Archive for February, 2011

After proposing a $1.5 billion cut in state aid to schools for the upcoming academic year, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is targeting the salaries of the state’s school superintendents.

President Obama tries to seize the political middle on health care, telling governors that states should have flexibility in implementation.

Across the country, millions of American families are being helped by health reform.Erin McCann, form OFA Missouri, shares the story of Caroline, a grandmother in St. Louis:When asked what health reform means to Caroline, she simply said, “It’s very practical. It means my granddaughter is covered. It also means that when she’s 26, she’ll be able to get coverage, because [insurance companies] can no longer deny her based on her asthma.We all have heard of or known or read about too many people who have lost everything because they got sick.She ended with saying “I have much more faith in the government than the insurance companies to take care of their citizens.”From Tennessee, Brett Cantrell, shares Janice’s story:My daughter, who is 36 years …

Earlier today, President Obama spoke to a bipartisan group of governors from across the country. He discussed the common challenges he and state policymakers share: promoting economic growth and helping to rebuild our country, while doing so in a way that is fiscally responsible. President Obama also underscored the commitment he feels to empower states to find health care solutions that work best for them – and announced his support for a measure that would accelerate the timetable for giving states flexibility in tailoring and operating the reformed health system for the needs of their residents. The President told the nation’s governors that he backs the Empowering States to Innovate Act: A few weeks ago, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a …

Spoiler alert: There’s now a good chance that the federal government will not shut down on Friday night, when the latest stop-gap funding measure expires.

Union workers and activists celebrated in the Wisconsin Capitol early Monday, as police relented and let them spend another night on the marble floors of the building’s rotunda.

Politics is serious business — but not all the time.

The cost of military health care, up 300% in the past decade, is eating a giant hole in the Pentagon’s budget, according to a report released Monday by a group of defense experts.