Democrats are ready to raise taxes. They want more revenue, in part to fund an out-of-this-world amount of new spending. Some simply want to soak the rich, as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) plainly signaled at the Met Gala by wearing a white dress with “TAX THE RICH” scrawled across it in red paint. While the […]
“Arguing about the nature of the country is as American as frozen apple pie with a slice of processed cheese,” says the aspirationally acute 80-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner George Will, now in his sixth decade as a leading voice in debates over culture, politics, and ideas. “If you don’t like arguing, you picked the wrong […]
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the United States invaded and occupied two countries, bombed four others, helped create 21 million refugees and cause over 800,000 deaths, and spent over $6 trillion on combat and anti-terrorism measures. Republican and Democratic presidents and congressional leaders authorized sweeping new initiatives that effectively put all American citizens […]
Historians would labor to explain the 1920s without reference to World War I, even if that era’s Americans preferred to forget it. Same with the 1980s and Vietnam: Ronald Reagan’s partisans somehow simultaneously disowned, denied, and defended Nixon-era excesses that no longer burdened them. Today, Trumpism is both the glib repudiation and the shameless vindication […]
“You don’t get to lose a war and expect the result to look like you won it,” says historian Stephen Wertheim of the violent and chaotic withdrawal of United States forces and personnel from Afghanistan. “Yet some in Washington are denying reality, calling for still more war and blaming Biden for their failure.” Wertheim is the author […]
The closest approximations to eternal toddlers in our society may be government officials told there are limits on the extent to which they can screw with human lives. They rant, they pout, and sometimes they even vow to poke and prod others anyway, daring anybody to make them stop. The distilled essence of a thwarted […]
“You don’t get to lose a war and expect the result to look like you won it,” says historian Stephen Wertheim of the violent and chaotic withdrawal of United States forces and personnel from Afghanistan. “Yet some in Washington are denying reality, calling for still more war and blaming Biden for their failure.” Wertheim is […]
Five years. That’s how long until Medicare officially can’t pay all of its bills, according to the latest report on the program’s fiscal health. After that, without changes, the program will start to miss payments. Medicare is on track for a serious fiscal meltdown. First, the gory details: Starting in 2026, the program’s Hospital Insurance (HI) […]
When ideologues on the left and the right want to make a case for why the government really needs to crack down on something, they rhetorically elevate the offense. One example from the left is the desire to impose speech codes or hate speech laws. “Words are violence,” some argue. After all, being rude can […]
A federal judge in Michigan yesterday ordered sanctions against Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and seven other pro-Trump attorneys who were involved in a lawsuit that sought to overturn the presidential election results in that state. U.S. District Judge Linda Parker, who dismissed that lawsuit on December 7, ordered Powell et al. to pay the legal […]