Have you ever tried walking on a travellator? You know, those moving platforms at airports that help you get to your destination when you are in a hurry or tired, or have a lot of baggage to carry. Have you also tried to walk in the wrong direction on it? Depending on your own pace […] More
An “ultra-millionaire tax” — or wealth tax — proposed by Democratic presidential primaries candidate Elizabeth Warren is likely to raise between $2.3 trillion and $2.7 trillion in additional revenue in 10 years from 2021 to 2030, according to a study by the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM), a nonpartisan research initiative that analyzes the fiscal impact of public […] More
The US House of Representatives has voted to impeach President Donald Trump, making him the third president in the history of the United States to be impeached. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment against President Trump. The first stated that Trump committed an impeachable offence by withholding $391 million in […] More
Impeachment hearings have thrust a handful of public servants into the spotlight, where competing ideas about government professionals – variously called the establishment, the “deep state,” technocrats, bureaucrats, experts and elites – shape public reaction to their testimony. A recent New York Times column by Frank Bruni captures the divide. Bruni salutes professionalism as “a […] More
In 1976, conservative Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois introduced a bill that would ban the use of federal funding for abortion expenses except in instances of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. Today, the Hyde Amendment, which has been added as a rider to federal budget appropriation bills since 1977, prohibits […] More
U.S. Representative Katie Hill was the latest victim of a form of sexual abuse that’s become increasingly common: revenge porn. Intimate photos of her were leaked to the media and published, without her consent, for the world to see – a transgression Hill suspects her estranged husband was behind. The photos implicated Hill in a […] More
The race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination is hotting up, and so is academic debate about one of the leading contender’s signature proposal – a wealth tax. The US Democratic primary is becoming a race of four (odds in parentheses): Elizabeth Warren (34%), Joe Biden (25%), Bernie Sanders (12%), and Pete Buttigieg (12%). The […] More
Observing the build up of Irish and Irish American energies in Washington DC in preparation for St Patrick’s Day in March, the Economist’s Lexington column marvelled that the Irish Taoiseach is the only world leader guaranteed an annual meeting with the US president. As Ed Luce wrote in the FT: “No one who sampled Washington’s […] More
