By Rachel Goldfarb, originally published on Next New Deal
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Under GOP Plan, Pay More for Junk Insurance, Leave More Uninsured (The Hill)
Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Richard Kirsch breaks down the Republican plan for replacing the Affordable Care Act, which he says will allow barebones high-cost plans instead of real coverage.
It's easy to be cynical about the Republican plan, because the political blowback if it were implemented would be massive. But one other provision in the plan just underlines that cynicism. The plan keeps the $700 billion in Medicare cost reductions that the GOP made the centerpiece of their campaign ads attacking ObamaCare in the 2010 and 2012 elections.
All this in the hope that five Supreme Court justices can be convinced to make a politically motivated ruling in the King v. Burwell case. The thinking is that if Republicans can show some alternative to the ACA, the five conservative justices will be more willing — despite overwhelming, settled judicial practice by the court — to overturn the section of the ACA that provides tax credits to the more than 9 million people who get coverage from insurance purchased through the federal exchange. Cynicism anyone?
Follow below the fold for more.
A Needless Default (TAP)
David Dayen takes a deep dive into the failures of the Home Affordable Modification Program, which was supposed to help homeowners but actually created opportunities for banks to foreclose.
Much Stronger Job Growth is Needed If We’re Going to See a Healthy Economy Any Time Soon (Working Economics)
Elise Gould shows just how slowly the labor market is catching up to pre-recession levels at current rates. At 257,000 jobs per month, we'll be waiting until May 2017.
Rand Paul Has the Most Dangerous Economic Views of Any 2016 Candidate (TNR)
Danny Vinik says that Paul's Audit the Fed bill would give politicians the ability to interfere with monetary policy, a very scary idea since Paul so fundamentally misunderstands monetary policy.
Don’t Listen to Anyone Who Says the Unemployment Rate is a “Big Lie” (WaPo)
Matt O'Brien points out that while the unemployment rate, which only accounts for those actively looking for work, isn't perfect, we don't have better measures of unemployment.
Consumer Protection Agency Seeks Limits on Payday Lenders (NYT)
Jessica Silver-Greenberg says that since payday lenders continue to morph their practices to evade state regulation, federal regulation has the potential to create broader change.
New on Next New Deal
The Obama Budget: Weak on Reproductive Health
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Andrea Flynn argues that when the president chooses not to push for better funding for reproductive health programs, he's saying the issue isn't critical.
