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The Goodman Institute Health Blog

Category: Merrill Matthews

The age of big-spending Republicans is here

Posted on September 1, 2026 by Merrill Matthews

It may be hard for the Gen Z crowd to accept, but there was a time when Republicans in Congress believed in fiscal responsibility — restraining government spending and working to limit federal debt. Sadly, all most Gen Zers have ever known is big-spending Republicans.

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Three cheers for trying to end birth tourism

Posted on August 26, 2026 by Merrill Matthews

President Trump has issued an executive order trying to limit or stop the practice of “birth tourism.” Many commentators, politicians and the media tend to conflate birth tourism with “birthright citizenship,” which may be understandable since Trump often rails against both practices in the same breath. But they are not the same.

Under the Fourteenth Amendment, birthright citizenship holds that those born on U.S. soil are, with certain limited exceptions, U.S. citizens whether their parents are in the country legally or not.

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Trump’s tariffs are his biggest policy failure

Posted on August 18, 2026 by Merrill Matthews

After a stinging but widely expected loss at the U.S. Supreme Court, President Trump pressed his enablers to search, once again, for some law he could use to justify imposing new tariff rates on dozens of countries, both friends and foes alike. Yet no Trump policy has been a bigger economic and political failure than his tariffs, alienating other countries, harming U.S. businesses and, most importantly, enraging American voters.

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Can a democratic socialist candidate truthfully take the oath of office?

Posted on August 11, 2026 by Merrill Matthews

The Democratic Socialists of America have been cheering their recent electoral successes — and more may be coming. Their hope is that if they can win enough elections, they will have a chance to implement their radical agenda. The problem is that their recently adopted political platform is contrary to key provisions of the U.S. Constitution. This means that no committed democratic socialist can truthfully take the oath of office.

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For many years, our health care blog was the only free enterprise health policy blog on the internet. Then, when the NCPA closed its doors, the health blog stopped as well.

During this five-year hiatus no one else has come forward to claim the space. So, my colleagues and I have decided to restart the blog in connection with the Goodman Institute. We invite you and others to use this forum to share your views.

John C. Goodman,

Visit www.goodmaninstitute.org

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