What Roy Moore Means For The Republican Party

Ken AshfordCongress, RepublicansLeave a Comment

If there is any person less suited for national politics than Donald Trump, it is Roy Moore. Known once as the “Ten Commandments Judge”, Roy Moore was removed from the Alabama Supreme Court bench when he defied orders from the US Supreme Court.  I have written about him several times over the years. Last night, he won the Republican primary … Read More

Graham-Cassidy May Be The Worst ACA Repeal-and-Replace Bill Of Them All

Ken AshfordHealth Care, RepublicansLeave a Comment

There is no ambiguity about the terms of the Graham-Cassidy bill. It would roll back the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid, which has enabled about fourteen million Americans to obtain health-care coverage. Then it would subject the rest of Medicaid to substantial cuts by converting it to a block-grant program. By targeting the low-paid, the sick, and the infirm, … Read More

The Less Said, The Better

Ken AshfordRepublicans, Sex Scandals, Sex/Morality/Family Values, Tea PartyLeave a Comment

Ted Cruz is an evangelical Christian who once defended a ban on dildos in Texas, has referred to birth control as “abortifacients,” and pulled an ad during the 2016 primary when he discovered one of the actors he’d hired was a softcore porn actress. I thought that was important context for this: Sen. Ted Cruz‘s official Twitter account appeared to “like” an explicit tweet Monday night, … Read More

Interesting Poll Numbers From North Carolina — Trump Underwater

Ken AshfordCongress, Democrats, Local Interest, Polls, Republicans, Trump & Administration, Voter Suppression & Voter SecurityLeave a Comment

From PPP: PPP’s new North Carolina poll finds strong, bipartisan opposition to cuts the General Assembly has made to the budget of the North Carolina Department of Justice. Only 18% of voters support the 10 million dollars in cuts that have been made, to 60% who say they are opposed to them. This opposition is shared by independents (9/68), Democrats … Read More

Senate Health Care Bill Off Fast Track

Ken AshfordCongress, Health Care, RepublicansLeave a Comment

It looks like BHCA (the Better Health Care Act, which isn’t) is not going to be voted on before the July 4 break, as Senator McConnell had hoped. I don’t see how he thought he could put such a terrible bill through committee, without hearings, without almost no debate, without amendments, and get a vote passed.  The horrible CBO score … Read More

Breaking: The Senate Health Care Bill Gets Scored

Ken AshfordClass Warfare, Congress, Corporate Greed, Health Care, RepublicansLeave a Comment

The House Bill said 23 million would lose insurance under the House GOP plan to replace Obamacare. Now the Senate version has been scored and it is…. just as bad. The Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of people without health insurance by 22 million by 2026, a figure that is only slightly lower than the 23 … Read More

All Hail ACHA 2.0

Ken AshfordCongress, Health Care, Republicans, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Well, after weeks of secrecy, the Senate version of Obamacare “Repeal and Rewhatever” (PDF) is here. Remember, the House version of the ACHA would result in 23 million people becoming uninsured, and even Trump called it “mean”.  Is the Senate version any better?  Not much: Here is how the Senate bill works: The Senate bill begins to phase out the Medicaid … Read More

GA-6 Fallout

Ken AshfordCongress, Election 2016, Election 2018, RepublicansLeave a Comment

Ossoff lost in the 6th District of Georgia last night. With 99 percent of the vote counted, Handel leads Ossoff 53 percent to 47 percent in a race that many expected to be much closer. Handel had 127,021 votes to the Democrat’s 114,390 ballots. And so now the Republicans are gloating… Well, the Special Elections are over and those that want … Read More

Senate Republicans Getting Hit From All Over

Ken AshfordCongress, Health Care, RepublicansLeave a Comment

This screenshot from Memeorandum gives a sense of the bind that Senate Republicans are in over their very long and VERY SECRET internal negotiating (by 13 white men) over their healthcare bill. House Republicans insist that their terrible mean bill (which knocks 23 million off of healthcare) doesn’t get altered too much, and Democrats — well, they just want to … Read More

Trust The GOP, Do You?

Ken AshfordCybersecurity, Republicans, Sex/Morality/Family ValuesLeave a Comment

Well, read this: Political data gathered on more than 198 million US citizens was exposed this month after a marketing firm contracted by the Republican National Committee stored internal documents on a publicly accessible Amazon server. The data leak contains a wealth of personal information on roughly 61 percent of the US population. Along with home addresses, birthdates, and phone … Read More

The Sessions Sessions

Ken AshfordCongress, Constitution, Courts/Law, L'Affaire Russe, Republicans, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

Ok, I’ll liveblog SOME of Sessions hearing before the Senate Intel Committee, but again, I expect he’ll talk about what he wants to talk about and then filibuster (or rely on executive privilege) when trapped in a corner. 2:56 pm Sessions has no recollection of meeting, talking to Russian ambassador or other Russian official at the Mayflower hotel. Here’s a notable … Read More

The Trumpcare Fight

Ken AshfordCongress, Health Care, RepublicansLeave a Comment

It was thought that Trumpcare, having passed the House, would die when it got to the grown-ups in the Senate. Nope.  They’re trying to pass it.  Or something. I can’t criticize the Senate version of Trumpcare.  Because nobody knows what it is. We only know a few things. All reports say there will be no hearings on the text of … Read More