When members of the U.S. Senate announced they would block confirmation of a nine-member commission that would have closed dozens of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care facilities across the country, it was a huge win for veterans, military families and our country. Lawmakers saw through the guise that closures would help “modernize” the VA and halted a pernicious privatization effort.
Now it’s time to make the investments necessary to truly modernize the VA, sta...
Opinion
Congress needs to take its role in inflation seriously
The last time inflation was this high, interest rates climbed over 19 percent. Chairman Paul Volcker and the Federal Reserve took a lot of political heat for the high rates, but the Fed’s response brought down inflation. Theory and experience have shown that active monetary policy can keep inflation in check. But to tame the current inflation without a repeat of the early 1980s, Congress will need to adjust fiscal policy to work with the Fed.
Inflation is well above the Fed’s ...
Congress can’t codify Roe: Here’s what it can do
Several days after the Supreme Court held that Roe v. Wade was no longer the law of the land on abortions, President Biden asked the Senate to create an exception to its filibuster rule to allow a vote on a bill to codify Roe.
While the sentiment is understandable, the president should instead refocus his attention on what Congress and the executive branch can do to lessen the devastation that the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling...
‘Inflation Reduction Act’ — What’s in a name?
Last week, a few days before the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced a 1 percent monthly rise in the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index — higher than expected and the highest inflation in decades — Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that they had reached a deal on a climate, tax, and health care bill after long negotiations. The bill is called the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.” Inflation reduction would certainly be nice rig...
Progressives need to stop making plans around ending the filibuster
The Supreme Court’s radical shift to the right — sharply narrowing states’ ability to regulate firearms or prevent religious coercion in schools, hobbling federal efforts to fight climate change and public health threats, overruling Roe v. Wade, and much more — has brought even more insistent demands for abolishing the filibuster. Doing so now seems to be the first step in most prominent progressives’ plans for correcting what the court and the Trump administration have done or for safe...
Democrats’ drug-pricing plan warrants disinformation flag for seniors
Senate Democrats are moving forward with a falsely advertised drug pricing plan. Liberals, and even maverick Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), claim their newest plan will help lower drug costs for seniors and even drive down inflation. As always, however, the fine print says something else. In fact, the scheme would be a disaster for the development of life-extending, life-improving medicines and medical devices.
Start with the money. The details show their proposal is more about ...
Biden must act against climate change if Manchin-Schumer deal falls through
Millions of Americans — along with Asians and Europeans — are wilting during a stifling heat wave. The oppressive heat is not confined to the Sunbelt. It reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Boston and London last week and this week the Pacific Northwest bakes under the hot summer sun.
Arctic ice melts while drought dries out the Southwestern states and drains reservoirs in California. A toxic brew of heat and drought created the perfect conditions for the wildfires that rage widel...
Juan Williams: McConnell teeters on the high wire
How long can Mitch McConnell stay up on that high wire?
On his right, the Senate Minority Leader is juggling the prospect of another Trump campaign and a party bent on intensifying divisive social issues.
To his left, he is trying to get a grip on center-right suburban voters to regain his balance. But the suburbanites are running away, repulsed by the culture wars that excite his party’s base.
McCon...
It’s time for the Democratic Party’s geriatric leaders to relinquish power
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The Supreme Court left millions of Americans uninsured: Here’s what Congress can do to cover them
Nearly 4 million Americans lack health insurance because of a 2012 Supreme Court decision that allowed states to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. In the coming weeks, Congress has a chance to clean up the mess the court’s decision created.
To understand what Congress can do now, it is useful to review how we got here. The Affordable Care Act required all state Medicaid programs to cover people with incomes up to 138 percent of the poverty line (currentl...