When Republican lawmakers check in with the small businesses in their districts during the Christmas recess, they will likely hear one overriding message: Pass tax cuts now. According to Job Creators Network's new national poll, small businesses support extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which took effect in 2018 and expires next year, by a 5-to-1 margin.
These tax cuts have been a lifeline for small businesses nationwide that have dealt with four years of challeng...
Opinion
The GOP’s little House of horrors
Can the fragile GOP majority in the U.S. House Of Representatives bear the weight of Donald Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda? Will this version of Republican control of the peoples’ House be even more ineffectual and unstable than it was in the last two years? The early returns are not favorable for the future of the second Trump administration.
Trump doesn’t need a mandate because he has the power if he keeps Congress and the Supreme Court in line. But that’s a b...
A pragmatic antitrust vision for the new administration
President-elect Trump recently announced the nomination of his former National Economic Council member Gail Slater as assistant attorney general for antitrust at the Department of Justice and chose current Federal Trade Commission commissioner Andrew Ferguson to head that agency.
Trump’s antitrust enforcers’ priorities will include prosecuting market power abuse by “big tech,” supporting consumers and “little tech,” and enforcing “clear rules...
Biden is one of our greatest presidents — smears won’t tarnish his legacy
America’s greatest presidents were sometimes treated like punching bags in office — insulted and vilified by opponents. President Biden has endured the same undeserved treatment. But I expect that, like other great presidents, history will judge him more accurately.
Biden has been a historically transformative president. His landmark domestic accomplishments are comparable to Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society.
A ...
Instead of justifying murder, Democrats could do this to make health care better
After some sentences there should never, ever be a “but.” Far too often, however, the word appears, and what follows it is inevitably a justification of horrible things.
The worst example of this in 2024 came only recently, when liberals online and even some Democratic elected officials said they were “opposed to political violence, but ... ” when it comes to the assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson by someone who appears to be a progressive anti-cap...
Government-run health care systems also deny or delay treatment
Many critics of the U.S. health care system claim the tragic murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is understandable because health insurance companies occasionally refuse to cover certain medical treatments. And they often assert that if the country were to embrace a U.K. or Canadian-style government-run health care system, no one would be denied care. Those critics are either misinformed or intentionally trying to deceive the public, because government-run health care systems ...
The Conrad Rule is the answer to our budget reconciliation woes
With the return of unified government in Washington, the Republican majorities in the House and Senate are getting ready to use one of the most powerful tools in the budgetary toolbox: budget reconciliation.
In doing so, the new majority will undoubtedly try to pack as many of its policy priorities as possible into this filibuster-proof legislative vehicle, thereby requiring only a bare majority in the Senate. But what they certainly shouldn’t do is use the reconciliation...
How much impact could RFK Jr have as the head of HHS?
Whether or not the U.S. Senate confirms Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the secretary of Health and Human Services, his nomination and that of others suggests the federal government's role in health policy might change dramatically in the second Trump administration. Members of Congress — and many others — are now asking an important question: What impact might changes at Health and Human Services have on the health of the nation?
Between us, we have worked in federal, state and loc...
Trump 2.0: How many days before he loses momentum?
The Wall Street Journal recently featured a line from the “Karate Kid” movie to describe President-elect Trump’s agenda for his first 100 days in the White House: “Strike Hard, Strike First, No Mercy.”
That means on day one, Trump wants GOP majorities in the House and Senate voting to lower taxes, cut spending, increase border security and end subsidies to promote clean energy.
But as boxer Mike Tyson once put it, “Everybody has a plan until t...
Americans are mad as hell and Democrats must respond to voter anger
Progressives, and ordinary people who buy groceries, scored a victory this week when a judge quashed a mega-merger between two mammoth grocery chains, Kroger and Albertsons.
The merger could have cost grocery shoppers in Washington state alone an extra $800 million per year. Things got even better when the two big grocery chains turned on each other and Albertsons sued its erstwhile merger partner after the ruling. Judicial action toppled the corporate giants and ele...