Kevin Drum 🕸

I was noodling around on the KFF site this morning and came across their most recent tracking poll about Obamacare. I was surprised to see how popular it's become: Obamacare has been through a lot: passage by a single vote, endless attempts to repeal it, and multiple Supreme Court challenges that nearly cratered it. Somehow, ...continue reading "America finally loves Obamacare"

Wisteria hanging from a covered walkway at the Huntington Library.

A couple of months ago it looked like GDP growth had slowed down a lot, clocking in at an anemic 1.1% in the first quarter. Then it was revised upward to 1.3%. Then, today, it was revised upward yet again: BEA now says that Q1 growth was 2.0%. That's not barnburning, but it's respectable. GDI ...continue reading "Economic growth is better than you think"

In a ruling that surprised precisely no one, the Supreme Court killed off affirmative action in university admissions today: Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it. And the Equal Protection Clause, we have accordingly held, applies “without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality”—it is “universal in [its] application.” ....The ...continue reading "Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action for good"

I might as well get this over with. Until a couple of weeks ago I was responding beautifully to the CAR-T treatment, with my cancer load dropping smoothly toward zero. Then it all stopped, with my M-protein level stalled at 0.34: This is a "partial response," and for all practical purposes it means the treatment ...continue reading "Health update"

According to the Society of Family Planning, the abortion rate nationwide has dropped 3.3% since last year's Dobbs decision. Here are the states where the abortion rate went up and down the most: Texas went from nearly 3,000 abortions per month to zero. Florida, where abortion bans remain mired in court, saw an increase because ...continue reading "Raw data: Abortion has dropped 3% since Dobbs"

Jeez, another reasonable decision: States can’t use the federal courts to try to force the federal government to arrest and deport more people who are in the country illegally, the Supreme Court ruled Friday. The 8-1 decision could cut down on a flood of lawsuits recent administrations have faced from state attorneys general and governors ...continue reading "Supreme Court tells Texas to pound sand over immigration"

The "smart Trump" speaks: Question: Are you in favor of eliminating any agencies? DeSantis: We would do education, commerce, energy, and the IRS. If Congress won’t go that far, I’m going to use those agencies to push back against woke ideology… pic.twitter.com/cAoZIXfESu — Acyn (@Acyn) June 28, 2023 Eliminating cabinet departments is the last refuge ...continue reading "Ron DeSantis wants to dismantle the US nuclear weapon program"

This is the ornate, Beaux-Arts style Alexander III Bridge crossing the Seine in Paris. I was strolling around early when I took this and caught it just as the morning sun was shining directly on the winged horses at the top of the pedestals. The Grand Palais is in the background.

When you look at some sort of domestic trend or other, it's often helpful to look also at the rest of the world. This was one of the things that tipped me off about the connection between lead and crime, for example. Everyone knew that crime in the US had dropped during the '90s, and ...continue reading "Inflation around the world"

I've long argued that it takes about a year for Fed interest rate hikes to slow down the economy and affect inflation. This means that Fed hikes have had little impact so far, but will start to have one over the coming year. Jason Furman reviews the evidence and he isn't buying it: In sum, ...continue reading "Have Fed hikes already brought down inflation all they can?"

I think I may have been wrong about something. Over the weekend I wrote a couple of posts about Mississippi's "reading miracle." I looked things over and decided the evidence pointed toward genuine improvement following a 2013 reform that emphasized phonics instruction. Before the reforms Mississippi's white kids scored nine points below the national average ...continue reading "UPDATE: Mississippi reading isn’t so miraculous after all"

Over at the American Prospect, David Dayen argues that Democrats need to deliver the goods if we want people to vote for us. That is, we need to adopt a deliberate and sustained policy of "deliverism." The problem is that we think too small. Take Obamacare, for example: First, the goal of Obamacare was to ...continue reading "Democrats need to deliver. But what?"

Old and new. The top photo is a picture of a Los Angeles metro tunnel on the Red Line—completely modern and bored smoothly into a circle barely larger than the trains themselves. The bottom photo is a Paris metro tunnel on Line 12. It's old and gigantic, and the stations are so close together you ...continue reading "Lunchtime Photo"

Here's a bunch of new housing information for you today. First up, supply of new single-family homes is down but demand is up: This should mean a bump in selling prices, but not really: The mean (average) price of a new home is down -1.8% from last month while the median price ticked up 3.3%. ...continue reading "Raw data: Home sales in the United States"

Once again this term, the Supreme Court has backed away from madness: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the theory that state legislatures have almost unlimited power to decide the rules for federal elections and draw partisan congressional maps without interference from state courts. ....The “independent state legislature theory” holds that the U.S. Constitution gives ...continue reading "Supreme Court strikes down chaos in election rules"

A few days ago Rep. Lauren Boebert introduced a resolution to impeach President Joe Biden. Because why not? But that's not all. For months Republicans have also been threatening to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, because they don't like his border policies. Now it's Attorney General Merrick Garland's turn inside the house-of-mirrors ...continue reading "Let’s impeach everyone!"

Looking west on Interstate 10 from Indio during late afternoon.

A group of scholars at American Compass has taken on the theme “We want to thrive, not just survive.” That is, they think American families should actively do well and live enjoyable lives, not just barely get along: The breakdown in American capitalism over the past half-century is most apparent in its failure to deliver ...continue reading "Living on a single income in modern America"

In the long annals of legislative resentment and bullshit, this story is a doozy: Sen. Joe Manchin has been at war with the administration for months over its implementation of last year’s landmark climate law. He is even accusing President Joe Biden of breaking a promise to him. “They’re going to try to screw me,” ...continue reading "Why is Joe Manchin so mad at Joe Biden?"