Why are Democrats shutting down the government to save enhanced Obamacare subsidies?
I understand, in the abstract, why Democrats like Obamacare subsidies and how they benefit people who would otherwise struggle to buy health insurance. But politically, shutting down the government to protect these subsidies is the silliest thing Democrats have done since they stopped the Republicans from shutting the government down last September.
Republicans love...
Opinion
Trump’s shutdown circus will backfire with voters
There’s a sad irony in watching the federal government come to a grinding halt — not because of some unresolvable crisis, but because our politics have turned into a circus. Earlier this month, a shutdown wasn’t inevitable. But President Trump practically locked the door and threw away the key Monday night when he shared an AI deepfake video mocking his main negotiating partners: Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Kamala Harris’s book tour lets her plot a course for 2028
Interest in the Democratic presidential race intensifies as President Trump’s presidential approval rating sinks. His general presidential approval is now 11 points underwater in a new national survey of registered voters for The New York Times. His performance rating is also net-negative in every issue area, except for crime.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) had his moment in the sun during the long hot summer. Now it’s time for former Vice President Kamala Harris (D) to shi...
A failed experiment in reducing medical costs is ripe for elimination
The federal government’s role in health care was settled to a large extent when Congress passed, and then failed to repeal, the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare. While provisions of the law have been expanded and others reversed, the underlying system of healthcare exchanges remains intact. However, some ObamaCare programs have proven to be so ineffective and costly that they must be promptly repealed, starting with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
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All of these things are ‘killing’ small businesses — so why are they optimistic?
Wow, there are certainly a lot of things "killing" small businesses today, don't you think?
The Wall Street Journal says that tariffs are "crushing" small businesses. The Center for America Progress says the same thing. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that tariffs are having a "real and devastating impact on thousands of small businesses across the nation." MSNBC says that tariff uncertainty is “killing” small businesses too. A mother and daughter who started up a busi...
The spending battle on Capitol Hill is the ground for Democrats to fight on
There is much going on in our great republic, very little of it good. Political violence runs rampant and authoritarian rule is on the rise.
But national public opinion polls continue to demonstrate that the sad state of the economy is still President Trump's Achilles heel. Congressional Democrats have ably addressed this economic imperative in their fight over federal spending and the possibility of a federal government shutdown.
Congressional Democrats have wis...
The pandemic is over — let Biden’s health insurance handouts expire
Ronald Reagan once quipped that “nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program.”
He could have been talking about the effort to extend — for a second time — former President Joe Biden’s Affordable Care Act-enhanced tax credits, a set of extremely generous federal health insurance subsidies intended to help Americans get through the COVID-19 crisis.
That crisis ended two years ago. Biden’s extra help, enacted by a Democratic-majority Congress in 2021 and ex...
If Trump wants to cut health spending, he’s defunding the wrong agency
The second Trump administration has made it a core mission to cut spending on public health programs. But ironically, one agency in its crosshairs is pivotal to cost-effectiveness research in health care delivery.
The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, housed within the Department of Health and Human Services, is aimed at helping health care organizations and providers to deliver safe, high quality and equitable health care.
Despite this vital mission ...
Democrats haven’t won a positive campaign since Obama
Democrats haven’t won a national election without running against Trump since 2012.
This poses a problem for them: In 2028, Trump will be off the ballot. This span of more than a decade epitomizes the breadth of the Democrats’ dilemma: In three years, do they want to run on the past and what has worked, or positively on the future, which hasn’t succeeded for them in 16 years?
The last time Democrats won a national election running for someone, that someone was Barac...
Tinkerbell politics won’t save progressive Democrats
In J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan,” Tinkerbell, the little blond fairy you might picture from the 1953 Disney adaptation, can only live if others believe in her existence. In the play, she’s revived from near death by the audience’s applause. To my knowledge, no production has ever denied her that ovation. Luckily for her, it’s in the script — she survives to the final curtain whether the audience truly believes or not.
A variation of this “Tinkerbell effect,” the idea that be...