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Is Mitt Romney Mellowing on Obamacare?

by DTHRamon724778 Posted on October 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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Tom Stemberg, one of the cofounders of Staples, died today. His company was famously funded by Bain Capital, and Stemberg became good friends with Mitt Romney:

Romney recalled that shortly after he was elected, Mr. Stemberg asked him why he ran for governor. Romney said he wanted to help people, and Mr. Stemberg replied that if he really wanted to help, he should give everyone access to health care, which Romney said he hadn’t really considered before.

“Without Tom pushing it, I don’t think we would have had Romneycare,” Romney said. “Without Romneycare, I don’t think we would have Obamacare. So without Tom, a lot of people wouldn’t have health insurance.”

That sure doesn’t sound like a guy who’s a diehard opponent of Obamacare, does it? I wonder if a decade from now Romney will be taking credit for kickstarting national health care in the United States?

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Is Mitt Romney Mellowing on Obamacare?

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Obamacare Can Help Keep People Off Disability

by HelaineCopley Posted on October 23, 2015

Mother Jones

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Lydia DePillis tells us today about Paul Khouri, who has a rare and expensive medical condition. After steadily losing hours at his job, he finally lost his health insurance:

So instead of going out and trying to support himself with another job, Khouri took the safer option: Applying for Social Security disability insurance and Medicaid. It was a long process, requiring visits to doctor after doctor. Finally getting approved brought some relief — until he realized that returning to work would bring new complications. If he earned more than about $1,000 every month, he would quickly lose the medical assistance he desperately needed.

“It’s really scary when you’re worried about how much money you can make, because you don’t want to make too much,” Khouri says. “But at the same time, the benefits aren’t enough.” The average federal disability check is about $1,200 a month, which puts people right around the poverty line; Khouri is staying in his parents’ house to save on rent.

The prospect of falling over the “cash cliff,” as the sudden dropoff in disability insurance is known, is part of what’s keeping people with disabilities out of the workforce, despite many programs put in place over the years to reduce that disincentive.

DePillis spins this out as a way of explaining some problems with the Social Security disability program, but this is a little unclear. Khouri was apparently able to get a new job that paid $30,000 per year, but couldn’t accept the full salary because he wanted to stay eligible for Medicaid benefits. But he can’t be turned down for Obamacare, so why not sign up for that? With an expensive condition, Khouri would likely pay the full $2,000 annual premium plus the $6,600 out-of-pocket max every year, but that would still leave him with $21,400. Even after taxes, this is more than he gets from disability payments, and he wouldn’t have to limit his future promotions.

Maybe I’m missing something. It’s true that Medicaid is more reliable, since you can’t lose it regardless of whether you have any income. More generally, this stuff can be tricky and there are sometimes details that aren’t obvious from the outside. Still, while a better, more universal health care system would certainly help here, even Obamacare seems like it would help a lot.

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Obamacare Can Help Keep People Off Disability

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This Vine Is Good

by KandaceParnell3 Posted on October 22, 2015

Mother Jones

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I enjoyed this.

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This Vine Is Good

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Quote of the Day: Peter Roskam Explains Just How Much He Loathes Hillary Clinton

by ShanaProbert1 Posted on October 22, 2015

Mother Jones

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It’s time for a break to cast votes, but before that let’s hear some final words from Illinois Rep. Peter Roskam:

Let me tell you what I think the Clinton Doctrine is. Reads from prepared card. I think it’s where an opportunity is seized to turn progress in Libya into a political win for Hillary Rodham Clinton. And at the precise moment when things look good, take a victory lap, like on all the Sunday shows three times that year before Qaddafi was killed, and then turn your attention to other things.

See? This hearing is nothing more than a disinterested investigation into the events surrounding the Benghazi attacks of 9/11/2012. You partisan naysayers who think it’s just about attacking Hillary Clinton on national TV should be ashamed of yourselves.

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Quote of the Day: Peter Roskam Explains Just How Much He Loathes Hillary Clinton

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Ryan: No Immigration Reform If He’s Speaker

by MaiChristiansen Posted on October 21, 2015

Mother Jones

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Rep. Paul Ryan met with the Republican caucus in the House today and told them he was willing to run for Speaker. But only on his terms: unanimous support, reduced fundraising duties, and an end to mid-session attempts to remove the Speaker from power. According to a team of National Review reporters, he didn’t offer much in return—except for this:

Though it wasn’t a night in which Ryan was making many concessions — aside from a nod that he was seriously considering taking a job he has said publicly he does not want — he also hinted strongly that he will not bring an immigration bill to the House floor. He told his colleagues the issue was simply “too divisive” and he wanted to focus on the things on which the conference is in agreement, like border security and internal enforcement, as opposed to a comprehensive bill.

This doesn’t strike me as a huge concession. Ryan may be an immigration dove, but under the current circumstances there’s no way he’d try to cut a deal with Democrats for comprehensive immigration reform. Especially not during an election year. The conservative base rebelled over this in 2006 and then again in 2013. Bringing it up again would be nuts. And whatever else Ryan is, he’s not nuts.

So there you have it: no immigration reform this year or next. But you weren’t really expecting any, were you?

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Ryan: No Immigration Reform If He’s Speaker

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Billionaire Who Lost Case Against Mother Jones Settles Related Lawsuit

by StuartLehner Posted on October 20, 2015

Mother Jones

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Two weeks ago, we told you about Mother Jones‘ victory in a lawsuit filed by a billionaire political donor, Frank VanderSloot. On Monday, another portion of the case came to a conclusion: VanderSloot’s case against Peter Zuckerman, a former Idaho newspaper reporter whose work we cited in our article, was settled.

Here’s the background: In 2005, while working for the 26,000-circulation Post Register in Idaho Falls, Zuckerman got a tip about a pedophile in the local Boy Scouts. He dug deeper and ended up writing an investigative series exposing how Boy Scout and Mormon Church leaders had failed to stop the man from working in a Boy Scout camp.

VanderSloot took issue with the series and placed full-page ads in the Post Register attacking both the series and Zuckerman. The ads pointed out that Zuckerman is gay and said that “for whatever reason, Zuckerman chose to weave a story that unfairly, and without merit, paints Scout leaders and church leaders to appear unscrupulous, and blames them for the molestation of little children.”

When we wrote about VanderSloot in February 2012—after it emerged that his companies had donated $1 million to Mitt Romney’s super-PAC—we took note of this controversy.

That’s what VanderSloot sued us over. He also filed suit against Zuckerman for an interview the reporter had given to Rachel Maddow after our article appeared. (Mother Jones has paid for Zuckerman’s defense.) In a document filed with the court this past July, Zuckerman detailed his experience in 2005, after VanderSloot’s first ad about him ran.

“There was an immediate and dramatic impact in my life, which I believed was directly tied to the publication of the ad and was like nothing I’d experienced before. By outing me in my own newspaper (and linking my orientation to an attack on my integrity as a reporter), the ad profoundly affected my daily life as well as my professional reputation.

“My experience was that I was ‘outed’ because of the ad—a large audience, if not most people I interacted with in Idaho, found out I am gay because of the ad.”

The day after the ad ran, Zuckerman said in the document, he came home from work and found his partner on the couch. “He appeared to have been crying. I asked what was wrong. He told me he had been fired because they had found out he is gay because of the ad.”

There had been harassment before, Zuckerman continued, especially when the hosts of a local radio show went after him and the series. But it “quickly died down…What happened after the ads ran was traumatic, one of the worst periods of my life.”

People left notes on his doorstep, he said, one of which read “FUCK YOU FAGGOT.” Someone called, more than once, and threatened to rape him with a handgun. A man approached his car in a parking lot one evening and said, “I know who you fucking are. You better watch your back,” before running after him as he drove off. Another man followed him through the aisles at Walmart and said, “I read about how you’re homosexual and who you are. You’re going to fucking pay for this.”

A young woman at the drive-through where he got coffee, Zuckerman said in the document, “refused to serve me. She said something like, ‘I read about you in the paper and I know what you are. You aren’t welcome here and you don’t belong in Idaho Falls.”

There’s more. You can read the full document, which is public as part of the lawsuit, here.

In a statement released as part of the settlement, Zuckerman said his comments on the Rachel Maddow Show “could have been clearer.” He reiterated that there had been attacks against him before VanderSloot’s ads. He also said that while his then-boyfriend had claimed to have been fired because of the ads, that turned out not to have been true. (VanderSloot threatened to sue the ex-boyfriend last year, backing off only after the ex-boyfriend recanted his previous statements.)

Zuckerman also took note of VanderSloot’s recent support for a campaign to add the words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to Idaho’s anti-discrimination law. “A ‘gay basher’ would not be a strong supporter of such a campaign,” he said in the settlement statement. “I hope Mr. VanderSloot and his companies further their support for this human rights movement.”

Zuckerman’s attorney, Gary Bostwick, said in a statement, “Peter was sued for commenting on television about someone who played a major part in the last national campaign for President. I have often been surprised that someone who chooses to jump into the ring of public affairs can’t take a critical punch without suing. But I’ve seen it a lot. And I’m proud to have done what I could to help Peter fight for our treasured right to freely debate how we are to be governed.”

As for us at MoJo, we’re glad this ordeal is over for Zuckerman. He has been standing up to intimidation and attacks from VanderSloot for more than a decade, and we hope this is the last of it. The kind of reporting he did for the Post Register—local muckraking that often offends the most powerful people in town—is absolutely vital for a functioning democracy, and it is under enormous pressure across America. We salute it, and him.

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Billionaire Who Lost Case Against Mother Jones Settles Related Lawsuit

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A Federal Judge Just Gave an Epic Defense of Planned Parenthood That Everyone Should Read

by DannielleLay Posted on October 19, 2015

Mother Jones

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In a blistering opinion, a federal judge blocked Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s attempt to defund Planned Parenthood in the state, saying the move would cause “irreparable harm” to the 5,200 women who depend on the organization for health care.

In July, Jindal ordered an investigation into the group following the release of a series of highly edited videos that show Planned Parenthood officials discussing fetal tissue donation. He also ordered the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) to cancel Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast’s (PPGC) Medicaid contract, which it did in August, effectively defunding the organization in the state. Neither of the two Planned Parenthood clinics in Louisiana offer abortions. Planned Parenthood took the DHH to court later that month.

US District Judge John W. deGravelles issued a restraining order against the DHH’s move late Sunday. The order will remain in place for at least two weeks while the judge makes a final ruling on the case. However, in his opinion, deGravelles was outspoken in his support of Planned Parenthood. He wrote that the DHH attack on the organization was baseless:

The uncontradicted evidence in the record at this time is that PPGC does not perform abortions in Louisiana, is not involved in the sale of fetal tissue and none of the conduct in question occurred at the PPGC’s two Louisiana facilities. Based on the record before it, it appears likely that Plaintiff will be able to prove that the attempted termination against it are motived and driven, at least in large part, by reasons unrelated to its competence and unique to it.

He also disputed a common Republican argument (which former Mother Jones reporter Molly Redden debunked last month) that closing Planned Parenthood won’t burden its patients, who would have access to other reproductive health providers in the area. According to deGravelles, defunding Planned Parenthood would leave thousands of women without options:

The Court turns to the uncontested and unquestioned facts—PPGC serves 5,200 poor and needy women, and PPGC has repeatedly been deemed a ‘competent’ provider by DHH—and honors the public interest in affording these women access to their provider of choice…For decades, PPGC has served numerous at-risk individuals and helped DHH combat a host of diseases, and, in the process, become the regular provider of over 5,000 women.

Several other states, including Arkansas, Utah, and Alabama, have cut funding for Planned Parenthood by canceling Medicaid contracts. In August, the Obama administration notified Alabama and Louisiana that cutting Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding may violate federal law.

For its part, Jindal’s office said on Monday that the governor would “continue to fight to ensure Planned Parenthood no longer receives taxpayer funding.”

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A Federal Judge Just Gave an Epic Defense of Planned Parenthood That Everyone Should Read

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The GOP Is the Party of No Escape

by RozellaMccune Posted on October 19, 2015

Mother Jones

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In the print magazine this month (yes! print!) I have a piece arguing that this year’s odd lack of enthusiasm among Republicans for repealing Obamacare—something that many folks have noted—is just a bellwether for wider GOP problems:

Obamacare’s foes running out of steam is just the most obvious sign of a larger trend: A lot of traditional conservative issues are losing their momentum. Gay marriage lost its fear factor years ago….The economy is probably in good enough shape to not be a big campaign issue. Taxes have already been lowered so much that the average family pays only about 5 percent of its earnings to the IRS.

….True, Republicans still have a short list of hot-button topics that inflame their base, but increasingly these are wedge issues that promise nearly as much downside as upside. Immigration is the most visible example….Republican voters aren’t sold on the idea of Iraq War 2.0….Even abortion runs the risk of becoming a wedge issue for the party as activists demand that candidates take extreme positions such as opposing exceptions for rape, incest, or the life and health of the mother—even though these are popular among most Republican voters.

The big Republican problem right now is not that they’re out of ideas. The problem is that just as Democrats were torn apart by their ideas 30 years ago, Republicans are being torn apart by theirs today. All the once-reliable Republican applause lines are fast becoming wedge issues that divide the party regulars from the tea party base. And this is all coming at the same time that Republicans are fighting the headwind of a long-term demographic shift that weakens them further with every election cycle. “In an era when the inmates are running the asylum, it’s not just Obamacare bashing that’s become a double-edged sword for Republicans. It’s nearly everything they’ve relied on for the past three decades.”

Read the whole thing! I’m excited about it. Not because it’s the most astute piece of political analysis ever, but because it’s my first print piece in over a year. That’s right: As of a couple of months ago, I had recovered enough from chemotherapy that I once again had the energy to start writing longer print pieces in addition to blogging. And I just finished another, better one for the next issue. Read it too! (When it comes out.)

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The GOP Is the Party of No Escape

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A Quick Look at Bush vs. Rubio vs. Cruz

by OmaOxleyih Posted on October 16, 2015

Mother Jones

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Who will be the Republican nominee for president? Beats me. GOP voters are obviously in a weird mood this year. But let’s suppose two things:

The folks who are currently polling below 3-4 percent have no chance.
The non-politicians will eventually fade out or implode. No Trump, no Carson, no Fiorina.

If—if!—those things are true, we’re left with Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz. So how are they doing? I was curious, so I took a look at only those three on HuffPost Pollster. I don’t really have any point to make, so I won’t make one. Just consider this raw data.

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A Quick Look at Bush vs. Rubio vs. Cruz

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Pork: It’s What’s For Dinner (In Federal Prisons)

by ZFXTrinida Posted on October 16, 2015

Mother Jones

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Last week the Bureau of Prisons removed pork from its menus, supposedly because pork had become less popular among inmates. Also, it was getting expensive.

In the case of bacon, this is a little hard to believe. Everyone loves bacon. Still, who cares about a bunch of felons, anyway? Republicans, it turns out. In particular, a Republican from the great pig-producing state of Iowa:

“The pork industry is responsible for 547,800 jobs, which creates $22.3 billion in personal incomes and contributes $39 billion to the gross domestic product,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote in a letter Thursday to Bureau of Prisons Director Charles E. Samuels, Jr.

….“According to a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, the decision was based on a survey of prisoners’ food preferences that reflected that pork has been the “lowest-rated food” by inmates for a number of years.

“To corroborate the validity of the claim that prisoners indicated a lack of interest in pork products, I am requesting copies of the prisoner surveys and responses that were used to support the determination to no longer serve pork in federal prisons….The Bureau of Prisons’ spokesman indicated that pork was expensive to provide. Please provide any economic evaluations the Bureau of Prisons has relied on that detail the cost of pork as compared to beef, chicken, and non-meat products such as tofu and soy products.”

As of this week, pork is back on the menu. Concern for the welfare of prisoners may be low in the Senate, but concern for the welfare of the pork industry definitely isn’t. You’d think the whole pork business was going to live or die based on whether the Bureau of Prisons serves pork roast for dinner occasionally.

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Pork: It’s What’s For Dinner (In Federal Prisons)

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