Donald Trump is preparing for the arrival of congressional oversight by suggesting that the people doing the overseeing may need criminal investigations of their own. After Democrats won control of the House and Senate, Trump described their investigative requests as “extortion at the highest level.” Attorney General Todd Blanche has since said investigations of Democrats are possible. Apparently, the administration would like accountability to submit to a background check before entering the building.
According to Associated Press reporting, incoming House Oversight chair Robert Garcia says Democrats will not be intimidated. Good. The public deserves investigations grounded in evidence, conducted fairly, and followed wherever the facts lead. Threatening the investigators before they take charge is reason to insist on that work. And as we move from Washington to a measles outbreak, healthcare bills, and the electricity meter, the reason for paying attention gets considerably closer to home.
Here at home, Mom has lodged a formal complaint about my roots. I bleach my hair, but after a bleaching incident that fried a considerable amount of it, I decided to give it a long vacation from chemical intervention. It is healthy again. My roots, however, have taken advantage of the recovery period to establish a substantial presence.
Mom hates them. Apparently, I was not addressing this situation with the urgency she felt it deserved, so she made me an appointment. Tomorrow afternoon, my hair will receive professional attention, and my mother will hopefully be able to look directly at me again.
Before that, between 11 and 1, I must collect one child from school early, collect the older child, take him to an eye appointment, and then take him back to school. I swear these children have me operating a transportation company that accepts payment exclusively in snack wrappers and requests to change the music.
Meanwhile, my daughter’s Christmas concert is approaching, and the school sent the songs home for us to practice. There is a great deal of “Jingle Bells” happening in these halls. Her birthday is also this month, a fact she has taken personal responsibility for keeping at the forefront of everyone’s consciousness. This weekend we are taking her to her favorite place in the world: the trampoline park. She will bounce. I will marvel at the apparently limitless energy supply available to people who have never had to schedule their own appointments.
It should be a lovely, busy, fun-filled weekend. I want the biggest question hanging over it to be whether we remembered the trampoline socks. That is part of why today’s measles news deserves our attention.
The CDC’s November 6 update reports 5,182 confirmed measles cases in the United States through November 5. That is more than twice the 2,289 cases reported during all of 2025. There have been 43 new outbreaks this year. Those numbers represent people getting sick from a disease we have an effective vaccine to prevent.
Measles can cause pneumonia, brain inflammation, and death. Children younger than five and people with weakened immune systems are among those at greater risk of serious complications. It spreads through the air, and someone can be exposed in a room for up to two hours after an infected person has left. An ordinary trip through a shared space can become an exposure without anyone realizing it at the time.
The protection around those shared spaces is weakening. The CDC reports that MMR vaccination coverage among kindergartners fell to 92.4 percent in the 2025–2026 school year. About 280,000 kindergartners attended school without documentation that they had completed the MMR series. That figure doesn’t mean every one of those children was entirely unvaccinated, but it does identify a substantial gap in documented protection. National averages also conceal communities with much lower coverage.
Two doses of MMR are about 97 percent effective at preventing measles. The routine childhood schedule calls for the first dose at 12 to 15 months and the second at four to six years. Outbreaks or travel can change the timing a clinician recommends, including an early dose for some infants ages six to eleven months. Families should check their records and ask their child’s healthcare provider about their circumstances.
Measles often begins with a high fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes. The rash usually follows several days later, beginning on the face and spreading downward. If you suspect measles or know you have been exposed, call your healthcare provider immediately and call ahead before arriving for care so they can protect other patients. Treatment after exposure may help prevent illness or reduce its severity for some people, but timing matters. Trouble breathing, confusion, or severe dehydration requires emergency care; have someone alert the hospital that measles is suspected.
I keep thinking about how much effort goes into keeping children safe. We buckle them in, make the appointments, learn the songs, and remember which child needs to be where. We do all these small things because their lives matter more than anything. Public health is the part of that work we do together. It depends on families having access to vaccination, clear information they can trust, and institutions willing to defend the evidence.
The political responsibility here deserves scrutiny. Leaders should be pressed on whether their policies improve vaccination access, strengthen outbreak response, and give families accurate information. We should judge their answers against what they actually fund, recommend, and do. A preventable outbreak demands more than expressions of concern after children are already sick.
If you are someone who says you don’t follow politics, I understand the exhaustion. I have three children, a house that keeps inventing new repair projects, and a brain that occasionally considers answering an email a full day’s work. Nobody needs another thing to worry about.
But please look at what we’re talking about. Whether your child’s school has strong vaccination protections. Whether your family can afford health insurance. Whether your community has the resources to identify an outbreak before more children are exposed. People make those decisions. We elect some of them. Others are appointed by the people we elect.
You don’t have to spend every waking hour watching Washington. You deserve a life with room for other things. But we need enough of one another paying attention, checking claims, voting, and demanding answers to make neglect politically expensive. Because the consequences arrive in places we can’t simply switch off: the pediatrician’s office, the kitchen budget, the classroom where we leave our children each morning, trusting that the adults responsible have done everything they can to keep them safe.
That kitchen budget is also where Democrats’ healthcare promises will be tested. House leaders say early votes in the new Congress will focus on reversing Medicaid cuts and restoring the enhanced tax credits that help people afford ACA marketplace coverage. According to the AP, the Medicaid changes Democrats are seeking to reverse are expected to cut more than $900 billion from the program over a decade.
The new Congress takes office January 3. These are plans, and families should know the difference between a promised vote and restored coverage. Most legislation faces a 60-vote hurdle in the Senate, and Trump can veto bills that reach his desk. Delivering relief will require overcoming those obstacles.
Still, putting healthcare first is a commitment worth holding Democrats to. Families need to know whether they can see a doctor and afford the prescription afterward. Investigating abuse and delivering material help both belong on the job description. I want to see the votes, the negotiations, and sustained pressure to get people covered.
There is also a consequential energy fight happening while the outgoing Congress still holds power. The Senate is scheduled to take a procedural vote Monday on moving forward with a sweeping permitting package. The proposal would accelerate approvals for energy and infrastructure projects, including renewable energy, fossil fuel development, and data centers.
Supporters argue that faster approvals would help expand energy supply and lower costs. The package also includes provisions intended to make data centers pay the electricity costs associated with their operations. Those protections deserve close examination as lawmakers respond to concerns about household utility bills.
Environmental and conservation groups oppose the deal, warning that it would weaken environmental safeguards, undermine Tribal sovereignty, and restrict opportunities to challenge projects. That is a serious set of objections to legislation being advanced before newly elected lawmakers take office.
I want clean energy built, and I want families able to afford their electricity. I also want communities to have a meaningful say in what gets built around them. Congress needs to explain how the final legislation would deliver those things, and who would bear the costs when a project causes harm. A promise of affordability deserves the same scrutiny as any other political promise.
Tomorrow, I will be moving children between school and appointments and submitting my roots to professional rehabilitation. This weekend, I will be watching my daughter bounce toward another birthday. Those ordinary days are what I want our politics to serve: people healthy enough, secure enough, and supported enough to enjoy the lives they are working so hard to build.
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