Not a single veterans service organization was asked to speak last week at the House Veterans Affairs Committee’s hearing on the final recommendations of the VA Commission on Care, though such groups represent millions of former military personnel. Also noticeably absent from the witness list was Vietnam veteran Michael Blecker, executive director of the San […]
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Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Studies Show Veterans Health Care Improving
When the House Veterans Affairs Committee holds a hearing on September 7 to assess the future of the Veterans Health Administration, federal lawmakers would do well to consider recent reports that challenge the continual drumbeat of negative and often unfair coverage and congressional criticism of the VHA. One report, from the RAND Corporation, said that […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Report: Patients’ Groups With Big Pharma Ties Came Out Against Medicare Drug Plan
Earlier this year, nearly 400 patients’ groups signed onto two separate letters criticizing a recent Medicare proposal aimed at bringing down the cost of prescription drugs. Warning that there would be dire consequences for patients if the proposal moves forward, patients’ groups including the Partnership to Improve Patient Care and the Quality Cancer Care Alliance […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
No Running Mate, Perez Still Stumps for Clinton
When Hillary Clinton picked Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate last week, there was a predictable collective groan from progressives, particularly Latinos, who had been hoping for a selection more squarely in their camp. Among those on the final shortlist, Tom Perez had been the clear favorite of many progressives looking for Clinton […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Indiana Court Overturns Purvi Patel’s Feticide Conviction
The Indiana Court of Appeals last week overturned the 20-year prison sentence for Purvi Patel, the first woman in the United States to be convicted under a feticide law for having an abortion. The 3-0 decision marks a victory for reproductive rights advocates, who argued that using feticide laws to convict women who end their […]
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Congress Goes on Vacation While Zika Spreads
Florida reported the first possible case of mosquito-transmitted Zika Wednesday. But the summer congressional recess is in full swing and Congress closed up shop without appropriating funds to combat the illness that can cause birth defects in babies born to infected mothers, leaving reproductive rights advocates and public health experts wondering what comes next. House […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
This Is What Happens When a State Has No Contribution Limits
The RNC platform released this week broadly calls for rolling back federal campaign-finance laws-going so far as to advocate for the right of donors to contribute unlimited amounts of money. “Limits on political speech serve only to protect the powerful and insulate incumbent officeholders. We support repeal of federal restrictions on political parties in McCain-Feingold, […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
The FEC Just Slapped Koch Brothers Groups with a Big Fine
In a sign that, surely, the end times are near, the partisan-deadlocked Federal Election Commission actually agreed to enforce campaign-finance laws-six years after the fact. Three groups funded by Charles and David Koch’s expansive political network agreed to pay $233,000 in fines to the FEC for illegally hiding the identities of donors to their 2010 […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Report: Most Pharma Donations Go to Drug-Affordability Opponents
Alarmed by a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pilot program that aims to bring down the cost of drugs to patients, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have lined up against it, citing concerns ranging from rationing of care to reduction in rural patients’ access to affordable providers. But a Public […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
How Tom Perez Embodies the Democrats’ TPP Rift
When it comes to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Tom Perez is stuck between a rock and a hard place-or rather, between his current boss, President Barack Obama, and his potential future boss, Hillary Clinton. In his role as the U.S. labor secretary, Perez has gone to the mat for Obama as a prominent supporter of […]
