Since the disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov, the website designed to enroll Americans in insurance programs under the Affordable Care Act, the White House has been struggling to reassure the public that the ACA (commonly called Obamacare) is still going to work. The political climate surrounding the ACA has grown heated: the New York Times reported on Thursday that a memo had circulated amongst House Republicans, advising them to keep pushing stories of how the botched health care rollout has harmed their constituents. It seems that the battle over health care...

In an unprecedented turn of events, and for the first time in Seattle’s history, the city elected a Socialist candidate to City Council. Even for a city characterized by its liberal politics, this represents a sea change: according to city archivist Scott Cline, no Socialist has been elected to office in the last century. The candidate, Kshama Sawant, campaigned on a number of highly left-wing issues. One of her campaign goals was to enact legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Washington’s minimum wage currently stands at...

In a recent interview with the BBC, British comedian Russell Brand lambasted the state of Western democracy. When interviewer Jeremy Paxman criticized Brand for his decision not to vote in elections, Brand said, “It’s not that I’m not voting out of apathy. I’m not voting out of absolute indifference and weariness and exhaustion from the lies, treachery, deceit of the political class that has been going on for generations now and which has now reached fever pitch where you have a disenfranchised, disillusioned, despondent underclass that are not being represented...

The last month has to have been  difficult for the federal government. The government shutdown generated widespread anger among Americans toward Congress. With the passing of that crisis, the public has a new controversy to focus on: the disastrous launch of Healthcare.gov, the website designed to serve citizens under the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as the ACA or “Obamacare”). Since its launch on Oct. 1, the website has been plagued with technical flaws that persist a month after launch. Although the White House...

For decades, the U.S. government has been waging a “War on Drugs,” a campaign to shut down the international narcotics trade. The latest major bust happened on Oct. 2, when the FBI shut down “Silk Road,” an online marketplace used primarily to sell drugs. The government has been waging this campaign since 1971, when President Nixon coined the term “War on Drugs” as part of his efforts to create a national drug policy. Today, combined state and federal spending on drug policy is an estimated $51 billion a year, according...

  On Sept. 17, 2011, an estimated 5000 people assembled in downtown New York to protest corruption in the financial system. This movement, known as Occupy Wall Street, attracted a great deal of attention across the nation, though reactions were mixed. A Gallup poll conducted Oct. 2011 found that 63 percent of Americans did not know enough to say whether they supported the movement’s goals. This was likely due to Occupy’s lack of a clear message. The movement was characterized by individualism, but attempts to unite the protestors under a...

After weeks of debate, Congress failed to pass a spending bill by Oct. 1, the start of the government’s fiscal year.  Thus on Tuesday a government shutdown occurred, meaning many government agencies have closed down until a spending bill is passed. The point of contention in Congress is the Affordable Care Act (ACA, colloquially known as Obamacare), passed by Congress in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012. House Republicans have demanded that any spending bill include provision to defund the ACA. Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Harry...

On Sept. 15, Aaron Alexis killed 12 people at the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Washington, D.C. Compared to previous events, the nation’s response seems muted. Aside from public figures like President Obama’s initial declarations of sadness, the national attitude is  indifference. The shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. last year instigated a nation-wide debate about gun control. The greatest legislative response was the proposal of the Manchin-Toomey amendment, a bipartisan bill drafted by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that aimed to expand...

Following the White House’s claims that on Aug. 21 that the Syrian government used chemical weapons to kill more than 1,400 civilians outside Damascus, the Obama administration has been making a hard push for military intervention in Syria. This approach has been met with widespread criticism both at home and abroad. A Pew study published Monday revealed that 49 percent of Americans oppose airstrikes in Syria if the Assad regime refuses to cede its chemical weapons, while 37 percent approve of the initiative. The White House has also failed to...