House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said in a statement Monday that he was “struck by the tone Heather Heyer’s parents took at her memorial service,” saying their call for “healing and forgiveness” was a powerful example.
“Here they are suddenly grieving and saying goodbye to their daughter, taken by an act of domestic terrorism,” Ryan said in a statement posted on Facebook Monday, more than a week after Heyer’s death and five days after her memorial service. “And instead of turning to a...
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Mitt Romney criticizes Trump for Charlottesville comments, but his words ring hollow
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Friday condemned President Trump’s response to the clashes in Charlottesville, publishing a lengthy Facebook post in which he said the president should apologize. Just how sincere he was in his rebuke is questionable.
“Whether he intended to or not, what he communicated caused racists to rejoice, minorities to weep, and the vast heart of America to mourn,” Romney wrote. After lamenting their lasting effect on minority childr...
Congressional Hispanic Caucus demands Secretary Price prioritize Obamacare Latino outreach
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent a letter to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price Thursday, demanding he meet with members about Affordable Care Act (ACA) open enrollment. Members were prompted by recent reports that no one from the Trump administration had reached out to key members of the Latino ACA outreach coalition to begin preparing for the open enrollment session, which begins November 1.
Members of the coalition, like the League of United L...
Alabama Democrat says he can win Sessions’ seat because his opponents won’t challenge white supremacy
Alabama Republicans Luther Strange and Roy Moore are preparing to battle for Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat in a primary run-off that will pit President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s support and money against a solidly evangelical base. Meanwhile, Doug Jones is sitting back easy.
Jones, the Democratic nominee, won Tuesday’s primary with over 50 percent of the vote, meaning that he avoids a run-off and can now focus his efforts on the December gener...
Alabama senator says he can’t criticize Trump’s press conference because he was too busy to watch it
Appointed Sen. Luther Strange (R-AL), who came in second in Tuesday’s GOP primary, went on Fox News Wednesday to explain how he plans to win next month’s primary runoff against opponent and former state Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore. But if he was expecting an easy interview from host Trish Regan, he was mistaken; Regan grilled him about his response to the president’s botched comments on the violent Charlottesville white nationalist protests, causing Strange to stumble...
Trump agrees to pay key Obamacare subsidies, extending its lifeline
Everyone and their doctor has asked President Donald Trump to continue funding Obamacare cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments. After flirting with eliminating these payments to insurance companies, he finally agreed to pay them for the month of August. A White House spokesman told multiple news sources on Wednesday that the Trump administration will make the payment.
CONFIRMED: Trump administration will make the August CSR Obamacare payments, a WH spokesman tel...
Texas governor signs controversial ‘rape insurance’ abortion coverage into law
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a bill Tuesday afternoon, approved by the Senate over the weekend, that would prohibit all insurance companies from covering non-life threatening abortion care in standard health plans. Women, trans, and non-binary people will need to pay an additional insurance premium if they want their health plan to cover abortions performed outside medical emergencies; there will be no exceptions for instances of rape or incest. Opponents of the bill are calling it &#...
Trump’s plan to sabotage Obamacare costs $200 billion and doesn’t really even sabotage Obamacare
For months, President Donald Trump has flirted with a tactic that could help make “Obamacare implode” — thus potentially forcing House and Senate Democrats to negotiate on a way to dismantle the law. On Tuesday, however, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on what would actually happen if Trump implemented this tactic, and the results are less than spectacular.
For the most part, Obamacare would continue chugging along as usual. But the federal ...
Alabamians love Trump, but they may hate the Senate more
Despite unified Republican control of Washington, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been having a bad year. The Senate primary in Alabama on Tuesday may make it even worse.
Alabama voters head to the polls Tuesday to select candidates who will compete in December for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ vacated seat. Until recently, the Republican who has temporarily filled the seat since January and who has earned endorsements from both President Trump and Majority Leader McConnell ...
Obamacare is imploding in one state
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace is not imploding. As the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Drew Altman pointed out, the ACA stability crisis is a matter of perspective. To understand how the marketplace is doing, you’d need to look state by state or perhaps county by county to more accurately assess. A tweet can’t contextualize this.
In broad strokes, most ACA beneficiaries will go unaffected by 2018 premium hikes and have at least one insurer option. When insur...