Published May 13, 2025
Many Republican members of Congress have been leery of cuts to Medicaid, afraid of being tarred by Democratic attack ads. The recently released House Energy and Commerce Committee draft proposals should help them rest more easily because they avoid the classic Republican mistake: appearing to care more about saving money than saving lives.
Democrats have accused the GOP of being cruel to the average citizen since the Great Depression. President Herbert Hoover resisted direct federal aid to the unemployed, arguing it would cost too much and irretrievably damage “the American system” of government.
Hoover might have been right in theory, but when 25% of workers were without a job and the economy continued to worsen, voters were in no mood to put theory ahead of help.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
