The Threat to Medicaid - Vox.com

1. What agency is mentioned as developing a plan for Trump to turn Medicaid into block grants?

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is mentioned as developing a plan for Trump to turn Medicaid into block grants

2. How would Medicaid change if the program was changed to a block grant-style implementation?

If the program was changed to a block grant-style implementation "states would receive a set amount of federal funding, instead of the open-ended funding commitment they currently receive from the feds."

3. What was the effect of some states adding work requirements to receiving Medicaid benefits ?Thousands of people in the states implementing them have lost coverage.

4. Which president's administration was responsible for the creation of the Medicaid program? Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration was responsible for the creation of the Medicaid program.

5. How many people are insured by the Medicaid program in the United States? 75 million Americans get coverage under the program.

6. What was the effect of the Affordable Care Act on the Medicaid program? The ACA caused a historical expansion on the Medicaid program.

7. What types of Medicaid recipients would be exempt from work requirements? About 50 million of the program’s 75 million enrollees are children, elderly, disabled, or pregnant, and those populations are usually exempt from work requirements.

8. What groups of people were originally entitled to Medicaid benefits? "Medicaid has been a program that millions of vulnerable Americans — children, the elderly, people with disabilities, pregnant women — were entitled to. If you fell into one of those categories, and your income was low enough, you qualified for benefits."

9. What were the requirements to get Medicaid benefits after Obamacare? "Anybody with an income in or near poverty ($27,000 and below for a family of three) would be eligible for Medicaid."

Effects of the shut down - Vox.com
 
1. When was the second longest government shutdown? December 1995 with Clinton as President we had the second longest shutdown.
2. Which government departments are not affected by this shutdown? Energy, health and human services, defense, veteran affairs, education, and labor are not affected.
3. What is the difference between essential and nonessential employees? " “essential” employees must keep reporting to work even though they won’t receive immediate pay, while “nonessential” employees are furloughed and told to stay home until the shutdown ends."
4. Which two departments have the highest % of furloughed employees? Treasury and Commerce have the highest percentages.
5. Which two agencies (They aren't called "Dept. of ___" have the highest % of furloughed employees? NSF, EPA, NASA, and Housing and Urban development have the highest percentages.
6. Which states have the most employees impacted by the shutdown? D.C., Maryland, Alaska, and Montana have the most employees impacted by the shutdown
7. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE PANDA CAM AT THE NATIONAL ZOO?! It is deemed nonessential so it is shut down while the government is too.
8. How is real GDP impacted by the government shutdown? 'The shutdown could shave approximately $1.2 billion off real GDP for each week that the government is partially closed."
9. How much has the shutdown impacted real GDP as of Jan 11?  How will that change by Jan 25? It has cost $3.6 billion and will rise to $7.1 billion by January 25th.

1. What event has caused Trump to make changes to his staff and advisers? " Democrats taking control of the House of Representatives, Trump concluded that now was the time for a shake-up he’s long wanted."

2. How did CNN describe the relationship between the president and the Chief of Staff this week? They reported that the two are no longer talking.
3. Who was Trump's original Chief of Staff and what job did he come from before that?  Reince Priebus, the former RNC chair was his job before Chief of Staff.
4. Why did Trump pick Kelly (the military general) to become his new Chief of Staff? "Priebus was “weak,” and that replacing him with a tough guy general would be good."

5. In what ways did Kelly influence policymaking while he was Chief of Staff? by " installing a more rigorous process and structure to the infamously chaotic White House." 

Gerrymandering in North Carolina

1. Look at the map.  By what margins did Democrats win in the 3 districts that they won? They won by 20+.

2. Look at the map.  By what margins did Republicans win in the 9 districts that they won? It ranges from +5 to +20.

3. What percent of the votes for Representatives did Republicans and Democrats earn statewide? Republicans go 50% and Democrats got 48% of the votes.

4. What have federal courts said about the district lines in North Carolina? They said the lines were gerrymandered and considered unconstitutional.

5. What did Democrats fail to do in both North Carolina and Ohio? "Democrats failed to pick up a single House seat despite winning close to half of the popular vote."

6. Why did Pennsylvania have new districts for this election? What was the result of the House elections in Pennsylvania this year? A new nonpartisan map was court ordered; 45% Republicans and 55% Democrats were the House results for Congress.

7. How does the article describe the residential patterns of Republicans and Democrats? "Democrats tend to be concentrated in urban areas, while Republicans are distributed more efficiently across suburban and rural terrain."

8. After the district lines were rejected because they were based on race, what justification was used for the new district lines? They were redrawn largely based on party.

9. How do the district lines counter the large number of Democratic votes in cities like Greensboro, Winston Salem, and Fayetteville?"Of the 57 counties where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans, only 17 have a Democratic representative in Congress."

10. What other laws has North Carolina passed that disenfranchised voters in the state?A voter identification law "tried to revoke thousands of voter registrations before the 2016 election, only to be blocked by a judge who called the process “insane.”"

1. In the two weeks approaching the mid term elections, what % of coverage did FoxNews dedicate to coverage of the caravan in Central America? 3 percent of 15-second segments over the course of a day were dedicated to the caravan.
2. Compare mentions on CNN and Fox on Monday & Tuesday to mentions on Wednesday & Thursday. Each had mentioned it more than 80 times, but that dropped off to less than 80 times across four news channels combined.
3. Which of the four networks covered by the chart devoted the most coverage to the caravan? Fox Business dedicated the most coverage.
4. Where does the article claim that the caravan is currently? They have reached Mexico city and will continue to push on after a few days break.
5. What other stories may have taken coverage away from the caravan? Midterms, Jeff Sessions, and Trump and the press have gotten more news time recently. 
6. How did Trump impact coverage of the caravan leading up to the election? He saw it as "a campaign issue in multiple speeches," causing coverage to decline. 
7. What event had a similar impact on the 2016 election? FBI's Comey announcing Hillary Clinton's emails
8. What event had a similar impact on the 2014 election? The Ebola outbreak
9. Why does the article suggest that Fox may have covered the caravan more than other networks? It suggests that they did so because their audience is largely supportive of the president. 

1. Why don't all polls close at exactly the same time?
 People who are in line at 7/8 pm get to stay and vote, and the length of that line can be different at every station.
2. What do poll workers at each site have to do once voting is complete in order for votes to be counted? 
They have to shut down the machines, put all the memory cards into one machine, and then print multiple copies of the receipt with vote totals.
3. In what ways are the actual vote counts delivered from actual polling places to the central location of election administration? They can be delivered by a phone call, voting machines can transmit it electronically, or memory cards can be physically delivered.
4. Why might the votes come in slower from rural areas? 
They might be far from the headquarters. 
5. Why might journalists be the first source of election results in some states but not in all states? 
Some state's websites will not and then others do not provide results the night of. 
6. Why may absentee ballots slow the official election results? States will count them if they are postmarked with the date of election day, so they have to wait for all of those to come in. 
7. What are provisional ballots? 
They are filled out if someone does not appear to be a registered voter, but they are tallied last.
8. Why are the official results made public much later than when the election is "called"? 
"each vote is counted and verified, then officially certified, first by the local counties and then by the secretary of state or state Board of Elections."
9. Why was the speed of getting election results emphasized during the Progressive Era? 
" the faster the votes were counted, the less time there was for shenanigans."

1.  What is the actual change Trump wants to make to US citizenship policy?
"...he wants to use an executive order to end birthright citizenship for children born in the US to unauthorized immigrant parents."

2. What does the Constitution say about citizenship?
The 14th Amendment which says that all persons born in the US and “subject to the jurisdiction of its laws” are citizens.
3. How does Trump give false information about the US compared to the rest of the world about this issue? 
"He claims the US is the only country that does this, but more than 30 do."

4. What steps would have to take place before Trump was ready to sign an executive order?
"it would need extensive review from the Department of Justice (specifically the Office of Legal Counsel) to assess its legality, and from the Department of Homeland Security and other departments to work out consequences."
5. What did the Supreme Court decide in Wong Kim Ark?
It states that "the children of noncitizens born in the United States are citizens."
6. Why might the Trump Administration feel that INS v Rios Pineda gives him legal grounds to issue this EO?
"The Supreme Court has never explicitly held, as a matter of law, that children of unauthorized immigrants born in the United States are citizens." "The statement was just dicta, or rhetoric."
7. Why might recent changes to the Supreme Court make the president confident that the SC would side with his actions?
He has many people on the Court that he has appointed and that side with him meaning they just might do what he says.