Read today's news from around the state and country. Each day in the Roundup we cover politics, always with a side of bold humor. We think politics should be fun, informative and encourage us all to take action.

Read today's news from around the state and country. Each day in the Roundup we cover politics, always with a side of bold humor. We think politics should be fun, informative and encourage us all to take action.

This is in response to a post by friend, Republican, and fellow Husker Justin Green and is cross-posted on my personal blog.

Tuesday, President Obama delivered a speech in Osawatomie, KS (where Teddy Roosevelt made a similar appeal just over a century earlier) announcing a throwback to "a New Nationalism." Obama's address imagined a cooperative, collective America, compared the one that Republicans in Congress want to create:

Almost three years into the Great Recession, the economy does not look so hot.

The markets continue to solidify Federal Reserve Chariman Ben Bernanke’s assessment that our economic problems are more chronic than we thought. Bernanke held a recent press conference about the Federal Open Market Committee findings.  Their assessment that the economy is still in a “moderate recovery” has every one asking some version of an age old question, "Where da' cash at?"  Lil Wayne asked all the way back in 2008, and I’m starting to think that no one has the answer. But we have ruled out a few possibilities. Here’s a quick rundown of the places that the cash is NOT:

Since we don’t post the Roundup over the weekend, we want to wish all the moms out there a happy Mothers’ Day.  If you’re still looking for that perfect gift for mom, we recommend scoping out Grow Nebraska.  They’ve got all kinds of great products made right here in the Cornhusker state.  Here’s your Roundup:

When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed on March 23, 2010, everyone knew that our health care system was going to change, but no one knew what those changes would look like in practice.

This uncertainty made room for speculation about the effectiveness of the reform, with some saying that it would actually harm Americans, not help them. On the one year anniversary of the legislation, we had yet to see many publicly lauded provisions (the dependent coverage clause, the Patient’s Bill of Rights, and insurance exchanges) kick into effect.

Well, ladies and gents, I'm pleased to report that is no longer the case. Insurance companies are starting to release their first quarter enrollment numbers and the results are astonishing. A report released by the Kaiser Family Foundation this week finds that 600,000 young adults are now covered by their parents health insurance thanks to the ACA. According to the report, “WellPoint, the nation's largest publicly traded health insurer with 34 million customers, said the dependent provision was responsible for adding 280,000 new members.” That’s about one third of WellPoint’s total enrollment growth in the first three months of 2011. Wowza. Other companies' numbers are impressive, too. Aetna added just under 100,000 young adults; Kaiser Permanente, about 90,000; Highmark Inc., about 72,000; Health Care Service Corp., about 82,000; Blue Shield of California, about 22,000, and United Healthcare, about 13,000. 

And that’s not all. Yesterday, Gallup released a poll that shows the rate of uninsurance amongst Americans ages 18-24 dropped a record 4% in the past calendar year, thanks (again!) to the dependent coverage clause in the ACA. This is significant because prior to the passage of the ACA, young Americans were most likely to be uninsured due to a tough job market, insurance plans that didn’t cover adult children who were no longer in school, and the fact that young people seem to think they’re invincible.

600,000 is a great start, but it's just that: a start. If you are between 18-24 and not sure what your health insurance is going to look like as you graduate, take a job, or go to college, find out how you can get covered (or keep your coverage) with the Young Invincibles' Graduation Toolkit. It explains anything and everything you need to know about health insurance. 

Now on this whole health reform thing, I really hate to say “we told you so”... so I won’t. Health reform is going to be a long, difficult process that requires both sides to come to the table to work out the kinks in the law. However, I will say this: the Affordable Care Act may not be perfect, but it is working. Over half a million young Americans now have access to health care services, which was the entire point of health care reform in the first place.

I hate horror movies.  They are gory, they make me anxious and they never, ever, end well. Author Stephen King is widely touted as the king of the genre, but it seems that his congressional counterpart Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is attempting to out-do him.  Rep. King is terrifying Americans everywhere with his devoted support for a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would spike the deficit by $230 billion.  Beyond that, repeal would kill jobs at the rate of up to 400,000 annually.  $230 billion in debt and shedding jobs at 400,000 a year?  Who needs The Shining?  I’m already terrified.

King specifically attacked the Young Adult Coverage provision, which would allow Americans to stay on their parents insurance until they are 26 if they have no other access to insurance.  In his testimony to the House Rules Committee on Obamacare, King stated:

For those of you who were not buried under piles of books for the past two weeks, the fact that Virginia Judge Henry Hudson ruled the insurance mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional is old news.  As I clawed my way out of the black hole of academia, I was greeted with right-wing gloating that deemed Judge Hudson’s ruling a fatal blow to the "illegal mandate" and subsequently to health care reform as a whole. 

Our very own attorney general Jon Bruning is one of those declaring the insurance mandate dead and gone:

For gay soldiers and advocates of equality everywhere, this morning’s hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee was a landmark in the fight to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The committee heard from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, and other Defense Department officials on the Pentagon’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell study, which fully endorsed a repeal of the policy.  The report, released Tuesday, significantly builds momentum towards repealing the policy in the lame duck session.

Bold Nebraska would like to commend Sen. Ben Nelson for his moving remarks at the hearing this morning.  Nelson, who was a key vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee last Spring, made the following statements at the hearing:

“To me, the issue seems to be not whether to allow gays to serve in the military but whether to allow them to serve openly.  But permitting them to serve, but not openly, undermines the basic values of the military -- honesty, integrity and trust, and when that's undermined anywhere, it's undermined everywhere.  It also seems that our military is expected to say, ‘I don't want to lie, but you won't let me tell the truth.’  How do we square this circle?  I think there are those who legitimately are concerned that this will adversely affect readiness and national security, and yet we have the report that seems to be somewhat overwhelming in certain areas saying that it's time to change the law.  Can you help me understand how we move to something where it is now possible to tell the truth?”

While this is a week of turkey, allow me just a few minutes to draw your attention to duck.  Lame duck, that is.  While the new kids on the block have already arrived at Capitol Hill for their orientation, the 111th Congress has some unfinished business to take care of before saying “adios” in December.  The lame duck session, which began Monday, November 15th and is expected to last until mid-December, contains high-profile legislation, some of which has been in the works for over a decade. However, there has been a public push from the Right to refuse passage for any legislation in the session.