Report Shows How GOP Health Care Scheme Would Further Enrich Insurance Giants

US President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have made a show of criticizing insurance company greed as they stand firm against extending Affordable Care Act tax credits and offer ill-formed alternatives. But a report published Wednesday by the office of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) explains how a scheme endorsed by Trump and some top Republicans would further enrich insurance…
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Abbott Slaps Muslim Rights Group With “Defamatory and Lawless” Terrorist Label

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that Muslims are a “threat to our freedom” on Tuesday as he targeted the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the U.S. with a foreign terrorist organization label in an escalation of a movement of anti-Muslim hate in the state. Abbott announced on Tuesday that he was designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as…
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DOJ Joins Republican Party’s Effort to Block California’s New Congressional Maps

On Thursday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted a filing in a California federal district court, announcing that the federal government seeks to join a lawsuit submitted by the state Republican Party challenging recently enacted congressional maps that were passed as part of a voter-endorsed ballot initiative earlier this month. California usually uses an independent commission to draw…
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Jeffries Blocks Vote on Restoring Federal Workers’ Collective Bargaining Rights

On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) blocked an effort broadly supported by his own caucus to force a vote on restoring crucial labor protections for federal workers that were revoked by President Donald Trump earlier this year. A Democrat-led petition on the “Protect America’s Workforce Act” is just two signatures short of the 218-member threshold it needs to…
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Funding Bill Lets GOP Senators Sue for $1M Payouts Related to Jan. 6 Probe

For 24 million Americans, the bipartisan funding bill signed into law on Wednesday will cause health care premiums to double, triple, or even quadruple, pilfering hundreds or thousands more dollars from their pockets each month as costs for other basic necessities also rise. But for a handful of Republican senators, the funding bill could be a major windfall — as it includes a provision…
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Democrats Have Shown Their Hand in Caving to GOP Bill. What Happens Next?

We speak to The American Prospect’s David Dayen about what could be the end to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, after seven Democratic Senators and one independent struck a deal with Republicans to pass a short-term government funding bill. “Why would you end this?” asks Dayen, echoing many in the Democratic coalition who believe the deal was a poor strategic move for the anti…
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