VIRGINIA’S new governor, Ralph Northam, did in five months what his predecessor, Terry McAuliffe, couldn't manage in four years. He convinced a usually obdurate Republican legislature to bring this blue-trending state fully under the Affordable Care Act—even as the Trump administration continues efforts to kill it.
On June 7...
United States
The Trump administration joins a lawsuit to shred Obamacare
TO REPUBLICANS, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is the zombie that endures countless hits to keep rising from its knees and haunt America’s health-care industry. The signature legislative achievement of Barack Obama’s presidency, which brought health coverage to 20m Americans, faced dozens of House repeal votes d...
Why people vote against their economic interests
A COMPLAINT often made of Donald Trump’s presidency is that many of the voters who delivered him to the Oval Office will suffer from his policies. They include the tax cut, with its benefits heavily skewed towards the rich. The complaint builds on the growing frustration of partisans of both parties that many people who seem to be...
How the Trump administration is reshaping Medicaid
AMERICAN lawmakers are acutely afraid of rewarding the loafing poor. For that reason, Congress has set strict work requirements on federal food assistance and cash welfare. The Trump administration is now steadily doing the same for Medicaid, as America’s health-insurance programme for the poor is know...
What’s going on with North Korea is a cautionary tale in rushing diplomacy
Amid talks of a historic deal with North Korea and a possible Noble Peace Prize for President Donald Trump (chiefly among his GOP supporters, his aides, and, well, himself), North Korean leader Kim Jong Un seems to be slamming the brakes on the negotiations.
While White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the Trump administration is “still hopeful that the meeting will take place,” signalling that the president is ready for “tough negotiations,” it&...
The parties’ preferred primary candidates prevail
MARY TAYLOR has been John Kasich’s lieutenant-governor since he was elected governor of Ohio in 2010. She backed all of his policies loyally, including the expansion of Medicaid and health insurance for the poor, and did not criticise Mr Kasich’s “Never Trump” campaign during his presidential candidacy. Yet when she campaigned to ...
How Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo blew it at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is expected to vote against the nomination of Mike Pompeo for Secretary of State on Monday — which would be the first such vote for a secretary of state nominee.
CIA Director Pompeo, who would replace Rex Tillerson (who was fired in March), has thus far not received the support of a single Democrat on the SFRC (nor Kentucky Republican Rand Paul).
Bracing for the SFRC vote, Trump tweeted on Monday morning that it was partisan politi...
Ralph Northam pushes for Medicaid expansion in Virginia
RALPH NORTHAM, Virginia’s new Democratic governor, soundly beat his Republican rival, Ed Gillespie, by harnessing antipathy for Donald Trump. Virginia was the only Southern state that the president lost to Hillary Clinton in 2016. But Mr Northam's landslide win in November was also due to his promise to bring 300,000 uninsured Vir...
Republicans seek alternatives to Obamacare’s pricey insurance markets
Religion to the rescue
REPUBLICANS may have abolished the “individual mandate”, an unpopular part of Obamacare that fines Americans for not buying health insurance. But most of the law’s rickety architecture remains intact. Having given up, for now, on sweeping legislative reform, the Trump administration and...
