The Rahm Emanuel I know: Separating caricature from character

News, Opinion

A news frenzy has emerged in recent weeks around Rahm Emanuel’s potential 2028 presidential run. To dispel with any suspense: I know Rahm well — and, no, I don’t know whether he will run.

I do know this: Any conventional wisdom diminishing his ability to compete is unwise. That’s because Emanuel can’t be easily discounted. He deserves more than just casual observation.

It’s not easy. As I’ve said in several interviews, he may be the best-known American political lead...

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Kennedy appoints some vaccine critics to ACIP panel

health care, News
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Trump shouldn’t import socialist price controls 

Donald Trump, healthcare, News, Opinion

Remember when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump castigated “Comrade Kamala” Harris, then the Democratic nominee, for supporting price controls? It wasn’t that long ago — just last August.  

At a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump told the crowd: “In her speech yesterday, Kamala went full Communist ... She wants to destroy our country. After causing catastrophic inflation, Comrade Kamala announced that she wants to institute socialist price controls.” 

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Hardline House conservatives swing for fences in asks to Senate GOP on megabill

News, Senate

Hardline conservatives in the House are making a broad swath of recommendations to make the “One Big Beautiful Bill” of President Trump’s tax cut and spending priorities even more conservative.

A 10-page memo labeled to Senate Republicans from “House Conservatives” — with input from members of the House Freedom Caucus while not being officially from the group — and shared with The Hill shows the hardliners swinging for the fences with numerous suggestions to change the mega...

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Welcome to the Biocene: How ‘natural capitalism’ can save America and the world 

News, Opinion

Something much deeper than the price of eggs was at work when voters re-elected President Trump last year.

Most Americans were unhappy with the country's direction; they still are. Last month, 59 percent said they were dissatisfied with "the way things are going in the United States."

It's not just that people have very different opinions about the day's pressing issues. We lack a national vision or mission that transcends our differences. No one has articulated a co...

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What’s a Medicaid cut? Senate GOP tiptoes around $800B question

health care, News, Senate

When is a Medicaid cut not actually a cut?  

That's the $800 billion question facing Senate Republicans as they write their own version of the sweeping House-passed tax and spending bill.  

Administration officials and senators defending against attacks on the bill have coalesced around a message that there will be no cuts to benefits, and the only people who will lose coverage are the ones who never deserved it to begin with: namely immigrants without l...

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Republicans look for reset on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

News, Senate

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is looking for a reset and to build momentum on President Trump's big, beautiful bill after it struggled through a tough week on Capitol Hill.

Trump's July 4 deadline for signing the bill is slipping away as GOP senators battle each other over spending cuts and other issues in the House-passed bill. But Thune wants to get the legislation back on track by convening small working groups to hash out key components of the bill, accordi...

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Look to Wisconsin for Medicaid reform

healthcare, News, obamacare, Opinion

Medicaid was created to help people living in poverty have access to health care. Under ObamaCare, it was expanded to include able-bodied, working-age adults without children. That was wrong.

When I was governor of Wisconsin, we opted not to take the expansion. First, we could create our own plan for covering everyone living in poverty. We did — and it worked.

My predecessor had raised the income requirements for Medicaid, but did not fund the gap. That left many imp...

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