Joan McCarter

Joan McCarter https://www.dailykos.com/user/Joan McCarter/rss/index.xml News Community Action Copyright 2005 - Steal what you want Sat, 17 Nov 2018 01:27:18 +0000 Sat, 17 Nov 2018 01:27:18 +0000 Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) Daily Kos rss@dailykos.com (Daily Kos) 20.1 million more people have health coverage with the ACA, let's keep that going https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/16/1813406/-20-1-million-more-people-have-health-coverage-with-the-ACA-let-s-keep-that-going The Centers for Disease Control <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-15/twenty-million-more-americans-have-health-insurance-versus-2010?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20Daily%20Health%20Policy%20Report&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=67569202&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_WnY7H_mLVUgMpoadJn0TrrVaqt8k9GlgKPqGEQ7TNBuOzcuJnRqsvF_qwDlDoCVbjK4ZAEB5GWhRpsRuwT154XlnkjrWueFQmmYL9c4XyU7NuEXQ&_hsmi=67569202">confirm</a> that the Affordable Care Act is still a big fucking deal. Since 2010, 20.1 million people have gained health insurance. That number will increase soon into the new year when Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah expand Medicaid. Expansion will help offset the thousands that Arkansas and other states <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arkansas/articles/2018-11-15/12k-have-lost-arkansas-medicaid-coverage-over-work-rule">are kicking off</a> the program with work requirements. That's a fight we can take on with a new Democratic House and in the next two years of fighting Trump. Clearly, Arkansas and other Republican states are having their last gasps against Medicaid. That bad news aside, the ACA is still going strong and can be strengthened even further with a robust enrollment this fall. From now until December 15 (except in a handful of states*), it's open enrollment time. There are places to get information and assistance. The Kaiser Family Foundation has <a href="https://www.kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/?utm_campaign=ACA%20Open%20Enrollment&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=67191712&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-98LsnEYz_YNYmNeOsMcnIql94fL-yZsb4XPfEfMA_8J-iZvQxf_hCUltU0mz9YFU3Ub51q-5BUTQU0-CIVqmqz_n5YPw&_hsmi=67191712" target="_blank">updated its subsidy calculator</a> to help you or people you’re helping figure out how much they could be paying for premiums as well as what financial assistance is available based on household income, family size, ages of family members, and zip code. The calculator also helps consumers determine whether they could be eligible for Medicaid. The tool is embedded here below the fold for you to play around with. A <a href="https://connect.kff.org/e2t/c/*W4SLLFQ2ctmNbW112rVm7YKmkj0/*W3LbqTV3mbtblW3cWjQ21N7sp50/5/f18dQhb0Sq5v8YHtvCW8d8gSm2qwv1SW4cqSjh4cqNPfMf5s32XD6prW7cmS1s8pCQ6vW7Y-rll95S7FPW5CR0N32yc2qDW5CGWVM7mFYhrW62058J95R_bvW1xc2fr626T3hW1x4vb1999f65W6PVKcr6N3nBLW8xGZMP7yyY2PVfQ03V4rf42kW6pCmD_1rnhsmW2vgRTn23-nGKW265VBJ22-vhJW1Q468p7G0n7yW1YTF-H7TVphbW1pqxYR3gk-wmW8cG-xp3X0g0yN6bp1cMbq5fxW4TKc2l5v7ctcW4s4NfZ8RFdfZW6N_PTv7d922fW5PNNL01pPztxW5sDrNV1p5SkrW6n748K8QH_4zN5CwtnyPfzz_W7yJG7r5VKN9cW5w4v2y7fXjzbW4XqT-q2V7HDGW5VKNjb5PvXkhW4V4rvX64G2z1W1bBvW33_5Xh9W6LMv7K1NFfl4N8P4D7llyM3fW8qfGd-3qb5ywW3vNLNF5R34klW1nCrbg8Sn6Q_W7870mX6TL-CYW2cBvC_8t3_8ZW6qJTsP3-zhG4N7cpyXmcYJKQW7dJ18n5B8h5Nf3Gk2R804" target="_blank">Spanish-language version of the calculator</a> is also available. Of course KFF has more for you, including a searchable collection of <a href="https://connect.kff.org/e2t/c/*W4SLLFQ2ctmNbW112rVm7YKmkj0/*W4gtk-k9jrBCcW5Yv1Fn63_Qvs0/5/f18dQhb0Sq5D8XZ7WSV_P1vF1m66PBW2sNYfp2stfhWW5-FxTJ1mhDJwW39Dr-N8pCDM_W3S_gvy2yZ4h7N6bws6tYN9-_W3V568N984wNmW98KYW74MWdz6W2N2Tpf5lKwc5VKzxbr2M3kw-W4Mm1dW2w7BH6W5mNLNv7bqTzMW7vp5Qy2CVNW9W1h4PtH7MMT4_W5FxBTV5p9MrsW3bW-f434Y-JRW5rcZX12-294gW5J0bHm1y7ldZW5F_2Jd3Yk27jW1v3hGt39Hw8xW1CgtZf5jPVDHW47P0wC403tVSW3vbpkw6nBZD5W489Hjx36Hk43W3HGckC4GZdLjW5Pyl_C626PhfW41RgLh5lFg7zW5FHXWc3FPyQ1W41RJbt3wZk1bW4XhfbK2JkXdvW5sNKnm68l_p0W6bb-jT6b52DYW3xKBsl6y-QM_W41PCXK5Pzb9FW260G-s2PGKtHMBrp3zwKJnCV3qXTz3nxwXrW51fdFJ2lZk5dW8r-8T18tzmRxW2GD9PD47Xs4rW7LHXzl9jwp6RV5yDtR85-GmcN81XSFHHKF2wW3pnKgQ4L1MmrN4JXQH_11ZPYf21mR_b03" target="_blank">more than 300 Frequently Asked Questions</a> about open enrollment, the marketplaces and the ACA; everything from eligibility for subsidies to requirements for health coverage and information about health plans offered through state ACA marketplaces. This year’s FAQ includes information on the 2019 repeal of the individual mandate tax penalty and has a new section on short-term health insurance policies. More than 150 of the FAQs in the collection are also <a href="https://connect.kff.org/e2t/c/*W4SLLFQ2ctmNbW112rVm7YKmkj0/*N7_ZdfKRT2V6W1qdj3Q6KkrhJ0/5/f18dQhb0S65M6_cXMJV1y5RM1gccPwW4_mNZP4__ZYcW3TJB3-8znkTYW5LcVZD8tHvf8W48Qw-V933qnfW4--r2356_mtTW7bdS3w51_kBQW2_SBVp1QG1-wW92yS-Z4xnhYYW5fDY8L4tK-vFW51TJB02fylsRW3RnP0g2Cq0zPW8xHlBB2GWqSdN8m6g-cWjcKXV4546x2TFR-3V5CH_s5SLbsjMMc_cF82xtzN3XlrPjKbHq5W6YgxcT4PrbRWW68zxp75Wn0jKW5WlD_P61dV4MW1fpKY_2fsZLrW2tH8lS2tbBv9W2FgKr64tJM3sW5F3wDt17qjwwW1QsTQn3ljRXWW1kRs9v1VGpTCW5F5KK75kq-rcW40nWBL1SnHMwW4-J2h-4DR2DlW4QPHZR89jRClW3fZKbf3L0yQ1N7T7Z41M35CyW1xBt2G8XdLWSW5MmScl29chjsW5H7Vyv7-dgFRW6BSLK21XB85FN3XptcyqlX6-W6HpvVW6f2Zz9W13l1kY1GdXJgN7rj-MD-ZVYcW27VD8l17P2HgW5QBXWl3GbM8GW67bHsG8M-_QYW7CksWc8pn5YhW1_Vmll6-PbMBf1zp1CR11" target="_blank">available in Spanish</a>. In addition, there are these sites: <a href="http://younginvincibles.org/open-enrollment/" target="_blank">Get Covered Connector</a> from Young Invincibles and <a href="https://www.getamericacovered.org/" target="_blank">Get America Covered</a>. They have resources to connect you—or whoever you might be assisting—with someone nearby to walk you through the process in person. It’s a great time to do it. Beat the holiday rush and rub Trump’s and the Republicans’ noses in the continued existence of Obamacare. You know where to go, right? <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" target="_blank">Healthcare.gov</a>. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct GetAmericaCovered HealthCare HealthInsurance Obamacare OpenEnrollment _1813406 Fri, 16 Nov 2018 19:40:21 +0000 McConnell sets up votes on worst of Trump nominees, gives the finger to Jeff Flake over his threats https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/16/1813375/-McConnell-basically-gives-Jeff-Flake-the-finger-over-his-threat-to-vote-against-Trump-nominees <a href="/campaigns/letter/sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v3/letter/sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller?format=js&source=widget&can_widget_id=can-letter-area-sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller-477810" data-href="/campaigns/letter/sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller">Campaign Action</a> Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has apparently decided to give a middle finger to Sen. Jeff Flake, the retiring Arizona Republican who <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/14/1812899/-Did-retiring-turn-Jeff-Flake-into-a-real-senator" title="">says he'll vote against judicial nominees</a> in committee and on the floor until McConnell allows a floor vote on his legislation to protect the Mueller investigation. At the end of the day Thursday, McConnell <a href="https://twitter.com/civilrightsorg/status/1063183738971045890" title="">filed cloture</a> on two of the very worst of Trump's nominees: district court nominee Thomas Farr of North Carolina and 8th Circuit nominee Jonathan Kobes. The votes will happen when the Senate returns after Thanksgiving. Farr has been <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/thomas-farr-trump-judicial-nominee_us_5a5fa192e4b046f0811c7fe9" title="">waiting for a vote</a> since the Judiciary Committee passed him back in January. Farr "helped draft North Carolina's voter suppression law, defended racially discriminatory gerrymandering and may have lied to the Senate about his role in disenfranchising black voters when he worked for the late Sen. Jesse Helms." He's a nightmare, his <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/12/22/1726551/-Another-day-another-deplorable-Trump-judicial-nominee">history of voter suppression</a> extreme. And he lied to the Judiciary Committee about it. The uproar following his success in the Judiciary Committee might be why McConnell has been reluctant to have the floor vote, but it's typical of him that he'll use it now to give a massive "fuck you" to Flake. Kobes is <a href="https://civilrights.org/oppose-the-confirmation-of-jonathan-kobes-to-the-u-s-court-of-appeals-for-the-eighth-circuit/" title="">one of six</a> Trump nominees that the American Bar Association has rated "not qualified." He's General Counsel for Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, which is apparently how he got the nomination. In explaining the rating they gave Kobes, the ABA wrote that "has neither the requisite experience nor evidence of his ability to fulfill the scholarly writing required of a United States Circuit Court Judge. … [H]e was unable to provide sufficient writing samples of the caliber required to satisfy Committee members that he was capable of doing the work of a United States Circuit Court Judge." None of the writing that he did provide, they say, "is reflective of complex legal analysis, knowledge of the law, or ability to write about complex matters in a clear and cogent manner." The ABA's opposition to him didn't stop Chairman Grassley; he just held the hearing before they provided their rating and didn't allow them to testify about it. One thing for sure we know about Kobes is that he's anti-LTBTQ and anti-choice. Because of course he is. Flake, of course, can't stop these nominees on his own. It's yet another opportunity for Republican Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to furrow their brows and express their concern. There are, however, another three Republicans who with Flake <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/26/politics/special-counsel-protection-bill-passes-senate-committee/index.html" title="">voted</a> that special counsel protection bill out of the Judiciary Committee: Grassley, Thom Tillis (NC), and Lindsey Graham (SC). rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) ChuckGrassley FederalJudiciary JeffFlake JonathonKobes MitchMcConnell muellerinvestigation RobertMueller Senate ThomasFarr TrumpRussia _1813375 Fri, 16 Nov 2018 17:46:35 +0000 Nothing says the holidays like a Trump border wall tantrum shutting down government https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/16/1813330/-Nothing-says-the-holidays-like-a-Trump-border-wall-tantrum-shutting-down-government Lawmakers are headed out for a week of Thanksgiving celebration with, or avoiding, their families. Some will be licking their wounds, some will be compiling their subpoena lists, and all of them will be dreading the two weeks of work they'll face on their return, not knowing if the orange behemoth in the Oval Office is going to shut down government or not. As of now, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/senate-republicans-to-plead-with-trump-to-keep-government-open-find-deal-on-wall/2018/11/15/9ac5549a-e8f1-11e8-bbdb-72fdbf9d4fed_story.html?utm_term=.fd6ef8f8c4dc" title="">he's not saying</a>. Republican leaders met with Trump Thursday to talk government funding. Much of the appropriations have been completed for the coming year, but not all, so a partial shutdown is still in the offing. Maybe even possible. Senate Appropriations Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) was in the meeting and says Trump was noncommittal when it came to keeping government open or funding for his precious border wall. That might be because they avoided the question. "He didn't say, 'I'm going to keep the government open.' We didn't ask him that question," Shelby told reporters. "We talked about avoiding a shutdown. . . . He seemed to agree with that." Trump wants $5 billion, Democrats have agreed to $1.6 billion. At least, Senate Democrats, with Chuck Schumer at the helm agreed to that. House Democrats, poised to take over in January and whose votes are going to be necessary in this spending bill, might have an entirely different goal in mind now. Like maybe forcing a vote to protect the Mueller investigation before they fund the government. While he might not have said one way or the other in that meeting with congressional leaders, Trump told the Daily Caller in that unhinged interview that he's certainly open to shutting down. "I'll have to see how it plays out. But I may very well be willing to shut down the government," Trump said. "I think it's horrible what's happening and, you know, building the wall, it's in smaller stages, we can build it very quickly." If the Mouth of <s>Sauron</s> Trump has any insight, Trump's <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/417083-kellyanne-conway-trump-could-shut-down-government-for-wall-funding" title="">ready to take his searing rage</a> out on us all, and is egging him on. Kellyanne Conway went on his favorite show, Fox & Friends, to report to the minions that he's "keeping all options open," and that "I don’t know if there's anything he [Trump] has been more explicit or consistent on in the last three and a half years." And Congress need to do it because "they have failed to meet the president's modest demands," on immigration. Like shutting immigration down. Buckle up. Trump's ready to take us all hostage. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) BorderWall ContinuingResolution DonaldTrump GovernmentShutdown Immigration MitchMcConnell Omnibusspendingbill PaulRyan _1813330 Fri, 16 Nov 2018 15:27:24 +0000 Spread the word: The clock is ticking on Affordable Care Act open enrollments https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/15/1813179/-Spread-the-word-The-clock-is-ticking-on-Affordable-Care-Act-open-enrollments The first two weeks of open enrollment in Affordable Care Act in plans in 2018 <a href="https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20181114/NEWS/181119974?utm_source=modernhealthcare&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20181114-NEWS-181119974&utm_campaign=am" target="_blank" title="">lagged behind</a> the first two weeks of last year, 1.2 million sign-ups now as opposed to 1.5 million sign-ups last year. It did include an extra day last year, but one day isn’t going to account for 300,000 enrollments. Enrollments have just been happening at a <a href="https://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20181107/NEWS/181109935/aca-insurance-open-enrollment-off-to-slow-start" target="_blank" title="">slower pace</a> than last year. Since the first two weeks this year coincided with the last week of the midterm elections, it’s kind of understandable that people were distracted. But now that Democrats have won the House and saved the nation from more Obamacare repeal (provided Republicans don’t have one final “Fuck you” in them during the lame duck), it’s safe to sign up! There’s not a ton of time left, either. The deadline for most states is December 15. Please help get the word out. There are some <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/2/1809438/-While-you-re-out-there-Getting-Out-the-Vote-remind-voters-it-s-Obamacare-open-enrollment-time" target="_blank" title="">great tools to help</a> you or people you are helping figure out what options are available all across the country. Now that the election is done and the holiday rush hasn’t yet begun, it’s a great time to get out there and get people signed up for Obamacare. It’s your second chance to give Trump and the Republicans the finger. You know where to go, right? <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" target="_blank" title="">Healthcare.gov</a>, because even Trump hasn’t been able to blow it up. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct GetAmericaCovered HealthCare HealthInsurance Obamacare OpenEnrollment _1813179 Thu, 15 Nov 2018 20:52:28 +0000 Democrat Maxine Waters says days of wine and roses for Wall Street fat cats are over https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/15/1813169/-Democrat-Maxine-Water-says-days-of-wine-and-roses-for-banksters-are-over Rep. Maxine Waters of California is ready to take the reins of one of the most powerful House committees and under her watch, she says, the Republican-enabled Wall Street romp <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/14/maxine-waters-days-of-easing-bank-regulations-will-come-to-an-end.html">is going to be over</a>. The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have been intent on gutting Dodd-Frank, the Obama-era Wall Street reform law. Waters, who is in position to head up the House Financial Services Committee, says not any more. "Make no mistake, come January, in this committee the days of this committee weakening regulations and putting our economy once again at risk of another financial crisis will come to an end," Waters said. <blockquote>"It is essential that the Fed keeps a watchful eye on the financial institutions it supervises and makes strong use of its existing enforcement tools to crank down on institutions that break the law. […] I must say that I am concerned about proposals the Fed has put forth this year to reduce capital and liquidity requirements for the largest financial institutions which would weaken strong safeguards established by Dodd-Frank to protect the U.S. economy from another costly financial crisis."</blockquote> She's also considering how she might use her subpoena powers to delve into the unindicted co-conspirator's connections to Deutsche Bank, and whether the Russian government was involved in guaranteeing the loans it made to him. Sometimes elections have delicious consequences. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Democrats Dodd-Frank DonaldTrump House MaxineWaters Recommended WallStreetReform _1813169 Thu, 15 Nov 2018 19:42:24 +0000 Powerful Republican bows to Jeff Flake's demand for vote on bill protecting Mueller investigation https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/15/1813145/-Powerful-Republican-bows-to-Jeff-Flake-s-in-demand-for-vote-on-bill-protecting-Mueller-investigation <a href="/campaigns/letter/sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller" class="dk-action-link" data-action="letter" data-slug="sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v3/letter/sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller?format=js&source=widget&can_widget_id=can-letter-area-sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller-825366" data-href="/campaigns/letter/sign-and-send-the-petition-to-your-us-senators-no-trump-judges-without-bill-to-protect-mueller">Campaign Action</a> In a <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/416916-grassley-mueller-protection-bill-should-get-a-vote">committee hearing Thursday</a>, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman essentially honored departing Republican Sen. Jeff Flake's vow to vote against any judicial nominee until legislation to protect Robert Mueller's investigation is brought to the floor. Grassley is holding over judicial nominees in the committee, at least temporarily, and basically backed Flake. "It's legitimate that the bill be brought up," he said after delaying the votes on nominees. "It would satisfy me if it became law because I voted for it." However, that doesn't mean he's going to pressure Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the legislation. "I'm not going to be in forefront with Flake advocating that the leader do so and so, but I wouldn't do anything to stop it," he said. "Usually, a chairman of a committee if he doesn't want a bill brought up can … object to unanimous consent." For his part, Flake says that if it's brought to the floor, "it will pass," and suggested that McConnell doesn't want to anger Trump, so he's refusing to bring it to the floor. The legislation would codify the existing Justice Department regulations that say a special counsel can only be fired for good cause, and can only be fired by a Justice Department official who has been confirmed by the Senate. That would prevent Trump's lackey and acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker from firing Mueller. It would create judicial review for any firing, giving a federal judge ten days after a termination of a special counsel to decide if it was for good cause and the ability to stop the firing. There are still 30 nominees that have been passed out of Judiciary and are awaiting a floor vote. According to one Republican senator, the odious Tom Cotton from Arkansas, McConnell <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/11/15/daily-202-small-cracks-show-in-gop-s-judicial-juggernaut-but-trump-poised-to-continue-remaking-courts/5becfad91b326b392905483f/?utm_term=.455006fbb16a">"made a commitment"</a> to keep the Senate in even up to New Year's Day to get these judges through. So it's kind of a game of chicken now between Flake and McConnell. Grassley, for one, is taking Flake seriously. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) ChuckGrassley FederalJudiciary JeffFlake MattWhitaker MitchMcConnell muellerinvestigation RobertMueller Senate TrumpRussia _1813145 Thu, 15 Nov 2018 18:39:36 +0000 Jared Golden declared winner in Maine, Democrats flip another seat https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/15/1813134/-Jared-Golden-declared-winner-in-Maine-Democrats-flip-another-seat As promised, and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/15/1813101/-Maine-Republican-fails-in-bid-to-stop-ranked-choice-votes-from-being-counted" title="">allowed by the courts</a>, Maine's secretary of state tabulated ranked-choice ballots in Maine today, and <a href="https://bangordailynews.com/2018/11/15/politics/golden-defeats-poliquin-in-contested-2nd-district-ranked-choice-count/" title="">there is a clear winner</a>: Democratic challenger Jared Golden. The assistant Maine House Majority Leader just got a big promotion by the state's voters, defeating Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin in Maine's 2nd district. Golden got just over the 50 percent threshold, at 50.53 percent of votes to Poliquin's 49.47 percent. And this is nice: <blockquote>The result would be a historic one: As it stands, Golden, a 36-year-old Democrat from Lewiston, is the first person to defeat an incumbent in the largely rural 2nd District's modern-era configuration as it stands after it went hard in 2016 for President Donald Trump, a Republican.</blockquote> That should really make Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), up in 2020, sweat. Golden <a href="https://twitter.com/MESecOfState/status/1063124283680014338" title="">won</a> by 2,905 votes in the end. He's the <a href="https://twitter.com/jamiedupree/status/1063124038044786695" title="">26th Democrat</a> to defeat a Republican incumbent. Now there are just seven House races still undetermined. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 BrucePoliquin Democrats House JaredGolden Maine ME-02 SusanCollins _1813134 Thu, 15 Nov 2018 17:59:29 +0000 Health care industry breathes a sigh of relief with Democrats' big win https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/15/1812871/-Health-care-industry-breathes-a-sigh-of-relief-with-Democrats-big-win The health care industry, and particularly CEOs, are <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2018/11/11/with-gop-losses-obamacare-heads-for-expansion-and-calm/#66dedf8836ac">breathing a sigh of relief</a> over the Democrats’ big win in the midterms. They foresee that "the law providing individual coverage to more than 20 million Americans is about to enter a period of calm and expansion." One of them, Centene chief executive Michael Neidorff, is relieved and sending a not-so-subtle message about what Republicans need to be doing going forward. "I am hopeful that the most recent election—which did not give control of all three branches of government to one party—will ideally create an environment that requires a level of cooperation that fosters policies that are more inclusive of the population in general." That's a nice way of saying "knock it off, Republicans." They're not only pleased that this healthcare-focused election got rid of the repeal-happy Republican majority in the House, but at the prospects for Medicaid expansion not just in the three Republican states that adopted it in ballot measures, but in the swing states that elected Democrats at the state level. In Neidorff's words, "2019 will see additional opportunities for Centene, with the current administration poised to give states more flexibility to design Medicaid programs and provide Marketplace reforms that meet the needs of their constituents." They shouldn't be too sanguine, as Trump is still going to be doing his level best to sabotage the law and if Democrats continue to win on health care, things are going to be changing for them rather drastically in years to come. But when you hear an executive like Neidorff say the ''elimination of pre-existing conditions from a policy is also very important," you know that the ACA has changed more than just electoral politics. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump HealthCare Obamacare Resistance Sabotage Trumpcare _1812871 Thu, 15 Nov 2018 17:30:02 +0000 Maine Republican fails in bid to stop ranked-choice votes from being counted https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/15/1813101/-Maine-Republican-fails-in-bid-to-stop-ranked-choice-votes-from-being-counted A federal judge in Maine has <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2018/11/15/final-ranked-choice-vote-count-slated-for-noon/" title="">rejected</a> Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin's attempt to stop the ranked-choice ballot counting, which will now proceed as planned at 12 PM ET Thursday. Poliquin was trying to get the court to force Maine's Secretary of State to stop the run-off ballot counting on the grounds that they have a pending, broader lawsuit on the constitutionality of ranked-choice voting. The judge in that case said Wednesday that he would try to have a ruling today on that. As of now, Poliquin has about a 2,000-vote lead over Democrat Jared Golden in what was a four-way race. Because the Republican didn't get a clear majority of votes on Tuesday, the tabulation of voters second (and possibly third) choice candidates can move forward until someone gets over the 50 percent threshold. Maine voters have <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2018/06/21/historic-ranked-choice-vote-changed-perceptions-if-not-election-outcomes/?rel=related" title="">approved ranked-choice voting</a> at the ballot box twice, making the state the first to adopt the process in statewide primary and federal elections. But Maine Republicans have made a habit of ignoring the voters' decisions—just look at outgoing Gov. Paul LePage's continued refusal to expand Medicaid even after voters told him to. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 BrucePoliquin JaredGolden Maine ME-02 RankedChoiceVoting WarOnVoting _1813101 Thu, 15 Nov 2018 16:05:03 +0000 Florida recount continues amid lawsuits, Trumpian fantasies of fraud https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/15/1813082/-Florida-recount-continues-amid-lawsuits-Trumpian-fantasies-of-fraud <a href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-count-every-vote" class="dk-action-link" data-action="petition" data-slug="sign-the-petition-count-every-vote" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v3/petition/sign-the-petition-count-every-vote?format=js&source=widget&can_widget_id=can-petition-area-sign-the-petition-count-every-vote-689755" data-href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-count-every-vote">Campaign Action</a> So far, the people are winning in Florida recount lawsuits, of which there are many. In one of the suits, a judge just <a href="https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1063056484391641089">ruled</a> that around 5,000 voters will have an extended deadline to fix their rejected ballots. The court ruled that "Disenfranchisement of approximately 5,000 voters based on signature mismatch is a substantial burden," and granted an injunction allowing voters to have until Saturday at 5 PM to fix their ballots. Republican Rick Scott's campaign <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/11/15/judge-extends-mismatched-signature-cure-until-5-p-m-saturday/">says</a> Scott will appeal. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, in his 34-page order said Florida's Walker issued a 34-page order Thursday morning that said Florida's "questionable practice" for curing ballot signature mismatches has "no standards, an illusory process to cure and no process to challenge the rejection," and is therefore unconstitutional. "Florida law provides no opportunity for voters to challenge the determination of the canvassing board that their votes do not count," he wrote. "Interestingly, Florida law does provide an opportunity for any voter or candidate to challenge a signature that was accepted and thus a vote that was counted." One of those voters, Zina Rodriguez who is registered in Palm Beach County (of course as a Democrat) <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/us/voting-signatures-matching-elections.html?smid=tw-nytpolitics&smtyp=cur">found out her mail-in ballot was rejected</a> because the signature the board of elections had on file was one taken from DMV, signed on an electronic signature pad two years ago. Anyone who has ever used an electronic signature pad knows just how little that looks like any real signature, much less their own. But on that basis, her ballot was tossed along with those other 5,000 from people like an "18-year-old Miami voter whose signature had been rejected, Ezekiel Adreassen," whose ballot "was signed in painstaking but unsteady block lettering." Because nobody is taught how to write in cursive and use signatures anymore. That's a relief for those voters, at least them and whoever else has received the notice and has time to get to the board of elections before the end of business on Saturday. <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/in-florida-tempers-and-machines-overheat-as-lawsuits-pile-up">Meanwhile</a>, ancient ballot-counting machines are overheating and the orange behemoth in the White House is melting down. There are six federal lawsuits proceeding in the background of the recount and the idiot-in-chief creating conspiracy theories and spinning out of control. "When people get in line that have absolutely no right to vote and they go around in circles," Trump said in a Daily Caller interview Wednesday. "Sometimes they go to their car, put on a different hat, put on a different shirt, come in and vote again." Also too, he told the Daily Caller, that "If you buy a box of cereal—you have a voter ID," proving that he has probably never actually voted for real in person and that he definitely has never had to shop for groceries. And that he's completely lost the thread of how life works. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 DonaldTrump Florida Floridarecount VoterRegistration WarOnVoting _1813082 Thu, 15 Nov 2018 15:20:22 +0000 Jeff Flake talks big on protecting Mueller investigation, did retiring turn him into a real senator? https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/14/1812899/-Did-retiring-turn-Jeff-Flake-into-a-real-senator Sens. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), who will be leaving the Senate this year, and Chris Coons (D-DE) tried again to bring their bill to protect the Mueller investigation to the floor under unanimous consent. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell objected. So Flake did this: <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Flake: &amp;quot;I have informed the Majority Leader that I will not vote to advance any of the 21 judicial nominees pending in the Judiciary Committee, or vote to confirm the 32 judges awaiting a confirmation vote on the floor, until S. 2644 is brought to the full Senate for a vote.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Phil_Mattingly/status/1062817992617140229?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;November 14, 2018&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Flake: "I have informed the Majority Leader that I will not vote to advance any of the 21 judicial nominees pending in the Judiciary Committee, or vote to confirm the 32 judges awaiting a confirmation vote on the floor, until S. 2644 is brought to the full Senate for a vote."— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) <a href="https://twitter.com/Phil_Mattingly/status/1062817992617140229?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 14, 2018</a></blockquote> </div> Flake has been full of tough talk before, he’s <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jeff-flake-threatens-to-block-trumps-judicial-nominees" target="_blank" title="">even made this threat before</a>. That was this June, since which time dozens of judges—including a Supreme Court justice—have been sent through committee and confirmed with his consent and his vote. If, IF, Flake means it this time, it means something. His vote is required to get nominees through the Judiciary Committee. There are 11 Republicans and 10 Democrats and his refusal will make it much more difficult to get nominees out of committee and to the floor. Fifty-three of them. Flake is a thin, thin reed to hang one’s hopes upon, but there it is. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) ChrisCoons DonaldTrump JeffFlake Judiciary MitchMcConnell Nominations RobertMueller Russia _1812899 Wed, 14 Nov 2018 21:37:30 +0000 Today's tip for Obamacare enrollment: Stick to Healthcare.gov https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/14/1812884/-Today-s-tip-for-Obamacare-enrollment-Stick-to-Healthcare-gov From now until December 15, in most states, you can enroll in a health insurance policy in the Affordable Care Act if you don’t already have coverage from your employer or public coverage under Medicare. While there are lots of brokers and websites out there to sell you policies, it makes sense to go through <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" target="_blank">Healthcare.gov</a>. Policies sold there have to comply with all of the requirements of the ACA, and you’ll also be assured that you can get the federal subsidy to help cover premium costs by shopping there. If you need some extra assistance in figuring out all of your options, or helping someone else figure out theirs, check out sites like the <a href="http://younginvincibles.org/open-enrollment/" target="_blank" title="">Get Covered Connector</a> from Young Invincibles and <a href="https://www.getamericacovered.org/" target="_blank">Get America Covered</a>. They have resources to connect you—or whoever you might be assisting—with someone nearby to walk you through the process in person. It’s a great time to do it. Beat the holiday rush and rub Trump’s and the Republicans’ noses in the continued existence of Obamacare. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct GetAmericaCovered HealthCare HealthInsurance Obamacare OpenEnrollment _1812884 Wed, 14 Nov 2018 20:47:22 +0000 Trump loses big, again, in the House Republican leadership race https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/14/1812857/-Trump-loses-big-again-in-the-House-Republican-leadership-race So much for <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/14/1812833/-Trump-meddling-in-loser-House-Republican-leadership-fight-because-it-s-all-he-has?utm_campaign=recent" title="">that effort</a> by the unindicted co-conspirator to get his guy in at the helm of the much diminished House Republicans. Trump's guy, Freedom Caucus founder and child molestation enabler Rep. Jim Jordan is not going to be minority leader. Outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan's guy, Kevin McCarthy, won <a href="https://twitter.com/ChadPergram/status/1062780929524031488" title="">easily</a>, getting nearly four times as many votes as Jordan, 159-43. That might have had something to do with Jordan's campaign for leadership which consisted of "we all suck." Jordan was running on the platform that Republicans lost the House last week because they weren't Trumpy enough, suggesting that Jordan is, in addition to being a maniac, an idiot. Trump might still get his wish of having Jordan named ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, where presumably he would be in a position to try to derail all of the things that committee intends to do about Trump. But since Jordan has been so strongly rebuked, and along with him Trump, by the Republican conference no one should be holding their breath on that. Expect a White House tweet meltdown any minute now. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump FreedomCaucus House JimJordan KevinMcCarthy Recommended Republicans _1812857 Wed, 14 Nov 2018 19:12:26 +0000 Trump meddling in loser House Republican leadership fight, because it's all he has https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/14/1812833/-Trump-meddling-in-loser-House-Republican-leadership-fight-because-it-s-all-he-has The unindicted co-conspirator is <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/14/1812652/-Where-s-Donald-Trump-Pouting-in-a-cocoon-of-bitterness-and-resentment-apparently?utm_campaign=recent" title="">reportedly hunkered down</a> in a "cocoon of bitterness and resentment" following last week's election, "furious" and "trying to decide who to blame" for losing the House. So what's he doing with all that impotent fury? Trying to get his Freedom Caucus guy <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/14/trump-jim-jordan-congress-mccarthy-house-republicans-989698" title="">elected to lead the loser Republicans</a>. Child-molestation enabler Rep. Jim Jordan wants to be minority leader and Trump wants him there. Of course he does, because Jordan is the guy <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/1062717572502691840" title="">putting the blame</a> where Trump does, on insufficiently Trumpy Republicans who did not repeal Obamacare or build the wall. "Two years ago," he <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/1062717572502691840">said in an interview</a>,"the American people elected President Trump to come to this town to shake it up and he's done just that. But I don't think they've seen this same intensity from House Republicans." He said that on Fox & Friends, so consider that his job interview with Trump. Enter Trump in what <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/14/trump-jim-jordan-congress-mccarthy-house-republicans-989698">Politico</a> hilariously calls a "peacemaker" role between Jordan and the leader-designate Kevin McCarthy. That's the guy outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan wants and the guy who thinks <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/17/1663432/-Majority-Leader-to-colleagues-last-June-Putin-is-paying-Trump-Paul-Ryan-Shut-up-Shut-up" title="">Trump is on Putin's payroll</a>. Politico says Trump is urging McCarthy to "strike a deal with the conservative Freedom Caucus founder," a deal that is apparently putting Jordan at the top of the Republican heap in the House Judiciary Committee, where Trump apparently believes Jordan will stop Democrats from doing things like investigating whether he is indeed on Putin's payroll. That's not something McCarthy can actually do, appoint anyone into any ranking member job. The Republican Steering Committee makes that decision, and there are plenty of members there who have no great fondness for Jordan or any of his fellow maniacs. So there's that. Expect the Trump tantrum to deepen when this bid fails, because McCarthy has the votes he needs and the scraps of Republicans left standing aren't going to be particularly eager to do anything for the guy in the sex abuse scandal. Either of them. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) DonaldTrump FreedomCaucus House JimJordan KevinMcCarthy Republicans _1812833 Wed, 14 Nov 2018 18:00:38 +0000 Dear Mitch McConnell, you know what you can do with your 'bipartisanship,' right? https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/14/1812768/-Dear-Mitch-McConnell-you-know-what-you-can-do-with-your-bipartisanship-right <div style="text-align:start"> <div> <div> <div> <div> If there were a God, Mitch McConnell would have been reduced to a pile of smoldering ash years ago. After <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/sen-mitch-mcconnell-will-dems-work-with-us-or-simply-put-partisan-politics-ahead-of-the-country" target="_blank">this op-ed</a> at, where else, Fox News, God would sweep up those ashes, reshape and reanimate the remains, just for the pleasure of sending another righteous lightning bolt to smote him. Over and over again. Here’s the title of the op-ed: "Will Dems work with us, or simply put partisan politics ahead of the country?" </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> The decent world, which includes former President Barack Obama and would-be Supreme Court Justice called Merrick Garland, would probably like a word about now. It would probably not be a polite word. Particularly if they actually read the thing and get to the part where he says "I have good news: reports of the death of bipartisanship in Washington have been wildly exaggerated." Which is of course, a lie. It was declared dead in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-A09a_gHJc&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank" title="">October 2010</a>, and McConnell called it with these words: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." That didn't work, so he doubled down. Here's McConnell in <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/8/10/1558769/-Supreme-Court-vacancy-watch-Day-179-Where-s-Mitch-McConnell" target="_blank">2016</a>: "One of my proudest moments was when I looked Barack Obama in the eye and I said, 'Mr. President, you will not fill the Supreme Court vacancy.'" Here's essentially what McConnell <a href="https://twitter.com/joshscampbell/status/1047104517085360128" target="_blank">said</a> in 2016 to the Obama administration when it was attempting to get him on board with warning the country that an adversarial foreign power was trying to interfere with the presidential election: "you're telling us that Russia is trying to help elect Trump. If you try to come forward with this, I'm not going to sign onto any sort of public statement that would condemn Russian interference. But I will condemn you and the Obama administration for trying to mess up this election." Here's McConnell <a href="https://twitter.com/stableford/status/1062715443868250112" target="_blank" title="">this very morning</a>, meeting with "newly-elected GOP senators," one of whom is Rick Scott. Who hasn't been elected yet because Florida is still recounting the votes. Sen. Bill Nelson would probably also like to have a less than polite word with him, too. If McConnell had any interest in the preservation of the nation, much less bipartisanship, he'd put the legislation already drafted and ready to go to protect the Mueller investigation. You already know how that's going to go. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) BarackObama DonaldTrump MerrickGarland MitchMcConnell Recommended Russia _1812768 Wed, 14 Nov 2018 14:56:21 +0000 Don't procrastinate, there's just one more month of open enrollment in the Affordable Care Act* https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/13/1808443/-Don-t-procrastinate-there-s-just-one-more-month-of-open-enrollment-in-the-Affordable-Care-Act Here’s a message from the soon-to-be-once-again Speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi: <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Need help signing up for Open Enrollment? Don’t worry – free help is available. Call 1-800-318-2596 for help or visit &lt;a href="https://t.co/cFcLkgruOi"&gt;https://t.co/cFcLkgruOi&lt;/a&gt; to find free in-person assistance in your area. &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GetCovered?src=hash&amp;amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;#GetCovered&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="https://t.co/CCvb05ITJY"&gt;pic.twitter.com/CCvb05ITJY&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi/status/1062417178736123905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;November 13, 2018&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Need help signing up for Open Enrollment? DonÃ¢Â€Â™t worry Ã¢Â€Â“ free help is available. Call 1-800-318-2596 for help or visit <a href="https://t.co/cFcLkgruOi">https://t.co/cFcLkgruOi</a> to find free in-person assistance in your area. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GetCovered?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GetCovered</a> <a href="https://t.co/CCvb05ITJY">pic.twitter.com/CCvb05ITJY</a>— Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi/status/1062417178736123905?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2018</a></blockquote> </div> Since the waste of skin and oxygen in the White House won’t do this, we have to. It’s time to get enrolled for health insurance if you don’t have it and don’t have access to it from your employer, or to <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/12/1812348/-Why-you-need-to-shop-around-for-an-ACA-plan-even-if-you-already-have-one" target="_blank" title="">shop around for a new plan</a> if you are already enrolled in Obamacare. You can call the number or visit the website listed above for assistance, or to help someone you know find coverage. There are plenty of <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/2/1809438/-While-you-re-out-there-Getting-Out-the-Vote-remind-voters-it-s-Obamacare-open-enrollment-time" target="_blank">great tools to help</a> you or people you are helping figure out what options are available all across the country. Now that all the election is done and the holiday rush hasn’t begun, it’s a good time to get enrolled or re-enrolled and to also help get people signed up for Obamacare. It’s also another opportunity to make Trump and the Republicans hurt. The better Obamacare does, the more angst they’ll have. You know where to go, right? <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" target="_blank">Healthcare.gov</a>, because even Trump hasn’t been able to blow it up. * In most states. These are the exceptions with extended deadlines: <ul> <li>California – January 15, 2019</li> <li>Colorado – January 15, 2019</li> <li>D.C. – January 31, 2019</li> <li>Massachusetts – January 23, 2019</li> <li>Minnesota – January 13, 2019</li> <li>New York – January 31, 2019</li> <li>Rhode Island – January 31, 2019</li> </ul> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump HealthCare NancyPelosi Obamacare Resistance Sabotage Trumpcare _1808443 Tue, 13 Nov 2018 19:22:48 +0000 Was last Tuesday a wave? Yep, and a pretty good day to be a Democrat https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/13/1812561/-Was-last-Tuesday-a-wave-Semantics-aside-it-was-a-pretty-good-day-to-be-a-Democrat Ah, traditional media. In a <a href="https://apnews.com/4316dc20404a45d68e4d2f36f1a4b7cd?utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP_Politics">story</a> talking about all the new victories that Democrats have racked up since vote counting began last Tuesday night, the AP's Steve Peoples leads with the sentence "No, it wasn't a blue wave." He goes on to say "Democrats have steadily chalked up victories across the country, firming up their grip on the U.S. House and statehouses," and that the "slow roll of wins has given the party plenty to celebrate." And he notes Democrats have "picked up at least 32 seats in the House—and lead in four more—in addition to flipping seven governorships and eight state legislative chambers." So what he needs to call it a wave is unclear. Like maybe the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/8/1811290/-How-enormous-was-2018-Democrats-have-picked-up-the-most-House-seats-since-Watergate">most House seats</a> picked up by Democrats since Watergate, with races still being called? Oh, and don’t forget three Republican states—Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah—wholly embracing Medicaid expansion on their ballots. Beyond the fact of which party has emerged victorious, look at who has won. That would include "Massachusetts' first African-American female member of Congress, Ayanna Presley, and Michigan's Rashida Talib and Minnesota's Ilhan Omar, the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, along with Kansas' Sharice Davids, the first lesbian Native American" to go to Congress. As MoveOn's Ben Wikler tells Peoples, it's a "a genuine wave of diverse, progressive and inspiring Democrats winning office." Yeah, and then there's the part about how "Democrats have not lost a single House incumbent so far." Or the fact that Democrats won the popular vote for the Senate by about 12 percent. But we can't call it a wave? It was a wave and a realignment, with voters in the Southwest and <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/12/1812347/-College-degree-holders-increasingly-vote-Democratic">college-degree holders</a> and women (even the white ones) increasingly turning Democratic. The latest flip is the Arizona Senate race, <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/12/1812194/-Krysten-Sinema-declared-winner-in-Arizona-flips-senate-seat-to-blue" title="">called Monday night</a> for Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema. Add to that Rep. Jacky Rosen's defeat of incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller in and you've got a Nevada that really isn't even tinged purple anymore and Arizona dipping its toe into the blue in a pretty big way. Even Rep. Beto O'Rourke made a statewide race in Texas a close call. There's still a deplorable Senate majority and still the orange behemoth in the White House, so we can't rest on the laurels of a landslide House victory, not for a second. But Tuesday also has to be recognized for what it is—a wave of repudiation of Trump and the Republicans. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 Democrats House TraditionalMedia _1812561 Tue, 13 Nov 2018 17:40:40 +0000 Racism, conspiracy theories fuel Republicans' Florida strategy https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/13/1812529/-Racism-conspiracy-theories-fuel-Republicans-Florida-strategy <a href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-count-every-vote" class="dk-action-link" data-action="petition" data-slug="sign-the-petition-count-every-vote" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v3/petition/sign-the-petition-count-every-vote?format=js&source=widget&can_widget_id=can-petition-area-sign-the-petition-count-every-vote-2750" data-href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-count-every-vote">Campaign Action</a> Republicans are reverting to tried and true tactics to win the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/13/1812402/-Morning-Digest-Kyrsten-Sinema-becomes-first-Democrat-to-win-a-Senate-race-in-Arizona-in-30-years#2">three still-uncalled races</a> in Florida, with their eyes particularly on the prize of a Senate seat, with the governorship icing on the deplorable cake. Racism, conspiracy theories, and a redux of the "Brooks Brothers" riots of 2000 are their strategy to get current governor and former Medicare fraudster Rick Scott to the Senate. They're <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/us/politics/republicans-florida-recount.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" title="">trying to turn</a> the very concept of one person, one vote and every vote counting into an effort by Democrats to "steal" an election. Republican "lawyers, strategists and advisers involved in the effort" told The New York Times that they are expressly attempting to "discredit the state's recount as illegitimate and potentially rife with fraud" so that they can strengthen the GOP's Senate majority and get more judges confirmed more easily. They feel the need to stem the massive Democratic victory in the House, particularly after having lost, finally, the Arizona Senate seat to the Democrats. That means following the orange behemoth in the White House down the racist path of saying black people voting is fraud. Trump "equates his political success with that of Ron DeSantis, the Republican nominee for governor whose campaign was taken over by Trump aides," these Republicans tell the Times. He also "believes he ensured" Scott's victory with his appearances in Florida during the last weeks of the campaign. So, "one person close to him" tell the Times he views the recounts as "akin to a personal attack." With a 100 or so Republican National Committee staffers and lawyers, as well as "thousands of trained volunteers" on the ground to back them up, Scott and DeSantis are having Trump take the lead on calling fraud, with an assist from the reliable whack-job conspiracy theorists. James O'Keefe protégé Laura Loomer, hopefully soon-to-be-indicted Roger Stone, and Rush Limbaugh have all been pushing a story that "the Broward County Sheriff’s Office had staged a bomb threat at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Sunday to cover up the discovery of a box of provisional ballots that were left in a rental car." It's not working so great in the courts this time around, however. Maybe the repeat of 2000 is a cautionary tale even for a Republican-appointed judge, given what a debacle Bush-Cheney turned out to be, and the fact that out of it grew Trump. Judge Tuter in Broward County not only refused Scott's request to impound voting machines and ballots, he warned Republicans that "We need to be careful what we say. … These words mean things these days, as everybody in the room knows." In not so many words, cut the racist shit. It is telling that while the recount is happening in every county in the state, Republicans are focused on Broward, where a majority of the population is Hispanic and black and the director of elections is a black woman. <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/13/1812402/-Morning-Digest-Kyrsten-Sinema-becomes-first-Democrat-to-win-a-Senate-race-in-Arizona-in-30-years#2">As of election day</a>, Scott leads by 12,562 votes and DeSantis by 33,684. All 67 counties are conducting machine recounts of all the ballots, to be completed by 3 PM ET on Thursday. A manual recount has to happen for races within a margin of 0.25 percent. The Nelson-Scott race ended with a margin of 0.15 percent. <div> <a name="update-1542130737000"></a> </div> <div class="live-update-wrapper" data-epoch-time="1542130737000"> <a class="live-update-link" href="#update-1542130737000"> Tuesday, Nov 13, 2018 · 5:38:57 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter </a> <div class="live-update-content">The lawsuits keep piling up, but here’s one from the good guys. <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;BREAKING: We have sued Florida in federal court to ensure that its guidelines for determining &amp;quot;voter intent&amp;quot; do not disenfranchise thousands of lawful ballots.&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1062394918583312385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;November 13, 2018&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">BREAKING: We have sued Florida in federal court to ensure that its guidelines for determining "voter intent" do not disenfranchise thousands of lawful ballots.— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) <a href="https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1062394918583312385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2018</a></blockquote> </div> </div> </div> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 BillNelson Democrats FL-Sen Florida Republicans RickScott Senate _1812529 Tue, 13 Nov 2018 16:12:24 +0000 Why you need to shop around for an ACA plan, even if you already have one https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/12/1812348/-Why-you-need-to-shop-around-for-an-ACA-plan-even-if-you-already-have-one It’s open enrollment time for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, now until December 15 in most states. This isn’t just an opportunity for the uninsured to find coverage, but for people with individual plans—whether through Obamacare or not—to shop around and discover what other options are available. Here are <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/top-five-reasons-for-consumers-to-compare-their-2019-coverage-options-300747855.html" target="_blank" title="">some good reasons to do so</a>, according to various industry experts. 1. Lower prices: “an eHealth analysis of plans available to 45 year olds in 38 metropolitan areas through the federal health insurance marketplace, the premium for the lowest-cost bronze plan has decreased an average of 3 percent compared with last year's open enrollment period.” 2. More plans to choose from: That same analysis found that “there are 31 percent more plans to choose from across all states served by the federal health insurance marketplace.” 3. Verify your provider network: Insurers routinely change their provider networks, so you want to make sure your preferred doctors and hospitals are still in the network. 4. Prescription drug coverage changes: If you’ve got specific prescription drug needs, make sure they’re still covered and that they’ll provide the savings you need. There are plenty of <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/2/1809438/-While-you-re-out-there-Getting-Out-the-Vote-remind-voters-it-s-Obamacare-open-enrollment-time" target="_blank">great tools to help</a> you or people you are helping figure out what options are available all across the country. Now that all the election is done and the holiday rush hasn’t begun, it’s a good time to get enrolled or re-enrolled and to also help get people signed up for Obamacare. It’s also another opportunity to make Trump and the Republicans hurt. The better Obamacare does, the more angst they’ll have. You know where to go, right? <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" target="_blank">Healthcare.gov</a>, because even Trump hasn’t been able to blow it up. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct GetAmericaCovered HealthCare HealthInsurance Obamacare OpenEnrollment _1812348 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 21:08:42 +0000 College degree holders increasingly vote Democratic https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/12/1812347/-College-degree-holders-increasingly-vote-Democratic The 2018 blue wave that gave control of the House to the Democrats is appearing to signal a realignment in the works, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/midterm-results-point-to-a-new-divide-in-politics-education-1541865601" title="">pattern of voters with college degrees</a> abandoning Republicans Consider this: In 1992, Republicans still held half of the 30 House districts with the highest level of educational attainment. In 2019, they will hold a grand total of two. Out of 30. Among the nearly three dozen flips Democrats gained last week, 29 are in the top one-half of House districts for education levels, meaning more than 30 percent of voters have a college or advanced degree. Democratic flips in South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Georgia fit that pattern. One of the possible reasons for white, working-class voters to continue to leave the Democrats is that they have been slow to benefit from the economic recovery, whereas more educated workers came out of it faster. At the same time, there's been a shift in opinion on issues like immigration, guns, and health care. White women with degrees seem to finally be moving toward their sisters of color politically, sharply diverging from white men without degrees. "The new cultural divide is education," Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster, told The Wall Street Journal. "Republicans are now the party of those with a high-school diploma or less," Mr. McInturff said, "with Democrats having a totally dominating advantage among those with a postgraduate degree." rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 Democrats Education House Realignment _1812347 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 20:45:18 +0000 Outgoing Michigan Republicans look to screw workers in lame-duck session https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/12/1812307/-Outgoing-Michigan-Republicans-look-to-screw-workers-in-lame-duck-session In September, the Republican-led legislature in Michigan <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/09/05/michigan-legislature-wage-sick-leave-initiatives/1201948002/" title="">approved</a> citizen-initiated legislation to raise the state's minimum wage to $12/hour and require paid sick leave. They did this expressly to keep two initiatives off of last week's ballot. It was an attempt to depress Democratic turnout, and to give them the opportunity to gut it. Many Democrats opposed the legislation because they knew that it would lead to precisely what the legislature is <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2018/11/12/minimum-wage-sick-leave-michigan-lame-duck/1942266002/">now planning to do</a>: roll back the laws during the lame-duck session, while they still have a Republican governor to sign them. The changes they’re eyeing include changing employees' responsibility in providing notice to employers when they need time off to "make it more acceptable to the business community so we continue to keep our economy on track," according to Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof. In other words: to make it virtually impossible for workers to actually get paid time off when they're sick. One attack on the minimum wage law could be maintaining a lower than minimum wage for tipped restaurant workers, a policy the initiative would have eliminated. Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, a Democrat from Flint, is sounding the alarm for the public. "They can make sure their voices are heard and say that obviously people wanted a raise, and they wanted to have paid sick leave." He warns that Republicans "will be held accountable" when they return in smaller majorities next year if they gut these laws. For his part, outgoing Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has his own priorities, "including a 'renew and rebuild Michigan' plan to fund environmental cleanup and water infrastructure upgrades through fee increases Republican lawmakers have been hesitant to approve." Senate Republicans are opposed to that, so there's the makings for a contentious lame-duck session with the governor. "At this point, I'm waiting to see what their priorities are, and let's merge them together and see what we can accomplish," Snyder said. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) GretchenWhitmer Michigan MinimumWage PaidSickLeave Republicans RickSnyder waronworkers _1812307 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 18:45:49 +0000 First up for ambitious House Democrats: Strengthening democracy and ensuring voting rights https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/12/1812292/-First-up-for-ambitious-House-Democrats-Strengthening-democracy-and-ensuring-voting-rights <a href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-to-congress-restore-democracy-with-voting-rights-laws" class="dk-action-link" data-action="petition" data-slug="sign-the-petition-to-congress-restore-democracy-with-voting-rights-laws" data-src="https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v3/petition/sign-the-petition-to-congress-restore-democracy-with-voting-rights-laws?format=js&source=widget&can_widget_id=can-petition-area-sign-the-petition-to-congress-restore-democracy-with-voting-rights-laws-178691" data-href="/campaigns/petition/sign-the-petition-to-congress-restore-democracy-with-voting-rights-laws">Campaign Action</a> In the last session of Congress, the Republican House made House Resolution 1 their budget and reconciliation bill created to allow them to jam Obamacare repeal through the Senate on a simple majority vote. Which failed. In contrast, the incoming House Democrats have reserved that special designation, H.R. 1 for <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/11/12/665635832/democrats-say-their-first-bill-will-focus-on-strengthening-democracy-at-home?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=politics&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2041">reclaiming our democratic republic</a>, starting with establishing automatic voter registration and restoring the Voting Rights Act. "It's three very basic things that I think the public wants to see," said Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), making voting easier, closing government ethics loopholes, and reducing the influence of money in politics. Sarbanes, who leads campaign finance and government ethics efforts for the House Democratic Caucus, says the bill "demonstrate that we hear that message loud and clear." In addition to automatic voter registration, it would take redistricting power away from state legislatures in favor of independent commissions. It would include provisions to require more campaign finance disclosure and create a public financing match to encourage small contributions. It would close the loophole that exempts the president from the ban on conflicts of interest and require presidential candidates release their tax returns to public scrutiny. "The path back to having the public trust government and politics is a long one, but we have to start someplace," Sarbanes said. This is a very good start. We’ve got the most unethical president in recent memory (yes, worse than Nixon) and a Senate Majority Leader in Mitch McConnell who is intent on destroying the institution. This is a smart place for Democrats to attack. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) Ethics Redistricting VoterRegistration VotingRightsAct WarOnVoting _1812292 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 17:45:27 +0000 Medicare for All fight preview: $111 million spent by just one industry in just one state https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/12/1812274/-Medicare-for-All-fight-preview-111-million-spent-by-just-one-industry-in-just-one-state One tiny sliver of the healthcare industry just gave us a preview of how big of a fight Medicare for All is likely to be. The <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-dialysis-20181109-story.html" title="">dialysis industry just spent $111 million</a> in California to defeat a ballot measure that would have limited its profits. Proposition 8 was sponsored by the Service Employees International Union, which is attempting to organize the workers in dialysis clinics. It would have created incentives for the clinics to hire more care staff and pay them better in addition to capping the revenue of the for-profit clinics. It would have required the clinics to refund insurers any profits over 115 percent of the cost of direct care of patients. It went down by a nearly two-thirds margin after all that money, "national, historical record" setting level of spending for a ballot initiative, was poured in against it. The industry argued that the measure would cause clinics to close. The SEIU argued that it would <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/the-health-202/2018/11/12/the-health-202-the-dialysis-industry-spent-more-than-100-million-to-beat-a-california-ballot-measure/5be867f11b326b392905472b/?utm_term=.47042799e5b7" title="">put patients first</a> by forcing clinics to accept all patients and providing more trained staff. The SEIU vows to keep up the fight in California in the legislature and in more states in 2020. Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW told the Washington Post's Paulina Firozi that, on average, one dialysis treatment for a Medicare patient in California costs $250 while private insurance can be charged $1,000 or more per treatment. "Dialysis is an outlier within the health-care landscape of a service with a horrible business model, gouging consumers and patients, and it's just a predatory business and it needs to be reformed," Regan said. The industry promises to stay in the fight, because of course it does. It's insanely profitable, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-dialysis-20180720-story.html" title="">obscenely so</a>. The main two for-profit providers—DaVita and Fresenius—make $3 billion a year in California, alone. This is a just preview of the fight we're going to have in Medicare for All, while at the same time a stunning indictment of the for-profit healthcare system in the U.S. The fight against Prop 8 wasn't about patient care. It was about shareholder and CEO compensation. That's what we're going to be up against in the years to come as Medicare for All gains steam. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) California dialysis HealthCareReform MedicareForAll Proposition8 SinglePayer _1812274 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 17:07:51 +0000 House Democrats intend to exercise their healthcare mandate over the next two years https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/12/1812255/-House-Democrats-intend-to-exercise-their-health-care-mandate-over-the-next-two-years Throughout the duration of the 2018 campaign, health care was the key issue for voters and the key issue for Democrats. It gave them the House of Representatives with a <a href="https://www.politico.com/election-results/2018/house/" title="">net gain</a> of 33 seats and the chance of even more gains with eight races still uncalled. They are going to take that healthcare mandate and run with it through 2020. One of the first orders of business will be to determine <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/9/1811519/-House-Democrats-mull-intervening-in-Obamacare-challenge" title="">how to intervene</a> in the challenge 20 states have brought against the Affordable Care Act. With the Trump administration not only refusing to defend the law but actually joining in the suit arguing that the law's protections for patients should be struck down, the House Democrats are considering the best way to join the Democratic states' attorneys general in defending it. They're also looking at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/us/politics/health-care-democrats-congress.html" title="">means of shoring up the law</a>, "stabilizing the Affordable Care Act marketplace, controlling prescription drug prices and investigating Trump administration actions that undermine the health care law." Along with providing a legal defense for the law, they're looking at early legislation to ensure people with pre-existing conditions will keep the protections in the ACA, the number one issue of 2018, and put Republicans who joined that bandwagon during the campaign on the spot. Given the <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/news/gonzales/its-not-too-early-to-start-looking-at-the-2020-senate-map" title="">number of seats</a> the Senate Republicans have to defend in 2020, that's a smart move. They saw the bloodbath that was the House in addition to three very red states voting to expand Medicaid, so many will want to try to erase the Democratic advantage on the issue. At the same time, there will always be the handful of extremists—Ted Cruz who is returning, Tom Cotton, Ron Johnson, et al.—clamoring for repeal. That's the kind of pressure Democrats need to put on Mitch McConnell. The Trump administration isn't likely to be doing Republicans any favors here. At this point, it intends to keep up Trump's efforts at undermining the law and kicking people off of Medicaid. Senate Republicans are going to be trapped between the House Democrats pushing to save people's health care and Trump trying to take it away. It could be enough to force McConnell into compromise with the House. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct Democrats DonaldTrump HealthCare House Obamacare Resistance Sabotage Trumpcare _1812255 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 16:11:06 +0000 No Thanksgiving with family for troops serving in Trump's military border stunt https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/12/1812223/-No-Thanksgiving-with-family-for-troops-serving-in-Trump-s-border-fiasco It will be a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/us/deployed-inside-the-united-states-the-military-waits-for-the-migrant-caravan.html" title="">grim Thanksgiving</a> for the troops Donald Trump is sending to the border in his unnecessary, nativistic, operation to prevent asylum-seekers coming to the United States from entering. The deployment, which officials in Trump's Pentagon say is "an expensive waste of time and resources, and a morale killer to boot," will last until December 15. That means the 5,600 troops already there are trying to set up a base for the 15,000 troops Trump envisions, a deployment that could cost $200 million and for which the Pentagon does not have a budget allocation. They're there to do essentially nothing but provide logistical support to border agents. They can't enforce law, so they're there just to set up these massive camps for themselves and border patrol. They have no mission and they'll be there over Thanksgiving and that's a big problem says Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) who served as a helicopter pilot in Iraq. "When you give a soldier a real mission, you have less of a morale problem, even if it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving," he told the New York Times. "But when you send a soldier on a dubious mission, with no military value, over Thanksgiving, it doesn’t help morale at all." It also doesn't help that military leadership does not support the missions and it's seen by many as a purely political action. The troops have the bare minimum of necessities in the camps set up. Just enough electricity for lights and communications—no entertainment. Because water is in short supply, they have a strict shower schedule and 7-minute limit. They have only the infamous MREs, pre-packaged "meals ready to eat." The 20-person tents they sleep in have no electricity and no air conditioning. Phones can only be charged at a few generators that provide lights. For being ripped away from their families over the holidays, on a mission that is entirely for Trump's ego gratification and racist impulse fulfillment, the troops get no extra combat or hostile fire pay. And MREs for Thanksgiving dinner. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) BorderWall DepartmentofDefense DonaldTrump Immigration Military _1812223 Mon, 12 Nov 2018 14:48:59 +0000 Obamacare's first week of open enrollment sluggish, but likely to pick up. You can help with that https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/9/1811616/-Obamacare-s-first-week-of-open-enrollment-sluggish-but-likely-to-pick-up-You-can-help-with-that About 370,000 people<a href="https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/week-1-aca-exchange-enrollment-sluggish-but-analysts-aren-t-worried" target="_blank" title=""> signed up for plans</a> on Healthcare.gov in the first week of open enrollment which started on November 1. That’s down substantially from the 601,462 that enrolled in the first week in 2017. So far, 89,000 new consumers signed up this year, while 282,394 were renewing coverage and there are about 800,000 who have started the process and are awaiting eligibility determinations. But this year was, in official terms, a short week—Thursday through Saturday. More telling will be the tally from this first full week of enrollments. That’s also because of the outcome of the election. With Democrats ready to take over the House, the threat of repeal is greatly lessened. There’s the outside chance Republicans will take another stab at it in the lameduck session, but in the Senate, particularly, the prospect for them succeeding would be poor. The success Democrats had in running on protecting health care will also help stave that off and might even slow down Republicans’ push in the courts. All of which means it’s safe to sign up. That doesn’t mean the Trump administration is going to make it easy. It’s abandoned its role in getting the word out about enrollments, in funding all the groups that help people navigate the markets. So we’ve got to take up the slack and spread the word. There are some <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/2/1809438/-While-you-re-out-there-Getting-Out-the-Vote-remind-voters-it-s-Obamacare-open-enrollment-time" target="_blank">great tools to help</a> you or people you are helping figure out what options are available all across the country. Now that all the election is done and the holiday rush hasn’t begun, it’s a great time to get out there and get people signed up for Obamacare. It’s your second chance to give Trump and the Republicans the finger. You know where to go, right? <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" target="_blank">Healthcare.gov</a>, because even Trump hasn’t been able to blow it up. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump HealthCare Obamacare Resistance Sabotage Trumpcare _1811616 Fri, 09 Nov 2018 20:34:04 +0000 The House will act on gun violence next year, Democrats promise https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/9/1811600/-The-House-will-act-on-gun-violence-next-year-Democrats-promise House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi <a href="https://apnews.com/0dcf52423856469fb57756324130b86e?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics&utm_campaign=SocialFlow" title="">promises action</a> on gun violence, in the midst of a particularly horrifying few weeks of mass shootings. "The American people deserve real action to end the daily epidemic of gun violence that is stealing the lives of our children on campuses, in places of worship and on our streets," she in her post-midterm press conference Thursday. Among the potential measures House Democrats will pursue are restrictions on the sale of high capacity magazines and allowing guns to be temporarily removed from people "deemed an imminent risk to themselves or others." It's a slow start, but they've got this legislation ready to go from earlier efforts. The political calculus has shifted says Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch who represents the district which includes Parkland, where the massacre at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School galvanized young people around the country. "We saw it start on Tuesday and we’re going to see it accelerate in January," Deutch said. Democrats will have the powerful voice of Lucy McBath, newly elected in Georgia, in their caucus. McBath's son, Jordan David, was fatally shot in 2012 and gun violence was the centerpiece of her campaign. So far, at least 17 incoming Democrats back stricter gun laws. There will be "new energy" on gun issues, vows Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. She campaigned with three Virginia Democrats—Jennifer Wexton, Abigail Spanberger and Elaine Luria—in the final week of the campaign, and says "Our base is worked up, and people are reacting in a positive way at the ballot box. […] A large number of folks showed up and knocked on doors and said they finally have a candidate who will do something about gun violence." All three of those members campaigned on the issue and defeated NRA-backed Republicans. Republicans can't avoid the issue and just keep working for the NRA, says Deutch. "They learned this week that just won't work anymore." rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 Democrats GunControl GunSafety GunViolence House _1811600 Fri, 09 Nov 2018 19:37:24 +0000 Democrats need to use their mandate to protect the Mueller investigation, starting now https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/9/1811559/-Democrats-need-to-use-their-mandate-to-protect-the-Mueller-investigation-starting-now Democrats won the House by a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/8/1811290/-How-enormous-was-2018-Democrats-have-picked-up-the-most-House-seats-since-Watergate">huge margin</a> and cast <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/7/1810775/-Democrats-won-big-last-night-in-a-vote-that-should-and-does-terrify-Donald-Trump">at least 12 million more votes</a> for Senate Democrats than Republicans. They won this massive popular vote in repudiation of Donald Trump and in an effort to save the country. It's that simple. That's their mandate, and Democrats don't have to wait until the new Congress is sworn in in January to start fulfilling it. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/08/politics/house-democrats-crisis-moment-mueller-investigation/index.html" title="">Even now , they are discussing how to do that</a> following Trump's firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and unconstitutionally installation of <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/9/1811475/-Acting-attorney-general-Matthew-Whitaker-isn-t-just-a-nut-he-s-a-dangerous-nut" title="">Trump loyalist</a> Matthew Whitaker as acting AG. Democratic committee leaders are going to push Republicans to include legislation to protect Robert Mueller's investigation and to preserve the documents from the investigation in the spending bills that have to pass by Dec. 7, when the current continuing resolution funding many government operations expires. Incoming Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York told current and new Democrats on a call that was organized by Nancy Pelosi that the country is in a "crisis moment." He and incoming Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff and presumptive Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings filled members in on what they've done so far in calling for the preservation of documents and what they plan to do: force legislation protecting the special counsel by threatening a shutdown without it. Nadler told CNN's Kate Bolduan that the "future of constitutional government is at stake," and "we must go a long way to make sure that the president is a president, not a king." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is continuing to <a href="https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1060928062659923970" title="">refuse to allow a vote</a> to protect the special counsel investigation because "it's not necessary," he says. "The Mueller investigation is not under threat." It is clearly under threat, and the only way to force McConnell's hand here is to include it in the spending bill necessary to keep government running. And when Democrats are accused of "hostage-taking," because you know they will be, they only have to point to the mandate they won on Tuesday. The time is now for Democrats to start thwarting McConnell and Trump. Everything is at stake. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AdamSchiff DonaldTrump ElijahCummings JerryNadler MitchMcConnell muellerinvestigation NancyPelosi RobertMueller Russia SpecialCounsel _1811559 Fri, 09 Nov 2018 17:55:16 +0000 House Democrats mull intervening in Obamacare challenge https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/9/1811519/-House-Democrats-mull-intervening-in-Obamacare-challenge A decision in the legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act brought by 20 states and the Trump administration is going to be <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/obamacare-lawsuit-donald-trump-midterm-election-preexisting-conditions/" title="">handed down</a> any minute now. Since Republicans shopped for the district and the judge most likely to rule in their favor, against the law, the case is likely to work its way up to the Supreme Court. The Trump administration, rather than defending the law, joined with the states and even went further to argue specifically that protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions should be struck down. Since the administration is refusing to uphold the law, House Democrats are <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/08/house-democrats-obamacare-lawsuit-956606" title="">weighing using their new majority</a> to intervene. They would join more than a dozen Democratic states who have intervened in support of the law. According to Politico, they would have a vote on a resolution to take up the defense of the law soon after the next Congress is sworn in in January. That would both fulfill Democrats' promise to do everything in their power to save the law and its protections, and also force all those Republicans who swear they care about their constituents to put their votes where their mouths are. "A notable difference between us [Democrats] and them is that we actually want to protect these protections," a House Democratic leadership aide told Politico. "This would specifically authorize the House as a legal party in the lawsuit." They have yet to determine which procedure they'll use. They could pass that resolution authorizing the House general counsel to intervene, or have a five-member group of House Democratic and Republican leadership called the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group order the counsel to take a position on the suit. This is significant because it's unilateral action the House could take. Mitch McConnell's Senate would have no power to prevent it. There's the very outside chance that the "intensely political" Texas District Judge Reed O'Connor will react to the midterm results by making this problem go away for Republicans. He promised to issue a decision "as quickly" as he could—two months ago. He's likely been holding out on ruling pending the election, says Tim Jost, a professor emeritus at Washington and Lee University School of Law and an expert on the ACA. "Why hasn’t he ruled yet? […] I suspect that he is waiting until the election is over because the last thing Republican candidates need right now is another reminder that they are trying to get rid of preexisting-conditions protections." rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct Democrats DonaldTrump HealthCare House Obamacare Resistance Sabotage _1811519 Fri, 09 Nov 2018 15:50:41 +0000 Affordable Care Act enrollments sluggish in first week, let's help pick up the pace https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/8/1811319/-Affordable-Care-Act-enrollments-sluggish-in-first-week-let-s-help-pick-up-the-pace Enrollments in the Affordable Care Act are <a href="https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-vitals-f035d9fd-1d86-41e3-8c19-925c8bf683af.html?chunk=0#story0" target="_blank" title="">lagging substantially behind</a> last year’s sign-up period. <blockquote> By the numbers: A little over <a href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/weekly-enrollment-snapshot-week-1" title="">370,000</a> people selected plans through HealthCare.gov in the first 3 days of open enrollment, according to figures the Health and Human Services Department released yesterday. <ul> <li>By contrast, more than <a href="https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/weekly-enrollment-snapshot-week-one" title="">600,000</a> people selected plans in the first 4 days of the last enrollment period.</li> <li>Roughly 1 million fewer people have visited HealthCare.gov.</li> </ul> </blockquote> That’s not good, but there’s certainly time for it to turn around. Now that Democrats will be in control of the House, people who might have been waiting to make sure it was still going to be around can sign up. "Overall, it’s just too soon to draw any meaningful conclusions from this data aside from the fact that demand remains strong," said Get America Covered, the grassroots organization that’s stepped in to do the job of recruitment, public education, and assistance that the Trump administration has refused to do. The grassroots is going to have to step up to make this year a success. You have until December 15 (in a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/6/1810495/-Wondering-what-to-do-when-GOTV-is-over-Get-out-the-Obamacare-enrollments" target="_blank" title="">handful of states</a> that deadline is extended into January) to sign up or help get your friends, family, coworkers, tradespeople, whoever enrolled. There are some <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/2/1809438/-While-you-re-out-there-Getting-Out-the-Vote-remind-voters-it-s-Obamacare-open-enrollment-time" target="_blank" title="">great tools to help</a> you or people you are helping figure out what options are available all across the country. Now that all the voting is done, get out there and get people signed up for Obamacare. It’s your second chance to give Trump and the Republicans the finger. You know where to go, right? <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" target="_blank">Healthcare.gov</a>, because even Trump hasn’t been able to blow it up. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2019 AffordableCareAct Obamacare OpenEnrollment _1811319 Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:09:42 +0000 What did Susan Collins get back home for her Kavanaugh betrayal? A 9-point approval drop https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/8/1811315/-What-did-Susan-Collins-get-back-home-for-her-Kavanaugh-betrayal-An-9-point-approval-drop Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) traded her reputation and principles away for the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court fight for an <a href="https://morningconsult.com/2018/11/08/kavanaugh-vote-shakes-up-susan-collins-coalition/">overall loss of 9 points</a> in her approval rating. Morning Consult polled Maine and found that " the political ground has shifted beneath her ahead of a potential 2020 re-election run." Forty-five percent of Mainers approve of her job performance post-Kavanaugh, a 9-point drop since Morning Consult last surveyed over the summer. She picked up a lot of Republicans: "68 percent approved and 25 percent disapproved—a net 43-point jump." She could make that shift because Republicans disliked her before, displeased with her general bipartisany persona and her anti-Obamacare repeal vote. She's 32 points underwater with Democrats, having gone from a 39 percent disapproval to a miserable 63 percent bad rating. She's not likely to be able to court many of them as she has in the past. She's fared slightly better with independents, her disapproval rating jumping just 4 points from 31 to 35, but her approval dropping from 56 to 41 points. An awful lot more independents have decided they're undecided about what they think of her. The "Kavanaugh bump" for the Republican base was pretty <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/16/1804800/-With-Civiqs-real-time-polling-we-can-see-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-Kavanaugh-bump">short-lived</a>, so we'll see how long they still like Collins, given the hardest core of them have looked on her as a sellout for most of her career. She burned bridges with many of them long ago. The bridges she just burned with Democrats, with Independents, and particularly with women, her staunchest supporters, aren't going to be rebuilt. Every heinous decision out of the Supreme Court that Kavanaugh signs on to is going to rebound on her, forever. Between that and the $3.7 million war chest that the grassroots has raised to hand over to her 2020 Democratic challenger, she's going to have a very uncomfortable two years. We'll make sure of that. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2020 BrettKavanaugh ChristineBlaseyFord DonaldTrump FederalJudiciary ME-SenSusanCollins Recommended SCOTUS SupremeCourt _1811315 Thu, 08 Nov 2018 20:54:59 +0000 Florida alert: Provisional votes have to be verified by 5 o'clock Eastern today https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/8/1811276/-Florida-alert-Provisional-votes-have-to-be-verified-by-5-o-clock-today With both key Florida races still <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/8/1811209/-Key-Florida-races-headed-to-recount-in-Georgia-Abrams-pushes-for-every-vote-to-be-counted" target="_blank" title="">undecided</a> and headed to a recount, it is imperative that every vote cast for Andrew Gillum for governor and Sen. Bill Nelson are counted. If you voted by provisional ballot, <a href="http://www.wlrn.org/post/florida-voters-have-until-5pm-get-their-provisional-ballots-counted" target="_blank" title="">you have until 5 PM ET</a> TODAY to make sure your vote is counted. IF YOU VOTED BY PROVISIONAL BALLOT, you have until 5 PM TODAY to contact your county supervisor of elections and make your ballot count. Take the following steps: 1. Check your information on the <a href="https://registration.elections.myflorida.com/CheckVoterStatus" title="">Florida State Supervisor of Elections website</a> to make sure you are registered under your name and at your precinct. 2. If you remember voting by provisional ballot, EVEN IF YOUR INFORMATION IS CORRECT, you should <a href="https://dos.elections.myflorida.com/supervisors/supervisor_elections.asp" title="">either go in person or call your local Elections office</a>. You should bring a photo ID, a signature ID, your voter information card, and any other identification that may be relevant. 3. Stick with it! Be persistent! Find out whether your vote was counted and if it was not, make your voice is heard! Some people who voted provisionally may need an affidavit to vote. Here are the relevant contacts: - Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Office: 2700 NW 87th Ave, Miami, FL, 33152; tel: 305-499-8683; fax: (305)499-8501; <a href="mailto:soedade@miamidade.gov" target="_blank" title="">soedade@miamidade.gov</a> - Broward County Supervisor of Elections Office: 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Room 102, Fort Lauderdale, FL; tel: 954-357-7050; fax: 954-357-7070; <a href="mailto:Elections@browardsoe.org" target="_blank" title="">Elections@browardsoe.org</a> - Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office: 240 South Military Trail, West Palm Beach, FL; tel: 561-656-6200; fax: 561-656-6287; <a href="mailto:susanbucher@pbcelections.org" target="_blank" title="">susanbucher@pbcelections.org</a> - Monroe County Supervisor of Elections Office: 530 Whitehead Street #101, Key West, FL; tel: 305-292-3416; <a href="http://info@keyselections.org/" title="">info@keyselections.org</a> IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS or PROBLEMS, please call the Voter Protection Hotline: (833) 868-3352 (1-833-VOTE-FLA) <a href="https://twitter.com/seiufl/status/1060530247957921793?s=21" title="">SEIU Florida also has further information on verifying provisional voters here.</a> <a href="https://registration.elections.myflorida.com/checkvoterstatus" title="">Did you vote by mail? Click here to verify that your vote was counted and tabulated.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AndrewGillum BillNelson FL-Gov FL-Sen _1811276 Thu, 08 Nov 2018 18:32:49 +0000 Elections have consequences, and for the uninsured in Maine, they're all good https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/8/1811266/-Elections-have-consequences-and-for-the-uninsured-in-Maine-they-re-all-good Gov.-elect Janet Mills, the first woman to be elected governor in Maine's 198-year history, celebrated Wednesday, but her <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2018/11/07/fresh-off-historic-victory-mills-says-health-care-and-opioid-crisis-will-be-top-priorities/">her mind was already on the job</a>, and what she's going to tackle on day 1. <blockquote>"Health care is the No. 1 priority," Mills said, her voice sounding a bit hoarse after a late night. "We are going to work very hard on Medicaid expansion, No. 1. … And the opiate epidemic: we've got to tackle that now. No more waiting. We've lost thousands of lives in the last few years. When nearly 1,000 babies are born last year affected by drugs, we can't stop. We can't drag our feet any more."</blockquote> The new Democratic trifecta in Maine will make that agenda much easier to accomplishment. There are some <a href="https://www.healthinsurance.org/maine-medicaid/" title="">70,000 people</a> in Maine who are eligible for the Medicaid expansion voters approved back in 2017, a vote that current Gov. Paul LePage (R, of course) has been refusing to honor since. That might have a lot to do with Mills' election. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct JanetMills Maine Medicaid _1811266 Thu, 08 Nov 2018 18:09:19 +0000 When is a duck most dangerous? When it's defeated and lame https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/8/1811227/-When-is-a-duck-most-dangerous-When-it-s-defeated-and-lame Congress comes back to work next week to clean up loose ends, push through a few more horrendous judges, pass a farm bill, and take care of that little matter of avoiding a government shutdown in the middle of December. The whomping House Republicans took Tuesday, even though they knew it was coming, might just have leadership and the maniacs in a nasty mood that they'll be tempted to take out on their favorite targets. In Mitch McConnell's <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-16/mcconnell-blames-entitlements-not-gop-for-rising-deficits">words</a>, "the three big entitlement programs that are very popular: Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid." "There's been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of the programs," he continued. "Hopefully at some point here we’ll get serious about this, we haven’t been yet." A lame duck session, the last days of united Republican rule, is his opportunity. It's also House Speaker Paul Ryan's "last hurrah," Nancy Altman of Social Security Works <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/feature/get-ready-for-a-post-election-push-to-slash-social-programs" title="">tells</a> David Dayen. Nobody has been more focused on destroying the social safety net than Ryan. Here's their chance, and they've laid the groundwork. There's still a <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/6/22/1774589/-Republican-budget-plan-to-decimate-Medicaid-Medicare-Social-Security-advances-in-House">budget</a> sitting in the House that they could cut and paste from in a last ditch bill. It sets out $5.4 trillion in cuts over the next ten years from healthcare programs, from Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security—$1 trillion from Medicaid, $537 billion from Medicare, and $4 billion from Social Security. But the most dangerous part of it is that it has reconciliation instructions that require $302 billion in mandatory program spending cuts, instructions that could allow the Senate to pass the legislation with a simple majority vote and avoid a Democratic filibuster. That has not passed in the House, but it's sitting there like a little time bomb for a soon to end Republican majority that might just feel like blowing everything up. Certainly, Trump would be happy with that. Don't forget <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/12/1740785/-Trump-brings-granny-starving-back-to-federal-budgets" title="">his budget</a> which goes directly after Medicare with a $237 billion cut, in one year. Trump is going to prioritize his border wall funding over everything else in this last big budget fight for the year, which is a double-edged sword. The fight over that could be distracting enough that attacks on the safety net slip through while everyone is looking the other way. Or that might be what Republicans count on. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) BorderWall ContinuingResolution DonaldTrump GovernmentShutdown Immigration Medicaid Medicare MitchMcConnell Omnibusspendingbill PaulRyan SocialInsurance SocialSecurity _1811227 Thu, 08 Nov 2018 16:23:45 +0000 Thank you for everything you did to get out the vote. Now let's get out the Obamacare enrollments! https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/7/1810963/-Thank-you-for-everything-you-did-to-get-out-the-vote-now-let-s-get-out-the-Obamacare-enrollments There were a great many gains for Democrats and progressives Tuesday. From the massive number of women and people of color who will make the 116th Congress look a lot more like America to the hundreds of thousands of people who will now be able to get health care through Medicaid expansion, we made great strides forward. Those gains were made in huge part because health care was such a huge issue for voters. Following through on the Democrats’ promise to protect it means keeping the Affordable Care Act strong through robust enrollments. The Trump administration is not going to make that happen, so that’s where <a href="https://www.getamericacovered.org/" target="_blank" title="">Get America Covered</a> and all of us step up. Use those skills you honed in getting out the vote to help take up the slack in providing outreach and public education on health care. From now until Dec. 15, in most states people can go to <a href="http://healthcare.gov/" target="_blank" title="">Healthcare.gov</a> to get health insurance. A handful of states have extended deadlines, which <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/5/1809465/-Vote-Get-Out-the-Vote-and-get-some-people-signed-up-for-Obamacare" target="_blank">you can find here</a>, as well as links to some helpful tools you can use yourself or share with all the friends you made in the last few weeks while getting out the vote. If you already have insurance through the ACA, make sure you look again to see what your options for 2019 will be. This really is critical to fulfilling the promise that all those new members of Congress made. The more people who are signed up and the more people whose care is on the line, the harder it will be for Trump to destroy the ACA. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct GetAmericaCovered HealthCare HealthInsurance Obamacare OpenEnrollment _1810963 Wed, 07 Nov 2018 20:37:26 +0000 Trump finally gives Attorney General Jeff Sessions the axe https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/7/1810945/-Trump-finally-gives-Jeff-Sessions-the-axe After months and months and months of bitching and grousing about Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the unindicted coconspirator has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/us/politics/jeff-sessions-fired-trump.html?smid=tw-bna" target="_blank">forced him out</a>. <blockquote> Mr. Sessions’s resignation, made at the president’s request, was being delivered to John Kelly, Mr. Trump’s chief of staff. It came just a day after midterm elections in which Democrats captured control of the House, but Republican success in holding onto the Senate and building their slim majority may make it easier for the president to confirm a successor. “Dear Mr. President, at your request I am submitting my resignation,” Mr. Sessions said in his letter. </blockquote> The full letter from Sessions is below the fold. Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1060256619383193601" target="_blank">tweeted</a> that “Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff to Attorney General Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, will become our new Acting Attorney General of the United States” and <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1060256623439110146" target="_blank">that</a> he “wishes [Sessions] well.” He’s a liar. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AttorneyGeneral DepartmentofJustice DonaldTrump JeffersonBeauregardSessionsIII _1810945 Wed, 07 Nov 2018 19:56:11 +0000 Drill down and there's no denying it, Democrats had a big night Tuesday https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/7/1810898/-Drill-down-and-there-s-no-denying-it-Democrats-had-a-big-night-Tuesday The Senate (and the implications for the judiciary) aside, it was a very, very good night for Democrats. Daresay, a wave? <a href="https://twitter.com/SamWangPhD/status/1060005925233270784">A wave.</a> As of about 9:00 PM eastern Tuesday night, before polls had closed in the west, Democrats were on track to have a national popular vote margin of 9.2 percent. Despite Senate losses, Democrats <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/7/1810775/-Democrats-won-big-last-night-in-a-vote-that-should-and-does-terrify-Donald-Trump" title="">won that popular vote</a> by 12 million votes. That's not all the good news: <ul> <li>Democrats flipped, so far, 28 U.S. House seats, enough to get the majority.</li> <li>Democrats flipped at least 290 state legislatives seats.</li> <li>Democrats flipped 7 governorships: Kansas, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wisconsin.</li> <li>Democrats flipped 7 state legislative chambers: Colorado's Senate, Maine's Senate, Minnesota's House, New Hampshire's House and Senate, and New York's Senate.</li> <li>Democrats gained trifectas (governor, House, Senate) in six states: Colorado, Illinois, Maine, New Mexico and New York, and broke Republican trifectas in Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.</li> <li>Democrats busted Republicans supermajorities in Michigan and North Carolina.</li> <li>Democrats gained supermajorities in Delaware's House, Illinois's House, the Nevada Assembly, and Oregon House and Senate.</li> <li>Four states voted to expand voting rights.</li> <li>Three state Supreme Court seats flipped.</li> <li>Three red states voted to expand Medicaid.</li> <li>Two states voted to raise the minimum wage.</li> </ul> Democrat Jacky Rosen flipped the Nevada Senate seat held by Dean Heller, and Kyrsten Sineman’s Arizona is still too close to call, while Bill Nelson’s Florida race is probably headed for a recount. Thank you to every single one of you who helped make that happen with your votes, your calls and door knocks and text messages and your dollars. This all happened because of you. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 Democrats _1810898 Wed, 07 Nov 2018 18:28:18 +0000 Medicaid expansion romps in the west https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/7/1810816/-Medicaid-expansion-romps-in-the-west This was the healthcare midterm. All the pollsters said that going in, and in fact a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/midterm-exit-polls-2018-n932516" title="">good-sized plurality of 41 percent</a> said it was their most important issue in the exit polls, for what exit polls are worth. But in three deep red states that stayed in Republican hands, there was a popular revolt over Medicaid expansion. In Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah, Medicaid expansion passed easily. It absolutely crushed in Idaho, where it got <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-idaho-elections.html">60 percent</a> of the vote. As a testament to the incredible grassroots organizing effort on the ground in this state, 9,470 more votes were cast in this race than in the governor's race (it's Idaho, and the nation is going to continue to have to wait for its first Native American governor—the Republican won). It didn't win with just the overwhelming support of the state's urban areas, which it got. Out of the 42 of the state's 44 counties that have reported as of Wednesday morning, it carried 33. It didn't hurt that the outgoing Republican governor, Butch Otter, endorsed it last week and that the campaign counted a number of Republican legislators as surrogates. The biggest win by the numbers was in Idaho, but that doesn't discount its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-nebraska-elections.html">7 point win</a> in Nebraska or the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-utah-elections.html#">5 point win</a> in Utah. Utah also passed medical marijuana, by about 6 points. So, welcome to Utah Sen.-elect Mitt Romney! The one disappointment in the west is Montana, where a tobacco tax to create a permanent funding mechanism for the state's part of the bill is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-montana-elections.html">failing</a> by about 9 points. The state is going to have to come up with some other funding if it's going to keep the expansion, which was passed for a two-year trial period in 2016. But beyond where it was on the ballot directly with these initiatives, it was a major factor in governors' races. The Democratic wins in Kansas and Wisconsin mean that expansion has a much greater chance of happening in those states. It's also true in Maine, where the voters have already resoundingly embraced it but outgoing Republican Gov. Paul LePage has refused to do it. With Stacey Abrams still not conceding the race in Georgia because of all the outstanding ballots, there's still a sliver of hope for expansion there, as well. That resounding vote for Medicaid expansion in solidly Republican states, and the flip of the House of Representatives to Democrats, is a big ol' warning to the Republicans and a big firewall against further Republican efforts to destroy it. This is a very good thing. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Idaho Medicaid Montana Nebraska Utah _1810816 Wed, 07 Nov 2018 15:21:10 +0000 Wondering what to do when GOTV is over? Get out the Obamacare enrollments! https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/6/1810495/-Wondering-what-to-do-when-GOTV-is-over-Get-out-the-Obamacare-enrollments So, you’ve voted, right? No? GO DO IT! I’ll wait. <a href="https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/" title="">Wondering where you vote on Election Day? Use our polling place locator to find out.</a> You got all your friends and family and grade school classmates to vote? No? Go do it. I’ll wait. <a href="https://votewithme.us/?pid=dailykos&c=midterms" title="">People are more likely to vote if a friend asks. Be that friend and use this VoteWithMe to find your friends in swing states and help get out their vote.</a> Done? Yay, you!! Now, let me tell you about open enrollment for health insurance with the Affordable Care Act, because it’s also that time, until December 15 in most states. These are the exceptions: <ul> <li>California – January 15, 2019</li> <li>Colorado – January 15, 2019</li> <li>D.C. – January 31, 2019</li> <li>Massachusetts – January 23, 2019</li> <li>Minnesota – January 13, 2019</li> <li>New York – January 31, 2019</li> <li>Rhode Island – January 31, 2019</li> </ul> There are some <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/2/1809438/-While-you-re-out-there-Getting-Out-the-Vote-remind-voters-it-s-Obamacare-open-enrollment-time" target="_blank" title="">great tools to help</a> you or people you are helping figure out what options are available all across the country. Now that all the voting is done, get out there and get people signed up for Obamacare. It’s your second chance to give Trump and the Republicans the finger. You know where to go, right? <a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/" target="_blank">Healthcare.gov</a>, because even Trump hasn’t been able to blow it up. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct GetAmericaCovered HealthCare HealthInsurance Obamacare OpenEnrollment _1810495 Tue, 06 Nov 2018 19:43:50 +0000 Ritual White House sacrifice scheduled for post-election https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/6/1810470/-Ritual-White-House-sacrifice-scheduled-for-post-election Here's something to look forward to beginning Wednesday: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-administration-prepares-for-massive-shake-up-after-midterms/2018/11/04/dd6ad432-dded-11e8-b732-3c72cbf131f2_story.html?utm_term=.9b011ec9147a" title="">more palace intrigue</a> in the White House as the real rats jump the rotting ship. The unindicted co-conspirator's mouthpieces are going to say it's completely normal for people to leave after the first two years of an administration, but you know nothing is normal here. At all. The Washington Post's description for it is an impending "exodus." Expect Attorney General Jeff Sessions to be out, whether it's his choice or not. In the event Texas Sen. Ted Cruz finds himself out of a job Wednesday morning (please, please, please) expect even more groveling and slimy obsequiousness from him in kissing orange ass for the job. Also too, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, is largely expected to leave "amid a mutual recognition that their relationship with the president has become too strained." A Trump ally, Marc Short, says that this is all to be expected, but "it does provide the president with an opportunity to reset." He then trots out every excuse in the book to explain away the dumpster fire that is the White House under Trump. He "does function as his own chief of staff in a lot ways," and therefore will want to shape the staff more to his liking, even though "He may not even know what all those [current staff] people do." Like that's a good thing. Under the firing watch: Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, Deputy Chief of Staff Johnny DeStefano, and others who will either get the axe or decide that they really need to spend more time with their families. As with everything else Trump-related, the speed and volume of turnover is extraordinary. According to Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies these things, the overall rate of turnover is 58 percent, and "the number of people resigning under pressure far exceeds that of any other administration." They already can't find decent people to fill the vacancies they have, because really, what decent person would work there? There's a silver lining for them in the pending electoral disaster for Republicans, though: "Trump’s aides are waiting until after the elections in the hopes of poaching Republican operatives who find themselves suddenly jobless, either because they worked on failed campaigns or lost their jobs in congressional leadership offices if Democrats take over." If they're willing to work for Republican congressional leadership, it's hardly a moral step down to go to the White House. But they can't hire them all. So here's to putting a whole bunch of Republican operatives out of work after today. <a href="https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/">Wondering where you vote on Election Day? Use our polling place locator to find out.</a> <a href="https://votewithme.us/?pid=dailykos&c=midterms" title="">People are more likely to vote if a friend asks. Be that friend and use this VoteWithMe to find your friends in swing states and help get out their vote.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 DonaldTrump Recommended _1810470 Tue, 06 Nov 2018 18:02:02 +0000 The lie to beat all lies from Trump: 'The Democrat plan would obliterate Obamacare' https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/6/1810411/-The-lie-to-beat-all-lies-from-Trump-The-Democrat-plan-would-obliterate-Obamacare Talk about panic in the GOP. This is what they’ve been reduced to. Trump. Trump telling voters that Democrats have to be beat because they’ll “obliterate” Obamacare: <div class="dk-editor-embed center-block" data-twitter-content='&lt;blockquote class="twitter-tweet"&gt;&lt;p lang="en" dir="ltr"&gt;Here we are, Folks. Trump: &amp;quot;The Democrat plan would obliterate Obamacare.&amp;quot; &lt;a href="https://t.co/tgWSjIoZxf"&gt;pic.twitter.com/tgWSjIoZxf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&amp;mdash; Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1059813134125424650?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"&gt;November 6, 2018&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt; '><div class="remove-embed-content">x</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Here we are, Folks. Trump: "The Democrat plan would obliterate Obamacare." <a href="https://t.co/tgWSjIoZxf">pic.twitter.com/tgWSjIoZxf</a>— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) <a href="https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1059813134125424650?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2018</a></blockquote> </div> Nuts, right? But it <a href="https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1059814406333313026" target="_blank" title="">gets nuttier</a> as he realizes that obliterating Obamacare is supposed to be a good thing with this crowd. So he works his rambling way into “soon Obamacare will be gone. [...] It’s being obliterated anyway.” Yeah, that part he’s not lying about. That’s why we vote. That’s why we get everyone we know to vote. <a href="https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/">Wondering where you vote today? Use our polling place locator to find out.</a> <a href="https://votewithme.us/?pid=dailykos&c=midterms">People are more likely to vote if a friend asks. Be that friend and use this VoteWithMe to find your friends in swing states and help get out their vote.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump HealthCare Obamacare Resistance Sabotage Trumpcare _1810411 Tue, 06 Nov 2018 15:53:45 +0000 Vote, Get Out the Vote, and get some people signed up for Obamacare! https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/5/1809465/-Vote-Get-Out-the-Vote-and-get-some-people-signed-up-for-Obamacare <figure class="image-captioned align-right"><img alt="Bar chart showing decrease in federal ACA navigator funding since 2016." src="https://images.dailykos.com/images/606898/large/10-31-18health-f1.png?1541194129" title="Bar chart showing decrease in federal ACA navigator funding since 2016."> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> Spread the news: The Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges are open again for 2019. We have to spread that news because the Trump administration won’t. We also have to be the ones steering people who need help to the right places, because the Trump administration isn’t doing it. It’s dramatically cut the funding for navigators, the people who help consumers figure out their options There’s <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/blog/as-open-enrollment-begins-good-reasons-to-visit-insurance-marketplaces" target="_blank" title="">good news to be found</a> in the ACA this year for consumers, too. The vast majority of people (87 percent in 2018) will qualify for federal subsidies to help them pay for it. As was true last year, this year there are some very good options for lots of people. Even the Trump HHS is estimating that 79 percent of HealthCare.gov consumers can find a 2019 plan with a premium under $75 per month after tax credits. And HHS also estimates that around two dozen more insurers will offer plans in 2019 than in 2018, so there’s more choice this year than there has been in previous years. There are <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/2/1809438/-While-you-re-out-there-Getting-Out-the-Vote-remind-voters-it-s-Obamacare-open-enrollment-time" target="_blank">tools you can use</a> to help yourself, friends, family, and people you’re meeting while you’re getting out the vote today and tomorrow to get signed up. It’s just one more way of sticking it to Trump, and doing some good in this world. <a href="https://events.mobilizeamerica.io/dailykos/">Want to help Democrats vote but unsure how? Try this: click here, enter your zip code, and RSVP for a volunteer shift.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct GetAmericaCovered HealthCare HealthInsurance Obamacare OpenEnrollment _1809465 Tue, 06 Nov 2018 02:00:04 +0000 Republicans are losing one of their most reliable voting demographics over health care https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/5/1810179/-Republicans-are-losing-their-most-reliable-voters-over-health-care The one demographic that can always be relied upon to vote in midterms and presidential years and in state and local elections, always, are seniors. They've also always voted more for Republicans than Democrats, but 2018 could change that. The issue of health care is dominating with them this year, and <a href="https://www.axios.com/health-care-democrats-seniors-71a94034-4ddb-4870-b304-107f701951cb.html">is giving Democrats an edge</a>, even on issues not directly related to Medicare. On each of Medicaid expansion, access to reproductive care, and protecting people with pre-existing conditions, Democrats have a more than 20 point advantage. They have double digit advantages on protecting the health of minority populations and maintaining the Affordable Care Act, and single digit leads on strengthening rural health care and fighting the opioid epidemic. That's all according to the gold standard for polling health issues, the Kaiser Family Foundation. This doesn't necessarily mean that health care is going to be the number one thing seniors vote on this year, KFF's Drew Altman points out. They tend to be more concerned about which party controls Congress (77 percent to 63 percent of younger voters) this year, but could still give Democrats a boost tomorrow. Arguing in favor of that potential boost, retires have been giving Democrats a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/campaign-wire-2018-midterms/card/1541437970">fundraising advantage</a> this cycle. The Wall Street Journal reports, "Donors who identify their occupation as “retired” gave 52% of the $326 million they contributed through Oct. 17 to Democrats, compared with 48% to Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics." That's a direct reversal from the 2014 midterm. Again, it's a relative modest advantage, but one that could be decisive because they vote. The 65 and older turnout in 2014 was 55 percent. They're also not terribly fond of the Republicans right now. <div class="dk-civiqs-embed dk-editor-embed"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder civiqs dk-embed" href="//civiqs.com/results/embed?snapshotUrl=production-model-results.civiqs.com/snapshots/031f17e7-ac86-457f-a45d-85ff31667186" data-frameborder="0" data-height="550px" data-src="//civiqs.com/results/embed?snapshotUrl=production-model-results.civiqs.com/snapshots/031f17e7-ac86-457f-a45d-85ff31667186" data-width="100%">Civiqs Results</a></div> And they are going to vote. <div class="dk-civiqs-embed dk-editor-embed"> <div class="remove-embed-content">x</div> <a class="iframe_placeholder civiqs dk-embed" href="//civiqs.com/results/embed?snapshotUrl=production-model-results.civiqs.com/snapshots/f60bf04a-a88f-486f-b8db-1103c32ed7b4" title="" data-frameborder="0" data-height="550px" data-src="https://civiqs.com/results/embed?snapshotUrl=production-model-results.civiqs.com/snapshots/f60bf04a-a88f-486f-b8db-1103c32ed7b4" data-width="100%">Civiqs Results</a></div> <a href="https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/" title="">Wondering where you vote on Election Day? Use our polling place locator to find out.</a> <a href="https://votewithme.us/?pid=dailykos&c=midterms">People are more likely to vote if a friend asks. Be that friend and use this VoteWithMe to find your friends in swing states and help get out their vote.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump HealthCare Obamacare Recommended Resistance Sabotage Trumpcare _1810179 Mon, 05 Nov 2018 21:32:18 +0000 Vote and Get Out the Vote because our lives depend on it https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/5/1810132/-Vote-and-Get-Out-the-Vote-because-our-lives-depend-on-it How many times in your life have you heard "this is the most important election of our lifetimes"? Well, those elections were all small beans compared to this one. This is the election that can either halt our slide to authoritarianism or continue let the unindicted co-conspirator in the Oval Office run amok and erode all of our institutions. The life of our republic isn't the only thing on the line. Millions of actual lives are as well. This election has been all about health care in voters’ minds because it IS all about health care—who has it, who keeps it. Because underneath all their talk about protecting people with pre-existing conditions, the actions of Republican have demonstrated that they'll happily end those protections and have neither the willingness nor the competence to enact a plan to take their place. Trump is intent on grinding the Affordable Care Act and everything it does into the ground. A Democratic House can <a href="https://www.healthinsurance.org/blog/2018/11/02/the-healthcare-miracle-that-this-election-could-ratify/" title="">take away the threat</a> that Republicans will defund the ACA out of existence. A Democratic House would both scare Republicans in the Senate (with 22 seats on the line in 2020) and stymie their efforts to sabotage it. It would hobble Trump. Beyond the 130 million people with pre-existing conditions whose health insurance is on the line, and the 15 million who have gained coverage through Medicaid expansion, there's millions more who could gain it for the first time with Medicaid expansion. It's <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/5/1809458/-From-health-care-to-voting-rights-these-are-the-biggest-ballot-measures-to-watch-on-Election-Day" title="">on the ballot</a> for the first time in Idaho, North Dakota, and Utah. In Montana, they're voting to keep it and create a permanent funding mechanism for it. In <a href="https://www.wabe.org/medicaid-expansion-and-the-georgia-governors-race/" title="">Georgia</a> and <a href="https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/majority-of-floridians-support-medicaid-expansion-data-shows-10380319" title="">Florida</a> and <a href="https://www.dispatch.com/news/20180920/fresh-off-debate-cordray-blasts-dewine-on-health-care" title="">Ohio</a> and <a href="http://www.startribune.com/wisconsin-s-tight-governor-s-race-puts-walker-on-defensive/492288491/" title="">Wisconsin</a> and <a href="http://www.startribune.com/wisconsin-s-tight-governor-s-race-puts-walker-on-defensive/492288491/" title="">Michigan</a> and <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2018/05/07/medicaid-expansion-poll-tennessee-support/586006002/" title="">Tennessee</a> and even <a href="https://www.apnews.com/78df7e8349e84fe7ab24e5d5c240d231" title="">Alabama</a>, the governors' races have hinged on either accepting Medicaid expansion for the first time, or making sure a Republican governor couldn't take it away through the imposition of Trump's onerous work requirements. In just the four states with ballot measures to expand Medicaid, there's some <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/26/1807392/-What-s-on-the-line-in-November-Health-coverage-for-at-least-400-000-uninsured-Americans" title="">400,000 people</a> without coverage who could get it. In all the states where Democratic governors could finally get it done, it's well over 2 million; it's more than 1.3 million in Florida alone! That's not even taking into account the existing <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/1/1809121/-Trump-s-Medicare-administrator-thinks-Medicare-is-scary" title="">threats to Medicare and existing Medicaid</a> posed by Trump and the Republicans. This election is an existential one for all of us. Vote like it. <a href="https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/" title="">Wondering where you vote on Election Day? Use our polling place locator to find out.</a> <a href="https://votewithme.us/?pid=dailykos&c=midterms" title="">People are more likely to vote if a friend asks. Be that friend and use this VoteWithMe to find your friends in swing states and help get out their vote.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump HealthCare Medicaid MedicaidExpansion Medicare Obamacare Resistance Sabotage Trumpcare _1810132 Mon, 05 Nov 2018 19:23:58 +0000 Fox News embraces its role as Trump's media arm on eve of election https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/5/1810068/-Fox-News-embraces-its-role-as-Trump-s-media-arm-on-eve-of-election The unindicted co-conspirator is hitting the road for one last pre-midterm rally in Missouri, broadcast to the nation by the state media arm Fox News's Sean Hannity, with an assist from Rush Limbaugh. Hannity is appearing as Trump's "special guest," and they're apparently letting Limbaugh tag along because he's there, anyway, living in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. CNN is there for the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/04/media/sean-hannity-donald-trump-rally-fox-news/index.html">mocking</a>: "Hannity is not a journalist, but he works at a hugely popular network with 'News' in its name, alongside staffers who have to follow policies that forbid this type of political involvement." Fox is pretending like this isn't really a problem, saying in response to the Trump campaign press release announcing the special guests that "Hannity is not sponsoring the rally or campaigning for Trump." Right. He's just using the rally as the set for his show Monday night, with an interview from Trump. Did I mention this is a Trump campaign event? CNN points out that it "isn't making a distinction between interviewing the president and showing up at the rally as a 'special guest,'" but is advertising on the website as an event "w/Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, & Lee Greenwood." This, as professor and conservative media historian Nicole Hemmer told CNN "highlights once again how little space now exists between the White House and conservative media." This merger of Trump and conservative media, she says, "is a crucially important characteristic of the Trump administration and the conservative movement more broadly." What a difference a Republican in the White House makes for Fox. Back in 2010, Hannity was going to headline a tea party rally and Rupert Murdoch forced him to cancel. "I don't think we should be supporting the tea party or any other party," Murdoch said then. Now that they've got Trump, there's no need for any pretense that they're anything but Trump's network, and by extension the GOP's network. To the point that they point-blank <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/04/media/george-soros-patrick-gaspard-fox-news/index.html">refuse</a> to let George Soros, their favorite bogeyman, on the air to rebut their conspiracy theories about him. <a href="https://www.vote.org/polling-place-locator/" target="_blank">Wondering where you vote on Election Day? Use our polling place locator to find out.</a> <a href="https://votewithme.us/?pid=dailykos&c=midterms" target="_blank">People are more likely to vote if a friend asks. Be that friend and use this VoteWithMe to find your friends in swing states and help get out their vote.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 DonaldTrump FoxNews RushLimbaugh SeanHannity _1810068 Mon, 05 Nov 2018 16:22:36 +0000 Just in time for the election, Scott Walker gets Trump's permission to kick thousands off Medicaid https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/2/1809191/-Just-in-time-for-the-election-Scott-Walker-gets-Trump-s-permission-to-kick-thousands-off-Medicaid <figure class="image-captioned width-sm"><a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dkendorses2018govs?refcode=20181102JM1thermometer" title=""><img alt="Goal Thermometer" src="https://secure.actblue.com/x/object/actblue-badges/page/dkendorses2018govs/thermometer/dark.png"></a> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> The Trump administration has done what Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker was seemingly <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/17/1805168/-Scott-Walker-suddenly-not-so-excited-about-the-Medicaid-work-requirements-he-s-been-hyping-for-years" title="">hoping it would put off</a> until after the election: approved a waiver for the state to impose work requirements on its Medicaid enrollees. A few weeks ago, federal officials were grousing to Politico about how they were ready to do it, and Walker was putting them off. Maybe that public pressure forced Walker's hand, because <a href="https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/health-med-fit/gov-scott-walker-s-medicaid-work-requirement-approved-drug-testing/article_8251b008-5bfa-5469-a0df-8c9ecf0de807.html" title="">it's done now</a>, and now thousands of Wisconsinites are in danger of losing their coverage if they can't meet the reporting requirements the state is creating. One thing Walker didn't get from the administration, remarkably, is the power to further humiliate the state's low-income people by also forcing them to take drug tests in order to keep their benefits. The state will now also be able to start charging Medicaid enrollees monthly premiums of up to $8, as well as $8 co-payments for emergency room visits for problems that aren't considered emergencies. Medicaid enrollees between the ages of 18 and 49 who are able-bodied and childless and earning as little as <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/blog/wisconsin-medicaid-waiver-will-reduce-coverage-create-new-barriers-to-care" title="">$500/month</a> will have to pay those premiums. That's in addition to meeting the work requirements, working or participating in work-related activities for at least 80 hours per month for 48 months. About 62 percent of current enrollees already do meet those requirements, and about 43 percent of those who aren't working are ill or have a disability. The problem isn't having to work; the problem is having to report to the state, a bureaucratic hurdle that is difficult for many to surmount. It's one of the reasons nearly <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/10/16/1804861/-Arkansas-kicks-another-4-100-people-off-of-Medicaid" title="">8,500 people in Arkansas</a> have lost their coverage in the past two months. rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump Medicaid WI-Gov workrequirements _1809191 Sat, 03 Nov 2018 02:40:15 +0000 While you're out there Getting Out the Vote, remind voters it's Obamacare open enrollment time https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/2/1809438/-While-you-re-out-there-Getting-Out-the-Vote-remind-voters-it-s-Obamacare-open-enrollment-time Job number 1 this weekend: <a href="https://events.mobilizeamerica.io/dailykos/" target="_blank" title="">Getting Out the Vote</a>. But while you’re out there knocking on doors, or making phone calls, or sending texts or just talking to your family and friends, and if you have the opportunity, have the health insurance conversation. Are you insured? Do you need insurance? Have you checked out the health insurance exchange in your state? Open enrollment started yesterday, and in most state runs until December 15 (<a href="https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/1/1809136/-It-s-here-Open-enrollment-under-the-Affordable-Care-Act-starts-today" target="_blank" title="">exceptions are here</a>). The Kaiser Family Foundation has <a href="https://www.kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/?utm_campaign=ACA%20Open%20Enrollment&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=67191712&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-98LsnEYz_YNYmNeOsMcnIql94fL-yZsb4XPfEfMA_8J-iZvQxf_hCUltU0mz9YFU3Ub51q-5BUTQU0-CIVqmqz_n5YPw&_hsmi=67191712" target="_blank" title="">updated its subsidy calculator</a> to help you or people you’re helping figure out how much they could be paying for premiums as well as what financial assistance is available based on household income, family size, ages of family members, and zip code. The calculator also helps consumers determine whether they could be eligible for Medicaid. The tool is embedded here below the fold for you to play around with. A <a href="https://connect.kff.org/e2t/c/*W4SLLFQ2ctmNbW112rVm7YKmkj0/*W3LbqTV3mbtblW3cWjQ21N7sp50/5/f18dQhb0Sq5v8YHtvCW8d8gSm2qwv1SW4cqSjh4cqNPfMf5s32XD6prW7cmS1s8pCQ6vW7Y-rll95S7FPW5CR0N32yc2qDW5CGWVM7mFYhrW62058J95R_bvW1xc2fr626T3hW1x4vb1999f65W6PVKcr6N3nBLW8xGZMP7yyY2PVfQ03V4rf42kW6pCmD_1rnhsmW2vgRTn23-nGKW265VBJ22-vhJW1Q468p7G0n7yW1YTF-H7TVphbW1pqxYR3gk-wmW8cG-xp3X0g0yN6bp1cMbq5fxW4TKc2l5v7ctcW4s4NfZ8RFdfZW6N_PTv7d922fW5PNNL01pPztxW5sDrNV1p5SkrW6n748K8QH_4zN5CwtnyPfzz_W7yJG7r5VKN9cW5w4v2y7fXjzbW4XqT-q2V7HDGW5VKNjb5PvXkhW4V4rvX64G2z1W1bBvW33_5Xh9W6LMv7K1NFfl4N8P4D7llyM3fW8qfGd-3qb5ywW3vNLNF5R34klW1nCrbg8Sn6Q_W7870mX6TL-CYW2cBvC_8t3_8ZW6qJTsP3-zhG4N7cpyXmcYJKQW7dJ18n5B8h5Nf3Gk2R804" target="_blank" title="">Spanish-language version of the calculator</a> is also available. Of course KFF has more for you, including a searchable collection of <a href="https://connect.kff.org/e2t/c/*W4SLLFQ2ctmNbW112rVm7YKmkj0/*W4gtk-k9jrBCcW5Yv1Fn63_Qvs0/5/f18dQhb0Sq5D8XZ7WSV_P1vF1m66PBW2sNYfp2stfhWW5-FxTJ1mhDJwW39Dr-N8pCDM_W3S_gvy2yZ4h7N6bws6tYN9-_W3V568N984wNmW98KYW74MWdz6W2N2Tpf5lKwc5VKzxbr2M3kw-W4Mm1dW2w7BH6W5mNLNv7bqTzMW7vp5Qy2CVNW9W1h4PtH7MMT4_W5FxBTV5p9MrsW3bW-f434Y-JRW5rcZX12-294gW5J0bHm1y7ldZW5F_2Jd3Yk27jW1v3hGt39Hw8xW1CgtZf5jPVDHW47P0wC403tVSW3vbpkw6nBZD5W489Hjx36Hk43W3HGckC4GZdLjW5Pyl_C626PhfW41RgLh5lFg7zW5FHXWc3FPyQ1W41RJbt3wZk1bW4XhfbK2JkXdvW5sNKnm68l_p0W6bb-jT6b52DYW3xKBsl6y-QM_W41PCXK5Pzb9FW260G-s2PGKtHMBrp3zwKJnCV3qXTz3nxwXrW51fdFJ2lZk5dW8r-8T18tzmRxW2GD9PD47Xs4rW7LHXzl9jwp6RV5yDtR85-GmcN81XSFHHKF2wW3pnKgQ4L1MmrN4JXQH_11ZPYf21mR_b03" target="_blank" title="">more than 300 Frequently Asked Questions</a> about open enrollment, the marketplaces and the ACA; everything from eligibility for subsidies to requirements for health coverage and information about health plans offered through state ACA marketplaces. This year’s FAQ includes information on the 2019 repeal of the individual mandate tax penalty and has a new section on short-term health insurance policies. More than 150 of the FAQs in the collection are also <a href="https://connect.kff.org/e2t/c/*W4SLLFQ2ctmNbW112rVm7YKmkj0/*N7_ZdfKRT2V6W1qdj3Q6KkrhJ0/5/f18dQhb0S65M6_cXMJV1y5RM1gccPwW4_mNZP4__ZYcW3TJB3-8znkTYW5LcVZD8tHvf8W48Qw-V933qnfW4--r2356_mtTW7bdS3w51_kBQW2_SBVp1QG1-wW92yS-Z4xnhYYW5fDY8L4tK-vFW51TJB02fylsRW3RnP0g2Cq0zPW8xHlBB2GWqSdN8m6g-cWjcKXV4546x2TFR-3V5CH_s5SLbsjMMc_cF82xtzN3XlrPjKbHq5W6YgxcT4PrbRWW68zxp75Wn0jKW5WlD_P61dV4MW1fpKY_2fsZLrW2tH8lS2tbBv9W2FgKr64tJM3sW5F3wDt17qjwwW1QsTQn3ljRXWW1kRs9v1VGpTCW5F5KK75kq-rcW40nWBL1SnHMwW4-J2h-4DR2DlW4QPHZR89jRClW3fZKbf3L0yQ1N7T7Z41M35CyW1xBt2G8XdLWSW5MmScl29chjsW5H7Vyv7-dgFRW6BSLK21XB85FN3XptcyqlX6-W6HpvVW6f2Zz9W13l1kY1GdXJgN7rj-MD-ZVYcW27VD8l17P2HgW5QBXWl3GbM8GW67bHsG8M-_QYW7CksWc8pn5YhW1_Vmll6-PbMBf1zp1CR11" target="_blank" title="">available in Spanish</a>. That’s the starting point for getting covered in 2019. But first, we have to make sure that everyone can still get covered in 2020. That means flipping Congress and that means GOTV now. <a href="https://events.mobilizeamerica.io/dailykos/" title="">Want to help Democrats vote but unsure how? Try this: click here, enter your zip code, and RSVP for a volunteer shift.</a> <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dkendorses2018congress?=20181102JM2" title="">There's still time for your contribution to make a difference. Please give $1 to our Senate and House candidates and make Republicans pay for being lying liars.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump HealthCare Obamacare OpenEnrollment Resistance Sabotage _1809438 Fri, 02 Nov 2018 19:54:45 +0000 Obama on GOP: 'They have no way of protecting preexisting conditions ... they're just making it up https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/2/1809409/-Obama-on-GOP-They-have-no-way-of-protecting-preexisting-conditions-they-re-just-making-it-up <figure class="image-captioned width-sm"><a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dkendorses2018congress?refcode=20181102JM1thermometer" title=""><img alt="Goal Thermometer" src="https://secure.actblue.com/x/object/actblue-badges/page/dkendorses2018congress/thermometer/dark.png"></a> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> The degree of commitment this year's crop of Republican candidates has for just brazen lying is astounding even by Republican standards. Granted, they had eight years worth of practice, what with cooking up all those lies about how the Affordable Care Act was going to destroy the nation. Those lies make this year's lies all the more brazen and dumbfounding. Because now they're telling you that for the past eight years they've been committed to making sure that the parts of the law that the public has come to know and rely upon and really appreciate stay. When they have voted over and over and over again to do the opposite, to repeal Obamacare "root and branch" as Mitch McConnell once promised. After all those votes, after all their failed efforts at coming up with anything that could provide the kind of protections that are in the ACA, they're insisting now that all along, they were looking out for us. Just ask the guy who spearheaded the ACA, former President Barack Obama. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-claim-of-health-care-protection-flies-in-the-face-of-reality/2018/11/02/76c292d8-dd39-11e8-b732-3c72cbf131f2_story.html?utm_term=.11b93e4bad64" title="">He'll tell you.</a> "Now that it's election season," he said at a rally in Las Vegas, Republicans "are out there saying, 'Well, actually we're going to protect people with preexisting conditions even though we're going to cut health care.' . . . I can tell you that they have no way of protecting preexisting conditions with anything they propose. They're just saying it. They're just making it up." Everything Republicans have proposed in the past eight years—and in fact what the <a href="https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2018/11/01/new-guidance-on-section-1332-waivers-would-weaken-affordability-requirements-in-the-aca/" title="">Trump administration is actually doing</a> could make health insurance completely unaffordable for people with pre-existing conditions. Period. They will say they're protecting those benefits because they mouth the words, but they are lying. That's just what they do. They're such liars they're still doing it, even when they know that we all know that's what they're doing. And it has to end. <a href="https://events.mobilizeamerica.io/dailykos/" title="">Want to help Democrats vote but unsure how? Try this: click here, enter your zip code, and RSVP for a volunteer shift.</a> <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dkendorses2018congress?=20181102JM1" title="">There's still time for your contribution to make a difference. Please give $1 to our Senate and House candidates and make Republicans pay for being lying liars.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct BarackObama DonaldTrump HealthCare Obamacare Resistance Sabotage Senate Trumpcare _1809409 Fri, 02 Nov 2018 17:43:00 +0000 Here's something to fuel your Get Out the Vote weekend https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/2/1809390/-Here-s-something-to-fuel-your-Get-Out-the-Vote-weekend Democrats winning back the Senate next Tuesday is a major long shot, but this year it seems like anything can happen. If you need some incentive in your Get Out the Vote efforts to help make that anything happen, here you go: Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/31/democrats-play-defense-against-wall-street-deregulation-sherrod-brown.html" title="">chairing the Senate Banking Committee</a>. Here he’s talking with CNBC's John Harwood. <blockquote> John Harwood: If you guys win the Senate, you'll be the chairman of the Banking Committee. Even if you don't, a potential Democratic takeover of the House would give you more leverage as the ranking member of the Banking Committee. You gave a speech earlier this year where you said that you thought there was something fundamentally rotten in American finance. What is it that's rotten? Sherrod Brown: Well, what's rotten on Wall Street is the influence the financial services industry continues to exert on Congress. Whenever they want something, they almost always get it. There's this collective amnesia that's set in on Congress, especially on Republicans, but a few Democrats, from time to time, where they forgot what happened 10 years ago. They forgot that it was Wall Street greed and overreach that cost hundreds of billions of dollars in retirement savings, cost millions of jobs, caused millions of foreclosures. And now, Wall Street comes knocking again. They want to deregulate this administration's appointees to a number of federal regulatory agencies, want to deregulate foreign banks in the United States. They want to weaken capital requirements on Wall Street. They want to weaken the consumer protection bureau. </blockquote> Just something to ruminate over as you plan your weekend's Get Out the Vote activities. <a href="https://events.mobilizeamerica.io/dailykos/" title="">GET OUT THE VOTE for Democrats. Just click here, enter your zip code, choose the event that works best for you, and RSVP to attend.</a> <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dkendorses2018senate?refcode=20181102JM2" title="">It's time to end Republicans' stranglehold on Congress. Please give $1 to our Senate candidates.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 Democrats Republicans Senate SenateBankingCommittee SherrodBrown WallStreet _1809390 Fri, 02 Nov 2018 16:41:05 +0000 Republican Senate candidate literally took his sick employee's health insurance away https://www.dailykos.com/story/2018/11/2/1809359/-Republican-Senate-candidate-literally-took-his-sick-employee-s-health-insurance-away <figure class="image-captioned width-sm"><a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dkendorses2018senate?refcode=20181102JM1thermometer" title=""><img alt="Goal Thermometer" src="https://secure.actblue.com/x/object/actblue-badges/page/dkendorses2018congress/thermometer/dark.png"></a> <figcaption></figcaption> </figure> Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) has one hell of a closing ad in the last days of this election cycle, hitting the issue that everyone is talking about, for real. No, not the caravan. Their health care. His opponent, Republican businessman Mike Braun has been touting his experience as an employer, saying he understands all about protecting people's health care because of his experience as a boss. One of his former employees, Jim Songer of Hungtingburg, Indiana, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=28&v=yaORaMVhqRA" title="">tells the real story</a>. <blockquote>"At Mike Braun's company, I sold RV parts and towing parts. A few months ago, I got really sick, ended up in the hospital. "So while I was in the hospital, Mike Braun fired me. And backdated my termination. So my insurance had been cancelled. I was devastated, stuck with a $30,000 bill and left with nothing. "There is no such thing as health care when something happens to you and it gets taken away. And that's what Mike Braun's company did." </blockquote> In a Tuesday night debate, Braun <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-braun-health-care_us_5bdb6478e4b04367a87ae1c5?enb" title="">said</a> that "Just like I've taken care of my employees, I'll take care of Hoosiers," which sounds a lot more like a threat than a promise once you've heard Songer's story. The ad has been running for a few weeks now, and "neither Braun’s campaign nor his company has contradicted Songer's version of events." <a href="https://events.mobilizeamerica.io/dailykos/" title="">GET OUT THE VOTE for Democrats. Just click here, enter your zip code, choose the event that works best for you, and RSVP to attend.</a> <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dkendorses2018senate?refcode=20181102JM1" title="">Help make sure we have a Senate that’s looking out for us. Please give $1 to our Senate candidates.</a> rss@dailykos.com (Joan McCarter) 2018 AffordableCareAct DonaldTrump HealthCare IN-Sen JoeDonnelly MikeBraun Obamacare Recommended Resistance Sabotage Trumpcare _1809359 Fri, 02 Nov 2018 15:33:07 +0000