It’s official. After mounting calls from the Democratic establishment, President Joe Biden has exited the 2024 race. The American public had long called for it. For at least the last two years, even a majority of Democrats have wanted the president to step aside.
Biden leaving the race is not just significant but historic. No president has willingly exited this close to an election. It’s humiliating to be the first. But many progressives, some of whom formerly supported Biden,...
Young Democrats embrace Harris, but need convincing on Gaza
Young liberals are bursting with enthusiasm for Vice President Harris’s new White House campaign, pointing to a strong contrast between her and former President Trump, but some are concerned she is overlooking major concerns for students.
Harris can piggyback off the accomplishments of the Biden administration on numerous issues college students care about, such as student loans, but, after weeks of protests over the Israel-Gaza war on campuses this year, others are wor...
Where Kamala Harris stands on health care issues
Vice President Kamala Harris, who said she will seek the Democratic nomination after President Biden decided not to continue his reelection campaign, has previously staked out health positions to the left of President Biden.
But there isn’t expected to be much daylight between her policy priorities and President Biden’s.
Harris will be able to claim ownership of Biden’s health wins—like a $35 insulin cap, Medicare drug price negotiations and an out-of-pocket c...
Taxing the rich is no silver bullet for saving Social Security
“Make the very wealthy begin to pay their fair share.” That was President Biden’s response when asked at last month’s presidential debate what he would do to address the looming insolvency of the Social Security trust fund. Combined with his opposition to benefit reductions of any kind, the implication is that Social Security’s finances should be stabilized by taxing the rich alone. In practice, this tax-only approach is like trying to patch a cracking dam with duct tape. Indeed, rather...
Trump allies unload on Harris after Biden backs her as nominee
The Trump campaign and Republicans wasted no time going on the attack against Vice President Harris on Sunday after President Biden backed her as the party’s next nominee upon ending his own 2024 bid.
Republicans used their convention this week to signal how they would go after Harris should she replace Biden atop the ticket, and on Sunday the party followed through, bashing Harris for her handling of the root causes of migration, tying her to the Biden administration’s handli...
Biden and Georgia Are Waging a Fight Over Medicaid and the Future of Obamacare
A fierce battle with Georgia over a Medicaid experiment with stricter enrollment underscores the vast divide between parties over how to cover lower-income Americans.
Preventive care is under threat: PrEP now or pay later
A long-awaited court decision has finally arrived, with disturbing health implications: The ruling exempts select employers from fully covering a daily pill that can prevent a person’s chances of getting HIV by up to 99 percent.
But the effects of the Braidwood Management v. Becerra case extend beyond HIV care. The case could invalidate a startling range of free preventative services, and lead to a big jump in patient’s payments for cancer screenings, preventive drugs for hear...
Biden campaign reiterates president will be nominee in post-RNC memo
The Biden campaign reiterated in a new memo following the Republican National Convention that the president will be the Democratic nominee, even as the party remains embroiled in disagreement about the path forward. The memo also targeted Project 2025, which Donald Trump has disavowed.
“Joe Biden has made it more than clear: he’s in this race and he’s in it to win it. Moreover, he’s the presumptive nominee, there is no plan for an alternative nominee,”...
In reversal from 2016, GOP projects unity while Democrats scramble
MILWAUKEE — Republicans find themselves in a somewhat unusual position: fully in sync, while Democrats hash out a major internal disagreement in public.
It’s been a remarkable split-screen playing out this week. Republicans are gathered in Wisconsin, unified and energized behind former President Trump’s candidacy, while Democrats are in open disagreement over whether President Biden should remain atop the ticket in November.
On Tuesday, Trump’s fiercest primary rival...
Mindfulness, meditation can help calm American political anger
Twelve years ago, before the MAGA movement emerged on the right and the streets erupted in progressive protest from the left, we noticed something troubling in Congress: Our colleagues and constituents were getting angrier.
We saw it in the flushed faces at our town halls. We heard it in expletive-laden phone calls opposing the Affordable Care Act. We felt its toll in the increasing turnover of our burnt-out, battle-fatigued campaign workers. Most of all, we sensed it in the c...