Politics
Pink Out the Capitol
Jo Freeman writes: Roughly 500 women and a few men gathered on the east lawn of the US Capitol building on March 29 to declare that "I Stand With Planned Parenthood." The Senate was due to vote on a resolution to permit the states to deny federal family planning funds to health care centers which provide abortions, albeit with other funds. The failed Republican replacement for the 2010 Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) contained a provision which would have denied PP $400 million in Medicaid money.
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While the Senate Intelligence Committee Begins Their Exploration Into Russian Interference Two Work In Space on Capsule Maintenance
Expedition 50 Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson is on her eighth spacewalk Thursday morning and could surpass astronaut Suni Williams’ record for the most spacewalks by a female astronaut. Whitson’s last spacewalk was on Jan. 6 with Commander Shane Kimbrough when she hooked up new lithium-ion batteries and inspected the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Meantime, the Senate Committee on Intelligence hears an expert testify: "The issue before this panel is Russian active measures and influence campaigns. It rose to the top of our national agenda in 2016, when we became aware of Russian interference in our presidential campaign." more »
Lawmakers Look to Curb Foreign Influence in State Elections: Would They Bar Political Spending By Businesses In Which Non-US citizens Have a Significant Ownership Stake?
The ride-hailing company Uber, along with its competitor Lyft, together spent $9 million on a 2016 ballot initiative in Austin, Texas, that would have overturned the city’s requirement that drivers for the companies undergo fingerprint-based background checks. The Chinese ride-hailing company Didi invested $100 million in Lyft, and Uber announced a few weeks after the election that Saudi Arabia had secured a 5 percent stake in the company with a $3.5 billion investment. more »
Congressional Budget Office: American Health Care Act Cost Estimate and How Many Will Be Uninsured
CBO and JCT estimate that, in 2018, 14 million more people would be uninsured under the legislation than under current law. Most of that increase would stem from repealing the penalties associated with the individual mandate. Some of those people would choose not to have insurance because they chose to be covered by insurance under current law only to avoid paying the penalties, and some people would forgo insurance in response to higher premiums. Later, following additional changes to subsidies for insurance purchased in the nongroup market and to the Medicaid program, the increase in the number of uninsured people relative to the number under current law would rise to 21 million in 2020 and then to 24 million in 2026. more »