Is allowing Republicans to ruin Thanksgiving for millions of American families a fair trade for Democratic control of the House? Are we willing to extend Obamacare subsidies if the price is the end of American democracy?
Opinion
Health care premiums are rising — but we’re missing the real problem
As millions of Americans open notices about their 2026 health insurance premiums, the sticker shock is real. Average out-of-pocket premiums are expected to more than double — $888 annually in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026 — due to the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. The political fight over these subsidies has dominated headlines and even triggered a government shutdown.
But as Washington debates the critical question of how much Americans should pay for health ...
On the shutdown, Democrats have painted themselves into a corner
Having painted themselves into a shutdown corner, Democrats now want Republicans to extricate them.
Democrats know that they cannot win this one. They also know that they cannot return to their rabid base having conceded. What they want is for Senate Republicans to detonate another so-called “nuclear option” and end Democrats’ ability to filibuster the federal government to a standstill.
Senate Democrats have defeated 13 Republican attempts t...
The government may not open again this year, thanks to Speaker Johnson
The government shutdown is now officially the longest on record, surpassing the previous record of 34 days that occurred during President Trump’s first term in office. That shutdown, which lasted from Dec. 22, 2018 through Jan. 25, 2019, ended when the president backed down on his border wall funding demands.
It is becoming clear that there are no obvious concessions available at this time that can lead ...
The government may not open again this year, thanks to Speaker Johnson
The government shutdown is now officially the longest on record, surpassing the previous record of 34 days that occurred during President Trump’s first term in office. That shutdown, which lasted from Dec. 22, 2018 through Jan. 25, 2019, ended when the president backed down on his border wall funding demands.
It is becoming clear that there are no obvious concessions available at this time that can lead ...
How Republicans can make health care affordable
As the government shutdown drags on, lawmakers remain locked in a standoff over whether to extend ObamaCare subsidies. Supporters of these taxpayer-provided subsidies claim they’re the fix for rising health costs when, in fact, they only mask rising costs. ObamaCare is the primary reason costs are rising.
Congress faces a choice: Keep pouring taxpayer dollars into a failing, unaffordable health care system, or take this opportunity to fix the struc...
What Democrats should learn from Zohran Mamdani
Ask Thomas Dewey. Politics is unpredictable. The polls are often wrong, and even the smartest of the commentariat don’t always get it right. Nobody thought Tom Dewey would lose to Harry Truman in 1948; Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump in 2016; or Kamala Harris, to Trump in 2024.
And few commentators, including me, thought Zohran Mamdani would win the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City.
So, at the risk of being proven wrong yet again, I want to boldly ...
If taxpayers must keep subsidizing health care, they deserve to see the prices
The government shutdown has continued for weeks with no end in sight. Although Affordable Care Act subsidies have been at the center of the debate, one of the most basic questions remains unanswered: Where is the money actually going?
And we cannot answer that, because the U.S. still lacks real price transparency in health care.
In 2024, the federal government spent roughly $125 billion on Affordable Care Act subsidies. According to the Congressional Budget Offic...
Trump says he’s targeting Democrats’ programs, but the suffering is bipartisan
Throughout the government shutdown, President Trump has maintained that his administration would “clear out dead wood, waste and fraud.” Because Democrats “started this thing,” he has said, the shutdown presents “an unprecedented opportunity” to eliminate “Democrat-oriented” programs and give his opponents “a taste of their own medicine.”
Trump then posted an image of himself on Truth Social signing a document emblazoned with a statement: “Cry all you want.”
Trump d...
Democrats can’t keep the Schumer shutdown going much longer
The government shutdown will end soon. How do I know? Because whatever political advantage Democrats had a few weeks ago by “standing strong!” and “confronting Trump!” is quickly evaporating. When the polls flip, so will the party that has lost its way.
Voters have a way of sniffing out the truth. They are beginning to understand that Democrats are rudderless, and are voting to keep the government closed out of confusion, not conviction.
House Mi...