Over the past couple of days, Jonathan Chait's "12 Years a Slave and the Obama Era" seems to have struck a nerve among the conservative commentariat. In it, Chait responded to the Obama caricature of the National Review's Quin HIllyer depicting the President with "chin jutting out, countenance haughty, voice dripping with disdain for conservatives... […]

The refusal of Republican-led states to accept the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid will rank among the greatest self-inflicted wounds in the recent history of American public policy. But in the red states where the GOP calls the shots, that act of pure political spite will produce not one crisis but three. For starters, […]

In 2010, the GOP steamrolled to its House majority by scaring the bejesus out of seniors about $716 billion in Obamacare cuts to Medicare. Three years later, House and Senate Republicans are repeating their tried and untrue talking point. Untrue, that is, not just because the savings from private Medicare Advantage insurers and providers do […]

The Republican National Committee's proclamation honoring Rosa Park's "role in ending racism" is continuing to receive the scorn and derision it richly deserves. As it turns out, the GOP's attempt to literally whitewash American history is hardly its first. Consider, for example, the RNC's response to President Obama's 2010 nomination of now Supreme Court Justice […]

What better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than with a heat-warming story on good, old fashioned American capitalism. Texas teacher and Obamacare opponent Thomas Ritter, who wrote President Obama and accused him of liking to "make fun of tea-baggers," is selling the letter he received in response for $24,000. Given right-wing apoplexy over Obama's repetition of […]

Even without the occasional shotgun blast in the face, this Thanksgiving at the Cheney home could offer some real fireworks. Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne declared themselves "pained" at the very public split between their daughters over the issue of marriage equality. But while Mary Cheney is helping Freedom Indiana fight […]

Last week, Americans learned about the GOP playbook laying out the strategies, tactics and talking points the Republican faithful should use to demagogue the Affordable Care Act. A quick glance at Monday's headlines from the Chicago Tribune ("Employers could drop health care"), the Wall Street Journal ("Companies Prepare to Pass More Health Costs to Workers") […]

On Monday, the Washington Post ("Paul Ryan, GOP's budget architect, sets his sights on fighting poverty and winning minds") published a glowing profile of failed 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. His extremist makeover, the Post suggests, can be summed up by Jesus Christ and Jack Kemp, the two names whose emphasis on charity […]

This week's target in the never-ending Republican crusade to sabotage the Affordable Care Act is the Obamacare navigators, the dozens of community groups, hospitals and other non-profit organizations who have received federal grants to help Americans enroll in new health insurance plans. After launching a House probe of the groups and enacting draconian state restrictions […]

And now for today's memo for Republicans and the media outlets determined to amplify GOP talking points. The troubled launch of the Affordable Care Act's enrollment period is neither Barack Obama's Iraq nor his Katrina (New York Times). Leave aside for the moment that one program is designed to reduce America's unnecessary body count while […]