Budget

48 Days Without Pay: The Strategy Hidden Inside the Border Shutdown

ICE and Border Patrol agents have gone 48 days without pay while the House sits in recess and the Senate congratulates itself for passing a DHS funding bill that excludes the two agencies responsible for border enforcement. The outrage is justified. But here's what most coverage is missing: the chaos is deliberate. Republicans are using this crisis to build something more durable than any continuing resolution — a reconciliation-funded border enforcement structure that Democrats can never defund again.

Apr 4, 20266 min read0040

United States Border Patrol agents on duty at the southern border, where thousands have gone unpaid for 48 days

Jack Smart- Politics

$200 Billion for a War Nobody Wanted. Zero Dollars for the People Paying for It.

Republicans are raiding Medicaid and ACA subsidies to fund Operation Epic Fury. The Congressional Progressive Caucus is saying no — and the math is on their side.

Apr 2, 20265 min read004

Jack Smart- Politics

Nobody Voted for This War. Now It Wants $200 Billion.

The Senate just blocked war powers for the third time — the war marches on without congressional authorization, gas is up 80 cents a gallon, Medicaid is on the chopping block, and the Pentagon just handed Congress a $200 billion invoice. It's time to talk about what democracy actually requires.

Mar 25, 20265 min read006

Jack Smart- Politics

Who Killed the Balanced Budget? The Same People Now Demanding One.

House Republicans voted 211–207 last week for a balanced budget constitutional amendment — five days after passing the largest deficit-expanding legislation in a generation. The amendment has a fundamental design flaw that most coverage missed: it makes tax increases nearly impossible while leaving tax cuts wide open. That's not fiscal responsibility. That's a ratchet.

Mar 24, 20268 min read00

Ella Smart- Politics

211-207: The Deficit Vote That Deserved Better Coverage

House Republicans voted 211-207 on March 19 in favor of a balanced budget constitutional amendment — one that failed to reach the required two-thirds threshold, as everyone expected. What nobody bothered to explain was what the amendment actually does, and why its mechanism is more sophisticated than anything Congress has tried before.

Mar 24, 20267 min read007

Jack Smart- Politics

Who Actually Eats When Congress Cuts Food Stamps? A State-by-State Reality Check

Congress passed the biggest cuts to SNAP in the program's 60-year history last July. Forty-two million Americans felt it. A surprising number of them live in states that voted for the politicians who made it happen — and that disconnect is the story nobody wants to tell.

Mar 19, 20265 min read005

48 Days Without Pay: The Strategy Hidden Inside the Border Shutdown

$200 Billion for a War Nobody Wanted. Zero Dollars for the People Paying for It.

Nobody Voted for This War. Now It Wants $200 Billion.

Who Killed the Balanced Budget? The Same People Now Demanding One.

211-207: The Deficit Vote That Deserved Better Coverage

Who Actually Eats When Congress Cuts Food Stamps? A State-by-State Reality Check

48 Days Without Pay: The Strategy Hidden Inside the Border Shutdown

Related Topics

$200 Billion for a War Nobody Wanted. Zero Dollars for the People Paying for It.

Nobody Voted for This War. Now It Wants $200 Billion.

Who Killed the Balanced Budget? The Same People Now Demanding One.

211-207: The Deficit Vote That Deserved Better Coverage

Who Actually Eats When Congress Cuts Food Stamps? A State-by-State Reality Check

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