Author: Data and Research Manager

Minnesota Republican health plan: Lower costs, but really bad insurance

Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) has never been a fan of health care for the masses. Or at least not Obamacare. Drazkowski has long promised a better way.

You may be able to save money. You just won’t be covered for everything from cancer to Lyme’s disease.

“We need to stop the march toward government takeover and turn directly to supporting individual health care, freedom, and choice,” he wrote in the Rochester Post Bulletin in 2014. “Start by allowing insurance companies… to compete for business. More competition will increase health-care quality and decrease your health insurance expenses.”

But it’s one thing to sit on the sidelines and talk aboput how you could do better. It’s entirely another thing to actually come up with your own plan. Now we know what Drazkowski’s definition of better health care really is. Continue reading “Minnesota Republican health plan: Lower costs, but really bad insurance”

White House Vows To Fight Media ‘Tooth And Nail’ Over (Accurate) Coverage

The following article by Doina Chiacu and Jason Lange with Reuters was posted on the National Memo website January 22, 2017:

REUTERS/J. Scott Applewhite/Pool

The White House vowed on Sunday to fight the news media “tooth and nail” over what it sees as unfair attacks, with a top adviser saying the Trump administration had presented “alternative facts” to counter low inauguration crowd estimates.

On his first full day as president, Trump said he had a “running war” with the media and accused journalists of underestimating the number of people who turned out Friday for his swearing-in.

White House officials made clear no truce was on the horizon on Sunday in television interviews that set a much harsher tone in the traditionally adversarial relationship between the White House and the press corps. Continue reading “White House Vows To Fight Media ‘Tooth And Nail’ Over (Accurate) Coverage”

Pope Francis warns against rise of populist leaders ‘like Hitler’ as Donald Trump sworn in as President

‘In times of crisis, we lack judgement’

The following article by Samuel Osborne was posted on The Independent website January 22, 2017:

He made the comments to Spanish newspaper El Pais as Donald Trump was being sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.

During the interview, the pontiff condemned the use of walls and barbed wire to keep out foreigners, but said it was too early to judge Mr Trump, saying: “I think we must wait and see.”

When asked if he worries about the rise of populism in the United States and Europe, he said people should not repeat the same mistakes as in the 1930s, when they turned to “saviours” to resolve economic and political crises only to end up at war.  Continue reading “Pope Francis warns against rise of populist leaders ‘like Hitler’ as Donald Trump sworn in as President”

90,000-plus march in St. Paul with message for Trump

The following article by Erin Golden and Aimee Blanchette was posted on the StarTribune website January 21, 2017:

Close to 100,000 protesters swept across the state Capitol grounds on Saturday in what was likely Minnesota’s largest-ever demonstration of political dissent.

The turnout was the state’s contribution to an emphatic nationwide day of protest aimed at protecting civil rights in the new era that began with the new Trump administration on Friday. Continue reading “90,000-plus march in St. Paul with message for Trump”

Women’s marches: More than one million protesters vow to resist President Trump

The following article by Perry Stein, Steve Hendrix and Abigail Hauslohner was posted on the Washington Post website January 22, 2017:

More than 1 million people gathered in Washington and in cities around the country and the world Saturday to mount a roaring rejoinder to the inauguration of President Trump. What started as a Facebook post by a Hawaii retiree became an unprecedented international rebuke of a new president that packed cities large and small — from London to Los Angeles, Paris to Park City, Utah, Miami to Melbourne, Australia.

The organizers of the Women’s March on Washington, who originally sought a permit for a gathering of 200,000, said Saturday that as many as half a million people participated. On Sunday, Metro officials announced that Saturday was the second-busiest day in the Washington subway system’s history, with 1,001,613 trips. (By contrast, on Trump’s Inauguration Day, the system recorded 570,557 trips.) Continue reading “Women’s marches: More than one million protesters vow to resist President Trump”

Trump And His Press Secretary Flagrantly Lied On Their First Full Day In Office. That Matters.

Thankfully, some reporters are calling them out on it.

The following article by Nick Baumann and Michael Calderone was posted on the Huffington Post website January 21, 2017:

On Saturday, President Donald Trump’s first full day in office, he gave a speech at CIA headquarters in which he lied about the size of the crowd at his inauguration and falsely claimed that he had never feuded with the U.S. intelligence community. Hours later, his press secretary emerged from the West Wing, lied about the size of the inaugural crowd and took no questions. Continue reading “Trump And His Press Secretary Flagrantly Lied On Their First Full Day In Office. That Matters.”

Trump takes to Twitter to weigh in on Women’s March, TV ratings for inauguration

The following article by John Wagner was posted on the Washington Post website January 22, 2017:

President Trump weighed in for the first time on the massive protests against his presidency that took place in Washington and around the globe, stating sarcastically on Twitter on Sunday morning that he was “under the impression that we just had an election!”

His tweet came in response to more than one million people gathering Saturday for the Women’s March on Washington and at other rallies in the United States and abroad, meant as a rejoinder to his inauguration the day before. Trump and his aides remained silent about the protests on Saturday. Continue reading “Trump takes to Twitter to weigh in on Women’s March, TV ratings for inauguration”