In most blue states at least, President Trump’s second term is creating a battle over how the states can use federal money. Many Democratic governors are suddenly defending state control and pushing back against Washington’s influence.
But the reality is that too many states resemble satellites orbiting Washington rather than sovereign governments charting their own course.
In 2022, more than half of Louisiana and Alaska’s budget came from federal funds. Twenty stat...
Opinion
Trump’s gambit of withholding federal dollars will be ruled unconstitutional
Among the tools the Trump administration is using to get states, local governments, nonprofits and schools to agree with its directives is the withholding of federal dollars. Although the government can use the power of the purse to accomplish many things, the courts have also drawn lines on the limits of its use. There are, in fact, unconstitutional conditions that can be attached to spending power.
The power of the purse — or the ability to appropriate money, as located in A...
The Senate shouldn’t sacrifice its filibuster to score political points
In his very first speech as Senate majority leader in January, Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) said, "And one of my priorities as leader will be to ensure that the Senate stays the Senate. That means preserving the legislative filibuster — the Senate rule that today has perhaps the greatest impact in preserving the Founders’ vision of the Senate." This was a wise and prudent way to maintain the institutional strength of the nation's upper chamber.
This week, however, that strong in...
A Medicaid fix without the tricks
Republicans want to save $880 billion over 10 years in the Medicaid program. Politicians often turn to using various tricks and gimmicks to create the illusion of budgetary savings. But Medicaid is so large and has expanded so far past its original target population that Republicans can find those savings without relying on accounting gimmicks or price controls.
All they need is to implement three long-held Republican ideas.
The first is to bl...
Republicans need to grow a spine and support Trump’s agenda
That didn’t take long. After a few months of celebrating Donald Trump’s astonishing political comeback by offering the president near-unanimous support, Republicans are going squishy.
The Trump agenda is hanging by a thread. Congress, which up to now has done very little to help the White House solve our border crisis, codify DOGE spending cuts or rebalance our justice system, now has to act. They have to pass a “big beautiful” bill to extend the tax reductions in the...
The inconvenient truth about Republican Medicaid fraud claims
Few lines are more central to the congressional Republican leadership’s elevator pitch than the idea that we will get major savings by cutting Medicaid fraud, not Medicaid benefits.
This sales pitch is no small deal to this White House. A president seeking to pass his tax bill with slim congressional majorities could be tanked by a handful of Republicans afraid they’ll lose seats. Those seats could be at risk if Republicans are seen as paying for tax cuts to the...
The next 100 days will reveal how the White House handles debt
One hundred days into President Trump's second term, your feelings about the administration’s performance so far probably depend in large part on how you voted.
The White House and its allies will say that the most important thing has been immigration, pitching its border and interior enforcement as a stunning success — with a good bit of supporting evidence.
Democrats, on the other hand, are ceaselessly reminding people of the administration's shortcomin...
Medicaid work-requirements are great, but states need flexibility to make them work
I was the first governor to implement work requirements on the working-age population that was on Medicaid. So I feel I have some standing to offer observations on what happened in Arkansas — a few lessons learned and recommendations to Congress as it considers a federal mandate on states to impose work and work-related activities as a condition of Medicaid eligibility.
For a number of reasons, I am firmly in favor of work requirements for able-bodied working-age adults on Med...
Preventative care was a game-changer, but now the Supreme Court could take it away
Amid the Trump administration’s scorched earth approach to governing — which includes threatening hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid funding — a serious threat to health care has gone under the radar. It could undo years of progress toward preventing disease and making Americans healthier and more secure.
In Kennedy v. Braidwood, a case being heard today at the Supreme Court, a lawyer with a long history of attacking fundamental...
Send in the clown: Bill Maher turns pro-Trump
There’s a maxim that the difference between a comedian and a comic is that a comedian says funny things, and a comic says things funny. Then there are clowns — like Bill Maher. He traded his red nose for a big brown one the second he eagerly walked into President Trump’s gaudy White Fun House of deception.
Maher, the comic who once fancied himself a fearless political truth-teller, is now wobbling under the weight of his own ego. His recent televised monologue — an ex...