscans approved a ballot initiative in 2006 for private employees to earn an hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Similar measures now benefit 14 million workers in 32 municipalities and nine states.
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Doctors say new Medicaid rules ‘like asking people to work with an anchor on their back’
Administration’s policy allows states to impose work requirements for people on Medicaid, meaning sick or injured Americans ‘have to go to work, no matter what’
Dr Gary Leroy’s patients are “salt of the earth”: inner-city people working in Dayton, Ohio as dishwashers, car mechanics and patient care assistants.
Related: Medicaid: Trump opens door for states to take away coverage from out-of-work Americans
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House set to pass tax bill as Trump awaits first big legislative victory
Bill that would add more than $1tn to deficit, end key element of Obamacare, and open Alaska wildlife reserve to drilling would then head to Senate
House Republicans are poised to pass a major tax bill on Tuesday, which would set the stage for Donald Trump to achieve his first major legislative success in office.
The legislation, finalized in a conference report last week, would lower the top rate on families and individuals to 37% and the top rate on corporations to 21%.
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Republican moderate Susan Collins undecided on final tax cut vote
- Maine senator who helped sink healthcare repeal voted for Senate tax bill
- Insists ‘4% cut in Medicare that could go into effect will not go into effect’
The Republican Susan Collins, whose support was crucial in passing the Senate tax reform bill earlier this month, said on Sunday she has not yet decided if she will back the final measure negotiated by House and Senate leaders.
The Maine moderate has laid out conditions for her support of a final “conference committee” version of the tax proposal. They include assurances that Medicare payments will not be cut and that Republicans will support two healthcare bills aimed at reducing premium costs.
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Fear over healthcare locks Americans in jobs – and throttles creativity | Jonathan R Goodman
What could and should make America great is the freedom to follow one’s dreams – not stay trapped in a cubicle, paralysed by fear
Millions of Americans are stuck in what some economists call “job-lock” or the inability to leave employment because of the risk of losing health insurance. A 2001 paper from Princeton’s Center for Economic Policy Studies showed, for example, that self-employed people are 25% less likely to have health insurance than office workers.
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Americans show support for Obamacare despite Trump’s repeal attempts
- Increase in healthcare signups on first day of annual enrollment
- Maine votes to expand federal Medicaid scheme for low-income Americans
Millions of Americans remain committed to Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare legislation despite the Trump administration’s attempts to overturn it.
Related: Health experts say Trump's opioid response relies on magical thinking
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