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Tuesday, May 31, 2011
2chambers: Senate rejects two long-term funding bills, sending leaders back to negotiating table
Two competing government funding bills fell short in the Senate on Wednesday, sending congressional leaders and the White House back to the negotiating table to try to work out a budget compromise.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's collective-bargaining legislative maneuver: Opinions and questions going forward
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is closer to getting his proposed collective-bargaining rights legislation enacted. As Michael Fletcher reported:
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Tim Pawlenty's new campaign slogan: 'Any doofus can go to Washington'
Political observers described Pawlenty's new slogan as a blatant attempt to pander to the Republican base.
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Administration could back second temporary budget deal
The White House is not ruling out supporting another temporary funding measure to keep the federal government open. The White House and congressional Republicans remain about $50 billion apart as the debate over this year's federal spending drags into its third month.
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Administration Opposes Challenges to Medicaid Cuts
Medicaid recipients and health care providers cannot sue state officials to challenge cuts in Medicaid payments, the Obama administration has told the Supreme Court.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=d40ceb3a0c95e48e75c545ad6cbb7fa8
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Meghan McCain Plans To Eat Her Father?s Bones When He Dies
Well, Meghan McCain loves skull rings and Keith Richards loves skull rings — he kind of did it first — and Keith Richards supposedly snorted up some of his cremated father’s ashes, so of course Meghan McCain is going to actually eat her father’s ribs when he dies. This is in a New York Times [...]
Source: http://feeds.wonkette.com/click.phdo?i=590728f125ced1425e61e2f751e5dfc6
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2chambers: Senate rejects two long-term funding bills, sending leaders back to negotiating table
Two competing government funding bills fell short in the Senate on Wednesday, sending congressional leaders and the White House back to the negotiating table to try to work out a budget compromise.
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Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada won't seek reelection
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) will not seek reelection in 2012, bringing to an end a tumultuous several years following an extramarital affair with a former staff member.
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Monday, May 30, 2011
Rep. Peter King's hearings on radicalization among American Muslims: Details and background
The Rep. Peter King helmed hearing on radicalization among American Muslims began on Thursday:
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Watch: Obama The Irish Rock Star?
President Barack Obama is greeted with warm welcome in Ireland.
Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=0ad1788d453a25e23b8bb76ed544cfab
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Obama Justice Department sides with states in Medicaid case
Federal law says that Medicaid, the federal/state system that covers millions of low- and moderate-income individuals and families as well as a huge portion of the nursing home population, must pay provider rates that are "sufficient to enlist enough providers" to ensure equal access to care for Medicaid recipients as the general population.
How that is enforced, and more importantly who has a right to sue to ensure that it is enforced, is the subject of a case before the Supreme Court, and the Obama administration's Department of Justice has weighed in on the side of the states.
Here's the background on the case:
The California Legislature in 2008 initially adopted a 10 percent reduction in reimbursements by Medi-Cal, which is California's Medicaid program. The cuts were blocked in court.In his proposed spending plan, Brown adopted some of the same reimbursement proposals in a bid to close a $25 billion budget gap. Cutting reimbursements would save $709 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, according to Brown's budget.
The cases brought by the Independent Living Center of Southern California, the California Pharmacists Association and Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital raise substantially the same legal question. This question to be solved by the Supreme Court doesn't involve California's authority to impose cuts, or the wisdom of the budget cuts.
Rather, the court will rule on whether Medicaid beneficiaries and physicians have the right to sue over the proposed reimbursement reductions.
Though it sounds acutely technical, this argument over legal standing is crucial because it determines who can challenge government decisions and who's shut out of court. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and other Supreme Court conservatives have repeatedly adopted a narrow view of legal standing in other cases.
In a friend of the court brief, the Justice Department argues that federal law does not allow individuals, Medicaid recipients and providers, to sue.
Such lawsuits ?would not be compatible? with the means of enforcement envisioned by Congress, which relies on the secretary of health and human services to make sure states comply, the administration said in the brief, by the acting solicitor general, Neal K. Katyal.In many parts of the country, payment rates are so low that Medicaid recipients have difficulty finding doctors to take them.
But, the Justice Department said, the Medicaid law?s promise of equal access to care is ?broad and nonspecific,? and federal health officials are better equipped than judges to balance that goal with other policy objectives, like holding down costs....
Consumer advocates were dismayed by the administration?s position, which they said undermined Medicaid recipients? rights and access to the courts.
?I find it appalling that the solicitor general in a Democratic administration would assert in a Supreme Court brief that businesses can challenge state regulation under the supremacy clause, but that poor recipients of Medicaid cannot challenge state violations of federal law,? said Prof. Timothy S. Jost, an expert on health law at Washington and Lee University, who is usually sympathetic to the administration.
Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee and an architect of Medicaid, said the administration?s brief was ?wrong on the law and bad policy.?
?I am bitterly disappointed that President Obama would accept the position of the acting solicitor general to file a brief that is contrary to the decades-long practice of giving Medicaid beneficiaries and providers the ability to turn to the courts to enforce their rights under federal law,? Mr. Waxman said. He said that he and other Democratic lawmakers planned to file a brief opposing the administration?s view.
How much weight the court will give this amicus brief is unknown. The timing and the politics of this decision by Justice to file the amicus brief are also a little murky?massive cuts to Medicaid are in the Republican sights now in budget negotiations, and the administration has come down hard against those cuts. Medicaid expansion is also a cornerstone of expansion of care under the Affordable Care Act.
The National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures have also filed an amicus brief supporting California, as have 30 states in a separate filing, arguing that "[a]llowing 'supremacy clause lawsuits' to enforce federal Medicaid laws will be a financial catastrophe for states."
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New fronts open in abortion wars
A year after its passage, the health-care overhaul is opening fresh battlefields in an old and bitter debate. Almost immediately after the law came into effect, five states passed bills that will prohibit private health insurance plans sold on its new state-based insurance marketplaces from cover...
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Palin Set to Launch Bus Tour of East Coast
Former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Sunday will launch a tour of the East Coast, including a stop in the politically important state of New Hampshire, a development likely to roil the GOP presidential nominating contest.
Source: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/politics/~3/jPYzi0ZP9vw/
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Sunday, May 29, 2011
Ryan pushes back after Democrat takes GOP House seat
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43161820/ns/politics-capitol_hill/
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Obama expected to pick Army's Dempsey as next Chairman of Joint Chiefs
Officials in the Pentagon tell NBC News that President Barack Obama is expected to call Army Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey Thursday to tell him he's been selected to become the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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Congressional freshmen include dozens of millionaires, financial disclosures show
The members of this year's freshman class in Congress are far wealthier than the people they represent, with dozens of millionaires joining the ranks of the House and Senate, according to an analysis released Wednesday.
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Watch: President Obama's England Trip: Toasting the Queen
Jake Tapper reports on the president's hits and misses from his European tour.
Source: http://feeds.abcnews.com/click.phdo?i=6c357903b2bf43d2ccdaa3b6b681d397
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