The famous thumbs-down by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2017 resulted in the notorious failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Subsequent legislative attempts also crashed and burned, teaching Republicans the importance of discretion in their efforts to sabotage that law.
Consequently, both congressional Republicans and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have instead turned to subtler tactics to undermine the Afford...
Opinion
Trump’s dangerous health care policies will be on the ballot in 2026
Six months into Trump’s second term, is there any issue where Democrats have traction?
“The only issues on which voters prefer congressional Democrats to Republicans,” a Wall Street Journal poll recently found, “are health care and vaccine policy.”
That fits with a late July Fox News poll that found 53 percent disapproval for Trump’s call for increased work requirements for Medicaid as part of the tax and spending bill passed by Republicans in Congress.
The...
Election 2028 is on — Democrats see opportunity and a wide open primary
The big field in the race for the 2028 presidential sweepstakes is already off and running. Two of the top Democrats vying for the job are former Vice President Kamala Harris and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). The election of either one would address the urgency of putting a woman in the White House for the first time.
Harris’s decision not to run for governor in her home state of California indicates she will make another White House run. But that’s not the only sig...
Why Democrats keep losing: Too many Baptists, not enough bootleggers
Democrats need alliances between Baptists and bootleggers. So do Republicans, but right now, they have plenty of those alliances, which is a key reason, and maybe the key reason, that they are riding so high.
Let me explain. In the twentieth century, the U.S. had fierce debates about laws restricting commercial activity on Sundays — above all banning the sale and purchase of alcohol. Many Americans favored those laws on moral grounds. They thought that ceasing secular work ...
A blue wave in the 2026 elections? It’s not likely, and here’s why.
Democratic strategists have been counting the days to the 2026 midterms ever since Nov. 5, 2024. Republicans, meanwhile, have kept their foot on the gas since reclaiming full control of Washington this January, well aware that political winds rarely blow a political party's way after two years of unified governance.
But Democrats are bound to be disappointed at the 2026 midterm results, finding that the wave elections of old resemble little more than faint white caps off a qui...
Senate GOP must think ahead this time and remove the Senate parliamentarian now
During President Trump’s push for his "big, beautiful" budget bill, either a betrayal or a political blunder occurred as an unelected bureaucrat became the most powerful person in the U.S. Congress. Before we go any further with a new budget — a process that is already underway — that needs to change.
Trump campaigned with the message that federal engagement on the abortion issue should be cut back. Although I disagree given the life-and-death stakes...
Six months in, Trump’s numbers are stronger than in his first term
Six months into his second term, President Trump and Republicans are in better shape than eight years ago.
Unquestionably, President Trump remains a divisive political figure. However, he has expanded his base and continues to hold it. In contrast, Democrats have been unable to capitalize on Trump’s political vulnerabilities and have lost ground compared to 2017.
With the House’s passage of his rescission package, Trump scored another major win. He ...
After the Epstein fallout, Republicans are finally finding their spines
As President Trump hits the six-month mark in his second term, only a minority of Americans approve of his dismal job performance. His approval ratings will fall even lower as his incompetence, dishonesty, cruelty, destructive policies and efforts to rule like a dictator become ever more apparent.
The most recent RealClearPolitics average of 12 polls published between July 6 and July 20 finds that 45.5 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s overall job performanc...
Trump and Wiles are like a new Madden and Summerall
Like President Trump or not, his second term is going much better for him than his first was. This time eight years ago, his presidency was in disarray, reeling from the Russiagate probe and the Senate’s rejection of ObamaCare repeal.
That’s night and day from the current administration’s early victories from the tax-and-spending megabill, immigration and universal injunctions.
Even European leaders and Ivy League universities are now heeding Trump’s demands. The pr...
What you missed at the socialism 2025 annual conference
While those who love America spent the Fourth of July weekend celebrating the country’s freedom and independence, those who hate America spent that same weekend in Chicago (where else?) decrying that freedom and wishing everyone was more dependent — on government handouts, socialized medicine, environmental mandates and price controls.
Welcome to the Socialism 2025 annual conference.
The only thing missing was a keynote speech by New York City’s Democratic candidat...