Tom Howell Jr.

Obama: Republicans must embrace ‘reality’ of Obamacare success

Five years after signing his signature domestic achievement into law, President Obama said Sunday that Republicans must stop efforts to repeal Obamacare and embrace the "reality" that the law is working.

March 22, 2015

HealthCare.gov still fixing tax-form blunder

The administration said Friday it still had to send corrected tax forms to 80,000 of the 820,000 HealthCare.gov customers who received erroneous information from the federal Obamacare exchange earlier this year.

March 20, 2015

Republican budget proposals a tough sell within increasingly polarized GOP

They've written their budgets, but now Republican leaders must try to round up the votes to pass them amid an ever-more polarized GOP riven with disputes over defense spending and the pace of cutting entitlements.

March 19, 2015

John Boehner: House GOP split on defense spending in budget proposal

Speaker John A. Boehner said Thursday his chamber likely will debate additional defense spending when his party's budget resolution heads to the floor next week.

March 19, 2015

House leaders say they’re close to fixing hated Medicare funding formula

Congressional leaders released a bipartisan bill Thursday to scrap an outdated Medicare payment formula and replace it with a system that's more predictable for doctors and rewards the quality — not quantity — of care they provide.

March 19, 2015

Obamacare still disliked more than liked, but gap narrowing: poll

More Americans disapprove of Obamacare than those who favor it, 43 percent to 41 percent, although the gap between those camps has narrowed to its closet margin in over two years, according to a March tracking poll released Thursday.

March 19, 2015

Senate GOP unveils budget with Obamacare repeal, dismisses president’s ‘unserious’ plan

Senate Republicans released a budget Wednesday that achieves balance in 10 years but does not mimic the House GOP's defense-spending ploys or sweeping changes to Medicare, as tough contests loom for dozens of the party's senators in 2016.

March 18, 2015

Chris Van Hollen on GOP budget: ‘Fakery is hard to sell’

The House Democrats' top budget man was still making his way through the GOP's budget when he faced reporters Tuesday, but it's safe to say he's not impressed.

March 17, 2015

GOP budget repeals Obamacare, cuts $5.5 trillion

House Republicans unveiled a 2016 budget Tuesday that would cut $5.5 trillion from spending over the next 10 years, repeal Obamacare and change Medicare into a voucherlike system — key parts of a fiscally punishing blueprint designed to end red ink in less than a decade.

March 17, 2015

HHS touts drop in uninsured rate under Obamacare; 16 million gained coverage

More than 16 million Americans have gained insurance coverage in the five years since Obamacare was signed, the administration said Monday in a report designed to cheer the law's "historic" strides while Republican lawmakers redouble efforts to scrap it completely.

March 16, 2015

Adam Schiff: GOP using Benghazi probe to cast bad light on Hillary Clinton

A Democrat on the House Benghazi committee says Republicans have turned the probe into a special investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and her emails.

March 15, 2015

Trey Gowdy wants to wrap up Benghazi probe this year

Rep. Trey Gowdy says he has no interest in stretching out his investigation of the Benghazi terrorist attacks into 2016.

March 15, 2015

John Kerry chides GOP for Senate letter on Iran nuclear deal

Secretary of State John F. Kerry says the decision by Senate Republicans to interject themselves into nuclear negotiations with Iran was "calculated to interfere" with his efforts to limit Tehran's ability to build an atomic bomb.

March 15, 2015

Mitch McConnell: First human trafficking bill, then Loretta Lynch confirmation

Mitch McConnell says the Senate must finish a human trafficking bill before it can vote on confirming Loretta Lynch as attorney general.

March 15, 2015

Mitch McConnell defends GOP warning letter to Iran on nuke deal

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defended a controversial letter his caucus sent to Iranian leaders last week, saying it would be foolish for Republicans to stand down.

March 15, 2015

House leaders say they’re working on fix to outdated Medicare formula

Top House lawmakers said Friday they're inching closer to a plan that repeals the formula that pays doctors for each service provided under Medicare and replaces it with one that rewards providers for high-quality care — a measure that both sides of the political aisle have said is long overdue.

March 13, 2015

Tax preparers scamming filers for Obamacare ‘individual mandate’ tax: IRS

The IRS warned Americans taxpayers Friday of a scam that leverages Obamacare's penalty for lacking insurance in 2014.

March 13, 2015

Democrats urge HHS to let pregnant women sign up for Obamacare throughout year

The Obama administration should let women enroll in Obamacare-related plans if they get pregnant outside of the normal signup period, dozens of Democrats said.

March 13, 2015

Obamacare special enrollment for penalty payers a one-time deal, admin says

The Obama administration said Friday the special enrollment period that kicks off this weekend for uninsured Americans who missed Obamacare's signup deadline and face a tax penalty will be a one-time deal, as the nation confronts the confluence of health care and tax season for the first time.

March 13, 2015

McConnell cedes to Reid threat to stall trafficking bill over abortion language

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday he will offer Democrats an up-or-down vote on their request to remove abortion language from an otherwise-bipartisan bill to help victims of human trafficking.

March 12, 2015