ThinkProgress

With Roy Moore in hiding, Doug Jones makes his final pitch to black voters

News, politics

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA — With two days to go until Election Day, Doug Jones visited three black churches in Birmingham on Sunday to make a final pitch to African American voters. Roy Moore, who hasn’t made a public appearance in days, didn’t attend his own church services.

Flanked by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. Terry Sewell (D-AL), Jones spent the day working to convince black voters in the state’s biggest city that he is the only candidate who will represe...

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Man pleads with Jeff Flake to vote down the tax plan and save his life

congress, News, politics

One of Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ)’s last major votes before retirement could be a death sentence for tens of thousands of Americans. One of them is Ady Barkan, a 33-year-old California father living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), who, during a Thursday night flight from Washington D.C. to Phoenix, Arizona, asked Flake to cast a vote to save his life.

“I was healthy a year ago. I was running on the beach,” Barkan told Flake on the flight, according to video footage of the exch...

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Planes, horse reins, and helicopters: Ryan Zinke under scrutiny again for travel practices

climate, News

“Shame on you for not respecting the office of a Member of Congress.”

That’s how the lead spokesperson for the Department of the Interior responded to a Politico reporter investigating her boss, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Ben Lefebvre, an energy reporter for Politico, wanted to learn more about Zinke’s use of government helicopters to travel to destinations within a reasonable driving distance from Washington.

Lefebvre reported Thursday that Zinke ...

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Discredited sting videos haunt Planned Parenthood as DOJ opens investigation

health, News, planned-parenthood, politics

The Department of Justice is moving to investigate Planned Parenthood’s transfer of fetal tissue, continuing the fall-out from discredited sting videos released two years ago by an anti-abortion group.

On Thursday, the Justice Department reportedly asked Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) for documents relating to a Senate committee’s report on Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue practices. The documents in question pertain to a Senate Judiciary ...

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Christian Nationalism’s longstanding unholy alliance with Big Business

News

This is the fourth in a series on Christian nationalism and the religious groups supporting Donald Trump. You can read the first one here, the second one here, and the third one here.

As Republicans celebrated the passage of their sweeping tax reform bill last week, religious liberals were equally quick to vent their frustration. Thousands of faith leaders signed letters decrying how the bill will increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 13 million over ...

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Republicans brazenly admit massive tax cuts are to justify cutting Medicare and Medicaid

medicaid, Medicare, News, Paul Ryan

Republicans in Congress are openly admitting they plan to use their tax reform bill to justify slashing funding for essential social programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps.

The bill — which is expected to balloon the national deficit by at least $1 trillion, and which only benefits the country’s wealthiest in the long-term — has not yet been reconciled or signed. But Republicans aren’t wasting any time laying out what they see as t...

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To prevent climate catastrophe, Democrats need to learn a ruthless lesson from Senate GOP

climate, News, politics, republican-party

Congressional Republicans, especially GOP senators led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have all but destroyed the possibility of bipartisan deal-making on major issues.

The widely criticized and wildly unpopular GOP tax bill is the inevitable byproduct of that destruction — but the end of a livable climate for America and the world is also inevitable unless Republicans become less ruthless or Democrats become more ruthless.

ThinkProgress

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No CHIP or health center funding: Congress’ inaction is further distressing hurricane-ravaged states

health care, News

Just three months ago, Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast. The hurricane took at least 88 lives; more than 311,000 housing units were damaged; and the state is just beginning to understand the hurricane’s health toll.

Add another caveat to recovery efforts: critical health care programs that serve Texas’ most vulnerable face financial uncertainty.

Congress failed to renew funding for federally qualified community health centers and the Children...

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Hundreds of protesters fight the GOP tax bill on Capitol Hill

News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Nearly 300 protesters stormed the the Cannon Office Building at the House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon, flooding the halls with chants of “Kill this bill, don’t kill us.”

The protesters focused on the offices of Congress members who voted yes on the GOP tax package and are vulnerable in the 2018 midterm elections. Among them: Reps. Ryan Costello (R-PA), Barbara Comstock (R-VA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Bria...

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