On January 1, 2018, the United States began an experiment with its future, as the new tax bill—drafted in secrecy, passed along party lines by Republicans in Congress, and signed by President Trump—went into effect. While Republicans claim that their tax bill will help the middle class and the U.S. economy, nothing can be further […]

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The following excerpts are from remarks by Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, a Democrat representing Washington State’s 1st Congressional District, who addressed her colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee last fall during the debate over the Republican tax bill. Also included is her exchange with Thomas Barthold, Chief of Staff for Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation […]

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On March 16, 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Federal Appeals Court Judge Merrick Garland to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. And nearly 13 months later, on April 7, 2017, the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s pick, Federal Appeals Court Judge Neil Gorsuch, to take Scalia’s seat. The extraordinary events of […]

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Millions of words are going to pour forth now about the ballot initiative in Florida designed to restore voting rights to about 1.5 million residents there who have been barred from the ballot by one of the most racist of the Southern disenfranchisement laws. But the success or failure of the measure, and by extension perhaps the outcome of the […]

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Late last year, Facebook, Google, and Twitter appeared before Congress to explain how a foreign government that targeted democratic institutions in the United States subverted their services. For months, the companies denied wrongdoing, hid behind spurious legal claims, and acted genuinely surprised that anyone would question their technical competence. Of course, now we know that […]

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