- 38% now say they follow it some of the time, up from 31% in 2016.
- 18% say they follow it only now and then,compared with 12% in 2016.
Meanwhile, the share who say they hardly ever follow the news has been relatively stable (7% in 2025, 5% in 2016)…People in every age group are less likely now than in 2016 to say they follow the news all or most of the time. But older Americans remain more likely than younger adults to do so…For example, 62% of adults 65 and older now say they follow the news all or most of the time. That’s down 13 percentage points since 2016…For instance, 57% of Republicans and independents who lean Republican said they followed the news all or most of the time in 2016. In 2025, 36% say the same – a decrease of 21 percentage points. By comparison, the share of Democrats and Democratic leaners who closely follow the news has dropped by 10 points, from 49% to 39%.”
In “Donald Trump: Union Buster: Trump’s second term in office has seen an all-out assault on organized labor,” Lawrence S. Wittner reports on a topic at Truthdig that has ben much-overlooked in the MSM, and writes: “Although President Donald Trump has claimed that “every policy” of his administration was “designed to lift up the American worker,” he has acted consistently, since returning to office in January, to undermine workers’ chosen representatives, America’s labor unions…The most flagrant Trump action along these lines occurred in March, when he issued an executive order that terminated collective bargaining rights for more than one million federal government employees. This measure, the largest single union-busting action in American history, ended union representation and protections for 1 out of 14 unionized workers in the United States…Trump’s anti-union campaign dovetailed with his efforts to terminate the employment of hundreds of thousands of federal workers, many of them union members. Federal workers, Trump claimed, are “destroying this country,” and are “crooked” and “dishonest.” “Many of them,” he said, “don’t work at all.”…To supervise his massive purge of public employees, Trump chose Elon Musk ― the world’s wealthiest individual and largest donor to his presidential campaign ― to direct a mysterious Department of Government Efficiency. Delighted with the job, Musk declared, without any evidence, that there were “people on the government payroll who are dead” and others “who are not real people.” Addressing a conference of conservatives, the flamboyant multibillionaire charged that “waste is pretty much everywhere” and brandished an actual chain saw on stage while railing against what he called “bureaucracy.” More here.
“In early September, media outlets across the country reported alarming news for everyone on employer-based health insurance plans…A national survey of 1,700 businesses that offer health insurance to their workers found that 2026 will bring the steepest increases in their medical costs in 15 years—6.7 percent, on top of a 6 percent rise in 2025. They blame higher hospital and drug prices, greater demand for care, and other factors. According to the consulting firm Mercer, which conducted the survey, much of that burden will be foisted onto employees in the form of higher premiums taken out of their paychecks and higher co-pays and deductibles when hospitalized, seeing a doctor, or filling a prescription…This pain is hitting at a time when most Americans are struggling financially, and “affordability” is dominating political debate. President Donald Trump’s poll numbers are sinking because voters feel he has betrayed his campaign promise to bring down living costs. Democrats, meanwhile, swept off-year elections by laser-focusing on that vulnerability….The failure of both parties to offer voters a specific plan for dealing with rising employer-provided health care costs is hard to fathom. After all, 70 percent of working-age Americans get their health insurance from their employers, compared to 10 percent from Medicaid and under 5 percent from Obamacare…Just as rising electric bills turned out to be the sleeper concern of voters in the 2025 off-year elections, so might higher employer-provided health care costs in the 2026 midterms. It would be political malpractice if Democrats did not offer the 165 million Americans with employer-provided coverage real relief from costs that are eating away at their paychecks and standard of living…First, the plan would place a reasonable cap on the percentage of income any individual or family must pay for health care annually, regardless of whether or how they are insured. This will radically reduce the financial toxicity visited on many insured persons when they get sick, and the scourge of new medical debt heaped on the un- and underinsured… Second, the plan would require health care providers to charge the same price for the same service, regardless of a patient’s insurance status. This will save the system hundreds of billions of dollars annually by reducing administrative expenses and by bringing down the grossly inflated prices providers charge patients with employer-provided coverage—currently two and a half times what they charge Medicare…Finally, the plan would put all hospitals on a budget—a move that would end insurers’ prior authorization schemes and incentivize providers to keep people well and deliver the most effective and efficient care when they get sick.” More at “For Democrats, a New Way to Make Health Care Affordable: Most working Americans have employer-provided health coverage, and costs are out of control. Here’s a plan to save money, put checks in their pockets, and give Democrats a winning issue” by Merrill Goozner at Wasshington Monthly.
