President Trump signed, late Sunday, an omnibus appropriations bill in which he did not get a single thing he wanted. He demanded changes to the bill – upping stimulus payments from $600 to $2,000 and scrapping a ton of foreign aid chief among them – but caved after just a few days. That he caved was no big surprise. Trump’s demands were political poison. Republicans … Continue reading The World’s Greatest Negotiator has obtained nothing
Congress has this fondness for consolidated bills. If Senator Armsmoney (R-US) going to vote for some Democratic priority like expanding school lunches, it’s a lot easier to stomach that vote if the bill also includes funding for the creation of a new FBI Minority Crimes Unit. This is the sausage getting made, the room where it happens, etc. – the deals that are required to … Continue reading No, that’s not in the COVID bill
After months of kicking the ball aimlessly around the field, Congress finally scored a goal late Sunday when it reached a compromise $900 billion COVID-19 relief deal. That same day, around 1,500 people died from COVID-19, so this couldn’t have come at a better time unless that better time was literally any point in the past six months, Congress. Still, here we are. So what’s … Continue reading The end-of-the-year COVID relief bill, explained
On Patreon, we ask supporters to occasionally toss questions over to us that they want answered that are a little bit harder to get an answer to than something you might ask on Quora. For this, the third piece in our new series You Asked, we’re tackling the long and confusing history of political party colors. Whenever I talk to my European friends, they’re always confused … Continue reading You Asked: Why are red states red and blue states blue?
Back on Thursday – if you can remember back that far – Time magazine named Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as its “Person of the Year.” This surprised no one, since the POTY has been the winner of the presidential election since 2000: Bush, Obama, and Trump all got the accolade in their election and (for Bush and Obama) re-election years. That’s as far back … Continue reading Joe Biden isn’t the person of the year – but ‘Time’ is trapped in a loop
On Friday, the Supreme Court soundly rejected an attempt by the State of Texas to challenge the election results in four states. The whole thing was blatantly unconstitutional, as the U.S. Constitution lets the states run their own elections, and also hypocritical, since Texas’ position was that it has a vested interest in how other states run their elections despite the fact that the state … Continue reading Surprise: Trump supporters are threatening acts of terrorism to overthrow American democracy, who saw that coming?
The Trump administration has made some slight changes to the citizenship test administered as part of the naturalization process. In the original test, there are 100 possible questions and you, hopeful immigrant friend, would be asked 10. Once you answer six correctly, you’re in. But in the new test, there are 128 possible questions and you will be asked twenty. You need to answer twelve … Continue reading Let’s see how the new citizenship test looks
The Trump administration wants to require the Department of Health and Human Services to review most of its regulations by 2023 — and automatically void those not assessed in time. A proposed rule would require HHS to analyze within 24 months about 2,400 regulations — rules that affect tens of millions of Americans on everything from Medicare benefits to prescription drug approvals. The move has … Continue reading Experts warn proposed Trump health rules are “perfectly designed” to bring Biden admin to “a standstill”
Way back in 2000, before coronavirus pandemics and September 11 and The Real Housewives, the Supreme Court of the United States was asked a key question in the now-famous Bush v. Gore case. That question was simply: when does the presidential election end? The court’s narrow ruling was that 3 U.S. Code § 5 sets a hard deadline for the conclusion of the presidential election. Known … Continue reading We now enter the “attempt to overturn Bush v. Gore” phase of the election
Goldman Sachs, the 151-year old bank that captivates the eyes of financial professionals and Robin Hood users alike, is reportedly considering a partial move to Florida. The financial giant’s asset management arm, which generates billions, could relocate to West Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale or even Miami as it seeks to escape New York’s, well, everything. Taxes are high in New York, real estate costs … Continue reading Wall Street giants want to relocate to business-friendly Florida. Their employees do not.
