September 21, 2026

Photo credit: Jeff Greenberg / Contributor / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

When it debuted in 2003, Medicare Part D was a fiscal success, with costs lower than projected. In recent years, however, spending has surged, from $105 billion in 2021 to a projected $222 billion in 2026. Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Chris Pope argues that the Inflation Reduction Act is a major reason this occurred. While the 2022 law capped beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket costs and was supposed to reduce federal spending, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) underestimated how much it would increase demand for expensive drugs and overestimated savings from price controls.

“Medicare Part D was clearly in need of a tune-up in 2022,” Pope writes. “But the CBO too readily accepted claims that it would be possible to reduce costs for beneficiaries and expand their access to drugs without causing a surge in taxpayer costs. That mistake has proved extremely expensive and will be hard for policymakers to undo.”

Read more here.

“Set in a collapsing America riven by ideology, technological upheaval, loneliness, and spiritual exhaustion, the novel captures the strange mixture of decadence and despair that often marks contemporary life.”

One might think that Richard M. Reinsch is referring to a recently published work. Not so. He’s writing about Walker Percy’s 1971 novel Love in the Ruins, which, as Reinsch observes, “now reads like prophecy.”

Indeed, like Percy’s America, the nation today is deeply divided, distrustful, and increasingly disorderly and violent. “America remains a constitutional republic, but more as a fading habit than a confidently sustained achievement,” Reinsch argues.

Read his take on the potent relevance of Love in the Ruins.

In Why Recess Matters: The Importance of Unstructured Play and How to Fight for It, Catherine Ramstetter examines the value of unsupervised play. Recess supports physical health, yes, but also social development, creativity, emotional regulation, learning, and more.

“But the book is not merely a pitch for giving children another 20 minutes on the blacktop,” Nora Kenney Mittiga writes. “Halfway through, Ramstetter shifts from explaining why recess matters to what good recess looks like. She evaluates everything from multiple recess periods and middle school breaks to playground design, inclusive spaces, equipment, and supervision.” Indeed, the quality of recess matters.

Read Mittiga’s review.