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by EZRA KLEIN, Washington Post
In the past week, both Alec MacGillis and Sabrina Tavernise have written articles touching on how little the uninsured actually know about the Affordable Care Act. Given that polling shows the law remains unpopular even as its component parts — with the notable exception of the individual mandate — are very popular, it seems they’re not alone. So here’s a refresher on some of the law’s most significant policies and consequences:
- By 2022, the Congressional Budget Office estimates (pdf) the Affordable Care Act will have extended coverage to 33 million Americans who would otherwise be uninsured.
- Families making less than 133 percent of the poverty line — that’s about $29,000 for a family of four — will be covered through Medicaid. Between 133 percent and 400 percent of the poverty line — $88,000 for a family of four – families will get tax credits on a sliding scale to help pay for private insurance.
- For families making less than 400 percent of the poverty line, premiums are capped. So, between 150% and 200% of the poverty line, for instance, families won’t have to pay more than 6.3 percent of their income in premiums. Between 300 percent and 400 percent, they won’t have to pay more than 9.5 percent. This calculator from the Kaiser Family Foundation will let you see the subsidies and the caps for different families at different income levels.
- When the individual mandate is fully phased-in, those who can afford coverage — which is defined as insurance costing less than 8 percent of their annual income — but choose to forgo it will have to pay either $695 or 2.5 percent of the annual income, whichever is greater.
- Small businesses that have fewer than 10 employees, average wages beneath $25,000, and that provide insurance for their workers will get a 50 percent tax credit on their contribution. The tax credit reaches up to small businesses with up to 50 employees and average wages of $50,000, though it gets smaller as the business get bigger and richer. The credit lasts for two years, though many think Congress will be pressured to extend it, which would raise the long-term cost of the legislation. [MORE]
Excerpt from opinion piece by EJ DIONNE, Washington Post
What’s happened so far in Europe is austerity without enough stimulus. This is a recipe for keeping economies down, unemployment high and electorates in an entirely understandable rage. No wonder historians and economists are now regularly offering frightening comparisons between the Europe of our times and the Europe of the early 1930s. If established parties tell voters they must suffer indefinitely, extreme parties begin to look attractive. The urgency of containing extremism is one motivation for French President Francois Hollande’s call for reversing austerity, and his hand was strengthened by his Socialist Party’s legislative election victory last weekend.
The real lesson from Europe is not that we should all tighten our belts and endure more pain but that we need to get the global economy moving. That means our Federal Reserve should pursue more expansive policies. And if congressional Republicans weren’t so determined to block nearly every initiative President Obama puts forward, they would agree to pump more money into state governments and into infrastructure spending to speed a decline in unemployment. [MORE]
Via Jessica English
By Dan Keating, David S. Fallis, Kimberly Kindy and Scott Higham, The Washington Post
EXCLUSIVE | One-hundred-thirty members of Congress or their families have traded stocks collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars in companies lobbying on bills that came before their committees, a practice that is permitted under current ethics rules, a Washington Post analysis has found.
The lawmakers bought and sold a total of between $85 million and $218 million in 323 companies registered to lobby on legislation that appeared before them, according to an examination of all 45,000 individual congressional stock transactions contained in computerized financial disclosure data from 2007 to 2010.
[Read More and See Case Studies.]
by Pamela S. Karlan, Boston Review This summer, as we mark the 40th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, which precipitated modern efforts to respond to the dangers of unfettered political spending, we should ask why our political system is more awash than ever in secret money. Much of the answer lies in the interaction between Supreme Court decisions and post-Watergate reforms. In the wake of the scandal, the 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) sought to limit both political contributions and expenditures. But in its foundational decision in Buckley v. Valeo (1976), a challenge to the FECA amendments, the Supreme Court drew a sharp distinction between these two forms of political spending. It upheld stringent limits on contributions to other people’s campaigns, on the theory that these limits mark a reasonable response to the potential for quid pro quo corruption or the appearance of corruption. But it refused to limit political expenditures, on the theory that “the First Amendment denies government the power to determine that spending to promote one’s political views is wasteful, excessive, or unwise.” In drawing this distinction, the Court created a statute that no sensible legislature would have passed. Buckley accelerated two unhealthy trends in American politics. [MORE]
By Michael Norton and Matt Murphy, Masslive.com
Members of the legislature are mounting a concerted push to approve a resolution calling on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens United ruling and for in-state disclosure laws to give voters information about the sources and amounts of corporate spending.
[Read More.]
By Scott Bronstein and Drew Griffin, CNN
Washington (CNN) -- Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan, a self-made Florida millionaire, is only in his third term in Congress, but he already is in charge of fundraising for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, and he sits on the powerful House Ways and Means committee.
But all that could be jeopardized. Federal investigations underway could result in Buchanan serving his next term behind bars.
CNN has confirmed there are no fewer than four congressional and federal investigations into Buchanan's business practices, his campaign finances and his alleged attempt to try to stop a witness from talking.
Now that witness is stepping forward in an exclusive interview with CNN. Buchanan's former business partner says the congressman schemed to launder money from his car dealerships into his campaign coffers, and then tried to get others to cover it up. [MORE]
Leaders of the eurozone's four biggest nations have agreed in principle to measures to boost growth equal to 1% of the currency area's economic output.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain outlined plans to push for a 130bn-euros (£104bn; $163bn) package.
But analysts suggest that with little or no new money involved, the significance of the agreement between the four was more symbolic than actual.
There is also still no consensus on issues such as common eurobonds. [MORE]
By the Editors, Bloomberg
When JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon testifies in the U.S. House today, he will present himself as a champion of free-market capitalism in opposition to an overweening government. His position would be more convincing if his bank weren’t such a beneficiary of corporate welfare.
To be precise, JPMorgan receives a government subsidy worth about $14 billion a year, according to research published by the International Monetary Fund and our own analysis of bank balance sheets. The money helps the bank pay big salaries and bonuses. More important, it distorts markets, fueling crises such as the recent subprime-lending disaster and the sovereign-debt debacle that is now threatening to destroy the euro and sink the global economy.
How can all this be? Let’s take it step by step. [Read More.]
by Andrea Seabrook, NPR The man driving the investigation into the General Services Administration, California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, took the top seat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after the GOP won a majority in 2010. Issa has led several splashy investigations since. But he's also been dogged by allegations of his own. Issa has made news in recent months by threatening to subpoena Attorney General Eric Holder, and by calling a panel of only men to talk about women's contraception.
How much election will $100,000 get me?
by Jordan Michael Smith Over 120 CIA documents concerning 9/11, Osama bin Laden and counterterrorism were published today for the first time, having been newly declassified and released to the National Security Archive. The documents were released after the NSA pored through the footnotes of the 9/11 Commission and sent Freedom of Information Act requests. The material contains much new information about the hunt before and after 9/11 for bin Laden, the development of the drone campaign in AfPak, and al-Qaida’s relationship with America’s ally, Pakistan. Perhaps most damning are the documents showing that the CIA had bin Laden in its cross hairs a full year before 9/11 — but didn’t get the funding from the Bush administration White House to take him out or even continue monitoring him. The CIA materials directly contradict the many claims of Bush officials that it was aggressively pursuing al-Qaida prior to 9/11, and that nobody could have predicted the attacks. “I don’t think the Bush administration would want to see these released, because they paint a picture of the CIA knowing something would happen before 9/11, but they didn’t get the institutional support they needed,” says Barbara Elias-Sanborn, the NSA fellow who edited the materials.
by LEE FANG, Republic Report
Republic Report has covered how political money can corrupt government by influencing the actions of elected representatives. But professional hacks can also disrupt democracy by interfering with the voting process itself.
Late last year, Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign began paying Nathan Sproul, a political consultant with a long history of destroying Democratic voter registration forms and manipulating ballot initiatives. Sproul, who changed his firm’s name from Sproul and Associates to Lincoln Strategies, has received over $70,000 from Romney’s campaign. Much of the campaign coverage has focused on the rhetoric of surrogates and the role of high-priced television advertisements. But if Sproul continues to play a role in the campaign, and if his previous work is any guide, his firm may have an impact on key swing states. [MORE]
by CRAIG HOLMAN, Public Citizen Public Citizen is happy to have the Obama administration join the chorus of voices calling for an investigation of Crossroads Grassroots Political Strategies (GPS). Crossroads GPS is a so-called “social welfare” organization set up by Republican strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie designed to influence federal elections, and Public Citizen believes they are abusing the tax code in order to conceal their donors from the American public – in violation of campaign finance law.
Public Citizen and Protect Our Elections filed a similar complaint against Crossroads GPS in 2010, asserting that there is ample reason to believe that Crossroads GPS, which is registered as a nonprofit 501c(4) organization, is in fact a political committee and should be subject to the restrictions and disclosure rules for political committees.
America is witnessing full-scale evasion of our campaign finance and disclosure laws in the middle of this critical 2012 presidential election. Following the disastrous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations may spend unlimited corporate money to influence elections, corporate money now is flooding our state, judicial and federal campaigns. And most of this corporate money is secretly flowing into the elections through electioneering nonprofit groups, like Crossroads GPS, which do not have to disclose their donors under the tax code.
But the elections code is an entirely different story. Any group whose major purpose is to influence elections is required to register as a PAC and disclose its funding sources under the Federal Election Campaign Act. Crossroads GPS appears to serve little purpose other than buying Congress and the White House in the 2012 elections, and therefore appears to be in clear violation of the law.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) should not stop with Crossroads GPS. Hundreds of similar secretive c(4) electioneering groups have sprung up specifically for the 2012 elections, including Priorities USA, which is supporting the election of President Barack Obama. [MORE]
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by Carl Franzen, TPM
The discovery of a long sought-after particle known as the Higgs boson — which has been nicknamed “the God Particle” because physicists theorize it is the missing piece to understanding how all matter in the universe has mass — could be announced Wednesday, July 4.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the international scientific agency in charge of the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, on Friday sent out a press release confirming it would reveal the results of its latest high-energy proton beam collision experiments at a conference in Melbourne, Australia, taking place between July 4 and July 11. [MORE]
No other group of Americans faces higher stakes in the impending Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act than those with pre-existing conditions. The law, once its major provisions take effect, would prohibit insurance companies from turning people away or charging them more because they are sick. In exchange, most Americans would be required to have insurance, broadening the base of paying customers with an infusion of healthy people. Those who did not buy insurance would be subject to financial penalties. The Government Accountability Office estimates that 36 million to 122 million adults under 65 have a pre-existing condition. As many as 17 million do not have insurance. Many try to buy coverage on the individual market, but in most states that is either impossible or too costly. Experts are divided on what the ruling will bring for this group of Americans. If the mandate that everyone buy coverage is struck down, the Obama administration and the insurance industry say that the protections for people with pre-existing conditions should be, too. If the ailing pile in without the larger pool of healthy people, premiums would skyrocket, insurers say. [MORE]
By Adam Mordecai, Upworthy.com
Before you comment on this, please WATCH THE WHOLE VIDEO.
So the local Tea Party decided enough was enough and decided to stop those evil libraries from enforcin' book learnin' on the community by stopping a .70% tax. Yea, that's right. A POINT SEVEN PERCENT INCREASE IN TAXES SO PEOPLE COULD HAVE FREE BOOKS. To prevent them from being selfish and ruining education for kids without access to books, the opposition came up with a brilliant solution. BOOK BURNING PARTAY!?!?!
by Fareed Zakaria, TIME | Opinion
A day after Governor Scott Walker won his recall election, the New York Times wrote, “The biggest political lesson from Wisconsin may be that the overwhelming dominance of money on the Republican side will continue to haunt Democrats.” Democrats have drawn much the same conclusion. “You’ve got a handful of self-interested billionaires who are trying to leverage their money across the country,” said David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s senior campaign strategist. “Does that concern me? Of course that concerns me.”
But then how to explain the landslide victories in San Jose and San Diego of ballot measures meant to cut public-sector retirees’ benefits? What should concern Axelrod far more is that on the central issue of the recall—the costs of public-sector employees—the Democratic Party is wrong on the substance, clinging to its constituents rather than doing the right thing.
Warren Buffett calls the costs of public-sector retirees a “time bomb.” They are the single biggest threat to the U.S.’s fiscal health. If the U.S. is going to face a Greek-style crisis, it will not be at the federal level but rather with state and local governments. The numbers are staggering. In California, total pension liabilities—the money the state is legally required to pay its public-sector retirees—are 30 times its annual budget deficit. Annual pension costs rose by 2,000% from 1999 to 2009. In Illinois, they are already 15% of general revenue and growing. Ohio’s pension liabilities are now 35% of the state’s entire GDP. [MORE]
Yesterday, Chris Frates of National Journal broke the story that health insurance companies secretly funneled over $100 million into the U.S.
by SEUNG MIN KIM and MANU RAJU, Politico.com
Top senators from both parties are closing in on an agreement to prevent student loan rates from doubling on July 1 — even as President Barack Obama and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell engaged in another round of partisan brinkmanship Thursday over the issue.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and McConnell have taken charge of the negotiations and a deal could be announced as soon as Friday, sources say, although early next week seems more likely.
[Read More.]
By Lisa Rosenberg, Sunlight Foundation
A war is being waged against the DISCLOSE Act. Its Commander in Chief is Senator Mitch McConnell, his secret weapon is misinformation and his goal is to protect unlimited dark money contributions to the political process.
It’s time for a counter-attack.
McConnell outlined his plan of attack in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute. Wrapping himself in a narrow and self-serving interpretation of the First Amendment, McConnell casts liberals as the enemies of free speech and he and his foot soldiers (the Chamber of Commerce) as the true protectors of our constitutional rights. But take apart his arguments and it is easy to spot his true intentions—not to protect the free speech rights of all citizens, but to protect the ability of wealthy donors to anonymously influence our democratic process.
The Sunlight Foundation refutes the worst inaccuracies being lobbed against reasonable efforts to disclose the dark money that is infiltrating our elections. This Orwellian tactic is timed to defang public support for the DISCLOSE Act, which the Senate is likely to consider in July. ....
Fact: Disclosure is a Constitutionally Protected Way to Address Corruption in the Political Process
The Citizens United court coupled its support for unlimited corporate political expenditures with equal support for robust disclosure. No matter how vigorously McConnell denies it, disclosure is a constitutionally approved remedy for the corruption that comes with unlimited contributions to the political process. When the DISCLOSE Act comes up for a vote in the Senate later this summer, McConnell’s war of misinformation should be summarily disregarded and senators should vote on the merits of the legislation, which is fully in line with Supreme Court precedent and the First Amendment.
[Read More.]
By Tom Hamburger, The Washington Post
Mitt Romney’s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.
During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. [MORE]
ThinkbyNumbers.org
About $59 billion is spent on traditional social welfare programs. $92 billion is spent on corporate subsidies. So, the government spent 50% more on corporate welfare than it did on food stamps and housing assistance in 2006.
[Read More.]
JOE SHIKSPACK, Daily Kos Practically since the modern social safety net was created wealthy, powerful right-wingers and organizations have been trying to kill it. In recent years, those right wing forces have had a lot of help from Democrats in making their twisted dreams a reality. Organizations like the billionaire Koch family created and funded Cato Institute and hedge fund billionaire Peter Peterson's namesake foundation have led the fight against Social Security. The extreme right wing's attacks and deceptive campaigns over the course of decades are now close to fruition with the help of neoliberal Democrats. President Obama has come very close to helping right-wingers realize their long-desired goal; only the incredible intransigence of congressional Republicans has saved the social safety net thus far. The Scam Back during the Reagan years Social Security faced a short-term funding crisis and Congress appointed the Greenspan Commissionto make recommendations for putting Social Security on a sound financial footing for the future. The recommendations generated by the commission became the basis for the 1983 Social Security Amendments which among other things raised the level of revenues by significantly raising the rates that workers pay. Since the adjustments made to rates were based on pessimistic assumptions the revenues generated produced significant surpluses. Rather than using the proceeds from the revenue increase to pay off the federal debt and invest the remainder in bonds, Reagan (and most of his successors) have used them to pay for tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. As David Cay Johnson explains in a fine article on this: [More on the link.]
by Fred Hiatt, Washington Post | Editorial
First, a confession: Though a longtime member of the Church of Campaign Finance Reform, I have from time to time been tempted by the sect of Unlimited Donations, Unlimited Disclosure.
Republicans always dangled this apple in the most alluring way. Political money will find a path, they would insist. Give up! Give in! We will post every donation on the Web, instantly! We will give you transparency! Sunshine! Accountability!
What could be more democratic?
I never strayed, though, and now I thank the gods of McCain-Feingold that I did not, because the temptation turns out to have been nothing but a trick. The Republicans, apparently, never meant it. Now that they have Unlimited Donations, or something pretty close, they don’t want Unlimited Disclosure after all.
They want unlimited contributions, in secret. [MORE]
by Adam Gabbatt, The Guardian
Actor Mark Ruffalo and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello have launched a new US campaign for a “Robin Hood tax”, a small levy on Wall Street transactions that organisers say could generate hundred of billions of dollars a year.
The campaign, backed by National Nurses United, the largest nursing union in the US, has already launched in 14 countries, including the UK, France and Germany.
Organisers of the campaign, which also features Coldplay singer Chris Martin, are calling for a tax of “less than half of 1%” on Wall Street transactions, which they say would not affect most Americans’ financial activity.
Adopting the 99% language of the Occupy movement, the campaign said the tax would “easy to enforce and tough to evade”.
“This is a tax on Wall Street, which created the greatest economic crisis in our nation and globally since the Great Depression,” a statement said on the movement’s website.
“The same people who have returned to record profits and bonuses while ordinary Americans, the 99%, continue to pay the price of their crisis.” [READ MORE]
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