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Paul Krugman noted on ABC's This Week yesterday that the GOP's problem is that their "base is old white people."
This is largely true. Exit polls show that Mitt Romney won all voters 65 and older by 12 percentage points, and white older voters by 22 points. Barack Obama won all voters under thirty by 23 points, and nonwhite young voters by 36 points.
Encouraged by the increased diversity of the U.S. electorate, Democratic strategists have mounted a new push to make Texas a swing state. The "Battleground Texas" campaign seeks to increase voter participation in the Lone Star State and builds on the groundbreaking "50 State Strategy" that Howard Dean launched at the DNC during the Bush years.
Democratic lawmakers say allowing voters to register and cast ballots on the same day would increase election participation, but some county officials worry that it would further complicate the voting process.
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States with same-day registration have turnout rates nearly 6 percent higher than states that don’t offer it, according to Demos, a progressive public policy research group.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed to raise the New York State minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.75 per hour, drawing cheers from progressive groups who have lobbied for such a hike for years. But many business advocacy groups worry that this move would raise the cost of hiring entry level employees, and hinder New York's already slow economic recovery.
Which is better for a country’s well-being: $10 million spent constructing a jail, or $10 million spent producing a line of smartphones? How about clear- cutting rain forests to produce $10 million in lumber? Or a storm that requires $10 million in repairs?
A federal judge recently approved the BP settlement over the Deep Horizon disaster so BP will pay $4 billion in criminal penalties—a slap on the wrist—and plead guilty to manslaughter.