Three years ago this weekend, while campaigning for Attorney General, Josh Hawley argued against the University of Missouri releasing his emails in order to comply with a Sunshine Law request — even after University counsel Paul Maguffee disagreed and said the entire university is subject to the Sunshine Law.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that a lawsuit filed by Josh Hawley and other Republican attorneys general would not only end protections for those with pre-existing conditions, but could also disrupt employer-provided coverage for 175 million Americans. The Journal writes that for the millions of Americans who get their health insurance at work, the lawsuit could lead to rising costs, extended waiting periods and the exclusion of certain conditions from their coverage.
SHOT: Former Mizzou professor "Hawley blames higher ed for leftist ideology"
CHASER: "Parson lauds higher education" to reporters at Mizzou
Two years ago today, Josh Hawley released an ad highlighting one of the central campaign promises in his bid for Attorney General: he would not be "another ladder climbing politician." Now, just two years later, Hawley has broken that promise and is deep into his campaign for U.S. Senate. As St. Louis Public Radio noted when Hawley announced his Senate bid less than a year into his job as Attorney General, “Hawley’s decision is something of an about-face for someone who criticized ‘career politicians’ who ‘climbed up the ladder.’”
The Missouri Democratic Party today challenged Governor Mike Parson to commit to three simple, nonpartisan, actions to begin the process of unifying the State when he speaks to a joint session of the General Assembly.
Last night, President Trump's Department of Justice announced that it would side with a group of Republican attorneys general in arguing that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is unconstitutional, and thus the law should be repealed in its entirety. Josh Hawley is a signer and strong supporter of the Republicans' lawsuit, which would spike the cost of care, impose an age tax on older Americans, and allow insurers to "flat-out deny Americans insurance based on their health status."
Last week, an ongoing lawsuit into former Governor Eric Greitens' use of text message-deleting app Confide found that twenty members of Greitens’ office used the app. As KMBC reported, this number is much higher than the eight users identified by Attorney General Josh Hawley, who cleared Greitens of wrongdoing in March following a sham investigation.
According to a new government analysis, Social Security will have to cut benefits by 21% in 2034 if lawmakers don't act on the program's long-term funding problem. Medicare, on the other hand, could run dry sooner. The report notes that Medicare funding is being depleted faster than expected in part because of Republicans' "repeal of the individual mandate, which increased the estimate of the number of uninsured."
SHOT: Missouri GOP Chairman Todd Graves last month: "A united Republican Party will now focus on our number one goal: retiring Claire McCaskill from the United States Senate."
CHASER: State Rep. Jim Neely refuses to back Josh Hawley, becoming the first Missouri elected official to endorse Austin Petersen.
The Washington Post Editorial Board wrote today that according to new projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), "the nation still faces huge cost and coverage challenges, and Republicans are making some of the direst problems worse." The Editorial Board made it clear that Republican sabotage will leave an estimated 35 million uninsured by 2027 -- an increase of 5 million from the last time the CBO ran the same numbers.