'Some bad ideas just won't die'

'You can't deny birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants without denying it to all children born here'

Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune

Ending birthright citizenship is a "harebrained" idea, says Steve Chapman in the Chicago Tribune. It's a "far-right obsession" that has made its way into the Republican mainstream, aiming to "penalize children born on U.S. soil to immigrants who are here illegally." It's "grievously wrong in principle" and "would be a hot mess in practice." It would take an "army" of bureaucrats to determine which babies born here are children of citizens, and which aren't.

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'Incentives influence behavior'

The Washington Post editorial board

Americans "are dying earlier and earlier than people in the rest of the world," says The Washington Post editorial board. The drop started after "life expectancy peaked at 78.9 years in 2014," and accelerated during the pandemic. Fixing this "life-and-death problem" will require addressing our "deepest rooted issues." A good place to start is with warnings and "incentives to promote better health," like making "processed food and drinks full of high-fructose corn syrup" pricier.

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'Taxpayers, look out'

The Wall Street Journal editorial board

The "pandemic money boom" is ending, says The Wall Street Journal in an editorial, and taxpayers in progressive states are in for a rude awakening. Republican-run states, including Florida and Georgia, spent their windfalls on public works, while blue states like California and New York used pandemic transfers to "bake into their budget new spending obligations" like higher pay for government workers. Now they're facing shortfalls, and the lost pandemic cash exceeds wage and business income growth.

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'Housing should be treated as the human right it is'

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor in The Nation

Rents skyrocketed from 2021 to 2022, says Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor in The Nation, with the monthly cost of one- and two-bedroom apartments jumping 24%. That far out-paced wage and salary gains earned for ordinary workers, deepening a "housing insecurity" crisis that affects millions. There is something wrong with our economic system when people, even if they're fully employed, can't afford something as basic to "human survival" as shelter. Housing is a "human right," not a commodity.

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