For the denizens of red state America, the final launch of the Affordable Care Act is fast becoming a Shakespearean tragedy of epic proportions. Even as the Defund Obamacare crowd continues its tale told by an idiot, Republicans are beginning to realize that Obamacare by any other name smells much sweeter. And now, millions of […]

If you ever wondered what a 21st century nullification crisis would look like, look no further than Missouri. One hundred and forty eight years after the end of the Civil War, the New York Times reports, "the Republican-controlled Missouri legislature is expected to enact a statute next month nullifying all federal gun laws in the […]

The bad news keeps coming for the Republicans promising to shut down the federal government to prevent funding for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). First, former South Carolina Senator turned Heritage Foundation President Jim Demint followed in the footsteps of George W. Bush and Mitt Romney by telling a "Defund Obamacare" town hall meeting that […]

During the tense final days leading up to the deal to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff," House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) had some sharp words for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). Just steps outside the Oval Office, Boehner told Reid, "Go f@*k yourself." In the Speaker's defense, he was only following in the path […]

The National Review on Monday offered a heart-warming profile of Ophthalmologist turned Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. Dr. Paul, it turns out, has been performing pro bono eye surgeries each year to about 15 low-income people who otherwise could not afford the treatment because, he explained, "I wanted to be able to give back to the […]

Since 2011, the federal government has slashed $2.5 trillion from the projected national debt over the next decade. Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reduced its annual deficit forecast for the federal government to $642 billion, about half of the amount it projected when Barack Obama took the oath of office on January 20, […]

These are heady days for red state propagandists. After years of leading the nation in poverty, low incomes, poor working conditions, dismal educational performance, awful health care systems, shocking teen birth rates, sky-high divorce rates, bloody gun violence and just about every other measure of social dysfunction, Republican-dominated states finally have some good news to […]

The brutal murders this week of Australian student Christopher Lane and World War II hero Delbert Benton have rightly prompted national soul-searching and national shame. But as predictable as the sunset and the force of gravity, the horrors in Oklahoma and Washington also triggered right-wing lectures about race, crime and politics. Just as in the […]

Over the last few weeks, Republicans have been waging a very determined--and even more deceptive--campaign to scare the bejesus out of uninsured young adults so important to the success of the Affordable Care Act. But while the conservative commentariat has been issuing dire warnings about the so-called "Young Invincibles," their parents have quietly added millions […]

For Republican Obamacare foes hoping for a repeat of 2009's Tea Party days of rage, August 2013 is instead rapidly turning into the summer of their discontent. With its hardliners demanding a government shutdown or a U.S. default over funding for the Affordable Care Act, the Tea Party's big business backers are experiencing buyer's remorse […]