“

Think about this. It’s really remarkable. Two years after the Sandy Hook tragedy, the top gun-control priority in the United States is still background checks. There is nothing controversial about the idea that people who buy guns should be screened to make sure they don’t have a criminal record or serious mental illness. Americans favor it by huge majorities. Even gun owners support it. Yet we’re still struggling with it.

The problem, of course, is the National Rifle Association, which does not actually represent gun owners nearly as ferociously as it represents gun sellers. The background check bill is on the ballot under voter initiative because the Washington State Legislature was too frightened of the N.R.A. to take it up. This in a state that managed to pass a right-to-die law, approve gay marriage and legalize the sale of marijuana.

”

– Once Again, Guns – NYTimes.com

“

By appealing to white voters and characterizing Democrats as the party of the non-white, Republicans can hold onto the House. But the more they’re perceived to be the party of white people, the harder it is for them to win presidential elections. As we’ve seen time and again over the last couple of years, even when national Republican leaders would like to make the party friendlier to minorities, right now the GOP is defined by the one place where it holds power: the House. 

”

– http://ift.tt/1ohtX8d

“

The gap between staggering Democratic margins in cities and the somewhat smaller Republican margins in the rest of the country allows Democrats to win key states in presidential and Senate elections, like Florida and Michigan. But the expanded Democratic margins in metropolitan areas are all but wasted in the House, since most of these urban districts already voted for Democrats. The result is that Democrats have built national and statewide majorities by making Democratic-leaning congressional districts even more Democratic, not by winning new areas that might turn congressional districts from red to blue. 

”

– http://ift.tt/1Anb1uz

“The most Republican-leaning company in the country, based on political donations, isn’t Koch Industries. It’s the company that makes Wonder Bread.

The political action committee of Flowers Foods, a Georgia company that produces the pillowy sandwich bread, Tastykakes and Nature’s Own baked goods, has given more than 99 percent of its political contributions since 1979 to Republicans. Only three Democratic congressional candidates have gotten money from its PAC since 1984, and not one in the past 20 years.”

– http://ift.tt/1jiZkka

“Few things are better at conveying what a nation really cares than how it spends its money. On that measure, Americans like to punish.

 The United States spent about $80 billion on its system of jails and prisons in 2010 — about $260 for every resident of the nation. By contrast, its budget for food stamps was $227 a person.”

– http://ift.tt/1u3GgdY

“The findings in the four states — all with political races that could tip the balance of power in the Senate — underscore the complex and often contradictory views of Mr. Obama’s principal domestic legislation four years after it became law.

Most people still loathe the law. Questions about it may evoke associations with an unpopular president, the remoteness of Washington from ordinary Americans and extra costs in family budgets. But majorities say they do not want it taken away, even in states that lean Republican in presidential elections.”

– http://ift.tt/1iQ9fN8

“

“I find it strange that the Republican position on this law is still stuck in the same place that it has always been.  They still can’t bring themselves to admit that the Affordable Care Act is working.  They said nobody would sign up; they were wrong about that.  They said it would be unaffordable for the country; they were wrong about that.”

He continued:

“I know every American isn’t going to agree with this law, but I think we can agree that it’s well past time to move on as a country. …”

”

– http://ift.tt/1qYGHn9

“

The real losers in the McCutcheon case are the vast majority of average Americans without barrels of cash to dump on elections. Even the now-invalidated aggregate caps were extremely high, and only very few contributors ever reached them. In 2012, 1,715 donors gave the maximum to political party committees, and 591 gave the maximum to candidates.

Thanks to Wednesday’s decision, the interests of the very few wealthiest Americans — which differ significantly from those of most Americans — will now get even more outsize consideration by legislators. As former Senator Alan Simpson testified in an earlier campaign-finance case, “Who, after all, can seriously contend that a $100,000 donation does not alter the way one thinks about — and quite possibly votes on — an issue?”

”

– http://ift.tt/1hkzTc7

“

Lawmakers on the tax writing committees — like Ways and Means — can benefit, too, as they become a magnet for hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, even though Mr. Camp’s early legislative drafts of the tax proposal included provisions that would have hurt some of his top donors.

Donors to Mr. Camp’s political action committee this election cycle — and some of the guests at the Park City event — include PACs run by MetLife, Koch Industries, Bank of America, the Altria Group, Pfizer, Home Depot, PricewaterhouseCoopers and AT&T, among dozens of others. It is money Mr. Camp can pass on to other Republican candidates, now that he has announced he is retiring from Congress after 12 terms in the House.

”

– http://ift.tt/1pQIIzi