How a Health Care Safety Net for the Poor Became California’s Top Priority

Medi-Cal’s Rapid Expansion Is a Triumph—And an Opportunity

Welcome, Californians, to the era of Medi-Cal for All.

“Medicare for All,” the political dream of extending federal health program for the elderly and disabled to all Americans, still gets the headlines. But here in the nation’s most populous state, it is Medicaid—or Medi-Cal, as the federal health program for the poor is called in California—that comes closest to providing a universal safety net. Medi-Cal deserves more attention now because its no-or-low-cost health services provide a vital backstop in this time of pandemic and freefalling employment, and because it holds possibilities …

Will Donald Trump Be America’s First ‘Post-Imperial’ President?

As the U.S. Declines and China Rises, Its Chief Executive Will Have to Accept a Loss of Privilege and Status

In a forthcoming book, I argue that the United States has been an empire ever since its birth as an independent country, that the empire ceased to be based on …

My Hometown’s Rush to Honor Obama Says More About Us Than Him

We're Fawning Over the Outgoing President—But the Feeling Isn't Mutual

I recently learned that, in the second grade, I was part of presidential history.

Every morning during the 1980-1981 school year, I walked the five blocks between my family’s home in …

Obama’s Unsung Legacy in the War on Income Inequality

As Clinton and Trump Try to Out-Populist Each Other, the Obama Administration Gets No Credit for Its Impressive Efforts to Boost Economic Equality

You’d never know, from this year’s presidential campaign rhetoric, that anyone in Washington has been paying any attention to economic inequality. Donald Trump has hijacked the Republican Party with his …

Stay Out of California, Chicago!

When It Comes to Respecting Golden State Institutions, the Windy City Keeps Blowing It

Dear Chicago,

Would you kindly remove your thick, stubby hands from my beautiful state?

C’mon—don’t try to look all Midwestern and innocent. You know exactly what I’m talking about. For years Chicago …

How Latin America’s Left Could Lose Their Scapegoat

Will Obama’s Trip to Cuba and Argentina Be the Nail in the Coffin for the Region’s Tired Anti-American Script?

Barack Obama took a deserved victory lap in Latin America last week.

Critics of the president’s opening to Cuba accuse Obama of appeasing the Castro regime, but they missed the historic …