11 Urgent Issues Politicians Pretend Don't Exist

Game-Changing Problems Hiding in Plain Sight

In a world bombarded by headlines of geopolitical tensions, economic fluctuations, and cultural debates, it’s easy for some of the most insidious and systemic problems to slip under the radar.

These are the issues that impact millions of people and the nation’s future in profound ways. Yet they rarely policy discussions or command the attention of those in power.

While decision makers chase short-term wins or partisan battles, foundational challenges continue to fester.

Here are 11 such critical concerns that I think deserve urgent scrutiny that they aren’t getting commiserate with their importance. They aren’t just abstract complaints; they’re tangible barriers to opportunity, efficiency, and fairness.

If someone in authority addressed them head-on, could we unlock significant improvements in our quality of life, economic productivity, and society at large?

Read on for details.

1. Cost of College Education
   The skyrocketing price of higher education in the United States has created a crisis that burdens students and taxpayers alike, yet systemic reforms remain largely ignored. Over the past six decades, the average total cost of colleges and universities has more than doubled in inflation-adjusted terms. (I actually think it could be more.) In any event, there’s been an undeniable surge that’s fueled a national student debt load exceeding $1.7 trillion, affecting 43 million borrowers as of 2023. The average borrower now owes around $39,457 upon graduation, a 117% increase since 2007.

The root issue lies in the system that actually finances education. What should be a benefit to the student has turned into a fatal flaw. Federal grants and loans ensure inflated costs will be paid. Therefore, colleges can inflate prices without restraint, turning education into a profit-driven enterprise.

Policies like student debt forgiveness ignore the root cause, as colleges continue to benefit from unchecked revenue streams.

A potential solution could involve the government capping tuition for institutions that take federal benefits, such as tax exemptions or funding, which is nearly all of them. This cap could say that students cannot be charged more than actual costs—calculated by dividing faculty salaries by student enrollment, plus reasonable additions for utilities and administration—then allowing a modest profit margin, say 4%, for expansions.

Extravagant perks like sabbaticals or high-end property acquisitions would need to come from private donations or other non-taxpayer sources.

Institutions that don’t like it could just opt out of federal taxpayer funds and charge whatever they wish.

This approach could rein in costs and make education more accessible without perpetuating the cycle of debt.

2. Status of Public Education
   America’s K-12 system remains anchored in mid-20th-century models, yielding poor outcomes despite technological and societal advancements. Yet comprehensive overhauls are rarely prioritized. Over the past decade, U.S. performance has frequently proved to be abysmal, high percentages of low performers in critical subjects. The answer doesn’t lie in tried and tired solutions such as dumping more money into the school system or teacher salaries.

The outdated structure—grouping students by age rather than ability or interest—fails to adapt to modern needs. Traditional emphases on memorizing formulas are obsolete in an era of ubiquitous calculators and AI tools. Instead, education could focus more on critical thinking, problem-solving, and adaptable skills like data literacy and collaboration.

Reinventing the entire model could involve grouping students by aptitude. For example, an 8-year-old advanced in math might learn alongside 12-year-olds. Or maybe kids could be grouped by learning style. Those who learn best with hands-on experiences would be taught differently than students who are self-starters and excel when pacing on their own.

In addition, technology offers a game-changer: The best teachers in each subject could teach all students through nationwide, interactive lessons, giving every child access to top-tier instruction. There’s no excuse for kids to have to learn from substandard instructors with today’s technological possibilities.

All of this could improve results and save extraordinarily in costs.

3. National Government College
   Another possibility with today’s technology is a free, centralized national college accessible online to all.

An assigned commission could recruit the most effective, interesting, successful instructors in every topic taught in college, and then record them giving lectures and instruction. We’re talking people as famous as Elon Musk as well as those famous only in their field. Most could be convinced to donate their skills.

Such a system would allow anyone to pursue an excellent higher education without debt, addressing skill gaps in the workforce.

4. National Gridlock
   Traffic congestion wastes immense resources and frustrates daily life across America. It results in extra pollution, additional fuel burned, road rage, and lost productivity. Yet national strategies for innovative solutions don’t seem to be anywhere on the national front burner. According to the INRIX 2023 Global Traffic Scorecard, U.S. drivers lose an average of 43 hours a year to congestion—for many of us, it’s much more. There is a great cost: $192 billion last year.

A week ago, a single accident on I-95 in Florida stalled me and thousands of others in traffic for five hours. There is no excuse for this in a system where managing traffic and time efficiently is a priority. It exemplifies the inefficiency of outdated two-dimensional roadways, unchanged since the 1950s interstate boom.

A national plan, perhaps led by innovators like Elon Musk via a volunteer board, could explore out-of-the-box ideas. After all, flying cars were promised since the 1960s! Might they actually be feasible with drone tech advancements?

In the interim, solid, smart management is key: Standardizing accident clearance protocols, dynamic light timing based on real-time data, and educating traffic officers to minimize blockages.

5. The Insurance Outrage
   The mandate for all to have health insurance has resulting in driving up health care costs to unsustainable levels. It hasn’t improved our health or access. The pitfalls mirror the problem we discussed with education: a system where unlimited funding ensures health care-related companies can charge almost unlimited prices because somebody will pay them. In the end, of course, it’s the insured who pay through higher premiums, co-pays, and taxes (for Medicare and Medicaid). But the true costs are camouflaged by a system that drives our focus to a co-pay and supposedly vastly reduced insurance costs for services and medicine. In fact, the costs are escalated artificially so that providers and those profiting off the system can pretend that they gave us a discount, when we are actually paying much more.

Would a no-insurance system be feasible? Could it force market adjustments, since few could afford paying out of pocket at one time for the unaffordable costs being masked through spread-out premiums and in our taxes? Could emphasis on flat-fee direct primary care models benefit all of us with lower costs and better acces? Would members of Congress, where both parties rely on donations from the industries that benefit under the current system, ever be willing to make a big change?

Without reform, patients and taxpayers continue subsidizing profits for insurers, providers, and middlemen amid $4.3 trillion annual healthcare spending.

6. Corrupt Congress
   Congressional decision-making is increasingly swayed by lobbyists and donors rather than public will, stalling popular reforms while advancing special interests. Democrats and Republicans alike have acknowledged this on the record—frequently in interviews with me for my TV news program “Full Measure.” From 2019-2020, federal lobbying totaled $7 billion, with health, finance, and business sectors leading. Corporations spend $2.6 billion annually influencing policy, often prioritizing donor agendas. Why aren’t there hearings on many burning topics of interest to Americans? Because no corporation is lobbying for the hearings. In fact, there’s every chance they are paying members (in the form of donation) to block those hearings. Why do some laws sail through the Congressional system quickly? Because a lobbyist wrote the law to their clients’ benefit, and then convinced members of Congress to sponsor and pass it. Why do some laws that could benefit millions stall or never get proposed? Because no powerful interest is lobbying to get them written and passed.

Popular bills like the SAVE Act to ensure voting integrity are languishing despite extraordinary support, while obscure corporate-friendly measures pass swiftly. Foreign interests and corporations dominate. This disconnect erodes trust, with only 80% of laws aligning with majority views, often failing in the Senate due to filibusters. It’s hard to imagine a solution that powerful interests won’t figure out how to end run. And would the very members of Congress who are part of the corrupt system… pass meaningful reforms?

7. Plastics Problem
   We now are getting up to speed on alarming news. Plastics’ pervasive pollution threatens ecosystems and human health in a major way. Microplastics—particles under 5mm—are accumulating in our food chain. People are said to be ingesting 11,845-193,200 particles annually via water and seafood. Studies link these particles them to oxidative stress, inflammation, DNA damage, endocrine disruption, and diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s, and dementia. In wildlife, they cause growth retardation and reproductive issues; in humans, they’ve been found in blood, lungs, placenta, and breast milk, raising risks for heart attacks, strokes, and neurotoxicity. Scientists now understand that many of our chronic and acute diseases are triggered not by one exposure but by a toxic overload that is an individual calculation for each person. Plastics are thought to play a significant role in creating a tipping point that leads to disease.

I recently was on Capitol Hill talking to both Democrats and Republicans for various news stories. As an aside, I mentioned to all of them that what we know about plastics requires immediate and urgent action. Each of them agreed. Yet I can’t find any proposals working their way through Congress.

The problem is so important and massive, it would seem to merit an immediate ban on non-essential plastics—excepting purposes such as defense and medicine where there are no current alternatives.

8. Information Control
   Control over information by corporate, political, and propagandist interests distorts public discourse. But there are no national proposals to help ensure Americans can access unbiased information, or even the biased information of their own choosing outside of the curator’s menu. There’s control over our information when it comes to news and other media, the Internet through search engines like Google and informational websites such as Wikipedia, medical societies and nonprofits that have been started by or taken over by corporate interests to promote a product, universities that educate children—you name it.

Could someone create accessible platforms without algorithmic slant that ensure users can access what they want, rather than begin guided toward certain sources— and away from others?

9. The Justice System
   America’s justice system has become plagued by bias, excessive and inequalities, that frequently favor the wealthy and powerful and ultimately undermine fair outcomes. But there are no movements to construct a major reform of a broken paradigm. In federal district courts, the median time from filing to disposition for civil cases is 6.9 months overall, but for those reaching trial, it extends to nearly three years. In my experience, it’s frequently much longer. Criminal felony cases can stretch into many years as well. Delays impose significant harms: They erode public trust, distort justice, cause anxiety and helplessness for defendants and victims, prolong pretrial detention, and pressure guilty pleas to avoid extended waits and costs. For example, it’s not uncommon for years to go by in a civil case before pre-trial depositions are taken. Then, when depositions are taken, months or years more can pass before the next step. There’s seldom a legitimate reason for this. Wealthier and more powerful parties can afford the delays and run up costs as part of tactics to win. Cases frequently ignore commonsense, merit, and justice and hinge on following arcane rules and technicalities.

There’s a good argument to be made that, in general, the court system should be simple, accessible, and low-cost enough that people can choose to represent themselves, if they wish. Deadlines should be imposed that are drastically more limiting than what’s current allowed under the system that enriches the lawyers on both sides, win or lose, but tends to harm the clients seeking justice. Many simple cases can and should be handled in a few days. A reformed system could focus judges’ decisions on commonsense and justice rather than precedent, arcane arguments, and who managed to twisted a prior legal case into the best argument for the position at hand.

10. Bureaucracy and Red Tape
    Excessive bureaucracy and regulatory requirements have now complicated everyday life and activities beyond reason. Nearly everything we need to do or are required to do— from filing our taxes, registering a car, starting a business, accessing our medical records, making an appointment, getting a license to perform a service or sell a product, you name it— has become needlessly costly in time and money and filters us through an inefficient bureaucracy that only benefits the bureaucrats. Yet I can’t find anyone discussing policy reforms that amount to comprehensive efforts to reduce these burdens. Federal regulations alone are said to cost the U.S. economy up to $1.9 trillion annually in direct costs, lost productivity, and higher prices. Small businesses drown in regulations and requirements that are overly costly and burdensome, making the one-time possibility of “hanging up a shingle” out of reach for most Americans. Compliance burdens for small businesses total over 3.3 billion hours and $111 billion yearly, equivalent to about 379 hours—or ten full-time workweeks—per small business with fewer than 50 employees. Did you know that password management and two-factor authentication alone cost employers an average of $480 per employee each year in lost productivity due to time spent on resets and issues? How much time do you spend changing passwords, verifying you’re human, putting in codes to access an account, registering for a portal, verifying your identity, being asked to write reviews or take surveys, getting rid of SPAM in your in-box, just to name a few demands?

I don’t have a big idea on how to address this but as individuals and as a society: we are slowly drowning, if not dying in this bureaucracy. Big thinkers could improve our plight with plans to encourage streamlined processes and easing regulations and costs to make daily life and entrepreneurship less expensive and onerous.

11. Federal Out of Control Federal Budget and Taxes
    Our government’s unchecked spending has brought us to a breaking point. We suffer routine, persistent deficits and mounting debt despite incredible tax burdens; and waste, fraud and abuse. Yet true reforms remain unimplemented. In fiscal year 2026, the budget deficit reached $1.004 trillion through February, with projections of $1.9 trillion for the full year, pushing the national debt to nearly $39 trillion. In fiscal year 2025, the federal government spent $7.01 trillion but only brought in $5.23 trillion in revenue, resulting in a $1.78 trillion deficit. Interest alone on the debt we owe costs $961.7 billion or 14% of our spending!

One solution could be requiring our federal agencies to go through the process of zero-based budgeting now and then periodically. This type of budgeting requires the agency to start at zero and justify every expense, rather than just adding a certain random percentage onto the request each year. Zero-based budgeting helps eliminate inefficiencies and identify waste, fraud, and abuse.

Another solution could lie in adding a priority test to the zero-based budgeting process: evaluating whether every penny spent is for a constitutional federal functions versus “wants,” fluff, waste, “pork,” or projects that should be funded by state and local revenue. Solutions should focus on controlling expenses rather than raising taxes in a never-ending quest for more revenue.

What are your ideas for unaddressed, big priorities and solutions?