Call Trump out not only on what he wants to put on display but also on what he’s desperate to conceal.
carlin
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N.C. GOP relying on specious claims to get Medicaid bill closer to passage
Fast facts on Medicaid expansion Medicaid is the state-administered health insurance program for the poor. Medicaid expansion was expected to cover some 16 million additional Americans by requiring states to grant eligibility to adults under 65 with family incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line. That equals about $30,675 for a family […]
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The congressional deal to avert the fiscal cliff accomplishes very little
On New Year’s Day, just after the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, Congress approved a tax package to avert the fiscal cliff. The deal postpones only briefly the pending political battles. In March, automatic spending cuts, originally agreed upon in 2011 and delayed by the just-concluded deal, will kick in. A new fight over […]
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Floating over the fiscal cliff in golden parachutes
President Obama’s apparent new spine is a positive development. In the current debate about how to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, the president appears to have shifted tactics from 2011. At that time, Obama bent over backward to appease Republicans during the fight over the debt ceiling, offering, among other things, to reduce Social Security […]
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Traditional America? It’s over.
President Obama’s re-election may augur some dramatic changes in the shape of the American political map. Meanwhile, though, he will have to govern in the face of a bitterly divided Congress. There is much to glean from election results. Here are three important takeaways. Demographic change: America is changing. We are becoming a more diverse […]
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Life, death, and the consequences of executive decisions
Presidents possess the power of life and death. A recent joint study by researchers at Stanford and New York University law schools makes that point especially clear and provides depressing new detail about the consequences of President Obama’s drone program in Pakistan. The new report shows that, in addition to killing Pakistani civilians, drones have […]
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Mitt Romney’s contortion of the truth
All presidential campaigns fashion narratives in order to tell the most appealing story about their own candidate and the least appealing one about their opponents. After all, as the saying goes, politics ain’t bean bag. And the Obama campaign has certainly engaged in its share of mudslinging, spin and distortion. But Mitt Romney’s campaign is […]
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GOP governors’ criticism of Medicaid expansion is unfounded
A central feature of the Affordable Care Act is the expansion of Medicaid. It has been a source of intense debate and controversy since the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the penalty that was to be imposed on states refusing to accept its expansion. Within the past month, two major new studies have appeared, adding urgency […]
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Straight talk on Obamacare
The Supreme Court’s landmark decision to uphold most of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) opens a new phase in the political battle over health care in America. The ACA is imperfect. It represents an ungainly and in some respects unseemly compromise with powerful interests, including the private health insurance industry and Big […]
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Thinking about how the U.S. exercises its military power
In my last column, I described some of the more controversial and troubling aspects of American drone warfare in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Especially disturbing were credible reports that significant numbers of noncombatants have been killed in American drone strikes, including those targeted at areas previously attacked or at funerals for those killed in the […]