“Four years ago, I published Subtle Tools, a book on the erosion of American democratic norms in the face of what came to be known as the Global War on Terror. Both what had been done in the name of ‘national security’ in response to the 9/11 attacks and how it had been done — through the willing neglect of procedural integrity, the exploitation of all-too-flexible norms, a remarkable disregard for transparency, and a failure to call for accountability of any sort — left the country wide open to even more damaging future abuses of the rule of law. And — lo and behold! — now, that future is all too distinctly here. What happened in the first quarter of this century is already being weaponized in a startling fashion in the second era of Donald Trump.” (03/25/25)
“When there is reasonable disagreement about whether a given action is in fact an abuse of the judicial power, lawmakers should be reluctant to deploy the impeachment power. Ordinary politics consists of debates over constitutional meaning, efforts to advance favored understandings, and attempts to better effectuate them in political practice. Constitutional disagreements are hashed out through elections, judicial appointments, and litigation. Part of our normal political give-and-take is the recognition that others who hold deeply disagreeable constitutional, political, and policy views might nonetheless win elections and gain offices. Indeed, impeachments in general should be a last resort to addressing abuses of power.” (03/25/25)
America’s military budget is more than just numbers on a page; it’s a reflection of the priorities that shape our society. Right now, that nearly trillion dollar budget is bloated, inefficient, and far removed from the needs of everyday Americans. We’ve identified six simple yet effective ways to cut at least $100 billion from the Pentagon’s budget, without sacrificing even the most hawkish of war hawk’s sense of national security. Ready to take the scissors to that excess spending? Here’s how we can do it. 1) Halt the F-35 Program (save $12B+ per year) … 2) Reassess Long-Range Missile Defense (save $9.3B+ per year) … 3) Cut the Sentinel ICBM Program (save $3.7B+ per year) … 4) Cease Procurement of Aircraft Carriers (save $2.3B+ per year) … 5) Cut Redundant Contracts by 15% (save $26B per year) …” (03/25/25)
“DOGE is rampaging through the federal government, but its efforts to decimate the federal workforce have had no effect so far on government spending — as one would expect given that bureaucratic head count is a very small percentage of federal spending, that indiscriminate firing often leads to more short-term costs, and that for a while at least we’re still paying these people not to work. Maybe we’ll start to see savings if Congress actually does cancel some programs, but even then the amount of money involved is not consequential in the larger budget context. Trump’s major legislative initiative, meanwhile, is to extend the tax cuts from his first term which are set to expire. If enacted, this would massively expand the federal deficit at a time when it is already out of control.” (03/25/25)
“For most economists and financial commentators, the heart of economic growth is the demand for goods and services. It is also held that the economy’s total output as depicted by gross domestic product (GDP) increases by a multiple of the increase in the demand. … Is the multiplier model complying with reality? Is more savings bad for the economic growth, as the multiplier model indicates?” (03/25/25)
“American displeasure at ‘European free-loading’ is long-standing, bipartisan, and perfectly reasonable; Barack Obama and Joe Biden also tried to cajole America’s allies into doing more for their own defense. Even Vance’s infamous speech at the Munich Security Conference could, at a stretch, be interpreted as blunt but ultimately well-intentioned advice towards a wayward friend. … Vance’s private comments feel qualitatively different to me. They suggest that his goal isn’t merely to animate Europeans to take responsibility for their own defense, nor even to strengthen the right-wing populist forces he clearly sees as Trump’s natural allies on the continent; it is to weaken and to punish Europe.” (03/25/25)
“Democrats are wandering around in the political wilderness: lost, desperate–and blaming each other. The latest target of their rage is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer [D-NY], who committed the unforgivable crime of ‘helping Trump,’ hatred of the president being the only acceptable posture in leftist circles these days. The one thing Democrats seem unable to come to terms with is the actual cause of their problems: the leftward ideological lurch that has alienated them from regular Americans. I write about this in my new book, Califailure: Reversing the Ruin of America’s Worst Run State. That’s because California represents today’s Democratic Party better than anywhere else in America. Democrats have had complete control of state government for nearly two decades. California — Califailure — is what you get when Democrats get everything they want.” (03/25/25)
“Suppose someone proposed to tax the country $500 billion a year — which comes to $4,000 per household annually, and more than $6 trillion if we do the scoring over a decade. And then they propose taking this tax revenue and handing the money to the pharmaceutical industry. My guess is that the proposal would be a big topic of debate and likely get many people very angry. That is what government policy is doing now, but we call the taxes ‘patents,’ so no one pays attention to the massive amount of money that the government effectively taxes from us and hands to the pharmaceutical industry.” (03/25/25)
“Throughout the Cold War, progressive figures and movements in Europe and the U.S. were regularly accused of being at best naïve about the Soviet threat, at worst Soviet agents and would-be collaborators. This was accompanied by a constant drumbeat of officially-stoked paranoia about the Soviet menace. When the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union opened up, we were astonished to find not only how weak the Soviet Union and the Soviet military actually were, but that the Soviet leadership had been just as frightened of us as we were of them. Today, too many on the Left are using the same tactics to denounce the Trump administration and European supporters of a compromise peace in Ukraine. There are ample reasons to condemn Trump, and ample ways of doing so; but for anyone who remembers the Cold War, the language of ‘treason,’ ‘collaboration,’ and ‘capitulation’ should not be among them.” (03/25/25)
“The Unitary Executive Theory holds that the Article II of the Constitution creates a hierarchy. The president sits at the top of the hierarchy and bears the responsibility for overseeing enforcement of federal law. The UET has been embraced by the Federalist Society, as well as conservative (and some liberal) law professors, judges, and of course, presidents. Donald Trump is merely the latest president to find the UET attractive. What makes Trump unique is the breadth that he seems to think the UET affords him.” (03/25/25)
