President Donald Trump’s pick for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary is a pharmaceutical executive familiar with the department which he is nominated to lead. On Wednesday, before a Senate committee on health, Alex Azar defended his past: law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, HHS General Counsel and Deputy Secretary under President George W. Bush, and executive to drug giant Eli Lilly.
Since Trump came to office, HHS has undermined the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and hind...
ThinkProgress
Republicans win crucial vote for tax cuts with new gimmick, but there’s a catch
The Senate Budget Committee voted the GOP Senate plan out of committee 12 to 11 Tuesday afternoon.
Senate Republicans, scrambling for the votes to even get their tax bill out of committee, needed something to win over Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) a “deficit hawk” whose support was uncertain in recent days. Both Corker and Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) have both suggested a backstop, or trigger, which would reverse some tax cuts in the case the economy won’t grow as quickly ...
Why the Senate doesn’t have the votes it needs to pass tax reform
As the Senate prepares to vote on their version of the tax bill as early as this week, all eyes are on six Senators.
Three Senators, Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Bob Corker (R-TN), and John McCain (R-AZ) are virtually immune from outside pressure as they are unlikely to face voters again. Flake and Corker are retiring and McCain is 80, just won reelection and is battling a serious illness. All three have expressed serious concerns about how much the tax proposal will increase the federal defi...
The GOP has a problem with paying for kids’ basic care
Fifty-six days after Congress failed to fund the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), some American children are at risk of losing their health insurance. The deadline to renew the program’s funding was Sept. 30, and Congress hasn’t granted the program $15 billion to continue.
As a result, the popular state-level insurance program for low-income children and pregnant women is facing a funding cliff. While some states may be able to keep the program going thr...
How one GOP senator went from saving Obamacare to being OK with undermining it
Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) casted a pivotal vote over the summer, where she — along with Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and John McCain (R-AZ) — saved the Affordable Care Act (ACA) from being repealed. She didn’t just vote against repeal once; she voted against three different G.O.P. health bills and shot down another in September.
But on Tuesday, she said she supports legislation that most health experts say will undermine the current health law. In an op-ed in the...
Murkowski ready to prioritize Arctic drilling over healthcare
In an op-ed published in a local Alaskan paper last week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) announced that she supports repealing the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate, saying that she “always supported the freedom to choose.”
Murkowski was a key vote in stopping repeal of the Affordable Care Act earlier this year, but there’s one crucial difference this time around: repealing the individual mandate is tied to the Republican’s tax bill, which also inclu...
42 top economists were asked if the Trump tax plan would significantly grow the economy. 1 said yes.
Overhauling the tax code before Christmas would be a difficult task under “normal” conditions, yet Republicans in Congress are pledging to do just that with their tax bill.
There’s just one big problem: It is a supremely poor tax plan that doesn’t provide middle-class tax relief while also serving as a substantial handout to the wealthy.
A University of Chicago survey released Tuesday polled 42 of the nation’s leading economists about the Republi...
Obamacare’s most unpopular provision is important. Here’s why.
Jim Cooke is looking to purchase health insurance this open enrollment period on Maryland Health Connection, the state’s Obamacare exchange. He usually pays the penalty for not having insurance, due to the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). But for him, this year is different.
“It’s not urgent, I’d just feel more comfortable,” Cooke told ThinkProgress. “I’m 61 now, and I think I better have this coverage.”
C...
Congress still hasn’t renewed CHIP funding, 9 million children could soon lose health coverage
It has been 51 days since Congress allowed the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to expire. Since then, states have been grappling with the reality that nine million children may soon lose critical health care coverage.
While CHIP has historically received support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, this year, Congress has allowed disagreements over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to take precedence over reauthorizing funding for the program. Things are now especially...
Republican lawmaker who wants to abolish the EPA joins bipartisan climate caucus
A freshman Florida congressman, whose first piece of legislation would have abolished the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has joined the Climate Solutions Caucus, a group formed in early 2016 to bring Republicans and Democrats together to advance meaningful climate change legislation.
In February, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), introduced H.R. 861, which would “terminate” the EPA on December 31, 2018. Nine months later, the same Republican lawmaker is now a member of the Climate Sol...