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With every day that goes by, the comparisons between the current Trump-Russia scandal engulfing the Trump White House and the Watergate scandal of Richard Nixon become easier and more natural....

Yes, he did.  We already know Donald Trump’s executive order to cripple and eventually destroy the health care markets is going to cost millions of Americans huge premium rate hikes and their health care. “So-called American President” is...

Donald Trump ordered the tomahawks to fly into Syria while Chinese President Xi Jinping was visiting at Mar-a-Lago. The Chinese president, who notably hates golf and golf courses, was polite, if not enthusiastic, about his combination breakfast buffet...

Latest public opinion results arrive as groups mobilize against the newly unveiled Senate bill

Roy Moore is a villain from a poorly written "Dukes Of Hazzard"

One word just keeps coming up in response to Donald Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey: “Nixonian.” The comparison to Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre first came up on January 30 when Trump fired Sally Yates as acting attorney general,...

Donald Trump hates to see any good tool go unused. Including nuclear weapons. That’s why he strapped on his tool belt and got straight to work. “My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger...

Careful what you daily ‘scheme for’ Republicans — because your ineptness is showing, day after day, after another Do Nothing day.   What was it that Comey wanted again …? Mueller Investigation Already Expanding by Ed Brayton,...

In the euphoric days following the Democratic steamroller in the US House, the conversation quickly turned, since as Democrats we’re actually concerned with governing, The Democratic challengers had made quite a few rather concrete promises, and the question was how to actually get anything done in a split congress. One possible solution was to pass promises made through the House, and then let Yertl the Turtle scuttle them in the Senate, enabling the Democrats to put more pressure on flipping the Senate to get those measures passed.That’s a perfectly valid strategy, since it shows that we’re doing our part, and it’s McConnell and the Senate that are stifling popular measures. My personal suggestion was that we consider using incremental steps on big issue legislation. Medicare-for-all was a perfect example. It’s popularity in polling is now well over 50%. and a lot of candidates touted it in their campaigns, but it’s not something that could be passed in this congress , Or even in a Democratic Senate that lacked 60 votes to break a filibuster. So don’t even try. Remember, a walk scores the same run as a homer if you can get all the way around the bases. My suggestion was to break Medicare-for-all into smaller, incremental pieces, each one of which itself is popular, and yet sets the table for future incremental steps. The example I chose was prescription drug prices. Medicare and Medicaid combined are the largest purchasers of prescription drugs in the United States. And yet they are at the mercy of the big pharma companies, forced to pay the “going freight.” Pass a bill that allows Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate directly with the drug companies for lower, bulk prices. And if they refuse, then threaten to negotiate directly with Canadian drug companies for FDA approved alternates. Since the GOP base is largely made up of older, lower income, white Americans that are currently on either Medicare of Medicaid, good luck killing that bill in the Senate, and see what it gets you.The next increment would be to allow Medicare and Medicaid to negotiate directly with insurance company medical “groups” of hospitals and physicians for lower rates. See how it goes? Well, one of the candidates currently running for President on the Democratic side is proposing to do exactly that, but writ large, and on a much sneakier (which I of course love) level. In her televised town hall in Michigan on MSNBC Monday night, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand floated her own vision of Medicare-for-all, on an incremental level. One possibility that has been floated was for anybody over the age of 50 or 55 to be able to voluntarily “buy in” to Medicare. This is a totally sensible plan, since it allows those most likely to be uncovered by private or company provided insurance access to healthcare, and it also minimized the “high risk” pool for insurance companies. Gillibrand’s plan is subtly different, but that subtle difference make all the difference in the world. Her plan would allow anybody not covered by private insurance to “guy into” Medicare, regardless of their age. It would leave people already covered by private or company provided medical insurance the option to keep their coverage if they wished. In my humble opinion, if this bill passed, it would lead to Medicare-for-all […]

Investigators have now progressed from a general focus on Jared Kushner's meetings with Russians last December to specifically scrutinizing his financial dealings. The Washington Post reports: The Washington Post had earlier reported that...