Newswise — EVANSTON, Ill. --- Benjamin Page is the Gordon Scott Fulcher Professor of Decision Making (political science) in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. His research interests include public opinion and policy making, the mass media, empirical democratic theory, political economy, policy formation, the presidency and American foreign policy. He is the co-author of the recent book “Democracy in America? What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It” (University of Chicago Press, 2017) with Martin Gilens. He can be reached at [email protected].

Quote from Professor Page
“The current immigration flap, initiated, perhaps strategically, by President Trump and his minions, is mostly a smokescreen designed to conceal the GOP drive to cut social programs. Instead, he’s hoping to blame Democrats for shutting down the government for the sake of ‘open borders.’ Clever. This will not fool many people, but it will make life miserable for Democratic senators in deep red states, many up for reelection.  

“Big GOP donors care most about tax cuts, which they just got. But they care nearly as much about spending cuts, so that taxes will not come back by popular demand and bite them. Immigration they are either indifferent about or more often favor, to get low-cost foreign labor. And nearly all Americans, except Stephen Miller et al, want to help the Dreamers, even (Sen.) Lindsey Graham.”

Dr. Matthew Davis is the head of academic general pediatrics and primary care at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital. He can be reached at 312-227-6844 or [email protected].

Quote from Dr. Davis
“CHIP is an extraordinarily successful program shared by states and the federal government that has helped pay for health care for many millions of U.S. children over the last 20 years. CHIP has been very successful in providing coverage and has been cost-efficient as a government program. So it is only natural that CHIP has strong support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“In allowing CHIP funding to expire, Congress is jeopardizing a lifeline to health care coverage for many millions of U.S. children. Kids with CHIP are just like other kids: They need doctors when they are well to help them stay healthy. They also need doctors when they are sick to get the best diagnosis and treatment they can. If CHIP is not renewed, millions of American children will be left without coverage and without their lifeline to affordable and timely health care.”

Ben Harris is a visiting associate professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and was formerly the chief economist to Vice President Joe Biden. He can be reached at [email protected] or by contacting Molly Lynch at 773-505-9719 or [email protected].

Quote from Professor Harris
“Government shutdowns are costly to taxpayers, inconvenient to citizens and an unnecessary source of uncertainty in financial markets. An inability to keep the government open and running represents a failure by Congress to fulfill one of its most basic duties, and is an unambiguous loss for Americans.”

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