Buoyed by the backlash against Donald Trump’s presidency, Democrats around the country are mobilizing for special elections, including in states where Republicans are accustomed to dominating the political field. Over the past few months, for example, Georgia has received national attention as Democrat Jon Ossoff has broken open a race in a solidly Republican congressional district, raising […]

Republicans are terrified of losing the special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff is surging, his campaign raised millions of dollars, and early voting currently favors registered Democrats by 20 points. Desperate to stave off a loss in a traditionally Republican stronghold, GOP interest groups are throwing everything they have at Ossoff. An attack ad […]

Republicans took a massive gamble by forcing a vote on their health care repeal bill before the Congressional Budget Office had time to review it. Some commentators wondered whether the bill might in fact have so many budget flaws that it would no longer even reduce the deficit, meaning it would violate Senate rules and the House […]

The special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District continues to heat up, with massive grassroots organizing and outside groups pouring money and resources into the race. Neither Democratic underdog Jon Ossoff nor pro-Trump culture warrior Karen Handel shows any sign of pulling away with a strong lead, with still more than a month to go […]

Donald Trump’s proposed budget is a despicable attack on America’s most vulnerable citizens: women, the working class, children, and even people on disability. In a shocking exchange with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, revealed a stunning contempt and lack of compassion for struggling everyday Americans, including the 44 million Americans who […]

House Republicans voted to repeal Obamacare this week and replace it with a hastily cobbled together mess of a bill that nobody supports. And they did it without even reading the bill or waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to calculate exactly how much this monstrosity will cost the country, which many of them admitted even while […]

There are few in Congress more desperate to repeal health care for the poor than Idaho Republican Raúl Labrador. The founder of the ultra-right-wing House Freedom Caucus, Labrador has previously claimed health care is not a “basic human right,” despite the fact that the government pays most of his own health care costs — something he […]

The health care repeal bill that the House of Representatives passed Thursday on a strictly partisan vote contains a provision that will make life worse for military veterans. Paralyzed Veterans of America warned Republicans about the provision, but Republicans ignored the warning, passed the bill, and then went to celebrate with Donald Trump in the Rose Garden of […]

House Speaker Paul Ryan finally passed the health care bill he and Donald Trump have been pushing for weeks, after backroom deals with the Freedom Caucus and a series of amendments that only made it worse. It now heads to the Senate. The repeal bill, which Republicans call the American Health Care Act, kicks over 24 million […]

During the House’s hearing Tuesday on the Russia investigation task force, former CIA Director John Brennan confirmed what a growing number of scandalous revelations have been indicating all along: that there was contact between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign during the 2016 election. During questioning by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who has served as acting chair […]

Democrats have historically been chided for the speed of their response to breaking news. No such critique will be valid this time. Even before the end of the GOP’s disgraceful beer-soaked celebration of their vote to take health care away from millions of Americans, Democrats jump-started their national, regional, and local campaign to hold every last one of them […]

In the face of public pressure over his unethical secret meeting with the White House, and an Ethics Committee investigation into his possible exposure of classified information, House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) has reluctantly agreed to recuse himself from the investigation into Russia’s efforts to swing the presidential election for Donald Trump. This is a […]

Republicans celebrated stripping health insurance from 24 million Americans with a delivery of beer to the United States Capitol. As Republicans were voting to repeal Obamacare and make it harder and more expensive for Americans to access life-saving health care, they were apparently already looking forward to knocking back beers in celebration. “Looks like House Republicans are gearing […]

The past couple of weeks in the runoff for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District have seen continued escalation between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel. Democrats are increasingly hopeful that Ossoff, a charismatic young filmmaker and former congressional staffer, can flip a district that has been red for nearly 40 years. Republicans, for their part, are […]

By a strictly partisan vote of 217-213, House Republicans passed their second attempt to repeal Obamacare since Donald Trump became president. The bill, which Speaker Paul Ryan rushed through without even waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to score it to calculate how much it will cost, is a disaster for the American people, especially those […]

The latest Republican bill to repeal Obamacare is an unpopular disaster. And it turns out the very people who voted for Donald Trump could suffer the most if it becomes law. The repeal bill removes the current ban on excluding patients with pre-existing conditions from health insurance coverage, one of the most popular provisions of Obamacare. A […]

While the world was focused on Donald Trump’s relentless stream of foibles and failures, the otherwise stagnant House of Representatives quietly passed legislation broadening Trump’s power over matters of intellectual property. In a bipartisan, 378-48 vote, the House passed the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act (H.R. 1695), which wrests the librarian of Congress’ ability […]

In April, the unimaginable happened. Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff, the young documentary filmmaker and former congressional staffer, took 48 percent of the vote in the primary against a field of nearly a dozen Republicans, in Georgia’s traditionally red 6th Congressional District. The runoff between Ossoff and former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel is now in […]

House Republicans are frantically trying to whip votes for their latest version of Obamacare repeal, after their first attempt failed dismally. The newly amended American Health Care Act, which strips protections for pre-existing conditions and would weaken coverage requirements for employer-provided health plans, appears to be in jeopardy again, with key Republicans coming out against it, and […]

Vice President Mike Pence went to Capitol Hill to try to shore up Republican support for the latest Obamacare repeal bill, but at least one House member was unpersuaded. Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) walked out of the meeting before it even ended, telling reporters that Pence had not changed his mind. “He knows where I am and what […]

House Republicans are trying to rush through the Orwellian named “Financial CHOICE Act of 2017,” a bill that would gut financial protections and, among other things, allow banks and credit card companies to charge higher per-transaction fees. During the House Financial Services Committee’s markup session for the bill, also known as House Bill 10, the committee’s ranking […]

There is no shortage of problems with the House Republicans’ bill to repeal Obamacare, currently being rammed through committee with no input from Democrats or the Congressional Budget Office: It raises premiums. It kicks up to 10 million people off their plans. It cuts nearly $600 billion in taxes for the wealthy. It bans Medicaid patients from using Planned Parenthood. […]

With one month to go before the runoff in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, Democratic filmmaker and former congressional staffer Jon Ossoff and right-wing Donald Trump ally Karen Handel are locked in a fierce toss-up contest. Despite the conventionally accepted long odds of a Democrat winning a seat in the wealthy, conservative suburbs north of Atlanta […]

An increasing number of House Democrats will be skipping Donald Trump’s inauguration in an act of principled protest. Rep. Gwen Moore will not be among them, because she has chosen a different path of resistance. In a statement Wednesday, she explained her decision (emphasis mine): I support my colleagues in their decision to boycott the […]

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) is leaving Congress, possibly for a job at Fox News. If the rumors are true, his history of partisan attacks and skullduggery will be a perfect fit at the right-wing propaganda network. In a letter to his constituents, he announced his intention to resign, effective June 30. He explained that his “life […]

The runoff for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District — a seat Republicans have held for nearly four decades — is now in full swing, between former Democratic congressional staffer and filmmaker Jon Ossoff and former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. Republicans long claimed Ossoff would have no chance against a single opponent, rather than the fractured […]

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is prone to holding sham committee hearings in order to promote terrible Republican policies, but luckily, Democrats on these committees get to call witnesses, as well. At just such a hearing by the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, in support of Donald Trump’s non-Mexico-funded border wall, Republicans stacked […]

The past few months of special elections have been endlessly nerve-wracking for the GOP. In April, Republicans nearly lost a congressional race in Kansas’s 4th District, one of the most conservative seats in the country. Meanwhile, they are still struggling in Georgia’s 6th District, where Democrat Jon Ossoff is neck and neck with pro-Trump career politician […]

Throughout his career, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has unapologetically embraced white supremacy. He once described a guest of Michelle Obama’s at a State of the Union address a “deportable.” He said young undocumented immigrants from Mexico have “calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling seventy-five pounds of marijuana across the desert” and are “undermining our culture and […]

National security adviser Michael Flynn finally resigned in disgrace amid the deepening questions about his contact with Russian officials, both prior to and since the November election. But his resignation does not bring an end to this debacle; in fact, it only makes investigating it more urgent, as answers are still needed as to what […]