The Dictatorship

Democrats need to start thinking beyond Obamacare

Published

8 months ago

November 14, 2025

Democrats need to start thinking beyond Obamacare

The government shutdown is over, and Democrats have failed to obtain an extension of subsidies for plans under the Affordable Care Act. That means premiums will skyrocket for the tens of millions of Americans who get their insurance through the ACA marketplaces. While Democrats look for other ways to save the subsidies, though, the party also needs to lay the groundwork for a bigger fix to America’s broken health care system.

It’s been a decade and a half since President Barack Obama signed the ACA into law, which in turn came a decade and a half after Bill Clinton’s failed attempt at health care reform early in his presidency. For the last 15 years, Democrats have said the same thing about the Affordable Care Act: The law has done a tremendous amount of good, but it’s far from perfect. Despite the ACA’s successes, our health care system is still a failure in multiple ways, and only one party wants to fix it. The time is now to start planning for the next phase.

Every Democratic president in the 80 years since Truman made at least some attempt to move toward universal coverage and containing costs.

In 1945, President Harry Truman proposed that the federal government provide health insurance to all. “Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health,” he said. “Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection.”

That time, in fact, kept arriving; every Democratic president in the 80 years since Truman made at least some attempt to move toward universal coverage and containing costs. There were successes along the way, including Medicare, Medicaid and the ACA itself. But most Americans are unhappy with the U.S. health care system as a whole, even if many are happy with their own insurance.

Although health care is typically one of the party’s strongest issues, Democrats have largely been on the defensive since the ACA was passed in 2010. They’ve worked hard, mostly with success, to beat back Republican attempts to repeal or undermine it. This has been a necessary and noble effort: Since the ACA’s passage, the share of Americans without health insurance has been cut in halffrom 16% to 8%. But 27 million Americans are still without coverage. That number is expected to increase dramaticallyboth because of the expiration of enhanced subsidies and because Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” includes massive Medicaid cuts and restricts access to ACA marketplaces.

That means Democrats have no choice but to come up with a new plan they can present to the public for health reform — and it has to be more than just reinforcing the ACA.

This will require both policy work and political advocacy, which was exactly what the party did after Clinton’s reform failed. Health policy experts spent years researching and developing ideas, and by the time the 2008 election arrived, the party had coalesced around an outline of what would become the ACA — a combination of subsidies for people in the middle to buy insurance, an expansion of Medicaid and a mandate for everyone to get covered. While Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards argued about the details in that year’s presidential primary, their differences were minor because they were working from a policy consensus that had already taken shape.

Twelve years later, there was another intense debate over health care in a Democratic presidential primary. And though it seemed in 2020 that there was a gulf between the ideas from progressives, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders’ proposal for a single-payer system, and those from the more moderate candidates, including Joe Biden, in truth the whole party had moved left. Even Biden’s plan, which centered on a public option, was far more progressive than the ACA.

Opponents of health care reforms count on Americans believing that we can’t have anything better.

But once he took office, Biden essentially put that plan in a drawer and never spoke of it again. You can argue that he wouldn’t have been able to pass it through a closely divided Congress, but he never tried to build the support that would have made it possible.

So what should Democrats do now? The answer is that they should spend the next couple of years debating it among themselves. Task the policy experts with devising a menu of options, talk to voters, begin advocacy for real reform and see where support builds. Then, when 2028 comes, have the debate during the presidential campaign when the largest number of Americans are paying attention.

My own preference would be to model our next reform on the combination of public and private insurance that’s used successfully in various forms in countries such as Australia, Canada, France and Denmark. In this system, the government provides basic insurance that covers everyone, and people are free to buy supplementary private insurance if they want more benefits. Liberals like it because of the universal coverage, and conservatives like it because rich people can still buy all the benefits they want.

We could get there by expanding Medicaid — which already covers more than 77 million Americans — to everyone under 65, while allowing seniors to keep Medicare. Yes, there would be many details to work out. And powerful forces will array themselves against meaningful reform — not just the GOP, but the many people, organizations and companies that benefit handsomely from the current system.

Opponents of health care reforms count on Americans believing that we can’t have anything better, or at the very least that it can only be a little bit better. But we know that isn’t true, because every other industrialized country on Earth has a national system that is far less expensive than ours, yet still insures all or virtually all residents.

Last weekend, President Donald Trump proposed sending money to Americans instead of to insurance companies. He later said that people will “feel like entrepreneurs” when they’re “able to go out and negotiate their own health insurance.” It’s an incoherent and nonsensical idea that will only make health care expensive. But Republican lawmakers quickly signaled support, with Sen. Rick Scott of Florida saying he was “writing the bill right now.”

Unlike their opponents, Democrats need to be serious about health care. And that means finding the next big proposal to get closer to a system that all Americans can actually count on and afford. It won’t be an easy process, and it won’t be quick. But that makes it all the more important to start now.

The Dictatorship

US tariff hikes linked to foreign forced labor claims anger trading partners

Published

12 hours ago

July 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

US tariff hikes linked to foreign forced labor claims anger trading partners

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest set of tariffs drew immediate objections from America’s trading partners including China and Japan, with Australia’s trade minister slamming them as “completely unjustified” on Friday.

The administration announced tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on 60 economies late Thursday, saying the countries had failed to adequately enforce a ban on goods made with forced labor.

The new tariffs took effect just as stopgap levies Trump imposed after a stinging defeat at the Supreme Court expired at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Countries object to what they call unfounded labor claims

Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell rejected claims linking Australia, a major exporter of beef, gold and copper, to modern slavery and raising the tariff on its exports to the U.S. to 12.5% from the 10% level imposed after Trump’s “Liberation Day” hikes last year.

“We believe that amongst all of the countries in the world Australia does take the issue of slavery, modern slavery, seriously, and will continue to do that,” Farrell told reporters in Adelaide.

Australia believes the higher tariffs are “completely unjustified and we will continue to lobby the United States Trade Representative to remove all tariffs on Australian goods,” Farrell said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the tariffs on his country, also subject to a 12.5% import duty, were “extremely disappointing,” unjustified and harmful to trade.

A U.S. investigation serving as the basis for the tariffs did not provide meaningful evidence to support allegations of forced labor.

“Tariffs are not the way — they drive up costs and uncertainty for businesses,” he wrote on X.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas questioned the U.S. stance in comments on Channel News Asia.

“If you compare our labor laws to the ones of the United States, I mean we have, people have paid vacations, we have very good conditions, labor conditions for our employees, so it’s not really grounded,” Kallas said.

Also facing a 12.5% tariff, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry said it would “continue to engage the USTR (United States Trade Representative) to explore options.”

Some hope to forestall the new tariffs

Japan likewise protested the 12.5% tariff imposed on its exports, noting Tokyo had been reassured by the Trump administration that there would be no more tariffs on top of an earlier agreement on a 10% U.S. import duty.

“Our understanding is both sides are still committed to that,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said.

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“It is regrettable that the measure imposes tariffs on the grounds of non-existence of measures banning imports of goods made by forced labor, even though Japan’s industry and trade are in line with international rules,” Kihara said.

South Korea’s trade ministry said the announcement eased some uncertainty over U.S. trade policy, but noted that a Section 301 investigation into alleged Korean excess production continues.

The combined duties on South Korean exports should not exceed 15%, the ministry said in a statement.

Thailand noted it is subject to the new 12.5% tariff by the U.S. under the forced labor provision, but the measure exempts around 2,120 items, representing more than half the value of Thai goods exported to the U.S.

China opposes unilateral tariffs in ‘all forms’

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “opposes all forms of unilateral tariffs” in response to the new 12.5% tariffs.

“Tariff wars and trade wars do not serve any parties’ interests,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a press conference.

Trade tensions have clouded relations between China and the U.S., two of the world’s biggest economies, as Trump’s hefty “Liberation Day” tariffs resulted in a sharp drop in Chinese exports to the U.S.

Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who agreed to set up new boards of trade and investment at their mid-May meeting in Beijing, are expected to meet again in September.

Some Chinese exporters say, however, the impacts are limited as the latest U.S. tariffs on China remain at lower levels than last year’s rates, which were initially 34%.

“Of course it’d be best if they (the tariffs) are not there,” said Richard Chan, manager of Golden Arts Gifts & Decor, which manufactures Christmas trees and decorations in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan and supplies globally to those including Walmart.

Golden Arts’ share of sales to the U.S., however, already have fallen as U.S. tariffs added more uncertainty. They have pivoted more to Europe, which now accounts for roughly 70% of their sales, Chan said.

The latest import duties might stick

Wendy Cutler, a former senior U.S. trade official, said the latest round of tariffs involved “few surprises” since they range just between 10% and 12.5%.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office spent four months investigating the basis for those tariffs to meet legal requirements under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974.

“Time will tell whether the third attempt to impose tariffs is the charm and this action stands up to legal challenges,” said Cutler, senior vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

These duties are less likely than earlier ones to be overruled by U.S. courts, she said.

Further tariffs may be coming in the fall related to alleged structural excess capacity of trading partners, she noted.

Experts say these tariffs may be less disruptive

Washington has generally tended to engage in increased trade friction, William Bratton of BNP Paribas said in a research note Friday.

“On the positive side, however, these tariffs are lower than the earlier (Emergency Powers Act) ‘reciprocal’ tariffs and appear to exempt a substantial proportion of Asia’s current trade flows with the U.S.,” he said.

The Trump administration has made tariff exceptions, however, including imported goods that the U.S. does not produce, Cutler noted.

“This should reduce the impact of these duties. Nevertheless, they will contribute to higher prices both for end consumers and businesses importing inputs and machinery,” she said.

Immediate pushback, legal and political

There was immediate pushback, both legally, and politically.

The Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian advocacy group that successfully challenged earlier Trump tariffs, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, challenging the double-digit import taxes that Trump imposed Friday.

The group called the new tariffs a pretext to allow Trump to maintain a wall of tariffs around the U.S. economy after the Supreme Court struck down big global taxes he’d imposed last year.

“The administration allowed one global tariff to expire and immediately replaced it with another under a different statute,” said Sara Albrecht, chair of the center. “Changing the statute doesn’t change the law. Every tariff authority has limits, and every administration must respect them.”

Her group represented businesses that successfully challenged Trump’s 2025 global tariffs.

Rep. Linda Sanchez, a California Democrat questioned the reasons for the latest slew of tariffs.

“If he was serious, he would not be applying the same tariff rate to China, one of the worst forced labor abusers in the world, as he does to countries like Australia,” she said. “Then again, unlike China, Australia doesn’t manufacture any Trump corporation products.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said Americans will be the ones paying for the new tariffs.

“Instead of continuing his disastrous tariff scheme, the president must put the American people first and revoke these harmful policies that are making everyday Americans’ lives flat-out unaffordable,” Gillibrand said. “At home in New York and across the country, people are struggling, and they need relief.”

___

Chan reported from Hong Kong. Associated Press writers Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Grant Peck in Bangkok and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing, as well as AP Economics Writer in Washington, and AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman in New York, contributed to this report.

The Dictatorship

You asked, Joe answered

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Christmas. 24, 2026, 12:14 PM EDT

Thirty-eight thousand people packed Fenway on Wednesday night — the biggest crowd in a decade. The Red Sox lost. Such a Red Sox thing to do, but as I’ve always said to my long-suffering Sox friends, baseball season doesn’t really begin until after the All-Star break. This year’s Red Sox team proved that again, with a dismal spring and early summer. But a historic run in July put them back in the pennant race.

Baseball is life. A long season. Head down. Learn from your mistakes. Burn the bridge behind you. Win the next tonight. Take the next series. And then focus on the game after that.

As I told my daughter as she went off to college, don’t get overwhelmed at everything coming at you at once. Eat the elephant one bite at a time.

The Sox play the Blue Jays tonight. Tomorrow doesn’t matter. One bite at a time.

Here are some fun events you can have a taste of this weekend:

In Queens, MoMA PS1’s “Warm Up” returns today, the courtyard dance party that’s been a summer institution in Long Island City for more than two decades. Six Fridays, all summer long.

In Newport, the Folk Festival takes over Fort Adams this weekend, with three days of music at the grounds that gave us Bob Dylan’s historic move of going electric and Joni Mitchell’s return to the stage. An American original since 1959, and it still sells out for a reason.

In the nation’s capital, Poet’s Homecoming wraps this weekend with its “Big Old Kids Party”: part poetry brunch, part indie wellness fair, all of it free.

In Chicago, Double Dutch Fest takes over South Shore all weekend with jump-rope workshops, breakdancing and old-school lawn games. Seasoned or still learning the ropes, everyone’s welcome.

In New Orleans, the X Games take over the Caesars Superdome for the first-ever XGL Championship. Three days of skateboarding, BMX and Moto X, with Metro Boomin and JID closing out the nights.

Out west, it’s San Francisco Marathon weekend. Check the route map, whether you’re running, cheering or just trying to cross the street. I pray for the runners’ joints that Lombard Street is not on the route.

In Miami, the county is holding its final Adopt-A-Tree event tomorrow at FIU’s Biscayne Bay campus — firebush, pigeon plum, cinnamon bark, all free, all yours.

And wherever you are, it’s National Tequila Day. If life hands you lemons, skip the lemonade. Add salt and tequila. Here are 10 cocktails to shake up at home.

MAILBAG

Do you believe that this administration will move forward with ground troops in Iran where we will experience another Vietnam war?

— Paul C., New Bedford, Massachusetts

Paul, there is no way to predict exactly what this president will do. But everyone close to him is certain that he will not commit ground troops to Iran.

When you look at his approval rating on the war, and especially the economy, the last thing Republicans want Donald Trump to do is double down. The sight of more Americans coming home in coffins is a tragedy this country does not want to endure. That said, the president has few good options and no one can predict exactly how this will end.

Please explain where we get all these billions of dollars Trump is spending like a drunken sailor, while taking food and healthcare away from Americans. I worry we are borrowing it and paying a very high interest rate.

—Linda K., Spring Grove, Illinois

Linda, more Americans need to be concerned about the issue you have raised here.

The national debt is about to hit $40 trillion. When I entered Congress a generation ago, it was at $4 trillion. That was even too much for the members who came into the House of Representatives with me.

We fought hard over our first few years to balance the budget for the first time in a generation. We went on to balance it for four years in a row.

That is the only time it has happened in 100 years.

Today, the Republican Party keeps giving tax cuts to billionaires and trillionaires, passing out corporate welfare breaks to multinational corporations, spending your tax dollars on bloated and outdated weapons programs, and are now paying more of your tax dollars for interest on the U.S. debt than for America’s national defense. Because of the GOP’s failure, this is an existential crisis that needs to be addressed at once by both political parties in Washington, D.C.

Because gifts to the president require Congress’ approval, does that mean that next year’s Congress can take away the plane and other excessive gifts in the future?

— Mike B., Arlington, Texas

If Democrats take control of Congress, they need to work first on issues involving affordability. But they also must look at their options and address the unprecedented grift and corruption that has taken place in the first two years of the Trump administration. The plane from Qatar should be at the top of the list, but they should also work to pass legislation that will stop all future presidents, and their families from benefiting financially because of their positions of power in Washington, D.C.

Not only have many of these sleazy schemes warped American foreign policybut they have also undermined citizens’ confidence in their own government.

That must change.

You and Roger Bennett complained about how the U.S. doesn’t have a good men’s soccer team. We have had amazing women’s soccer teams. What are we doing right with women’s soccer that could be applied to men’s soccer as far as training up the young?

— Carol P., Denver, Colorado

Carol, that is a great question, and neither Roger nor I have the answer. It is something we’ve been discussing since the end of the 2010 World Cup, and we agree that one of the biggest problems is our approach to developing players.

In Europe, talented, young soccer players are paid to join an organization and develop their game. In America, parents usually pay tens of thousands of dollars — and travel long distances — to have their sons participate in a higher level of competition.

The goal for most young players in the U.S. is to make a college soccer team and have their education paid for by colleges like Tufts, Pepperdine, or Dartmouth. In Europe, young players train with the goal of joining clubs like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Liverpool.

By the time they reached the World Cup, the gap becomes painfully obvious. That said, this U.S.A. squad was easily the best I’ve seen. They should have gone further in the tournament, but their exciting run got tangled up in politics. And yes, like manyI blame Donald Trump’s clumsy intervention in the red card controversy with getting our players off their game during the first half of the Belgium match.

We’ll get ‘em next time.

Former Rep. Joe Scarborough, R-Fla., is co-host of MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” alongside Mika Brzezinski — a show that Time magazine calls “revolutionary.” In addition to his career in television, Joe is a two-time New York Times best-selling author. His most recent book is “The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics — and Can Again.”

The Dictatorship

Friday’s Campaign Round-Up, 7.24.26: Mark Sanford launches comeback bid in South Carolina

Published

1 day ago

July 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Friday’s Campaign Round-Up, 7.24.26: Mark Sanford launches comeback bid in South Carolina

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.

* In South Carolina’s Republican Senate primarythe late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s younger sister, Darline Graham, is an appointed incumbent seeking a full term with President Donald Trump’s blessing, but she hasn’t cleared the GOP field ahead of the state’s Aug. 11 special primary.

Reps. Russell Fry and Ralph Norman have launched campaigns for the seat, and this week, a third high-profile contender threw his hat into the ring: Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford joined the race Thursday afternoon.

Sanford brings one of the more unusual resumes of any politician in the country. He served a few terms in Congress in the late 1990s, before serving two terms as South Carolina’s governor — a tenure that included the infamous “Appalachian Trail” sex scandal. The Republican nevertheless returned to Congress for six more years before losing in a GOP primary in which he was accused of being insufficiently loyal to Trump.

Sanford then lost an ill-fated 2020 presidential campaign, before launching a congressional comeback bid earlier this year, which only lasted a few weeks. Now, evidently, the South Carolinian is launching yet another comeback bid.

* In Georgiaa new bipartisan poll from AARP found Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff with a relatively comfortable lead over Republican Rep. Mike Collins, 52% to 43%.

* Speaking of the Peach Statethe same AARP poll found former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms with a smaller lead over Republican Rick Jackson, 48% to 46%, in Georgia’s gubernatorial race.

* In Michigan’s closely watched U.S. Senate raceformer Republican Rep. Mike Rogers held a recent private call with supporters in which he said his candidacy will be in “pretty good shape” if Democrats nominate former public health official Abdul El-Sayed in an Aug. 4 primary. “I think we’ll do well if he in fact is the nominee,” Rogers added.

* In Florida’s gubernatorial raceRepublican Rep. Byron Donalds just received a major financial boost from billionaire megadonor Ken Griffin, who’s investing $10 million in support of the congressman’s candidacy.

* As if gubernatorial nominee Victor Marx weren’t already one of the nation’s most controversial statewide candidates, the Colorado Secretary of State’s office is now seeking penalties against the candidate for accepting illegal campaign contributions.

* And as MS NOW’s Jordan Rubin explained this week“A new court ruling approving Tennessee’s congressional map that dilutes Black voting power is the latest example of how the Supreme Court’s GOP-appointed majority is helping Republicans win elections.”

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”