Will Treasury takeover bring a halt to the chaos? And why we try to stay apolitical on this site.
How the financial markets react to tariffs and the non-governmental US Treasury department take-over may be the only stop to the chaos affecting us and all those who depend on us.
Dear friends in women’s health:
I’ve been in women’s health all this life and likely others. We women make the vast majority of healthcare decisions for everyone in our nuclear and extended families: women’s health is public health. From either perspective, it’s challenging to stay politically independent. For example, last week Congress homed in on cutting Medicaid on the heels of a week of chaos in public health, including the volatile RFK hearings.
I fully support cutting our unsustainable federal deficit, but with surgical precision. Unfortunately, it’s far easier to just cut across the board with little thought or commitment to direction. Medicaid covers one in five Americans who simply cannot afford our private pay system, and pays for prenatal and birth care for 40% of our rapidly-disappearing US births. Congressional plans to cut those payments will absolutely raise our already-shameful maternal and infant death rates; we rank at the bottom of developed countries in both—and both are largely preventable.
I’ve very deliberately stayed away from politics on this site, even in the chaos of the last weeks. Thinking women can’t be reached rationally about health from a partisan perspective, and ranting doesn’t do anything but raise blood pressure in the in the short run. I’m focused on keeping Women Untamed independent and evidence-based, and very much appreciate your help doing that. Right now, it feels like a time of incredible chaos and the instinct is to react, too often partisan. The only good news, I believe, is that from a generations theory perspective, this chaos is actually where we have to be to determine who we are going to be in the future as a nation.
There are outstanding, experienced, thoughtful writers and journalists who can lend context to what’s happening right now. Increasingly, they are found on non-corporately owned forums like Substack. This weekend, we heard news about tariffs particularly on Canada, our long-time strong ally and trading partner. That’s front-stage. Back-stage is far more serious: six very young, inexperienced, non-government-employed allies of the richest man in the world took over the US Treasury payment system that controls our entire US annual budget of $6 trillion and contains the previously ultra-secured financial information of Americans and American businesses.
For much better context than you will find in today’s superficial headlines, here are three very strong, knowledgeable writers who understand far more about the implications than I do. These substantive posts are free; just click through on the bottom link if you hit a subscription page.
Feb 2 update from Letters from an American — Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor, Lincoln Republican, and accidentally the most successful independent journalist in America
My promise to you (which I echo) from Your Local Epidemiologist — internationally recognized public health expert Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, with a passion for making science accessible and readers in 126 countries
Follow the money: the financial markets are the only thing that can stop Trump’s reign of chaos (with interpretation of potential stock market reactions today) from The Bulwark — analysis and reporting on politics and culture in America. Home to Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller, Bill Kristol, Sam Stein and others. “No partisan loyalties. No tribal prejudices.”