Full details available at ACASignups.net The biggest news since last Friday was Monday’s release of the official HHS Dept. December enrollment numbers. I had the Private QHP Enrollment total as 2.137 million as of 12/31. HHS has the official tally as 2.153M as of 12/28. I love being 99% accurate! :) In any event, the second biggest news as far as enrollments are concerned […]

“When one gains, another loses.” There is one very unfortunate aspect to the roll out of the Affordable Care Act. The tiny percentage of people who are being forced into new policies happens nearly all at once and at the very start of the roll out. The overwhelming benefits of having more Americans insured and covered by decent health care […]

They’re trying to turn back the clock to re-fight the 2012 election. Or the Civil War. At first, many of us had trouble keeping track of what the Tea Party GOP wants in exchange for ending the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling. But now it’s clear: What they’re really after are the same things they’ve wanted since 2010, […]

I see what you’re doing here. We all do. I think all of us are, like Amy described in her righteous rant yesterday, sick and tired of being held hostage by extremist right wing ideologues who behave like petulant children when they don’t get absolutely everything they want. What’s most infuriating about it is that these very same ideologues have […]

“Germany started with national health care and gun control before any of that other stuff happened” Arizona Republican Brenda Barton posted on her Facebook page that “Someone is paying the National Park Service thugs overtime for their efforts to carry out the order of De Fuhrer.” The post was still up on her page as of 6:30 p.m. today: Sparking […]

It’s not the ideas they hate, is it? Republican obstructionism isn’t exactly new in Washington, D.C. It’s been all the rage since Barack Obama was elected President. Since then, a majority of Republicans have gone to great lengths in an attempt to torpedo his Presidency. The twisted irony is this: Many of the ideas President Obama and the Democrats have […]

He’s reinforcing his vision for our country — the reason he was elected twice — and calling on Republicans to get to work. It’s unusual for the White House to start promoting a series of speeches days before they begin. But there’s a good reason they’re doing it now. They want to make sure people are paying attention. I feel […]

GOPocrisy at it finest

Lee Fang has a great piece up at The Nation this week detailing new evidence of the unrelenting hypocrisy of Republican legislators on the Affordable Care Act. After spending four years demonizing it, many of them continue reap the political gains from the benefits it brings to their communities.

Click through for more.

Prepare for a messy 2013 I have to admit that I was wrong in two very serious ways. I thought Paul Ryan’s disgrace as a VP candidate — booed by seniors and hidden for the last weeks for the campaign — would  temper the House Republicans a bit. That almost seemed to happen at the beginning for 2013 with the […]

John Boehner: between a tea bag and a hard place

John Boehner has been negotiating all week with President Obama and his staff to resolve the “fiscal speedbump” issue. President Obama took a step toward Speaker Boehner in the negotiations by allowing the Bush tax cuts to remain in place for incomes over $400,000/year (up from $250,000), making some cuts to entitlements to be named later and agreeing to a different way to calculate Social Security cost of living increases that would lower how much our seniors get in their monthly allocation by a smidgen — the so-called “chained CPI”.

In return, Boehner offered to extend the debt ceiling for two years and allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for income over $400,000.

This was, however, a bridge to far for his tea party leadership team, according to Ezra Klein at the Washington Post. So, he offered what he’s calling “Plan B” and the response from the White House was a resounding “screw you”.

Check it all out after the jump.

Yes, Ronald Reagan Socialized Medicine In The United States There are two dirty secrets in American politics. The first is that the GOP is the real “food stamp party”. The second is that we already pay for each other’s health care in the dumbest possible way, thanks to Ronald Reagan. Every time an uninsured person waits to the last possible […]