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Podcast: How the budget mess in Congress hurts all of us

Podcast: How the budget mess in Congress hurts all of us

This year the federal government is expected to collect more than $3.5 trillion in taxes— a vast amount of money by any measure. One of the key functions of Congress is to pass a budget. But often that seems close to impossible.


Lack of agreement over federal spending regularly threatens to bring about government shutdowns that have a negative impact on millions of Americans. Yet few of us can even begin to understand the byzantine budget process.
Both of our guests in this episode have worked with other policy experts to make the budget process function better, with greater efficiency and transparency.



Alison Acosta Winters is a fiscal conservative and was most recently a senior policy fellow at Americans for Prosperity. Emily Holubowich is vice president for federal advocacy at the American Heart Association, and often supports more government spending.


Brought together by Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, Alison, Emily and other stakeholders from diverse backgrounds spent months working together to come up with several major proposals for overhauling the budget process.

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Making America’s Children Healthy Requires Addressing Deep-Rooted Health Disparities

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Making America’s Children Healthy Requires Addressing Deep-Rooted Health Disparities

In early September, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission released a 19-page strategy to improve children’s health and reverse the epidemic of chronic diseases. The document, a follow-up to MAHA’s first report in May, paints a dire picture of American children’s health: poor diets, toxic chemical exposures, chronic stress, and overmedicalization are some of the key drivers now affecting millions of young people.

Few would dispute that children should spend less time online, exercise more, and eat fewer ultra-processed foods. But child experts say that the strategy reduces a systemic crisis to personal action and fails to confront the structural inequities that shape which children can realistically adopt healthier behaviors. After all, in 2024, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine updated Unequal Treatment, a report that clearly highlights the major drivers of health disparities.

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Accountability Abandoned: A Betrayal of Promises Made
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Accountability Abandoned: A Betrayal of Promises Made

Eleven months ago, Donald Trump promised Americans that he would “immediately bring prices down” on his first day in office. Instead, the Big Beautiful Bill delivered tax cuts for the wealthy, cuts to food benefits, limits on Medicare coverage, restrictions on child care, and reduced student aid — all documented in comprehensive analyses of the law. Congress’s vote was not just partisan — it was a betrayal of promises made to the people.

Not only did Congress’s votes betray nurses, but the harm extended to teachers, caregivers, seniors, working parents, and families struggling to make ends meet. In casting those votes, lawmakers showed a lack of courage to hold themselves accountable to the people. This was not leadership; it was betrayal — the ultimate abandonment of the people they swore to serve.

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Pro-Trump protestors
Trump supporters who attempted to overturn the 2020 election results are now seeking influential election oversight roles in battleground states.
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Loving Someone Who Thinks the Election Was Stolen

He’s the kind of man you’d want as a neighbor in a storm.

Big guy. Strong hands. The person you’d call if your car slid into a ditch. He lives rural, works hard, supports a wife and young son, and helps care for his aging mom. Life has not been easy, but he shows up anyway.

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