“As the fight against ISIS has demonstrated, if al-Qaida is to be defeated, we must redouble our efforts to track down and degrade al-Qaida’s channels of communication, recruitment and finance. It is time to look beyond the threats that ISIS poses and focus once again on al-Qaida before it is too late,” writes Andrew Byers, a visiting assistant professor of history, and a colleague.
Read More in The HillCategory: Trump Administration
An FDA Drug Voucher Program Needs A Reboot
Professors David Ridley (Fuqua School) and Jeffrey Moe (Global Health) write about Congress updating the laws governing prescription drugs this summer, including changes to a program designed to spur drug development for neglected diseases like dengue, Ebola, Zika and river blindness. “Unfortunately,” they write, “the fix as written to the FDA Reauthorization Act does too little to help the millions of people at risk for these diseases.”
Read More in The Hill
Why The State Department’s Human Trafficking Report Matters
“The State Department has released its annual Trafficking in Persons report on human trafficking. The big headline was that China was downgraded to Tier 3, the lowest ranking, suggesting that the Trump administration had decided to rebuke China by grouping it with the likes of Syria, Iran and North Korea,” writes Judith Kelley, public policy and political science professor and a senior associate dean at the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Read More in The Washington Post
What is the Far-Right’s Endgame?
Historian Nancy MacLean, author of an intellectual biography of James McGill Buchanan, explains how this little-known libertarian’s work is influencing modern-day politics. “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America” examines Buchanan’s vision that MacLean says has become a playbook for a network of people looking to override democracy in order to shift more money to the wealthiest few.
Read More in Slate
Debunking Republicans’ Main Argument For Obamacare Repeal
“Honestly, the marketplaces are in OK shape,” says David Anderson, a research associate at the Margolis Center for Health Policy who studies the individual market. “The amount of competition isn’t where some people would like it to be, but this isn’t collapse.”
Read More in Vox
Obamacare Gave Me Peace of Mind the AHCA Would Take Away
“I know what it’s like to be unable to see a doctor for even serious injuries. I know what it’s like to constantly hope that you are not sick or injured because the costs would simply be too high. Those are stresses the American Health Care Act will force on millions of Americans – stresses that no American deserves,” writes Ashley Arnold, a master’s student in public policy.
Read More in The News & Observer
Trump’s Faith In Military Does Not a Strategy Make
After five months in office, President Trump has still not articulated a strategy for the conflicts. That’s a greater cause for concern than how he chooses to delegate to a military for which he remains ultimately responsible, says political scientist Peter Feaver. “They haven’t figured out what their strategy is going to be, so there’s a cart-before-the-horse aspect,” says Feaver.
Read More in TIME
U.S. Climate Policy in the Trump Administration
In a newly released policy brief, law professor Jonathan Wiener, Kenan Institute for Ethics’ Rethinking Regulation co-director, provides context on the complex web of climate change policy, written for the Climate Economics Chair in Paris. Wiener’s essay covers a range of topics related to U.S. climate policies in the wake of President Trump’s decision to withdraw the country from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Read More at Kenan Institute
Senate Republicans Plan Even Harsher Cuts To Medicaid Than House GOP
The Senate is contemplating a change in Medicaid that would cut it even more than the $830-billion proposed by the House, according to a proposal leaked from an Obamacare repeal bill. Lowering the growth rate of Medicaid is “a massive cut of future growth,” says health insurance expert David Anderson, a researcher at the Margolis Center for Health Policy.
Read More in The Los Angeles Times
The Hardest Part of Trump’s National Security Strategy to Write
Sometime this year, the Trump administration intends to release the legislatively mandated National Security Strategy (NSS). “… The very act of drafting the NSS serves as a (modest) disciplining device on an administration, obliging the team to confront hard truths about previous policy statements and efforts,” writes political scientist Peter Feaver. “Which brings me to the question I have been pondering for quite a while: how hard will it be for President Trump’s team to draft such an NSS? The answer I keep coming to is: pretty hard.”
Read More in Foreign Policy
Is Trump ‘Disrupting’ His Own Foreign-Policy Team?
“What’s unusual here is that the Trump team is facing this significant diplomatic challenge before they’ve got their roster on board,” says political scientist Peter Feaver. “It’s like attempting to do a difficult synchronized swimming maneuver, with half the team not yet in their bathing suits and others not even named to the team yet.”
Read More in The Christian Science Monitor
Can Sessions Discuss Conversations With President Trump?
“In terms of the law of executive privilege, it belongs to the president, and he has not asserted it. General Sessions sought to preserve the president’s ability to assert it, but that is not how it works,” says law professor Lisa Kern Griffin. “… The president could have instructed him not to answer any questions about their conversations because of executive privilege. That, apparently, did not happen, and no privilege was asserted.”
Read More in Vox
