“Republican members of Congress returned from an August recess in which they avoided terrible headlines by doing their darnedest to avoid their constituents only to face an even bleaker political landscape awaiting them in Washington. With few legislative results to tout, several congressional Republicans have opted to head into 2018 by taking the road of least resistance: retirement. ” More …
Legislature
U.S. House of Representatives or U.S. Senate
How Washington Lobbyists Fought Flood Insurance Reform
“The catastrophic weather in Texas has thrown the spotlight on the federal government’s troubled flood insurance program, which is nearly $25 billion in debt after huge payouts following Katrina, Sandy and other devastating hurricanes. But as Houston starts the long process of recovering, lobbyists in Washington have already maneuvered to slow lawmakers efforts’ to overhaul the National Flood Insurance Program and protect their industries’ profits.” More …
The Republican War on the CBO, Explained
“The Trump administration is not fond of the Congressional Budget Office. The independent, highly respected agency that analyzes the impact of legislative proposals has said the numbers in President’s Trump’s budget don’t add up and that Republican health care proposals would cause huge insurance coverage losses. And it will hold immense sway over the fate of Republicans’ next legislative priority: tax reform.” More …
GOP Gerrymandering: Extreme Maps
“Using data from the 2012, 2014, and 2016 election cycles, Extreme Maps finds that partisan bias resulting largely from the worst gerrymandering abuses in just a few battleground states provides Republicans a durable advantage of 16-17 seats in the current Congress, representing a significant portion of the 24 seats Democrats would need to gain control of the House in 2020. These ‘extreme maps’ were all drawn in states under single-party control; the report finds that conversely, maps drawn by independent commissions, courts, or split-party state governments had significantly less partisan bias in their maps.” More …
Republicans Want to Leave You More Voicemail — Without Ever Ringing Your Cellphone
“The GOP’s leading campaign and fundraising arm, the Republican National Committee, has quietly thrown its support behind a proposal at the Federal Communications Commission that would pave the way for marketers to auto-dial consumers’ cellphones and leave them prerecorded voicemail messages — all without ever causing their devices to ring.” More …
Sen. Orrin Hatch: ‘The public wants every dime they can be given’
“Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch warned Tuesday that efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act in the Senate might be complicated because once the public ‘is on the dole, they’ll take every dime they can.'” Editor’s note: Pot meet kettle. Senator Hatch has been on the public dole since 1977 (40 years). More …
A Side-by-Side Comparison of Obamacare and the GOP’s Replacement Plan
“Here’s how the proposed Republican American Health Care Act—along with various amendments to the bill—compares to the 2010 Affordable Care Act.” More.
Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps and Unemployment on the GOP Chopping Block
“The House Budget Committee is considering instructing Congress to pursue the cuts to a rarely-touched slice of the budget that totaled $2.4 trillion in 2016 and which includes spending on safety-net programs like Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits and food stamps.” More.
Thoughts From a Hospital Bed
“And what it means to be healthy, or unhealthy, in the United States of 2017.” More …
Republicans’ Trumpcare Bill Takes $600 Billion Out of Health Care to Cut Taxes for the Rich
Trumpcare eliminates $600 billion in taxes. “When you take all that money out of the system, something has to give. And in the case of the various iterations of Affordable Care Act repeal, the thing that gives is the quality of health insurance provided to Americans with below-average incomes or above-average health needs.
- It eliminates a 3.8 percent tax that applied to capital gains, dividend, and interest income for families with $250,000 or more in income ($125,000 for singles).
- It eliminates a 0.9 percent tax on wage income in excess of $250,000 a year ($200,000 for unmarried people).
- It eliminates taxes on health insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and medical device manufacturers.” More.