Our housing system isn’t working — we need a public option 

The current U.S. housing system creates tremendous profits, but it doesn’t work for everyone. 

Half of the nation's 45 million renters pay more than a third of their paychecks to landlords. Every year, landlords file 3.6 million evictions, and 6.7 million live in substandard housing — realities that disproportionately affect people of color. Homeownership doesn’t guarantee protection either, with almost 20 million owners in a s...

The Electoral College endangers the republic, but don’t blame the Framers

Our presidential elections suffer from a crisis of confidence. 

Scores of anxious Americans await Nov. 5 with grave fears about integrity and fairness. Democrats decry the possibility of a candidate winning without a popular vote majority, and more than half of Republicans believe the 2020 election was stolen. 

Many factors have brought us to this moment, but the strange mechanism known as the Electoral College ranks high among them.

Twice in the last ...

Harris’s agenda mirrors the Democratic Socialists of America 

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump says Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, is a communist and Marxist and refers to her as “Comrade Kamala.” While it’s doubtful that Trump’s name calling helps him win over voters, if he has to call her something, he should have tagged her as a socialist. That’s because Harris’s major policy proposals are almost identical to those promoted by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).  

The DSA lists 10 policy positions under t...

Harris’s ‘Opportunity Society’ is in the shadow of LBJ’s War on Poverty

Vice President Kamala Harris has touted an economic vision for America called the “Opportunity Society.” The agenda harkens back to the days when presidents distinguished policies with slogans like the “New Deal” of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the “New Frontier” of John F. Kennedy.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty”; as such, it is appropriate to consider how the Harris plan for economic reform compares with that of an earlier Democratic...

England’s strained health care system should ring alarms in the US

The National Health Service in England, founded in 1948 to deliver health care directly to all in need following World War II, is in trouble.

Not only is it broke, but it is also broken, as the new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer just pointed out in response to a recent government study.

The waiting lines for care are prohibitive. A recent study revealed that 8 million people in the United Kingdom are waiting for their care, with 40 percent waiting for more than...

Kamala Harris will raise your taxes, no matter what she’s saying now

Have you ever found it weird how federal tax cuts always “expire,” whereas tax hikes last forever? It’s not by accident, it’s by design.

In looking at what the Biden-Harris administration has done in the past, and what she admits she wants to do in the future, there are only two certainties in life: death and Kamala Harris planning to raise the hell out of your taxes. 

There is a Rorschach test for every American on tax policy. Everyone views income in one of two wa...

5 myths about presidential transitions

Make no mistake, the chaos of our last presidential transition was bad — one impeachment and two criminal cases bad.

And yet, we are now two months away from a transition to either Trump Two or Harris One.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have each announced their transition directors. As each side begins to plan, here are five myths worth reconsidering:

Myth 1: Smooth transitions are the norm<...

Congress killed pandemic safety nets, and we’re still paying the price

Every September, the Census Bureau unveils crucial data on Americans' poverty, health and income for the previous year.

The latest results underscore a pressing issue: In many key ways, our policymakers are still failing American families, even though they should be well aware by now of effective solutions.

Let’s parse the numbers. The Supplemental Poverty Measure — the most comprehensive measure of poverty — increased slightly, from 12.4 percent to 12.9 percent betw...

Price transparency is key to reducing health care costs

Health care has emerged as a fault line in this year's election campaign. Vice President Kamala Harris supports expanding the Affordable Care Act, while former President Donald Trump wants to scale it back. Yet there's one health care policy that the Biden-Harris and Trump administrations both supported and can coalesce around again: price transparency.

This bipartisan health care fix is supported by 92 percent of Americans, according to a new poll by Echelon In...

Bridging America’s divide: Understanding moral misconceptions

This op-ed is part of The Hill’s “How to Fix America” series exploring solutions to some of America’s most pressing problems.

We often hear that Democrats and Republicans are worlds apart. But what if that perception is the real issue? Even the most thoughtful among us can fall into the habit of assuming the ideals of the other side. Research reveals that this subtle, yet pervasive, belief — not policy differences — is what truly deepens America’s divide.

P...