Wendy Davis talks often about her background growing up poor and later living in a trailer as she runs for Governor of Texas, but those experiences don’t seem to have shaped her attitude toward charity. Tax returns show that State
Last January President Obama kicked off his push for new gun control legislation saying “if there is a step we can take that will save even one child from what happened in Newtown, we should take that step.” Last week
A newly released estimate of France’s Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) finds the nation falling to a 7-month low. If the figures are reflected in the next quarterly GDP, France will have entered another recession. The PMI report published by Markit
One of the ongoing problems with Obamacare is that people who “enroll” aren’t actually enrolled until they make their first payment. But those first payments have to be made to the individual insurer, not to healthcare.gov. Here’s what HHS’s “What
Last weekend the NY Times published a “Sunday dialogue” which included a letter to the editor by a Connecticut bookseller and some responses. The topic was media bias. Both the letter–and some of the responses to it–present a perspective on
After the announcement of the latest enrollment figures this week, health insurance expert Bob Laszewski examining enrollment figures in the states where website complications have been far less catastrophic than at the federal level. “In states where the exchange has
Politifact has labeled President Obama’s promise “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” its Lie of the Year for 2013. The site has come a long way since 2008 when it labeled the same claim “True.” Here’s
The American Action Forum has put together a helpful chart which compares Obamacare enrollment to the goal set by HHS. Not surprisingly, it reveals that Obamacare has a lot of ground to make up. Tuesday I pointed out that Medicare
One large insurer is offering an additional week for people to get their first premium payments in and several state exchanges have announced the same move. In order to be enrolled in a new plan beginning in January, individuals not
Senator Landrieu has released her first advertisement for reelection on Wednesday and she is clearly concerned about what Obamacare could mean for her reelection. The ad uses clips from various media appearances to paint Landrieu as someone fighting to insure
Even with a big final bump like the one in Massachusetts, Obamacare will not reach its goal of 7 million. In fact, Obamacare would need a similar final surge each month for the next four months to get there. Wednesday
A Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday finds the President at a new low, 38-57 percent. A previous poll released in mid-November had the President at 39-54 percent. The President still receives 76 percent approval from Democrats but has fallen off among
Medicare part D had a troubled rollout but its problems were really nothing compared to the launch of Obamacare. Monday Ezra Klein published a post at Wonkblog stating that Obamacare would likely succeed despite the problems with healthcare.gov. The example
A Kentucky M.D. named Stephen Kiteck is shutting down his medical practice and citing Obamacare as the reason. Dr. Kiteck published an ad in the local paper saying his office will close Dec. 31, 2013 because of Obamacare. He invites
Today Politico’s Dylan Byers got tough on MSNBC with two posts calling into question the channel’s journalistic credibility. Byers started the day by going after MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry for something she said over the weekend. Harris-Perry claimed Sunday that
Sunday morning Ezekiel Emanuel appeared on Fox News Sunday and had an enlightening exchange with Chris Wallace about one of the President’s signature Obamacare promises. Wallace pressed Emanuel on the President’s promised that “if you like your doctor you can
President Putin dissolved the state-run news agency RIA Novosti Monday in a move that was described as an attempt to tighten his control over the media. RIA Novosti will be disbanded but a new state run agency called Rossiya Segodnya will
Gallup release new polling Friday which shows that a majority of Americans, 52 percent, want to see Obamacare either scaled back or repealed outright. Gallup asked respondents to choose what they would like to see Congress do about the law.
The union organized fast food walkout Thursday turns out to have been heavy on the walking and light on the “out.” In New York at least, there was a group of about 100-150 who walked from one restaurant to another.
While the White House and supporters of the Affordable Care Act continue to talk about the number of people “enrolled” via healthcare.gov, the reality is that no one is enrolled until they pay their first month’s premium. So how many
Fast food workers organized by the SEIU are on strike today to demand a $15 an hour wage. Activists are also seeking to unionize workers and to bring attention to the push for a higher minimum wage nationwide. Protests began
Despite two rounds of apologies from the President and a general consensus among fact checkers that the President’s claim was false, Sen. Harry Reid went on television this week and argued that Obama’s “if you like your plan” promise was
How in the world did MSNBC let this gem go? The culture of this country is doomed so long as this celebrity scrutiny/diversion/obsession continues. And all of the attendant destruction — ABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) December 4, 2013 It’s not clear what
Obama used to amuse crowds with an allegory about Republicans who had driven the economy into a ditch and were now complaining that he wasn’t getting it out of the ditch fast enough. Five years into his tenure, his own
Mark Jaquith is a lead developer for Wordpress so he’s pretty familiar with good web design. Mark has been trying to buy insurance over healthcare.gov since October. It hasn’t been going well. Previously when Mark tried to buy insurance the
After his impressive victory in New Jersey last month, some critics have claimed that Governor Christie’s appeal is limited to the northeast. Sure, he might be able to win in Jersey, they argued, but that doesn’t mean he’ll have appeal
Government spending is being cut in many areas since sequestration kicked in but spending on liquor by US embassies has grown substantially during President Obama’s tenure. The Washington Times reports that the State Department’s liquor bill was over $400,000 last
Mother Jones has a story this morning about Donor Trust, a group that collects and distributes money to conservative organizations including some that produce news. The splashy headline claims that Donor Trust distributed $96 million last year. A subhead reads
President Obama stood in the Rose Garden and promised a “tech surge” to fix healthcare.gov. In reality, the surge was a tiny influx of “about a half-dozen people.” In a multi-page story on the effort to rebuild the troubled website,
Former White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says it would be “inexplicable” if no one was fired for the botched rollout of healthcare.gov. Appearing on MSNBC Monday morning, Gibbs told host Alex Wagner that he expected one or more people to
State Senator Wendy Davis appeared on a local Texas news station to express her support for food stamps last week, but she appeared unprepared for serious questions on the topic. After making some general comments about working families and the
Have you ever heard a song lyric and been sure you know what it says only to find out later your interpretation was completely wrong? If so then you already know what a mondegreen is. Here are a few examples
Friday, Ezra Klein has a post up at Wonkblog about the relaunch of Healthcare.gov, which the administration claimed would be working by November 30th. He breaks his analysis into 11 points. Here’s point #3 along with part of point #4:
This video produced by the Telegraph shows how Amazon processes and ships products from one warehouse in England during a big shopping week. The Amazon spokesperson says last year at this time they had 3.5 million items ordered in 24
MSNBC has apparently had an ongoing story in which contributor Jimmy Williams tries to sign up for health insurance on Healthcare.gov. In yesterday’s installment, Williams announced that his most recent attempt to log on to the site failed as have
Way back on October 21st, when the White House was still optimistic that problems with healthcare.gov would be fixed relatively quickly, the Washington Post explained that the administration still had weeks to get this right. In fact, the drop dead
A poll released Wednesday by the Democratic polling firm Public Policy Polling finds Republican Governor Chris Christie is more popular than Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania. PPP found Christie leading Clinton 48-44 in the state. Clinton led other possible 2016 contenders
Thomas Ritter is a teacher in Irving, Texas. Before the passage of Obamacare, Ritter wrote to the President expressing his dismay over the partisan tone in Washington. The President responded, denying he had targeted “tea baggers.” “I watched you make
With Novermber 30th approaching, the Obama administration and their allies in the media have started moving the goalposts on what constitutes success for the law. The answer, not surprisingly, is something less than previously expected. During the Monday conference call
Picture it. Your entire family has just gotten together for its big annual reunion over Thanksgiving dinner. All of your aunts and uncles are there and you’ve had a delicious meal. As the tryptophan floats through your system the whole