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President Joe Biden is counting on outrage over abortion restrictions to help drive turnout for his reelection. Former President Donald Trump is promising to take another swing at repealing Obamacare. But around America's kitchen tables, those are hardly the only health topics voters want to hear about in the 2024 campaigns. A new KFF tracking poll shows that health care tops the list of basic expenses Americans worry about — more than gas, food, and rent. Nearly 3 in 4 adults — and majorities of both parties — say they're concerned about paying for unexpected medical bills and other health costs. "Absolutely health care is something on my mind," Rob Werner, 64, of Concord, New Hampshire, said in an interview at a local coffee shop in January. He's a Biden supporter and said he wants to make sure the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, is retained and that there's more of an effort to control health care costs. The presidential election is likely to turn on the simple question of whether Americans want Trump back in the White House. (Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, remained in the race for the Republican nomination ahead of Super Tuesday, though she had lost the first four primary contests.) And neither major party is basing their campaigns on health care promises. But in the KFF poll, 80% of adults said they think it's "very important" to hear presidential candidates talk about what they'd do to address health care costs — a subject congressional and state-level candidates can also expect to address. "People are most concerned about out-of-pocket expenses for health care, and rightly so," said Andrea Ducas, vice president of health policy at the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based progressive think tank. Here's a look at the major health care issues that could help determine who wins in November. Abortion Less than two years after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, reproductive health care is shaping up to be the biggest health issue in this election. That was also the case in the 2022 midterm elections, when many voters rallied behind candidates who supported abortion rights and bolstered Democrats to an unexpectedly strong showing. Since the Supreme Court's decision, voters in six states — including Kansas, Kentucky, and Ohio, where Republicans control the legislatures — have voted on state constitutional amendments regarding abortion access, and the side favoring abortion rights won in each case. Polls show that abortion is a key issue to some voters, said Robert Blendon, a public opinion researcher and professor emeritus at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He said up to 30% across the board see it as a "personal" issue, rather than policy — and most of those support abortion rights. "That's a lot of voters, if they show up and vote," Blendon said. Proposals to further protect — or restrict — abortion access could drive voter turnout. Advocates are working to put abortion-related measures on the ballot in such states as Arizona, Florida, Missouri, and South Dakota this November. A push in Washington toward a nationwide abortion policy could also draw more voters to the polls, Blendon said. A surprise ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court in February that frozen embryos are children could also shake up the election. It's an issue that even divides the anti-abortion community, with some who believe that a fertilized egg is a unique new person deserving of full legal rights and protections, and others believing that discarding unused embryos as part of the in vitro fertilization process is a morally acceptable way for couples to have children. Pricey prescriptions Drug costs regularly rank high among voters' concerns. In the latest tracking poll, more than half — 55% — said they were very worried about being able to afford prescription drugs. Biden has tried to address the price of drugs, though his efforts haven't registered with many voters. While its name doesn't suggest landmark health policy, the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, which the president signed in August 2022, included a provision allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for some of the most expensive drugs. It also capped total out-of-pocket spending for prescription drugs for all Medicare patients, while capping the price of insulin for those with diabetes at $35 a month — a limit some drugmakers have extended to patients with other kinds of insurance. Drugmakers are fighting the Medicare price negotiation provision in court. Republicans have promised to repeal the IRA, arguing that forcing drugmakers to negotiate lower prices on drugs for Medicare beneficiaries would amount to price controls and stifle innovation. The party has offered no specific alternative, with the GOP-led House focused primarily on targeting pharmacy benefit managers, the arbitrators who control most Americans' insurance coverage for medicines.

Google's election interference is just getting warmed up as we head into 2024.

MRC Free Speech America researchers searched Google for 'presidential campaign websites,' but the search engine did not display a single Republican candidate on its first page of results the day before the first Republican Party presidential primary debate on Wednesday. President Joe Biden 's campaign website, of course, showed up as the second search result along with a Democratic Party challenger Marianne Williamson 's campaign website, which came up as the fifth result.

Tech workers in progressive cities such as Seattle and San Francisco have a bad rap when it comes to civic engagement.

As a Seattle Google engineer with political ambitions once said, “The little f*****s don’t vote, to put it bluntly. They are not civically engaged. They take civic responsibility lightly, and because of that they are used as scapegoats.”

Employees at big tech companies, including Google parent Alphabet and Facebook, funneled millions of dollars into Democrats’ campaigns during the 2020 election cycle — a move that could pay off for conglomerates hoping to stymie the implementation of internet regulation.

President-elect Joe Biden has yet to propose any tech-related legislation. But Biden previously took a staunch stance on the issue, calling for reform measures including revoking Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which stipulates that big tech companies are not responsible for their users’ content. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for repeal of that section in his continuing dispute with social media companies.

Many tech figures were less than impressed with Joe Biden after his debate with Trump.

Venture capitalists queried Biden's fitness for office, while joking the country was in danger.

Public support for Donald Trump used to be scarce in Silicon Valley, the land of tech billionaires, but something of a systems reboot is taking place.

“Nobody’s excited about Biden right now,” claimed David Sacks, an influential investor, on his popular All In podcast. “There’s a lot of people who I do think support Trump.”

As the world knows, former president and current candidate Donald Trump is now a convicted felon. But, as Max Chafkin writes, that hasn’t slowed the stream of Trump support from the tech world. Plus: Biden has a prices problem

In 2016, when Peter Thiel appeared at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland to deliver a speech praising Trump, his peers in Silicon Valley were briefly flummoxed. Trump’s preening, braggadocious brand of nationalistic populism—with a bit of neo-Luddism swirled in, as this was a guy who famously never sent emails—was antithetical to everything conservatives in the tech industry stood for.

Professor Srinivasan says there is no evidence for this claim, and goes so far as to say he thinks a decision was made some time ago "where there was a recognition by Trump and his supporters or his maybe his advisors that setting up some sort of rhetorical war or conflict with Big Tech companies, especially Google, might work to support Trump's political interests, as a so called populist outsider, out of the elites' world, which we know in many in many senses is not true -but it's working. It might work as a political strategy."

By doing this, Trump and his administration set up a safety net for someone to blame -"a mechanism by which the public will be even further disoriented."

It is important to remember that the American high tech industry leads the world in virtually every area of competence and produces nearly half of its revenue from export sales to the further benefit of the American economy. To my knowledge, there is no such thing as a high- growth regulated industry. Continued leadership for American companies could be threatened if regulations restrict the freedom of action that the industry has enjoyed to date. Other Issues of Importance: Congress will play a key role on many other issues that will affect the growth of the high tech and biotech sectors and the expansion of our economy. In order to assure that these sectors are financially healthy and have adequate access to capital, I would urge Congress to pursue pro- growth policies in the following areas: -Free trade: open and fair access to foreign markets is critical to the success and growth of these sectors. As just mentioned, the average annual export sales as a percentage of ,revenue for a typical venture-backed company grows from zero to 43 percent in the early years of the company's life. In order to expand these overseas opportunities for growth, our industry strongly supports extending Trade Promotion Authority to President Bush. -Efficient stock markets: secure, flexible and efficient stock markets are essential for high growth, venture-backed companies to grow to the next level after the venture capitalist exits his or her investment in the company. -Effective patent and copyright protection: intellectual property is the lifeblood of venture- backed high tech and biotech firms. Secure protection of IP rights is prerequisite for investment in a start-up. Assuring an efficient and equitable patent and copyright processing system is a priority.

TechAmerica's acting President and CEO Dan Varroney issued the following statement on the recent developments surrounding the Protect IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House.

"As the most IP intensive industry in the world, the technology sector believes that the protection and enforcement of IP rights are imperative for innovation and safeguarding it from counterfeiting, piracy, and other forms of IP theft. Undoubtedly, we support a strong balanced approach to intellectual property protection but one that doesn't undermine the vitality and innovation of the Internet.

A study has found that tech companies can influence the decisions of large numbers of undecided voters with search suggestions on search engines.

The study , conducted by Dr. Robert Epstein and several other affiliates of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology (AIBRT), sought to determine whether the suggestions that pop into the search bar when using engines like Google can influence the voting behavior of undecideds. Its findings suggest that the 'search suggestion effect' (SSE) is real and powerful, so much so that search engine operators controlling search suggestions could have 'the power to shift a large number of votes without people's awareness,' Epstein told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

"Our brief supports rulings by U.S. courts and Europe's highest court that SAS has failed to establish that the material in question was copyrightable. The district court correctly concluded that SAS input formats and output designs are uncopyrightable. The outcome of this is important to the tech industry as the appropriate scope of copyright law is key to competition and innovation."

According to the brief filed:

A study has found that tech companies can influence the decisions of large numbers of undecided voters with search suggestions on search engines.

The study , conducted by Dr. Robert Epstein and several other affiliates of the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology (AIBRT), sought to determine whether the suggestions that pop into the search bar when using engines like Google can influence the voting behavior of undecideds. Its findings suggest that the 'search suggestion effect' (SSE) is real and powerful, so much so that search engine operators controlling search suggestions could have 'the power to shift a large number of votes without people's awareness,' Epstein told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In the 90s it was “The economy, stupid” that prescient politicos figured would be the highest impact issue for voters. Before that, it was a question of, “Are you better, or worse off than you were four years ago?” And after, there have been several similarly posed iterations of “What have you done for me, lately?”

The American electorate has long felt the sting of elections, and their associated policies, most acutely in their wallets or pocketbooks. And when it came to political loyalties (or lack there of), that sting resonated most in the middle-class.

While inflation and cost of living remain the top issue among registered Latino voters in Nevada, a sample of them polled in May chose immigration and border policy as their leading concern outside their economic priorities, according to findings released Tuesday. The poll, which oversampled registered Latino voters in the swing states of Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania, was commissioned by UnidosUS. “The top priorities for Latino voters continue to be pocketbook issues,” said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, vice president of the Latino Vote Initiative with the national nonpartisan civil rights and advocacy organization. “That said, we also are seeing the topic of immigration.”

Americans believe that strong IP protections are the backbone of innovation, which is critical to the continued strength of the U.S. economy and development of new medicines. Three-quarters of Americans (74%) — including 78% of Americans living in labor households — agree that protecting the IP of U.S. innovators supports U.S. manufacturing and jobs. Strong consensus shows that the U.S. needs strong IP protections to encourage innovation (80% agree), and that innovation and creativity are highly valued in the U.S. (78% agree). selected teaser image 4. Americans saw the importance of IP during the COVID-19 pandemic and recognize alternative solutions to expand global access and public health instead of undermining American innovators. More than twice as many Americans say that IP protections are a main reason innovative solutions were developed in record time for COVID-19 (68%) than think IP protections are a barrier to access for many patients (32%). Americans value collaboration between the U.S. government and the pharmaceutical industry. 63% of Americans — including 71% of Americans living in labor union households — agree that public-private-partnerships are the best way to ensure global health security. Instead of waiving commitments to protect IP, Americans want to see policymakers protect American jobs and economic growth by supporting innovative industries and workers. The Biden Administration should reject any expansion of the TRIPS waiver and instead focus on solving real global health challenge and ensuring that global policies promote innovation.

The decades-long exodus of white working-class voters from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party has a new jolt: Latino working-class voters are joining the shift. Why it matters: To win key swing states, President Biden needs the support of some dissatisfied white, Latino and Black working-class voters who polls suggest are upset about inflation and some Democratic policies. The big picture: Six swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — are widely expected to decide the Biden-Trump rematch. Voters without a college education will be key players in each state. Working-class voters also could tip tight Senate and House races in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Montana, Texas and Maryland at a time when both chambers have narrow majorities. State of play: Biden's poll numbers have been rising lately, but several surveys have indicated he is underperforming with non-white voters without college degrees — a constituency that has long been overwhelmingly Democratic. A YouGov poll commissioned by the Progressive Policy Institute at the end of 2023 found that working-class voters overwhelmingly believe they're worse off today than similar voters did 40 years ago. Voters said they trusted the GOP more than Democrats on the economy, immigration, and education — a dramatic shift from past elections. Zoom in: Among Latinos, Republicans also now have an edge over Democrats when it comes to dealing with the economy, according to an April Axios-Ipsos Latino Poll in partnership with Noticias Telemundo. Between the lines: GOP consultant Mike Madrid tells Axios the political shift among working-class Latino and Black voters has accelerated in recent elections because they see Democrats as out of touch with their way of life. These voter blocs are upset with Democrats' focusing on EVs while moving to phase out fossil fuels, which many see as endangering high-paying oil worker jobs, he said. Democrats' push to forgive college students' loans also is unpopular with some working-class voters who want more focus on making food and housing more affordable, Madrid said. "These are the new Reagan Democrats. They're at the country music festivals, not the country clubs," he said. Flashback: The shift among white working-class voters began in the 1960s, when anti-Vietnam War protests pushed some to support Republican Richard Nixon, said William A. Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Galston said Republicans since have made gains with white working-class voters, once the bedrock of the New Deal coalition, in almost every election. Any significant defection by working-class Latinos could be devastating for Democrats, he said. "I would call this the political story of my lifetime," Galston said.

Their focus is on the economy. To the extent they do care about politics, it is focused heavily on the economy, with a plurality (33%) ranking it as their top issue in the 2024 election.

Swing voters say they want Biden to take more action — not less. Sixty-one percent say that “Biden needs to take more action to solve our country's problems” (compared with 49% of likely voters overall), while 22% say that “Biden has taken too much action that has made our country’s problems worse.”

The year began with a January 2024 Gallup report that 43% of Americans identify as political independents – regardless of whether they are registered to vote as a member of one party or the other. Various media outlets responded with proclamations that “independent voters dominate U.S.” and descriptions of how Joe Biden and Donald Trump are “on the hunt” for support from independents. Other publications speculated more generally about how the apparently large number of independents could shape the 2024 electoral landscape, because it may be hard to predict how they will vote.

That landscape points to a very close presidential election, one that will likely be decided by very small margins in a handful of swing states. A primary task for both the Biden and Trump campaigns will be to mobilize their bases and maximize turnout among their most ardent supporters. But those bases will probably not be enough to ensure victory for either candidate. Both candidates will seek to convince voters who are still “in play” – namely, independent voters.

The finding that younger people prefer weaker intellectual property rights is consistent with past studies that have found similar results when examining attitudes toward file sharing on the Internet.145 There does appear to be a generational divide concerning intellectual property protection. Interesting, here, is that most past research has focused on individual attitudes towards copyright protection, primarily in the context of the Internet, while the present study finds an age effect for the full population, across the patent and copyright conditions. This study appears to be the first to indicate that the generational divide concerning intellectual property rights cuts across intellectual property domains.