There’s not a better illustration of the priority divide between Republicans in Washington DC and those in the states than the Medicaid funding passed by the House today. In a 247 to 161 vote – taken after Nancy Pelosi called her members back from recess – the chamber just passed legislation that will provide $26 billion in …
Last Friday, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean said something rather astounding on MSNBC. Dean said that the individual mandate, the controversial provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires people to maintain health coverage, won’t survive long enough to kick in by 2014. A court decision or political …
Here’s a lesson in how frustrating it can be to observe the United States Congress at work.
Yesterday, the body once again failed to fund payments to black farmers discriminated against by the USDA two decades ago. The payments, which have broad bipartisan support and stem from an earlier class action lawsuit known as Pigford, have …
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services certainly knows its audience. As Adam noted earlier, the agency signed up Andy Griffith to appear in television ads now airing and touting changes to Medicare brought about by the new health reform law.
This has caused a bit of a stir, with five Republican senators sending a letter …
Today, Republicans are celebrating the fact that Missouri voters just overwhelmingly approved a state anti-health reform ballot initiative. The measure, which says Missouri residents can’t be required to maintain health insurance, is largely symbolic since federal law trumps state law. There was almost no organized opposition to the …
A little noticed statement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s press conference yesterday was his admission that Shirley Sherrod tried to alert the USDA last week of the tape’s existence. Andrew Breitbart, who has not disclosed who sent him the tape, posted it on Biggovernment.com Monday morning. But Vilsack said this …
Multiple outlets are now reporting that President Obama just called Shirley Sherrod. Will he try to persuade her to rejoin the USDA in some capacity, apologize, chat about race relations or some combination?
UPDATE: Here’s the White House press release about the call:
The President reached Ms. Sherrod by telephone at about
…
Tom Vilsack, the secretary of the Department of Agriculture, just gave a short press conference where he took total responsibility for the Shirley Sherrod debacle. “I didn’t take the time I should have as a result a good woman has gone through a very difficult period,” said Vilsack, saying he has learned “a very serious lesson.” “It …
Our Miami-based colleague Tim Padgett files this report on a very savvy Charlie Crist:
At first glance, Tuesday looked like a bad day for Florida Governor Charlie Crist. He’d called the Florida legislature back to Tallahassee to consider placing an initiative on the November ballot asking voters whether offshore oil drilling
…
For those who have been following the Shirley Sherrod/Andrew Breitbart/NAACP/USDA story today – you might have whiplash! – here’s the full text of Sherrod’s speech before an NAACP audience in March. It’s worth watching in full.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9NcCa_KjXk&feature=player_embedded]
(UPDATE: Around 2 a.m. this …
Even after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is fully implemented in 2019, about 23 million Americans will remain uninsured. About one-third of these will be undocumented immigrants, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.
This is by design. Illegal immigrants will not be permitted to buy insurance …
The survey the Department of Defense is giving to 400,000 service members about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is now online. Read it here.
The questions in the survey ask respondents to answer 32 pages of questions that include whether they know of gays serving in the military with them, how they feel repealing DADT would affect morale and …
The Administration announced last night that it would use a recess appointment to get Donald Berwick in place as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Recess appointments are controversial and this is no exception. Republicans are downright angry that the White House, apparently without much warning, …
