A Republican judge’s opinion claiming that the entire Affordable Care Act must be struck down is so poorly reasoned that even the Cato Institute denounced it on Wednesday.
Cato, which was originally known as the Charles Koch Foundation, tried and failed to convince the Supreme Court to strike down the key provisions of Obamacare in 2012. The conservative think tank’s health policy director, Michael Cannon, was one of the architects of King v. Burwell, the last p...
ThinkProgress
In self-congratulatory tweetstorm, Paul Ryan celebrates his lone victory: tax cuts for the rich
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is in his final days as Speaker of the House, a job that he only reluctantly took in 2015 and will depart with a dearth of accomplishments. While he will leave office unable to realize his college dream of taking Medicaid away from poor people, he launched a tweet-storm on Tuesday morning celebrating the first anniversary of his sole major legislation: the Trump tax cuts that mostly benefited the rich and big corporations.
He began his tweet-storm by noting he&...
Tucker Carlson defends anti-immigrant rhetoric as more advertisers drop his show
Instead of apologizing for his recent remarks claiming immigrants make America “dirtier” — which have led six advertisers to drop his show — Tucker Carlson doubled down on his rhetoric on Monday night.
The Fox News host bizarrely claimed that the “relatively tiny number of people” who benefit from immigration policies are trying to silence him.
Minted and NerdWallet became the latest companies to confirm on Monday evening they would no long...
House Democrats won’t let Zinke escape investigation, even after he leaves office
After less than two years on the job, outgoing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will be leaving a legacy of pro-fossil fuel management of public lands and a long trail of alleged cases of personal misconduct.
Zinke announced his resignation over the weekend. His departure, though, will test the political will of investigators and congressional Democrats who must decide whether to continue pursuing inquiries into the allegations or focus on oversight of the actions of the new leadership...
Senate Democrats get a harsh lesson on why they should never, ever play nice with Republicans
Four years ago, President Obama was in the White House and Democrats controlled a solid majority in the United States Senate. At the very least, Obama should have had free rein to appoint federal judges. Yet then-Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) insisted on giving Republicans the power to veto many of Obama’s nominees.
Three years later, in a move that pretty much everyone on the planet who is not named “Patrick Leahy” knew would inevitably play out, now...
Justice Alito cut the legs out of the latest attack on Obamacare — and didn’t even know he did it
Remember Burwell v. Hobby Lobby? Hobby Lobby is the single most significant court victory ever achieved by America’s religious right. Before Hobby Lobby, religious conservatives could not wield their faith to undercut the rights of other people. After Hobby Lobby conservative religious objections may be used to narrow the rights of third-parties.
Yet a passage in Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion for the Court in Hobby Lobby coul...
Amid swirling Trump scandals, Cummings backs rules change to allow indictment of a sitting president
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the Democrat who takes over chairmanship of the House Oversight Committee next month, called Sunday for the overhaul of legal guidelines that currently protect presidents from criminal prosecution.
“I think we should always reconsider laws and regulations, and this is one we definitely should reconsider,” Cummings told CNN’s State of the Union.
The Maryland Democrat raised the prospect of a rules change against the back...
Even conservatives are shocked at how wrong the latest anti-Obamacare ruling is
On Friday, a George W. Bush-appointed federal judge specifically chosen by Republican governors and attorneys general to decimate the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare) did what he often does: he struck down a policy enacted by elected Democrats using spurious legal reasoning.
But while United States District Judge Reed O’Connor’s tortured argument that the whole of Obamacare is now unconstitutional since congressional Republicans removed its individual mandate ...
BREAKING: Republican judge issues order striking down Obamacare
Last February, a bloc of 20 Republican governors and attorneys general brought a lawsuit seeking to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Then they ran into a problem. Some of these officials faced reelection races in 2018. Others sought higher office. And repealing Obamacare is unpopular.
One of these officials, Senator-elect Josh Hawley (R-MO) even ran an ad where he lied to his state’s voters and claimed that he supports “forcing insurance companies to cover all pre-existin...
Walker signs lame duck bills aimed at undermining incoming Democratic governor
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed into law a suite of bills Friday aimed at weakening his incoming successor, Democratic Gov.-elect Tony Evers (D).
“There’s a lot of hype and hysteria, particularly in the national media, implying this is a power shift,” Walker, who has less than a month left in office, said Friday before signing the legislation. “It’s not.”
Among other things, the package gives the legislature control of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. boa...