Jacob Hacker

Kamala Harris had a great health care idea in 2019: encourage Americans to buy into a revamped Medicare program that would provide the choice of public or private coverage (aka the public option). She should embrace it in 2024. My latest in @nytopinion: nytimes.com/2024/08/14/opi…

My take on Trump's illegal invasion of Venezuela, from Isaac Chotiner, of the @NewYorker: newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/t…

Anyway, please read it, and huge thanks to my brilliant coauthors and@apsrjournal.bsky.social. 5/5

Perhaps most striking, we find an inverse relationship between a state's Black population share and how well represented Black constituents are by Senators -- the opposite of expectations. This seems to reflect white racial resentment in these states. 4/5

Is national policy more responsive to the preferences of white Americans than to those of people of color? When Republicans control the federal government, yes. White voters are more likely to see bills they support become law than are Black, Latino, or Asian American voters. 1/5

6/ The key is organized efforts focused on getting and keeping the unpopular parts of the bill -- especially the Medicaid cuts -- on the agenda and mobilizing voters against them. While this will be harder today than in 2017-18, our survey suggests voters will be VERY receptive.

5/ But big unpopular policies can break through -- even without going into effect. Think the failed ACA repeal and replace effort in 2017, which devastated Republicans in 2018. And our survey shows Senators who voted for this bill are vulnerable:

Republicans' hugely unpopular bill is law; will they pay the electoral price for it they should? My research with @sullosaurus for @equitablegrowth has good news and bad news. The good: voters informed about the bill's effects overwhelmingly oppose it. equitablegrowth.org/americans-info…

“Legislation speaks louder than words.” Excellent analysis by @Jacob_S_Hacker & @sullosaurus of the bill before the Senate today that is “the most regressive, least populist policy package in memory.” It’s terrible on tax equity, heath care & hunger.

Why are Republicans working nights on a holiday week to ram thru an unvetted bill? Maybe b/c the more American people learn abt the bill, particularly the lopsided costs & benefits, the less they like it. Even true among Rs' own voters. h/t @Jacob_S_Hacker @equitablegrowth

As the House moves to reconcile its dreadful bill with the Senate’s even more onerous “Big Beautiful Bill,” we speak with Patrick Sullivan about his NYT article with @Jacob_S_Hacker, “How Awful Is the Republican Megabill? Here Are Four of the Worst Parts.” on.soundcloud.com/hyUwAByY67pqkd…

I said he should do my graphics in the future; now I’m thinking he should also do all my TV appearances!

@JustinWolfers discussing how unbelievably unpopular the Big Beautiful Bill becomes among REPUBLICANS when you show them how much it takes from ordinary Americans to pad the pockets of the rich, based on the survey @sullosaurus and I did. Grateful he’s spreading the word!

What does the public think of the GOP's One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and how does providing information on its regressivity affect attitudes towards it? @Jacob_S_Hacker and I explored this in a working paper published today at @equitablegrowth equitablegrowth.org/working-papers…

In the first of our two reports published today at @equitablegrowth, @Jacob_S_Hacker and I unpack the elements of Republican’s historically regressive One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). equitablegrowth.org/congressional-…

I’m excited to share a guest essay co-authored with @Jacob_S_Hacker which was published today with the @nytimes, as well as two reports we published at @equitablegrowth on Republican’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” nytimes.com/2025/06/25/opi…