September 5, 2025

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

Huge Support For President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again Overhaul Flips Health Politics On Its Head   

By Manzanita Miller    

President Donald Trump promised to secure the southern border, deport illegal aliens, place reciprocal tariffs on trading partners to level the playing field, and bring jobs home to American shores. He has made substantial progress on all these fronts, but an additional priority was his promise to focus on improving public health under the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement.  

The President promised to prioritize reducing rates of childhood disease, push for research into nutrition, and work with the food and agriculture industries to improve food quality. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under President Trump’s and Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s guidance, is already launching into action. In May it released the MAHA report exposing the root cause of childhood disease, and it is encouraging states to prioritize SNAP waivers that focus on healthy whole foods and phase out petroleum-based food dyes, among other initiatives.   

President Trump and MAHA’s root-cause approach to addressing health outcomes is very popular. According to a Sep. 2 The Economist/YouGov survey, a majority of Americans have a favorable view of the MAHA movement. Americans have a favorable view of MAHA by fifteen percentage points, with 46 percent of Americans holding a favorable view of MAHA while 31 percent hold an unfavorable view of the movement.  

HHS’s call to phase out synthetic dyes in American foods is extremely popular, with 80 percent of Americans supporting the practice, while 8 percent oppose it.   

Requiring nutrition education in K-12 is also extremely popular, with 85 percent of Americans favoring the proposal, while 6 percent oppose it.   

Even on allegedly controversial moves, such as making certain unhealthy foods like soda and candy ineligible under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program, Americans favor the policy by eight points, 48 percent to 40 percent. Democrats oppose the move by 33 points, in an odd show of support for childhood obesity.  

While President Trump’s MAHA movement may not be at the top of the list in terms of priorities for voters — inflation and jobs remain the top concerns — healthcare is often in the top three to five concerns for Americans in recent public opinion data.    

In the latest The Economist/YouGov survey, healthcare is the third most important issue to Americans out of fifteen issues including inflation, jobs, the border, taxes, foreign policy, climate change and crime. Nine percent of Americans say healthcare is their top priority, following 24 percent who say inflation is their top priority and 14 percent who say jobs and the economy are.   

The Trump Administration should be commended for addressing healthcare concerns that have persisted for decades, and that contribute to alarming cultural issues such as declining fertility rates. President Trump is doing exactly what conservatives need to do to continue to build out a solid base of support and serve the public at the same time.  

Making public health a priority is significant not only because the United States is facing a health crisis, but because politically, healthcare is one of only two top-level concerns that Democrats lead on in public opinion surveys (the other one is the environment). Republicans lead on the economy, the border, inflation, jobs, foreign policy, taxes, and crime in virtually all high-quality surveys. Democrats have traditionally held an edge on healthcare. With the modern Democratic Party’s approach to healthcare focused on denying medical reality and encouraging experimental medical procedures on children, public opinion could shift — and likely already is — on which party is better equipped to address public health.    

Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.  

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/09/huge-support-for-president-trumps-make-america-healthy-again-overhaul-flips-health-politics-on-its-head/  

As Unemployment Reaches 7.38 Million In August, Are We Getting Close To Peak Unemployment? 

By Robert Romano 

The unemployment level reached 7.38 million in August, 1.6 million above its January 2023 low and its highest point since October 2021, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, continuing a steady uptrend for more almost three years. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent, its highest level since November 2021. 

This is not unusual as the U.S. economy continues unwinding from the peak inflation that was seen in June 2022 at 9.1 percent under former President Joe Biden. Historically, on average, in the post-World War II era, moving from a low in unemployment to a high, usually during or after a recession correlating with periods of disinflation, typically takes about 21 months.  

In May 1948, unemployment was at a low of 2.1 million and by October 1949 peaked at 4.9 million, or 7.9 percent, taking 17 months to get there. 

In May 1953, unemployment’s low was at 1.59 million and by September 1954 it peaked at 3.9 million, or 6.1 percent, over 16 months. 

In March 1957, unemployment’s low was at 2.5 million and by July 1958 it peaked at almost 5.1 million, or 7.5 percent, over 16 months. 

In February 1960, unemployment’s low was at 3.3 million and by May 1961 it peaked at 5 million, or 7.1 percent, over 15 months. 

In December 1968, unemployment’s low was at 2.68 million and by December 1970 it peaked at 5 million, or 6.1 percent, over 24 months. 

In October 1973, unemployment’s low was at 4.1 million and by May 1975 it peaked at 8.4 million, or 9.0 percent, over 19 months. 

In May 1979, unemployment’s low was at 5.8 million and by July 1980 it peaked at 8.36 million, or 7.8 percent, over 14 months. 

In July 1981, unemployment’s low was at 7.86 million and by December 1982 it peaked at 12 million, or 10.8 percent, over 17 months. 

In March 1989, unemployment’s low was at 6.2 million and by June 1992 it peaked at 10 million, or 7.8 percent, over 39 months — the longest period of increasing unemployment in the postwar period. 

In April 2000, unemployment’s low was at 5.48 million and by June 2003 it peaked at 9.26 million, or 6.3 percent, over 38 months. 

In October 2006, unemployment’s low was at 6.27 million and by October 2009 it peaked at 15.35 million, or 10.0 percent, over 36 months. 

And in September 2019 and February 2020, unemployment’s low was at 5.7 million and by April 2020 it peaked at 23.08 million, or 14.8 percent, over 7 months. 

The end result of every single one of these cycles was a recession. 100 percent.  

For the current period, again, unemployment’s low was experienced January 2023 at 5.7 million and now has been increasing for 32 months to its current 7.38 million.  

In every recession in the postwar period, unemployment always got over 5 percent, and we’re not there yet. On the other hand, sometimes greater shifts in unemployment can come towards the end of these cycles, and so there’s still room for it to go higher.  

The good news for President Donald Trump and Republicans is that unemployment has been increasing for so long now that the uptick is bound to end sooner rather than later and that the overall unemployment rate, currently 4.3 percent, is historically low. But this too is unsurprising as about 900,000 Baby Boomers are leaving the labor force every single year as the retirement wave continues, fueling demand for more labor. 

In about six months we should have better clarity of where peak unemployment will be for this cycle, unless of course the current economy is determined to break the record for the longest slowly ripping off of the band-aid in history. The record is 39 months and we’re at 32 months now. Something’s got to give. Stay tuned. 

Robert Romano is the Executive Director at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.  

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/09/as-unemployment-reaches-7-38-million-in-august-are-we-getting-close-to-peak-unemployment/