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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

** FILE ** President Obama stands with families who benefited from the health care law provision that provides consumers with a refund if their insurance company doesn’t spend the majority of premium dollars on medical care, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, July 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

With Obamacare in place, annual health spending to jump in 2014: report

Growth in health care spending will remain slow through 2013 as the economy slogs along in its recovery, but improving fiscal conditions, an aging population and expanded coverage under President Obama's health care law will drive up health spending next year by about two percentage points, government analysts said Wednesday.

September 18, 2013
**FILE** Rep. Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, speaks at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., on March 15, 2013. (Associated Press)

House Republicans file, promote an alternative to Obamacare

The Republican Study Committee on Wednesday unveiled a 181-page alternative to the massive federal health care law passed in 2010, touting their "market-focused" reforms as a viable way to fix the nation's broken health care system without imposing mandates and taxes on Americans.

September 18, 2013

Second court backs Obama birth control mandate

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday sided with the Obama administration in the nationwide legal battle over the mandate to cover contraception services, marking the second time a federal appeals court rebuffed a company that argued the mandatory coverage of birth control violates its religious beliefs.

September 17, 2013
** FILE ** President Obama signs the Affordable Care Act in 2010 at the White House.

Ex-Obama aide to sell health reform to Hispanics

A nonprofit led by a former aide for President Obama will target the Hispanic population — particularly mothers — in the coming weeks as part of the push to inform Americans about potential benefits under the new health care law.

September 17, 2013
**FILE** President Obama, accompanied by Sandra Fluke, waves at a campaign event at the University of Colorado Auraria Events Center in Aurora, Colo., on Aug. 8, 2012. Fluke is a Georgetown law student who inadvertently gained notoriety when talk show host Rush Limbaugh spoke disparagingly of her testimony before Congress on the issue of contraception and insurance coverage. (Associated Press)

Court sides with Obama administration in contraception fight

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday sided with the Obama administration in the nationwide legal battle over the mandate to cover contraception services in the new health care law, marking the second time a federal appeals court rebuffed to a company who said the mandatory coverage of birth control violates its religious beliefs.

September 17, 2013
**FILE** Renee Adams (left) poses with her mother, Irene Salyers, and son, Joseph, 4, at their produce stand in Council, Va., on July 12, 2013. Four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and a vanishing American Dream amid rising incidences of hardship among whites. (Associated Press)

Poverty rate, U.S. income stuck in neutral in 2012

Four years after the official end of the U.S. recession, the nation's poverty rate and median household income showed little positive movement in 2012, according to new data released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

September 17, 2013

Poll finds more share negative view of Obamacare

More than half of the American public holds a negative view of the new health care law, even though many do not fully understand how it will affect them and even fewer want lawmakers to help it fail, new polling shows.

September 16, 2013
**FILE** Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (Associated Press

Pa. Gov. Corbett open to Medicaid expansion, but reforms must come first

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said Monday he will seek federal funds to buy private health insurance for thousands of state residents who are newly eligible for Medicaid under the new health care law, but only if he can secure reforms to the entitlement program first.

September 16, 2013
Rep. Tom Price, Georgia Republican, says a delay on implementing Obamacare should not be off the table as part of a spending deal as some parts have been put off already. "[I]t's only fair for the American people now to have that same delay," he said. (Associated Press)

GOP will have wiggle room on spending, but not on debt, in budget fight

House Republicans girding for a pair of fiscal fights this month will have some wiggle room when it comes to their spending priorities, but the debt limit is off the negotiating table — especially if they intend to use the new health care law as a bargaining chip, President Obama said Sunday.

September 15, 2013
**FILE** United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (Associated Press)

U.N. ability to seize all chemical weapons in Syria raises Republican doubts

Lawmakers on Sunday hailed the lofty goals of a pact the United States and Russia struck to locate and dismantle Syria's chemical weapons — but questioned whether Obama administration can assure the stockpiles won't be hidden by the Assad regime or seized by radicalized rebel groups.

September 15, 2013
Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, asks a question during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Syria on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Sen. John McCain: Syrian deal does little, relies on Russians

Sen. John McCain on Sunday threw cold water on the deal the United States and Russia have struck to dismantle the Syrian government's chemical weapons stores by 2014, arguing it does nothing to keep the use of force on the table and help the rebels topple an Assad regime accused of gassing its own people.

September 15, 2013