Last week marked one year since President Trump returned to the White House with a mandate to reshape America’s future after four long years of the Biden administration’s failures.

Overnight, illegal crossings at the southern border were brought to a halt. DEI initiatives that picked winners and losers based on group identity were eliminated from the federal government. Lethality returned as the rightful marker of success in our nation’s military.

Despite holding a majority, Republicans in Congress have produced a historically low volume of legislation, leaving much of the Trump agenda uncodified and the deep state intact.

Under President Trump, Americans finally have leaders willing to put them first. But despite a record number of executive orders and a landmark reconciliation package that delivered the largest tax cut in American history, $140 billion for border security, and the elimination of the $200 tax stamp on National Firearms Act items, the job isn’t done yet.

Obamacare’s broken framework continues to get more expensive each year — both for taxpayers and enrollees. Young Americans remain priced out of the American dream, unable to afford a home. And despite holding a majority, Republicans in Congress have produced a historically low volume of legislation, leaving much of the Trump agenda uncodified and the deep state intact.

These challenges are precisely why Republicans were elected: to fix the mess Washington created. We cannot coast into November on “tax cuts,” nor can we pretend that the nation’s most urgent challenges will be solved through uncodified executive orders or rogue discharge petitions.

We need decisive action to address the crises facing the nation. We need to make the American dream affordable again. Congress needs the structure, discipline, and publicity of a new reconciliation bill that forces lawmakers to prioritize results and deliver tangible outcomes for the American people.

It’s time to go big or go home. Despite prediction markets giving Republicans a 76% chance of losing the majority in the House, many lawmakers don’t seem to care. Just last week, 81 Republicans joined Democrats to fund the National Endowment for Democracy — a rogue CIA cutout that fuels global censorship and domestic propaganda. Many of those same Republicans had praised the Department of Government Efficiency just months prior for freezing the NED’s funding.

Likewise, 46 Republicans joined Democrats to vote against defunding the office of federal district court judge James Boasberg, who repeatedly uses nationwide injunctions to override duly executed federal law and substitute his own radical policy preferences for those of the president.

A few short years ago, Democrats attempted to lock Trump in prison and throw away the keys.

Republicans, by contrast, can hardly muster the courage to dispense with a rogue judge.

Meanwhile, much of the work of the American people remains to be done. While the House has passed Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act twice, the Senate refuses to put it up for a vote on the floor.

On health care, members of the House Freedom Caucus have offered Americans an alternative to Obamacare’s failing architecture with market-based solutions that lower costs. Yet House moderates in our ranks, by contrast, have doubled down on stupid, joining Democrats to pass an extension of Biden’s $448 billion temporary COVID subsidies, which thankfully stalled in the Senate.

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Despite a good-faith effort from the administration on home ownership, Americans need more than solutions that subsidize demand. High interest rates, illegal immigration, and absurd capital gains taxes are crushing the market.

If Republicans don’t act now, we may not get the opportunity again. Democrats are on record clearly stating their intention to derail the administration with subpoenas and impeachments should they assume the majority in the House. We are a nation nearly $39 trillion in debt. Americans are sick of rhetoric and half measures.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was passed in July 2025. If, 12 months later, we can only offer the American people last year’s accomplishments, do we expect them to believe we are legislating on their behalf?

The Republican Study Committee recently released a strong blueprint for a new reconciliation bill. The legislation would put more homes on the market by eliminating capital gains taxes on sales to first-time buyers. It includes health care reforms that empower Americans to direct their health care dollars toward insurance plans that best meet their individual needs, rather than those of their employers. The proposal also cuts over $1.6 trillion in government spending, returning a semblance of fiscal responsibility to Congress.

Republicans were elected to enact Trump’s America First agenda, not to manage decline and finance the status quo. If members of Congress fail to seize this moment, they will have no one to blame but themselves when voters decide it’s time to send them home.

​House republicans, Gop, Domocrats, One big beautiful bill, Dhs, Ice, National debt, Democrats, Reconciliation bill, Opinion & analysis 

The FBI raided the Fulton County, Georgia, elections office on Wednesday as part of an apparent investigation into possible violations of federal laws related to the preservation of election records and intimidation or defrauding of voters.

Georgia Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were among the Democrats who rushed to condemn the raid, which took place just days after President Donald Trump stated that the 2020 U.S. presidential election “was a rigged election” and “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”

‘A US election can never, ever be rigged again.’

Although generally critical of the raid that Warnock suggested was a political errand “for a vengeful president,” some Democrats appeared particularly rattled by the presence of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

Referencing a Reuters photo placing Gabbard at the site of the search on Wednesday, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (D) asked, “Why is Tulsi Gabbard at an FBI raid on an election office in Fulton County?”

“Either Director Gabbard believes there was a legitimate foreign intelligence nexus — in which case she is in clear violation of her obligation under the law to keep the intelligence committees ‘fully and currently informed’ of relevant national security concerns,” continued Warner, “or she is once again demonstrating her utter lack of fitness for the office that she holds by injecting the nonpartisan intelligence community she is supposed to be leading into a domestic political stunt designed to legitimize conspiracy theories that undermine our democracy.”

Warner, who also shared a video of his corresponding meltdown, was hardly the only Democrat who panicked over the sight of Gabbard in Fulton County.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-Ct.) joined Warner in penning a letter to Gabbard on Thursday questioning her involvement in an apparent domestic law enforcement operation and demanding an explanation “given the politically fraught nature of elections for federal office.”

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Democrats’ vexation might have something to do with Gabbard’s proven efficacy in blowing up official narratives and exposing bad actors. Last year, for instance, she helped expose the origins of the Russia collusion hoax and corresponding “years-long coup” against Trump.

Evidently the administration’s attention has moved from the 2016 to the 2020 presidential election.

White House officials told the Wall Street Journal that Gabbard has spent months re-examining the supposed results of the 2020 election and looking for potential crimes. This investigation has involved scrutinizing voting machines, analyzing data from swing states, and looking at glaring discrepancies.

Gabbard is expected to prepare a report on her findings.

“President Trump and his entire team are committed to ensuring a U.S. election can never, ever be rigged again,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. “Director Gabbard is playing a key lead role in this important effort.”

ODNI press secretary Olivia Coleman told the Journal that Gabbard “has a vital role in identifying vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure and protecting against exploitation.”

“DNI Gabbard has and will continue to take actions within her authorities, alongside our interagency partners, to support ensuring the integrity of our election,” added Coleman.

Trump told reporters that Gabbard is “working very hard to try to keep the election safe, and she’s done a very good job.”

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​Election fraud, Election, 2020 election, Donald trump, Tulsi gabbard, Fulton county, Election integrity, Stop the steal, Odni, Warnock, Ossoff, Politics 

The Orange County Prosecutor’s office said a 23-year-old woman who fled to Mexico after decapitating her boyfriend was arrested and returned to the U.S.

On August 25, 55-year-old Enrique Gonzalez-Carbajal was found decapitated in the home belonging to Alyssa Marie Lira in Anaheim, California, on La Palma Avenue.

She was working as a stripper when she met Gonzalez-Carbajal and had been in a dating relationship until his death.

Anaheim homicide detectives named Lira as a suspect in Gonzalez-Carbajal’s death and determined that she had fled to Mexico.

KTLA-TV reported that she was working as a stripper when she met Gonzalez-Carbajal and had been in a dating relationship until his death.

U.S. law enforcement worked with Mexican officials to arrest Lira in Mexico on Jan. 22. She will be extradited to Orange County to face a felony count of murder and one felony enhancement of personally using a weapon.

If convicted on all counts, Lira faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

“Nothing, not time, not distance, nor foreign borders, will thwart our pursuit of justice, and Orange County law enforcement will continue to go the very ends of the earth to carry out our mission and hold criminals accountable for the heinous acts they commit,” reads a statement from Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.

RELATED: California man decapitated and mutilated his elderly parents and their dog inside mobile home, police say

“This investigation and prosecution are a testament to the tenacity and the dedication of the Anaheim Police Department, of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, and of our federal and international partners to identify a cold-blooded killer,” he added, “track her down in a foreign country, and bring her back to the United States to face the full weight of the law.”

Lira is scheduled to appear in court for arraignment on February 13. She is being held at the Orange County Jail.

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Americans seeking mental health or addiction treatment often encounter a system that claims to coordinate care but rarely delivers it quickly. As demand for behavioral health services rises, a basic question deserves a clear answer: Who actually controls behavioral health care in the U.S., and is that control helping or hurting patients in crisis?

When someone finally reaches out for help, he encounters waiting lists, paperwork, and network gaps that push him toward emergency care or no care at all.

Nevada offers a revealing case study. The state’s Department of Health and Human Services certifies programs and distributes federal grants. County and regional commissions convene advisory meetings to reflect local priorities. Medicaid sets reimbursement rates and payment timelines. Managed-care organizations impose prior authorizations that can delay or deny treatment. Each layer is designed to promote accountability. Together, they often produce delays.

The result is not a coordinated system but a fragmented patchwork of public agencies, insurers, and contractors. Federal funding arrives with compliance requirements that consume clinicians’ time. States enact parity laws to ensure mental health and substance abuse treatment is covered like other medical care. Legislatures debate how to curb investor influence over clinical decisions, insisting that licensed professionals — not financial managers — direct care.

These tensions are unfolding as Washington rethinks the structure of federal health policy. The proposed Administration for a Healthy America would consolidate agencies such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration into a single entity. Supporters promise efficiency; critics warn that consolidation could slow local responses.

At the state level, the policy picture is equally unsettled. In 2025, lawmakers across the country revised behavioral health statutes with competing priorities: workforce shortages, crisis response systems, parity enforcement, and the elimination of out-of-pocket costs. Some states strengthened insurance mandates. Others reconstructed governance and funding to regain control over fragmented delivery systems.

Federal policy choices loom over the whole picture. Potential Medicaid funding cuts and weaker enforcement of mental health parity threaten access as demand continues to rise. Proposed budget changes could reduce support for community mental health clinics, suicide prevention programs, and substance abuse treatment — services that are often the last line of defense before emergency rooms or jails.

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Technology adds another complication. States are beginning to regulate artificial intelligence in behavioral health, with some banning AI-driven psychotherapy outright and others exploring guardrails for diagnostic or treatment support tools. These debates reflect a larger concern: the potential for innovation to replace clinicians or create unregulated substitutes for human judgment.

What patients experience is the cumulative effect of misaligned authority. Financial power, regulatory oversight, and clinical delivery point in different directions. When someone finally reaches out for help, he encounters waiting lists, paperwork, and network gaps that push him toward emergency care or no care at all.

Reform should start with three principles. First, policymakers must reduce administrative burdens that trap providers in compliance while patients wait. Second, insurance reforms must deliver real parity in access — not just coverage on paper. Third, oversight should protect quality while allowing local systems to innovate and respond quickly to community needs.

Behavioral health care is not a niche service. It is a public safety imperative and a core function of a serious health system. Until policy shifts its focus from control to care, patients will continue to pay the price.

​Healthcare, Behavioral health, Bureaucracy, Addiction, Drug policy, Medical, Regulations, Opinion & analysis