Something I've been thinking about, inarticulately for a while that I want to try and put to paper: why our judicial branch is - and should be - political. Thread: 1. Last week, some constituents were in town and we hooked them up with a White House tour, a Supreme Court tour and then I gave them a tour of the US Capitol. They joked that they did all three branches in one day.

Let's give some color here. Johnson is pretzelling himself to try to make him and his leadership team look less incompetent than they are. Here are the facts:

https://twitter.com/JakeSherman/status/1907138622228226095

1. First, for those not familiar with House procedure, before you can vote on a bill in normal order you have to vote on the rule that sets things like time for debate, amendment procedure, etc. It is normally a formality but necessary as a matter of parliamentary procedure.

Ok so here's where we are on a government shutdown. We have 3 options in front of us: (a) shutdown, (b) shutdown or (c) dont shutdown. Thread: 1. Option (a) shutdown is to pass the @HouseGOP CR. Because we are already in an illegal shutdown caused by the White House ignoring Congressional law and their text substantially weakens the ability of courts to enforce the law.

https://x.com/SeanCasten/status/1899474052831453228?s=19

Quick thread on ANOTHER bill the GOP is bringing to the floor this week. Specifically, to repeal the DeFi Broker Rule that the IRS issued under the last administration. The ONLY reason to support this bill is to facilitate tax evasion and money laundering. 1. A bit of jargon first. This is a bill under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). If it passes, it would not only repeal the rule but prevent this or future White House from offering substantially similar rules.

I don’t know whether the GOP will get the votes on their disaster of a bill this week. But I do know that majorities of Republicans voted against similar bills for all of the last 2 years. So what is making them strap on the ball gag and climb into Trump’s dungeon now? 1. As usual, don’t speculate on motive until you understand what they’re doing. Because this bill is really, really bad. A small selection of what they’re doing…

Some morning thoughts on where we are in this constitutional crisis and what we all have to do - and believe - to get out of this with our democracy intact: 1. First, the idea that you could have a democracy based on rule of law is a radical idea, no less so today than it was 250 years ago. Most of human history depended on might-makes-right, all powerful rulers.

This is what you do if you are mathematically illiterate and don’t give a damn about deficits. It is as stupid as it is irresponsible. Don’t let the words confuse you - it’s just a way to give money to billionaires. Quick explainer: 1. The Trump tax cuts passed in his last term blew a $2T hole in the budget. (I’ll explain this slowly for my slower colleagues: if you cut revenue, you have less money.). That was a 10 year tax cut, soon to return to the pre-Trump levels.

So House Republicans voted on a budget tonight that would cut ~$800B+ from Medicaid. Among other things, but it’s important to understand how much that will hurt every single one of us. (Spoiler: they know all of this - but they hate you.) 1. Medicaid is widely, but incompletely understood as health insurance for poor folks. It’s what you have if you aren’t old enough for Medicare, don’t have employer provided health insurance, aren’t rich enough to self-insure.

Because there seem to be some indignant folks suggesting that it is standard practice for a CEO to demand daily performance updates or else fire you, a few observations from a guy who spent 20 years in the private sector 16 as CEO and the last 6 in government… 1. First, if you think that government employees aren’t already setting goals, doing performance reviews and being held accountable.. they are. And if you’ve ever lamented that the gov’t has too much bureaucracy - HR is a part of that bureaucracy!

This story is heartbreaking but unsurprising. In the ~4 years we've been negotiating crypto regulation NO ONE from industry has pushed for rules that would enhance consumer protection, anti-money laundering or audit control. So people like this get hurt. nytimes.com/2025/02/19/mag… I'm open to the possibility that there is some value in crypto. But when all the legislative proposals allow for the preservation of tools to hide identity, preserve conflicts of interest between issuers, brokers and exchanges and...

We cannot overstate the risk posed when the US says that maps are negotiable, with borders to be redrawn by whoever uses force to take land, rule of law be damned. This is music to the ears of Chinese eyeing Taiwan and Russians eyeing Eastern Europe. nytimes.com/2025/02/12/wor… 70 years of peace after WWII was sustained in no small part because the United States consistently - if imperfectly - reiterated the principle that might does not make right. Abandoning that principle opens the door to global chaos.

To all those saying "shouldn't we root out government inefficiency? What's wrong with DOGE?" a quick background on Constitutional law and why the WAY it is being violated exposes the true motives of the criminals: 1. First, let us state the obvious. EVERY American has an interest in an efficient government with no waste fraud and abuse with the exception of those who benefit from said WF&A and lack the moral compass to put the public interest over their own.

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but today’s events make it more urgent: why Trump’s attacks on DEI are founded in racism (of course) but also unconstitutional. Thread: 1. On that second point, I want to take an intentionally “originalist” perspective here, because the plain text of the Constitution matters to the question.

On this MLK day, take a moment to re-read his “mountaintop” speech, delivered the day before his assassination. It is full of humanity, and hope and a reminder that our work is most necessary when it is hardest to believe we will succeed. americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkiv… 1. Read this knowing that King was trying to expand his mission and message and getting pushback from his friends, some of whom were arguing his time had passed.

Another day, another horrible, mistitled GOP bill passes on the floor that needs explanation. I wish I could tell you this is the last of the threads I'll have to do. Anyway, today's travesty was HR 30, the "Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act". Read on: 1. The bill on paper seems reasonable enough. If you are convicted or admit to having committed a sex offense, domestic violence, stalking, child abuse or violation of a protective order and are undocumented you will be deported. Text here: congress.gov/bill/119th-con…

Sitting here watching the Chris Wright nomination hearings and getting ever more frustrated by the failure - intentional by him and some Senators, inadvertent by others - to differentiate between produced and useful energy. Thread: 1. Suppose that there was a hearing for agriculture secretary and a Senator said "what will you doing to ensure food access for American people" and the nominee said "American farmers produce more calories than any other country." We'd agree that's a dodge. And yet...

It seems a discussion is in order of the Laken Riley Act that I happily voted against on the House floor today. It is a bill that served no purpose than to stir up anger. But let’s quickly review why: 1. First, undocumented people in the US who are convicted of felonies are already subject to deportation. If that is your concern you should be happy with existing law. As I am.

Some thoughts on Roberts' year end report. It is - par for the course for him - totally tone deaf. But we are all, to varying degrees complicit in spreading the fiction that the judicial branch isn't just as political as any other part of government. nytimes.com/2024/12/31/us/… 1. He is of course right to fear a country that chooses not to follow the rulings of the court. But any official in a democratically-elected government knows that they serve subject to the consent of the governed.

Brief thread on how we got here: Since the GOP won control of the House 2 years ago they have not passed a single appropriations package into law. Government has operated at funding levels set by Dems 2 years ago via continuing resolutions every few months. This is not normal. 1. For comparison, when the Ds controlled the House in the 116th (with Rs in control of the Senate and WH) and in the 117th (D control of Senate and WH) we negotiated and passed full appropriations bills. So it’s not a divided gov’t issue. It’s just @HouseGOP incompetence.

Put this on Bluesky last week, throwing here now for your holiday shopping: the 10 best books I read in 2024... 1. The Field of Blood - Joanne Freeman. A Congressional history that's old-fashioned (honor codes, etc.) but also fully contemporary where one party realized that the simple threat of maximalist politics can force acquiescence… until the other side gets tired of being bullied.

Trump's nominee to be DOE secretary may be ignorant or intentionally wrong. But this video (which you should watch all of) consistently confuses upstream and downstream energy in an effort to suggest that climate change isn't a concern. 1. You would get laughed out of a room if you said that access to transportation depends on iron ore production, or nutrition depends on annual grain harvests. People understand that deweighting cars, reducing waste in the food distribution system is a net positive. And yet...