Republicans face a defining choice between free-market principles and interventionist visions, while Democrats’ ideological divisions could push health-care proposals toward full government control. Looming entitlement shortfalls and AI disruption will make policy debates harder to avoid. Will be the election when policy makes a comeback.
Old faces seem to crease and crumble as we watch in Richard Avedon Immortal: Portraits of Aging, 1951–2004. Avedon was a pioneer in presenting cool, stark, tough beauty. Shades of decadence are one thing, but decrepitude? Old age is timeless as well as time-limited.
Elizabeth Warren thinks interest on consumer credit cards is too high and wants to cap it at 10 percent. Like any other price ceiling, this would create a shortage of the product it attempts to make more affordable. In trying to rescue consumers from their own financial decisions, Warren would deprive them of their plastic and consign them to infinitely more treacherous alternatives.
The Trump administration is right to take on the problem of improper enrollment. Democratic senators criticizing the crackdown get insurers' financial incentives backward, ignoring how expanded subsidies fueled phantom enrollments that reward unscrupulous brokers and leave taxpayers to foot the bill. Renewing those subsidies risks reviving fraud incentives.
California voters narrowly rejected Proposition 40, a wealth tax that threatened the state's startup economy. The measure originated from an intellectual movement driven by a French academic project, an elite public university, and union backing. Wealth-tax advocates are regrouping, making this California battle a preview of fights nationwide.
Congressional Democrats are already eyeing your money with expansive spending agendas, renewing calls for massive federal programs. But the Trump administration's veto power offers a vital constitutional check against these ambitions. Legislative restraint is a feature of the Founders' design, not a failure.