Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled, lame-duck legislature is trying to disparage the powers of incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul, preventing the elected officials from keeping key campaign promises on health care.
The blue wave came to Wisconsin after residents rejected union-busting, anti-Obamacare Gov. Scott Walker (R) in November. But now, GOP state lawmakers are trying to secure their conservative agenda. On Tuesday, the legislature is scheduled to...
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is changing the way politicians use social media
If you aren’t following Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on social media, we highly recommend it.
Regardless of where you fall on the partisan political spectrum, there is something for everyone to learn from Ocasio-Cortez, who will officially become the youngest-ever congresswoman next month.
Though the new Democratic-led House won’t be seated until January 3, the New York City congresswoman-elect is already building a large following with her approach ...
The case for abolishing the lame duck session
Democrats romped through Michigan and Wisconsin last month, winning races for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state in both states. In response to these flagrant acts of democracy, the lame duck Republican governments now plan to pass a rush of new laws stripping these offices of power.
In Wisconsin, one proposal would prevent the incoming Democratic officials from withdrawing from a partisan lawsuit attacking the Affordable Care Act — or potentially from other la...
Coalition releases plan to end U.S. HIV epidemic by 2025
In advance of World AIDS Day Saturday, a coalition of HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations have laid out a detailed plan to end the U.S. HIV epidemic by 2025.
The new roadmap sets ambitious goals for treatment and prevention and calls upon lawmakers to enact the kinds of changes that will help achieve them.
What that looks like is meeting what is called the “95/95/95” framework:
- 95 percent of people who have HIV are aware of their status.
- 95 perce...
Trump admin can’t use Congress to repeal Obamacare, so it’s asking states to rewrite the health law
Less than a month after the midterm elections ended the possibility of Obamacare repeal in Congress, the Trump administration has called on states to rewrite the health law in the image of failed GOP health bills.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued new guidance on Thursday encouraging states to implement changes to the marketplace that fundamentally undermine the goals of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
States have always had the ability to modify the ACA...
US rate of uninsured children increases for the first time in nearly a decade
Nearly four million children in the United States are uninsured, the highest rate in nearly a decade.
The latest data, released by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families on Thursday, reflects an unprecedented increase in the number of children without health insurance, at a time when the Trump administration continues its assault on health care by chipping away at the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The Georgetown report found that approximately 276,000 more chi...
‘How can we expand our impact to achieve health equity?’ Planned Parenthood’s new way forward
Dr. Leana Wen’s vision for Planned Parenthood is deceptively simple: “This is Health Care.”
On Thursday, Wen, Planned Parenthood’s new president, announced the organization’s new way forward, affirming an obvious truth that bears repeating: reproductive health care — like contraception, abortion, or comprehensive sex education — is health care, period.
“I’m deeply troubled by how health care — specifically reproducti...
A fascinating divide just opened up between Trump’s Supreme Court appointees and Bush’s
Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher walked into a buzz saw Wednesday morning, when he told the Supreme Court that his state has a virtually unlimited power to take people’s cars.
Fisher claimed this power in Timbs v. Indiana, a case involving a breathtakingly broad Indiana law permitting the state to seize vehicles from drivers who commit very minor drug crimes. Tyson Timbs, the man at the heart of the case, stands to lose his $42,000 Land Rover after he sold just...
…And now the bad news about the new Congress: Liz Cheney will be a top House Republican
American conservatism frequently resembles a bad horror movie franchise. Despite common sense indicating that unsavory characters stopped deserving our attention long ago, they somehow keep coming back for decades.
Many members of disgraced President Richard Nixon’s administration resurfaced under President George W. Bush.
Now the oldest daughter of Dick Cheney, Bush’s historically–unpopular vice president, has risen to a Republican leadership role during th...
Now that a record number of women head to Congress, can they repeal the Hyde Amendment?
For the past four decades, lawmakers in Washington, D.C. have largely prohibited federal dollars from paying for low-income people’s abortions. But with a record number of Democratic women elected to office in November and their party holding the majority in the House next year, momentum is building to lift the ban.
By ThinkProgress’ count, at least 183 House members support repealing the Hyde Amendment, a legislative provision that prohibits federal Medicaid dollars fro...