The average family health insurance premium in 1996 was $4938. So in the 14 years from 1996 to 2010, premiums rose 168%.
In the 14 yrs between 2010 and 2024, premiums rose 75%, less than half as fast.
So yes, Obamacare bent the cost curve. pic.twitter.com/REyViYxFYY
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) March 24, 2024
Category: Politics As Usual
Looks like Andy Kim will be the next NJ senator
BREAKING: Tammy Murphy just announced she’s dropping out of the race for U.S. Senate in New Jersey, which clears the way for Andy Kim to replace Bob Menendez and be the next U.S. Senator from New Jersey. Such great news & such a great person to replace Bob Menendez. pic.twitter.com/bfJH8MtwLZ
— Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) March 24, 2024
How did Andy Kim beat the machine? https://t.co/8EbxE7v89k via @TPM
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 24, 2024
Yes, that’s the same Andy Kim who scrubbed shit off the floors of the Capitol after Jan. 6th. I love him for that.
Among other things, the political news out of New Jersey today means that the Senate seat is likely to go from a man accused of taking gold bars as part of a bribery scheme to a man best known before running for Senate for doing this in the Capitol after Jan. 6 riots/ pic.twitter.com/mIk9SdV1QK
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 24, 2024
Bad move
NEW AD: Trump just asked if Americans are “better off” than they were four years ago.
We’re glad you asked. pic.twitter.com/Nklx7svXo1
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) March 21, 2024
Of course they are
NEW: Despite previous claims that the RNC would not be paying Donald Trump’s various legal bills, an invitation to a Palm Beach, Florida, fundraiser next month proves otherwise. https://t.co/qn7RmPzp9v
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) March 21, 2024
Spring
Such a kind man
Harry, I’ve struggled with a stutter all of my life. Thank you for telling me about yours, and don’t let anyone tell you it will stop you from achieving your dreams.
I’m proud of you. pic.twitter.com/IVITt9vifJ
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 14, 2024
Oh sure, that’ll work
One day after the US House of Representatives voted to force TikTok to divest from China or be banned, Donald Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says he is putting together a group to buy TikTok.
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 14, 2024
I think Steve Mnuchin buying TikTok would likely accelerate the hostile foreign power spying issue.
But maybe that’s because I study gangsters.— Stephanie "LB" 🟧 (@LincolnsBible) March 14, 2024
Steve Mnuchin was business partners with Len Blavatnik (LOL, “Access Industries”). Blavatnik was/is in business with sanctioned Russian oligarchs. Mnuchin was essentially put in place lift Russia sanctions, which he did. pic.twitter.com/a0MZx1hOpF
— WaterBluSky.bsky.social. 🇺🇸 🌻 🇺🇦 (@MsMariaT) February 22, 2022
What happens when you take things away?
The more I think about this, the more I think it’s true:
It’s a riddle that economists have struggled to decipher. The U.S. economy seems robust on paper, yet Americans are dissatisfied with it. But hardly anyone seems to have paid much attention to the whirlwind experience we just lived through: We built a real social safety net in the United States and then abruptly ripped it apart.
Take unemployment insurance. The CARES Act, passed in March 2020, included the largest increase in benefits and eligibility in American history. It offered people “a sense of relief,” said Francisco Díez, senior policy strategist for economic justice with the Center for Popular Democracy, which organized unemployed people in the pandemic. “A feeling like they could breathe and figure out what they could do.”
LaShondra White was one of them. When she was furloughed from her job at a Kohl’s department store in Detroit in March 2020, she started receiving more than $600 a week. It was “my chance to get out of this situation,” she told me last year, a situation in which her pay was “horrible.” She had always wanted to own her own business, so with the extra money she fixed her credit score, rented out a commercial space and opened an eyelash studio. Her studio is still open and largely booked.
In 2019, unemployment insurance kept 500,000 people out of poverty; in 2020, that figure was 5.5 million. Yes, the program was riddled with problems, particularly technological ones, that made it difficult for many people to get enrolled quickly. But once they were covered, “They saw something close to the actual level of benefits that they deserve,” Mr. Díez said.
It was short-lived. By July 2020, the extra $600 in benefits had lapsed, and it wasn’t until December 2020 that Congress approved $300 payments with new restrictions. By May, some states started opting out, leaving their residents with the paltry benefits they would have gotten prepandemic.
Fantastic
story on this here:https://t.co/FuI4g85QZk
— David Dayen (@ddayen) March 12, 2024
That majority keeps getting smaller
Speaker JOHNSON on Buck: “I was surprised by Ken’s announcement. I look forward to talking to him about that.” https://t.co/Pw5Axn73LI
— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) March 12, 2024
Ken Buck represents CO-4; Lauren Boebert, who represents CO-3, is running to replace him. If Boebert wins a special election to replace Buck she'll have to resign CO-3, creating a new vacancy. But if she doesn't run in the special she risks losing her chance to remain in Congress
— Aaron Fritschner (@Fritschner) March 12, 2024