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Articles by Tom Howell Jr.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, answers a question as he holds a town hall meeting Thursday, July 6, 2017, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) ** FILE **

Ted Cruz swipes back at Chuck Schumer’s ‘hoax’ comment

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Friday hit back at Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer for labeling his latest health proposal a "hoax," saying Democrats made a series of promises about their signature health program that have fallen flat.

July 7, 2017
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y. accompanied by Senate Minority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., right, speaks to reporters after GOP leadership announce they are delaying a vote on the Republican health care bill, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Chuck Schumer blasts Ted Cruz health plan as ‘hoax’

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer blasted a health care proposal by conservative Sen. Ted Cruz as a "hoax" Thursday, hoping to blunt any momentum around the Texan's idea to rally votes for the GOP's faltering push to repeal and replace Obamacare.

July 6, 2017
In this Aug. 5, 2010, file photo, a pharmacy tech poses for a picture with hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen tablets, the generic version of Vicodin in Edmond, Okla. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)

CDC: Opioid prescribing in U.S. dipped after 2010 ‘peak’

Opioid prescribing in the U.S. reached its peak in 2010 and then started a slow decline, yet patients are still filling far more prescriptions than they were at the close of the 1990s, government scientists said Thursday in a study that underscores the deep roots of the painkiller and heroin epidemic.

July 6, 2017
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel addresses Hispanic business owners and community members at the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce in Lansing, Mich., Friday, May 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Christopher Hermann) ** FILE **

GOP tries to shift health care pressure onto Dems

Republican operatives countered attacks on the Republican health care plans Wednesday with ads saying Democrats haven't brought anything to the table beyond a push for government-run, single-payer system.

July 5, 2017
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of N.Y., center, arrives to speak to a large group of protesters rally against the Senate Republican healthcare bill on the East Front of the Capitol Building in Washington, Wednesday, June 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Senate Democrats target freshmen Republicans

Democrats say the political pain from Republicans' troubled Obamacare repeal effort could be felt years into the future, and are already gearing up to attack GOP senators up for re-election in 2020.

July 3, 2017
FILE - In these photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky. in a Feb. 22, 2017 file photo, and President Donald Trump, May 12, 2017. The relationship of Trump and McConnell is now at the center of the Washington crucible. As controversy swirls over Trump's abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey, McConnell's moves will set the tone for how the rest of the Senate and Republican Party as a whole responds. (AP Photo)

Donald Trump courts Senate GOP on health care bill

The White House says President Trump wants to pass a single Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill, but he's courting Senate Republicans who want to rip off the Band-Aid and gut the 2010 law upfront, leaving Congress no choice but to replace it in a bout of legislative summer school this August.

July 2, 2017
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio talks to reporters during a news conference at the U.S. Mayors Conference, Friday, June 23, 2017, in Miami Beach, Fla. The U.S. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) ** FILE **

Mayors go on attack as GOP regroups on health care

Democratic mayors ramped up their attacks Wednesday on a Senate GOP health bill that's stalled for now but likely to return, warning that estimated coverage losses and cuts to Medicaid funding would devastate their budgets, worsen the opioid crisis and afflict local hospitals.

June 28, 2017
"It's a complicated subject," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, told reporters Tuesday about delaying a vote on his plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act of 2010. He was joined by Sen. John Barrasso (left), Wyoming Republican. (Associated Press)

Mitch McConnell delays health care vote in face of GOP defections

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shelved plans for the Senate to vote this week on the Republicans' proposed Obamacare repeal, suffering an embarrassing setback Tuesday as he acknowledged the bill he wrote failed to win over enough troops in his own party.

June 27, 2017
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said he planned to move forward this week on a floor vote for repeal of Obamacare and replacement with his own bill. (Associated Press)

CBO: Senate Republican health care plan cuts costs, coverage

Senate Republicans' Obamacare repeal bill would lower most Americans' premiums and save the government more than $300 billion over the next decade but also leave 22 million fewer people with health care coverage, the Congressional Budget Office said in an analysis Monday.

June 26, 2017