Washington Insider Blog

A list of the most recent blog entries about Health Care Reform.

40 items

Results 1 - 20 of 40next >

Lessons from abroad: Effort over talent

After living in Japan for five years, where praise of children was spare and authentic, writer Christine Gross-Loh returned home to the United States where children earn trophies for matching their socks. At a visit to the local shopping center, for instance, Gross-Loh watched with surprise as a father congratulated ...

Boehner's stunning hypocrisy exposed, loud and proud

An angry House Speaker John Boehner strode to the floor of the House Monday night, the night of the shutdown, to insist that all he was fighting for was fairness for the American people. He focused particularly on the bogus "exemption" from ObamaCare that is supposedly being given to members ...

US Education Secretary Arne Duncan: "There is nothing political about giving our three-year olds and four-year olds a strong start in life."

U.S. Ed Secretary Arne Duncan: Petty politics in Washington hurting our children

Here is a condensed version of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan's comments today to the National Press Club: (You can read the full speech here. ) In what seems to have become an annual ritual, I’m here again today to report on the state of education in America. What I ...

Your daily jolt: Nathan Deal cashes in on bad news

At just about suppertime on Thursday, Gov. Nathan Deal served up an email that attempted to wring some good out of a sour news day. There were no details, no repetition of the allegations that the top staffer for the state ethics commission had improperly intervened in an investigation of ...

March 4, 2013 - Atlanta, Ga: State Schools Superintendent John Barge, center, stands next to Gov. Nathan Deal, right, during a group photograph following the news conference for “Read Across Georgia” on the North Wing of the Capitol Monday morning in Atlanta, Ga., March 4, 2013. JASON GETZ / JGETZ@AJC.COM

AJC poll: Nathan Deal approval hovers near 50 percent

According to a poll just conducted for the governor’s favorite out-of-touch fish-wrapper, Nathan Deal is in relatively good shape, politically speaking. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll has found that 49 percent of respondents approve of his performance and 24 percent disapprove. That's a solid, if not overwhelming, number that matches the ...

Daily Jolt: Why $8 tolls aren't going anywhere

An $8 pricetag greeted commuters driving the entire 16 miles on Interstate 85's high-occupancy toll lane this week. The tally, which topped a previous high of $7 earlier this summer, had some drivers gnawing on their steering wheels. Don't expect any changes to the optional tolls, though. Gov. Nathan Deal ...

House GOP rolls out stop gap budget

Overshadowed by the jockeying in Washington, D.C. over possible military strikes against Syria, House Republicans on Tuesday rolled out plans for a stop gap budget that would fund government operations until after Thanksgiving and supports a parliamentary move to block money for the Obama health reform law. Known as the ...

Syria strikes overshadow return of Congress

As the House and Senate reconvene today after a five week break, the debate over whether the U.S. should conduct military strikes against Syria for using chemical weapons is dominating the news, and threatening to crowd out other issues that lawmakers will still have to tackle in coming weeks. For ...

The GOP House embraces its inner Cindy Sheehan

In a fascinating bit of commentary Tuesday night, Brit Hume of Fox News lit into President Obama's approach toward Syria. Here's his statement, in its entirety as delivered: "The predicament now facing President Obama on Syria can be traced to two notions that shaped his foreign policy from the start. ...

Your Daily Jolt: Georgia positions itself amid Hyundai's domestic labor woes

Gov. Nathan Deal had more on his mind during his recent Asia trip than wooing Chinese businesses. He also met with Hyundai's top execs to talk about landing more business from the automaker, which already has a sprawling Kia plant and spinoff suppliers in west Georgia. There's already one tangible ...

Colleges: Concerned about affordability but many still raising tuition

I found some interesting stuff in this new higher ed survey by KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm, most notably that 51 percent of colleges are considering tuition hikes or had already increased tuition to make up for cuts in state and federal funding. U.S. campuses are under ...

Did Georgia Democrats pick the right chairman?

I'm no expert on the Democratic Party of Georgia, and the internal politics of any party can be difficult to decipher, as I've learned after covering a couple of Georgia GOP state conventions. That said, there are a couple of things about Georgia Democrats' selection this past weekend of DuBose ...

Obama March on Washington speech

Honoring the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and those who demonstrated fifty years ago in the March on Washington, President Obama told a crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial that more work remains to achieve King's goal of economic freedom in America. “To secure the gains this country ...

Your daily jolt: Georgia now 4th-largest black consumer market in U.S.

We often talk about this state’s changing demographics, but neglect the implications that stretch far beyond politics. An interesting tidbit from Georgia Trend magazine: The buying power of black consumers in Georgia will rise to $66 billion in 2013 and to $95 billion in 2018. This is up from $16 ...

Ed Lindsey on Bob Barr: ‘A Libertarian-cum-Mad Hatter’

Yikes. The Republican race for the 11th District, now held by U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey of Marietta, just entered new territory. Last week, we told you of the column posted at Townhall.com by former congressman Bob Barr of Smyrna, calling for the ouster of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie from ...

Your daily jolt: Karen Handel loses a supporter over Obamacare

We told you on Sunday about Clint Murphy of Savannah, the former GOP political operative and cancer survivor who now endorses Obamacare. Murphy worked on Karen Handel’s 2010 bid for governor. When we last talked to him, Murphy said that – come what may – he would support her bid ...

Your daily jolt: Tom Price offers alternative to government shutdown over Obamacare

Very different messages are emerging from Republican members of Georgia's congressional delegation over the next strategy to prevent President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul from taking effect. Rep. Tom Graves of Ranger over the weekend told a GOP gathering in Rome that the best path forward is legislation he sponsors that ...

On all the good things Republicans could afford to say about Saxby Chambliss

Macon – He’s got 16 months to go, but roughly 1,100 members of Georgia’s political and business elite gathered Monday to celebrate the congressional career of the exiting U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss. Everyone who could afford to say something nice about Chambliss did. But not everyone could afford to say ...

At 'kickoff' of political season, a taste of things to come

ROME _ Barbecued pork was on the menu at Floyd County's GOP gathering Saturday, but red meat was the main course. Republican politicians produced dollops of it at the event that Rep. Tom Graves called "the kickoff of the political season." (We didn't know it ever ended.) This meeting was ...

So it's Congress's fault Obama is acting opaquely and unconstitutionally??

Robert Reich, an economist and former labor secretary, took to the New York Times' op-ed page this week to tell congressional Republicans that President Obama and his executive branch agencies wouldn't be doing all these things they don't like if only ... those same congressional Republicans had done those same things ...

40 items

Results 1 - 20 of 40next >