Taegan Goddard
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Past articles by Taegan:
Russian Tax Collectors Seize Cats - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Russian tax collectors in Russia have found a new way of getting people to pay their debts: by threatening to take away their cats, the BBC reports. “State collectors in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk recently succeeded in getting a resident to pay 12,000 roubles ($198; £127) he owed in unpaid taxes after threatening to […] → Read More
Medicaid Rolls Surge Under Obamacare - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Margot Sanger-Katz: “In Idaho, the number of people who signed up for Medicaid has jumped by 13.4 percent. In Georgia, it’s up 12.9 percent. In North Carolina, the rate has climbed 12.4 percent. None of those states opted to expand their Medicaid programs as part of the Affordable Care Act, but all have seen substantial […] → Read More
Majority Willing to Pay to Curb Climate Change - Topic A: Energy
Bloomberg: “Americans are willing to bear the costs of combating climate change, and most are more likely to support a candidate seeking to address the iss → Read More
Study Finds Marijuana is Not a Gateway Drug - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
“A new study from Emory University researchers looked at federal surveys and states that legalized medical marijuana to evaluate the impact of legalization on marijuana and other drug use. Researchers found medical marijuana legalization led adults 21 and older to use more marijuana, but the increase did not lead people to try harder drugs,” Vox … → Read More
Climate Change is Harming the Economy - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Wall Street Journal: “Climate change is having a present-day, negative impact on Americans’ everyday lives and damaging the U.S. economy as extreme weather brings flooding, droughts and other disasters to every region in the country, a federal advisory committee has concluded.” “The congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, produced by more than 300 experts overseen by … → Read More
Introducing Technocrat - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Technocrat is the first of a series of Policy Pulse blogs being introduced on Roll Call this spring. The site will be a unique forum for public policy conversations about the technology and telecom industries. It will feature interesting coverage of tech events, interviews with newsmakers and CQ Roll Call experts, and much more. Take … → Read More
Uninsured Rate Drops Dramatically - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Gallup: “The uninsured rate for U.S. adults in April was 13.4%, down from 15.0% in March. This is the lowest monthly uninsured rate recorded since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in January 2008.” Jonathan Cohn: “Obamacare is reducing the number of Americans without health insurance. And while nobody can say for sure exactly how … → Read More
Reactions to the Jobs Report - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Ben Casselman says this month’s jobs report was a very strange one. “Start here: The number of jobs rose by 288,000, but the number of Americans who are employed fell by 73,000. How is that possible? The two numbers are based on separate surveys, one of businesses (which gives us the number of ‘nonfarm jobs’ … → Read More
Private Sector Gains as Public Sector Slumps - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Matthew Yglesias: “Public_and_private The recession hit the private sector faster and harder, but the private sector’s already made back all its losses. The government, by contrast, has been really slumping.” → Read More
Without Obamacare Q1 Growth Would Have Been Negative - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Zero Hedge: “Here is a shocker: for all the damnation Obamacare, which according to poll after poll is loathed by a majority of the US population, has gotten if it wasn’t for the (government-mandated) spending surge resulting from Obamacare, which resulted in the biggest jump in Healthcare Services spending in the past quarter in history … → Read More
How States Execute Death Row Inmates - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Washington Post: “In 20 states, lethal injections are the sole method of execution, though three of those allow alternatives if injections are ruled unconstitutional… The following methods of execution are still potential alternatives in some states: hanging in New Hampshire; firing squad in Utah and Oklahoma; gas in Arizona, California, Missouri and Wyoming; electrocution in … → Read More
Justice Department Invites Inmates to Seek Clemency - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
The Justice Department “unveiled the most ambitious federal clemency program in 40 years, inviting thousands of jailed drug offenders and other convicts to seek early release as part of a new program intended to correct sentencing injustices and relieve prison overcrowding,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Though eligibility restrictions may limit how many prisoners are … → Read More
April Will Be First Month With CO2 Levels Above 400 PPM - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Climate Central: “April will be the first time in human history where levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide were higher than 400 parts per million for an entire month, one scientist who monitors the levels said. And they could stay above that mark into July.” “Carbon dioxide concentrations, as measured at a site atop Hawaii’s Mauna … → Read More
Obamacare Enrollment Pushes Past 8 Million - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
President Obama announced that 8 million people have signed up for health care through new insurance exchanges, the Washington Post reports. “Obama made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room to trumpet the new figures, which beat initial projections by 1 million people. Equally critical: About 35 percent of those who signed up … → Read More
How Personality Explains Lawmaker Behavior - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Adam Ramey: “Using every floor speech by every member of the U.S. Congress since 1996, we use some recent methods in computer science to generate the first estimates of legislator personality over time. For each member, we estimate their positions on the Big Five personality dimensions – Openness to new experiences, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and … → Read More
Schlafly Says Women Won't Find Husbands if Paid Equally - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Phyllis Schlafly writes in the Christian Post that providing women with equal pay for equal work would deter their chances of finding a “suitable mate.” She writes: “Another fact is the influence of hypergamy, which means that women typically choose a mate (husband or boyfriend) who earns more than she does. Men don’t have the same … → Read More
Uninsured Rate Drops More in States Embracing Health Law - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Gallup: “The uninsured rate among adults aged 18 and older in the states that have chosen to expand Medicaid and set up their own exchanges in the health insurance marketplace has declined significantly more this year than in the remaining states that have not done so. The uninsured rate, on average, declined 2.5 percentage points … → Read More
Obamacare $100 Billion Cheaper Than Expected - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
“Republicans and their allies keep saying the Affordable Care Act will bankrupt the taxpaying public. Now there’s one more reason to think they are wrong,” Jonathan Cohn reports. “It comes from the Washington’s official accountant, the Congressional Budget Office, which on Monday released a newly updated projection on how the Affordable Care Act will affect … → Read More
Chart of the Day - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Brookings Institution: “The juxtaposition of historical data on party unity and ideology in this graphic illustrates how these factors have interacted with House members over time. Today, the Republican Party is markedly more cohesive than the Democratic Party and more ideologically consistent.” → Read More
Federal Taxes at Historic Lows - Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Washington Post: “One of the great ironies of the rise of the tea party movement was that it coincided with the lowest total tax burdens seen in at least 30 years… Overall the trend is downward. The average filer saw her effective tax rate drop from 22 percent in 1979 to 18.1 percent in 2010. … → Read More