Policy Soup stir the pot ALPHA

Caption contest for this photo. I’ll start: “I have failed you, sir.”

And they deserve the truth, whether some want it told or not.

My latest Substack, “Inside Our Recent Attempts to Conduct ICE Oversight,” lays out what I’ve seen firsthand: cruelty packaged as policy, sold as strength, and defended with falsehoods. The American people deserve better. substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Caption contest for this photo. I’ll start: “I have failed you, sir.”

Which is it? One year Trump promises affordability, the next he calls it a “Democrat scam." You can’t take responsibility for fixing the problem and deny it exists at the same time. If affordability is a scam, Trump's the guy scamming.

Rick Scott releases Obamacare subsidy alternative

On top of that, the proposal weakens consumer protections and makes it easier for insurers to raise deductibles and copays. This bill raises costs, reduces protections, and revives coverage that collapses when families need it most. Hard pass. www.politico.com/live-updates...

His approach would create Trump Freedom Accounts for states that choose to get a waiver.

They also expand junk plans that skip pre-existing conditions, mental health care, maternity care, and prescription drugs. These plans are inexpensive only until the moment someone needs actual medical care. Then the bills arrive.

The bill ends the ACA tax credits that have kept premiums down for millions of people. When those credits disappear, premiums go up. That is simple math. Yet the authors ask everyone to believe that raising monthly costs somehow creates affordability.

The Republican authors of the so-called “More Affordable Care Act” seem to have named it before they read it.

You cannot crusade against cartels while freeing a foreign leader convicted of helping traffickers ship cocaine straight “to the gringos noses.” That pardon blows apart any claim of seriousness and exposes the rhetoric as political theater, not a real effort to protect American communities.

How can you claim to be tough on drugs when you pardon narcoterrorists? It makes no sense.

Column | The glaring ‘hypocrisy’ behind Trump’s war on drugs

A president who claims to be tough on crime and drugs let him walk. There is no legal, moral, or strategic defense for this. It’s a blatant abuse of the pardon power and further evidence that we need a constitutional amendment to finally limit it. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

The Trump administration’s pardon of convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernández raises questions about its war on “narcoterrorism.”

Trump’s pardon of the former Honduran president is completely indefensible. This was a leader convicted of helping move tons of cocaine into the U.S. who even bragged that traffickers would “shove the drugs right up the gringos’ noses.”

Reposted byMike Levin

Attacking Drug Boats: Bending or Breaking the Law?

Treating drug cartels like invading armies is legally baseless and has produced unlawful results. “This is not bending the law, it is breaking it.” A must-read piece for those who care about the integrity of U.S. military power and the limits that keep our government accountable.

U.S. attacks on alleged narcotics trafficking boats continue unabated with little apparent concern for near-unanimous legal condemnation. The Trump

Attacking Drug Boats: Bending or Breaking the Law?

U.S. attacks on alleged narcotics trafficking boats continue unabated with little apparent concern for near-unanimous legal condemnation. The Trump

“Affordability” isn’t a hoax. It’s a word with an actual meaning, and none of it matches the higher prices, higher energy costs, and stalled wages families have faced since January. #TrumpsAffordabilityCrisis

When even Newsmax’s legal analyst says your order was a war crime, you’ve got a problem. Pete Hegseth must resign and face a real investigation.

Reposted byMike Levin

The Trump Administration says its recent military strikes near Venezuela are about stopping drug traffickers, but what’s really driving this? Reporting shows Venezuela isn’t a major source of drugs entering our country. 🧵

Reposted byMike Levin

The White House has used a level of force that looks nothing like a normal counter-drug mission. So what’s actually going on? Here’s a big hint. Venezuela has the largest proven oil reserves in the entire world.