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...
Opinion
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...
America’s ‘useful idiots’ — the left calls for revolution as the ultimate virtue signal
During the Cold War, Soviet communists reportedly referred to American liberals as "useful idiots." Although the origin of the quote has been challenged (and attributed to both Lenin and Stalin), it captured many of the adherents of communism after World War II. From higher education to Hollywood, dilettantes on the left embraced Marxism with little real understanding of the philosophy or its implications.
We are now seeing the rise of a new generation of armchair revolutio...
Congestion pricing is working in New York, and it proves government can do big things
In a moment when good government can feel out of reach, New York’s congestion pricing program proves something rare and powerful: We can still do big things. Policy debates in New York often take on a larger-than-life quality, with every decision under a national microscope. Nowhere is that more true than in the area of transportation. From celebrities showing up at town halls about bike lanes to viral videos of subway breakdowns, transit policy here tends to provoke big reactions.
Congestion pricing is working in New York, and it proves government can do big things
In a moment when good government can feel out of reach, New York’s congestion pricing program proves something rare and powerful: We can still do big things. Policy debates in New York often take on a larger-than-life quality, with every decision under a national microscope. Nowhere is that more true than in the area of transportation. From celebrities showing up at town halls about bike lanes to viral videos of subway breakdowns, transit policy here tends to provoke big reactions.
Larry Summers is having a convenient short-term memory lapse on welfare reform
Larry Summers has some nerve. The economist is ripping Republican’s “cruel” efforts to rein in out-of-control Medicaid spending.
Yet he himself participated in one of the biggest welfare reforms of our lifetime.
In 1996, with Summers serving in his Treasury Department, President Bill Clinton signed into law measures that ended welfare as an “entitlement,” pushed people to go to work, made relief temporary and limited federal funding for state programs.
So...
The ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ is delivering on Republican promises
Seventy-seven million Americans voted for President Trump and a Republican majority to cut taxes, secure our border, restore our economy and put working families first. With the signing of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill,” we are delivering on those promises, marking the beginning of the Golden Age of America.
This is a historic win for millions of American families, workers, seniors, small businesses and servicemembers. As vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, I’m...