Editorials

The Town Where Nobody Watched: America Has Lost 3,500 Local Newspapers
America has lost 3,500 local newspapers since 2005, leaving more than 200 counties with no news coverage at all. The result is measurable: $1.1 billion in higher annual borrowing costs, more corruption, lower voter turnout, and now Congress has cut the last public backstop keeping local journalism alive. Read more...
Employers Steal $50 Billion a Year From Workers. The Cops Just Left the Beat.
Employers Steal $50 Billion a Year From Workers. The Cops Just Left the Beat.
Employers steal an estimated $50 billion a year from workers' paychecks. The Trump DOL just slashed its enforcement staff to a 50-year low while closing 97 percent fewer wage theft... Read more...
The Grocery Store Knows What You Will Pay Before You Walk In
The Grocery Store Knows What You Will Pay Before You Walk In
Grocery prices are 25.6% higher than they were in 2020, and the companies selling you food are now earning more profit per dollar of revenue than at any point in... Read more...
The Retirement Math That Congress Refuses to Fix
The Retirement Math That Congress Refuses to Fix
On June 9, 2026, the Social Security Board of Trustees released its annual report and confirmed what budget analysts had been warning for months: the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance trust... Read more...
Congress Scrapped $35 Billion in Clean Energy and Put 760,000 Jobs at Risk
Congress Scrapped $35 Billion in Clean Energy and Put 760,000 Jobs at Risk
The OBBBA killed 60% of IRA clean energy credits. In 2025 alone, $34.8B in investments were canceled and 38,000 jobs lost. By 2030, 760,000 more are projected gone, and household... Read more...
Big Pharma Hiked 872 Drug Prices While Congress Handed It a New Escape Hatch
Big Pharma Hiked 872 Drug Prices While Congress Handed It a New Escape Hatch
Medicare drug price negotiation saved $6 billion in its first year, but pharma raised 872 prices in January 2026, and the Big Beautiful Bill just exempted blockbuster drugs worth $40... Read more...
Trump Is Now Coming for Legal Citizens' Passports
Trump Is Now Coming for Legal Citizens' Passports
Trump's DOJ filed its largest-ever denaturalization campaign Monday, targeting 17 naturalized U.S. citizens. Civil rights lawyers warn the precedent threatens all 23 million naturalized Americans. Read more...
Trump Promised Cheaper Childcare. Then He Froze $2.4 Billion of It.
Trump Promised Cheaper Childcare. Then He Froze $2.4 Billion of It.
American families pay an average $14,760 per year for infant care, nearly triple the federal affordability threshold. Trump promised relief, then froze $2.4 billion in childcare funding. Read more...
One Hundred Million Medical Debtors, and Congress Just Voted to Add More
One Hundred Million Medical Debtors, and Congress Just Voted to Add More
America's 100 million medical debtors owe $220 billion while paying the world's highest healthcare costs per person. Then Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill, cutting Medicaid for an estimated... Read more...
4.3 Million Americans Lost Food Assistance. Congress Calls That a Success.
4.3 Million Americans Lost Food Assistance. Congress Calls That a Success.
Congress just enacted the largest SNAP cut in history, removing 4.3 million Americans from food assistance. With 47.9 million already food insecure, food banks cannot fill the gap. Read more...
America Paid for Fiber. Trump Gave the Money to Musk's Satellite Company.
America Paid for Fiber. Trump Gave the Money to Musk's Satellite Company.
Congress funded $42 billion to bring fiber broadband to 22 million Americans. Trump's team overhauled the program mid-deployment, stripped the low-cost requirement, and opened the door for Elon Musk's Starlink... Read more...
He Said He Called All the Shots. Netanyahu Fired Anyway.
He Said He Called All the Shots. Netanyahu Fired Anyway.
Less than two weeks ago, Donald Trump told the Financial Times that he personally dictated the terms of the Iran war. "I call the shots," he said. "I call all... Read more...
When the Ref Is Paid by Management, Workers Cannot Win
When the Ref Is Paid by Management, Workers Cannot Win
In 2025, union membership in the U.S. hit 10.0 percent, half the 1983 rate. That decline is the result of $1.5 billion a year in employer union-avoidance spending and a... Read more...
Four Corporations Control Your Groceries. The Merger Wave Just Got Bigger.
Four Corporations Control Your Groceries. The Merger Wave Just Got Bigger.
Four corporations control nearly 70% of U.S. groceries. Five insurers cover half the country. Four airlines run 80% of flights. And in 2025, federal antitrust enforcers cleared $2.3 trillion in... Read more...
The Tax Code Has a $20 Trillion Secret, and You Are Paying for It
The Tax Code Has a $20 Trillion Secret, and You Are Paying for It
The 25 wealthiest Americans watched their collective fortune grow by $401 billion between 2014 and 2018. On that $401 billion in gains, they paid a federal true tax rate of... Read more...
After Decades of Broken Promises, Rent Has Eaten the American Paycheck
After Decades of Broken Promises, Rent Has Eaten the American Paycheck
A new Harvard report finds 22.7 million renter households are cost-burdened, a record high, while the federal minimum wage has not been raised in 17 years and the White House... Read more...
The Supreme Court Just Dismantled the Last Guardrail on Racial Gerrymandering
The Supreme Court Just Dismantled the Last Guardrail on Racial Gerrymandering
On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court's six conservative justices did something the architects of Jim Crow never quite managed: they made it constitutionally difficult to remedy racial vote dilution... Read more...
America Cut Overdose Deaths by 27%. The Medicaid Cuts Are Set to Reverse It.
America Cut Overdose Deaths by 27%. The Medicaid Cuts Are Set to Reverse It.
In May 2025, the CDC reported something rare in American public health: a genuine, large-scale win. Drug overdose deaths fell 26.9% in 2024, from 110,037 to an estimated 80,391. Opioid... Read more...
Rural America Is Losing Its Hospitals. The New Reconciliation Law Made It Worse.
Rural America Is Losing Its Hospitals. The New Reconciliation Law Made It Worse.
In 2023, the average rural hospital in America operated on a 3.1 percent margin. Nearly half of them ran at a loss. Now Congress has enacted a law that strips... Read more...
The Student Loan Trap Resets on July 1
The Student Loan Trap Resets on July 1
On July 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill rewrites student loan rules for 45 million borrowers: taxable forgiveness, loan caps pushing grad students to private lenders, and a default cliff... Read more...
Seventeen Years at $7.25: The Federal Minimum Wage Is a National Scandal
Seventeen Years at $7.25: The Federal Minimum Wage Is a National Scandal
The federal minimum wage has been frozen at $7.25 since July 2009, a 17-year stretch that is the longest in American history. Full-time workers earn $15,080 a year, barely above... Read more...
The U.S. Charges More for Infant Care Than In-State College. Then It Froze the Subsidies.
The U.S. Charges More for Infant Care Than In-State College. Then It Froze the Subsidies.
The average family in the United States spends $14,760 a year on center-based infant care, nearly three times what the federal government defines as affordable. In 28 states, that annual... Read more...
America's $163 Trillion in Wealth: Baby Boomers Claimed Half While Millennials and Gen Z Share 10%
America's $163 Trillion in Wealth: Baby Boomers Claimed Half While Millennials and Gen Z Share 10%
Baby Boomers hold $83.3 trillion, 51% of all U.S. household wealth. Millennials and Gen Z share $17.1 trillion, about 10%. Here is why the gap is a policy story, not... Read more...
Three Tax Rates: Billionaires at 3.4%, Workers at 14%, 88 Corporations at Zero
Three Tax Rates: Billionaires at 3.4%, Workers at 14%, 88 Corporations at Zero
In 2025, 88 profitable American corporations earned a combined $105 billion in pretax profits and paid zero in federal income taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.... Read more...
Gig Workers Lose Up to $26,000 a Year in Benefits. The Trump DOL Just Made It Easier.
Gig Workers Lose Up to $26,000 a Year in Benefits. The Trump DOL Just Made It Easier.
There are 70 million Americans working in the gig economy, driving for Uber, delivering for DoorDash, cleaning for TaskRabbit, and the vast majority are classified as independent contractors rather than... Read more...
The Same Pill Costs 2.78 Times More in America. Congress Just Made It Worse.
The Same Pill Costs 2.78 Times More in America. Congress Just Made It Worse.
Americans pay 2.78 times more for the same prescription drugs than any peer nation. Medicare negotiation was working. Then Congress gave pharma a $5 billion loophole and called it a... Read more...
Corporations Made Record Profits While You Paid More for Less
Corporations Made Record Profits While You Paid More for Less
Corporate profits drove 53 percent of inflation in 2023, per Groundwork Collaborative. BEA data shows U.S. corporations collected $4 trillion in 2024. Shrinkflation hit coffee and cereal hardest. Read more...
Half of Americans Have Nothing Saved for Retirement. The 401(k) Experiment Failed Them.
Half of Americans Have Nothing Saved for Retirement. The 401(k) Experiment Failed Them.
Only 15% of private-industry workers have access to a defined benefit pension. The median 401(k) balance is less than a new car. One in three Americans has no retirement assets... Read more...
A 26.9% Teacher Pay Penalty and 411,000 Empty Classrooms. Then Congress Cut the Budget.
A 26.9% Teacher Pay Penalty and 411,000 Empty Classrooms. Then Congress Cut the Budget.
Teachers earned 73 cents for every dollar paid to other college graduates in 2024. More than 400,000 positions are empty. Congress just proposed a 26% cut to the program that... Read more...
America Jails 457,000 People Before Trial. Most Can't Afford Bail.
America Jails 457,000 People Before Trial. Most Can't Afford Bail.
On any given day, 457,000 Americans sit in local jails awaiting trial, not because they're dangerous, but because they can't afford bail. Taxpayers spend $13.6 billion a year detaining legally... Read more...
Social Security's Depletion Date Just Moved to 2032. That Means a 23% Automatic Cut.
Social Security's Depletion Date Just Moved to 2032. That Means a 23% Automatic Cut.
The CBO moved Social Security's depletion date to 2032. At that point, a 23 percent automatic cut hits every check. 71 million Americans need Congress to act before 2032. Read more...
Congress Cut $187 Billion From Food Stamps While 47.9 Million Americans Face Hunger
Congress Cut $187 Billion From Food Stamps While 47.9 Million Americans Face Hunger
Congress cut $187 billion from SNAP while 47.9 million Americans already face hunger. Work requirements now reach age 64, and enrollment has fallen 3.5 million people in just seven months. Read more...
The U.S. Lost 649 Mothers to Childbirth in 2024. Every Peer Nation Has Done Better.
The U.S. Lost 649 Mothers to Childbirth in 2024. Every Peer Nation Has Done Better.
649 American women died from childbirth complications in 2024. The U.S. maternal mortality rate is the worst in the developed world. Medicaid, the safety net covering 41 percent of births,... Read more...
America Has 771,480 People Sleeping Outside and a 4 Million Home Shortage
America Has 771,480 People Sleeping Outside and a 4 Million Home Shortage
On a single night in January 2024, 771,480 Americans were sleeping in a shelter, a tent, or a car. That is the highest number ever recorded by the Department of... Read more...
The U.S. Is the Only Rich Country Where 1 in 4 New Moms Goes Back to Work Within 2 Weeks
The U.S. Is the Only Rich Country Where 1 in 4 New Moms Goes Back to Work Within 2 Weeks
Of 38 OECD countries, 37 guarantee paid family leave. The U.S. is the lone holdout, and 1 in 4 American mothers returns to work within two weeks of giving birth. Read more...
50 Million Americans Live in a Local News Desert. The Crisis Just Hit a Record High.
50 Million Americans Live in a Local News Desert. The Crisis Just Hit a Record High.
There are 213 U.S. counties with no local news source at all and 1,524 with only one. 50 million Americans live with limited or no access to local journalism. The... Read more...
$220 Billion in Medical Debt. A Texas Court Just Put It Back on Credit Reports.
$220 Billion in Medical Debt. A Texas Court Just Put It Back on Credit Reports.
Twenty million Americans owe $220 billion in unpaid medical bills. On July 11, 2025, a Texas federal judge vacated the CFPB rule that would have removed those bills from the... Read more...
Americans Owe $1.84 Trillion in Student Debt
Americans Owe $1.84 Trillion in Student Debt
U.S. student loan debt reached $1.84 trillion across 42.8 million federal borrowers in 2026. Research ties it to delayed homeownership and lower retirement saving. A look at the structural fix. Read more...
America Paid $115 Billion for Climate Disasters in 2025
America Paid $115 Billion for Climate Disasters in 2025
In 2025 the U.S. recorded 23 separate billion-dollar weather disasters totaling $115 billion in damage and 276 deaths. Meanwhile $22 billion in clean-energy projects were canceled. Climate policy, by the... Read more...
Private Sector Union Membership Is at 5.9 Percent. It Was 35 Percent in the 1950s.
Private Sector Union Membership Is at 5.9 Percent. It Was 35 Percent in the 1950s.
Private-sector union membership hit 5.9 percent in 2025, the lowest rate on record. In the 1950s, one in three Americans belonged to a union. Union members earn $230 more per... Read more...
The CBO Scored the Big Beautiful Bill: Top 10% Gain $13,600. Bottom 10% Lose $1,200.
The CBO Scored the Big Beautiful Bill: Top 10% Gain $13,600. Bottom 10% Lose $1,200.
The CBO scored the Big Beautiful Bill: the top 10% gain $13,600/yr while the bottom 10% lose $1,200. Medicaid cut $863B, SNAP cut $295B. 10 million people lose health coverage. Read more...
Trump's Energy Rollback Will Cost Households $192 More a Year and Kill 840,000 Jobs
Trump's Energy Rollback Will Cost Households $192 More a Year and Kill 840,000 Jobs
The One Big Beautiful Bill, signed July 4, 2025, is projected to increase household energy bills by up to $192 a year, slash clean power capacity by 57-62%, and put... Read more...
42 Million Borrowers Owe $1.84 Trillion. The New Repayment Plan Tripled Their Monthly Bill.
42 Million Borrowers Owe $1.84 Trillion. The New Repayment Plan Tripled Their Monthly Bill.
Americans owe $1.84 trillion in student debt across 42.8 million borrowers. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill killed the most affordable repayment plan, tripling monthly payments for low-income borrowers. Read more...
Median First-Time Buyers Are Now 40 Years Old. In 1991, They Were 28.
Median First-Time Buyers Are Now 40 Years Old. In 1991, They Were 28.
In 1991, the median first-time homebuyer was 28 years old. Today that number is 40. Three in four American households cannot afford the median home. The crisis compounds with every... Read more...
America Pays $14,775 Per Person for Healthcare. A Third of Adults Can't Afford to Get Sick.
America Pays $14,775 Per Person for Healthcare. A Third of Adults Can't Afford to Get Sick.
The U.S. spends $14,775 per person on healthcare, more than any nation on earth. Over 100 million Americans have medical debt. Congress is now cutting $900 billion from Medicaid. Every... Read more...
Google Controls 90% of Search. A Judge Ordered Behavioral Fixes.
Google Controls 90% of Search. A Judge Ordered Behavioral Fixes.
A court confirmed Google runs an illegal search monopoly. The remedy left the monopoly intact. Corporate profits hit $3.4 trillion in Q3 2025. The enforcement gap is real and getting... Read more...
Corporate Monopolies Turned American Grocery Aisles Into an Extraction Machine
Corporate Monopolies Turned American Grocery Aisles Into an Extraction Machine
Four corporations control 80 percent of America's beef market. Corporate profits rose five times faster than inflation from 2020 to 2022. Forty years of merger approvals explain your grocery bill. Read more...
In Germany, Childcare Costs $1,425 a Year. In the U.S., It Averages $14,760.
In Germany, Childcare Costs $1,425 a Year. In the U.S., It Averages $14,760.
Childcare in the U.S. averages $14,760 a year for one infant. In Germany it's $1,425. No state meets the federal definition of affordable. Here's what the policy gap costs. Read more...
American Prescription Drug Prices Are 2.78 Times Higher Than in Other Rich Countries
American Prescription Drug Prices Are 2.78 Times Higher Than in Other Rich Countries
U.S. drug prices are 2.78 times higher than in other rich nations, per RAND. Medicare was banned from negotiating for 20 years. The IRA changed that. The Big Beautiful Bill... Read more...
$7.25 for 17 Years: The Longest Federal Minimum Wage Freeze in American History
$7.25 for 17 Years: The Longest Federal Minimum Wage Freeze in American History
The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009, the longest freeze in FLSA history. Inflation has cut its real value by 30%. The Raise the Wage Act of 2025... Read more...