How the biggest non-defense agency in government forgot the people it serves Let me talk with you about the part of the government that touches nearly every American life, and yet most people never see clearly. Health and Human Services. Medicare, Medicaid, childcare, food security, drug safety, pandemic response, tribal health. It is the largest non-defense agency there is, and it moves over one and a half trillion dollars a year. And still, for most folks, it doesn't feel l

Domestic Policy and Conditions Review — Week of 24 August 2026 Current through 0800 Eastern Time, 24 August 2026 | Inaugural Edition Note: International affairs are addressed in the companion Candidate’s Intelligence Brief, published the same morning. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The headline inflation rate as of July 2026 stands at 3.4% year-over-year, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI release of 12 August — down from 3.5% in June, driven largely by a 2.9% monthly decl

International Review — Week of 24 August 2026 Current through 0800Z, 24 August 2026 | Covering period since 0800Z, 17 August 2026 Sections: I. Iran/Middle East II. Ukraine III. Watch List IV. Global Kinetic and Stability V. South and Central Asia VI. Western Hemisphere VII. Non-Iran International Domestic policy and conditions are addressed in the companion Candidate’s Weekly Domestic Brief, published the same morning. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Day 177 of the

The honest tax, the round trip we can stop making, and the house we hand down Let me talk with you about the hard one. Taxes. This is the part of the plan where the knives come out, and I'd rather walk into that with you honestly than pretend it's simple. So pull up a chair. Tell me where you think I'm wrong. That's the only way any of this is worth doing. Steve Forbes was more right than they let him be Years back, Steve Forbes ran on a flat tax — one rate, everybody the s

Treasury, the IRS, and the office you've never heard of that decides when a law becomes real Let me talk with you this afternoon about the plumbing. Not the exciting part of government — the pipes. Because there are three offices that handle every dollar you send to Washington, and if the plumbing leaks, nothing else in the house works. Push back where it doesn't sit right. The Constitution is about as clear as it ever gets on one thing: Congress, and Congress alone, holds

A plain talk about what we owe, what we pay, and how we get out from under it August 17, 2026 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN Let me talk with you the way I'd talk with you at my own kitchen table, because that's where this kind of thing belongs. Not from a podium. Across a table, with the coffee getting cold, about money — yours and the country's. And I mean talk with you, not at you. You get to push back, ask the hard question, tell me where you think I

August 14, 2026 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN I. Equal Protection Does Not Have an Exception for Children Special education is not a supplemental benefit. It is a civil right — one that lives inside the plainest promise the Constitution makes: equal treatment under the law for every citizen. That promise does not pause at the schoolhouse door, and it does not carry an exception for the students who need the most help to learn. The logic is not complicat

It's How We Govern a Republic 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN August 13, 2026 I. Introduction: The Misunderstood Backbone of American Governance The word federalism is often misunderstood—mistaken either for bureaucratic control or ideological retreat. But the Framers of the Constitution did not design a national government to dominate the states. Nor did they expect 50 states to act as 50 sovereign countries. They designed something more durable: a feder

Reconnecting Strategic Timing to National Purpose Campaign Briefing: Campaign Philosophy and Civic Purpose 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN August 7, 2026 I. The Strategic, the Moral, and the Personal More than a year into this campaign — having published more than a hundred briefings, having outlined a governing philosophy in detail, having made specific commitments in specific domains that can be specifically evaluated — it is worth giving the fullest

On the Dysfunction That Produces Shutdowns, Omnibus Bills, and Fiscal Theater Campaign Briefing: Fiscal Discipline and Structural Oversight 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN August 6, 2026 I. A Process That Has Stopped Working The federal budget process was designed to produce an annual budget. Congress was to pass twelve appropriations bills, covering twelve categories of government spending, before the start of the fiscal year on October 1. The Presid

Why American Withdrawal Carries Costs the Isolationist Case Does Not Account For Campaign Briefing: Foreign Policy and Global Engagement 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN August 5, 2026 I. The Costs That Isolationism Does Not Acknowledge The strategic and economic arguments against isolationism have been made. There is also a moral argument, and it deserves to be stated plainly. American disengagement from international affairs does not produce a neutra

A Serious Evaluation of a Recurring American Impulse Campaign Briefing: Foreign Policy and Global Engagement 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN August 4, 2026 I. Taking the Argument Seriously The isolationist argument deserves serious engagement rather than dismissal. It has been made by serious people across the political spectrum — by figures on the left who object to American military adventurism and by figures on the right who object to international i

What the Record Shows — and What It Means for Today Campaign Briefing: Foreign Policy and Global Engagement 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN August 3, 2026 I. The Isolationist Tradition Isolationism has deep roots in American political thought. George Washington's Farewell Address warned against entangling alliances. The Monroe Doctrine asserted American hemispheric prerogative while discouraging European involvement in American affairs. The late 19th

Connecting Strategic Timing to National Purpose at the Midpoint of the Arc Campaign Briefing: Campaign Philosophy and Civic Purpose 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN July 31, 2026 I. A Question Worth Revisiting This campaign launched in September 2025 — more than three years before the November 2028 election. The question of why deserves a fuller answer now, at the midpoint of the arc, than it received at the launch. The short version given at launch: th

How This Campaign Approaches Dialogue, Persuasion, and Democratic Engagement Campaign Briefing: Civic Cohesion and National Unity 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN July 30, 2026 I. The Campaign That Listens Most political campaigns are designed primarily to transmit. They produce messaging, they distribute it, they measure whether it moves numbers, and they refine it based on what moves numbers most efficiently. The citizen is primarily a target — an a

Practical Tools for Reaching People Where They Actually Are Campaign Briefing: Civic Cohesion and National Unity 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN July 29, 2026 I. The Problem with Persuasion Political campaigns typically approach persuasion as a problem of messaging — finding the right frame, the right words, the right emotional appeal to move a voter from one position to another. This approach assumes that the primary barrier to persuasion is insuffic

Why American Leadership Requires Engagement, Not Isolation Campaign Briefing: Foreign Policy and Global Engagement 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN July 28, 2026 I. The Record on Isolation The United States has attempted isolationism before. The historical record is not ambiguous about the results. Between the two world wars, American withdrawal from international engagement — the rejection of the League of Nations, the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, the refusa

Domestic and International Review — Week of 27 July 2026 Current through 0800Z, 27 July 2026 | Covering period since 0800Z, 20 July 2026 Sections: I. Iran/Middle East II. Ukraine III. Watch List IV. Domestic Affairs and US Policy V. Global Kinetic and Stability VI. South and Central Asia VII. Western Hemisphere VIII. Non-Iran International EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Day 149 of the US-Israeli war on Iran. The naval blockade of Iranian ports, now in its 14th

The Specific Energy Consequences of North American Trade Dislocation Campaign Briefing: International Economic Policy 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN July 27, 2026 I. The Energy Dependency Nobody Talks About The United States imports approximately 4 million barrels of crude oil per day from Canada — roughly the largest single-country import of any energy source from any country. Canada is also the largest supplier of electricity to the United States,

A Global Service Perspective on American Foreign Policy Campaign Briefing: Foreign Policy and Global Engagement 2028 Presidential Campaign of Martin A. Ginsburg, RN July 24, 2026 I. The Concept and Its Application Tikkun Olam is a Hebrew phrase meaning 'repair of the world.' In Jewish tradition, it refers to the obligation to act in ways that heal what is broken — not simply to avoid harm, but to actively contribute to the repair of what is damaged in the world. It is a c