February 4, 2026

Now, on to the news…

Pundits and politicians highlight the costs of food, housing, and gasoline to illustrate how their affordability proposals will make Americans’ lives better. But they usually ignore a crucial factor that shapes economic well-being: crime.

Consider New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. During his campaign, he talked about lowering costs through free buses, rent freezes, and more public housing, but took an alarmingly ill-considered stance on public safety—urging the abolition of the NYPD gang database, a moratorium on homeless encampments, and a halt to hiring police officers.

“Many predict that, if implemented, these initiatives will erode public safety and order,” Rafael A. Mangual writes. “To the extent that proves correct, Mamdani’s public-safety agenda would also undercut his stated commitment to affordability. When leaders fail on public safety, their constituents’ economic prospects decline with it.”

Read his take.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons has officially come out against “gender-affirming” surgeries in adolescents under the age of 19. It’s a major development, as the ASPS represents over 90 percent of the field, and its statement goes against other organizations that endorse the procedures.

The ASPS observed that reassessments of these surgeries “identified limitations in study quality, consistency, and follow-up alongside emerging evidence of treatment complications and potential harms.” It also raised concerns about the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Leor Sapir sees the new statement as “a major step in the right direction, and one that undoubtedly required courage and integrity from the organization’s leaders.” The hope now, he writes, is that “leaders of other medical associations who see the same pattern of ideological capture in their own organizations can draw inspiration from their ASPS colleagues and take steps to restore public trust in medicine.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 earmarks nearly $40 billion in state funds for K–12 education. If passed, the state will have boosted school aid by about $10 billion over the past five years. It already spends more than $36,000 per pupil each year.

With numbers like these, one might think that New York’s student achievement rates are some of the highest in the nation. Not so. The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed that just 31 percent of New York eighth-graders were proficient in reading, while just 26 percent were proficient in math. In fact, proficiency rates have lagged under 35 percent for over a decade.

“For a state that claims to prioritize education, these outcomes are hard to defend,” Jennifer Weber writes. “While demographic differences help explain New York’s performance relative to other states, they don’t explain why the state’s investments aren’t improving student performance.”

The Manhattan Institute is proud to serve as the Principal Institutional Partner for the Sun Valley Policy Forum’s 2026 Winter Summit in the iconic resort town of Sun Valley, Idaho on February 11, 2026.

We are thrilled to join Joe Lonsdale and MI senior fellow Christopher F. Rufo for an evening on principled leadership and the future of American institutions in an AI-driven era. Please click here to learn more about the Sun Valley Policy Forum and our partnership and to purchase tickets at a discounted rate for friends of the Manhattan Institute.

Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia features the President’s House Site, where Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived and worked for most of their presidencies, before the White House was built and operational.

The National Park Service has been redesigning the exhibit there—and for good reason. Of its 30 signs, 25 focused on slavery or race relations. The exhibits highlighted Washington’s decision to bring enslaved people north with him, while barely acknowledging or even ignoring his achievements.

“A less-biased account would have noted that, like most of the founding generation, all of whom had inherited slavery from the British, Washington sought slavery’s gradual elimination,” Jeffrey H. Anderson writes. “Washington’s hope was that slavery would fade away, without causing economic ruin for any portion of the population.”

Read his take.

“The street rioters put their brainwashed bodies on the dangerous front line while their organizers hide safely behind a computer. Dummy up—you are being used as a tool.”

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No brainer, commenting on Minneapolis’s ICE watch network 

Photo credit: Jack Berman/Getty Images