Social Security is at the center of the fiscal emergency that threatens the U.S. Yet Washington is always reluctant to grapple with it honestly, partly because the issue is misunderstood.

Although the system’s looming “insolvency,” now penciled in for 2035, has long been agonized over, this threat disguises the real problem. It suggests ...Read more

For 178 years, the Smithsonian Institution and its 21 museums, 21 libraries, 14 education and resource centers, National Zoo, and other affiliates have been responsible for chronicling and displaying our nation’s existence to enlighten past, present and future generations.

The federally and privately funded organization has a responsibility ...Read more

Amid the turmoil at the country’s federal agencies, a disturbing pattern has emerged: research addressing differences in the health and well-being of LGBTQ Americans is being acutely targeted.

The Trump administration’s aim appears twofold: to deny the existence of disparities affecting nearly one in 10 Americans and to ensure there’s no ...Read more

It’s a recurring disaster that can seem like a biblical plague: bees cropping up covered in parasites, with deformed wings, or slaughtering their own larvae. Sometimes workers will vanish from the hive altogether, leaving the queen and her offspring abandoned, Mary Celeste-style.

The coming months are shaping up to be an epic year for such ...Read more

In recent weeks, the nation’s most selective universities have been waking up to a new reality: the billions of dollars in federal funding that have long sustained them now come with strings attached. The Trump administration has put Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton on notice, threatening to withhold research funds unless they accede to ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- California currently has 592 people in our prisons who have been sentenced to death.

It's the largest population of prisoners awaiting execution of any state. An astounding 175 of those inmates were sentenced from Los Angeles County courts, giving L.A. the dubious distinction of holding more men (and three women) on death row ...Read more

Donald Trump wasted no time when he returned to the White House. Within hours, he signed over 200 executive orders, rapidly dismantling years of policy and consolidating control with the stroke of a pen.

But the frenzy of reversals was only the surface. Beneath it lies a deeper, more troubling transformation: presidential elections have become...Read more

Donald Trump’s ever-evolving trade policy veered in another direction on Wednesday when the president announced he was pausing certain tariffs on many countries — but not China — for 90 days. Financial markets, which have cratered since Trump imposed his duties on U.S. trading partners last week, bolted upward. The Dow jumped nearly 3,000 ...Read more

As a descendant of German immigrants, from college on I devoured histories of the rise of fascism to grasp how the cultured and educated democracy of my great grandparents could succumb so tragically. I never got it; I had an American's complacency that made Germans' complicity incomprehensible. Decades later, I do understand. Because it is ...Read more

That is, if you appreciate the second in command standing up for his oath to the Constitution instead of a man, and if you long for the days when America respected our European allies and was a proud member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

You can certainly disagree with Pence’s ideology, but all Americans should be able to ...Read more

In the wake of reciprocal tariffs landing with all the finesse of a cannonball dive into a hot tub, President Donald Trump has decided to pause them temporarily for most countries (while raising China’s tariffs to 125%).

The problem? This past week Trump’s army of talking heads and Twitter commandos has pushed his “no pain, no gain” ...Read more

Denver has long been at the forefront of sanctuary policies, officially becoming a “sanctuary city” around 2013 and pioneering a trend that has transformed Colorado into a full-blown “sanctuary state”—and Coloradans are paying the price.

Legislation enacted by Democrat-dominated state lawmakers prohibits sheriffs from cooperating with...Read more

Donald Trump caved.

After days of bluster and trillions in financial losses, Trump backed down on his latest round of reciprocal tariffs. Stock markets roared back after he once again paused the levies for 90 days on all countries except China.

The president tried to claim victory amid the wreckage of his defeat. But to clear-eyed analysts, it...Read more

With Tax Day approaching, taxpayers who haven’t filed yet could have a great option. Half the states now have access to a zero-cost tool created by the IRS called Direct File that allows people to file taxes online directly to the government using question-based software.

Direct File is a much better option than paying for expensive corporate...Read more

It can always get worse. There’s no reason to think that President Donald Trump will stop at causing chaos in world trade and stock markets, the American executive branch, the legal profession and public health. He’s also well on the way to making America less safe under the most immediate definition: by undermining his own national-security...Read more

During his last weeks in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order banning energy development on public lands in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains and in parts of north-central New Mexico. The move was consistent with his intent to cripple traditional energy companies. In 2019, Biden told The Associated Press, “I guarantee you. I guarantee...Read more

The bare-knuckled tactics of Trump 2.0 have brought some once-mighty companies and institutions to their knees.

Many of the nation’s most prominent places of higher education such as Columbia University improbably have agreed in the face of federal funding threats to Trump administration demands on how they deal with dissent on their campuses...Read more

Gov. Gavin Newsom has the right political instincts as he seeks to insulate California from the potential economic catastrophe of a tax war on global trade, seeking to spare the state from retaliatory tariffs. Unfortunately, it just won’t work.

Sadly for California, this is a moment when Newsom would actually have to be the president to ...Read more

It's high time commentators stopped trying to shoehorn the American polity into a paradigm that doesn't fit. President Donald Trump's brand of government is as new and unique as it is volatile and disturbing. Sometimes, history neither repeats nor rhymes. Sometimes, a whole new species bursts onto the scene.

What we're seeing today with Trump ...Read more

Heading into Tax Day, if you listen to progressive policymakers for a few minutes, you’ll likely hear that few problems on Earth can’t be solved by “taxing the rich.” Want to nationalize health care? Tax the rich. Want to close the deficit? Tax the rich. Need a ball gown for the Met Gala? Tax the rich. Unfortunately, legislators not ...Read more