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.
Opinion
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...
Why Democrats don’t care about most health care fraud
One thing has become clear in the debate over President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”: Democrats don’t really care about waste, fraud and abuse in Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage (i.e., ObamaCare). That’s obvious from their opposition to Republican efforts to audit those programs to ensure only eligible people are enrolled.
To be fair, Democrats do care about health care fraud if a private health insurer or drug company is accused of defrauding a government health...
Trump’s budget bill sells out America’s future — soon, Republicans will pay
Elon Musk is right: the massive cash giveaway to the richest at the expense of the poorest that Senate Republicans passed this week is “utterly insane and destructive.”
Average Americans, and soon enough many Republican politicians, will regret the budget bill President Trump and the far-right have cooked up if, as expected, the full Congress passes a final version of the bill into law before the July 4 holiday. The bill will sell out the future of hundreds of millio...
Medicaid cuts could save thousands of lives
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes,” goes the well-known saying often attributed to Mark Twain. There is no better demonstration of this wisdom than today's falsehoods about Medicaid cuts that are reported, repeated, reposted and retweeted, even as the truth gets but a few eyeballs.
NBC News recently predicted, “Proposed Medicaid cuts could lead to thousands of deaths.” Other mainstream media claimed similar ...
Congress should look to Tennessee as an example for Medicaid reform
As Congress wrestles with the need to trim spending, attention has turned to Medicaid, and to a lesser extent, Medicare.
These are hardly new issues. Within seven years of the 1965 enactment of Medicaid, for those eligible for federal income support (largely those in poverty), and Medicare, primarily for those eligible for Social Security, Congress in 1972 turned its attention to concerns about containing costs in those programs.
Tennessee has been a pioneer in mana...
Republicans’ mega-bill could make Americans hungry again
This is a large country, and people in different states embrace different customs, cultural preferences and political beliefs. But for all our diversity, every person in every state needs to eat.
In recognition of this, America has long treated hunger as a national concern. Unfortunately, a little-understood provision in the budget reconciliation legislation speeding through Congress would change that. Within a few years of its passage, we would likely see a significant number...
Missing in the Republican tax bill: A real answer to the US medical debt crisis
America is drowning in medical debt. It is a reality for nearly one in 12 adults, with at least $220 billion owed nationwide. This burden cuts across income, gender, geography and profession. Medical debt doesn’t care about your politics; it quietly undermines families and the broader economy. Creating targeted tax incentives — both credits and deductions — for consumers should be on the table.
Whether you cheer or groan, a Republican tax bill, approved by Congress, and signe...
To fulfill their promises to voters, Republicans must govern like Democrats
Say this about Democrats: They know how to pass their agenda much faster than Republicans.
Four-and-a-half months into the second Trump administration, Republicans have achieved next to nothing legislatively, despite its total control of Washington.
Sure, President Trump has issued a slew of executive orders, but all of them will be repealed the moment a Democrat wins the White House. Laws are what really matter and stand the test of time. And despite endless talk a...