Year: 2014
SCOTUS Ruling in Favor of GOP Lawsuit Would Revoke Health Insurance of Millions of Americans
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a lawsuit on the Affordable Care Act, King v. Burwell, brought by Republicans seeking to revoke the health-insurance of 7.3 million Americans whose premiums are paid by government subsidies under the ACA. The lawsuit is based on a snippet of poorly constructed language in the law that suggests subsidies can only be granted to people who live in states that operate their own insurance exchanges.
After the law passed, Republican governors in more than 30 states opted not to build exchanges, thus requiring the federal government to step in and build the websites. Opting out was a cynical political tactic that put the governors’ desire to hobble the president’s reform law over the interests of millions of their uninsured constituents. Now, if the Supreme Court rules in Republicans’ favor on King v. Burwell, the vast majority of people whose subsidized insurance is at risk are residents of states where Republican governors forced the feds to step in and build exchanges.
What a neat trick.
Poll Finds 64% Tea Party Support for Impeaching Pres. Obama
A poll from Democracy Corps found that the Republican base supports impeaching Pres. Obama by a two-to-one margin. The poll did not ask what high crime or misdemeanor tea partyists believe the president is guilty of, but presumably it is “presidenting while black.”
Congressional tea party boss Ted Cruz routinely bullied House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP leaders in the 113th Congress into pursuing unpopular actions, chiefly including shutting down the government. Polls like this one suggest that it’s more likely than not that Boehner, McConnell, now the incoming majority leader in the Senate, and the rest will be cowed by Cruz — whose extremist caucus will have at least six new members in the Senate — into proceeding with impeachment in the 114th Congress.
Watch Rachel Maddow’s interview with the pollster, Stan Greenberg, HERE.
Unemployment Fell Again in September
5.8%
The unemployment rate last month, as the U.S. economy added 214,000 jobs, the Wall Street Journal reports. That’s the lowest level since 2008.
Ryan Doesn’t Want to Spend His Adult Life in Congress
No. God, no. I’ve already been there 16 years. I don’t want to be a career guy. Even though I’ve been there a long time, where you could already say that… It’s just, I don’t want to spend my adult life in Congress.
— Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), quoted by National Journal, on being in Congress another ten years.
Missives, Not Missles
A sitting president may do as he shall,
Without having to explain his rationale.
While we thought Khamenei
Was his sworn enemy,
In fact, he’s President Obama’s pen pal.
Exit Polling Asked South Carolina Voters Whether Blacks Were ‘Too Demanding’ and ‘Trying Hard Enough’
In an article on its website with the rather oblique title, “Exit Poll Angers Some SC Voters,” (meaning others were simply delighted by it?), WSPA television in Spartanburg, S.C., reported that questions in exit polling after the midterm elections Tuesday were framed to elicit racist responses.
Voters were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with statements like:
- “Over the past few years, blacks have gotten less than they deserve.”
- “Blacks are getting too demanding in their push for equal rights.”
- “It’s really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder, they could be as well off as whites.”
One shocked liberal voter demanded to know who had authorized the questions. Amber Lange, who said she worked for Clemson University, was surprised to learn the questions were written by a Clemson professor:
