House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters yesterday that President Obama and congressional Democrats are “in denial.” Yeah, denial’s just awful, isn’t it? Capping a legislative work period more noted for what it failed to pass than for what it completed, the House voted for the 40th time on Friday to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care reform law before heading home for a five week recess.
The GOP-controlled House voted to approve a measure to prevent the IRS from enforcing “Obamacare” in a 232-185 vote. The legislation faces virtually no chance of advancing in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats. How many House Republicans voted for repeal? All of them who were on the Hill this morning. If we include the Senate, the total number of votes held by congressional Republicans to repeal all or part of the federal health care law is 68. We’re talking about a group of folks who are very slow learners.
Andrew Cray: New Federal Legislation Introduced To Protect Homeless LGBT Youth
Although they comprise only 5 to 7 percent of all youth in America, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth make up an average of 40 percent of all homeless youth in cities across the United States. These youth face a high risk of rejection and abuse in their homes, in their schools, and on the streets. For LGBT children and young adults left without safe homes, life on the street is dangerous, and the future may seem bleak.
But Thursday, Representatives Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) introduced legislation that would offer hope for LGBT youth and the providers charged with serving them. If passed, the Runaway and Homeless Youth Inclusion Act would amend the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act to prohibit discrimination against homeless youth based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the programs intended to offer them stability and shelter, and would promote data collection processes to help policymakers better understand LGBT youth homelessness.
The Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) supports federally-funded programs for homeless youth, including street outreach, shelters and drop-in centers, and transitional living programs.
Igor Volsky: New ObamaCare Rule Throws Lifeline To Federal Employees
Congressional lawmakers and their staff will be able to afford health care coverage this fall when they begin enrolling in the exchanges established under the Affordable Care Act. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is expected to rule that the federal government can continue contributing to the cost of health care plans purchased through an exchange, putting to end months of intense behind-the-scenes lobbying from members of both parties which culminated in President Obama assuring Democrats that he is personally involved in the issue.
Pete Souza: President Obama reading a document in the Oval Office
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Presidential Daily Schedule (All Times Eastern)
10:00AM: Pres. Obama and VP Biden receive the presidential daily briefing
The President will attend meetings at the White House
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Sandhya Somashekhar: Groups Go Door-To-Door To Encourage Enrollment In ObamaCare
In Florida, Enroll America’s work carries particularly high stakes because as much as 25 percent of the non-elderly population lacks insurance and Republican leaders have refused to implement the law’s key provisions themselves. White House officials, who aim to sign up 7 million people nationwide for coverage by next year, have said the state is among their top targets because it has the nation’s third-largest uninsured population after California and Texas.
Over the weekend, more than 100 volunteers with Enroll America knocked on about 4,000 doors around the state. Among the volunteers was Botero, who carried a list of names and addresses generated by a “microtargeting” tool developed by Enroll America, the biggest nonprofit working on Obamacare enrollment. The organization, using census data, commercially available consumer databases and demographic information such as age, race and income, developed a formula to determine the likelihood that someone is uninsured.
The House of Representatives is poised to take its 40th vote to repeal Obamacare. To mark the occasion, here’s a quick rundown of 40 ways that Obamacare is already working for millions of Americans and will impact more beginning in 2014.
Say goodbye to lifetime limits: Insurance companies will no longer be able to place an arbitrary cap on coverage. Children can no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Starting in 2014, adults will no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Free preventive care, including: Annual check-ups Contraception Vaccinations Gestational diabetes screenings Mammograms
The White House: Statement From the President On The Confirmation Of Samantha Power As U.S. Ambassador To The United Nations
I’m pleased that the Senate has confirmed Samantha Power as our next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations by a strong, bipartisan majority. As one of our country’s leading foreign policy thinkers, Samantha knows that our nation’s interests are advanced with strong and principled American leadership. As a long-time champion of human rights and dignity, she will be a fierce advocate for universal rights, fundamental freedoms and U.S. national interests. I’m grateful that Samantha will continue to be a vital member of my national security team, and I know that under her leadership our U.N. Mission in New York will continue to represent American diplomacy at its best.
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White House says July employment is "further confirmation that the US economy is continuing to recover but "more work remains."
Is there any bill funding the government — at any level of spending — that Republicans alone can pass out of the House at this point?
Congress has gone home for recess after a series of botched votes that are cause for deep pessimism about the future. The basic problem here is not hard to divine. The Senate GOP filibuster of the transportation bill yesterday, and the House GOP decision to yank its version of the same the day before that, confirm that Republicans may not be able to pass a spending bill at sequester levels, even as they won’t support one at higher spending levels, either. If this sounds crazy, that’s because it is. But this craziness has a cause. Republican leaders have nurtured it for years, and now they are stuck in a trap of their own creation.
Steve Benen: ‘The American People Should Be Outraged’
When federal policymakers start with a bizarre premise — low-income Americans simply aren’t suffering enough — it’s truly amazing to see where they end up. A plan by House leaders to cut $40 billion from the food stamp program — twice the amount of cuts proposed in a House bill that failed in June — threatens to derail efforts by the House and Senate to work together to complete a farm bill before agriculture programs expire on Sept. 30. The bill that would double cuts previously sought by House Republicans was announced Thursday by Representative Frank D. Lucas, Republican of Oklahoma and chairman of House Agriculture Committee, during a lunch with lobbyists, and first reported by Reuters.
And so, instead of adopting a more moderate bill, making a compromise with the Senate easier, House Republicans, in their infinite wisdom, decided to make their version much more right-wing — doubling the cuts to food aid for the poor, while imposing work requirements and drug tests. If Ayn Rand were alive today, this is the sort of bill that would lead her to say, “Aren’t you guys overdoing it a bit?”
Jonathan Cohn: Six Reasons Hipsters Will Bite On ObamaCare
You’re a 26-year-old single dude, holding down a pair of part-time jobs tending bar and painting houses, and making about $24,000 a year. Thanks to Obamacare, you can finally get decent health insurance, just like people with full-time jobs at large companies do. But when you go online to check out your options, you see that even the cheapest “bronze” plan, which has high deductibles and co-payments, will cost you about $100 a month. Obamacare’s penalty for carrying no insurance next year is less than one-tenth of that. Do you buy the insurance anyway?
But there [are] good reasons to think the critics are wrong, that young people will sign up for health insurance, and that Obamacare will work as its designers intended. Here are six of those reasons.
President Barack Obama talks with diners at Lechonera El Barrio restaurant while waiting for his lunch order during a stop in Orlando, Fla., Aug. 2, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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President Barack Obama works on his statement on the compromise reached to reduce the deficit and avert a default, in the Outer Oval Office, Aug. 2, 2011. Standing in the background are, from left: Director of Communications Dan Pfeiffer; Press Secretary Jay Carney; Jon Lovett, Associate Director of Speechwriting; and Senior Advisor David Plouffe. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
The Obama Diary 
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