Connor Ewing

IRS faces challenges in 2026 tax season due to jobs cuts and new laws The IRS has seen a 27% reduction in staff since the start of Trump's second administration. The agency also is dealing with leadership turnover and implementation of new tax laws.

It's a good time to remember that, for the past 3 decades, it has been the overt goal of the GOP to incapacitate the IRS.

They defunded the tax police

~5% increase in the 2 years Dems had control of Congress, followed by declines under the next 6 years of divided government (i.e., GOP control of House from 2011-2019 and Senate from 2015 on)

The bottom line, which is obscured by political rhetoric and messaging around this issue:

(a) a weak IRS =/= lower taxes
(b) a weak IRS = easier for wealthy interests to shirk
(c) convincing non-wealthy folks to believe (a) makes it easier for wealthy interests to weaken the IRS

The Inflation Reduction Act provided the IRS funding that offset over 2 decades of decline. But as of 2026, the agency is back to its 2018 level.

IRS faces challenges in 2026 tax season due to jobs cuts and new laws The IRS has seen a 27% reduction in staff since the start of Trump's second administration. The agency also is dealing with leadership turnover and implementation of new tax laws.

It's a good time to remember that, for the past 3 decades, it has been the overt goal of the GOP to incapacitate the IRS.

Yale Offers Free Tuition to Families With Incomes Under $200,000

Congrats to the 30% of Yale families who will benefit from this change.

Congrats, Harvard! Just ~5 more years of this and your grade distribution will be plausibly defensible!

When I say that Congress has abdicated its constitutional duties, this is what I mean 👇

When I say that Congress has abdicated its constitutional duties, this is what I mean 👇

Gonna spend the afternoon texting my Brooklyn friends, "Couldn't find you in this list—did you move?"

Not sure how we got here, but here we are.

"Don't forget to add the bit about people only having rights if they agree with what the government is doing."

More than once over the last ~9 years have I wondered, “Am I like a Kremlinologist between 1989 and 1991—on the brink of obsolescence?” I can see how wanting the answer to be "no" might cause some to downplay, ignore, or otherwise misperceive the manifest pathologies on display.

Great cartoon. But the curious thing about it historically is that Madison originally thought that the greatest threats to rights would arise from popular majorities acting within the individual states to influence their legislatures to adopt unjust laws--the opposite of what exists now. /1/

There's an old saying: What's bad for American politics is good for American political science. The challenge is to make sure that political science helps us see and understand the scale of the badness.

"Don't forget to add the bit about people only having rights if they agree with what the government is doing."

The CEO of The Center for Renewing America—the organization founded by Russ Vought—calling for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act seems significant. Delusional and dangerous, but also significant.

This is the behavior of an administration that thinks it will not be held accountable—politically, legally, or morally.

Worth remembering that during Trump 1.0 a not insignificant amount of time and energy were spent denying that they deployed tear gas on protesters. In Trump 2.0, they clearly see no reason to deny it.

Eg:

Worth remembering that during Trump 1.0 a not insignificant amount of time and energy were spent denying that they deployed tear gas on protesters. In Trump 2.0, they clearly see no reason to deny it.

Starting to think the Emanuels don't like 75 year olds.

YouTube video by DRM News FULL SPEECH: Canada’s PM Carney Says US-Led World Order Is Breaking at World Economic Forum | AC1G

A pretty remarkable speech on "the task of the middle powers": “The powerful have their power. But we have something too: the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength at home, and to act together. That is Canada’s path."

Seriously though, what's the answer?

Almost a year later this is, sadly, even more relevant.

Which raises the interesting question: If Congress established a Presidential Incapacity Commission, what power would the president have to remove members of that commission?

Which raises the interesting question: If Congress established a Presidential Incapacity Commission, what power would the president have to remove members of that commission?