There’s stumbling out of the gate, and then there’s what Republicans just did on health care. They came up with a substantively indefensible bill, put it on an absurd fast track to passage, didn’t seriously try to sell it to the public, fumbled their internal negotiations over changes — and suffered a stinging defeat months […]
Rich Lowry
Posted inLetters, sj-web
Better spin won't solve it
Let me get this straight. Rich Lowry (“GOP needs better arguments for health plan”, March 18) is taking Republicans to task for letting on that they would “be fine with fewer people having insurance”? Twenty-four million people are slated to lose coverage and he sees the problem as bad PR? Only after admonishing Republicans to […]
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Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
President Trump can be his own worst enemy
The Trump administration is in the throes of one of the greatest self-inflicted distractions of the modern presidency. The latest chapter comes from James Comey in his highly anticipated congressional testimony. The FBI director said that he has no information to support President Donald Trump’s infamous weekend tweets alleging he was wiretapped by President Barack […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
GOP face split over health care plan
Less than two weeks after the unveiling of the GOP Obamacare replacement, the party is already staring into the abyss. The bill has had the worst rollout of any major piece of legislation in memory, and failure is very much an option. If the proposal falters, it will be a political debacle that could poison […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
GOP needs better arguments for Trumpcare
Of all the arguments to make for repealing and replacing Obamacare, the very worst is that people don’t need health insurance. Yet this is a Trump administration talking point. White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters last week, “When we get asked the question, ‘How many people are going to get covered?’ that’s not […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web, Uncategorized
President Trump resembles Andrew Jackson
Upon taking office, President Donald Trump dusted off a portrait of Andrew Jackson and hung it above his desk in the Oval Office. He chose better than he knew. The most jaw-dropping furor of the early Trump administration — the Obama wiretapping allegation — was presaged in broad outline almost 200 years ago during Jackson’s […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Republicans converting to Trumpism
In the course of a few days, President Donald Trump showed how thoroughly he has conquered conservative activists and the Republican Party. At the Conservative Political Action Conference, the attendees would have carried him in on a litter if they had been afforded the opportunity, and Republicans applauded everything he said in his address to […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Yes, deconstruct the administrative state
Steve Bannon blew a dog whistle for constitutional conservatives when he spoke of “deconstructing the administrative state” at the Conservative Political Action Conference. The administrative state has been called “the fourth branch” of government. It involves an alphabet soup of executive agencies that wield legislative, executive and judicial powers and thus run outside of and […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Capitol Hill depends on Trump to lead
President Donald Trump gives the impression of having done everything in his first month in the White House — except think about Congress. A couple of months ago, there were congressional Republicans reluctantly on the Trump train who would have welcomed such neglect. They believed that Trump might be a figurehead president. He would tweet, […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Trump: Look at what is happening in Sweden
As if on cue, riots broke out in a heavily immigrant suburb of Stockholm as soon as the media mocked President Donald Trump for a vague warning about immigration-related problems in Sweden. At a campaign rally over the weekend, Trump issued forth with a mystifyingly ominous statement. “You look,” he declared, “at what’s happening last […]