"The doctor-patient relationship." For over 20 years, conservative propagandists and their Republican allies have used that four-word bludgeon to beat back universal health care reform. In 1994, GOP strategist Bill Kristol warned that "the Clinton Plan is damaging to the quality of American medicine and to the relationship between the patient and the doctor." Kristol's […]

During the 2012 presidential campaign, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus made a startling statement. The President, Priebus charged, "stole $700 billion from Medicare to fund ObamaCare," adding, "If any person in this entire debate has blood on their hands in regard to Medicare, it's Barack Obama." That was a pretty remarkable claim for the […]

Days after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its latest projections House Republicans on Friday announced their latest ransom demand for raising the debt ceiling. John Boehner's minions will vote to avoid a U.S. default and a global economic calamity if the Medicare "doc" fix is patched for nine months and cuts to veterans' […]

A federal judge in Kansas City issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday blocking Missouri's draconian restrictions on Obamacare "navigators." Following a similar decision which ruled that Republican legislation in Tennessee was far too broad, Judge Ortrie B. Smith declared that "that the State of Missouri was illegally obstructing the activities of insurance counselors appointed by […]

The first numbers on the body count from the Republican sabotage of the Affordable Care Act are just now coming in. Last week, an analysis from Harvard's Theda Skocpol revealed that states that both set up their own health care exchanges and embraced the ACA's expansion of Medicaid are racing toward their enrollment goals, while […]

The first numbers on the body count from the Republican sabotage of the Affordable Care Act are just now coming in. Last week, an analysis from Harvard's Theda Skocpol revealed that states that both set up their own health care exchanges and embraced the ACA's expansion of Medicaid are racing towards their enrollment goals, while […]

In an exquisite performance of political choreography, Republican talking heads took to the Sunday talk shows to defend New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Christie, the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Karl Rove suggested, was being victimized while President Obama was left unscathed by the non-scandals surrounding the Benghazi tragedy and the IRS probes of political […]

While the digging into Chris Christie's "BridgeGate" is far from over, this much we do know. The Christie administration jeopardized the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of New Jersey residents by shutting access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, all in the service of a still to-be-determined political vendetta. But that's not all […]

Their losing 2012 presidential ticket warned that America is becoming a nation of "makers and takers" as self-identified "victims" seek "free stuff" from their government. In 2013, Republicans in Congress voted to gut food stamps, blocked the extension of jobless benefits to 1.3 million long-term unemployed Americans and supported drug testing for recipients. Now on […]

A new study in the journal Science revealed that emergency room use rose by 40 percent over 18 months among new Medicaid beneficiaries in Oregon starting in 2008. While opponents of Obamacare and its expansion of Medicaid cheered those findings suggesting that U.S. health care costs will go up as a result, their exhilaration may […]