In Texas, Proposition 3 is a constitutional amendment that would require judges to deny bail to defendants accused of certain crimes punishable as a felony. Reformers argue that the state’s criminal justice system already ensnares people struggling with untreated mental illness.
Health & Social Policy
Posted inEconomic Policy
How Do We Rebuild After Trump?
Many Trump critics are focused on what he is doing to our basic democratic compact. But there’s a reason that all the presidents who led us through our worst previous crises also had an aggressive program of reform—including public provision and ownership.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Trump Is Illegally Withholding Food From Needy Families
The White House claims it cannot fund food stamp benefits for November. But not only is there a contingency fund meant to be used in this exact fashion, but it’s illegal for the Trump administration to refuse to do so.
Posted inTAP
The Democrats’ Shutdown Challenge: How Long Must the Hurt Continue?
The problem the Democrats face in the current standoff is how to weigh these distinct forms of pain: immediate to a known universe of political allies; or long-term to a broader universe of, most importantly, swing voters.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
Meet RFK’s Corporate Underlings
The administration’s rhetoric about breaking corporate power in health care rings hollow, as several top officials in the Department of Health and Human Services worked for the very corporate interests their boss claims to oppose.
Posted inTAP
Unveiled Today: The First Politically Viable Wealth Tax
A proposed 2026 California ballot measure would tax billionaires’ fortunes to fund imperiled health access for 15 million state Medicaid recipients. The spillover effects of its presence on the midterm-election ballot should be considerable.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
The Health Insurance Cost Crisis Is Now Upon Us
The price hikes won’t happen until January 1, but open enrollment begins on November 1, ten days from now—and the average exchange beneficiary will see their premium costs more than double.
Posted inWorking in America
As Kaiser Workers Strike, ‘Not-for-Profit’ Is Sitting on $67 Billion
Forty-five thousand workers at Kaiser Permanente—ranging from nurses to therapists to pharmacists—are on strike in the country’s largest labor action of 2025.
Posted inPolitics
To Win the Shutdown, Democrats Need a Big Switch
Democrats have positioned the shutdown as about health care, which is very easy for Republicans to dismiss.
Posted inPolitics
The ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ Phase of the Shutdown
These haphazard funding cuts and firings will only continue, because they are manifestly not tied to a shutdown