Something much deeper than the price of eggs was at work when voters re-elected President Trump last year.
Most Americans were unhappy with the country's direction; they still are. Last month, 59 percent said they were dissatisfied with "the way things are going in the United States."
It's not just that people have very different opinions about the day's pressing issues. We lack a national vision or mission that transcends our differences. No one has articulated a co...
Opinion
Look to Wisconsin for Medicaid reform
Medicaid was created to help people living in poverty have access to health care. Under ObamaCare, it was expanded to include able-bodied, working-age adults without children. That was wrong.
When I was governor of Wisconsin, we opted not to take the expansion. First, we could create our own plan for covering everyone living in poverty. We did — and it worked.
My predecessor had raised the income requirements for Medicaid, but did not fund the gap. That left many imp...
Trump never promised mass federal layoffs, and they won’t fulfill his agenda, either
Leading up to the November election, the one issue voters cared about most was the cost of living. For Republican voters, immigration was a close second.
Concerns about government inefficiency did not even make the list. Months into the new administration, however, one of its top priorities is improving government efficiency, and its basic approach is to reduce the size of government through mass layoffs. The assumption seems to be that the government can operate just as effic...
A veil of secrecy is hiding Trump’s White House visitors
After President Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on Apr. 2, businesses scrambled to learn how the policies would impact them and lobbied for exceptions for their products. Nearly one month later, many have struggled to get answers and remain concerned about the tariffs’ potential effects.
However, at least a few businesses have communicated directly with the president himself. On Apr. 21, representatives from Home Depot, Target, Walmart and other major retailers met wi...
Medicaid cuts will harm rural Republican communities most
Though President Trump promised a “big beautiful” budget bill, what narrowly passed the House of Representatives in the early morning hours of May 22 will be anything but a big beautiful win for millions of marginalized Americans, and Medicaid beneficiaries won’t be the only ones who feel the pinch.
In fact, if passed, this legislation would destabilize the publicly insured and privately insured alike, especially in America’s many rural communities.
Trump’s budget d...
Trump 2.0 is the final victory of the John Birch Society
In 1958, a group of prominent business leaders founded the John Birch Society. Led by Robert Welch, inheritor of a vast candy fortune, these titans of wealth believed a vast communist conspiracy had penetrated the U.S. government.
In “The Blue Book of the John Birch Society,” Welch presented an apocalyptic vision where politics was no longer a staid battle between the two political parties but a conflict “between light and darkness; between freedom and slavery;...
Trump 2.0 is the final victory of the John Birch Society
In 1958, a group of prominent business leaders founded the John Birch Society. Led by Robert Welch, inheritor of a vast candy fortune, these titans of wealth believed a vast communist conspiracy had penetrated the U.S. government.
In “The Blue Book of the John Birch Society,” Welch presented an apocalyptic vision where politics was no longer a staid battle between the two political parties but a conflict “between light and darkness; between freedom and slavery;...
Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ would sacrifice the least of us to the almighty dollar
For the last 236 years, the U.S. House of Representatives has begun each day of session with a prayer. The Senate does the same. Each body has a "nonsectarian, nonpartisan and nonpolitical" chaplain who "provides spiritual counseling and guidance" to its members.
The chaplains would do well to remind lawmakers of a truism: The moral test of any society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. President Trump has flooded the zone with failures in that regard. Congres...
States should cut the federal cord and end dependency on Washington
In most blue states at least, President Trump’s second term is creating a battle over how the states can use federal money. Many Democratic governors are suddenly defending state control and pushing back against Washington’s influence.
But the reality is that too many states resemble satellites orbiting Washington rather than sovereign governments charting their own course.
In 2022, more than half of Louisiana and Alaska’s budget came from federal funds. Twenty stat...
Trump’s gambit of withholding federal dollars will be ruled unconstitutional
Among the tools the Trump administration is using to get states, local governments, nonprofits and schools to agree with its directives is the withholding of federal dollars. Although the government can use the power of the purse to accomplish many things, the courts have also drawn lines on the limits of its use. There are, in fact, unconstitutional conditions that can be attached to spending power.
The power of the purse — or the ability to appropriate money, as located in A...