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We knew Congress was going to slash SNAP benefits in the latest, House version of the farm bill -- despite any number of compromise suggestions (largely misguided) to increase work requirements, impose new asset tests, and so on.
Instead of debating such compromises, however, the House decided it was more convenient to simply remove food stamps from the farm bill altogether, and as House Speaker John Boehner said, leave SNAP benefits for "later."
Among all that has been written since the Trayvon Martin verdict, the Washington Post’s Richard Cohen may take the cake for his ability to combine factual errors with ridiculous hyperbole. Cohen opens his op-ed by saying:
Despite all the coverage of battles over the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, one question has barely been asked: how will the expansion affect current Medicaid recipients? Will they have receive the same benefits, particularly access to preventive services and screenings that can mean the difference between a minor ailment and a major problem?
The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently issued several try-at-home remedies to aid in the struggle against unruly debt collection firms. In a blog post, they introduced:
It is easy to see how the House of Representatives could pass a farm bill jammed with goodies for agribusiness while leaving food stamps out of the equation. The wealthy have powerful friends in Washington while the poor do not. What is less understandable is why some of the biggest beneficiaries of the food stamp program in corporate America aren't leaping to SNAP's defense.
Richard Cordray, the appointed director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has gone 729 days without a vote. That isn’t because he’s a radical, or even controversial. It’s because the agency he’s appointed to lead was created by a law that conservatives don’t like.
Yesterday Senators Warren, King, McCain, and Cantwell introduced the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act of 2013 which would rebuild the firewall between commercial and investment banks that existed from the days of FDR's first term following the great crash until 1999 at the height of bipartisan deregulation fever—a 66 year-period without a financial crisis as destructive as the one that occurred in 2008.
This morning, severalmedia outlets rushed to report that Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler had lost his battle to secure robust rules governing the international exercise of the Commission’s jurisdiction to govern derivatives.
The Smithsonian is a national treasure. The world's largest museum and research complex, it encompasses a remarkable 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoo, and nine research centers. In many ways, the institution represents what’s best about America, including free access to our cultural treasures and our collective historical memory.