With the Court now poised to make its most nakedly partisan move in the slow descent since Bush v Gore in 2000 by upending the Obamacare subsidy regime, there’s fevered debate and prognostication about the fallout that would follow. Will Democrats cave and agree to major revisions of Obamacare or will Republican governors (faced with an outcry from hundreds of thousands of constituents seeing huge rate increases) get pragmatic and adopt the federal exchange for their states to keep the subsidies flowing? Who blinks first is an interesting and important question. But it leaves a critical player, perhaps the critical player, out of the equation: the insurance companies.
Senate Dems to make Elizabeth Warren Leader of Liberals. Really.
John Fogerty says he’s “proud” that Bruce Springsteen performed Fortunate Son performed at this weekend’s Vets concert.
I’m not sure how much it even makes sense to call ‘Fortunate Son’ an ‘anti-war’ song, especially in the context of an event honoring veterans. I’m curious whether people think Born in the USA is anti-war or anti-American.
Today is TPM’s 14th Anniversary. The site launched on November 13th, 2000, which is I guess a roundabout way of restating the first sentence. As I’ve mentioned in a few posts over the last couple months we have several big new projects we’re launching early next year. And the company, TPM Media, is in the best financial shape it’s ever been. We plan to translate that success into doing more of what we do and doing it better. All in all, a good time for TPM. And we thank you, our readers.
Be sure to take a moment to read TPM’s excerpt from THE SPHINX: Franklin Roosevelt, the Isolationists, and the Road to World War II by Nicholas Wapshott today. In this piece, Roosevelt purges his cabinet of isolationists before heading into the 1940 Democratic convention in Chicago for a dramatic nominations process.
Remember that New Hampshire journalist who got in all the trouble after he challenged Scott Brown’s geography in that senate debate? Well, he’s disappeared. Now at first we thought something terrible might have happened. We imagined Scott Brown, holed up in his nominal residence cabin, pondering Vermont 2016, and going all Silence of the Lambs on the guy’s ass, with James Pindell cold and alone trapped in a ten foot dirt hole and Brown screaming down from up top, “Who’s North now, James!?!?!?!” But we did get a ‘no comment’ email reply from Pindell. So it’s seems like that didn’t happen. But Tom Kludt’s got the story right here and he tries to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Kansas’ budget shortfall — announced just days after tax cut-and-spend conservative Sam Brownback was re-elected — may actually be twice as bad as we thought: $546 million vs. $239 million.
If you already missing the 2014 election — it’s been 10 days! — then let me officially welcome you to 2016 and the pre-emptive oppo research drop against potential future campaign staffers. Ugh.