Democracy
TOP NEWS: Democracy: July 6, 2012
- Mitt Romney sets GOP fundraising record
- The Future of Medicaid
- The June jobs report and Obama’s summer swoon(s)
- Shots by Murdoch Play Out to Conservative Core
- Obama presses middle class pitch in Ohio tour
Excerpts and More Top Stories
CAMPAIGN FINANCE: Mitt Romney sets GOP fundraising record
Mike Allen, Politico – The Romney campaign, along with its Romney Victory fund and the Republican National Committee, raised more than $100 million in June, obliterating the campaign’s goal and setting the one-month record for any Republican campaign, according to a GOP official. Now-President Barack Obama raised $150 million as he was surging in September 2008, the record month for any campaign.
HEALTHCARE: The Future of Medicaid
The Economist – The Supreme Court’s ruling has grave implications for the poor. Obamacare was supposed to extend insurance to 32m more Americans by 2019; the Medicaid expansion would account for about half that increase. Now the Supreme Court has said that the expansion must be optional for the states. More than 11m uninsured poor adults may get no help at all.
JOBS/ ELECTIONS 2012: The June jobs report and President Obama’s summer swoon(s)
Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake, Washington Post – In each of the past three summers, the unemployment rate has bumped upwards while the job creation numbers have either leveled off or dipped downward. That trend — plus the fact that we are 123 days before the election — makes the BLS’s 8:30 announcement of the utmost political importance.
ELECTIONS 2012: Shots by Murdoch at Romney Play Out to Conservative Core
Jeremy W. Peters, NY Times – To hear Rupert Murdoch tell it lately, Mitt Romney lacks stomach and heart. He “seems to play everything safe.” And he is not nearly as tough as he needs to be on President Obama.
ELECTIONS 2012: Obama presses middle class pitch in Ohio tour
Reid J. Epstein, Politico – Pressing his record on rebuilding the auto industry, increasing jobs, grappling with home mortgages and reducing student loan rates, Obama kicked off the first bus tour of his reelection campaign — and first campaign swing since last week’s Supreme Court’s ruling — by framing his deeply controversial law as simply one of many middle-class programs he’s pursued
More Top Stories
HEALTHCARE: ‘Obamacare’ tax hikes vs. tax breaks: Which is greater?
Josh Hicks, Washington Post – Republicans have seized on the Supreme Court’s health-law ruling to blast the Affordable Care Act as a giant tax on the middle class. Rush Limbaugh went so far as to call it the “biggest tax increase in the history of the world,” a preposterous claim we debunked in a previous column.
EDUCATION: ‘No Child’ Law Whittled Down by White House
Motoko Rich, NY Times – In just five months, the Obama administration has freed schools in more than half the nation from central provisions of the No Child Left Behind education law, raising the question of whether the decade-old federal program has been essentially nullified.
PHARMA: How Not to Get Big Pharma to Change Its Ways
Robert Reich (Blog) - Former Secretary of Labor argues that the 3 billion dollar fine levied on GalaxoSmithKline for improperly marketing a drug, is not enough to change their behavior after the company already made 27 billion from their actions.
ENVIRONMENT: As Climate Change Talk Heats Up, Romney Unlikely to Join In
Erin McPike, RealClearPolitics – In troubled times as these are, however, environmental concerns take a back seat to more pressing economic matters, so don’t expect Mitt Romney to talk about it. Compounding this dynamic is Republican contempt for proposed “cap and trade” legislation that seeks to reduce carbon emissions, a topic that sent Romney into a fit of verbal gymnastics during the primary season.
More on Elections 2012
ELECTIONS 2012: Ann Romney is tough, OK?
Melinda Henneberger, Washington Post – Recently, the Republican presidential candidate’s wife told the Miami Herald that what she most wants the public to know about her is “that I am pretty direct and pretty honest and I don’t pull any punches.’’ Message received, Mrs. R! After your latest remarks about President Obama wanting to ‘kill Romney,’ though, you might consider dialing back on the “kapow.”
ELECTIONS 2012: Mr. Romney Changes His Mind, Again
Editorial, NY Times – Massachusetts residents who file a state tax return have to provide proof that they have health insurance. If they can afford insurance but don’t have it, they must “pay a penalty through their tax returns,” according to the state Department of Revenue’s Web site. This is all thanks to former Gov. Mitt Romney, who set up the system.
ELECTIONS 2012: Off and Out With Mitt Romney
Paul Krugman, NY Times – In a better America, Mitt Romney would be running for president on the strength of his major achievement as governor of Massachusetts: a health reform that was identical in all important respects to the health reform enacted by President Obama.
ELECTIONS 2012: A plan that offers Obama a fighting chance
Jonathan Rauch, Washington Post – At this point in 1980, Jimmy Carter was on the path to oblivion but didn’t know it. Barack Obama may share Carter’s fate if he doesn’t change course soon.
ELECTIONS 2012: Exclusive: Mitt Romney weighs foreign-policy tour
Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin, Politico – Mitt Romney’s campaign is considering a major foreign policy offensive at the end of the month that would take him to five countries over three continents and mark his first move away from a campaign message devoted almost singularly to criticizing President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy, sources tell POLITICO.
ELECTIONS 2012: Political Perceptions: Romney’s 7 Days of Tax Struggles Colleen
McCain Nelson, WSJ – While many Republicans were quick to seize upon the court’s suggestion that the requirement to buy health insurance could be deemed a tax, Mitt Romney’s campaign had to wrestle with the question of whether the Romney-approved Massachusetts mandate then could be called a tax instead of a penalty.
