The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to vote against the nomination of Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State on Monday — which would be the first such vote for a secretary of state nominee.
CIA Director Pompeo, who would replace Rex Tillerson (who was fired in March), has thus far not received the support of a single Democrat on the SFRC (nor Kentucky Republican Rand Paul).
Bracing for the SFRC vote, Trump tweeted on Monday morning that it was partisan politi...
ThinkProgress
Trump’s big idea for health insurance excludes maternity care and barely covers addiction treatment
The Trump administration’s “affordable alternative” to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is short-term health plans, but a new Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) study published on Monday shows just how bare-bones this coverage actually is.
A KFF review of short-term health health plans offered on two large private insurance websites, eHealth and Agile Health Insurance, in 45 states and Washington, D.C. shows these plans rarely if at all pay for essential coverage: no plan...
In Arizona special election, Democrats try to focus on the district while sending a national message
GLENDALE, AZ—On Saturday, more than 100 people packed into a high school lunchroom in Glendale, Arizona to hear Hiral Tipirneni, the Democratic nominee to replace former Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), speak before heading out to knock on doors in hopes of bringing more Arizona voters into the fold.
Tipirneni is running in Arizona’s eighth district, which President Donald Trump won by more than 20 points just less than a year and a half ago. But two recent polls (one an internal pol...
The Supreme Court’s original sin in gerrymandering cases
Few matters capture the pathology of the Roberts Court more completely than the two Abbott v. Perez cases, a pair of identically named racial gerrymandering cases that the Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday.
The Perez cases are about partisan gamesmanship. In 2013, the state of Texas admitted in a brief filed in a federal court that their “redistricting decisions were designed to increase the Republican Party’s electoral prospects at the expense of the Democr...
Trump administration health announcement is latest blow to transgender Americans
The Trump administration’s campaign to make life more difficult for transgender Americans entered a new phase this weekend. On Saturday, according to the New York Times, the administration announced that it would gut an anti-discrimination statute when it comes to health care access for transgender patients.
The rule, passed under the Obama administration in 2016, had prevented health care providers receiving federal financial assistance — including those receiving Medic...
Ahead of Arizona vote, Republican Debbie Lesko holds a clinic in tamping down expectations
Debbie Lesko put on a masterclass in expectations setting early Saturday.
Lesko, a Republican, is locked in an increasingly tight race with Democrat Hiral Tipirneni to replace former Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), who resigned from the House last year after news that he asked a staffer to be his surrogate became public.
On paper, Lesko has little reason to be nervous. Less than a year and a half ago, Trump won this Arizona district by 21 points, and in most polls in the weeks lead...
Tennessee governor to sign Medicaid work requirement funded by welfare dollars
A philosophical change to the country’s largest public health insurance program is underway, as states one-by-one try to implement Medicaid work requirements. Tennessee is the latest state to try to make work conditional of Medicaid eligibility. At least 22,300 are expected to drop health insurance, according to the state’s own estimate.
On Thursday, the state Senate sent Gov. Bill Haslam (R) a bill that directs Tennessee to submit a federal waiver to impose work require...
Kucinich was paid to speak alongside genocide deniers and pro-Assad lobbyists
Last April, shortly after the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against civilians, a group of analysts and pundits gathered in London to discuss the situation in Syria. The speakers included those lobbying for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Syrian ministers, and, in at least one case, a notorious genocide denier. It was, as opponents of the Assad regime described, little more than a “propaganda exercise” to whitewash the Syrian government.
It also featured one American: Dennis Kuc...
Trump-appointed judge uses his very first opinion to showcase his political hackery
Judge James Ho has been a federal judge for only a few months. Until Wednesday, he had never handed down a judicial opinion in his life. But the Trump appointee’s very first opinion, a dissent calling for a sweeping assault on campaign contribution limits, is a doozy.
More than just an ideologically radical opinion, Judge Ho’s dissent from the full United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decision not to rehear Zimmerman v. City of Austin...
NRA flak complains about public Planned Parenthood funding, forgets NRA conventions are subsidized
Dana Loesch, the National Rifle Association national spokesperson, is appalled and infuriated that Planned Parenthood’s political arm is part of a coalition planning to spend $30 million to help elect candidates who support abortion rights in the 2018 midterm elections, while its non-profit affiliate the Planned Parenthood Federation of America receives taxpayer reimbursements for providing medical care.
But while she falsely claimed that this unconnected funding amounts to &#...