David Atkins claims that despite the fact that New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and California Attorney General Kamala Harris agreed to the foreclosure deal, and there couldn’t have been a deal without their sign on, they shouldn’t be held responsible for their actions. From David Atkins: But the people who should not be getting [...]

Just when it seems like it couldn’t possibly getting any lower, Congress’ job approval rating drops to another historic low. According to Gallup only 10 percent of the country now approves of the job Congress is doing. From Gallup: While the recent signs of modest economic improvement have resulted in President Obama’s job approval numbers [...]

Now that a proposed government regulation would require most employer-provided health insurance to cover birth control, the Republican party has strongly rallied around the idea that what insurance covers is a part of “religious freedom” that must be protected from government attack. This new rule so strongly bothered Mitt Romney, the front runner for the [...]

The Republican Party has apparently decided that they really want to have a big public fight with President Obama over whether or not employers with connections to religious institutions should be required to provide birth control as part of their employees’ health insurance. The GOP is acting like they believe the issue is a political [...]

I know that because of the large percentage of federal employees, lobbyists and other factors about the nature of government contracting that the District of Columbia isn’t nearly as susceptible to an economic downturn as the rest of the country. But I still find these numbers from Gallup on economic confidence shocking. According to their [...]

Some Connecticut legislators are seriously looking into creating a Basic Health Plan for people who make between 133 and 200 percent of the federal poverty level, instead of forcing them to use the new private health insurance exchanges. From CT News Junkie: Over the next few months the legislature will have to tackle some tough [...]

Health care policy expert Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, makes the bold prediction in the New York Times that in just eight years the health insurance industry will be extinct in America. He claims it will be replaced by accountable care organizations, or ACOs. Emanuel’s description of how [...]

On the front of Politico is an article about how the big bipartisan deals that used to be relatively common in Congress now appear to be a thing of the past. From Politico: Call it the Split the Difference Scenario — a dream of Washington at its civic-minded best that has flourished for decades, even [...]

President Obama came into office promising a new age of cooperation and an end to partisan division. That promise has been an absolute and complete failure. According to Gallup Obama has been a historically polarizing figure in his three years in office, with a massive gap between his support from Republican and Democrats. By a [...]

In addition to the individual mandate being extremely unpopular, opinions about the entire Affordable Care Act have remained negative and been trending downward. The Kaiser Family Foundation poll found 44 percent view the law unfavorably while just 37 percent now view it favorably. From Kaiser: While the trend is very slight and not perfect, looking [...]