I've spent much of today going through the lies Mitt Romney told during the Presidential debate last night. And I've discovered that they were so egregious that it's going to take a few days for the media to go through and dispel all of them. Anyhow, there was one that stood out ...read more
By Bob Cesca: Somehow, the team of CG animators who work on the Mitt Romney uncanny valley animations that substitute for an actual Republican candidate continue to let this jittery, awkward proto-human speak without a carefully scripted speeches uploaded to his neural network. ...read more
James Kwak provides an enlightening analysis of the GOP argument that the individual mandate is an oppressive tax on the middle class. His conclusion:In short: Very few people are even theoretically subject to the tax, and most of them are made much better off by the law, since ...read more
By Ben Cohen: According to the Mississippi Tea Party, the implementation of Obamacare is tantamount to treason, and the chairman is advocating an armed uprising to get rid of the 'criminal invaders' residing in the White House. On their official website chairman Roy Nicholson ...read more
By Ben Cohen: Watching Mitt Romney desperately try to capitalize on conservative anger and public fear over 'Obamacare' is a lesson in the art of modern marketing. PR firms and advertisers are hired to the majority of the work on Presidential campaigns these days because the ...read more
By Bob Cesca: Okay, so this won't be a column about the biggest lie in the history of the universe. I have no idea what that might be. But I can safely say that today's column is about the biggest lie in the history of the last several days. Before I dive into the specific lie, ...read more
by Charles Ornstein: For many people without insurance, a key question raised by the Supreme Court's decision today to uphold the Affordable Care Act is whether states will decline to participate in the law's big Medicaid expansion. Although the court upheld the law's mandate ...read more
Welcome to this week's edition of The Daily Banter mailbag, where Bob, Ben and Chez answer our readers questions on stuff we should probably know about.... Today, we answer questions on the Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare - whether it hurts or helps Obama's chances of ...read more
With a huge amount of disinformation about President Obama's healthcare plan swirling around the country, it is no wonder Americans are unsure about 'Obamacare' and what it means for them. As Bob Cesca wrote in a column earlier this week, even Republicans love Obamacare, they ...read more
By Bob Cesca: Throughout the last four years, whenever healthcare reform has reached critical mass -- either when it was in danger of failing or close to passing, big dumb Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (D-In Name Only) has invariably shoved his bulbous skull into the mix and ...read more
Breaking news from CNN:In a landmark ruling that will impact the November election and the lives of every American, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the controversial health care law championed by President Barack Obama. The narrow 5-4 ruling was a victory for Obama but ...read more
From BuzzFeed:Speaking to one of the loudest crowds he's addressed in weeks, Mitt Romney made little effort to tamp down conservative enthusiasm for Thursday's expected Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act. "My guess is they're not sleeping real well in the White ...read more
By Bob Cesca: Yesterday, I covered the new Reuters/Ipsos poll showing the infuriatingly contradictory views on the Affordable Care Act. But what I didn't note was that Republicans, naturally, are the most infuriatingly contradictory of bunch. Okay, I know. Duh, right? They're ...read more
By Bob Cesca: The Supreme Court will be handing down its decision on the Affordable Care Act this week (for real this time) and all of the following might be moot if they end up ruling the law unconstitutional, but, once again, another poll has proved the ongoing thesis that the ...read more
By Bob Cesca: A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the disconnect among senior citizens regarding the healthcare law and who they're intending to support in the election. Once again, seniors are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act more than any other demographic group ...read more
By Bob Cesca: There's a myth about old people. They're evidently wiser than the rest of us. Through longevity, experiences and a lifetime of observation of the human condition, they have insights about the world that the rest of us aren't yet aware of. And they vote. Senior ...read more
By Bob Cesca: It's very unlikely the president will offer up a new healthcare reform bill if the current law is ripped to shreds by the conservative-controlled Supreme Court. In his own words, there are only two ways to make sure all Americans can afford healthcare: the current ...read more
The US supreme court confronted what one justice characterised as a choice between a "wrecking operation" and a "salvage job" as it considered the future of Barack Obama's signature healthcare reforms if a key component is found to be unconstitutional. In a third and final day ...read more
By Robert Parry: Does anyone doubt that if a Republican president had enacted the Affordable Care Act – with its individual mandate devised by the right-wing Heritage Foundation and with Mitt Romney denouncing “free riders” not paying their share of health care costs – the U.S. ...read more
It’s not often that you hear the leader of a Fortune 100 company publicly acknowledge the imminent demise of his venerable, profitable business model. Yet, speaking at the HIMSS12 Conference in Las Vegas, Aetna CEO, Chairman and President Mark Bertolini, said a reckoning for the ...read more