Red states that opposed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) during Barack Obama’s presidency are more likely to implement the 2010 law now, under Donald Trump, albeit with limitations — and Oklahoma is a fine example of this phenomenon.
To the surprise of Obamacare wonks, Oklahoma lawmakers in a key committee passed a Medicaid expansion bill this week — sort of. The bill directs the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to create a “Oklahoma Plan” within the state&#...
ThinkProgress
One Democrat in the race seems serious about governing, and it’s not Bernie Sanders
Whatever you think of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the frumpy Vermont senator deserves credit for expanding the substantive ambition of the Democratic presidential field. Sanders’ unexpectedly strong 2016 primary campaign proved that there is a hunger for big ideas like Medicare for All within the Democratic electorate, and it’s now likely that whoever the 2020 Democratic nominee is, they will support some form of universal single-payer health care.
Yet, for all of Sander...
What if public insurance covered abortion care?
What if public health insurance paid for abortion? More and more people are beginning to ask that question.
With support for Roe v. Wade stronger than ever before, reproductive rights advocates have moved the “Overton window” of what policy ideas are considered feasible. Now, instead of simply defending the right to abortion, they’re talking about securing access.
Advocates have been trying to get public insurance to cover abortion for some time now...
Major hospital lobbying group comes out against ‘Medicare at 50’ bill
On Wednesday, Senate Democrats introduced a bill that would allow people to buy into Medicare beginning at age 50 — and already major players in the health care industry are coming out against it.
Around noon, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced “Medicare at 50,” legislation to let people between 50 and 64 years old buy Medicare coverage when they are shopping on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. It took industry lobbying groups only an hour to come out agai...
Trump said he’d cut the national debt ‘very quickly.’ It just hit a record $22 trillion.
The Treasury Department released a report Tuesday evening confirming that the national debt had hit a record $22 trillion — nearly four years after then-candidate Donald Trump promised his supporters he would reduce the national debt from $18 trillion, if elected president.
In its fiscal statement, the department noted the total public debt had reached $22.012 trillion, the first time it has surpassed $21 trillion in history. On the day Trump took office, it was $19.947 trilli...
Gazillionaire senators push to make it harder for non-rich people to serve in Congress
Let’s start this column off with a bold assertion. Paying lawmakers good salaries is one of our country’s most important progressive reforms because it means that they don’t have to be wealthy to serve. High congressional pay is a safeguard against corruption, not a sign of it.
Bear this assertion in mind as you consider this proposal.
This morning I co-sponsored a bill to end congressional pensions with @SenatorBraun.
Americans shouldn't...
Trump praises communist North Korea as future ‘great Economic Powerhouse’
President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Friday to extol the virtues and the future economic promise of North Korea, which has long been a brutal communist dictatorship and shows no sign of changing its ways.
“North Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, will become a great Economic Powerhouse,” the president of the United States said. “He may surprise some but he won’t surprise me, because I have gotten to know him & fully understand how capable he is. N...
Howard Schultz says we can balance the budget if we only believe hard enough in the leadership fairy
Tens of people watched a “major policy address” by billionaire oligarch Howard Schultz on Thursday, in which the coffee mogul claimed he could fix the country with platitudes, vague ideas, and impressive-sounding adjectives.
Yet, while Schultz’s speech was heavy on words like “leadership,” “opportunity,” and attacks on the “far left” and the “far right,” the major policy address contained virtually no policy ideas wha...
Trump’s plan to ‘defeat AIDS’ lacks ambition
As teased earlier in the week, President Donald Trump pledged in his State of the Union address Tuesday to “eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within ten years.”
Noting incredibly scientific strides, Trump promised, “Together, we will defeat AIDS in America and beyond.”
Following the speech, Health & Human Services Secretary Alex Azar released additional detail about the strategy, which for the most part, contains core components that...
Trump talks unity but offers no olive branch
President Donald Trump paid lip service to unity and bipartisanship during his second State of the Union address Tuesday night. But he put forth no solution to the divisive problem facing the country later this month: another potential government shutdown.
Trump used the bulk of his address to mislead the country about immigration and border security, economic development and criminal justice, abortion and foreign policy. He inexplicably claimed credit for preventing a war with Nort...