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Does anyone really know Ronald Reagan?

In his new book The Working Class Republican, a bracingly revisionist account of the 40th president, Henry Olsen answers no. One of the most astute political analysts at work today and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Olsen argues that Reagans politics bear the distinctive stamp of his origins as a New Deal Democrat.

Olsens interpretation of what he calls Reagans New Deal conservatism is open to dispute. But he undoubtedly is correct that contemporary conservative politicians do Reagan and themselves a disservice by remembering him as an unremitting ideologue and tactical maximalist.

As late as 1980, Reagan had still been a Democrat longer than he had been a Republican. As he put it, characteristically, in his 1984 acceptance speech, Did I leave the Democratic Party, or did the leadership of that party leave not just me but millions of patriotic Democrats who believed in the principles and philosophy of that platform?

With an eye to these sorts of voters throughout his career and with a sensibility attuned to their concerns, Reagan didnt simply replicate the let-it-all-hang-out, high-octane conservatism of Barry Goldwater.

He never contested the idea that there should be a safety net. In his famous speech promoting Goldwaters candidacy in 1964, Reagan stipulated, Were for a provision that destitution should not follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end we have accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the problem.

He promoted his program not as a function of conservative purity, but of sturdy common sense. Theres no such thing as a left or a right, he said in that same 1964 speech, theres only an up or down.

He extolled the common man, the forgotten American, and his innate dignity. In his first inaugural address, Reagan hailed the men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when were sick professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers.

He didnt support tax cuts for the rich so much as tax cuts for everyone, and didnt obsess over entrepreneurship. According to Olsen, Reagan mentioned the word entrepreneur only once in all of his major campaign and presidential speeches on the economy between November 1979 and the passage of the tax-cut bill in July 1981.

He had a pragmatic cast. In his campaign for governor of California, he noted that public officials are elected primarily for one purpose to solve public problems.

He never let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough for a working politician. Hostile to taxes, he raised them as governor of California in response to a budget crisis, and as president as part of a Social Security deal. A free-trader, he brushed back the Japanese on trade.

Reagans tone and program, coupled with his generational talent as a politician, allowed him to unlock the working-class vote in his races for governor and president. The Reagan Democrat has been part of our political vocabulary ever since.

President Trump is a very different man and politician, but it is telling how not having learned the purported lessons of Reagan he was able to go and get these voters in a way that Republican politicians bound by Reaganite truisms were not.

All that said, Reagan was hardly a friend of the welfare state. He said the ultimate source of the New Deal was Mussolinis fascism. His foundational 1964 speech attacked farm programs, government planning, welfare, the size and power of bureaucracy and regulations that have cost us many of our constitutional safeguards. He called for adding voluntary features to Social Security, and for electing Barry Goldwater to stop the advance of socialism.

Reagan was a constitutional conservative, although an exceptionally gifted one who understood how to meet Americans where they live. In this important book, Henry Olsen reminds us how.

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The Reagan that today's Republicans have forgotten - New York Post

Sen. Bernie Sanders pointed the finger squarely at Republicans for kicking up a federal probe into allegations his wife fraudulently obtained a loan for the Vermont college she once led, saying Sunday the Republican National Committee is very excited about the controversy.

The interview marked the 2016 presidential candidates latest effort to downplay the FBI investigation, which reportedly is looking at whether Jane Sanders committed fraud to get a $10 million loan for a Burlington College expansion.

Asked on CNNs State of the Union about the case, Sen. Sanders quickly pointed out how the allegations first surfaced.

I know this will shock the viewers -- the vice-chairman of the Vermont Republican Party who happened to be Donald Trump's campaign manager raised this issue and initiated this investigation, he said. I think what you're looking at is something that [the] Republican National Committee is very excited about.

SANDERS PANS PROBE, BUT ALLEGATIONS ARE SERIOUS

The Vermont independent senator adamantly denied that he or his staff ever reached out to the bank in question to approve any loans related to the transaction and defended his wife.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and embraces his wife Jane on stage during a rally in Vallejo, California, May 18, 2016. (REUTERS/Stephen Lam)

My wife is perhaps the most honest person I know. She did a great job in Burlington College, Sanders said. Sadly we are in a moment where parties not only attack public officials, they have to go after wives and children. You know, this is pathetic and that's the way politics is in America today.

The comments track with others the senator made last week dismissing the probe as a pathetic and political attack.

The Republican Sanders referred to in his CNN interview was Brady Toensing, a former Donald Trump presidential campaign official who wrote the original complaint. The complaint, however, raised numerous red flags about the application that might not be so easily ignored, including the sources she listed as proof of the school's ability to repay.

The loan was arranged by Sanders wife when she was president of the now-closed college to acquire 33 acres of lakefront property to improve and expand the small, non-traditional school.

People close to the couple, including Sanders' presidential campaign manager Jeff Weaver, have confirmed that the independent senator and his wife each have retained a lawyer in connection with the case.

Jane Sanders, college president from 2004-2011, structured the loan deal in two parts -- a $6.5 million loan from Peoples United Bank to buy tax-exempt bonds issued by a state agency that signed off on the deal and a $3.65 million second mortgage from the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Burlington.

To secure the money, Sanders submitted a spreadsheet that attempted to show the school had $2.4 million in confirmed pledges, grants and other funds to repay the debt.

The document -- obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and listed as exhibit B in the original complaint -- showed the money would come from 40 separate entries.

However, each entry was denoted only by initials, under such categories as friends or faculty and staff and with no additional documentation, according to the complaint filed to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.s office of the inspector general.

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Sanders blames Republicans for FBI probe of wife - Fox News

Rank-and-file Republicans are far more willing to blame the GOP-led Congress for their partys lack of progress, not President Trump.

NEW YORK In firm control of the federal government, President Trump and his Republican Party have so far failed to deliver on core campaign promises on health care, taxes, and infrastructure. But in New Yorks Trump Tower cafe, the Gentry family blames Congress, not the president.

Like many Trump voters across America, the Alabama couple, vacationing last week with their three children, says they are deeply frustrated with the presidents GOP allies, faulting them for derailing Trumps plans. As the family of five lunched in Trump Tower, Sheila Gentry offered a pointed message to those concerned with the GOPs ability to govern five months into the Trump presidency.

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Shut up. Get on board. And lets give President Trump the benefit of the doubt. It takes a while, said the 46-year-old nursing educator from Section, Ala.

They just need a good whoopin, said her husband, Travis Gentry, a 48-year-old engineer, likening congressional infighting to unruly kids in the back seat of the car.

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Your afternoon shot of politics, sent straight from the desk of Joshua Miller.

As Washington Republicans decry Trumps latest round of Twitter attacks, Republicans on the ground from New York to Louisiana to Iowa continue to stand by the president and his unorthodox leadership style. For now at least, rank-and-file Republicans are far more willing to blame the GOP-led Congress for their partys lack of progress, sending an early warning sign as the GOP looks to preserve its House and Senate majorities in next years midterm elections.

Inside and outside the Beltway surrounding the nations capital, Republicans worry their party could pay a steep political price unless they show significant progress on their years-long promise to repeal and replace Democrat Barack Obamas health care law. Even more disturbing, some say, is the Republican Partys nascent struggle to overhaul the nations tax system, never mind Trumps unfulfilled vows to repair roads and bridges across America and build a massive border wall.

Its a problem for Republicans, who were put in place to fix this stuff. If you cant fix it, I need someone who can, said Ernie Rudolph, a 72-year-old cybersecurity executive from suburban Des Moines, Iowa.

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There is no easy path forward for the Republican Party.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that health care legislation backed by House and Senate Republican leaders and favored by Trump would ultimately leave more than 20 million additional Americans without health care, while enacting deep cuts to Medicaid and other programs that address the opioid epidemic. In some cases, the plans would most hurt Trumps most passionate supporters.

Just 17 percent of Americans support the Senates health care plan, according to a poll released last week, making it one of the least popular major legislative proposals in history.

The president on Friday injected new uncertainty into the debate by urging congressional Republicans simply to repeal Obamas health care law immediately while crafting a replacement plan later, which would leave tens of millions of Americans without health care with no clear solution.

That shift came a day after several Republicans in Congress condemned Trumps personal Twitter attack against MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, which was viewed across Washington as an unwanted distraction in the midst of a sensitive policy debate.

Trumps nationwide approval rating hovered below 40 percent in Gallups weekly tracking survey, even before the tweet. At the same time, just one in four voters approve of Republicans in Congress, Quinnipiac University found.

Democrats, meanwhile, report sustained energy on the ground in swing districts where Republicans face tough re-election challenges. Democrats need to flip 24 seats to win the House majority next fall, a goal that operatives in both parties see as increasingly possible as the GOP struggles to govern.

A former Obama administration national security aide, Andy Kim, is among a large class of fresh Democratic recruits.

People are fired up, said Kim, whos challenging Representative Tom MacArthur of New Jersey. Its not just about the health care bill. Its not just about Trump. ... Theyre concerned about the ability of this government to put together any credible legislation going forward.

Republicans are also concerned.

In Iowas Adair County, GOP county chairman Ryan Frederick fears that Republican voters will begin to lose confidence in their partys plans for taxes, infrastructure, and immigration should the health care overhaul fail.

Everyone I know looks at trying to get Obamacare repealed and says, If were making this much of a pigs breakfast out of that, what are we going to do with tax reform? Frederick said.

Weve dreamed of killing Obamacare for seven years. And we have the House, the Senate and the presidency, and we cant do it? Whats the deal, guys?

Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere bemoans factionalism in his party. Intraparty divisions are holding up health care, he says, which in turn keeps the GOP-led government from tackling other priorities.

Hes looking to Trump for leadership.

Hes the ultimate negotiator, Villere said. Well see how good he is.

Back in Trump Tower, Sheila Gentry conceded that Trumps tweets sometimes make her cringe, but she still has confidence in her president. She cant say the same for congressional Republicans.

The Republicans who are in there now that arent being very supportive, theyre going to find themselves without a job soon if they dont step it up, she said.

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Republican voters blame Congress, not Trump, for stalemate - The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON

In many ways it seems so simple: Go to a doctor; find out what is wrong, and get a prescription. No bills, no arguments with an insurance company.

As Republicans struggle to devise an alternative to the 2010 health law known as Obamacare, progressives are turning once again to the simplicity of a government-operated, single-payer health care system in which everyone can see a doctor and nobody faces ruinous out-of-pocket costs.

But critics including some analysts and every conservative on the planet say a single-payer health care system is as it seems: too good to be true.

This is Lucy and the football, quipped Thomas Miller, a resident fellow and health care specialist at the Washington-based non-profit American Enterprise Institute. The closer you get, the harder it is to kick it.

Many progressives embraced single-payer last year as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, touted its merits during his presidential run.

Sanders was in Columbus last week making some of those same points.

After we defeat this disastrous Republican health plan, he declared, our job is to go forward and pass Medicare-for-all single-payer system. If every other major country on earth can do it, surely this country can do it as well.

Sanders is hardly alone among progressives. The California state senate last month approved a single-payer model while 112 Democrats in the U.S. House have co-sponsored a single-payer plan financed by taxes instead of premiums, out-of-pocket expenses, and co-pays charged by insurance companies and hospitals.

Most people would be paying less than they are paying now and they would get better health care, said Gerald Friedman, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who helped design the single-payer plan Sanders promoted last year.

Its a win-win win except if youre a drug company or an insurance company or a hospital, Friedman said.

But Republicans and some analysts dont see it as a win-win. They cite Sanders home state of Vermont, which dropped efforts in 2014 to install a single-payer system after state lawmakers discovered how high they would have to raise taxes.

Critics also note that while the California state senate approved a single-payer plan, the state assembly shelved the idea when the cost was estimated at $200 billion a year.

Vermont is a highly instructive as a case example because the governor and the legislature were so determined to do it, said John E. McDonough, a professor of public health practice at the Harvard School of Public Health. They gave it everything they had and couldnt make it work.

Health care around the world

Supporters of single-payer tend to cite the Canadian Medicare system as the ideal, but there are a wide variety of systems where governments play a role in health care.

In Canada, taxes finance about 71 percent of all health costs and all Canadians are covered. A patient does not pay to see a physician, and the doctor bills the province for the fee.

According to the Commonwealth Fund, a foundation in New York City that analyzes health-care systems throughout the world, more than 60 percent of Canadians also buy private insurance to pay for services not covered by the government, such as vision and dental care and prescription drugs.

Great Britain offers a much more socialized system based on taxes financing a comprehensive system of free physician care and public hospitals. They run the health system like the town of Amherst runs its fire department: Its paid for and if you need it, you use it, Friedman said.

Most industrialized nations such as Canada, Great Britain, Germany and Australia spend less than 12 percent of gross domestic product on health care, while the United States spends 17 percent, according to the Commonwealth Fund. Other industrialized nations also have longer life expectancy and lower rates of infant mortality than the United States.

During his appearance last weekend before 2,200 people in Columbus, Sanders said he lives 50 miles away from Canada; they manage to provide health care to all their people. Go to Germany, go to the U.K., go to Scandinavia, go to France. Every major country understands that in a civilized society, health care must be a right for all people.

Yet most Americans have never warmed to a national health insurance system. In a statewide ballot campaign in California in 1994, less than 27 percent of voters supported adoption of a single-payer system. A similar statewide ballot issue in 2002 in Oregon won the support of just 21.5 percent of the voters.

Although Friedman argues Americans would save money by paying taxes instead of health costs, Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University in Atlanta, said Friedman is not even close to being right.

Last year Thorpe, a former Clinton administration official, calculated that Sanders single-payer plan would require the federal government to raise nearly $14 trillion in new revenue during a 10-year-span.

We would need a Value Added Tax for single-payer; youre not going to do that through the income tax, said AEIs Miller. This is make-believe land.

Some results better in U.S.

In determining why America is less healthy than many other countries, the nations obesity rate cant be ignored.

Canada and Great Britain both have obesity rates around 25 percent, or one in four people. Japan is in single digits. Countries like Sweden and Denmark are at 11.7 and 14.2 percent, while the U.S. was 35.3 percent, according to the latest data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The quality of care differs greatly by country, but the American health care system does fare better in some categories.

On sophisticated care, such as cancer treatments, the U.S. system produces substantially better results without the waiting times that plague the Canadian and British systems. The Commonwealth Fund concluded that between 1995 and 2007, cancer mortality rates in the U.S. plummeted at a faster rate than any other major country.

I think if you look at the countries that spend less than us and have better outcomes there are two reasons, said Thorpe. One is they have a better primary care system And second they integrate better and spend more on social services, housing and things like that.

At the specialty level we do very well on different types of cancer and cancer treatments and mortality rates.

Marion Renault of the Columbus Dispatch contributed to this story.

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Progressives tout single-payer as health care alternative - Dayton Daily News

With four Maryland progressive groups holding major events in different parts of the state last weekend, activists had to make tough choices about which activity to attend or rush from one to the other.

Trying to avoid the same problem, another group is rethinking plans to hold a forum for gubernatorial candidates on Sept.9, the day a different coalition of activists is scheduled to march on Washington for racial justice.

The scores of left-leaning organizations that have cropped up since the 2016 election often trip over each other as leaders try to harness a groundswell of opposition to President Trump and Gov. Larry Hogan (R) in a way that could impact the states 2018 election.

In addition to scheduling problems, they have clashed over issues as basic as whether to endorse a candidate early in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, or wait until all the hopefuls have had a chance to campaign.

There always seems to be some kind of conflict, said Betsy Halsey, who chairs United for Maryland, which had proposed the Sept.9 forum. She hastened to add that she thinks the proliferation of groups is good for the progressive movement, and that efforts are underway to improve coordination.

Bob Muehlenkamp, a longtime activist who chairs Our Revolution Maryland, said the leaders of many emerging groups are new to political activity and are strategizing as they go along.

Theyve been very effective with various resistance activities since Trump was elected, but thats not enough, he said. You cant have an effective state legislative program or political program with these groups functioning on their own.

[Our Revolution Md. moves to endorse Jealous for governor]

The Maryland groups are part of a vocal and visible wave of activism that has swept the country since the 2016 election cycle. Progressive organizations fueled the upstart presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and turned the selection of a Democratic National Committee chair after the election into a battle between the partys left and centrist elements. But progressives ultimately lost both battles, with the nomination of Democrat Hillary Clinton and the selection of establishment favorite Tom Perez for DNC chair.

It remains to be seen whether progressive groups in Maryland will succeed in nominating one of their own to challenge Hogan in 2018, or will be able to achieve their other goals of pushing the party to the left in Annapolis and denting the governors sky-high approval ratings.

Im not sure yet how this will play out in the Democratic primary for governor, but I think it means going into the general election that there will be a lot of energy and activity, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

When progressive and resistance groups have formed a united front, they have often made an impact. For example, several joined forces this year to successfully fight a Baltimore County Council measure that would have required local correctional officers to participate in a federal program to carry out certain immigration-enforcement measures.

Many activist leaders say collaboration will be key to replicating that kind of success in the midterm elections.

We have to demonstrate and write letters to elected representatives, but that has to be backed up by then working on elections, supporting candidates that meet our ideology and even recruiting candidates, said Sheila Ruth, of the Baltimore County Progressive Democrats. In order to do that, we have to work together. Theres a lot at stake here not only the Trump-Republican thing we have to resist, but we want to go beyond that and start to work toward progressive priorities.

Kathleen Matthews, who was tapped by party elders this year to chair the Maryland Democratic Party, has made a point of reaching out to progressives, inviting activists to participate in voter-outreach training sessions and giving Ruth a seat on the organizations diversity leadership council.

Matthews said she sees progressive groups becoming more and more organized despite their disparate efforts.

I see them as rocket fuel to help us move forward our efforts, she said. They have a lot of passion and determination and are working with us in many parts of the state.

State Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), who has said he will run for governor in 2018 and is courting the progressive vote , said he sees some value in the chaos, as long as the groups are generally pointed in the same direction.

People are bringing their own activism and issues and enthusiasm to the table, he said. Its organic, its exciting, and Id hate for any part of that to be lost because there is a sense that we all have to coalesce around certain issues.

[At least two Democrats seek progressive mantle in Md. governors race]

Similarly, Georgetown University history professor Michael Kazin, who specializes in U.S. politics and social movements, said that movements are messy but tend to succeed because people agree in general what direction to move.

For their part, Maryland Republicans say they are not particularly concerned about the surge in activism, and are focused on their quest to win enough seats in the state Senate to disrupt the Democrats veto-proof majority.

Anger is not a strategy, said state GOP chair Dirk Haire. Were pretty unified, and Ive been working closely with all of our various Republican groups across the state to make sure everyone is on the same page. Republicans arent sitting around in a salon in Takoma Park talking about how bad Trump is. Theyre walking the streets with an app on their phones, figuring out who might vote for us next year.

With just under a year until the Democratic primary, progressive groups disagree over whether and when to endorse one of the candidates vying for the right to challenge Trump.

Some want to hold off until candidates have participated in debates and proven that they can appeal broadly to an electorate, while others plan to endorse early, in part out of concern that the states Democratic leaders move quickly to help centrist candidates win the partys nomination.

We have to make the decision earlier and unite around one candidate and bring in all the resources the money and the people behind them, said Muehlenkamp, of Our Revolution, which on Friday started canvassing its supporters about endorsing Jealous, a former board member. You wont get the establishment Democratic Party to hold off. Theyll get together and quietly come up with whoever theyre going to support.

Groups associated with the Indivisible movement and Women Indivisible Strong Effective, say that endorsing a gubernatorial candidate could hurt their cause in conservative-leaning districts. Their leaders said they will focus instead on educating voters about the voting records of incumbents and where candidates stand on the issues.

If we go issue by issue, theres a lot more room for consensus, said Katherine Bain, a member of the steering committee for WISEs Severna Park chapter. We want to create a wealth of information for people and hopefully avoid this habit of people marking an entire column for either the Ds or the Rs.

Together We Will , which hosted a June24 meeting with progressive leaders from across the state, is working to organize a follow-up session this fall, with the goal of coordinating strategies for the states 2018 legislative session and primary elections.

Additionally, a coalition of activists organizing as the progressive caucus plans to meet July26 to discuss how to better coordinate their efforts.

Theres room for different strategies, Bain said. And well see at the end of the day if that adds up to more progressive candidates winning elections.

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Maryland progressive groups learn that 'movements are messy ... - Washington Post